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Totteridge N20 · Bathroom renovation

Bathroom renovation in Totteridge

Bathrooms in Totteridge’s listed cottages and older houses

Bring us one bathroom on its own and we will take it on, whether the room is the only one in a village cottage or one of several in a larger house. A number of the cottages along Totteridge Village and around Totteridge Green are listed, and some of the oldest buildings are timber-framed, so a bathroom here can raise questions about the walls, the floor and the outside pipework before any fitting is chosen. This page sets those out.

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Serving Totteridge from our Hampstead studio · NW3 6DN
020 7101 3168

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Bathroom renovation in Totteridge at a glance

Totteridge Village has several listed cottages. The appraisal’s list of listed buildings for the road includes Ridgeway Cottage, Laurel Cottages, Rose Cottage, Butterstocks, The Cot and Nos. 80 and 82, and Planning Data records two of the pairs, Number 76 (Butterstocks) with Number 78 (The Cot), and 80 and 82, each as one Grade II list entry with a start date of 7 April 1983. In any of these homes, a bathroom sits inside a listed building, so the strip-out, the pipe routes and any new openings are planned with listed building consent in mind from the first visit.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · Planning Data: Number 76 (Butterstocks) and Number 78 (The Cot), Totteridge Village, listed Grade II (list entry 1064834) · Planning Data: 80 and 82 Totteridge Village, listed Grade II (list entry 1192386)

For the whole area, including conservation areas, permissions and working hours, read our Totteridge renovation guide.

Approved guide prices

What does a bathroom renovation cost in Totteridge?

A typical bathroom renovation in Totteridge costs £10,000–£30,000 excluding VAT. The final price depends on the scope, the specification and the complexity of the room, and a fixed written price follows the visit and the design.

Scope of workTypical cost
Typical bathroom renovation£10,000–£30,000

The figure excludes VAT. A standalone bathroom gets its own room-specific quotation; try the cost calculator for a first figure.

The buildings

Timber frames, daub and the walls around a bathroom

The walls that a Totteridge bathroom is built against vary more than the fittings do. Knowing what they are made of decides how the room is lined, waterproofed and ventilated.

Barnet’s 2008 appraisal says most of the medieval buildings in the conservation area were built with a timber frame whose infill panels were faced in daub, a rough plaster of lime, straw and cow manure set on wattles. A wet room or a fully tiled shower against such a wall needs a lining that keeps water out of the old panel without trapping moisture in it, so open up a small area and record the construction before the waterproofing is chosen.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF)

Some bathrooms already hold later repairs. Barnet’s register shows one case: in 2025 Barnet approved, subject to conditions, internal works at a listed house on Totteridge Green that included removing breeze blocks from a first-floor bathroom wall, as well as wooden floors laid over the existing floorboards and a replacement front door. If your bathroom has later blockwork, boarding or cement render, taking it out can be part of the work, and in a listed house the removal belongs in the application.

Barnet planning register: public access search (planning, building control and licensing)

Permissions and local rules

Checks for a Totteridge bathroom before it is stripped out

A bathroom in a listed home

Under paragraph 6.25.2 of Barnet’s Local Plan, alterations that would affect a statutory listed building’s special interest need consent, some repairs among them, and the council weighs works inside the building as well as outside it. In a listed cottage or house, show Barnet how the new bathroom changes walls, floors, ceilings and joinery, and which historic features stay. Moving the room, or cutting new routes for waste pipes through old floors, are the changes to describe most carefully.

Barnet Local Plan 2021–2036, adopted 4 March 2025: the plan and its adoption documents

Soil and vent pipes on the outside

In a conservation area such as Totteridge’s, the householder right to fit a soil and vent pipe stops short of any wall or roof slope that faces a highway and is the front or a side of the house. Planning Data’s records of both Totteridge Article 4 directions also list class 1G, which covers soil and vent pipes as well as chimneys and flues, among the rights withdrawn on their mapped land. Read the order for your address before any new pipe goes on the outside.

legislation.gov.uk: GPDO 2015, Schedule 2 Part 1, Class G: chimneys, flues and soil and vent pipes on a dwellinghouse · Planning Data: Article 4 for Totteridge CA, Area 1 · Planning Data: Article 4(2) for Totteridge CA, Area 1

Rainwater pipes and gutters

A bathroom can need a new outside connection for waste or overflow, and the rainwater goods can come into the same scheme. In 2026 Barnet approved, subject to conditions, alterations at another listed house on Totteridge Green that included, among other works, replacing the rainwater pipes and gutters along with a rear dormer and a rooflight to a flat roof. On a listed or older house, specify the material and fixing of any new external pipe before you apply.

Barnet planning register: public access search (planning, building control and licensing)

Certificates for the plumbing and electrics

An installer who belongs to a competent person scheme can certify their own plumbing or electrical work, notifies the council for you where that is required, and issues a certificate once the job is complete, which a buyer’s solicitor will later find in the searches. Ask which scheme each trade belongs to before work starts, and keep every certificate with any listed building consent for the room.

GOV.UK: building regulations approval, use a competent person scheme

Working hours, skips, parking and the conservation area maps for the whole area are in our Totteridge guide. Local guidance checked ; requirements depend on the address, the building and the complete proposal.

What the work covers

What a Totteridge bathroom renovation covers

Careful strip-out and recording

Removal of the old suite, tiles and later linings, with the walls, floor and ceiling recorded as they are opened so that any timber frame, daub, old boards or earlier repairs are known before the new layout is fixed. In a listed building, nothing original is taken out until the consent position is clear.

Waste, water and extract routes

A route for the soil and waste pipes chosen inside the house wherever possible, with a workable fall, new hot and cold supplies, and an extract route for moist air that avoids a new vent on the front wall. Where a pipe or vent has to go outside, it is drawn first and checked for listing and Article 4 control at the address.

Waterproofing, finishes and fittings

Floor and wall build-ups suited to the walls they sit on, waterproofing for the shower or bath area, underfloor heating where the floor allows it, and tiles, sanitaryware and lighting chosen to suit the house. In a timber-framed or listed building, the linings are designed so the historic fabric can still breathe and be inspected later.

How we work

How we run a Totteridge bathroom renovation

  1. Visit

    We see the room, trace where the stack runs, and check which floor it is on and what lies beneath.

  2. Survey

    The drainage falls, the extract route and the floor build-up at the door are measured before a layout is drawn.

  3. Design

    The layout, waterproofing and storage are drawn; where a floor or wall changes, our own architects and structural engineers design it.

  4. Price

    You receive a fixed written price once the design and fittings are agreed.

  5. Installation

    The dates, and any days without a working bathroom, are agreed before work starts.

  6. Handover

    Testing, then care notes for the finishes and fittings. Completed work carries a 12-month defects-rectification period under the JCT contract terms.

Real projects, clearly located

Examples of our bathroom renovation work elsewhere in London

None of these projects is in Totteridge. Each card names where the work was done, so you can judge the finish and the approach before you brief your own.

Your brief

Before you ask for a quotation

  1. Describe the room and the house

    Send the room’s measurements, photographs of all four walls, the floor and the ceiling, and a photograph of the outside wall where the pipes leave. Tell us whether the house is listed, how old you believe the bathroom is, and whether the walls sound hollow or solid.

  2. Show us where the water goes

    Point out the soil stack, the main drain cover if you know it, any rainwater pipes near the bathroom and the boiler or cylinder. If water has leaked through to the room below, or a ceiling has been patched, say so, because it changes what we open up first.

  3. Say how you will manage meanwhile

    Say whether the household has a second bathroom or WC to use during the work, and any way the finished room has to work for the people who will use it. That decides the order of work and whether a temporary shower or WC is worth planning.

Ready to take the next step? Send the address and a short outline of the work.

Book a free feasibility visit

Questions before you begin

Bathroom renovation in Totteridge: questions

Do you renovate a single Totteridge bathroom as a standalone project?

Yes. One bathroom, an en-suite or a shower room on its own is a standalone project for us, in a listed village cottage, a timber-framed farmhouse or a later house in Pine Grove or Priory Close. The room gets its own survey, its own drawings and a written quotation for that room alone, and we say early if it raises a listed building or Article 4 point that Barnet needs to look at.

Can a new soil pipe run up the outside of my house?

Sometimes, but check first. The householder right for a soil and vent pipe ends where the pipe would rise 1 metre or more above the roof’s highest point, and the conservation area and the Article 4 directions narrow it further. Where a direction or a listing applies, even a pipe at the back may need consent, so an internal route is usually the simpler answer and keeps the elevations as they are.

legislation.gov.uk: GPDO 2015, Schedule 2 Part 1, Class G: chimneys, flues and soil and vent pipes on a dwellinghouse

Does it matter what sits next to or below a bathroom in a converted building?

For new homes it does. Barnet’s 2026 design guidance asks that, as far as practical, bedrooms are not stacked over or under another home’s living room, kitchen or bathroom, and that, where possible, a bedroom does not sit beside one either. In an existing flat, a bathroom moved over someone’s bedroom needs extra care with sound and with leaks, and the lease may control it.

Barnet Sustainable Design and Development Guidance SPD, adopted 15 June 2026: Part 2, design and technical guidance

Can a bathroom be adapted so someone can stay in their home?

Yes, and Barnet points to help. Its page on adapting your home suggests, among other routes, the Barnet Care and Repair Agency, which can help with finding a builder and supervising the works, and the Disabled Facilities Grant to pay for the work. Where a housing association is the landlord it will normally fund the adaptation, and if it lacks the money a grant may still be possible; help from the council itself depends on an assessment of needs.

Barnet: adaptations to your home

What if an earlier bathroom was fitted without the right approvals?

Tell us at the start. We look at what the room hides once it is opened up, and if earlier pipework, electrics or alterations to a listed house were never approved, the safer course is to put that right as part of the new work and to ask Barnet how it wants the earlier changes dealt with before the new bathroom is fitted.

How much does a bathroom renovation cost in Totteridge?

A typical bathroom renovation in Totteridge costs £10,000–£30,000 excluding VAT. The final price depends on the scope, specification and complexity of the project. We give a fixed written price after the visit and the design.

Book a free feasibility visit

Talk to us about your Totteridge bathroom

Tell us the address and what you want to change in your Totteridge bathroom. We reply within one working day, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Or call 020 7101 3168. We serve Totteridge from our studio at Unit 3, Palace Court, 250 Finchley Road, London NW3 6DN.

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