Skip to main content

Shepherd’s Bush W12 · Bathroom renovation

Bathroom renovation in Shepherd’s Bush

One room: soil pipes, flues, bathroom roofs and the drains below

A bathroom here is planned from its pipes outward. Hammersmith and Fulham’s Coningham and Lime Grove profile has its own lines on soil pipes, vents, flues and meters on outside walls; the register shows how flues, bathroom roofs and a bathroom storey were decided on Flanchford Road, Ashchurch Terrace, Rylett Road and Ashchurch Grove; and the council’s 2015 surface water plan records where flooding was reported in July 2007. A standalone bathroom, with nothing else, is a job in itself.

Book a free feasibility visitSee typical costs

Serving Shepherd’s Bush from our Hampstead studio · NW3 6DN
020 7101 3168

Start here

Bathroom renovation in Shepherd’s Bush at a glance

Three local records shape a bathroom here. In the Coningham and Lime Grove Conservation Area, the profile says a soil pipe that needs replacing should match the original in form and material, discourages PVCu, and asks that vents stay as inconspicuous as possible. North of Goldhawk Road, the register shows a rear flue certified lawful on Flanchford Road and flues to the rear approved at houses on Ashchurch Terrace. Below ground, the council’s 2015 Surface Water Management Plan finds the July 2007 flood records clustered along Askew Road and six other named roads.

LBHF: Coningham and Lime Grove Conservation Area character profile, approved 9 February 2000, updated June 2004 · LBHF: planning, building control and licensing applications search · LBHF: Updated Surface Water Management Plan, July 2015 (modelling evidence, not policy)

For the whole area, including conservation areas, permissions and working hours, read our Shepherd’s Bush renovation guide.

Approved guide prices

What does a bathroom renovation cost in Shepherd’s Bush?

A typical bathroom renovation in Shepherd’s Bush 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

Where bathrooms sit in these houses and flats

The register shows bathrooms at first and ground floor in Rylett Road houses, one proposed on top of a back addition in Ashchurch Grove, and a new bathroom suite planned inside a Coningham Road flat.

In Ravenscourt and Starch Green’s sub-area B, approvals at two properties on Rylett Road included roof work over existing bathrooms: a new flat roof to a first-floor bathroom in 1991, with a rear dormer and a conservatory beside the back addition, and a new pitched roof on a ground-floor bathroom and utility room in 1993. On Ashchurch Grove, where the conservation area’s boundary runs within the street, so check the address, an extra storey on top of the back addition to provide a bathroom at second-floor level was refused in 1983. None of these decisions sets a rule.

LBHF: planning, building control and licensing applications search

For a flat on Coningham Road, the council certified as lawful in 2021 proposed internal works that included a new bathroom suite and kitchen improvements with electrical, plumbing and gas alterations, a non-structural wall removed and a partition added. The certificate confirmed that no planning application was needed for those works at that date; the building regulations and the lease are separate questions. When a house is converted into flats, the 2018 Planning Guidance SPD gives 3.7 square metres as the smallest net floor area each self-contained flat’s bathroom should have.

LBHF: planning, building control and licensing applications search · LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018

The council’s Surface Water Management Plan of July 2015 is modelling and record evidence, not policy, and names no address. For the former Askew ward, of which today’s Coningham and Wendell Park wards were part, it says the main surface-water flow routes originate from surcharging manholes and include Lefroy Road, Cobbold Road and Askew Road, and that the 20 council records of flooding in July 2007 clustered along Askew Road, Cobbold and Gayford Roads, Leysfield and Westville Roads, and Hadyn Park and Goodwin Roads. Its borough-wide sewer model puts Wendell Park among six places with the most frequent events.

LBHF: Updated Surface Water Management Plan, July 2015 (modelling evidence, not policy)

Permissions and local rules

Pipes, flues and drains: what the guidance here asks

Soil pipes, vents and roof tanks in Coningham and Lime Grove

Can a new soil pipe or vent go on an outside wall?

That profile, approved in 2000 and updated in 2004, treats soil pipes as it treats gutters and rainwater pipes: when one has to be replaced, the replacement should keep the original form and material, and PVCu should be discouraged. It also wants modern additions such as roof-lights and vents kept as inconspicuous as possible, and says enclosed water tanks on roofs should be avoided. So a bathroom needing a new branch to the stack, a vent or a rooflight is drawn to keep pipework away from the street side where the layout allows, in matching materials.

LBHF: Coningham and Lime Grove Conservation Area character profile, approved 9 February 2000, updated June 2004

Flues, meters and cables

Where can a boiler flue or an extract go?

The same profile says gas and electricity meters are to be kept off outside walls unless absolutely necessary, and then carefully positioned, and that gas flues and cable runs on those walls should be carefully considered. In Ravenscourt and Starch Green’s sub-area C, a flue on the rear of a house on Flanchford Road was certified lawful in 2012, needing no planning application then; in sub-area B, at houses on Ashchurch Terrace, an extract flue to the rear, its purpose unstated, was approved in 2018 and a boiler flue in the rear roof slope in 2021.

LBHF: Coningham and Lime Grove Conservation Area character profile, approved 9 February 2000, updated June 2004 · LBHF: planning, building control and licensing applications search

Bathrooms below ground and the sewer

Does a basement bathroom need protecting from the sewer?

For any bathroom, kitchen or other water installation planned at basement level, Hammersmith and Fulham’s 2018 Planning Guidance SPD recommends protection against sewer surcharge: a pump, or active drainage devices fitted with non-return valves. It notes Thames Water data showing sewer-flooding incidents recorded in W12 in the decade before it was adopted. The council’s 2015 surface water plan counts between 100 and 400 W12 properties on Thames Water’s DG5 register of those at risk from sewers, on June 2014 data, and shows ponding on Lime Grove, Shepherds Bush Market, Devonport Road and St Stephens Avenue. Neither places an address.

LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018 · LBHF: Updated Surface Water Management Plan, July 2015 (modelling evidence, not policy)

If Hammersmith and Fulham Council is your landlord

Does the council need to agree a bathroom refit in a flat it owns?

These rules bind only the council’s own leaseholders. Its consent form, revision 5.1 of 15 October 2026, requires a licence for any change to the layout or to the electrics, gas or plumbing, merging a bathroom and WC being one example, and says the work must be cleared by Building Control, especially where the bathroom, kitchen or means of escape is affected, because of the fire risk. Any electrical work in a bathroom needs consent too, with competent contractors to carry it out, and the form will not accept DIY electrical, plumbing or gas work.

LBHF: alterations to council properties, for council leaseholders and secure tenants, with the consent form (Rev. 5.1, 15 October 2026)

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

What the work covers

What a bathroom renovation here covers

Pipes and cables kept indoors

The scope keeps new wastes, vents and cables inside the building wherever the structure allows, boxed in or run under floors, rather than adding pipes to an outside wall. For external additions in conservation areas, Hammersmith and Fulham’s 2018 Planning Guidance SPD says the routing of cables should be internal, which matters for an extract fan or a heated rail as much as for lighting. Any pipe that must run outside is drawn, with its material, before anything is ordered.

LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018

Getting damp air out

Damp air has to leave the room somewhere. The scope compares a duct to the rear wall, a route up through the roof and a fan in an existing window, and favours the terminal that will be least visible from the street and the neighbours, in keeping with the profile’s wish for inconspicuous vents. The fan, its duct run and the position of its grille go on the drawings, so that building control and any planning question are settled from the same sheet.

LBHF: Coningham and Lime Grove Conservation Area character profile, approved 9 February 2000, updated June 2004

Waterproofing and the room below

Where the bathroom sits over another room, and above all over another flat, the scope covers tanking under the shower and around the bath, sealed openings where pipes pass through the floor, and an access panel for traps and valves. The joists are opened and checked before a heavy bath or a stone floor is chosen. The shower and the bath are filled and tested for leaks before any tiles go on.

How we work

How we run a Shepherd’s Bush 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 Shepherd’s Bush. 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. Place the room in the building

    Start with the room’s position: its floor, whether it is in the main house or over a back addition, and what is underneath, whether another flat, a kitchen, a shop or a basement. Say whether the bath, shower and WC should stay where they are or move.

  2. Picture the wall outside

    From the garden or the street, take pictures of the wall the bathroom backs onto: the stack, any waste pipes, the boiler flue, existing grilles and the roof above. Add one of the stopcock and, if you can find it, the inspection chamber cover, which shows where the drain runs.

  3. Say who else has a say

    For a flat, say whether there is a freeholder, a managing agent or Hammersmith and Fulham Council as landlord, and whether the lease says anything about bathrooms, floors or plumbing. Mention any listing or conservation area you know of, since either can limit what goes on an outside wall.

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 Shepherd’s Bush: questions

Will you renovate a single standalone bathroom?

Yes, and it is planned and priced as a job of its own. It might be the one bathroom of a divided Rylett Road house, a shower room in a Coningham Road flat or the family bathroom of an Ashchurch villa. Send the room’s measurements, some pictures and a line on what is underneath, and the feasibility visit begins from that.

Could a grant cover adapting the bathroom?

Ask the council early: its Disabled Facilities Grant page does not mention bathrooms. To qualify, the disabled person has to be registered as disabled with Community Services, or meet the registration criteria; the applicant must be an owner occupier, a private tenant or landlord, or a Registered Social Landlord’s tenant; and an occupational therapist has to recommend the work. A means test sets the contribution, unless the disabled person is under 18, and the yearly budget is limited. Nothing is paid towards work done before the grant’s written formal approval.

LBHF: Disabled Facilities Grant · LBHF: private housing grants

Who signs off the work on a new bathroom?

The council’s building control, though an installer registered with a Competent Person Scheme can do its own work without the council’s process, and the council then receives only an electronic notification, not the certificate. The council steers very small jobs to a Building Notice but warns against that route for complex work or for owners without much building experience, since it puts more of the onus on you. Inspections are a legal requirement, usually on a day’s notice per stage, with five days’ notice for drainage inspections and likewise for occupation and completion.

LBHF: guide to building control applications

Could sewer water come up into a bathroom below ground?

It can. According to the council’s floods page, people living in basement flats are the more likely to be affected by sewer flooding, which can rise through baths, showers, sinks and toilets as well as drains and manholes, and it refers residents to Thames Water. The council’s Strategic Flood Risk Assessment of December 2016, evidence and not policy, adds that some basements and low-lying homes may be unable to discharge to the sewer by gravity, and then need a pumped installation, and that non-return valves need careful installing and must be maintained regularly.

LBHF: floods, with the Strategic Flood Risk Assessment · LBHF: Strategic Flood Risk Assessment, final, December 2016 (evidence document)

Does a listing reach a bathroom’s fixed fittings?

It can. The council’s page on statutory listed buildings explains that listing covers the whole building, inside and out, not just its front, and that anything fixed to the building counts as part of it. Old baths, basins, tiles or panelling fixed in a listed home can therefore be protected, and taking them out or altering them can need listed building consent. Check the national list for the address before anything is stripped out.

LBHF: statutory listed buildings

How much does a bathroom renovation cost in Shepherd’s Bush?

A typical bathroom renovation in Shepherd’s Bush 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 Shepherd’s Bush bathroom

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

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

Use the full contact form instead

Keep exploring

More for your Shepherd’s Bush project

Bathroom renovation in nearby areas

Chat with us!