Bathroom tiling
Tiles are chosen in a showroom and succeed or fail on the floor underneath them. We brief tilers on the base, the membrane and the falls, and we check whether your building lets the old tiles come up.
The tiler's job
Bathroom tiles in Dubai are bought from a showroom and laid by a tiler, and this page is about the second part. The tiler's price covers preparing or removing the old surface, the screed and the falls, the waterproof membrane in the wet areas, the adhesive, the grout and the finish at every edge. The tiles themselves are a separate allowance that you control.
How much does bathroom tiling cost in Dubai?
Bathroom tiling in Dubai is priced inside the bathroom job: one UAE company's published villa bathroom row of AED 12,000 to 35,000 covers waterproofing, fixtures and tiles together, and full renovations that include tiling start at AED 8,000 per bathroom. No company publishes a per-square-metre tiling rate for bathrooms that we would rely on, so we ask for the tile allowance and the laying cost as two separate figures.
Often you have to. Emaar's rules for apartments do not permit removing existing tiles, and they allow new tiles to be laid over them. Town Square's apartment manual takes the same line, except on balconies. So in many Dubai apartments, retiling means overlay: the old tiles stay as the base and the new ones are bonded on top.
Overlay works when the old tiles are sound and well bonded, so the tiler taps for hollow spots before anything is quoted. It also lifts the floor by the thickness of the new tile and its adhesive, which changes three things: whether the door still clears, how the floor finishes at the threshold, and where the drain grating sits. Walls are simpler, because the extra thickness shows only at the edges, the sockets and the mixer plates.
| Community | Lift and replace floor tiles | Tile over the existing floor |
|---|---|---|
| Emaar apartments | Not permitted | Permitted |
| Town Square apartments | Not permitted | Permitted, except on balconies |
| Town Square townhouses | Major alteration: AED 2,000 plus an AED 5,000 deposit | Minor alteration: AED 1,000 |
| Tilal Al Ghaf | Written consent first | Written consent first |
| Nakheel villas | Dubai Holding application, except for maintenance or repair; gate pass needed | Dubai Holding application, except for maintenance or repair; gate pass needed |
Tilal Al Ghaf also runs every alteration plan through a review priced at AED 5,000 plus AED 250 VAT. At the other end of the scale, Town Square treats SPC planks laid over the existing tiles as a home improvement item at AED 160, a route our powder room page weighs against tiles.
Porcelain is the usual answer for floors: it is dense, absorbs very little water and comes in matt or textured finishes that grip when wet. Glazed ceramic suits walls better than shower floors. Natural stone such as marble looks the part but is porous, so it needs sealing when laid and again later, and some cleaners etch it. Large-format tiles cut the number of grout lines, but they need a flat base and are harder to lay to falls inside a shower.
Grout is the other half of the surface. Cement grout is the standard and takes up water unless it is sealed; epoxy grout resists staining and water but is harder to lay neatly. In a shower, the grout type deserves as much thought as the tile.
Dubai Municipality lists insulation works among the simple maintenance jobs that need no permit when an accredited contractor does them. In Sharjah, on the projects a consultant files, the consultant commits to ensuring all kinds of insulation works through supervision and follow-up. Either way, the membrane is the line to read first in a tiling quote, and our walk-in shower page covers the floor falls in more detail.
Not from Dubai Municipality, if an accredited contractor does it: replacing floors is on its list of simple maintenance. From the community, it depends on the route in the table above, and the approval tier follows the method. In Abu Dhabi a like-for-like retile falls under the maintenance permit the contractor files, and the government portal even carries a villa maintenance permit named for paint and ceramic work.
Tiling is one trade in a bathroom. The full bathroom page explains how we compare complete quotes, and the price bands show what a whole room costs at each finish level.
Scope
New tiles bonded to sound old ones, where the building keeps the old floor in place. The old tiles are checked for hollow spots first, and the door, the threshold and the drain grating are adjusted for the higher floor.
Priced after a survey
Old tiles and screed removed, a new screed laid to falls, a membrane in the wet zone and new tiles on floor and walls. One published villa bathroom row covering waterproofing, fixtures and tiles runs AED 12,000 to 35,000.
AED 12,000 to 35,000 per bathroom
Tiling as one trade in a complete rebuild, laid after the plumbing and the membrane and before the vanity and the glass. Full renovations start at AED 8,000 per bathroom.
from AED 8,000 per bathroom
Common questions: Bath to Walk-In Shower Conversion in Dubai: Cost and Rules, Bathroom Renovation Order of Works: What Comes When in Dubai, Bathroom Renovation Permit in Dubai: What Triggers One, Cheapest Way to Renovate a Bathroom: Dubai Prices by Scope, How Bathroom Waterproofing Works: Membranes, Falls, Tests and Tiles for Wet Areas in the UAE: What Copes With Humidity.
Questions
The bathroom, the community, and whether the old tiles can come up. We come back with contractors who quote against the published bands, and show you where each quote sits against them.