The honest answer to the question of what a renovation costs is: it depends on the scope — and on the condition, which you only see on site. Even so, nobody has to go into a conversation without a figure. On this page you will find our guide prices by trade, a worked example for a 3.5-room flat and a list of the points a sound fixed-price quote should contain. All figures cover labour only. Materials are charged separately.
Why we separate labour and materials
Laying a square metre of parquet takes roughly the same amount of work whether the parquet is cheap or expensive. The price of the material, on the other hand, can vary many times over depending on the product. If we combined the two in a single figure, it would be either too high for the simple option or too low for the high-end one. That is why every quote we issue shows our labour and the materials separately. You can see where a different choice of material makes a difference and where it does not — and you can also supply the materials yourself if you prefer.
Guide prices by trade
The ranges below are our guide prices for work in the city of Zurich and the surrounding agglomeration. They apply under normal conditions; where you land within a range depends on the condition of the property, access and the finishing standard.
- Vacant flat renovation: CHF 8'000 to 20'000 per flat (3.5 to 4.5 rooms), all work from strip-out to handover
- Complete bathroom renovation: CHF 8'500 to 19'000 per bathroom, covering demolition, plumbing, waterproofing and tiling
- Painting: CHF 950 to 1'700 per room of up to approx. 20 m² (walls CHF 18 per m², ceilings CHF 20 per m², two coats, masking included)
- Painting individual walls: CHF 18 to 25 per m², two coats, masking included
- Tiling: CHF 62 to 110 per m², laying and grouting (wall tiles from CHF 62, floor tiles from CHF 68, large format up to CHF 105)
- Parquet and floor coverings: CHF 35 to 65 per m² (vinyl from CHF 35, floating parquet around CHF 45, glued parquet around CHF 58)
- Strip-out and full strip-out: CHF 500 to 1'500 per room, selective dismantling, disposal of the removed materials charged separately
- Drywall and plastering: CHF 800 to 1'600 per wall, installing a lightweight partition wall or skim coating
- Plumbing repair or installation: CHF 240 to 480 per call-out, minimum three hours
- Kitchen installation: CHF 900 to 1'800 per kitchen, excluding special cases for appliance connections
Travel is included in the city of Zurich and the agglomeration — Zurich, Dietikon, Dübendorf, Uster, Wetzikon and Horgen. Outside this area, it appears as a fixed item in the quote, so you know it in advance. Small jobs are subject to a minimum of three hours.
Worked example: 3.5-room flat
The following calculation is a guide price, not a quote. It is built entirely from the ranges above, covers labour only and assumes a flat with around 70 m² of floor area. For the painting, we count four rooms (living room, two further rooms, dining area) plus around 30 m² of wall area in the hallway and ancillary rooms.
Option A — a refresh at change of tenant
- Painting, 4 rooms at CHF 950 to 1'700: CHF 3'800 to 6'800
- Wall painting in the hallway and ancillary rooms, 30 m² at CHF 18 to 25: CHF 540 to 750
- Parquet and floor coverings, 70 m² at CHF 35 to 65: CHF 2'450 to 4'550
- One plumbing call-out for minor repairs: CHF 240 to 480
- Total labour: CHF 7'030 to 12'580
Option A is a refresh without removing the floors and without skim coating; that is why it comes in below the range for a full vacant flat renovation (CHF 8'000 to 20'000).
Option B — plus a new bathroom and a new kitchen
- Option A: CHF 7'030 to 12'580
- Complete bathroom renovation (demolition included): CHF 8'500 to 19'000
- Strip-out of the old kitchen, 1 room: CHF 500 to 1'500 (disposal extra)
- Kitchen installation: CHF 900 to 1'800
- Tiles for the kitchen splashback, 4 m² at CHF 68 to 110: CHF 272 to 440
- Total labour: CHF 17'202 to 35'320
Not included in either option: materials (paint, parquet, tiles, adhesive, sanitary ware, taps and fittings), kitchen units and appliances, disposal fees for the strip-out, electrical work by a licensed electrical firm, and VAT, which we show in the quote. The wide range in Option B comes almost entirely from the bathroom: a bathroom in the existing layout with pipes in good condition sits at the lower end; one with a relocated shower, new risers and large-format tiles at the upper end.
What drives the price up
The biggest cost drivers are rarely visible when you first walk into a flat. The most important ones, in our experience:
- The substrate. Cracks, remnants of old wallpaper, uneven plaster or a sloping screed all take preparation time — for the painter as much as for the floor layer.
- Relocated connections. If you want to move the shower, WC or sink, you need new pipes, often with work on walls and floors.
- The year of construction. In older properties, the condition of the pipes and the substructure only becomes clear after strip-out. For buildings constructed before 1990, a hazardous-substances survey by specialists is usually required before any strip-out.
- Access and logistics. A narrow staircase with no lift, no space to park a vehicle outside the building: none of this is a surprise, but it takes time, and we build that time into the quote.
- The finishing standard. Large-format tiles, level-access showers or custom colours require more work steps than a functional standard solution.
What a fixed-price quote must include
A low price is only low if no extra items are added at the end. When comparing quotes, make sure the following points are explicitly covered:
- each task as a separate item with quantity and rate, not as a flat fee for ‘flat renovation’
- materials listed separately from labour, stating who supplies them
- strip-out, disposal and site cleaning — who does them and how they are charged
- travel: included or shown as a fixed item
- start and handover as fixed dates, not ‘by arrangement’
- the rule for change orders: what happens if something turns up behind a wall
- test reports, for example a pressure and leak test for new plumbing pipes
- warranty, and acceptance with a written report
This is how our quotes work: you receive the fixed-price quote within 48 hours of the site visit and measurement, item by item, with materials listed separately. If something comes to light during the work that was not visible at the survey, we stop, document it with photos and send you a change order with a price. Nothing is carried out until you approve it. The work is carried out to SIA standards, handover takes place with an acceptance report, and our work comes with a 5-year warranty from acceptance.
How much contingency makes sense
Even with a clean quote, some unknowns remain — especially in older buildings and with work that cuts into walls and floors. There is no fixed percentage for this. Rather than setting aside a blanket contingency, it makes more sense to raise the risks openly during the survey: where do the pipes run? How old is the waterproofing in the bathroom? What do you know about earlier alterations? The more of this is clarified before the quote, the smaller the part that has to be decided on site.
How to get a reliable figure
Photos and a floor plan are often enough for an initial estimate over the phone. For a binding figure, we need a site visit with measurement. You can reach us by phone or via the contact form; we call back within an hour, Mon–Fri between 08:00 and 18:00. You will find more on the individual trades under Renovation, on vacant flats under Renovating a vacant flat and on bathrooms in the article What does a bathroom renovation cost in Zurich?.
All figures in this article are guide prices for labour (as of September 2026), excluding materials and excluding VAT. They do not replace a quote. The binding price is the one in the fixed-price quote issued after the site visit and measurement.