How should a school tender toilet refurbishment works?

A school washroom refurbishment is a construction project, even when it feels like a big maintenance job. How you buy it decides whether the quotes you get can be compared, whether the work fits the holiday, and whether the school meets its own duties as client.

Start with your rules

Your trust’s scheme of delegation or your council’s financial regulations set the thresholds: how many quotes are needed at what value, when a formal tender is required, and who signs off. A single toilet block refurbishment commonly costs tens of thousands of pounds, so it often sits in the “three written quotes” band, while multi-block projects can cross into tender territory. Check before you start, not after you have a favourite contractor.

Three ways to buy

Written quotes

The usual route for a single block. Ask at least three contractors to price the same drawings and specification. This is quick and works well when the scope is clear.

Framework call-off

Many councils and trusts buy through construction frameworks that have already tested contractors. Contract notices from 2025 show councils in Liverpool and East Sussex calling off school toilet refurbishments from frameworks. A framework saves time on selection, but you still need a clear scope.

Formal tender

Larger packages, such as a secondary school’s whole washroom refurbishment or several schools at once, may need an open or restricted tender. Amery Hill School’s washroom refurbishment in 2025 was procured by open procedure and awarded at about £395,000. Allow more time: weeks for the tender period and evaluation.

Write a specification that compares

Quotes only compare if everyone prices the same thing. Before asking, fix:

1. A drawn layout, to scale, showing cubicles, the IPS duct, basins or troughs, urinals and any accessible or ambulant cubicle.
2. Products and standards: cubicle material and height, panel system, sanitaryware, taps, floor and wall finishes.
3. Services: drainage changes, extract ventilation, lighting and controls, hot water and mixing valves.
4. Strip-out and asbestos: the survey report and how findings are to be handled.
5. Programme: start and finish dates inside the holiday, and the latest handover date.
6. Site rules: safeguarding, DBS or escort arrangements, sign-in, welfare, deliveries and working hours.
7. Handover: water hygiene flushing, test certificates, warranties and operation and maintenance information.

Ask each contractor to list exclusions and provisional sums separately. The cheapest quote with long exclusions is often not the cheapest job.

The school’s duties as client

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 apply to all building work, including school washroom refurbishments. The school or its responsible body is the client. In short, the client must make suitable arrangements for managing the project, give designers and contractors the pre-construction information they need (including the asbestos survey), and allow enough time and resources. Where more than one contractor will be involved, the client must appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor in writing.

If your trust has an estates team or a property consultant, they usually take on much of this for you.

A timeline that works

Checks before you appoint

• Insurance certificates and health and safety policy.
• References from other schools, ideally for summer holiday work.
• How they will staff a six-week programme and who manages the site day to day.
• Warranty terms for cubicles, panels and workmanship.
• Their approach to safeguarding on a school site.

The short version

Follow your finance rules, fix a drawn specification, and get like-for-like quotes or use a framework. Remember the school is the client under CDM 2015. Appoint by spring so materials are ordered in time, and the six weeks on site will take care of themselves.

Ready to get prices for your school toilet refurbishment? Send us the brief.