Bathroom Renovation in Khafji – Soil Stacks, Aluminium Ceilings & Clean Handover

Bathroom renovation in Khafji covers the flats and houses of this coastal city, and here is how Aemar Al-Maryam General Contracting approaches it: strip-out, waterproofing and tiling, then a clean handover with no grout haze left on the tiles, aluminium strip ceilings that shrug off sea humidity, and replacement of corroded soil stacks in the service shafts of older buildings. Compact flat bathrooms (roughly 4.5 m² or less) open the scale at SAR 2,300, mid-sized rooms at SAR 4,600 and big ones at SAR 6,400, each an estimate until inspection and agreement; the drive north from Dammam is worked out when we inspect. Message us on 0547879578.

Anyone who lives in Khafji knows the air coming off the sea does not leave a bathroom alone. Ordinary gypsum ceilings swell and stain, steel screws and brackets rust, and old drain pipes in the shafts corrode inside and out until water runs down the neighbour’s wall. In Khafji it is not enough to change the tiles; everything in the room has to be chosen to cope with moisture, from the ceiling down to the fixings. On this page we start with the prices, then explain what is different about Khafji bathrooms and how we hand the room over ready to use.

How much does bathroom renovation cost in Khafji?

A Khafji flat bathroom under about 4.5 m² is fully renewed with economy materials from SAR 2,300; between 5 and 9 m² the starting point is SAR 4,600, and beyond that SAR 6,400. Treat these as estimates until inspection and agreement. What moves them is how far up the walls the tiles go, the state of the pipes and the stack, the ceiling you pick, and the travel added on top.

Leak detection is a separate service with its own page, so it is not priced here. All our rates are collected on the prices page.

Worked example: a flat bathroom in an older Khafji building

Picture a flat bathroom of 1.8 × 2.2 m, ceiling at 2.4 m, shower in one corner, to be tiled to full height and fitted with a new water heater:

• ✓Areas: floor 3.96 m². The 8 m perimeter times 2.4 m gives 19.2 m² of wall; minus a 1.68 m² door that leaves 17.52, for 21.48 m² of tiling overall.
• ✓Strip-out: at SAR 14 on 21.48 m², about SAR 301.
• ✓Waterproofing: the whole floor (3.96), the shower corner’s two 0.9 m walls taken to 1.8 m (3.24) and a 30 cm skirting along the other 5.4 m (1.62) make 8.82 m²; at SAR 26 that is about SAR 229.
• ✓Plumbing: rough-in SAR 460.
• ✓Tiling: at SAR 36 on 21.48 m², about SAR 773.
• ✓Fit-off: basin 90, two mixers 150, heater 140 and its power point 65, which is SAR 445.
• ✓All labour together: around SAR 2,208. Add economy materials at roughly SAR 1,100 to 1,300 and the room lands near SAR 3,308 to 3,508. An aluminium ceiling if you choose one, a soil stack if it needs replacing, and the trip are priced at inspection.

This is an illustration only. Notice that a small bathroom has gone past SAR 2,300 because its walls are tiled to the ceiling and it gets a new heater: the “starts from” figure is the lowest point on the scale, not an average.

Bathroom renovation company in Khafji: what our work covers

We work from the concrete upwards: old tiles and bed off, new supply and waste lines tested, a membrane laid and flooded, falls formed, tiles set, sanitary ware hung, ceiling closed, fan wired, then a deep clean and handover. In Khafji we add three things that sea air and the age of the buildings make necessary.

Toilet and bathroom renovation in Khafji flats and houses

Renovating a toilet in a Khafji apartment block differs from a detached house because your bathroom shares the stack and the shaft with your neighbours, and sometimes the supply line too. We ask about this from the photos and agree with the building owner or the neighbours if the job needs water or drainage shut off for a short time.

Bathroom renovation contractor in Khafji: can the family stay in the flat?

Normally, provided a second bathroom still works. A dust curtain goes across the doorway of the room under renovation, protective sheeting runs from there to the front door, and tell you in advance which hours the water will be off while connections are made. The bathroom itself stays out of use until handover, because the membrane and grout need time to cure. In a flat with a single bathroom we sequence the stages to keep the days without it as few as possible and tell you what they are before we start.

Replacing corroded soil stacks in Khafji building shafts

In older Khafji apartment buildings the vertical soil stack runs up the service shaft and every floor’s bathroom connects to it. Over the years, and with salty sea air, the old stack and its brackets corrode and the joints weaken. Water then shows on the shaft wall or on the ceiling of the bathroom below, and smells escape around the joints. Renovating the bathroom without looking at the stack means the new tiles will be damaged by a leak that starts outside the room.

When the stack is damaged we take it out in stages and replace it with a new plastic drainage stack of the right diameter, fixed to the wall with metal brackets at regular spacings so it cannot sag or pull apart at the joints. The bathroom branch is connected with a fitting that has the correct direction and fall. We keep the vent extension running up to the roof, because an unvented stack siphons water out of the traps and lets smells in. Then the stack is water-tested before anything is closed up.

• ✓Co-ordination before removal: residents on the floors above are asked not to use their bathrooms while joints are being made, at times agreed in advance.
• ✓Fixings that resist rust: in a coastal climate we choose brackets and screws with a protective coating or in a material that does not corrode easily.
• ✓Access: we need to know whether the shaft can be entered through a door or hatch or whether we will work from inside the bathrooms, since that changes time and cost.
• ✓Price: set at inspection according to stack length, the number of storeys and ease of access.

Signs the problem is the stack, not your bathroom

If damp shows mostly on the wall next to the shaft, if stains appear on the ceiling of the bathroom below exactly where the stack runs, or if you hear water in the wall when a neighbour uses their bathroom, the stack or its joint is the likely culprit. We confirm that before breaking a single tile.

Bathroom strip-out in Khafji inside an occupied building

We break out with small electric breakers that keep vibration and noise down, work within the hours the building allows, protect the stairs and any lift with covers, and carry rubble out in sealed bags. Floors come off down to the concrete; walls down to the render or blockwork depending on their condition. Rubble removal in Khafji is priced at inspection. For larger demolition, see demolition in Khafji.

Bathroom plumbing rough-in in Khafji

Rough-in for a Khafji bathroom is SAR 460 upwards: hot and cold feeds to each outlet, and wastes sized to their fixture (roughly 32 mm basin, 40 mm shower, 110 mm WC) running downhill all the way to the stack. Before plaster hides anything, the wastes hold a three-metre column of water for a quarter of an hour or more and the feeds are pressurised to their service pressure or above. Plumbing details are on our Khafji plumber page.

Bathroom plumbing second fix

With the tiles down, the visible pieces follow: mixers at SAR 75 and up, a basin and its mixer at SAR 90 and up, a heater and relief valve at SAR 140 and up; set the heater to a temperature that will not scald, and make sure hot water arrives quickly. In flats we add an isolation valve for the bathroom so you can shut it off without cutting water to the whole apartment.

Bathroom waterproofing in Khafji before tiling

In an apartment block, bathroom waterproofing is what protects the neighbour downstairs, so we take it especially seriously. It covers the whole floor and turns up the walls.

How the waterproofing goes on

1. 1
   A clean, even surface
   Loose mortar removed and cracks filled.
2. 2
   Primer
   Matched to the membrane type.
3. 3
   Corners and penetrations
   Reinforcing tape at corners, the drain and every pipe.
4. 4
   The membrane
   A product made for use under tiles, in two coats.
5. 5
   How high
   Roughly 1.8 m on shower walls, a bath rim plus 150 mm, and a low band around the rest.

The flood test

Drains plugged, the floor is flooded until its deepest point is covered by 2.5 to 10 cm of water, and it stays that way for a day at least and up to three, while the neighbour below lets us know about any mark on their ceiling. No tile goes down until it passes clean. Products and leak tracing are explained on waterproofing and leak detection in Khafji.

Bathroom floor falls and drains in Khafji

Shower corners in Khafji flats get a gradient near 2% to the gully, the rest of the floor somewhere between half and one per cent, and we prove both with a bucket of water on the screed and again on the finished tiles. Every drain has a trap to hold back smells, which matters in flats left closed over the holidays.

In older flat bathrooms we often find the drain sitting where the fall cannot work, or a previous tiler has raised the floor at the door so water heads into the corridor. Our order is: set the gully height, decide the threshold height, and only then share out the gradient between them, never letting the bathroom floor sit higher than the corridor. If the drain needs moving to a better spot, we do it at rough-in, because after tiling it means breaking out again.

Bathroom tiling in Khafji: ceramic and porcelain

Floors get low-absorption porcelain with a matt anti-slip surface; walls take ceramic or porcelain. We fix with an improved cementitious adhesive that covers almost the whole back of each tile in wet areas, grout showers with low-absorption cement grout or epoxy, and seal joints around fixtures with silicone. Tiling labour starts from SAR 36 per m².

Changing bathroom tiles in Khafji

Stripping old tiles and bed costs from SAR 14 per square metre. Once the substrate shows, we decide: a sound, dry old membrane gets patched where the breaking scarred it; anything doubtful is replaced and flooded. We do not tile over old tiles in wet areas. For more on tiles, see tile installer in Khafji.

Grout haze cleanup and bathroom handover in Khafji

The last thing a homeowner sees is the first thing they judge the whole job by. After grouting, a thin film of grout stays on the face of the tiles, usually called haze, and if it is left to harden the tiles look dull and become hard to clean. So we wipe off surplus grout with a damp sponge and a bucket of clean water before it sets, change the water as soon as it clouds, and wipe diagonally across the joints so we do not drag grout out of them. Once the grout has cured, any remaining light film comes off with a dry cloth or a cleaner suited to the grout type.

• ✓No strong acids: aggressive acid cleaners weaken cement grout and can mark metal mixers and drain covers.
• ✓Epoxy grout is cleaned on the spot: once it hardens on the tile face it is very hard to remove, so it is cleaned during the work, not afterwards.
• ✓Fixtures stay protected: the protective film stays on mixers and glass until the last day and comes off in front of you.
• ✓Clean drains: grout and mortar are removed from inside the gullies and traps, and water is poured through to prove they run.
• ✓Silicone last: it goes on around fixtures and in corners after cleaning, so it bonds to a clean, dry surface.

Then we hand the room over after trying every mixer with you, running the shower and watching the water reach the drain, switching on the fan and the heater, and leaving you spare tiles from the same batch.

Bathroom ceilings in Khafji: aluminium strips against sea humidity

In a coastal city like Khafji, shower steam meets humid outdoor air and the bathroom ceiling suffers more than any other surface. An ordinary gypsum ceiling absorbs moisture, swells and stains, and even moisture-resistant gypsum needs good ventilation because it resists moisture without being waterproof. That is why many Khafji owners choose an aluminium strip ceiling.

A strip ceiling is made of long coated aluminium panels clipped onto carriers hung from the concrete slab. Aluminium does not absorb water or grow mould and wipes clean with a damp cloth, and any panel can be unclipped to reach the water heater, valves or fan duct and then put back. We fit the strips after all wet work is finished, leave the fan opening and light positions between them, and use hangers and fixings that will not rust quickly, so no orange stains appear on the white panels.

For anyone who prefers a smooth ceiling, we fit moisture-resistant gypsum with a good fan, or cement board in very humid bathrooms. Details are on gypsum board in Khafji and cement board in Khafji.

Bathroom ventilation and electrics in Khafji

Flat bathrooms often have no window, or a small one onto the light well, so a fan is needed: around 50 cfm when switched with the light, around 20 cfm if it never stops, and always ducted to outside air, never left to puff steam into the void over the ceiling. Where that duct must pass through concrete, core drilling in Khafji explains how.

Our electrical rules: nothing with a plug near the shower, splash-rated fittings wherever spray might reach, a 30 mA earth-leakage breaker on every bathroom circuit, and the heater isolator on the landing side of the door. We prefer boxes and covers that will not rust quickly, because sea air attacks exposed metal. Each heater or fan point is SAR 65 and up. Details on electrician in Khafji.

Fitting sanitary ware in Khafji bathrooms

We install the WC, basin, mixers, shower and water heater you choose, and ask for their dimensions before rough-in so every plumbing point lands in the right place. We do not sell particular brands.

Squat pan out, western WC in: Khafji flats

Most flats allow it: after the pan is broken out, a 110 mm waste is laid from the new WC position down to the stack at a measured gradient, after which the floor gets its membrane and tiles. If the stack is far away and there is not enough depth for the fall, the floor may be raised slightly with a threshold at the door.

Bathtub to walk-in shower in Khafji

With the tub gone, the membrane runs over the floor and up the corner to showerhead height, the floor is shaped to a fresh gully and the mixer is relocated. If you want a fixed glass screen, we prepare its position and fixing points during tiling.

When does a Khafji bathroom need renovation, and how much of it?

A bathroom needs renovating when water leaves its place or the pipes show corrosion, not simply because the tiles are old. This table helps you judge the scope before the inspection:

Renovating old bathrooms in Khafji

Old-bathroom renovation in Khafji usually starts with metal pipes worn down by humidity, a membrane past its life and ceilings that have swollen. We do not recommend changing only the tiles in an old bathroom; we open up, look and renew what lies beneath, because new tiles over old pipes mean another round of breaking out before long. If there are cracks in the bathroom or shaft walls, see crack repair in Khafji.

Refreshing a Khafji bathroom without breaking tiles

A bathroom can be refreshed without breaking out when the problems are on the surface: re-grouting with a low-absorption product, renewing silicone, changing fixtures, switching to an aluminium ceiling and adding a fan. A stain on the neighbour’s ceiling, though, comes from beneath the tiles and no surface refresh will fix it. We price that kind of work on site. Epoxy coating over tiles belongs on dry, firmly bonded wall tiles, never on a shower floor.

Small bathroom renovation in Khafji

Small flat bathrooms gain most from a compact or floating basin, a pocket or outward-swinging door, an open shower rather than a tub, and a floating pan with an in-wall cistern if the wall is thick enough. Renewing one of up to roughly 4.5 m² top to bottom costs from SAR 2,300 in Khafji.

Enlarging a bathroom in Khafji

Enlarging is limited in apartment blocks because walls and pipes are shared, and no load-bearing wall is touched without an engineer’s decision. We assess what is possible at the inspection; if concrete has to be cut, the method is on concrete cutting in Khafji.

Bathroom renovation steps in Khafji, in order

1. 1
   Inspection
   Measuring, checking the stack and ceiling, fixing the scope.
2. 2
   Protection and strip-out
   At times that suit the building.
3. 3
   Stack and rough-in
   Stack replacement where needed, then the plumbing rough-in and its tests.
4. 4
   Cement render and falls
   Never gypsum plaster in a bathroom.
5. 5
   Waterproofing and flood test
   With an eye on the neighbour’s ceiling.
6. 6
   Tiling and grouting
   With haze cleaned off as we go.
7. 7
   Ceiling, electrics and second fix
   Aluminium strips or moisture-resistant board, fan and heater.
8. 8
   Final clean and handover
   Taps, gullies, fan and heater run while you watch.

Inspection points before anything is closed

You receive photos of three moments: the pipework under test before render, the bare membrane before it is protected, and the flooded floor before any tile.

How long does bathroom renovation take in Khafji?

Most flat bathrooms are done in seven to fourteen days, drying and flooding included. A new stack adds a day or more depending on the number of storeys and co-ordination with the neighbours. Because the crew comes from Dammam, we keep the stages continuous as far as possible and tell you in advance about any waiting days.

Renovation mistakes that bring leaks back in Khafji

• ✓Renovating the bathroom and leaving a corroded stack weeping behind the wall.
• ✓Plain steel fixings that rust and stain the ceiling and walls.
• ✓Tiling without a flood test.
• ✓A membrane upstand that stops too low in the shower.
• ✓Grout instead of silicone at fixtures and corners.
• ✓A fan blowing into the ceiling void.
• ✓Letting grout haze dry onto the tiles.

Bathroom handover checklist in Khafji

• ✓You hold the pipe-test and flooding photos.
• ✓Tile faces bright, no grout film, joints full and true.
• ✓Water runs to the drain and does not pond.
• ✓Dry at every mixer, below the basin and around the WC foot.
• ✓Ceiling strips straight, and the access panel unclips.
• ✓The fan blows outdoors and the earth-leakage breaker cuts out when tested.
• ✓No new damp on the neighbour’s ceiling.
• ✓Some tiles from the same batch kept back for you.

Before-and-after bathroom renovations in Khafji

An after shot shows bright tiles and a clean ceiling; the real change is hidden: a new stack, proven pipes, a membrane carried up the walls. We record each of those stages, and finished rooms can be browsed in the project gallery.

Does bathroom renovation in Khafji need a permit?

Renewing tiles, pipes and the membrane inside your own bathroom is maintenance and seldom needs a licence; altering structure or creating a new bathroom goes through Balady with an engineering office. In apartment blocks, replacing the shared stack needs the consent of the building owner or the owners’ association.

Bathrooms within a flat or house renovation in Khafji

If the bathroom is part of a full flat renovation, we co-ordinate the work so nothing is broken out twice. See renovation contractor in Khafji, painting in Khafji, plastering in Khafji, and for a new bathroom in an annex annexes and majlis rooms in Khafji.

Four reasons Khafji owners call Aemar Al-Maryam

Where we work in Khafji

We renovate bathrooms across Khafji’s residential neighbourhoods and along the seafront, in flats, apartment buildings and villas. We also work in Dammam, Al-Ahsa, Hafr Al-Batin, with the rest of the Province covered too. The service summary is on our bathrooms and kitchens page, and for kitchens here see kitchen renovation in Khafji.

How to order a bathroom renovation in Khafji

1. 1
   Bathroom photos
   Floor, walls, ceiling and under the basin.
2. 2
   Shaft and ceiling below
   If there is damp at the neighbour’s or on the shaft wall.
3. 3
   Size and storey
   The room’s three dimensions, the storey, and if there is a lift in the block.
4. 4
   What you want
   Partial or full, ceiling type, shower or bath.
5. 5
   Estimate and date
   An initial figure and a trip date come back to you.

You can also use the online request form.