We’re in the process of buying our first home and out of moderately-serious curiosity, how would I go about finding out how much it would cost to add a half-bathroom? Our house was built in 1940, and has one bathroom downstairs. We’ve got two moderately large, but oddly-shaped bedrooms upstairs, and never use those rooms because we both have to get up at least once or twice at night to pee, and if I had to stumble down our rather narrow staircase in a sleep fog, I’d probably break my neck. If there were a toilet upstairs we could move into an actual bedroom–right now we’re set up in a teentsy room downstairs that’s barely big enough for a futon pad and a dog crate.
So who do I call to get a quote on this? Anyone have any idea how much it might cost? All I’m looking for is a toilet and sink, a patch of linoleum, and a wall. Does it make a difference where in the house it’s located–like, would it be cheaper or easier to install if it were directly, or nearly directly, above the existing bathroom?
Well first you would want to call a general contractor in your area to bid out on the job. Call four or five of them, and try to schedule them relatively close to each other, maybe a half hour appart, so they know you are looking at their competition.
Yes, having the new bath directly over the one downstairs would be beneficial. On a quick scan this is what I come up with for cost.
Toilet, sink, piping, linolium, dry wall, insultation, wall paper/paint, venting, labor.
I believe code would say your vent must go outside, so they have to either patch into an existing vent or go directly outside. Not too sure about the half bath…meaning they may not need a vent…might want one anyway for Mexican night
I’ll guestimate $3500 at a low end. IANA-Contractor so I may be waaay off. If you cannot have the toilet over the existing one, it may also extend the cost for extra materials.
First, I think Phlosphr’s guess is close, especially if you can tap into the existing plumbing. But my question is, if the rooms upstairs are large, why not add a full bath? Almost all of the additional cost would be in the tub or shower and the fixtures. Adds to the resale value too.
I would love to have an extra full bath–the only problem is that while the rooms are good-sized, they’re sort of oddly-shaped. One is mostly rectangular, but has sloping front and back walls. The other is sort of shaped like this:
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Where “c” is a random tiny closet, the thing at the top is a weird little troll-sized nook in the peak of the roof, and there are crawl-spaces everywhere in both rooms. The doorway is that gap on the lower part of the east wall. The south wall slopes so that the corner of the doorway is touching the sloping part, does that make sense? The upstairs is a finished attic, hence the sloping walls where the roof cuts in. I imagine the sloping walls make those ends of the room fairly useless as far as adding bathroom fixtures go, but I’m not sure. The roof starts cutting in about 3.5 or 4 feet up.
So, I guess I need to find out if it’s even possible to add a bathroom given those spaces.
Before calling contractors, decide what fixtures, cabinets and finishes you want. Prices vary wildly on these and it’s going to be the first question a contractor asks you.
You would be amazed where a half bath can be tucked away.
Friends of ours bought a house where the full bath was upstairs when the house was built in 1920 and there was nothing downstairs. a previous owner added a bath under the upstairs staircase. It was cramped, no ventilation, but cheerfully decorated.
Another friend bought an older house that had one bathroom upstairs (none downstairs) and a previous owner turned what was apparently an odd spaced linen closet that was wedged between two bedrooms into the oddest shaped toilet and sink area. The door is a linen closet door sorta in size and if you insomuch as fart the whole room would combust. It’s also done over in the loverly shades of avacado green and harvest gold. Hubba hubba.
It became the husband’s bathroom as he had three females in the house to contend.
Knowing what you want (vinyl or tile, oak or veneer, glass doors or curtain) levels the playing field for the contractors. Otherwise, the bids will be all over the board. This is an old house; whatever bid you get, mentally add about 25% to your budget in case the contractor uncovers hidden problems such as mold or rot.
The second half of the equation is to stick with your plan. Changes are expensive, since the contractor will have to exchange any purchased item and may have to pay restocking fees, which he will pass on to you. He may also have to re-sequence the work, which means more time/labor, which he will also pass on to you.
Make sure your contractor is licensed and bonded. Check his references. Get a commitment in writing as to when the work will be finished. I would even try to get some sort of reduction in cost for every unexcused day past the finish date.
The other thing with adding a full-bath is that the most convenient spot in either room is also the same side of the room with the doorway leading in. The mostly-rectangular room sits directly over the downstairs bath, so I’m assuming that’s the most likely location–but if we put in a full bath, we’d have to make it a walk-through bathroom, since the bedroom door is at the same end of the room where we’d like to put the half-bath. We can’t move the doorway, since the staircase runs between both rooms, and the doorways come off a landing. Or whatever it’s called.
Any idea how much (if any) I would save doing some of the aesthetic stuff myself? I can paint and tile on my own, plumbing and toilet installation–not so much.
Caveat: I’m not a builder – just someone who’s done a bit of renovating on his own…
The biggest problem with retrofitting a half bath is running the plumbing and getting it up to code. You somehow have to get a 4" soil pipe and some copper pipe run. The existing plumbing probably isn’t up to code in terms of venting, so you may have to update that as well.
From the sounds of your other post, you’re going to have to probably rip down a wall in your existing bath to fix some leakage problems. So that will give you at least some access to existing plumbing. But you’re still probably going to have to do some fiddling to get all the plumbing through the existing studs, joists, and flooring. You may be able to just fudge it and put all the plumbing in a soffit that runs through the existing bathroom.
Various codes probably will require that you install a vent fan and separate GFCI circuits in the new bath. (You can run the new wires at the same time that you run the plumbing, but you’ll have to coordinate your contractors.) If I were going through all the effort, I think I’d at least install a small shower stall upstairs. Or you might even consider squeezing in a washer/dryer if the room is big enough and you can get them up the stairs.
You’ll probably have to replace the floor of the new bathroom after running the pipes and do some drywall/tiling work.
I’d make a sort of pessimistic guess of $4-6K for a minimal bath, mostly because retrofitting is always harder than new installation and the house is old enough so that a lot of stuff will have to be done to bring it up to code.
I called a few contractors this morning, and one guy came right over to look at it. He said he’d have to take a day or so to come up with an accurate estimate, and that he’d get back to me, but I think with the available space I’d need to take up for a sink and a shower, it’s not going to take much more to add in enough room for a 38" shower stall. Yay!
As for the washer/dryer thing, we have a large laundry room added onto the back of the house, so that’s all covered.
Sorry for the resurrection, but I had several contractors come in to check it out and I got the first bid in just now.
Estimate for a 6’ X 6’ full bath with corner shower stall thingie, sink, and toilet, situated directly above our other bathroom… $7,436
Uh… no thanks.
The guy did assure me at the time he was here that it would be a piece of cake with no unusual plumbing issues or anything predicted, so this is his bid for a very straightforward, no-frills, teentsy little bathroom.
He also gave me a bid for about $5,300 to fix our existing bathroom–every other informal estimate was $1,500 or less.
So far I’ve done little renovation-type work (that will change very soon), but as you said before, you might want to get bids for everything, and bids for everything except the “finish” as well. I know I can paint and tile, and in a 6’ x 6’ bathroom, it wouldn’t take that long, so paying someone else $40+ per hour to do it wouldn’t sit right with me.
