How much does a bathroom remodel cost?

In My Humble Opinion
1

The FoxyLady and I are preparing to remodel one of our bathrooms. It’s fairly small: a toilet, a tub, a sink, and a small closet. The current decor screams 1968 (the year the house was built), complete with a faded yellow toilet and bathtub, and some horribly ugly linoleum that’s in surprisingly good shape.

I already know roughly how much individual items cost (i.e. a new toilet). What I don’t have a good feel for, because I’ve never owned a house before, is how much a remodeling project can actually end up costing when one adds up contractors fees, repairing stuff you screwed up because you tried to do it on your own, etc. We pretty much want to gut the bathroom and start from scratch, including:

[ul]
[li] New floor surface, possibly tile[/li][li] New cabinets, countertop and sink[/li][li] New mirror and vanity lights[/li][li] Move one light switch and electrical outlet to be near the main light switch[/li][li] Install a ceiling vent (wiring is present)[/li][li] New bathtub[/li][li] Install a shower[/li][li] Cover shower walls, i.e. with tile or one of those plastic pre-built thingies[/li][li] Paint or otherwise make the walls pretty[/li][/ul]

Has anybody done a remodel like this recently? How much money should I prepare to have at the ready? I can’t do the electrical or plumbing work on my own, but I’m willing to do as much of the other work as possible to keep costs down.

2

I just did all the things listed. Also had to replace some bad iron pipe with copper, and replace a few rotten floor joists. We thought it would cost about 5K. It cost 11K.

3

I’ve done 5 complete tear out bathroom remodels.

Is it your only bathroom? Or can you go slow?

Is it a tub/shower? Or seperate units?

Concrete floor? Or do you have access from underneath from the basement?
This can make a big difference when doing plumbing work.

New floor surface, possibly tile…

  • Tile is not very hard to do. Rent a tile saw. Put the tub in first, and tile around it. I would tile under the vanity and toliet.

New cabinets, countertop and sink…

  • Lots of price differences here.

Are you planning on pulling a permit? Do you need one? Lots of questions.

From what I have seen, asking a contractor to do some of the work may be hard. They don’t want to depend on you for a little of this and a little of that. However, you could call someone for the wiring. “Just do this”. Or the plumbing. “Just do this”

Nothing that you are trying to do can’t be done by the average Joe if you’re willing to buy some tools, ask some questions and make a mistake or two. I enjoy doing that kind of stuff, it may take twice as long, but costs about half if you do it yourself.

And in the end, you get knowledge, and TOOLS.

New mirror and vanity lights
Move one light switch and electrical outlet to be near the main light switch
Install a ceiling vent (wiring is present)
New bathtub
Install a shower
Cover shower walls, i.e. with tile or one of those plastic pre-built thingies
Paint or otherwise make the walls pretty

4

We’re getting a new bathroom.

It’s SMALL, but we’re taking out a tub, putting in a tiled shower, tile on the floors, and a few feet up the walls. We’re keeping the toilet and sink and keeping them in the same place. We need to move a little plumbing for the change in shower. New sink fixtures, and all new shower fixtures.

Contractors are doing it all.

It’s going to be about $8,000 (materials and labor). We got some estimates over $15K.

5

We can go slow. We have other bathrooms.

It’s a tub/shower. Well, it will be. Right now it’s just a tub.

We have access from the basement. The portion of the basement directly under the bathroom is not finished.

6

If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.

7

:rolleyes:

That’s one of those wonderfully unhelpful sayings in the same class as “If you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you.”

8

i just completely gutted my bathroom. it’s small, like 50 square feet. i actually kept the tub, but had it refinished, because it’s such a nice cast iron one, and to replace it with one of a similar quality would be prohibitive, and affordable tubs look like crap.

other than that it was gutted to the studs. anyway, i got good deals on fixtures because i’m an architect, but that’s a double-sided sword, because i have tastes that exceed my means, so i probably still spent more than “the normal” person would, regardless. but i’m also doing all my own work, so that cuts costs WAY down. but it also took me months, so you have your pros, you have your cons.

i put in a nice wall-mounted sink, a new toilet, sort of floating panel wainscot on the walls, some amazing subway tile in the shower, a nice ceiling fan, a recessed can in the ceiling, a flourescent strip on the wall, a big medicine cabinet, nice slate (not that crap from lowes) on the floor, milled trim to match the rest of the 1920’s house, and built a little secret storage area in one wall that just looks like part of the wainscot.

anyway, i think i probably spent about 3 grand total on materials and tool rental. not bad. i figured about 2250 originally, but really it was a bargain to get that yellow brick patterned vinyl and pink tile out of there.

there’s a lot of things i learned from the project, but one thing people don’t think so much about is the exhaust fan. contractors will always put the 20 dollar broan thing in. first of all, it’s weak. second of all, it’s deafeningly loud. i bought one, too. installed it, turned it on once, then ripped it out and bought a better one. they actually have ones now that look just like recessed lighting and are supposed to be extremely quiet. i think broan has a model, they run for like 80 bucks, maybe. it’s worth it in my opinion.

9

Minimum: $10 grand
Maximium: more than the national debt

Two main things go into remodeling costs: Labor and materials

Pretty obvious, but materials is when things can start adding up quickly. All the materials you want can vary the costs significantly. If you go with basic Home Depot sinks and tubs and so forth, you can save a lot. But a custom vanity (sometimes needed for odd sized bathrooms) can cost a bundle. Faucets can get hefty too. Ceramic tiles can get pricey. While upgrading on any or all of this will certainly add up, you might want to think how important it is to go high or keep costs low. A remodeled bath adds a fair amount of resale value so recouping costs several years down the line is always there.

Research added value to your home with a new bath. It ranges differently geographically.

10

You can save some money by doing the demolition yourself. Shut off the water and remove the sink and cabinets and toilet. Pull up the old vinyl, remove shower doors, mirrors, light fixtures. You’ll save a lot on labor-hour costs by doing this. When it’s over, paint it yourself. $35 for a gallon of paint and your labor is free.

11

We did ours for $5,000 but we did much of the grunt work ourselves and the carpenter cut us a deal because he was a FOAF. Without that, it would have cost about twice that.

12

We were quoted 3-5K for a redo that included a new toilet, a jacuzzi tub, new flooring, wainscoting and wallpaper.

When interest rates started climbing we decided it wasn’t worth it.