Cost of remodeling a bathroom.
With so many choices in front of you in the way of bathroom cabinets, shower screens, bathroom fixtures and other inclusions that you can choose to include in remodeling a bathroom you are planing on doing, it is hard to be precise when looking at a cost of remodeling a bathroom unless you have already chosen all those items and had various tradespeople or a builder give you labor estimates.
However, if you haven’t done that and you want to get an idea of the cost of remodeling a bathroom you are planing to do, keep reading below and consider the following:
Extent of the bathroom modification
1. Are you going to use the existing bathroom space or are you going to do some sort of expansion. For example if you are going to knock out a wall, build another wall and thereby have to have wall framing, fiber-cement sheeting as well as the floor and ceiling done, then that in itself could cost you a lot of money before you even start looking at the cost of the new bathroom ware, shower screen, bath or spa bath, tiling and so on.
2. With plumbers charging what they charge ( and I’m not criticizing them for that ) it will make a difference if you can keep the layout such that you don’t have to redo a lot of piping and new outlets in the walls.
For example if you can keep the toilet pan, shower taps and vanity unit ( bathroom cabinet ) in the same place, even though you still need the plumber to install the new toilet, taps etc, you would be saving quiet a bit of money by not having to open up walls , floor and installing new piping and so on.
Bathroom fixtures
I would not try to save money here by reusing the old fixtures unless they are still in excellent condition and look new.
Here you have so many choices, and you can spend a lot of money but it’s important that you choose the look and style that”s going to fit in well with the overall look of the rest of your home and also should be in harmony with the type and color of the new wall and floor tiles, trims and surrounding finishes.
For example if your taps, towel racks, toilet holder and other fittings are all chrome finish you need to have the same finish on your shower screen frame or in case of frame-less glass shower screen, the hinges should have the same look.
This is easy to accomplish as you can choose a whole set of fittings from the same model and manufacturer at a showroom of your bathroom plumbing store.
If you are planning to remodel your kitchen, an en-suite bathroom or the laundry it’s best to get the set for all the rooms so the taps, handles and finishes are matching throughout your home.
If you have an old cast iron or steel bathtub it could be worth resurfacing instead of replacing as the saving will be in labor to demolish it and install a new one, where the plumbing cost saving comes into play and of course the saving on the cost of a new one. You would also speed up the work schedule by doing that.
If the toilet pan is really good and you don’t have to change the floor plan position of it, you could get a new cistern and toilet seat, but you need to check first at the plumbing store whether the compatible water cistern and toilet seats are still being made for that model or not.
Again as in the bathtub option the saving would be on the plumbing cost, while it wouldn’t cost much extra to get the whole set with the pan included in most cases,
In choosing a shower screen, the cheaper option is to have a shower screen with a frame. If you are going for that modern look, a toughened glass frame-less shower screen will cost you a lot more but will look much better and will fit in better with most of your other bathroom fixtures.
If your shower position is in the corner of your bathroom you might want to consider buying a prefinished corner shower unit, either an acrylic shower unit type that you just connect to water and waste services or a shower enclosure either custom made or standard modular type.
A big factor in your costs is, whether you intend to buy everything standard sizes or you are going for the custom made option which can cost you a lot of money.
Another factor which will determine the cost of remodeling your bathroom, is whether you can buy your bathroom fixtures at auctions and wholesale outlets or even through classified ads etc.
If you have enough time on your hands you could save a small fortune by going this route and you don’t have to sacrifice quality to achieve this either.
You need to keep in mind the safety aspect of the shower screen as for example, if there is an elderly or person with disability who will be using the shower you might have to have a wheelchair access which limits the type of screen and door you can have and can have an impact on the cost as well.
Plumbing and electrical work
A significant and very important part of the job and cost of your project will be the plumbing and electrical work and especially if you are expanding the bathroom in some way as I mentioned above.
If you are moving the position of your shower, bath, toilet, vanity unit or floor waste outlet and/or demolishing a wall and building a new one in particular most of the piping in the walls, and electrical wiring will have to be redone which will add a great chunk of money that you have to come up with and could add a week or so extra to the time of completion of your project.
Important thing to note is that you have to have all your fixtures, cabinets,, bathtub, toilet and everything else either already purchased, which in my experience is the best way or at least have the specifications, and measurements for each fixture, so that for example, the plumber knows exactly where to leave a waste pipe for the toilet, bath, shower as well as the water pipe outlets in the walls etc.
Before you even get the plumber and electrician to come out and have a look to give you a quote, you need to already know exactly the model and dimension of all your bathroom fixtures.
The best thing to do is, using a crayon or marking pen draw on the bathroom floor the outlines of all your items, vanity unit, toilet, shower, bath or anything else and also the position of fixtures on the wall. In this way it will be much easier for the plumber and electrician, and indeed yourself to visualize the layout of the bathroom.
By doing that you will also see if you have enough space for a person to be able to comfortably use the toilet or shower for example, or whether the door will be able to close properly or things of that nature.
If you have to reline the walls of your bathroom with fiber-cement sheeting, all the plumbing piping and electrical cabling in the walls have to be completed first before the wall linings can be installed.
You also might need to have an additional stud or horizontal timber fixed into the wall to allow an easier mounting of a wall cabinet for example.
Another important thing that could save you a lot of trouble later on when you have to fix into the walls, things like towel holder, toilet roll holder and other fixings, is to take photos and take exact measurements of the walls before the wall linings have been done and after the pipework and cabling has been completed.
In this way you will not have to wonder if you will hit or miss that water pipe or cable inside the wall while you are drilling and screwing in those fixings into the wall, when all the tiling has been done and when you cannot see what’s behind the walls.
Waterproofing
I could list you dozens of examples of jobs I’ve done where the whole bathroom had to be ripped out, all floor and wall tiling demolished/removed because of failed waterproofing membrane.
The most common reason for water and damp penetration from bathrooms into the adjacent walls and floors is the failed or in some cases non existent waterproofing membrane.
It always amazes me how little importance people give to waterproofing their bathroom and how they try to pay as little as possible for this work to be done, while spending the $ 10,000 or so on a new bathroom.
This is one of the reasons why people like myself have so much work going, in fact more than I can handle.
Can you imagine, you spend all this money, time and effort, not to mention the disruption to your life while the work is carried out, you get a beautiful bathroom you can enjoy using and even show off to your visiting friends and family, and then you find out that water is leaking downstairs below the bathroom or into the bedroom behind the bathroom wall for example.
This is the stuff that nightmares are made of, so please if you don’t take any of my writing here seriously but heed my warning about not trying to save money on bathroom waterproofing and take care to do this part correctly then you will save yourself a small fortune by not doubling the cost of remodeling a bathroom by having to rip out parts or all your brand new bathroom to redo the waterproofing membrane.
Tiling
I have done a lot of tiling over the years, including a complete floor and wall to ceiling bathroom tiling, patio and balcony tiling and so on and let me tell you it’s hard work and you need to know what you are doing.
I can proudly say however, that the bathroom tiling I’ve done people liked very much.
The reason for that is I think is in the details. I have put a lot of thought into choosing the right type of tile, color, size, borders trims etc even before starting to do the work itself. I’ve also made sure that all the floor tile joints line up with the wall tile joints, using spacers to get that even smart look, polished aluminum trims and everything in level and plumb to name a few important things.
Grouting also is important in that attention to detail look.
A home my wife and I sold 2 years ago, sold for a record price in that suburb, and it wasn’t only because of the location which is always important of course.
I did all the work myself except, the plumbing and electrical, and I did a complete bathroom rebuild and all the tiling myself.
When the real estate sold our place, he mentioned how the couple who left the full deposit to buy our home, said that they really liked the fact that the bathroom, kitchen and the rest were all new.
I told the real estate guy that I thought that he knew that I done the work about 10 years ago.
He was a bit embarrassed, my wife was laughing and I felt very proud.
To cut the story short, generally, but especially when it comes to tiling detailing and attention to detail is very important. It is not enough to buy expensive and good quality tiles if the tiling work is ordinary and not much thought is put into it.
Attention to detail could make or break your bathroom remodeling so please put some thought into it. I am not a specialist tiler by the way, and I wouldn’t make much money doing it because I am slow and too much of a perfectionist, not to mention that I don’t like to be on my hands and knees either.
When I do a bathroom remodeling, I will generally leave the tiling to a tiling specialist but I will never let a tiler do the waterproofing.
Knowing so much about what not to do and the waterproofing nightmares with bathrooms I prefer to do that part myself for a peace of mind.
I have put together a detailed breakdown of a cost of remodeling a bathroom for one of my bathroom rebuild jobs I’ve done which might help you to understand what you are in for with your project. Click here to view page.
The cost of remodeling a bathroom can be anywhere as low as a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars at the other end.
It all depend s on some of the points I’ve raised above.