By Lance McCarthy
Bathroom remodeling – bathing in style…
The bathroom. A lot happens in this little room. Teeth are brushed, hands are washed, bubbles and rose petals are applied, beauty is created… A great bathroom can have a huge impact on how well your day goes.
How much does a bathroom cost?
The #1 question we get from people is the ever popular…wait for it…”How much is a bathroom?”
Check out our budget brackets below to get some generic rule of thumb cost ranges.
Budget Brackets
Level 1: The Facelift $10-25k
New “surfaces” and fixtures, but no change in floor plan.
- New tub/shower walls and door
- New hardware and mirror
- New countertops
- Painting cabinets
- New flooring
- New light fixtures
- New paint
Level 2: Full replacement $20-40k
Everything is replaced, and some floor plan changes happen
- New tub/shower
- New vanity/countertop
- New sinks and faucets
- New heated tile floor
- All new surfaces
- Reconfiguring space
Level 3: Full Custom $30-70k+
Everything is replaced and completely redesigned
- Improved floor plan
- New walls
- Custom cabinet/countertop
- Custom closet system
- Walk-in shower
- Custom lighting features
Of course each bathroom (and client) is unique, and a personalized budget will be developed for your project during a collaborative design process.
Some of our favorite bathroom finish products and design elements:
- Heated floor- no one ever regrets this one
- Free standing tub – corner jacuzzis out; free standing tubs in
- Walk-in shower- glass doors are so 2014
- Frameless glass shower surrounds-ok, so frameless glass is still pretty cool
- Shower faucet options- handshowers and jets and rainheads, oh my!
- Bidet-once you go bidet, you never go back
Pitfalls to avoid:
- DIY nightmare That Home Depot commercial makes it seem so easy. We get a lot of calls from people who discover there is more to a basement remodel than 30 seconds of an exciting song and Josh Lucas’s sexy voice. If this is something you are considering, call me in and I can help walk you through the pitfalls beforehand.
- Too cheap to be true We find a lot of advertisements out there for cheap bathrooms that trap a lot of people who just don’t know any different. Bathrooms are probably the room in the house where the difference between quality to shoddy is most obvious.
- Tricky tile The most important part of tile is what is underneath it. On a floor, if the base moves at all, the tile will eventually crack and fall out. In a shower, if the base is not perfectly waterproof, the shower will eventually leak. Both are big time bad news.
- Ancient pipes On a quick switch out, it is tempting to leave the existing shutoffs and ignore the pipes in the wall. A new $5 shutoff is a lot cheaper than replacing the ceiling below. Think on it.
- Spacing There are important spacing guidelines when planning where a toilet will go near a wall or vanity, or how close a shower is to a door. These are easy to solve on paper, hard to solve once everything is installed.