Bathroom Remodel Please Help

amother

Bronze

Mon, Jul 27 2020, 12:36 pm

I'm in NJ and recently redid our bathrooms. We were on a real budget and these are some pricing ideas...
Toilet-for the master we did a to for $400. The others we went with a cheaper but still decent in the $250 range. Bathtub we did call at iron- that was important to me- for #600. Faucet for vanity and shower/tub was $150 range. I did little better quality than plain builders grade. Vanity was from Wayfair. I chose solid wood so that was a little pricier but still kept at lower cost of about $400. Tile I did 2.50 a sq ft. The only expensive thing was the tile installation. Can't say cost cu it was the whole house cost t.g. I'd say it was closer to 5k with all the plumbing install and tiling. No where near 10k like someone said above...good luck!

asmileaday

Mon, Jul 27 2020, 12:45 pm

amother [ Dodgerblue ] wrote:

A bathroom is the most expensive room to renovate - size really is irrelevant to a great extent because the major cost is the plumbing and electrical work.

The cost of materials - unless one has an extremely large bathroom - is not the major factor. It is the cost of skilled labor. And I stress SKILLED labor because there is so much that can go wrong when someone doesn't have the skill set to properly waterproof, set tiles, do electrical work. If you don't believe me, go on houzz.com and read threads about people who had the misfortune to hire a GC who didn't do work properly.

As others have posted, before you do a thing, google bathrooms and look at those for inspiration. Save whatever pictures you find attractive and don't think too much about it. You will find yourself drawn to certain bathrooms and you can analyze what you like about those bathrooms.

The cost of a bathroom will depend on what you want the end result to look like.

Do you want a tiled shower or an prefab bath/shower type of installation? A tiled shower is more beautiful but more expensive because of increased labor as well as cost of materials.

I recently remodeled my bathrooms down to the studs and am very pleased by the result

I took out bath/shower tub and installed large tiled shower. Installed a bench at one end with a hand held shower head by the bench. Love the bench and don't miss the tub at all since no one took baths.

Install grab bars for safety even if you think you are limber. Anyone can slip in the bath or shower with horrendous results

Think about storage and maximize storage in your vanity. FWIW, I got rid of the second sink in my master bath because I got increased storage as well as increased counter. I don't spend that much time where I need to stand directly above a bathroom sink.

Electrical work will have to be brought up to Code if your bathroom is older.

There are lots of things that need to be purchased and installed in a bathroom - the plumbing fixtures - even less expensive but reliable brands like Delta or Moen add up. The towel holders; toilet paper holders; knobs and pulls; lighting; mirrors.

Do you want a frameless shower door - that's more expensive? Do you want glass that is treated so that hard water and soap scum so it's lower maintenance - that costs money

A nice toilet by a reliable brand like Toto costs money

Cheap tiles can be problematic because they aren't made well so you will most probably have lippage problems when they are installed.

Construction costs in New York City are typically higher because the cost of skilled labor is higher. And if you live in a condo, labor costs are even higher because the building will have restrictions which drive up labor costs. Even in single family homes, delivery and parking might make it more difficult and drive up labor costs.

Obviously there is a range of costs for a bathroom but based on my experience, the cost of a small to medium master bathroom renovation for a down to the studs remodel would be closer to $25,000. A "luxury" bathroom could be even higher.

Great detailed post with solid advice.
The only thing I disagree is the cost of 25k. I don't live in a world where I'd spend anything near that amount for a bathroom remodel!
I do feel that cost of materials play a big factor in price. Every item I've looked at can easily be purchased for triple or quadruple the price that I spent and often not even completely justified.

To each their own but it's good for Op to see how the options can vary greatly.

amother

Dodgerblue

Mon, Jul 27 2020, 3:58 pm

asmileaday wrote:

I did make some expensive choices but since my bathroom is relatively small, it wasn't the cost of materials per se that drove up the price - it was the cost of labor.

However $20,000 to $25,000 is the average cost of a bathroom model nationally because skilled labor is expensive and you really don't want to have a shower that wasn't built correctly. Where I am showers have to be inspected three times by the City in order to get approved to make sure they are constructed properly. That adds to the cost because the GC has to wait for the inspector to come and then deal with the inspector. And work is halted until the inspector shows up - and often they reschedule at last minute.

Also I wanted to upgrade my bathroom so I did make choices that were both functional and aesthetic. A shower curtain is less expensive than a shower door especially one that is frameless which is more expensive than framed. A fiberglass tub/shower insert is less expensive than having someone construct a tile shower but I hated the builder grade tub/shower insert that I was replacing.

Of course it is possible to do it less expensively but again I would suggest that you really learn about bathrooms so that you can determine whether cheap tiles are cheap because they are badly made or inexpensive because they ar a good deal for some reason.

Some items you can bargain shop for like sconces or even bathroom faucets. It's easy to replace a faucet for the sink. However, it is not smart to get cheap fixtures for the tub or shower because the cost of replacing valves for the tub and shower is expensive and often means that one has to get behind walls.

Similarly I wanted to maximize my storage and so I didn't use an off the shelf vanity cabinet because it wouldn't have used all possible space and I couldn't have configured everything exactly for my purposes.

That said, advice for anyone is to take time to decide what you want your bathroom to look like AND how you want it to function. Take the time to hire the most qualified contractor and ask for references and look at his work if possible. I went to two places that my GC was working on at the time.

I also researched how things were constructed in a general way - especially the shower - so that I would be able to ask intelligent questions. I took pictures of everything that was being done so that if something went wrong, I would have proof of how it was done. This was especially true for the shower because an improperly built shower is potentially catastrophic - besides leaking downstairs, a slow leak can cause mold and structural damage and it will cause more to repair than if it had been done properly.