Bathroom Reno Questions

[sb]

I think several folks here have recently done bathroom renovations.  We are starting the process for our primary bath and have some questions.

Our bathroom is small (I think around 8x8) but the scope is pretty comprehensive because the layout sucks.
-moving plumbing and electrical
-all new tile
-removing interior transom/window thing
-new vanity, tub, toilet all new plumbing and lighting fixtures.  We currently have a standard tub/shower and want to squeeze in a soaker tub.  I don't care if it's still a tub/shower I just need it to be bigger.
-if it helps with the layout and is in the budget, removing a window (there are two large windows in there)

So my main questions:

If you've done a full bathroom reno, what was your budget?
Did you work with a design and build firm?  A separate designer and GC?
If you worked with a designer or a firm, did you feel your choices were limited for materials like tile and lighting?

That last question is a pretty big one for me because I am picky and my taste is a little outside the norm.

[aspentosh]

We just had our main bathroom redone last year. It wasn't very big (5x7 I think?) but we took over the neighboring makeup area and also tore out our closet and had it reframed/drywalled. There was plumbing work (switching from tub to linear shower drain, moving toilet, adding extra sink), electrical (tons of new lights, new exhaust fan), movement of an exterior window siding patching, newly built out shower with custom shelving etc.

When all was said and done, labor was around $14k for it all. This doesn't include materials (another $10k or so).
We worked with our contractor, but we knew what we wanted to do so we threw it out there and made sure it was doable. They had contracts with places that sold tile and vanities and stuff but we didn't utilize it because it was going to be much more expensive (even with the discount) than going to a place like Floor and Decor or Home Depot.

[Susie]

Feb 16, 2022 12:22:21 GMT -5 sb said:

So my main questions:

If you've done a full bathroom reno, what was your budget?  $15,000 (we went over; it came in around $18,000)
Did you work with a design and build firm?  A separate designer and GC?  a kitchen & bath designer, who connected us with a GC to do the install
If you worked with a designer or a firm, did you feel your choices were limited for materials like tile and lighting?  No.  We bought the custom cabinets, sinks, counter, toilet, tub, faucets, towel bars/hooks, etc. from them, but we bought lighting and tile from independent retailers.

That last question is a pretty big one for me because I am picky and my taste is a little outside the norm.

This was for a bathroom that I think was about 9x9 in our last house.  It involved moving the toilet across the room, moving forced air ducts to accommodate the plumbing changes, moving the tub/shower, removing a linen closet, converting single sink to double sink, teardown to the studs, and complete renovation.

The reno was done in 2018, before we decided in 2021 to sell the house.  There are a lot of things I'd have done less expensively/differently if I knew then that we were not staying.  But, hindsight is 20/20.

Before:


After:
 

[audry80]

We added a whole bathroom so I can't answer you first questions but we worked with a designer from a design and build firm and we had full control over lighting and tile. We were so picky about our floor tile, it took us months to pick out.

[definitelyO]

We did a full bathroom reno about 6 years ago - all in cost $14,000.

we went from pedestal sink, toilet, tub/shower to knocking out a wall and taking over a hall closet and we have all new walls, vanity, toilet, walk in shower. pulled electrical for shower lighting and moved plumbing (same wall - just a few feet over)

We worked with a GC that did all the work himself. I had a general idea of what I wanted and did a lot of online looking and did all the design and picked out all tile/colors myself.

(I am in the process of a kitchen reno and have hired interior designers to help with that project for a lot of reasons)

[dove]

If you've done a full bathroom reno, what was your budget? $20000
Did you work with a design and build firm? A separate designer and GC? I designed it completely myself and had a GC execute
If you worked with a designer or a firm, did you feel your choices were limited for materials like tile and lighting? N/A
Other: we completely gutted and flipped the layout, moving water lines and structural stuff. 

Attachments:

[KellyEasterbrook]

Feb 16, 2022 12:52:33 GMT -5 Susie said:

Feb 16, 2022 12:22:21 GMT -5 sb said:

So my main questions:

If you've done a full bathroom reno, what was your budget?  $15,000 (we went over; it came in around $18,000)
Did you work with a design and build firm?  A separate designer and GC?  a kitchen & bath designer, who connected us with a GC to do the install
If you worked with a designer or a firm, did you feel your choices were limited for materials like tile and lighting?  No.  We bought the custom cabinets, sinks, counter, toilet, tub, faucets, towel bars/hooks, etc. from them, but we bought lighting and tile from independent retailers.

That last question is a pretty big one for me because I am picky and my taste is a little outside the norm.

This was for a bathroom that I think was about 9x9 in our last house.  It involved moving the toilet across the room, moving forced air ducts to accommodate the plumbing changes, moving the tub/shower, removing a linen closet, converting single sink to double sink, teardown to the studs, and complete renovation.

The reno was done in 2018, before we decided in 2021 to sell the house.  There are a lot of things I'd have done less expensively/differently if I knew then that we were not staying.  But, hindsight is 20/20.

Before:


After:
 

Susie—the bathroom turned out so nicely. May I ask what you might have done differently if you had known you’d be moving soon? I’m debating about redoing one or both of our bathrooms. We don’t know if we’ll be in this house for three more months or ten years. The bathrooms are in super rough shape, though. I’m not sure how much longer I can stand them. Similar houses are now selling for almost double what we paid, so while I know we’d make the money back when selling, I think I’d still rather reign myself in a bit cost-wise.

[sandandsea]

We redid our master bathroom in 2018 (I think). It is larger but we didn’t move stuff around. The only plumbing change was that we took out a jacuzzi tub and converted it to a second shower. We added outlets too so had to run more electricity.

Our hoped for budget was $35-40 and we spent $50-55. Mostly because the $35-40 was unrealistic. We chose a little more expensive tile because we loved it and did custom cabinets so they fit the space and chose a quartz countertop. The stupid door (arched custom wood door) cost $2k which was way more than we expected but totally worth it as there wasn’t a door previously. The frameless shower door was also a large expense as it’s about 7 ft wide and another $2k. Our closet is connected to our bathroom so we retiled it as well. We didn’t use a designer and chose the design and products ourselves. We love how it turned out.

For our landscaping project we hired a designer and the whole custom design with endless edits (front and back and side yards) was $7500ish.


ETA. We live in a VHCOL area.

[Susie]

Feb 16, 2022 18:18:02 GMT -5 KellyEasterbrook said:

Susie—the bathroom turned out so nicely. May I ask what you might have done differently if you had known you’d be moving soon? I’m debating about redoing one or both of our bathrooms. We don’t know if we’ll be in this house for three more months or ten years. The bathrooms are in super rough shape, though. I’m not sure how much longer I can stand them. Similar houses are now selling for almost double what we paid, so while I know we’d make the money back when selling, I think I’d still rather reign myself in a bit cost-wise.

Thank you!  It was definitely one of our biggest splurges in the 13 years we owned that house, and I put a ton of effort into all the decisions.

If I knew we were moving, I would have been a little less choosy with materials.  We chose cherry cabinets, quartz counters, the floor was a marble basket weave, a Kohler cast iron tub, higher end shower valve and head, and the shower niche had penny round to match the strip on the backplash, plus a shelf made of quartz to match the counter.  I really liked it, but we could've done a common, neutral granite, a less expensive wood species, a large format porcelain tile floor, an acrylic tub, more basic shower plumbing, and saved a bunch of money.  I think the less expensive materials would have marketed just as well. 

I probably also wouldn't have done the aqua in the accent tile/counter, even though I loved it.  We didn't get any negative feedback about it from our showings, and the house sold fast, but it was not the most neutral option, and I'm sure some buyers didn't like it as much as I did.

The other area that we spent more than we had to just for a bathroom update was the layout changes.  I'm less confident about what I'd have done with hindsight on that.  It was the only full bath in the house (4 beds / 1.5 baths) so the congestion at the door was terrible.  So much of the time, more than one person at a time was using the bath -- either somebody at the sink while somebody else was showering, or two people at sinks, etc.  That drove a lot of our decisions.  It's still the only full bath, and we sold to a family of 3, so presumably they're getting the benefit of the layout changes.  The market shot up between 2018 and 2021, so who really knows whether we "got our money back" on the choices we made vs. other options.  But in general I think layout changes don't have the same ROI.

[SusanBAnthony]

We are about to start so no pics. We are working with a remodeling company. Sort of a tiny GC who does the carpentry himself and hires out subs for plumbing/electric.

It is down to no studs and build walls and jackhammer the basement floor.

Contractor is charging 19k for all the construction and all the basic materials like drywall. We provide fixtures (shower stall, cabinet, toilet, etc). I actually love this because I have eclectic taste and I like choosing stuff myself. I didn't want the current grey/white/maybe navy trend.

It originally started low budget but the cost of contracting has gone through the roof.

MCOL city.

[mlkgls]

My main bathroom remodel is scheduled to start in 3mo and I am hoping and crossing all my fingers that we can finish for around $25k. I know what my contract price is, but it doesn’t include tile, tub, or fixtures. I chose a smaller, family owned remodeling company, but one of my bids was from a larger company with an internal design team and it was considerably higher (50%) than the others. I think we would be considered MCOL.

[orval]

We did our master in 2020. Spent around $18k. Included new shower down to studs with tile/glass enclosure/doors, tile floors, soaker tub, new light fixtures, mirrors, knobs,  paint. we did not change vanities, sinks/faucets, toilet, towel bars.
I purchased and picked out all tile/grout-Floor and Decor, tub/faucet-Amazon, lights/mirrors - Wayfair/Overstock.
Our bathroom is large so we needed a ton of tile/labor.

[simpsongal]

We went pretty high end w/finishes, so our costs were high from that. Hard to say our budget for just the bathroom since we worked on other spaces, but probably $35K? (ETA: we spent about $24K on materials)

It doesn't sound like you're going in the high end direction. Just shop early. E.g., I paid well over double for our window b/c of supply chain ($2500). And our fixtures were about $5K, b/c I wanted polished nickel but Delta was backordered forever, so we had to buy their higher end line. We also used a reasonably-priced marble. But all those finishing pieces add up. I think tile material costs were like $8-9K for our 10x10 bathroom. What you tile makes a different too - e.g., we did halfway up the wall and behind the vanity, which is a lot of tile and each chair rail piece at the top was $20 for a 12" run. The tub surround w/mitered edge was like $2500 (quartz), so even though the tub itself was only $850, the tub ended up costing more than most freestandings b/c of the surround. shower glass was $1800. Ka-ching, Ka- ching, Ka ching.

ETA: I forgot, I designed and planned everything. Definitely more legwork, but a design build in northern virginia seriously would have charged $100K for our bathroom.

[SusanBAnthony]

Also, we got two quotes from bigger design/build contractors and they both quoted 40-45k for a mid range bathroom. So you pay a ton more if you want someone to do everything.

[sb]

Thanks so much for all the info. I still have no idea what we should do but having info helps!

[sadie]

We just redid two full baths. We kept the tubs and toilets, but replaced everything else. I think we paid 10-11k total, half of which was labor. Our contractor was a friend who just went out on his own instead of working for a larger company, so I'm sure we got a good deal. I used a rep at a tile place to pick out shower and floor tile, but picked everything else out myself.

[definitelyO]

so - this question does/does not apply to this thread - but how do I access via an app and then upload pictures. I'm happy to share before/afters but you know - like I'm 5

[sb]

Just as an update, we met with a design and build firm and their ballpark was $40-50k. So...not great?

I really loved the designers so we're going to have them do the design package and then bid it out to GCs. And then maybe GC it ourselves depending on that cost.

[ellipses84]

Feb 17, 2022 23:33:30 GMT -5 definitelyO said:

so - this question does/does not apply to this thread - but how do I access via an app and then upload pictures. I'm happy to share before/afters but you know - like I'm 5

Are you using Tapatalk? I still have the really old app but when I reply there’s a little picture icon with mountains and a moon and I click on that. Sometimes there’s a little delay and a pop up to access photos and I have to click on them twice to get from my camera roll, and insert into the post. I can only select one at a time with the free app version. Sometimes it’s glitchy and will let me see old pics I’ve posted here and not select new ones.

[aspentosh]

Mar 4, 2022 9:45:40 GMT -5 sb said:

Just as an update, we met with a design and build firm and their ballpark was $40-50k. So...not great?

I really loved the designers so we're going to have them do the design package and then bid it out to GCs. And then maybe GC it ourselves depending on that cost.

I wonder if this is a combo of overworked contractors, high material costs, and then a larger job. 

Could you do the purchasing of materials to cut down on that pricing? Does the quote include certain tile that you might be able to find elsewhere for cheaper? Same with toilets, vanities, etc.

[Pilsy]

I'm late to the party, but we redid two bathrooms back in 2013, and I think each was around $20K then. I would probably anticipate $30K for the same projects today, which makes me want to weep, because I really need to do something with my kitchen.

[SusanBAnthony]

Mar 4, 2022 16:29:44 GMT -5 Pilsy said:

I'm late to the party, but we redid two bathrooms back in 2013, and I think each was around $20K then. I would probably anticipate $30K for the same projects today, which makes me want to weep, because I really need to do something with my kitchen.

Maybe we need a whole separate kitchen thread but my neighbor got quotes 60k for a small and low to medium end kitchen Reno in MCOL.....ouch. they are rethinking but OTOH prices seem to keep going up with no end in sight.

[dancingirl21]

Mar 5, 2022 7:42:48 GMT -5 SusanBAnthony said:

Mar 4, 2022 16:29:44 GMT -5 Pilsy said:

I'm late to the party, but we redid two bathrooms back in 2013, and I think each was around $20K then. I would probably anticipate $30K for the same projects today, which makes me want to weep, because I really need to do something with my kitchen.

Maybe we need a whole separate kitchen thread but my neighbor got quotes 60k for a small and low to medium end kitchen Reno in MCOL.....ouch. they are rethinking but OTOH prices seem to keep going up with no end in sight.

I would say, unfortunately, those numbers are probably pretty accurate.

My DH is a GC. He manages the building of huge residential condos/apartments, and offices. He GC’d our kitchen reno and used all of his own guys who do amazing work on high end condos. Obviously we didn’t pay ourselves any GC fee. I designed the whole thing. We paid right at about $45k. We did all the demo ourselves. We did do custom cabinets from a local cabinetry maker and our appliances were GE Profile, so not the highest end. But add a GC and design fee to that and the number would go up dramatically.

[sb]

Mar 4, 2022 16:13:47 GMT -5 aspentosh said:

Mar 4, 2022 9:45:40 GMT -5 sb said:

Just as an update, we met with a design and build firm and their ballpark was $40-50k. So...not great?

I really loved the designers so we're going to have them do the design package and then bid it out to GCs. And then maybe GC it ourselves depending on that cost.

I wonder if this is a combo of overworked contractors, high material costs, and then a larger job. 

Could you do the purchasing of materials to cut down on that pricing? Does the quote include certain tile that you might be able to find elsewhere for cheaper? Same with toilets, vanities, etc.

The next step is to meet with them to see an actual design with material selections, etc.  So I'll have a much better idea of that in two weeks.  But my gut is yes, if we take their design, buy the materials, and either sub things out or work with a GC then it will be cheaper.