Bathroom reno surprise cost woes

[krystee]

We are in the midst of our very first remodeling project. Demo was just completed. And $11K of additional work was found in surprises. Mold, a weak and caving in subfloor, electric boxes inside of the shower (?!), insulation on terrible shape, pipes that aren’t in code, and a million other things. The issues are all real, and I can see them. The cost of them is just shocking. This is a pretty small bathroom (36” vanity, toilet, shower but no tub), and I think we’re going to spend $31K all in with the contractor and all fixtures/decor (includes moving a vent and removing a soffit ans taking the ceiling up). Is that extremely crazy or relatively in line for a gut remodel?

I thought we’d tackle the kitchen next, but I’ve decided that we will do cosmetic updates only!

I will post a picture when we’re finally done!

[ewall]

$11k seems excessive overage for what you are describing. Did they give you an itemized breakdown of costs?

[Susie]

Even with all that, $31k sounds pretty high to me, especially since it sounds like you're talking about a stock/standard size vanity, no tub, and relatively small quantities of materials.  Granted it was 2018, but we spent $18k on a 9x9' full bath reno in our last house, with custom cabinets, cast iron tub, moving plumbing, moving ductwork, and doing some remediation work for water damage.

I agree with ewall, the issues may be real, but I would want to see a breakdown of costs before signing off.

[simpsongal]

How big is the bathroom? Do you have some of this priced out? It would be easier to gauge the reasonableness if we knew some of the line item costs.

FWIW, my 10x10 master bath reno, which I've post on here, was like $36-40K (a little hard to tell b/c we had other work done). About $20K of that was the materials and fixtures (marble tile, quartz surround, polished nickel fixtures, heated floor). We also had to redo and move all the plumbing, move a wall, rerun the 2nd floor electrical, reinforce the joists in the floor (tearing down the floor below) and all new subfloor, install a new larger window, etc.

[orval]

It does seem steep for the new issues. I would also ask for a breakdown. What was included in your intital quote? When we had our shower redone, they found mold but cut it out and placed new 2x4's - cost and time were minimal. Also required new insulation. The shower subfloor was included in initial quote. I think it was less than $1k for the extra time and materials in 2020.

[k3am]

Are you in a VHCOL area? I've found that costs that seem excessive to the board are right on par in our part of the country. It's really hard to get a true comparison of what costs are reasonable and what aren't.

FWIW, after our disasterous bathroom remodel, I swore off any other big projects. It's been 2 years, and I'm mentally ready for the kitchen remodel now.

[krystee]

I am in Chicago. The itemization is a little high level (like electrical, with 3 bullets, mold remediation, with three bullets, etc. I pushed back a little, but we are kind of stuck because the bathroom is gutted and we need to continue.

The room is about 8x9, and the fixtures/vanity/mirror/shelving/glass shower door:etc will be $7K, $1,700 is architect, $250 for permits and the rest is the labor/hard material costs. Demo alone took 3.5 days because the entire room was tiled (blech) and the previous owners used liquid nail to install the tiles, so it took an eternity to get them off the wall and scrape it all off the wood.

[mlkgls]

Do you have an itemized breakdown of what added the additional 11k? It sounds a little high, but it’s hard to know really. My bathroom reno is finishing up this week and I think any and all renovations are $$$ right now. My contractor gave me a detailed breakdown for any change orders though. 

[zarapipe]

Why do you need an architect?
3 days for demo sounds insane!! My husband is a contractor and demo is the easiest part- liquid nails included. Our bathrooms were all demoed in a few hours- tile, vanity, toilet, and tubs removed. If the tile was on so bad they would have probably just taken off the dry wall and done new drywall.

[definitelyO]

I am so sorry!!

it took almost 5 days for my bathroom demo... so I feel ya there. there were 2 subfloors - glued and then screwed together. part of the floor was cement on top of a partial subfloor they had to jackhammer out, etc...

[dancingirl21]

Jun 16, 2022 20:31:40 GMT -5 zarapipe said:

Why do you need an architect?
3 days for demo sounds insane!! My husband is a contractor and demo is the easiest part- liquid nails included. Our bathrooms were all demoed in a few hours- tile, vanity, toilet, and tubs removed. If the tile was on so bad they would have probably just taken off the dry wall and done new drywall.

I agree with this! My DH is also a GC and he does all the demo on our projects. He got the kitchen demo done in under 3 days….

Why didn’t they just rip down drywall to the studs and start with new drywall? Obviously it’s too late to do anything about that now but I question if they are taking you for a ride.

We are also in Chicago and DH manages the build of high rises but I told him about this and his response was “holy shit. That’s a ton of money for those issues”.

Sorry you’re in this position