Bathroom Remodeling Sticker Shock

Razzierb

Razzierb

Joined
Jun 26, 2003
Messages
1,286
Holy Moly ... :eek: I've been getting some estimates on redoing a bathroom. It's a real pit, so everything has to go including the tub. For a new tile floor, tub, tiling around the tub, toilet, cabinet, sink .... etc ...etc.. , I'm getting estimates coming in around $10K .. :eek: :grumpy:

Anybody else had recent experience with what it costs to remodel a small bathroom? I'm still trying to pick myself back off the floor after seeing the estimates I've gotten.

Razz
 
10 K bullshiit I had it done for $3500 done in a week...They are phucking you on labor and materials..go price out materials at home depot...guess on drywall and flooring but shiiit how much can a crapper and a sink cost..comeon...and the plumbing does not really need a plumber to do right..you can hook that stuff up yourself or ask a handyman to help you...
 
For 10k I'd want solid gold faucets, none of that cheesy gold-filled, and Florentine marble tub, sink, and toilet -- don't give me any of that domestic marble, it has to be shipped in from Florence, Italy -- air-mail -- and as for the ceiling, I know we can't get Michaelangelo to paint it but let's try to find somebody just as good ...
 
In 2000 I had my small bathroom gutted and all new sink, toilet, tub, medicine cabinet, lights, ventilation fan, wall, floor & ceiling tile over shower area and glass block window installed. Cost: $8250. This included re-enforcing the floor... they dragged so much plywood & 2x4's into that bathroom... I thought they were building a new house! :eek:
 
Bathrooms can run pretty pricy. I can see $10g possible if the work is extensive such as removing old plaster walls, ceramic tile mud job floor etc.
Can you give more details on the true extent of the work? Start wanting this, this and that and you can pass right by 10.
 
We just redid a small bathroom for under $2500. This included all new fixtures, floor, wall, and ceiling repair, some plumbing beyond the standard fixture install, and some electrical work. We did the painting and laid vinyl tile. We bought all the fixtures and hired the plumber/electrician and the carpenter for the woodwork. It's not fancy, but it's pretty nice and much better than it was.

Keep in mind these are small town Texas prices.

Jack
 
Seriously consirer the way donovan did his if possible. You might be able to start shaving down that 10g price some. It also coud make the difference in the fixture you really like over the less expensive one.
Remodeling (for me) would get less and less fun the more I had to "settle" on the other less expensive model to squeeze a few bucks back into the budget.
Sure is fun looking at the awesome fixtures they've come out with lately
hey. And the tile aah them beautiful tile. You like magic? Want to see how fast I can make 10g disappear?
Good luck with the project.
 
I had my bathroom gutted and redone in 2004.

Cost was $8500

Yup, it's expensive to do bathrooms......................
 
I did one of mine about six yearsd ago.

Gutted it down to nothing; no floor, walls, ceiling, ect. Even replaced the door.

I rewired it myself, repaired the plumbing myself, hung sheetrock with help from a couple of buddies,& mud & taped the rock myself.

I replaced all of the fixtures, including the tub, and installed a nice tub enclosure, and laid a very heavy duty linoleum floor.

I spent just over 2500.00.
 
I had my backyard landscaped this summer. They tore out everything except two trees and a honeysuckle bush that seemed nice.

The total bill was just over 16K$. So, 10K$ for a bathroom seems quite reasonable.

Anytime you touch plumbing it's expensive. Tilework is expensive (but something you can actually do yourself). Electrical is expensive too. Cabinetry is expensive. Bathrooms are typically small but complicated rooms with lots of cabinets and fixtures so even the drywall work is labor-intensive. Basically, you're bringing in plumbers, electricians, tile workers, finish carpenters, etc., all the most expensive tradesmen, and you're asking the framers and drywall hangers to do a lot of detailed work. Plus you're buying plumbing fixtures and cabinets. It's all expensive. 10K$ sounds quite minimal to me.

On the other hand, remodeling an outdated bathroom is one of the few remodeling projects you can do to a house which will actually add to the resale value of the house and which might even pay for itself if you sell the place. So, if you're gonna blow 10K$ on your house, remodeling a bath is a good place to do it.

Consider a steam shower. That would add several thousand dollars to your price tag, but they've got excellent resale value.
 
After I posted this, I cruised some of the remodeling forums. I found a couple of good ones, but the gist of what I saw looks like the prices I'm seeing are somewhere in the middle of what people are paying for similar work. There was one thread where somebody was redoing a 50's bathroom and the bill was 17,500 + materials ... :eek: Seems the floor tile in bathrooms of that era is set in nearly 5 inches of some sort of grout / concrete and it's hell to take up. Another thing that sort of kept coming up is that where you live influences price. Big cities seem to bring bigger prices.

In terms of what's included in this project, it's everything but the ceiling and non-tub walls:

1. Remove the old tile floor & tub tiling
2. Remove old tub, toilet, sink, lights, vanity & all wall attachments
3. Rip out the green board around the tub
4. R&R the floor as needed for damaged wood, etc
5. New tile floor
6. Wonder board (or whatever it's called these days) around the shower
7. Tile to the ceiling around the tub
8. New Tub
9. Install new tub / shower door
10. New toilet
11. New vanity
12. Corien sink / vanity top combo
13. New quiet vent fan
14. New lights & install
15. New towel & other attachments
16. New mirror and some sort of surround
17. All new sink & shower plumbing fixtures
18. Drywall mudding as required for paint prep
19. Tile trim around base of bathroom wall

I still feel like the price is a little high for all this, but based on what I read last night, it's right in there. The low for full bathroom redo's where you employ a GC is around $8K and it just goes up from there. Some people go crazy with this sort of work. Get into fancy tile, fancy tubs and other upgrades and you can boost the price above $20-30K real quick.

This has been a real education for me. I honestly expected the numbers to come in around the $6-8k range, but it just "ain't" that way. I'm pretty handy and would be comfortable doing everything but the tub, but I work 50+ hours a week. I dunno, I've got to think about this, but I may have to bite the bullet. The current condition of the bathroom is not good, so I've got to do something.

Razz
 
Pity you western countries. Back home in Malaysia USD$10k will get you a super bathroom. Heheheh. My house in Malaysia has had every single bathroom and every single room remodelled since my dad bought it in 82 i think. I can't even remember what it looked like when we moved in. It's just bad memories of renovations all the time. The worst was when they laid the marble flooring. My dad's contractor pieced out a single block of marble so everything was consistent but the work done made it hard to live in the house. we were walking on cement flooring for weeks. The dust and all. Damn...

The pool was another big project. That was downright nasty. Tractors and small cranes in front of the house. I hate renovations. Took 3 whole days to fill up the bloody thing. Just so happen big renovations were always timed in the year i had my big exams.

I think if price were dollar for dollar with the Malaysian ringgit $10k for a bathroom remodelling is just right. You need plumbers, maybe electricians, and all the most specialised tradesmen. A man i know bought a flat in London. I think it probably cost him close to £1million to buy the flat. He's rich but thrifty so he actually brought in 2 guys from malaysia to save on labour to fix up the flat. So he got these 2 chinese dudes living with him to do up the flat.
 
I spent almost 15K on mine this summer. However, we didn't have water upstairs so the plumber had to run new pipes, etc. So 10k don't sound out of the question. I spent 2K just on the shower fixtures and crapper :eek:

We redid the one downstairs for less than 8, and that included everything except the toilet. (Built in counters, vanity, sink, whirlpool tub, tiled floor, etc)

Yeah, stuff is expensive. I had planned on 25K for my renovations, they came to 40K :grumpy: Thats half what I paid for the house in the first place 10 years ago :mad:
 
Working 50 hours a week... I redid my bathroom a couple years back for under a grand... As a single male it was easy to work around the tear out stages and do it over a few weeks. I did have a utility shower in the basement. I got a new tub/surrond and faucets. I repainted a recycled vanity and used a recently replaced toilet. If you can take the time and do your bathroom business in untraditional ways here and there around clutter you should be able to do it for quite a bit less. Price the main pieces such as the toilet/bathtub/surrond,floor sink etc... then add for plumbing etc. depending on the cost of that stuff the labor may just be something you would be willing to pay for. Not everyone will do it on the cheasp as I did,
 
It has always bemused me that the one room that has by far the greatest likelihood of water on the floor, walls, etc. is also the one in which we try to place the most linear feet of joints that must be made watertight. Maybe I am just too utilitarian, but if I ever redo ours, we are going with fiberglass shower stalls, solid linoleoum on the floors, etc. Almost all of this I know I can do myself, because I did it in a previous house where an English Bulldog puppy had demolished the bathroom.
 
MikeH said:
It has always bemused me that the one room that has by far the greatest likelihood of water on the floor, walls, etc. is also the one in which we try to place the most linear feet of joints that must be made watertight. Maybe I am just too utilitarian, but if I ever redo ours, we are going with fiberglass shower stalls, solid linoleoum on the floors, etc. Almost all of this I know I can do myself, because I did it in a previous house where an English Bulldog puppy had demolished the bathroom.
Click to expand...


Did you ever see the Home Improvement show where Tim Allen built the "dream" bathroom for men? It was all stainless steel, with a concrete floor with a drain in the middle, with a big hose for spraying everything down. I've often wondered why there aren't really bathrooms like that!
 
I just went through the contractor bid war and I got prices from 5000 to 7200 dollars. Its a small bathroom in a townhouse in the Washington D.C. metro area. Around 6-7 thousand was the norm for a total tear out and do it all over again. New tile, new tile floor, new vanity, new tub, new plumbing fixtures. The house is 25 years old and the original builder stuff is falling apart and causing water leak problems.

Hell, the kitchen is going to be about 10K!
 
Shann said:
Did you ever see the Home Improvement show where Tim Allen built the "dream" bathroom for men? It was all stainless steel, with a concrete floor with a drain in the middle, with a big hose for spraying everything down. I've often wondered why there aren't really bathrooms like that!
Click to expand...

I remember that episode. The commode was a "lazy-bowl" recliner. :p

I just got an estimate for mine: $6900: $4300 labor, $2300 materials.

Next is the estimate for replacing the galvanized pipes with copper (I'm figuring about 4k for that,) and a tankless gas waterheater. Total project should be about $13k.
 
Point44 said:
...

I think if price were dollar for dollar with the Malaysian ringgit $10k for a bathroom remodelling is just right. You need plumbers, maybe electricians, and all the most specialised tradesmen. A man i know bought a flat in London. I think it probably cost him close to £1million to buy the flat. He's rich but thrifty so he actually brought in 2 guys from malaysia to save on labour to fix up the flat. So he got these 2 chinese dudes living with him to do up the flat.
Click to expand...


Sounds like a movie I saw once. Pretty good, too.
 
Folks, please keep in mind that this is the Community Center, and nor Whine and Cheese, or The Cove.

Please keep the language PG.

Thanks. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top