Primary en-suite bathroom remodel

[Anonymous]

Our bathroom is roughly 8 x13ft, mostly old tile from the early 2000s. Has a tub, separate smaller shower, dual vanity, heated floors.

To totally gut this bathroom and remove the old tub and make it a larger walk in steam shower, what is a fairly reasonable range to expect? Mid level finishes, nothing crazy. I have 75k in my head but no idea if that is reasonable.

Also, for those that have done a bathroom reno, how long could this take?

[Anonymous]

Gutting our very small (5x8) full guest bathroom was 50k in 2023. We had to replace plumbing stacks though, which was a significant cost. Did a custom small vanity, custom glass shower wall/door, wallpaper, millwork. We didn’t do any expensive stone - just penny and subway tiles. We had a higher end contractor.

75k might be fine but it really depends on your finishes - tiles, counters, custom vanity/shelving, whether you need to replace plumbing etc, if you’re relocating any plumbing, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gutting our very small (5x8) full guest bathroom was 50k in 2023. We had to replace plumbing stacks though, which was a significant cost. Did a custom small vanity, custom glass shower wall/door, wallpaper, millwork. We didn’t do any expensive stone - just penny and subway tiles. We had a higher end contractor.

75k might be fine but it really depends on your finishes - tiles, counters, custom vanity/shelving, whether you need to replace plumbing etc, if you’re relocating any plumbing, etc.

Oh and timing wise it took about two months.

[Anonymous]

I think 75K would be a bit high. We are paying 30K for a reno of a slightly smaller bathroom than yours. However, we are using an individual instead of a large remodeling company, and are doing some of the work ourselves. He said it will take 2 weeks.

[Anonymous]

We did this a couple of years ago with other renovations and I agree that 75 sounds high. We just went with the heated floors and that was enough heat--did not spring for the steam shower. My one mistake (and contractors)': not noticing that there were no lower outlets in the space. When I vacuum or use a space heater it has to be plugged in over the counter.

[Anonymous]

It might depend partly on two things, which are difficult to know until one opens the walls. If one can update without opening any walls, these risks disappear.

Are there actual problems hiding inside the walls which will need to be fixed? Might be zero or might be extra work.

How much work will it be to bring that one room up to modern building code? Might be zero or might be extra work.

[Anonymous]

We did a gut renovation of a much larger bathroom including adding a sauna. Cost was around ~25k labor and 10k materials

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did a gut renovation of a much larger bathroom including adding a sauna. Cost was around ~25k labor and 10k materials

What type of firm did you use?

[Anonymous]

We did a larger bathroom 20x15 and it was $75K with a small company. No heated floors or steam shower, but we added a new tub for about $4000.

[Anonymous]

You are in the right price neighborhood.

Try not to move the toilet.

Depending upon how you handle design that could be extra plus permits so I’d call it 100k.

Significant range of finishes make ball parking tricky.

I do larger remodels so I don’t break out primary baths but the last one I was asked to bid had a budget of 60k and it felt low so i passed.

One off kitchens or baths always seem to take a long time to finish so I try to avoid them as I focus more on whole house remodels.

I also don’t know the finish level of your home.

As part of a whole house remodel I just completed four (4) secondary baths - two conversions from tubs to showers.

Typical 6x9 baths.

Full wall tile on all surfaces.

Custom stain grade vanities - my cost was about 7k per vanity.

Mid tier plumbing fixtures.

Full demo - no major plumbing moves.

My cost on each was 35-40k.

Was part of a Construction Management job at 20% - so client cost was likely 45k-50k.

Thankfully there was significant interior millwork because the bathrooms were a lot of work for not a lot of money.

If you are wanted a similar bath as a one off project I’d probably charge you at least 60k.

I did a primary suite last year as part of another whole house interior model - less tile work but bigger bath, separate freestanding tub, and no wall tiles but some custom built-ins. I didn’t do the numbers on that bath alone - the whole job was about 750k for a 4500 sq. ft. home - didn’t include the kitchen as that was a separate contract. That bath would likely be between 75k-100k.

Hard to be efficient at baths unless that’s your niche and you self perform.

I’d tell contractors 75k budget and plan on spending 100k. And I’d tell you 2-3 months.

Hope this was helpful.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are in the right price neighborhood.

Try not to move the toilet.

Depending upon how you handle design that could be extra plus permits so I’d call it 100k.

Significant range of finishes make ball parking tricky.

I do larger remodels so I don’t break out primary baths but the last one I was asked to bid had a budget of 60k and it felt low so i passed.

One off kitchens or baths always seem to take a long time to finish so I try to avoid them as I focus more on whole house remodels.

I also don’t know the finish level of your home.

As part of a whole house remodel I just completed four (4) secondary baths - two conversions from tubs to showers.

Typical 6x9 baths.

Full wall tile on all surfaces.

Custom stain grade vanities - my cost was about 7k per vanity.

Mid tier plumbing fixtures.

Full demo - no major plumbing moves.

My cost on each was 35-40k.

Was part of a Construction Management job at 20% - so client cost was likely 45k-50k.

Thankfully there was significant interior millwork because the bathrooms were a lot of work for not a lot of money.

If you are wanted a similar bath as a one off project I’d probably charge you at least 60k.

I did a primary suite last year as part of another whole house interior model - less tile work but bigger bath, separate freestanding tub, and no wall tiles but some custom built-ins. I didn’t do the numbers on that bath alone - the whole job was about 750k for a 4500 sq. ft. home - didn’t include the kitchen as that was a separate contract. That bath would likely be between 75k-100k.

Hard to be efficient at baths unless that’s your niche and you self perform.

I’d tell contractors 75k budget and plan on spending 100k. And I’d tell you 2-3 months.

Hope this was helpful.

Good luck.

Also you are going to need to run a dedicated 60 amp circuit for the steam shower if it’s not already steam so first factor in the feasibility of that and then the cost - I would conservatively figure 3-5k just for running that wire depending upon where you have electrical panels. You could be patching quite a bit of sheetrock and thats not a cheap wire and you’ll need room for it in your panel.

[Anonymous]

We did this last year for a slightly larger bathroom. We removed the tub, moved the shower to enlarge it and made it a steam shower, new floor, fixtures, etc. Total cost was significantly less than $75k, but we did this at the same time as a kitchen Reno so there were some economies of scale (subs were already here, etc.).

[Anonymous]

^ we also did a heated floor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did this last year for a slightly larger bathroom. We removed the tub, moved the shower to enlarge it and made it a steam shower, new floor, fixtures, etc. Total cost was significantly less than $75k, but we did this at the same time as a kitchen Reno so there were some economies of scale (subs were already here, etc.).

did you use a larger design build firm or piece it out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are in the right price neighborhood.

Try not to move the toilet.

Depending upon how you handle design that could be extra plus permits so I’d call it 100k.

Significant range of finishes make ball parking tricky.

I do larger remodels so I don’t break out primary baths but the last one I was asked to bid had a budget of 60k and it felt low so i passed.

One off kitchens or baths always seem to take a long time to finish so I try to avoid them as I focus more on whole house remodels.

I also don’t know the finish level of your home.

As part of a whole house remodel I just completed four (4) secondary baths - two conversions from tubs to showers.

Typical 6x9 baths.

Full wall tile on all surfaces.

Custom stain grade vanities - my cost was about 7k per vanity.

Mid tier plumbing fixtures.

Full demo - no major plumbing moves.

My cost on each was 35-40k.

Was part of a Construction Management job at 20% - so client cost was likely 45k-50k.

Thankfully there was significant interior millwork because the bathrooms were a lot of work for not a lot of money.

If you are wanted a similar bath as a one off project I’d probably charge you at least 60k.

I did a primary suite last year as part of another whole house interior model - less tile work but bigger bath, separate freestanding tub, and no wall tiles but some custom built-ins. I didn’t do the numbers on that bath alone - the whole job was about 750k for a 4500 sq. ft. home - didn’t include the kitchen as that was a separate contract. That bath would likely be between 75k-100k.

Hard to be efficient at baths unless that’s your niche and you self perform.

I’d tell contractors 75k budget and plan on spending 100k. And I’d tell you 2-3 months.

Hope this was helpful.

Good luck.

This is fantastic! Thank you. That has been my dilemma. Do i work with a larger firm who will do everything but upcharge due to the one-off nature of the project, or do I work with a group that only does bathrooms.

I do have an interior designer, thank you sister in law, who is very talented and will work for free for me.