Best fix for old townhouse shower before sale?

[Anonymous]

All of the bathrooms in my townhouse have been re-done -- except the master bathroom. The master shower (no tub) has 1980-original tile walls and tray floor. I broke the tile soap dish and feel like that needs to be fixed before I sell the house; any repair will involve cutting and installing tile, and I don't know that I can find an exact match for the speckled tile. The grout is also icky and pitted in spots.

I'd like to sell this spring, so I don't want to do a total bathroom reno (which I would do if I were staying, and maybe the new owner will want to do that). What's the best option here?

- Handyman to remove broken dish and cover the spot with sorta-matching tiles.

- Bathfitters-type cover of the whole shower.

- Contractor to re-tile the whole shower.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Where is the townhouse and what is the selling price point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where is the townhouse and what is the selling price point?

Townhouse is in VA near Metro. Comps (and Redfin) suggest the $580s is about right, which is about $90K more than I paid.

Other parts of the house are updated enough that I think buyers will ignore the old tile / old vanity, but the broken dish is a real eyesore. When I broke it, it was hollow inside and I worried that might extend back to the wall (couldn't see) so I sealed it up with gray plumber's putty

[Anonymous]

If you just want to retile the shower, I'd get a contractor/handyman to do it. Shouldnt be very expensive, and a gross shower is a huge turnoff. How's the floor tile?

For a small bathroom a pull-and-replace isn't bad at all. You don't need high end, and you can get some nice looking stuff at places like the Tile Shop, and from Home Depot (the stuff you order, not what's stocked in the store).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you just want to retile the shower, I'd get a contractor/handyman to do it. Shouldnt be very expensive, and a gross shower is a huge turnoff. How's the floor tile?

For a small bathroom a pull-and-replace isn't bad at all. You don't need high end, and you can get some nice looking stuff at places like the Tile Shop, and from Home Depot (the stuff you order, not what's stocked in the store).

Thanks! The floor tile has some loose grout that I was just going to repair. I like the idea of replacing the floor too (very small space) but I assume they'd have to pull the original toilet out to do that, and at that point we should get a new toilet, too ...

[Anonymous]

Bath fitters covering is cheap cheap cheap I wouldn't want a master bath or any bath like that

[Anonymous]

OP, you are right to anticipate that the bathroom tile could be detrimental to getting your best price in a sale. Obvious signs of deferred maintenance in one part of the house lead to speculation and assumptions about deferred maintenance in the rest of the house, which will negatively impact offer amounts from buyers.

Given the tile situation in both the bath and floor, my advice would be to pony up and do a quick reno of the whole bath. You most likely could have the whole thing re-tiled (or lined), with new toilet and perhaps new vanity/sink, for less than $5k. It is much better to be able to say 'renovated bathroom' than have potential buyers see faults and wonder what else is wrong in the rest of the house ... and then start looking for things that are wrong!