How much does a bathroom renovation cost?
It’s hard to know if a bathroom renovation is in the cards without knowing the total cost of one. In today’s post, we’ll break down exactly what you can expect to pay on a bathroom remodel and include cost savings opportunities along the way.
Here’s how much a bathroom renovation costs, category-by-category.
How much does a bathroom renovation cost?
Learn how much you can expect to spend on a bathroom remodel plus ways to save money in nearly every category of the process.
Bathroom tile
If you search, you can actually find bathroom tile that isn’t too expensive. For an average mid-size bathroom with 85-110 square feet, you can find floor tile options as low as $1-$2 per square foot. For even an cheaper option, you can opt for plank wood flooring (luxury vinyl tile).
Going with larger tile for your bathroom floor will save on material cost, and you could get away with budgeting $300 for bathroom tile. Smaller or more intricate tile will typically run you $500-$700 for a 100 square foot room.
For shower tile, we recommend choosing a classic subway tile, which can be found for as low as .15-.20 a tile! You can repeat floor tile in shower floor or choose a smaller tile.
When renovating our kids’ bathroom, we spent $1,300 on tile. In our master bath, we spent $900. The tile in our master was much cheaper since I wanted to do subway tile in the shower and that is very budget friendly!
Tile labor
You can save a lot of money if you tile your bathroom yourself, but if you’re not an experienced DIYer, you might want to budget for portions of the bathroom tile job, like the shower stall.
Alternatively, you can opt to use a shower pan, and save money on tile labor and materials. You can find shower pans for around $300.
In our shiplap master bathroom renovation project we spent about $2,300 in tile labor. Alternatively, our kids’ bathroom reno cost much less, because we didn’t have a shower to tile and that ran us $1,300.
Contractor
If you choose to go the route of employing a general contractor, you can expect them to add about 10-15% to each trade they’re managing during the project.
Alternatively, if you are going to manage all of the trades yourself (tiler, plumber, electrician, etc) but just need someone to do the carpentry work, expect to spend about $600-1500.
Demoing your bathroom will typically cost around $1,000.
Glass shower door
In a master bathroom, you’re typically installing a glass shower door. These are pricy, so I would urge you to shop around.
A frameless glass shower door will be the most expensive option, and can run upwards of $3,000 depending on how large your shower is. We paid $2,200 for our frameless glass door in our master bathroom.
Vanity
When I started researching vanity options for our master bathroom project I was really surprised at the range of prices. You’ll of course pay less for smaller vanities, but if you’re looking for a dual sink vanity with marble or similar stone, you’ll likely need to budget between $1500-$2500 for this expendature.
We opted for dual sinks in both bathroom reno projects and paid $2200 for the vanity in our master bath and $1700 for the vanity in our kids’ bath.
Related reading: See our modern farmhouse master bathroom renovation
Tub
For a smaller bathroom renovation project, where you have a tub inset, you can find a quality tub for less than $400.
For a master bathroom makeover, you’ll likely be on the hunt for a free standing tub. Depending on size and features of the tub, you should budget between $800-$2000 for a free standing tub. I’m very happy with the tub we purchased for our master and that cost us $1100.
Paint
Now here’s an area where you can really save money! A gallon of paint runs around $35 or you can pay someone around $300-$500 to paint your bathroom.
Toilet
Another category that won’t put a huge dent in your wallet! Plan to spend around $200-$300 on a new toilet.
Electrical
You may opt to add a new light fixture or move an outlet in your bathroom renovation project, and unless you can do it yourself, you’ll have to call an electrician.
For an average list of things you might want to do to your bathroom, electrical-wise, budget between $500-$700 for this category.
Plumbing
If you’ve never done any plumbing, you might want to go ahead and budget for this category, as plumbing is not for the faint of heart.
To install a new tub, you can expect to spend between $350-$600. If you need to convert a single sink into a dual sink and install your new vanity, you’ll likely spend around $700, and finally, to install a new toilet you’ll need to budget around $200.
Fixtures + lighting
Here’s another category where you can decide to spend or splurge. If you’re replacing everything in your bathroom, you’ll need new sink faucets, shower head, bathtub faucets, mirrors, lighting and miscellaneous items like towel hooks and bars.
It’s entirely possible to find a bathroom faucet for under $100, but you can also spend upwards of $300.
Shower heads range from $30-$400 depending on the style and color you select.
You can find plenty of low cost mirrors that still look updated for under $100.
In this category, I suggest picking out a style that suits your preferences and then shopping around to see how much fixtures in your style are, to appropriately budget for this category.
Wrapping up: how much does a bathroom renovation cost?
As you can see, even if you’re planning on renovating a small-mid size bathroom, there’s still quite a bit that goes into a full bathroom makeover.
You’ll save quite a bit of money by doing the carpentry, plumbing and electrical yourself and shopping around for materials. Have specific questions about how much something costs when renovating a bathroom? Let us know below!
