Our bathroom renovations, accomplished with the help of our local Home Depot store, are finally finished. Although some details remain undone, such as the installation of window treatments and, maybe some day, crown moulding, we're thrilled with the results.
Because we're huge fans of old houses but don't live in one, the changes we made are another step closer to our goal of "oldifying" the house. We're now at the stage of reviewing costs to see how close we came to our earliest estimate.
Several contractors I know use a figure of $20,000 to ballpark what an average three-piece bathroom renovation costs. That would include a complete gutting plus new fixtures, flooring, wall tile and lighting. The $20,000 is a loose "order of magnitude" estimate, a figure a contractor may pull out of the air before even stepping into your house, just as some contractors say you can count on about $40,000 to reno a kitchen (give or take $20,000 to $40,000).
No worries, though. These ballpark estimates get sharper once spaces are scrutinized and details confirmed.
While hired professionals did the floor tiles and electrical work, the drywalling, wainscotting and painting is courtesy of husband John.
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Details that can send estimates skyrocketing or sliding downward include the size of the space, the number and sophistication of fixtures (separate versus combined tub and shower; no-frills soaker versus big corner air-jet tub; bidet or no bidet), and the quality and nature of the finishes (marble slab versus ceramic tile).
Another factor, of course, is where you shop. Instead of going the exclusive bath boutique route, we shopped Home Depot for brand-name items.
In hubby John's bathroom, we decided to forego the overly large custom tiled shower with body jets and rain showerhead imported from Italy that he enjoyed courtesy of our last home reno. I remember our tile installer at the time lost two screws that were part of the temperature-control lever and we had to wait for weeks for replacements, which had to match the control lever in rust-proof finish, to be shipped from Italy. On the slow boat. This time, we had a much-reduced budget which we divided differently.
While not custom in size or finish, the new shower is beautiful, easy to clean, and plenty spacious for a six-footer. Made by Maax, it is a fibreglass unit that comes in three pieces, not including the glass doors, so you can easily get the assembly through narrower bathroom doors and into tight spaces. The toilet is by American Standard, part of its classic-looking Town Square suite. John's sink is by Kohler.
To keep costs down, John did the drywalling, painting and installation of bead-board wainscot and baseboard. Where it made sense or was required by law, such as with the electrical work, we hired licensed professionals. This included having the folks at Home Depot handle the slate-floor tile installation. Laying down slate tile requires experience and patience because the natural stone comes in uneven thicknesses that can vary alarmingly.
Extra care and attention is needed to avoid ending up with tripping hazards in the finished floor. Our installer did an excellent job.
We bought a teak table to serve as a vanity, which John sawed in half lengthwise and painted black to match a glass-door storage cabinet we found at Cobourg's Antique Market. He attached it to the wall and added the bead-board wainscot around it afterward.
John also chose the room's paint colour — Benjamin Moore's Metropolitan, a smoky grey-brown that picks up tones in the slate floor tile and makes the white wainscot (Para Paints' Marble White) snap to attention. The result is genteel yet crisp.
Our costs for John's bathroom renovation were just under $9,000, including tax. If we had included a new air-jet bathtub with faucet assembly and had hired all the labour, it might have been closer to the $20,000 ballpark.
Here is a breakdown of the bathroom reno costs:
- Toilet: $419
- Floor tile materials and labour: $1,500
- Bead-board wainscot: $250
- Sink and faucet set: $380
- Shower doors: $365
- Fibreglass shower assembly: $988
- Showerhead: $235
- Plumbing and electrical labour: $3,000
- Vanity, mirror and storage cupboard: $900
- Lighting: $250
- Taxes: $1,074
- Hubby's labour: priceless.
Reno Adventures appears weekly, covering all aspects of home renovation. Send your feedback and suggestions to ERand-Watkinson@globeandmail.com.
