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Besides the kitchen, your bathroom is perhaps one of the most important rooms in your house. It’s the place where you go to prepare for an important day at work. It’s also the room to which you retire to cleanse off after a hard days work and get ready for a restful night’s sleep.
Because your bathroom is such an important part of every day, it needs to be an enjoyable place for you to spend time in. If your bathroom is suffering from dingy tile, outdated fixtures, and not enough storage, a bathroom rehab is just what you need to transform the space into a place where you can energize and rejuvenate.
Budgeting for Your Bathroom Rehab
Renovate or Remodel?
The first step in the bathroom rehab process is to determine whether to renovate or remodel. For those hoping to save money, the cosmetic updates involved with simply renovating can provide a much-needed refresh. Putting on a fresh coat of paint, changing out the plumbing fixtures, or retiling the shower are cost-effective ways to create real change in your bathroom.
If you’re willing to spend a bit more and are hoping for large transformations such as an entirely new bathroom footprint or additional built-in storage, a full remodel will help you achieve your bathroom rehab goals. A remodel involves totally gutting the area and starting from scratch in building your dream bath. Although it’s a more expensive option, remodeling your bathroom can take it from unimpressive to unrecognizably beautiful.
Planning Ahead
As with any home update, once you decide whether you’re going to renovate or remodel your bathroom, make a list of “wants” and “needs.” If your bath simply must have a soaking tub, for instance, but you’re not 100% sold on needing custom-build cabinetry, then opt for stock cabinets in order to roll that cost over to pay for the tub of your dreams.
Room size will also play into your overall plans. If you need an oversized steam shower, but you’re working with a smaller room, perhaps deleting the tub from your bathroom design will give you the space you need to transform it.
When you think about how much different aspects of your bath rehab will cost, don’t forget to include design and installation fees in the total. In addition to this, set aside 10% to 20% of your total budget as an emergency “just in case” fund in the event of unforeseen problems.
The Hard Numbers
Homeadvisor suggests that most people spend between $5,554 and $13,169 updating their bathrooms. Prices break down between items such as installing a new bathtub, flooring, and countertops, and they vary widely depending on if the homeowner selects low-, mid-, or high-range items for their bath rehab. A larger bathroom will obviously cost more to renovate or remodel than a smaller bathroom space.
Save Time and Money With Professionals
Although it may sound counterintuitive to save money by hiring a designer-contractor to complete your bath remodel, working with a professional may very well save you both time and money. This is because they know the construction industry well and can advise you on how to get what you want for less, as well as creative bath rehab ideas that may not have occurred to you.
In addition to this, hiring a contractor — especially for a project that will involve extensive plumbing and electrical work — just makes sense. Any mistakes made in moving pipes or rerouting wiring won’t just be frustrating … they could also be incredibly costly if they cause leaks or fires in the future.
Preparing for your bath rehab is as simple as deciding the extent of your update, prioritizing your list of wants versus needs, and hiring an experienced professional to help you make the project happen.
