Author Topic: Bathroom Remodel  (Read 1398 times)

JGS1980

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Bathroom Remodel
« on: May 23, 2019, 12:27:36 PM »
So we remodeled our (small) guest bathroom over the last month on weekends and weeknights. We live in a MCOL area, nice suburb.

We got a couple General Contractor bids to see if it was worth it to NOT DIY.
-1st bid was 18K+ for the job, and did not include nice fixtures.
-2nd bid was 15K+ for the job.

At this point, we got sticker shock and decided to slowly do the thing ourselves beginning with the demolition (which was cathartic). Slowly but surely we were able to figure out demo, drywall, toilet removal and replacement, patching, repainting, high end vanity with sink and mirrors ($2000), flooring, and trim installation. We did farm out re-tiling of the shower/bath ($900) and proper installation of the plumbing ($450). By the way, this was all new to me.

Total Cost -$5,500 for what we consider a high end bathroom. 

Gotta love YouTube

I never would have even tried this if it weren't for MMM lessons over the past few years. Thanks MMM and Forum!

CowboyAndIndian

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Re: Bathroom Remodel
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2019, 01:26:53 PM »
Congratulations, that is a big chunk of change to save!

I've built a basement bathroom from scratch. Had to put in the pump, electrical, plumbing and tiling. Only thing I hated was the drywall work. The only issue was that I worked in NYC then and could only work on it a couple of hours on the weekend. Took almost 6-8 months to complete.

Next time around, I ended up subcontracting my master bath, my wife would have killed me if I had taken 6-8 months to complete it :-) .

JGS1980

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Re: Bathroom Remodel
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2019, 02:03:49 PM »
Congratulations, that is a big chunk of change to save!

I've built a basement bathroom from scratch. Had to put in the pump, electrical, plumbing and tiling. Only thing I hated was the drywall work. The only issue was that I worked in NYC then and could only work on it a couple of hours on the weekend. Took almost 6-8 months to complete.

Next time around, I ended up subcontracting my master bath, my wife would have killed me if I had taken 6-8 months to complete it :-) .

Yeah, the wife didn't want me to attack this at all.... until she saw the bids from the contractors, did the math, and determined that we would be paying them >$150/hr to get the job done.

OtherJen

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Re: Bathroom Remodel
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2019, 02:48:34 PM »
Congratulations! That's a huge savings.

We paid $12K for contractors to gut and replace our full bath, although that was 3 years ago and before tariffs (estimates for our new roof went up by $3K from last summer to this spring just due to increased material costs). It was worth it, but it was definitely painful to part with that much money. If we had a second bathroom, I'd have been okay with DIY to save the the cash (plus, tiling looks oddly satisfying).