Every year, Remodeling Magazine conducts a very thorough nation wide poll on the cost verses value of various renovations in your home. They then dedicate nearly an entire issue to report the research. RIGGS Company & Design is one of the companies that they ask to participate in this poll every year.
It’s a very comprehensive report that breaks down geographic areas and three “grades” (high, medium and low end) for each renovation. When it comes to bathroom remodeling, however, the reader should recognize the wide range of scope and scale. So to put an average price tag, even in three ranges, seems impossible.
A bath renovation can be as simple as re-grouting and caulking the tile in the tub area that takes a few hours and minimal materials, to adding a master bath suite complete with multiple body sprays in the walk-in shower and a mini kitchenette that will enable you to prepare breakfast. You never have to leave the sanctity of your master bedroom suite until it’s time to leave the house. That can run into six figures in a heartbeat!
So when Remodeling Magazine’s questionnaire asks the question “how much?”, I’m never sure what to answer. It’s like asking how much a car cost. Is it a Ford or a Lamborghini?
We at RIGGS have designed and built plenty of both but the norm is somewhere in the middle. The challenges in bath renovation are multiplied by the materials and trades needed for a bath renovation. If the renovation is internal you won’t need roofing, siding or concrete but every other trade is incorporated and it’s all in small packages that require much more time per square foot to install. For instance, a drywall contractor has to make four trips to hang, tape and sand his work but each trip is only one to three hours of work so all that travel time has to be accounted for. Electric and plumbing can be the same problem. Both trades have to make two trips, one for the “rough-in” before drywall and finishes and one at the very end. The plumber may make a day out of the rough-in but the finish is about three hours and the electrician may only have three hours for his work each time. That’s why a small bath renovation can seem so expensive even if you are looking for a Ford.
Some clients just want a fresh bathroom with re-grouted tile, a new vanity and top and updated electric including GFCI outlets and a better bath fan. Others want everything to be new which entails stripping the room of all finishes including plaster and starting from scratch. The biggest desire by most of our clients is the need for a larger bathroom with a tub and shower, in-floor heat and much larger vanities with two sinks and lots of counter space.
Space can be a challenge because most homes have a couple of bathrooms back to back and are your basic 5’ x 8’ “shotgun” bath that consists of a 30” vanity, 34” toilet space and a 32” wide tub. To increase its size usually requires making a bedroom smaller, losing a closet or even less desirable, one of the two baths. A closet and bathroom are valuable real estate in any home! Of course, if you do increase the size you are now affecting other rooms which means drywall or plaster work, flooring, woodwork, painting and a host of other additional costs that aren’t really attributed to the envelope of the bathroom.
One popular solution that many clients find attractive is converting one of the baths into a three quarter or half bath and using the additional space in the other one. That can increase the cost considerably because now you are doing two bath renovations but it’s what our clients want. The “empty nesters” are willing to sacrifice an entire bathroom or even a bedroom to get the master bedroom/bath suite they have always dreamed of. After years of child rearing, college tuitions and mortgage payments they now have discretionary income or savings that they can justify making their home into their castle.
Wherever you might fit into the spectrum of bath renovations, don’t get caught up in the “average cost” or what your friends paid for theirs because in most cases a bath renovation is customized to your home layout and your wants and desires. My rule of thumb has always been: decide what you want, research all the options and pick a good design/build firm to work with you to realize those dreams. This is true for a home maintenance agreement, bath renovation or adding a second floor, kitchen and whole house renovation.
