Moxie Posted May 20, 2014 Share Posted May 20, 2014 We have a very small 70's master bathroom. The tile is in the shower and one additional wall in the room. The tile in the shower has been leaking for 5 years we think (we just bought the house last year). About 7 of the tiles have come off and the wall behind it that we can see has totally disintegrated. Awesome!! We are getting estimates on getting the shower fixed. I'm wondering if we should just go ahead and get all the tile replaced with something we like?? I'm dreaming of white subway tiles. Swoon. But, the tub and the toilet are the same color as the shower tiles (brown). Gotta love the 70's!! So, give me a wet-finger-in-the-air estimate on a small bathroom re-do. 5K?? 10K?? I'm clueless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted May 20, 2014 Share Posted May 20, 2014 Too many variables. Depends on labor costs, materials chosen, how much damage is behind the wall, etc. Could be 2k, 5k, 10k, could be 25k,,,or more. Honestly, if there are leaks, and you have financial resources to make it happen, then rip it out. You do not want hidden damage to accumulate and you certainly don't want to do a smaller "get by" job now and discover the entire bathroom needs a gut/redo in a year or two. All the money and labor already done would be wasted (BTDT) and additional damage may cause even more headaches and cost than what you may be facing at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted May 20, 2014 Share Posted May 20, 2014 Discovered same shower issue this week in same era home. We are getting 3 estimates this week. I will let you know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeAndTheBoys Posted May 20, 2014 Share Posted May 20, 2014 We have a very small 70's master bathroom. The tile is in the shower and one additional wall in the room. The tile in the shower has been leaking for 5 years we think (we just bought the house last year). About 7 of the tiles have come off and the wall behind it that we can see has totally disintegrated. Awesome!! We are getting estimates on getting the shower fixed. I'm wondering if we should just go ahead and get all the tile replaced with something we like?? I'm dreaming of white subway tiles. Swoon. But, the tub and the toilet are the same color as the shower tiles (brown). Gotta love the 70's!! So, give me a wet-finger-in-the-air estimate on a small bathroom re-do. 5K?? 10K?? I'm clueless. We redid 2 10 ft by 5 ft bathrooms about 15 years ago with nothing fancy. They completely gutted the rooms. This was in our first home, and the bathrooms were TRASHED when we bought the house. To put in new tub/shower enclosures (one-piece fiberglass units) and simple counters (single sink), new toilets, and vinyl flooring, it was about $5,000-$7,000 total cost for each bathroom--materials and labor. (I think one was more expensive than the other because we had more cabinetry put in? Can't remember). Go to a home improvement store and price out all the pieces you want and multiply it by about 3 to account for labor--that's what they told us to do, and it was fairly close. But there are a lot of elements that will change the price. If you are putting in tile, that's going to significantly up the cost, unless you can do it yourself. Tile isn't terribly expensive, but the labor for tile is. If you can do a lot of work yourself, you're in luck! All we did was paint after all the work was done :) Oh, the kicker about a bathroom is that it takes FOREVER. It took over a month to get both bathrooms done. Luckily, it was a friend of my dad's doing it so we just let him come and go while we were at work. Betsy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solascriptura Posted May 20, 2014 Share Posted May 20, 2014 My very small master bath was done 10years ago for 18k. It was done in a classic style, so it still looks nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moxie Posted May 20, 2014 Author Share Posted May 20, 2014 Too many variables. Depends on labor costs, materials chosen, how much damage is behind the wall, etc. Could be 2k, 5k, 10k, could be 25k,,,or more. Honestly, if there are leaks, and you have financial resources to make it happen, then rip it out. You do not want hidden damage to accumulate and you certainly don't want to do a smaller "get by" job now and discover the entire bathroom needs a gut/redo in a year or two. All the money and labor already done would be wasted (BTDT) and additional damage may cause even more headaches and cost than what you may be facing at the moment. Amen to that!! Like I said, this shower has been leaking for YEARS! The previous owners just kept adding caulk. Morons. We figured out the shower was leaking because we kept seeing water one the basement wall, 2 stories down! I'm not excited to think about the damage in the wall. Plus, the water caused the previous owners to have termites and we have a pretty serious ant problem in that wall now. Take care of your home or become a renter!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted May 20, 2014 Share Posted May 20, 2014 Just re-doing our floors in our bathroom ran $1500 this year (lower cost but quality tile). So, you have the cost of unseating your toilet and unhooking your sink and shower plumbing, removing baseboards, demo-ing the old stuff down to the subfloor and studs and hauling that away, laying new concrete board in the shower, laying tile in the shower and floor, new plumbing fixtures for the shower, new vanity/bowl/faucet for the sink, new toilet, new tile for the floor, grouting and sealing it all, replacing the baseboards, installing and hooking back up the plumbing, probably new cabinetry, painting the walls, and possible new light fixtures. I'd budget $8-10k providing that you choose moderately inexpensive but quality materials and you get competitive bids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted May 20, 2014 Share Posted May 20, 2014 I will say, having done jobs where we did it ourselves with no experience or some experience and jobs where we hired out, if you are looking at a major bathroom renovation involving leaks I would hire out unless you have a LOT of experience. There are things that you might not even recognize need to be addressed behind those walls if it has been leaking that long. I also recommend that besides the bids you do extensive research on each contractor you are seriously considering hiring. Where we live there are a lot of contractors. But some are just plain awful and may cause more damage than repairs. Others have a lot of knowledge, experience and talent but poor organizational skills and no business sense. Your job may get bounced around for weeks or months while they try to juggle all the jobs they have committed to. We finally took the time to do extensive research when we remodeled our kitchen. We knew there were issues that would need to be addressed outside our area of expertise and the job itself would be challenging and time consuming. We asked a lot of people who had remodeled recently and we made it clear that we wanted a real review, good and bad, not just a "Oh, they did fine" response. We asked hard questions and if people hedged we asked why. I created a list of things to ask about and research based on various things I found on the internet so I could compare apples to apples as much as possible. We finally found a company that seemed to have knowledge, ability AND business sense. They take on only one big job at a time, plus no more than two small jobs on the side. They contract for a start date and end date and are penalized if they don't make the end date (barring unforeseen issues behind the walls or a delay in city issued permits, etc) so they work hard to be accurate in their estimations and they also work hard to meet those estimations without rushing. There is a supervisor on site at all times and the supervisor was our normal contact person. The owners also worked on the projects, by the way, and even if they weren't needed on a particular day one or the other would be on site every morning to talk with the site supervisor and with me. In the contract they agreed to diligently work to keep the rest of the house free of debris, to clean up at the end of each day, to only use materials we had approved, only change design/material/finish date/etc. if agreed upon in writing, etc. and they stuck to that agreement. When we DID have to change the design they were very amenable and helped walk us through the process at no extra cost (except for the change in the additional materials needed). This company had a higher bid than two others we looked at but they came in on budget and on time. Others who had used the other two companies all said that while they liked the work there were significant cost overruns and they went WAY over on time. In one case the job was extended nearly a year. Therefore, we actually came out ahead in the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoobie Posted May 20, 2014 Share Posted May 20, 2014 It sounds like it all needs to come out if the wall is disintegrated behind the tile. I'd say at least $15K. We just did 2 kids' baths and BIL is our contractor in a relatively low labor cost area. We did our master bath 2 1/2 years ago, but it was larger and we put in a huge soaking tub and glass shower that increased the budget. I was able to find toilets, sinks, and fixtures online for much cheaper than the plumber's quoted costs for lower-grade items. Amazon and Faucet Direct (Depot?). Light fixtures and hardware too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted May 20, 2014 Share Posted May 20, 2014 Size doesn't determine the cost of a bathroom remodel because the elements of a total bathroom remodel are the same, and the labor costs are the same. We remodeled our tiny bathroom recently for about $14 K. Our bid was for a bit less, but labor ended up being more due to stuff we couldn't foresee (the way our plumbing comes together under the house required some massaging), or things we asked them to do later on (we realized that while our wall was torn out, it would be best to update the plumbing in the half bath that is on the other side of the wall--it was all galvanized and backing up, so this will save us big $$ down the road). Some of the small electrical work was a pain in the butt and stretched labor cost as well. We also had little annoyances like moving a heat duct. We elected to go with tile (installed by an excellent mason), a cast-iron tub, and the toilet recommended by the plumber (not available to the general public). We are exceptionally happy we followed our plumber's advice, but a tub surround, acrylic tub, and a toilet from a box store would have saved us LOTS of money. Materials can be a big cost-savings if you shop for good deals, but check with your contractor--ours gets wholesale prices. We did buy a sink and vanity with a huge rebate while on sale. You can do the tear out, painting, etc. for cost savings. Just be prepared to drop everything and paint based on their work schedule! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted May 20, 2014 Share Posted May 20, 2014 We did a full gut on 2 small bathrooms in a 1915 house last year. All new plumbing and electic required, sheet rock, tile, etc. these are now adorable stylized bathrroms with hex and subway grouted tile now, but nothing fancy! The full bath was about 20K and we had numerous bids that were all similiar. We are uban in a fairly high cost of living area. It will vary widely depending on what exactly you need done. If you dont need to touch bplumbing or electic, that could make a big difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-M- Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 With some recent experience in this area, I would suggest budgeting $15,000 for materials and labor. An additional thought: Collect three bids, discard the lowball, and choose from the remaining two. Once you've decided, ask for the certificate of insurance to be sent directly from the agency, not from the contractor's secretary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 Oh, and if you do remodel, make sure you take before pictures, during pictures, especially if you rip out the walls (get lots of shots inside the wall), and then of course the right after pictures (and hey, post a few here, too so we can celebrate your new bathroom! :) ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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