That bathroom cost how much?!

One of my brothers and I had a brief e-mail exchange last week concerning a bath renovation project that fell into his lap last week. The brother in question is the king of the do-it-yourselfers. He knows what he's doing and over the years, he's done a great job on his and his family's home.

The bath project in question started out as an expedition into a wall to fix a slow leak. The home in question is 100-year-old-or-so former school that he's converted into a home for his large family. As is usually the case in an older building, fixing a simple leak is never simple and such a job rarely consists of a quick fix.

In the course of cutting into a wall to find the bad water line, he ended up with a full-blown construction site on his hands. It happens. What really got him though was how much money he ended up spending on what was supposed to have been a minor repair in a secondary bath.

I sympathized, but it's not as if there's anything I could do about the cost part. Bathroom renovations are expensive and quick fixes either don't exist or they are not something that will really improve what's already there. I get called on a lot of bath jobs, but I don't end up working on most of the rooms people call me about. I live in a part of the world with somewhat older housing stock. Older housing stock means small bathrooms. Unless a bath is being expanded or it's part of a larger renovation project, I can't make enough money on the job for it to be worth my time. That may sound haughty or cold, but so what. Even a small bath remodel requires a lot of my time, generally the same amount of time it takes to work on a larger job. I make more money on larger jobs, so it makes no sense for me to take on a time-intensive small bath.

I'm not alone in this either. Anybody who's ever tried to find a contractor or designer willing to work on a downstairs powder room knows what I mean.

Anyhow, the great Kelly Morisseau from KitchenSync had a link on Twitter yesterday and it led to a blog called Confessions of a Tile Setter. Confessions is written by a man who goes by the name of Suntango, and Suntango's Texas-based blog is filled with all kinds of insight regarding the renovation business form the perspective of a skilled tradesman. In Suntango's blog entry from last Friday, I found this:

According to an annual construction cost survey by RemodelingOnline, a mid-range remodel of a 5x7-foot bathroom averages $11,585-$14,889; for an upscale expansion of a 5x7 bathroom to 9x9-feet within the existing house footprint, costs run $35,111-$43,050. These are averages; actual costs may be higher or lower.According to an annual construction cost survey by RemodelingOnline, a mid-range remodel of a 5x7-foot bathroom averages $11,585-$14,889; for an upscale expansion of a 5x7 bathroom to 9x9-feet within the existing house footprint, costs run $35,111-$43,050. These are averages; actual costs may be higher or lower.

According to a construction survey by RemodelingOnline, a mid-range remodel of a 5x7-foot bathroom averages $11,585-$14,889.

Here in Texas that is a bit high. However, you could easily shell out $30,000 in a small bathroom with upscale materials like a heated floor, heated toilet, heated towel bars, gem quality Natural Stone Tile, upscale fixtures, TV Monitor in mirror, etc.

For an expansion of a small 5x7 bathroom to 9x9-feet or larger within the existing home, cost can easily get into the high teens to close to $30,000. Again this can escalate with added features and trades.

You can pretty much hang your hat on these figures gang. In my experience, they are dead on. If you're thinking about a bath renovation sometime soon, keep these numbers handy as you work out a budget for it.