how much skill needed to gut and remodel a bathroom?

^ This is another great point I didn't mention , part of what you pay for is the efficiency and the timeframe you can get the job done in , if you're not in a rush and have a second bathroom , as mentioned by Brunes , by all means take your time . If you have to get a porta potty outside while you rip apart your bathroom , that seems to get put back together so easily in a 30 minute TV show , be prepared for divorce court .

Another huge blunder I've encountered is the DIY weekender that takes time off of his regular paying job to save himself from paying a contractor to do his renovation . By the time you lose salary and spend a month doing a job that would have been finished in 2 weeks by someone that does it all the time the numbers usually don't work in your favour , you should have stayed at your paying job and hired somebody .

This is true .

I'm headed into my 23rd year of being a full time carpenter , I love the job and have fun at work .

OP , you just need to be honest with yourself as to what your skill set really is . If you can handle all or part of the job , I think that is great , and there really is nothing as rewarding as doing your own improvements on your house . If you really don't possess the skills to do the job ( and I wonder why you would be asking here if you did ) get some quotes , check references and have a good experience hiring someone that will do a great job for you .

 

well, my first estimate came in at $28.5k!! this is for a simple 90sq foot bathroom. not moving any fixtures. ouch.

 

Jesus! $28k !!!???!!!

Are you putting 24k gold fixtures in there or something? What kinda materials are you choosing?

$28k is in the kitchen remodel price range.

I would get another quote from someone else.

Do you have a list of everything you want? And alternatives if those are too expensive?

You should be able to remodel a 90sf bathroom for well under 20k with nice appointments.

 

I did my own bathroom remodel last year. I worked in the trades all through college and part time in the years after so I had experience with framing, plumbing, drywall and electrical. I subbed out the tile work since I don't have the skills to do it the way I wanted it done. I gutted the bathroom down to the bare studs, moved the waste and water lines for the sink, removed the subfloor and replaced it. Installed the new tub and shower fixture. I paid a really good tile guy to do the floor and shower with a real nice looking slate tile. After it was all said and done, I paid about $6500 for everything and that includes all the materials and fixtures. I'm sure if I'd used a contractor I would have paid closer to $10,000. That would be money well spent if you don't have the skills yourself. You can create some big problems if you are not carefull. My bathroom was about the same size as yours.

 

Whatever you do, make sure you end up with an elongated (oval) toilet and not a damn round one. That's the free tip. Sign up and pay the subscription fee to receive your weekly tip.

 

Really? I like the round bowl , the elongated ones squish your ass cheeks together.

 

Are you doing a total gut and replace including the sub flooring, walls, ceiling and cement board?

 

too many variables to just give a generic answer.

for one, make sure you have someone to bounce code issues off of (make sure it's to code, so you don't get hassled or sued later)

second... depends upon how fancy the remodel - probably the most difficult part would be we tiled our shower and tub walls... and i don't mean the shortcut way by putting up cement board - we floated the walls so they were true.

if you could find someone to help a bit (you know, tell you what you don't know) to guide you - so outsource the knowledge bit, it could go a LONG way. that's always the problem, you don't know what you don't know... so don't fly blind on something like this. the bottom line is it's not that hard, but you'll probably need help on some of it.

 

no skill whatsoever... just go for it. whatever feels right probably is

 

Fail

 

you can at the very least rip everything out and haul it out yourself. then act as your own contractor and hire someone to do the things you are not comfortable doing. if you got a sub-contractor to come in to give you a estimate, all he is going
to give you is a price 25% to 40% above what he can pay someone else to do.

 

Using cement board is not a shortcut way to install tile. Floating the walls is just the old school way to do things and using cement board is the "new school" way.

http://www.schluter.com/6_1_ditra.aspx

Personally I am going to use this ^^^ on my next tile job. Its a pretty neat product and makes everything water tight and doesn't require the use of cement board. You just thinset it right to the plywood or drywall. Obviously you would use the green drywall in a bathroom especially near the shower or tub.

Also those pre-sloped foam shower pans are awesome. I have done a mortar bed shower pan before w/ the rubber liner and its such a pain in the ass.

 

Get this guy to do it , you'll save $24 000!

 

Schluter is the only way to go , you can skip the foam pan and go with the fabric over a mortar base if you have an odd size shower enclosure , just be sure to use the schluter drain

 

Wow, I didn't see this until now.

My husband and I just got done with a major bathroom overhaul.

It all depends on a variety of things. You can go the inexpensive route by finding remnant tiles, going with the cheapest toilet, tube, flooring, or whatever. OR - you can go exotic and $$ can go through the roof. You can try to do the work yourself.....or, pay someone to do it.

My husband and I did all the demo and cleaned up after the contractor (so we weren't paying him to clean shit up). My husband helped him with wiring & other little things. Our contractor (friend of ours) charges $35 an hour. My husband and I shopped and bought all the parts we needed. New tub, toilet, 2 vanities, 2 counter tops, ceiling fan, 3 ceiling lights, new plumbing, grout, all the tiles, shelving, etc. THe contractor supplied (charged us) for the mortar, and various other parts needed.

Understand...this was our main bathroom/shower. We needed this done ASAP. So, that's why we never attempted to do it ourselves - it'd take us forever to get it done.

All in all - it took about 4 weeks (approx) and about $5,000 in labor costs and another $5,000 in everything we purchased. We didn't skimp.....we got nice tile, the newest type of grout, and didn't skimp on anything. Yet, we didn't go expensive either.

 

From what I understand, you can order the foam stuff in custom dimensions if you have an odd shaped. Obviously if you are in a time crunch, the mortar bed is the way to go. Thanks for the info on using the schluter drain, I will keep that in mind.

The foam base is a good idea to save weight on an upstairs bathroom though...especially in older homes where the joists aren't as beefy as they are in newer homes.

I still haven't decided whether I want to just redo my current shower stall (kinda small only about 33"X33") and keep my garden tub, or rip the garden tub out and build a badass shower stall there and turn the current shower stall into a linen closet/storage area. So many different ways to go. I have to keep re-sale in mind since I plan on selling as soon as I can. I can't stand the stupid fiberglass shower stall the builder installed.

 

That is a good point about the weight savings of the foam base over the mortar . In my area most homes were built in the last 50 years so we really don't have to deal with badly undersized joists.

Hydronic heating tubes in the mortar bed are a nice touch too

 

Im a Carpenter and have been doing remodeling for about 5+ years. I just did my parents Bath. I only subbed out the plumbing and electrical, bc I hate doing that crap!

Its fairly simple to do, just do some reading and have at it man! Having the right tools for the job helps alot though.
We got it done and cost was around 12K.... Thats with top notch stuff though. It could be done for under 10k easy.

 

Better my ass cheeks squeezed a bit than my junk touching the front of the bowl when sittin. Not sure how that is anyway, when the back of the elongated is every bit as wide as the round ones...at least the ones I've tried are.

 

I guess that is a perfect example of why you should try out both first and see which is more comfoortable for the person who is going to be using it.