Bathroom remodel - where to start?

[Liziz]

DH and I just decided we're ready to move forward with renovating/updating our bathroom. We're looking at a fairly complete changeout -- while keeping all walls and structure the same, we need to change out shower, tub, floors, sinks, toilet, as well as improving the exhaust/ventilation fan situation. We are certainly looking to hire someone to do this work. Where do I start? Do I start by getting contractors out and getting quotes from a few of them? Or do I need to have a more solid idea of what specific things we want to replace with (i.e. - which type of shower, what brand of tub, etc.) before talking to contractors? This is the first major home project we've considered and I'm not really sure where to start, but I know many of you have done this before!

TIA!

[SnuggleBuggles]

No, you can do the contractor first and then the other details later. If you have something weirdly sized (extra large tub,...) that you are in love with then, yes, mention that.
The bids we have gotten have been about the work that needed to be done- aka how long the tiling would take and how much that would cost, for example. But, the "finishes" like which tile weren't included. I'm sure it varies but that was how it was here. We just refreshed a bathroom- new finishes, same layout. Upgraded the ventilation as well as fixed a big leak from our shower but otherwise really straightforward.
Take time to research vendors. We found great tile at a local flooring store. We bought all of our faucets and toilet at a local plumbing wholesale store- fabulous quality stuff, way better quality than the big box stores, and the prices were so much better than a bathroom design store.
Houzz is fun for putting together looks you like.

[Kestrel]

The more info you can give the contractors, the more accurate of a bid you can get. You don't really need it down to xyz faucet, but fiberglass shower vs tile vs marble vs doorless, that kind of thing will really help. However, if you find anything specific you love make sure to get model numbers, paint samples, ect.

[twowhat?]

You definitely don't need to know specific finishes (which tile, which faucets, etc) though a general idea would be helpful (eg mosaic tiles more expensive to lay, and as above a fiberglass shower would be cheaper than tile; natural stone will be more expensive...).

To start I would start pinning bathrooms you like on Pinterest to get an idea of the style and finishes you like. If you are not changing layout or any of the plumbing locations, that will make things easier.

Shower: if all you are doing is changing the finish (tile and shower hardware), then it's easy. If you want changes like curbless, that's more complicated. Most contractors can at least make the shower threshold a little smaller/more modern (small step up, then slope down rather than a "wall") to clean up the look - that's what we did with ours, without changing the drain location, and I'm really pleased with the look.

Tub - if it's built-in, you're probably looking at some minor structural changes to accommodate the new tub. We went with free-standing, which required some plumbing changes to shift the location of the incoming water pipes and the drain, but IMO if you have it in your budget is TOTALLY WORTH IT. LOVE love love our freestanding soaker tub, and we got a style that goes perfectly with our traditional home with modern touches.

I love how light and bright and yet cozy and welcoming our bathroom is...it's the last thing you see at night and the first thing you see in the morning so I feel like renovations that make you happy are SO worth it here!!

[SnuggleBuggles]

Something to remember is that sometimes you have to special order things like tile and that can take time. You don't want construction held up because you ordered too late or the materials were delayed. Happened to us and we ultimately had to choose a different tile. We had enough lead time but there was some problem in the supply chain. I still wish we could have gotten our first choice so that was a bummer.

[gatorsmom]

Something to remember is that sometimes you have to special order things like tile and that can take time. You don't want construction held up because you ordered too late or the materials were delayed. Happened to us and we ultimately had to choose a different tile. We had enough lead time but there was some problem in the supply chain. I still wish we could have gotten our first choice so that was a bummer.

I don’t have much to add but wanted to emphasize what Snuggle Bugles said. I have friends doing construction and renovating and there are shortages on so many raw materials. My interior decorator said certain random odd things are backed up for months. And at least around here, there just aren’t enough workers to get things done. Definitely plan for all of that. I’d think your contractor could warn you about basic building material shortages but you should check into the tiles, paints/wallpapers, and other specifics you might want ahead of time.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I don’t have much to add but wanted to emphasize what Snuggle Bugles said. I have friends doing construction and renovating and there are shortages on so many raw materials. My interior decorator said certain random odd things are backed up for months. And at least around here, there just aren’t enough workers to get things done. Definitely plan for all of that. I’d think your contractor could warn you about basic building material shortages but you should check into the tiles, paints/wallpapers, and other specifics you might want ahead of time.

I forgot about paint. I’ve been waiting since May for the deck paint I need. It’s nuts!


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[AnnieW625]

With our old lone bathroom (remodel 2018) I initially requested a quote from a local business who advertised cabinets and countertops because I initially thought that was all we needed (plus a reglazed bath tub) but after they came and measured my space they never actually gave me the quote.

So the next step was for me to look for other options. I only knew of one local super popular contractor who I knew would be too busy to design everything but I had a friend who was an interior designer so I had her come and measure and design the space. It was a pretty simple space but deep down Dh and I knew we needed more help than what our brains could give us. She gave us the design and recommended plumbing brands and tile products. We ordered the counter top, and shower and floor tile products through her, but ended up buying plumbing fixtures, mirror, and lighting from Ferguson or Build.com. We saved a ton of money by ordering on our own. Our cabinets ended up having to be custom built because of odd space limitations (missing standard options by less than 3”). The only downside about ordering the tile through her was she slightly over ordered on floor tile and shower tile. We ended up with enough flooring tile to tile 1/2 our kitchen when we redid our kitchen the following year. I absolutely love that floor tile though and would’ve never found it without the designer’s recommendation.

Contractor wise I requested quotes from six contractors (one I didn’t care for his MO when I talked with him on the phone; two never submitted quotes (including the cabinet place, and the super popular contractor), and one didn’t return my phone call) so I only ended up getting quotes from two. One contractor was a recommendation of the designer and the other was a parent at our school. I felt comfortable with both but the one the one the designer recommended one had a better system for his quotes and everything was line by line. If I had gone with the parent contractor I could’ve now said my contractor has been on HGTV’s Christina on the Coast, but oh well….at least I know his work would’ve been excellent. In the end we used the same contractor for our bathroom for our kitchen and were happy with the work both times.

The whole process took about 8 months from first investigating what needed to be done until completion. Completion of the job was just about 6 weeks and we only had to spend two nights in a hotel when we didn’t have a toilet in the house. We used our YMCA for showers for the 2-3 weeks or so we didn’t have a shower.

With our current bathrooms we bought our house in August, 2020 and had a full bathroom gut, and bathroom refresh done by early February, 2021.

For the girls bathroom we replaced the flooring, lighting, mirror, and vanity.

For our bathroom we did a complete gut. We moved pipes in the shower, added pipes so we could have dual sinks and changed the layout of the sink area. My only regret was that we didn’t get a quote to knock down the wall between the toilet/shower area and the sink area as I thought it was going to be more expensive but overall we are happy with it.

We used a local kitchen and bath remodeling company (with designers) that I found in one of those construction mailers. The design processing and vetting of companies took about a month to a month and a half and tbh I only got designs from the first company because I was comfortable with them from the first meeting. Since this is was my 3rd remodel in 2 years I was pretty in tune with the cost of things and still had notes from the prior remodels. We had some minor construction delays with the original assigned project manager getting a pretty serious case of Covid and then once we were assigned the permanent manager and permits were obtained the jobs started right before Christmas. We had no shower in the master for about six weeks, but we had a second bathroom and since we always had two toilets we didn’t need to leave the house.

We ordered cabinets, countertops, sinks, and shower tile from the construction company. We did have to change our shower tile a few times due to final design issues (drain couldn’t be moved) and not being able to get more of a certain tile. I bought the floor tile on my own as we didn’t need that much more as we used the left overs from our kitchen remodel, and we bought the plumbing fixtures from Pacific Sales (regional plumbing/appliance store….kind of like Ferguson but owned by Best Buy). Lighting came from Lowes, mirrors came from Amazon, and IKEA, and drawer pulls came from Emtek, and Home Depot.


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[niccig]

I don’t have much to add but wanted to emphasize what Snuggle Bugles said. I have friends doing construction and renovating and there are shortages on so many raw materials. My interior decorator said certain random odd things are backed up for months. And at least around here, there just aren’t enough workers to get things done. Definitely plan for all of that. I’d think your contractor could warn you about basic building material shortages but you should check into the tiles, paints/wallpapers, and other specifics you might want ahead of time.

OP, can you wait a bit before you renovate? We’ve heard the same about delays so we’re pushing off the bathroom renovation. It doesn’t have to be done now, we’ll see where things are in 6-12 months


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[SnuggleBuggles]

With our old lone bathroom (remodel 2018) I initially requested a quote from a local business who advertised cabinets and countertops because I initially thought that was all we needed (plus a reglazed bath tub) but after they came and measured my space they never actually gave me the quote.

So the next step was for me to look for other options. I only knew of one local super popular contractor who I knew would be too busy to design everything but I had a friend who was an interior designer so I had her come and measure and design the space. It was a pretty simple space but deep down Dh and I knew we needed more help than what our brains could give us. She gave us the design and recommended plumbing brands and tile products. We ordered the counter top, and shower and floor tile products through her, but ended up buying plumbing fixtures, mirror, and lighting from Ferguson or Build.com. We saved a ton of money by ordering on our own. Our cabinets ended up having to be custom built because of odd space limitations (missing standard options by less than 3”). The only downside about ordering the tile through her was she slightly over ordered on floor tile and shower tile. We ended up with enough flooring tile to tile 1/2 our kitchen when we redid our kitchen the following year. I absolutely love that floor tile though and would’ve never found it without the designer’s recommendation.

Contractor wise I requested quotes from six contractors (one I didn’t care for his MO when I talked with him on the phone; two never submitted quotes (including the cabinet place, and the super popular contractor), and one didn’t return my phone call) so I only ended up getting quotes from two. One contractor was a recommendation of the designer and the other was a parent at our school. I felt comfortable with both but the one the one the designer recommended one had a better system for his quotes and everything was line by line. If I had gone with the parent contractor I could’ve now said my contractor has been on HGTV’s Christina on the Coast, but oh well….at least I know his work would’ve been excellent. In the end we used the same contractor for our bathroom for our kitchen and were happy with the work both times.

The whole process took about 8 months from first investigating what needed to be done until completion. Completion of the job was just about 6 weeks and we only had to spend two nights in a hotel when we didn’t have a toilet in the house. We used our YMCA for showers for the 2-3 weeks or so we didn’t have a shower.

With our current bathrooms we bought our house in August, 2020 and had a full bathroom gut, and bathroom refresh done by early February, 2021.

For the girls bathroom we replaced the flooring, lighting, mirror, and vanity.

For our bathroom we did a complete gut. We moved pipes in the shower, added pipes so we could have dual sinks and changed the layout of the sink area. My only regret was that we didn’t get a quote to knock down the wall between the toilet/shower area and the sink area as I thought it was going to be more expensive but overall we are happy with it.

We used a local kitchen and bath remodeling company (with designers) that I found in one of those construction mailers. The design processing and vetting of companies took about a month to a month and a half and tbh I only really vetted the one we used as I was comfortable with them from the first meeting. Since this is was my 3rd remodel non 2 years I was pretty in tune with the cost of things and still had notes from the prior remodels. We had some minor construction delays with the original assigned project manager getting a pretty serious case of Covid and then once we were assigned the permanent manager and permits were obtained the jobs started right before Christmas. We had no shower in the master for about six weeks, but we had a second bathroom and since we always had two toilets we didn’t need to leave the house.

We ordered cabinets, countertops, sinks, and shower tile from the construction company. We did have to change our shower tile a few times due to design issues and not being able to get more of a certain tile. I bought the floor tile on my own as we didn’t need that much more as we used the left overs from our kitchen remodel, and we bought the plumbing fixtures from Pacific Sales (regional plumbing/appliance store….kind of like Ferguson but owned by Best Buy). Lighting came from Lowes, mirrors came from Amazon, and IKEA, and drawer pulls came from Emtek, and Home Depot.


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6 weeks! Wow! So we kept our existing tub and footprint so just needed to find and fix the crazy leak, put the ceiling back together, tile, new cabinet, sink, vanity, and toilet. Project was done in 9 days.