Got a $30k bathroom quote - is that insane?

Ask for the breakdown

A single figure tells you nothing about what you are buying. The same total can be a careful job on a small hall bathroom or a thin job on a large one.

• Demolition and haul-away.
• Plumbing rough and fixtures.
• Electrical, including any new circuits and the exhaust fan.
• Framing changes.
• Waterproofing.
• Tile and setting materials.
• Vanity, top and mirror.
• Shower glass.
• Paint and making good.

Which bathroom are you actually quoting

A hall bathroom with a tub-shower combination and a stock vanity is a different animal from a primary with a curbless shower, a freestanding tub and relocated plumbing. Moving plumbing on a slab means cutting concrete, and that single decision can move the price more than every finish choice combined.

The line I look at hardest

Waterproofing. A proper bonded membrane or a foam pan system, installed as one system rather than mixed brands, is what decides whether this bathroom is still sound in ten years. Cheap bathrooms fail at the pan, and the repair is a demolition.

The second is glass: it should be measured after the tile is set, not before, or it will not fit the opening you actually built.

How to compare quotes honestly

1. 1Write the scope once, including allowances for tile, vanity and fixtures, and give the same document to everyone.
2. 2Ask each bidder what is excluded.
3. 3Ask who does the waterproofing and what system they use.
4. 4Check the licence and insurance before you compare prices at all.

I do bathrooms across Lake Mary, Sanford and Longwood. If the shower is the reason you are remodelling, read why showers leak behind tile before you choose anyone.

Where a bathroom budget usually goes wrong

• Moving the drain, which on a slab means cutting concrete.
• Tile choice made after the quote, at twice the allowance.
• A shower glass panel measured from drawings rather than from the finished opening.
• Rot or old galvanised pipe found behind the tub, which nobody can quote until the wall is open.

The last one is the reason a small contingency belongs in every bathroom. Ask the contractor what they will do if they find it, and how it will be priced, before they start rather than on the day.