Actually bathplanet could do complete shower renovations in 1 day with 1 licensed and insured contractor. How do i know? i was that one guy in Nashville Tennesse that could. My name is still on lots of positive reviews on the their website. however for every successful amd happy customer of mine there was a dozen other displeased and lied to clients. While i tried to take time to insure proper installion with quality matariels and workmanship was at the higgest regard. Bathplanet did not necessarily agree or appreciate my level of quality and professionalism. Companies like bathplanet, bath fitters, and McDonalds use undertrained or nontrained greenhorn idiots that have no idea what there doing! More often then not your so called installer is merely a warm body who spends more time on the phone calling the boss for help or getting high out back then a highly trained professional who cares about your satisfaction and longevity of your overpriced peice of printed acrylic. if you want a quailty product from end to finish dont expect a day transformation. While it maybe possiable i guarantee the odds are not in your favor. its been several years since moving on from McBathPlanet 🛀 and even longer since thread was created.. just had vent… End rant!! Rome was not built in a day and neither should your bathroom.

Time-wise, they are both at the extremes. In reality, it should take somewhere in the middle. But I have more faith in contractor #2 for a more realistic/gracious timeline than in contractor #1 for his slash and burn, in and out timeline. Allowances: Be careful with the allowances! An allowance simply means that you haven't picked out specific materials, but he's including an "allowance" in the bid so that he can give you an overall $$$ for the job. The allowance should also just be a FINISHED MATERIAL allowance, not a FINISHED MATERIAL AND LABOR/INSTALLATION allowance. Meaning, you have a 100 sqft bathroom and a $500 allowance for bathroom flooring. That works out to $5 a sqft. That $5 should be for the cost of the tile only. The labor to install, the cost of the underlayment or menmbrane, etc, should be buried in the overall cost of the job. If you chose a tile that cost $7 a sqft, you went $2 a foot or $200 over your allowance. The contractor will bill you for the additional $200 at the end of the job. If you chose tile that is $4 a sqft, you should get a $100 credit at the end of the job because you can in under the allowance. Be careful with allowances. $500 for "finished electrical/lighting" might sound fine until you realize you need two lights in your shower, a ceiling light in the bathroom, four sconces in the walls, a vent fan in the shower as well as another over the tub, and fancy wall dimmer/timer switches to control them all. So try to break allowances down into specific things; flooring, countertops, wall coverings, lighting fixtures, vent fixtures, etc. And make sure that the shower glass allowance is JUST for the cost of the glass. Not the cost to install it too. If installation is included, then break out the labor cost in your head so when you get the final bill there are no surprises. And for things like tile or hardwood flooring, break those down into square foot pricing. It makes it much easier to shop that way. Your contractor might have an arrangement with a local supply house or two. You can shop there and "get his price" or you can shop on your own and buy things on your own. Just ask him if he has any additional mark-ups on things you get through him or things you get on your on. It's always better to ask these questions now rather than later. It's simply good business. Mongo

Get an Amish builder! We built a very custom, 3200 ft two story Craftsman farmhouse with high-end finishes through-out. The time frame estimates we got from other builders was 9 - 12 months. Our Amish builder finished it in 92 days! Of course, his crews work 12-15 hrs a day, 6 days a week and we didn't lose a single day for weather delays. He was building 4 other houses at the same time, so he is able to schedule his crews from house to house without any delays. I've never seen men work as hard and efficiently as they did. There was so little waste and no wasted time or motion that we were constantly amazed, and the woodworking and finishes are superb. And the county building inspector said it's the best quality building he's seen in ages.

We were without a usable kitchen for somewhere between 2 and 3 weeks. This included removal of old cabinets (Habitat did that for us), removal of old floor and installation/finishing of new HW, relocating and adding plumbing, a bit of construction to reframe an interior window (long story), having the whole kitchen completely rewired, and installation of new cabinets and countertop. There was another couple of weeks of kitchen work that I did myself (filling nail holes, caulking, painting, final coats of finish on the wood countertop, having the backsplash installed) but we were using the kitchen during that time. This is what made it go so fast: 1. not being a normal GW kitchen (cabs/counters are from IKEA). 2. LUCK. 3. Lots and lots and lots of advance planning on my part -- I was the "GC." 4. Wonderful trades (flooring, plumber, electricians) who came when they said they would and got their work done efficiently; ditto local inspector. 5. Great installers with extensive carpentry and IKEA experience who were available on short notice (see point 2, Luck) when original handyman bailed out after reno had already begun. 6. Choosing a floor finish that was ready to walk on the next day (Rubio Monocoat). 7. Using a countertop that could be installed by the cabinet installers (IKEA butcherblock). 8. Having almost everything on site in advance, and having me available to run to the big box stores at a moment's notice for unexpected bits and pieces (corollary: being willing to have most kitchen components come off the shelf from somewhere local; there were only a few special-order things). 9. DIY'ing the final steps and using the kitchen during that time. 10. Almost forgot -- keeping the scale of reno fairly limited -- basic footprint of room did not change (some wall and window work had to be done, but no walls were moved and we left the original plaster in place for the most part). I still can't quite believe we pulled it off so fast. It wouldn't have happened if the people I hired hadn't been so professional and helpful (a big deal, I know, since I'm just a homeowner and can give them only so much business). I really do sympathize with all of you with the longer renos. Your kitchens are on a different level than ours, though, and ours wouldn't suit everyone.