bathroom project cost savings

9 years ago

OK. We've been planning on new floors, countertop and backsplash in the kitchen. Hoping that will happen in the fall, as the tile floor in there and the countertop have some issues.

However, we now have tile lifting on the floor of our master shower. We don't have the time or the skills to do this ourselves. Having had two tile showers in two different houses fail, I am adamant that I will hire a tile setter who knows what he's doing - not some hack. I realize that may cost me a bit more in labor.

But are there other places I might save some money on the unexpected bathroom remodel? The existing tile has (of course) been discontinued, so it appears we will have to re-tile the whole bathroom. I wasn't feeling too bad about this originally. But I got my first estimate last week, and the cost of re-tiling a bathroom has apparently doubled since the one we had done in Virginia. Yikes! That was only 12 years ago.

Any suggestions for cost savings without cutting corners on the skill of the tile guy? This is just tiling and a new countertop--no new toilet or tub or vanity.

Thanks!

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Comments (6)

tracie.erin
9 years ago
If the project is only counters and tile and you are hiring out the tile, the only place I can think to save is materials. Go with tile on sale from the big box store, and get a remnant for your countertop.

I feel for you. Our shower floor is cast iron specifically because there seemed to be too many things that could go wrong with a tiled floor. Good luck!
jrueter
9 years ago
If the problem is just the shower floor could you maybe replace just the floor with a one piece shower pan and leave the rest of the tiles in place?

Or maybe tile just the shower with a coordinating tile?
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personally, I would disagree with Steve_a on doing the demo yourself. He's right that you can, because it takes little skill and basically brute strength. But it's dirty, it's very heavy stuff (old tile, mudset, cast iron, etc., heavier if your bathroom is old). You're likely to have a problem disposing of the material, since a lot of cities refuse to pick up construction debris. When I demo'd a basement closet that was just old plaster and only about 15 sq. ft. of wall, I probably had to use 10-15 trash bags alone, because each bag can hold only about as much debris as a 5-gallon bucket (or less) before the plastic rips. Demo is, overall, cheap. You don't need skilled labor to do it, so contractors can get people cheap for doing it. Unlike plumbing and electric, and even tile. Also, contractors will have the appropriate tools to do things like break tile -- not just a sledgehammer, but a jack-hammer like implement. Do you want to rent one of those? And they can do it quickly. Assuming you actually need the use of the bathroom, the faster the better. They can do the demo in a day or two, whereas you might need a couple of weekends or more to do it. (or multiply both those numbers by 3-5 if you want). Finally, at least for me, and I'm a bit of a DIY guy, things like demo are the least interesting part of the job. I'm proud of building things because I can look at the end result and smile. Not so much with demo. Of course, you may feel differently, but those are some considerations why I don't think the couple of thousand $$ you'll save doing the demo yourself are worth it.
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I got the cabinets through Home Depot (20% off) they are not higher end but they have held up extremely well and we’ve been happy with them. I don’t remember the brand, but the color is cognac on maple. They’re standard kitchen cabinets. We got 2 regular drawer banks, 1 extra wide drawer bank, 2 sink cabinets and the closet you can see in the picture for about 1800 w/the discount. We bumped the shower wall 6 inches into the bedroom to make the shower bigger, pulled the cabinets out from the wall a couple of inches to provide more counter top. And curved the edge the counter for interest. Just for fun, this is what we had to start with. The tub was rusted and there were two doors, 1 from the hall & 1 from the master bedroom, we closed up the hall door. I think we got our moneys worth. LOL As for the labor, I found my Contractor through a plumber I had hired to put in a kitchen faucet. I asked if he had someone good he could refer and he referred Matt to me. Matt had his own company but just him and his guys. All of his work was by word of mouth, he didn’t advertise or push for business, he didn’t need to. I think I got fair pricing from him because he didn’t have the overhead a lot of the larger companies might have. He wasn’t the least expensive and he wasn’t the most expensive. Finding someone who was willing to work on our schedule and not having to have it done ASAP is what really helped me to be able to keep our costs at a minium for both labor and materials.
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User
9 years ago
Feel bad for you, but hearing your story makes me happier that I ended up with a shower pan.

Have you considered alternatives to a tile floor?
fiberglass, terrazzo, swanstone, corian, cast iron (Kohler)
vvesper
Original Author
9 years ago
Yes, I would love to use a shower pan and may go that route, though as I understand it that may cost me more than a tile floor initially. The couple of folks I've talked to on the phone and the one that has been out to the house so far for an estimate don't seem to want to just take out the floor and replace it. I wish we could, but there seems to be alot of concern about moisture having moved up into the walls. And I do understand that might be the case.

If I can find someone willing, I may pick out new tile and everything--but not order it until we pull off some floor tiles and the bottom row of wall tiles to see what's back there. I do have one box of the wall tile that the previous owners left in the house. The question is simply what's in that wall and whether I can find anyone who is confident about their ability to only re-do PART of the shower without new leaks forming.

Has anyone had issues with using cheap tiles? Are any of the brands irregular in size or anything that will cause issues with install labor and such? If not, I have no issue shopping for sale/closeout/low priced tile.
weedyacres
9 years ago
If your shower floor tile is coming off, you need to first figure out why and rectify the problem/source. If all you do is replace the loose tiles, you've just bandaided the problem and it will likely recur.
vvesper
Original Author
9 years ago
I'm pretty sure the tiles are coming up for three reasons: 1) slow drain (we clean it about every 15 minutes, it seems like, but it still runs very slow), 2) 12 x 12 tiles around round center drain = inadequate slope, and 3) floor tiles extend under wall tiles and it appears that as house settled, the wall tiles pressed down on floor tiles, popping them up in the center. I suspect that if they were more secure (without # 1 and 2), they might have just cracked.

So - having said that, no I would definitely not just put down new tiles where the old were. It needs a new shower pan/mud bed/waterproofing/etc. under any new tiles - or possibly just a solid shower base instead of tiles on the floor.

The walls still seem solid, and I wish I knew what kind of waterproofing system was used there. Once the floor tiles and bottom row of wall tiles come up, if the walls seem in good shape and the tile setter (someone experienced!) thinks the waterproofing is good, I'd love to have the mud base or whatever is there ripped out and just put in a solid shower pan and replace the bottom row of tiles (or however much of them there's room for). But I'm not sure that will work.

bathroom project cost savings

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tracie.erin

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bathroom project cost savings

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jrueter

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