Obviously, you are in good hands with Bills advice. I'm not a pro, but I'm neck deep in my second 50's era bath complete gut-job so I have a little perspective. My guess on the complete rip out is that they think it will ultimately be easier. Think of it like a developer who builds and entire subdivision. What's the 1st thing they do? Tear out every discernable tree on the property. Makes the re-build that much easier. One big word of caution on tearing down to the studs. Those walls ARE NOT STRAIGHT!! Back in the day, framing was secondary and all was "fixed" with floated materials like plaster and mud. Just take a level (or even a yardstick) and go around the untouched wall and check it out. Todays materials need FLAT. Sheetrock and CBU don't bend. Any tear out will require a good bit of shimming to get things square. As Bill has told me on a number of occasions, a good tile job needs a nice square room. Make it abundantly clear to whomever you use that you want all those walls flat and all those corners square if they gut it. One other thing, I personally would pass on the partial tear out as 1 of your bids described. Bills' idea will work quite well (surprise, surprise), as he advocates tearing out the plaster and leaving the mud. Ripping out the mud and leaving the plaster could make for a nightmare of a matching job...especially if he's going to try and match new sheetrock to old plaster. Plaster is around an inch thick and wall sheetrock is normally 1/2". I'm forced to do this very thing (we had to move a door)and I've been putting it off. I've done it before and it's a b!tch. Unless you're in the northeast (specifically MA or RI) you'll have a hard time even finding a plaster guy...let alone afford him.

We have oak floors in our master bathroom and we did keep them when we remodeled. People told me to change to tile, but we like the warmth of the wood. It's worked out fine for us because kids don't use this bathroom. I think if kids are going to be using it, there may be more water issues. I find the wood floors in the kitchen harder to keep up with because it's such as busy work zone. If you do decide to keep them, there are a couple things you can do to mitigate any water concerns: consult a wood floor specialist, consider having your shower door (if using) swing both inward and outward, have a very good exhaust fan on a timer, and use a large cushy mat. We leave the door pushed inward while the exhaust fan is running so that if the door drips, it does so inside the shower. We haven't ever had a toilet overflow. I can't think of anything to do to mitigate that other than having a good toilet. We have a separate WC for the toilet, so we could have changed just that section to tile, but elected not to. If you have a separate WC you might consider doing that and maybe waterproofing the floor as well.

" light grout that is impossible to keep clean " A bath used by males is best with epoxy grout. The Pro tiler needs to have experience using this type of grout. I have it in my baths...it is impervious to any stain / dirt.

@Amir Ali - I just wanted to post a comment in order to: 1. Let you know that I completely understand what you are going through right now. I have TWO FAILING slate floors that are part of current bathroom renovations. The master bathroom floor had not been grouted due to delays on his part. I discovered that some of the tiles were COMPLETELY LOOSE - and some sounded like they were only partially bonded to the floor. This floor is failing - and it has BARELY been walked on because the bathroom renovation basically stopped due to issues - bathroom isn’t usable so the only use has been when I’ve gone in there to take photos or measure something = maybe some tiles had been walked on four or five times before I started discovering the loose tiles. It is obvious that the tiles failed to bond to the floor - the mortar must have skinned over or something. I am NOT reinstalling the loose tiles. IMPORTANT - my former contractor does not fit the definition of what people here on Houzz love to refer to as a “hack” (at least not the actual business that I hired to do the work) - however, his employee clearly did not know what he was doing (or just didn’t care) - and that makes the owner of the business liable for this work. The business has hundreds of Google ratings (4.9/5), owner is a member of TCNA, I had several reviews from people I know (and trust), and I DID NOT JUST TAKE THE LOWEST BID - I am NOT a CHEAPSKATE. I am so tired of people AUTOMATICALLY blaming the homeowner when they have ZERO basis to do so. Making assumptions and basically telling homeowners that they are IDIOTS and CHEAP really makes me upset. Okay, I’m finished with my rant! 😂 The ”fix” is this: The ENTIRE floor is being torn apart. Not only is the tile being removed, the cbu will be taken out. New contractor assumes that he will also find that former contractor failed to add the required second layer of plywood in order to make sure that the substrate was prepared correctly in order to have a natural stone floor installed. Based upon the above issues, I investigated the slate floor that was installed in one of the other bathrooms back in April. I noticed a few grout issues - and as I went around knocking on each tile, the sound on many tiles indicates tiles that are only partially bonded. This is what the floor looks like from a standing position: And this is what it looks like when I realized that I needed to inspect it after the failure in other bathroom: I have cracks and broken spots of grout in many places. I also have some grout which is stuck on my tile because the contractor failed to seal the tile (as required) prior to grouting (I found this out later - I was in the hospital while this floor was being installed) and made promises over and over to come remedy the issue. So, this floor will also be ”fixed” in the same manner as the first one - I’m just waiting to have it ripped out until after the other bathroom is completely finished. 2. I also wanted to let you know that regardless of whether (i) you have a written contract, and (ii) that contracts specifically provides (or fails to provide) a five year (or however long) warranty period, you still have recourse against the contractor who installed your tile. Most states (probably all but I haven’t done research on this issue in every state) have enacted statutes that protect homeowners for this type of issue. In my jurisdiction, there are specific statutes that relate to home renovation projects - these statues require (among other things) that all work must be done in a good and workmanlike manner. Following industry standards, as well as manufacturer’s specifications, are part of this requirement. Also, the consumer protection act in my state also protects homeowners against contractors who perform shoddy work. I am 99% positive that your state will have some similar statutes. If you want to share your jurisdiction, I am happy to take a quick look in order to point you in the right direction. MANY jurisdictions require the homeowner to provide the contractor with notice and a right of remediation. Unless you follow the requirements of your particular statutes, you won’t be able to bring an action against your contractor to recover damages. FYI - my former contractor has chosen to ignore the notice I provided, so I then was free to hire another contractor to do the remediation work. My former contractor will owe me the money I have to spend to correct his failure to properly install my tile (which will greatly exceed what I paid him - removing tile + cbu + buying new material (including nice slate tile - because I didn’t purchase cheap slate tile for the the project initially). I am sorry that you’re going through this because it is NOT fun. I decided to consider myself “lucky” because he hadn’t yet installed this tile on my laundry floor! Hopefully, you won’t have water damage that will require even more remedial work in order to fix it.