Before I even scrolled down to see your numbers, I estimated 25K in my head as the absolute bottom line for a budget box store job that isn’t a plastic stall, without the extras that you’re listing. Masters have an expectation of a bit higher end finishes than the level of the rest of the house, so a higher price than the average 20K hall bath would be expected. Realistically, with nice mid grade products, 30K is more the bottom line general area, with a licensed and insured contractor that does proper waterproofing. No unlicensed jacklegs.

Plus you’re moving plumbing, and and adding a bench and replacing a window, which costs more. You need to make sure that that’s actually needed. I’d say it would be very easy to make this a mid grade 40K bathroom, without even trying for upscale. Upscale 3 piece starts at 50K. .

https://www.remodeling.hw.net/cost-vs-value/2019/

https://www.ceramictilefoundation.org/homeowners-guide-to-hiring-qualified-tile-installer

I just finished a complete master bath remodel for $19.5k, including materials. I thought that was a reasonable price and was on the lower end of several estimates. The room is 8x10. The only layout change was to convert the full wall divider between the shower and tub into a half wall. I did not move any plumbing. Your plan to move the shower to a different wall will drive up the cost substantially. I'm in suburban Philadelphia.

My remodel included replacing a window. I found the contractor's allowances for tile, vanity and faucets to be reasonable. I purchased these products myself, did a lot of comparison shopping and was very careful to stay within budget.

I don't want to be insulting and this is all new to me. I know a full service type job costs a lot more. Our previous house was a very small 100 year old house and a lot of the work we did was with a single man on the side doing the work, but there barely are 20 tiles on the floor. of this bathroom. Most of it would be sheetrock. A coworker had lowes do her full size bathroom, with a tub and I know this is no comparison and it was 9k. I know a vanity can be thousands and fixtures can be the same, but where exactly is the rest of the 30-40k going? They all said about 2-3 weeks, how much of that is labor an hour?

As far as the window and such what we have now is 35 years old and not great.

I just snapped a pic to get the gist of the room, I can't get the whole this in there really since its small. The only reason I believe to move the shower head was so the door could open in the space not occupied by the toilet if we remove the built out wall for a bench.

If you know any realtors, ask them for contractor names. Full service real estate agencies usually have a list of recommended contractors. That's how we found ours and I'm very pleased with the work.

I’ll do that, thank you. so far it seems like a challenge getting through the estimate process...

I'm not sure I'm understanding... what is getting bumped out? The wall the showerhead is currently on? And showerhead/plumbing getting moved to the wall that currently has the shower caddy on it?

We would remove the foot of wall whrre the shower is And make it flush to the toilet wall

You don’t know what you don’t know. And while doing work DIY or with unlicensed contractors can get the prices down, that’s not a good route in the end unless you want a new hobby.

Permits range from $500-$3000, depending on location. A contractor won’t pull a permit? Beware big time!

That’s an old mud set tile job that you have currently, which is really really hard to demolish. Demolition, dust control, air scrubber. and legal disposal of construction waste will probably run 2K or so. That’s old enough that it requires testing for lead. If that test is positive? Triple the price for demolition. It could be more if waste disposal is highly regulated.

Just a nice tile shower with the correct waterproofing from someone that knows what they are doing and frameless glass runs 8-12K, depending on location. Licensed plumbers are the most expensive person on the job. You’ve easily got 2-3K worth of plumbing for the disconnects, new valves, new shut offs, dealing with the soil pipe height difference, and an very easy plumbing move. If it’s not easy, add more.

A vanity could be $100-5K The top could be $200-$2K.

A cheap toilet is $200. A nice chair height elongated bowl toilet with an aging in place bidet seat will be $1K+

Sure, you can do a 15K bathroom. It will get you exactly what you have, but without any qualified tile. Vinyl floors, an acrylic pan, acrylic walls, and leave the plumbing alone. A cheap box store vanity with a cultured marble top. And just swap out a budget light fixture rather than doing some electrical work for better lighting and ventilation. 15K is just materials with 9 months of all DIY labor for a nice small master bath.

Most people remodel to get better than what they started with. Better costs. Licensed Skilled labor costs.

Thank you for the breakdown. this house was built in 1984 and this is the original bath. I think that would be after lead paint usage? A lot of the tile is loose and barely holding on already, lol. we are looking for a licensed pro. The one guy who did give us a price and break Down said the permits would be $300-$400

this is why it isn't possible to answer your questions. we don't know the particulars of this job. We don't know at what quality you're aiming.

I'm only guessing here, but I think the previous poster cater to people with serious financial means that go to the best quality in a high COLA.

it is certainly possible to redo a nice bathroom for less, but it really depends where you live and what you want.

this said, it seems people who answered to you are in the same ballpark. So it is not necessarily ridiculously. If it is more than you want to spend, see on what you can compromise, but I wouldn't compromise with the labor quality if you want a tiled shower. Not that there is anything wrong with a shower with an acrylic panand acrylic walls . Many people have them.

I hear you, mid grade seems ok for this. We do want better then what’s there, not vinyl. we are in new jersey, it’s an upper 300k house, it’s a tiny master. We want a nice neutral bathroom for the master. keeping it basically the same except for opening up the shower to make it feel a little bigger. we would just tile the shower and floor. The tile we picked at a tile shop was about $7 a tile. we haven't Solidly priced out much else.

Helen, the first GC, came, measured and set up an apt at his showroom. He had a design he showed us which is what I describe. he took us around and showed us a very limited selection of tile, vanity and fixtures, mostly consisting of pick the color and finish. He then stated 25k was for everything they would do the plumbing electric anything They found behind walls or floors would be taken care of. he as also including installing a pocket door, which we later decided we don’t want to do. since then we have tried to basically keep the design the same when the other contractors came To keep it apples to apples.

You
can't control what the contractor charges for labor, but you should have control
over material costs. Material allowances
were written into our contract for tile, light fixtures, plumbing faucets,
toilet, vanity and countertop stone. The
allowances were about 25% of our total estimate. We were free to use his
recommended suppliers or choose our own.
We paid the difference if we exceeded the allowance and conversely, the
final bill was adjusted downward if we spent less than the allowed
amounts. We went with a mix of high and
lower end finishes and managed to stay within the budgeted allowances. It would have been easy to double the amount
we spent on materials without disciplined spending.

For instance, we purchased a Kohler chair height toilet with elongated bowl for
$250. Cheap toilet? Maybe, but it does the job and looks just fine. We chose to spend our allowance dollars
elsewhere in the remodel, splurging on quartzite for the countertop and tub
surround.

We purchased large format porcelain shower wall tile from Floor and Décor,
small hexagon floor tile from Home Depot for the shower floor and selected a
more expensive porcelain for the main floor from a local tile shop.

Be careful about signing a contract where you're limited in material selection to what the contractor/design firm sells without knowing what you're paying for those materials.

bfox, thats why we were not really happy with his proposal. he had no breakdown of anything. him painting was extra permits where extra. He presented no options for style only finish. we where not crazy about the tile he had to offer either. I should have asked for the cost of each item, but I since we didnt really like what he was showing us, I think I sort of checked out. there was no mention by him or going to other suppliers.

That’s a pretty spot on mid grade price range from the contractors you’ve talked to.

Contractors want to control materials sources because it ensures that they don’t get surprises that cause change orders for extra labor. Low quality tile often has issues that require extra time. Its the same with plumbing and lighting.

Clients often don’t understand that the difference in a $3 tile and a $9 tile can be eaten up very quickly when the spacing on the mesh is off, and there are varying thicknesses. A tile pro would immediately tell you that she can handle making it look good, but it would be on a time and materials basis, outside the original fixed labor cost. That extra 1K would have bought better tile, from a better supplier. Or, a tile pro would outright reject the tile, and charge you a trip charge, plus have another 3 month wait time to get onto his schedule again.

Getting design work in advance, and specifying everything, tends to pay for itself in a smoother job, with less surprises. If you want a fully designed bath, you don’t get that from a contractor. Contractors build what designers design. Designers also have contacts with pre screened contractors so that you don’t have to worry about figuring out if you’re picking wrong.

The ultimate costs of choosing incorrectly. https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/120393851/list/bad-wet-areas-and-mold

Some basic design documentation that is used to communicate with contractors and you. https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/105612493/list/project-documentation-samples

Useful threads for remodeling. Not as many bath things there, but most are worth reading regardless. https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/110081384/list/renovation-clippings

I work in a low cost area of the country, and generally do mid range projects.

This was 22K, just for the tub and shower area. That’s it. She kept the tub. Tile was falling off, just like you describe. The rot and leaks in the incorrectly built walls, had to be remediated for mold as well as rebuilt. There was a lot more rot than expected. The entire tub deck had to be rebuilt. And the wall between the shower and vanity. The customer was doing her own painting when the pic was taken.

Frameless Glass Changeup · More Info

This hall bath with double vanity kept the vanity and just painted it. Kept the tub. All new tile floors and shower walls. New vanity top. 23K.

Blue Gray Inspired Hall Bath · More Info

This shower only master had a new vanity, top, lighting, venting, tile, etc. and 5K of leaking plumbing repair added on to the 19K of the rest of the project. It was a condo, so access was limited, and logistics was a pain.

Condo Bath Update · More Info

A lot of these older baths do tend to have moisture damage and mold that needs to be addressed.

As far as materials go, you might be surprised what Home Depot sells. I'm not talking about what is immediately available in the stores, although I have used the Daltile subway tile before and it worked out great. They sell a huge number of tiles and other things online that they don't carry in-store. They buy from manufacturers such as Emser and Daltile and it's exactly the same tile as if you go to ProSource or to the manufacture directly. For 3 upstairs bathroom remodels, we ordered all of the tile and most of the rest of the materials off of HD online, to be delivered to the store for pick up, including the toilets, lights, shower tile, floor tile, etc. I had to immediately return some of the tiles, right there at the pick up desk, because it's sometimes hard to see exactly what something looks like online, but only a couple times. My tile pro approved all the choices and if he didn't I returned it. I bought my tubs and chrome Delta fixtures from Fergusons because their prices were almost exactly the same as HD and I like their customer service.

One of the reasons we decided to do this is that our Amex points no longer work on the airline that is hubbed in our city, so the points were just sitting there unused. We bought a bunch of HD gift cards to buy almost all of the materials to ease the cash-flow situation. So, if you have Amex points, that might be a nice use for them.

About the skills of the tile professional: IMO the tile pro is the most important person on the worksite. You've got to have an experienced, skilled pro for a tiled shower who will build it and waterproof it properly. That skill costs money. If your GC, or the person in the bathroom showroom you talked to, hires a cheap hack to do the tile work, you can't even be assured of proper waterproofing. Ask them to explain to you what methods and materials they use for building and waterproofing the shower. They should be able to explain it to you clearly (and it should be detailed in the contract). If you're unsure of what they tell you (and the language in the contract), you can post on here to ask the pros is it s correct.

A skilled tile pro can make low and mid-priced materials look like a million bucks just as a hack can ruin your expensive materials.

My very small bathroom remodel was $25k five years ago. It would be higher today. Toilet and sink were not moved. Replaced the tub with a shower (tiled), which required some plumbing adjustments. Used mid-grade tile and fixtures and frameless glass shower enclosure. Nothing fancy at all. Most of the cost was labor, not materials -- small spaces don't require a lot of materials. Seems to me that bathrooms present special challenges that I didn't observe in other remodels I've done over the years. The confined space is not easy to work in so it takes longer to get the job done. I, too, was shocked at the cost but once I watched the work progress I understood why. Good luck with your project.

Without diving too deep, this does not seem out of line, assuming they’re decent builders (not high end). Moving that shower is probably adding quite a bit, as someone mentioned. I wonder if they’re floating the shower for that price? Good luck to you.

thanks guys, I’ll have to ask how much the shower is costing to move with the estimates I get. so far it wasn’t made out to be a big deal by anyone. What is Floating the shower?

One element that would impact cost of moving that shower is existing floor conditions (slab/joists and joist conditions/location). Based on your photo, I don’t understand what you’ll gain by moving the shower to the other side. Maybe I missed something.

A float shower install is one of three popular options. Google diagrams of the following:

• floated shower wall
• Kerdi shower
• cement board shower

We avoid the cement board install, and we are never asked for kerdi install, but I’ve heard good things.

the first GC that came in suggested that. I believe since we want a bench the door to open not slide they would put the bench on the side the shower is now and the only way the door would open is opposite the toilet also, so you won’t open the door and walk iinto the bench.

You need a designer. Because you’re creating logistics issues with your ideas and contractor shopping. There are other alternatives. You're getting some bad unknowledgeable amateur info in this thread too. And you don’t know what you don’t know. And likely don’t want to do read and understand ALL of the below for a year or two of research until you get close to knowing what you don’t know. At least READ all of this, even if you can’t understand it yet.

https://www.ceramictilefoundation.org/homeowners-guide-to-hiring-qualified-tile-installer

https://nkba.org/info/why-hire-a-designer

http://starcraftcustombuilders.com/bath.design.rules.htm#.W100QuNOnYX

http://starcraftcustombuilders.com/sources.faucets2.htm

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5647040/white-shaker-battle-ikea-vs-the-rest-of-the-cabinet-world

https://www.remodeling.hw.net/cost-vs-value/2019/

https://www.naturalstoneinstitute.org/consumers/

https://www.kcma.org/certifications/ansi-kcma-standard

https://www.buildingscience.com/

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5332686/10-tests-for-you-and-your-contractor-s-first-meeting

15-20 for a hall bath about that size would be national average. 30-40 for that size master would be national average. You do want non box store quality, even if it’s not custom for everything.

Getting a designer involved before a contractor should be your first step. Expecting a contractor to put together all of your finish selections and give you design ideas just isn’t what a contractor does. That’s what a designer does.

The contractor just gives you allowances for all of that if you haven’t done the design work. Allowances are just guesses as to how much things will cost. It’s up to you to design it and put all of that together and pick all of those materials out. That isn’t a contractor’s job at all. The allowances are usually low, in order to make the project seem more affordable on the front end. If you do the design work on the front end, with professional help, you know your product costs for the most part.

As a very rough ratio, expect 2/5 product costs and 3/5 labor costs. Roughly $10,000 product and $15,000 labor for a $25,000 Bath. More expensive products do equal more expense in labor. Because of increased risk levels of working with more expensive products. Unless you run into the unexpected behind the walls, a pre designed bath should have no change orders. That behind the walls moisture damage happens all the time in a bathroom. Because therecare so many unqualified contractors building bathrooms that allow moisture damage. Thats why the skilled ones get a premium. Keep a contingency in reserve.

^This.

There are tons of "contractors" not pulling permits and doing poor quality work that looks good in the very short term. Then the mold and mildew show up because the shower wasn't waterproofed (for example). Listen to the others above. It is so much easier in the long run to get your entire bath designed and spec'ed out on the front end so you can get an accurate price from a legitimate contractor. AJCN has a post where she went through a nightmare remodel and had to take extraordinary steps to get it on track. Read it here: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5725013/what-to-do-when-a-project-goes-completely-south

We redid our master a year and a half ago, lower cost of living than you but larger bathroom. $27k before fixtures, etc, using moderate tile and complete permits and licensed contractors supervised by the GC we held the contract with. It started at $23.5k before a couple of changes and a somewhat expected plumbing issue, total cost with all in was about $31k, including adding a skylight and properly vented fan. We stripped to the studs.

1) Any estimate that doesn’t involve permits, run.

2) Remember that many estimates do NOT include fixtures, and they can add up quickly.

3) Reserve. There will be surprises...be ready. For instance, what is in that ”soft” bumpout? Do you know for sure, or are you guessing? Plumbing, HVAC, electrical, etc.

4) Explicit contract when you decide on a contractor. The contract rules everything and needs to be insanely detailed, with a breakdown of costs and agreed items. It should also specify change fees and process.

5) For God’s sake, look over the worksite daily and take pictures! Any concerns, bring them to the GC right away, because they have to be fixed THEN. We missed a small detail error that will stay that way until it gets rebuilt again, it’s not bad and not even visible, but it could have been fixed if I have been a tiny bit more diligent. Daily pictures will allow you determine if things were don’t correctly and allow you to more easily fix or adjust if you know where the studs and services are located.