Two bathrooms the same size, in the same neighbourhood, can carry very different prices. That is not because one company is greedy and the other is not. It is almost always because the two projects are not the same project.
We quote every bathroom after seeing it, because the things that move the price are specific to your room. This guide explains what those things are, so that when you are looking at a quote you can tell what you are paying for.
Scope is the biggest factor by a distance
Before anything else, work out which of these you are buying, because they are different orders of magnitude.
A wet-area remodel replaces the tub or shower and the walls around it, inside the existing footprint, using the plumbing connections already there. It is days of work by one crew.
A full bathroom renovation strips the room. Vanity, toilet, flooring, lighting, often the layout. It is weeks of work involving several trades in sequence, each waiting on the one before.
Everything else on this page is a rounding error next to that choice. If your bathing area is the problem and the rest of the room is sound, you do not need the second one to fix the first.
Whether the plumbing stays put
This is the single most expensive decision inside a bathroom project.
Keeping fixtures where they are means the existing connections are reused. Moving a toilet, sink or drain means opening the floor, rerouting pipe and rebuilding what was disturbed, and it pulls in more trades for longer.
A bathroom that keeps its layout and a bathroom that rearranges it are not comparable projects, however similar they look on a floor plan.
How much comes out
An overlay that fits a new surface over your existing tub skips demolition and disposal entirely. A full removal includes tearing out the old fixture and surround, carting it away, and dealing with whatever is behind it.
That removal work is real labour and it shows up in the price. What you get for it is that nothing unknown stays hidden behind the new surface.
What the materials are
Wall surfaces, bases, fixtures and glass all span a wide quality range, and the choice between them moves a quote more than most people expect.
Grout-free wall systems, glass enclosures, upgraded fixtures and accessories like benches, niches and grab bars are each a decision point. None of them are wrong choices; they are simply the levers that make one quote higher than another.
When you are comparing two prices, check that both are for the same materials. A quote that says "wall system" without naming which one is not telling you enough to compare.
The condition of what is already there
Older bathrooms sometimes hide problems: soft framing, failed waterproofing behind tile, damage from a leak nobody knew about. Nobody can price that in advance with certainty, because nobody can see it until the old surround is off.
What a company can tell you in advance is how they handle it: how you will be told, how it is priced, and whether you can decide before the work proceeds. That answer matters more than any contingency figure, and a company that has done a lot of bathrooms will give it to you without hesitating.
How long the bathroom is out of use
This is a cost even though it never appears on a quote.
A project measured in days is an inconvenience. A project measured in weeks, in a house with one bathroom, is a different kind of problem, and for some households it is the deciding factor regardless of price.
Worth weighing honestly before you commit to the larger project.
What a complete quote should spell out
- Everything being removed, and who takes it away
- Every product and material named specifically, not described in categories
- What is included in the price
- What is explicitly not included
- What happens if something unexpected is found, and how it is priced
- How long the work will take, and what would make it take longer
- The payment schedule
- The product warranty and the workmanship warranty, stated separately
A quote that is one number on one page is not really a quote. The detail is the part that protects you.
Where the money tends to go unexpectedly
Disposal of the old fixture, which is sometimes priced separately.
Making good afterwards — paint and reinstating around the work, which some quotes leave out.
Allowances. If a quote carries an allowance for tile or fixtures you have not chosen yet, the quote is only as accurate as that allowance, and allowances are routinely set low.
Changes you make partway through. Entirely reasonable, but they should be written down and priced before the work happens rather than settled at the end.
Financing, briefly
Financing through third-party lenders on approved credit is common in this trade, including interest-free promotional periods on qualifying projects.
Two things worth checking on any financing offer: what the rate becomes once a promotional period ends, and whether the financed price is the same as the cash price. Those two answers tell you what the financing actually costs you.
Getting a number for your bathroom
Nobody in this trade can price your bathroom over the phone, and you should be wary of anyone who tries. The size of the space, the condition of what is there, the products you choose and whether anything is moving all have to be seen.
Our consultation is free, takes about an hour, and ends with an exact written price for your project that is guaranteed for a full year. If what you need turns out to be a full renovation rather than a wet-area remodel, we will tell you that too.
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