10 Bathroom Renovation Tips from a Contractor

[00:00] Today's video is all about bathroom renovation secrets. There is so much to learn when renovating your bathroom for the first time. So if you are getting ready to do that, make sure to stick around. If you're new here, hi, I'm Ashley.

[00:13] I'm a virtual color consultant and decorator. And today I thought it would be fun to bring on Daniel, who is my husband and general contractor. He's got a lot of knowledge to share. And so I thought that would be fun for us.

[00:25] So let's get into it. We've got a lot to cover. So one of the first things we want to talk about is how to gain a little bit more space in your bathroom when it seems like there's none to gain. So one of the easiest things you can do is to switch your entry door around.

[00:40] Oftentimes people want to add a free standing tub. They want their shower to be larger. And this is a really good secret in terms of gaining a little bit more space in the bathroom. That's right. Just because the builder installed it that way,

[00:52] doesn't mean your door has to swing in to the bathroom. You can just switch it around, uninstall the door, and hang it the opposite way. If you don't like how it swings because the hinges have now switched sides,

[01:05] you can actually just swap it if you've got a moderately decent carpenter. If you're a little bit handy yourself, you can swap the swing of the door so that it opens in a way that makes the most sense as you're entering and exiting the bathroom.

[01:18] That pathway that you take every day. Secret number two, free standing tubs aren't for everyone. Free standing tubs are pretty, but unless they are large, they are useless. You know, a standard alcove tub that's 60 inches.

[01:32] We've all been in one of these. It's standard builder grade. It's in just about every hall bathroom that you've ever seen. They feel somewhat sufficient in terms of the space that you get.

[01:44] Maybe you'd like it a little bit larger, but 60 would do. But when you talk about a 60-inch free standing tub, it is not the same thing. First of all, free standing tubs tend to have a shallower wall angle

[01:56] that will taper down to the bottom of the tub more gradually. But what that does to the bottom of the tub, where your body actually lays, so it makes that area a whole lot smaller. So it's less comfortable if the tub is smaller, like a 60-inch free standing tub is.

[02:13] All right, but that's not the only difference. In a typical alcove tub, the wall angle where it starts to go down, it starts near the edge of those tubs because they're built into space.

[02:25] And so right away, almost within an inch or so, they start to taper down. And for the free standing tub, you've got space off of the wall. Then the thickness of your free standing tub, then that taper began.

[02:38] So you're really losing quite a bit of space when you convert to a free standing tub. So we really recommend that you get at least a 60-inch free standing tub, if not a 70 is really much more ideal.

[02:51] And go to a store where you can actually sit into these bathrooms, these free standing tubs, sit down, make sure you're going to be comfortable, make sure you're going to be able to fit your knees down in the tub.

[03:04] There's nothing worse than putting a free standing tub in your bathroom. Only to find out it's not comfortable for you to use on any sort of regular basis. So it's something we always recommend. I thought you were landed at it.

[03:17] That's going to jump in with some of my clients. Okay, secret number three is the built in tub. Alcove tubs really can look very nice if you add some architectural interest to them.

[03:29] I know a lot of us really want those free standing tubs, but we just don't have the space to do it. This is your next best bet. You need to finish them out with pretty wood look paneling across the side. Then you can echo your countertop material on the top.

[03:42] So you've got this really finished nice product that looks like it belongs in a timeless bathroom. And you haven't had to forego having a bathtub in your space, which I know a lot of us consider when we want that larger shower,

[03:55] but it's nice to have a bathtub when you want to use one. Okay, I touched on this. If you had the opportunity to watch the bathroom design mistakes video, we put out about a month or two ago. I did touch on this a little bit because it's so important.

[04:09] It bears repeating. You need to leave what would you say? At least six inches on either side of your free standing tub. And this is so that you can clean efficiently. You do not want your free standing tub budding up against two walls.

[04:24] First of all, it doesn't look good. So if that's if that's a challenge you're running into, you really strongly need to think about that alcove tub. Otherwise, we like a minimum of six inches on either side of the walls. Fintillation is not something to skip over.

[04:38] I know sometimes you think that it's an annoyance. It's going to save money. But when you're renovating a bathroom, do not forget about ventilation. This is a logical time to add appropriate ventilation. It allows you to keep mold, mildew from growing.

[04:51] It's going to lengthen the life of your painted walls and ceilings. So don't forget this step. Now, a good bathroom fan is a quiet bathroom fan. You want one with a sound output of one stone or less.

[05:03] And you're hardly even going to notice that it's running. Before we share the next bathroom renovation secret, I want to thank this week's video sponsor, Skillshare. Skillshare is the largest online community for anyone who wants to be creative.

[05:16] With thousands of classes led by industry experts across film, illustration, interior design, freelance, productivity, and more. If you're like me and you love learning something new, Skillshare can help take your career, skills, hobbies,

[05:29] passions, or side hustles to the next level. Of course, we talk a lot about curating a beautiful home on this channel. And if you love learning all that there is to know about creating a beautiful home, you'll enjoy diving into Skillshare's classes on caring for indoor plants,

[05:44] floral design, interior design, basic sewing, gardening, and so much more. Now, because you're watching this video on bathroom renovation secrets, I'm sure you are getting ready to renovate a bathroom. And I know because of that, you will love Skillshare's class

[05:57] on how to design your dream bathroom. This class is full of helpful information covering everything from budget to hard finishes, showers, vanities, and more. If you're ready to make your home more beautiful using the skills

[06:09] that you can learn inside the Skillshare community, the first 500 people to use my link in the description will receive a one-month free trial of Skillshare today. All right, secret number six is heated floors.

[06:22] If your bathroom is over a garage or an unheated area like a porch, heated floors are such a nice addition to the project. If the cost isn't pushing you beyond your budget, there is nothing

[06:34] like a groggy barefoot walk across a sheet of ice at 3am to really bring this point home. All right, secret number seven is your tile layout.

[06:46] And thinking this through is essential. There's so many Tyler's out there who are very good at both aspects of tile. The first is function and the second aesthetics. But executing the skill of laying tile and knowing what's going to look

[07:02] best are not the same thing. So you need to decide ahead of time how the floor will look best when you're entering the room. So if you start laying tile from the far back corner,

[07:15] which can seem logical from a workflow standpoint, you could end up with tiny slivers of tile at the entry point or worse, just extra wide sections of grout to cover the gap between that last tile

[07:27] and the threshold. The same thing applies to your shower walls. Let's say you start on the left of a wall with a whole tile without considering what this will mean on the right of that same wall.

[07:39] It might be perfectly fine functionally, but it's probably going to look bad unless you get really lucky with the math side of things. All right, last thing on the tile front is you need to talk through the orientation of your tile,

[07:53] especially if the shapes are somewhat unique. Please don't just assume that your Tyler knows that you want the hexagon tile to set up at an angle instead of setting it square with the entry door

[08:06] because they'll just do it and you'll walk in and discover that it's done and you can't do anything about it now. All right, secret number eight, niche design. This is a big one. You know, contractors often have one guy do all of the framing for the shower

[08:21] and then another guy tile. There are some tile guys who will also frame out the niche themselves, but they often don't consider what it's going to look like when they do the niche ahead of time

[08:33] and then just start tiling up to it. Designing the height as you are tiling is really the only way to guarantee that whole tiles above and below with no cuts or tiny little slivers are left on the top or the bottom of the niche.

[08:48] It's the only way to do it for it to look really good. Okay, secret number nine, pedestal sinks are beautiful, but they are a pain because they come with no storage. So you might be able to get away with them in a powder bath,

[09:02] but again, you're going to find that all of the extra toilet paper or cleaning supplies need to be stored somewhere else. So I would encourage you to really think through this one in a primary bath or even a hall bath.

[09:15] Pedestal sinks really do not provide enough storage whatsoever, unless you have a pretty significant bathroom linen closet in your bathroom. You know, you need to rethink the pedestal sink because it comes with no storage and foregoing

[09:30] storage in a bathroom. Is that really, really big? No, no. All right, secret number 10, demo and dust. There will be dust and there will be lots of it. One of the most important things you can do because of that is to turn off your HVAC system

[09:46] on demo day and also on any like drywall repair days where guys are sand and now that drywall to get that nice smooth surface, that dust goes everywhere. So turn off your HVAC system. That'll do a couple of things. Number one,

[10:00] the air return is literally pulling the dust all around your house and distributing it evenly. You will find dust for months on surfaces after demo day if you do not remember to turn off

[10:12] your HVAC system. The second reason is just for the health of your HVAC system. It's not good for construction dust to be sucked into it. You know, those filters just aren't designed to handle

[10:24] construction debris. The second way to mitigate dust after the HVAC system is to set up plastic walls. You can use those tent pole things that fasten the plastic to the ceiling and close off those doors

[10:41] with the plastic until all that dust settles. And I also want to say if you want to really, really make sure that the dust is gone from your home. Get your duck work professionally cleaned out. Okay, secret number. We had 11. Bathroom renovation costs. This is probably the biggest secret

[10:58] because there's so much information out there. A lot of times you can find home bloggers that will talk about how much their bathroom renovation cost. I find it always interesting because they only tell you how much the materials cost and not the labor. And that is really just one piece of the pie.

[11:16] Labor is a lot in a bathroom renovation. It's a lot in a kitchen renovation. So today we're going to give you actual numbers, labor and materials and ways to save money. So you'll really have a

[11:28] pretty realistic idea of how much a bathroom renovation will cost you. These numbers assume that you are changing the footprint. You are doing a nice high-end renovation. So for powder or half

[11:40] bathrooms, you can expect labor materials to spend between 7 and 11,000. That's what we're seeing. For full bathrooms, like a kids' bathroom, you can expect to spend about 20 to 30,000. And then for

[11:52] large primary bathrooms where you are changing the footprint, getting all new everything, you can expect to spend between $55,000 and $70,000. That's right. The biggest factor that's going to push your costs up are going to be like major layout alterations in the bathroom. Are you relocating

[12:10] your tub or your shower? What about your toilet or your vanities? Each one of these items is going to come with significant plumbing costs because you've got to relocate both the supply lines and the drain lines for these. So it typically involves some removal of subfloor if your house is on a slab

[12:28] or the bathroom is on that level where there's a slab. You have to cut that concrete to run those lines. Very often, there's drywall removal as well from underneath sometimes if it's an upstairs

[12:40] bathroom to remove the ceiling of the first floor and all of that subfloor, that drywall, that concrete, it's got to get put back so that adds costs as well. But let's say you're not moving things around too

[12:53] much but just making a few minor changes. Even a shower expansion is going to incur higher plumbing costs than simply sticking with the footprint you have. Like let's say you're going to bump your

[13:05] shower out from a 36 inches wide to 40 inches wide. Well now your shower heads no longer centered. So your plumber's got to relocate that. The drain is no longer centered for that the shower pan. So

[13:18] he's going to have to move that to get that centered to get the adequate fall for the water to drain properly. So all of those types of things even though their minor are going to add plumbing costs. All right now what about if you're switching from a built-in style tub like an alcove tub or

[13:34] a garden tub like we mentioned to a freestanding tub and it's in the exact same spot. Shouldn't you save money that way? Well the odds that your new tubs drain location are going to be in the exact

[13:47] spot needed for that new freestanding tub are next to zero. So it's probably going to add cost to the plumbing as well. Now money saving options of course the obvious one is to do all the work yourself

[13:59] line up all the trades yourself. However this can quickly become a nightmare from a workflow and timing perspective. And that comes with its own set of costs too. So if something is done slightly

[14:11] out of order this is going to significantly extend the length of the project. Yeah and it can also add costs if somebody say you finish paint before tile goes in. You're going to end up having to do

[14:24] touch-up paint. Another issue you're going to have if you do decide to act as your own GC is that you're going to have to find reliable trades like for demo, for plumbing, tiling, electrical, HVAC.

[14:37] You've got to find a good carpenter, a drywaller, a painter, shower glass installers. The list goes on. If you've got all those connections already gray but finding all those different subs to manage

[14:50] can be a source of a lot of frustration. Now of course too you can do all of the work yourself. I think that if you're fairly handy and you like to use YouTube University you could probably do your own electrical plumbing all of that. I think the thing that homeowners typically run into that's

[15:06] a little bit too challenging though is the glass shower installation that is probably going to be something you sub out and also plumbing can be a little challenging as well. So just something to think about as you are trying to save money on bathroom renovation costs. Okay let's talk about some

[15:23] specific ways that you can save money with design. Now I love sconces. A lot of people opt for sconces in a bathroom renovation. It's just a really nice even glow in the space but if you have those overhead lights and you want to change the location of your electrical boxes that's going to add costs

[15:39] you're potentially bringing in an electrician doing it yourself. So keep things where they are. Another thing to think about is smaller tiles cost more from a labor perspective. So if you're trying to save money opt for a much larger tile than like a penny tile or a small hexagonal tile.

[15:57] Now we mentioned this before but you can simply re-face your garden tub and this is going to significantly cut down on plumbing costs and you won't have to buy a new tub in the process. Now for walk-in showers to save money tile is the expensive part here so you can save money by using one

[16:11] of those prefab shower pans. Some of them actually look pretty good. It's not the tired old off-white plasticky pans that you're used to that you probably have in mind so consider that if you're trying to save money in your shower. Now I know I'll get a lot of heat for saying that subway

[16:27] tile is a great option because a lot of people seem to have a very negative view of subway tile. However it's timeless, it's incredibly inexpensive and it looks great and it's something that you can

[16:40] easily install yourself so that's a great way to save money and still get an updated look in the process. Finally using vanities that you can buy from Home Depot, Lowe's, those are great ways to save money. A lot of them come with gorgeous marble or quartz tops, plenty of storage, a lot of different

[16:59] colors so this is a great way to save money because when you start going custom and adding your own vanity top it gets a little expensive. So I think that's all we want to say. That wraps up this

[17:11] video on bathroom renovation secrets. If you're renovating your bathroom I strongly recommend that you watch the other video I did on this of what's it called bathroom design mistakes so I will just put

[17:23] that one in the link below but thanks for watching. Thank you.