I thought I would start a new bathroom foreum/message so I could go to one spot during my remodel! I have tried to find answers on DIY but I guess I'm not looking in the right spots. So I hope you don't mind that I just go here thru my reno to get answers. I am planning a total remodel of my bathroom in May. I will be totally gutting it from ceiling and walls down to the joists. Just to give a little info: I have owned my home for over 14 years and I have never really completed one room to my liking so Bathroom starts the process! Hoping to post pictures! I have a budget of $15k and I will be the contractor for all of the demo and sheetrock, flooring, tile etc. I have worked in construction my whole life, tile was my forte with Dad but I've been in a commercial construction office for the last 10 years. Not very big on rough carpentry, mostly I did Finished work, but I know enough to be dangerous! I have picked a plumber and an electrician and requested quotes. I have had many spring leaks from the copper piping because we have alot of iron in our water, plus I think whomever did my piping used heating copper? Anyway, I want to replace everything with a new type of piping, not copper. (my bad that I don't know the name of it!) I just received my estimate and it is for $4,300.00!! Yikes. I am purchasing all of the finished fixtures and the appliances, and new tankless water heater, and he is doing all of the plumbing over w/new pipes and pulling my permits. Also gave me a price to replace my water tank (I have a well) and the piping for that is adding $950.00, so the total estimate is $5,250.00. Does this sound right? Usually I have only been off by a few hundred on my estimates and his estimate is $3k more than mine! my bathroom is only 12x10. I know I have to get another price but I can't imagine that I am that far off. Should I use the new piping or go with copper? I don't want to ever worry about spring leaks again and is this the cost of worry free?

Odds are the 'new' piping you are referring to is called 'Pex". It's a plastic pipe, often in red or blue colors but also comes in white. Pex is great stuff, uses very few fittings and typically costs about 20% of the cost of copper installed.

Impossible to give an accurate answer as to your pricing - depends on how much you are really doing. If you are just doing plumbing in the bathroom, then $4,300 sounds a little steep - but it could be in line if you bath has many fixtures, multiple shower jets etc. $950 to install a water heater and plumbing could be in line - here too, just too hard to really say without more info.

Where you live makes a big difference too - different parts of the country can vary greatly as to remodeling costs.

That's what I thought, about the new pipe being less than copper. By the way I live in Massachusetts so
it is costly but not as high as CA. I know this man is a master plumber and is a friend of a friend, but
business is business! If I pay him the full amount I will have to revise my bathroom plans. I will get
a quote from another plumber to check. Thanks for the info! I'm so glad I have someone to talk to about construction. Most of the people I work with do Commercial construction and they sub everything out.

I have another question on pricing. I received a verbal quote on a glass door and a 1/2 wall of glass. I have attached a picture of a similar stall shower,(The door would be attached to a solid frame and not glass, so I would have less glass on mine!)and I estimated $1,200.00 and they said by how I described it, it would be more like $2,000. maybe more. Sorry to ask so much about pricing but these are things I never had to do before and I have nothing to compare it to. Thanks again!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Angel927down,

There has to be some info missing, that price on rough plumbing is way high.
With that budget and that small a room you could have top of the line everything and still come out less then that.
Why not do some of the work yourself?

The glass wall and door in the pic would easily run $2,000. I'd expect it to be closer to $3,000.

Frameless glass doors are very expensive. They are custom made to conform to any slight 'out of square' conditions in your bath and the fittings are low volume - so they are very expensive for even a small piece. The glass is cut, drilled and polished and then tempered.

It can be less expensive to use a framed door, but still pricey.

Sorry but I have tried twice to send a message and it states error. I am sending a smaller message to see if I'm just to wordy! Anyway, I am doing like 95% of the work so I figured let someone else do the plumbing! That is something I never ever wanted to do. You would think it would be easy when you only have to find ONE contractor!! I am going to get a few more quotes. He did say he hates doing paperwork so maybe he's just over doing it or trying to cover worst case scenerio. I hope to find out. Im planning on getting two more quotes anyway just to be sure. The only other thing I can think of is he raised his price because he really doesn't want to do the job?? well, I found the tile I want this weekend, and I need to get one more quote on the glass inclosure and 3 quotes on refinishing my clawfoot tub. Then I can start ordering my equipment. Fun fun!! I'm a little scared (only about doing the stall shower floor!) but I'm excited. Can't wait! Thanks! I'm going to try again to attach my inspiration room. Hopefully it will look something like this!!

I know it's just me but anyone wanting a bathroom that fancy and wanting to spend that much money on one bathroom is spending way to much time in the bathroom.

$15K is a fairly modest budget for a higher-end bathroom. Much more than a basic bath, but not a bad price if you can pull in a nice bath for that price. I know we did two fairly small bathrooms for a client where the final tab came in around $45K for both. They were happy.

I am doing 90% of the work and I have done/worked in finished construction and tile for a long time and I have never had the opportunity to do a my own bathroom. I only have the one bathroom and I want it perfect so I will not have to touch this again for another 15 to 20 years!! LOL. And just to let Joe know ~ The picture I sent is just an "inspiration" so if my bathroom comes out even close to that for 15K I will be so thrilled! Call me crazy but I want to go into my bathroom and say "OMG this is amazing and I did it!" I can't wait!!
Thanks!

Angel, how are ya?

I just finished the shower pan on the new bathroom I had roughed in two years ago. Go for it, get lots of quote for your rough ins. I got six different quotes for the same things: move a sink, toilet, and radiator in an existing 1st floor bath as well as running new copper and drains for the new bath in the 2nd floor. I got quotes from 4300 to 15000, I went with the 4300, did all the other work myself and so far everything is great! I doubled the space in the 1st floor bath by taking out 3 closets and moving the radiator. The second floor bath is about 7 by 14 and makes for my wife's woman cave. She is delighted, I may have some tile questions for you in the next couple of days. By the way, the plumer put in an entire new stack for no extra charge, good thing too as the old stack was clogged between the 1st and 2 nd floors, there was no vent, a good two feet of compacted debris. So, you never know what you're gonna get, I say you go girl, happy demo!

Wave

Hi Wave! Thanks for confidence boost! I am totally excited about this! Wow! sounds like you had a ton more work than I'm doing. My house is only one level and we only have the one bathroom so we have a large camper outside to use for the two weeks I plan for the remodel to take. I'm so glad the plumbing is the only thing I have to sub out. I can do the electric and of course the tile and construction. I'm just worried about what we will find when we open up the walls! For instance, I see the ceiling over the sink is starting to look very funny and droopy? I think I have yet another leaky pipe! This is one of the main reasons I am changing all of the pipes. We have really hard water and we have had several pipe leaks. God forbid the pipes could wait for another month until I start the remodel!! It's always something! Not sure how much help I can be with Tile questions-Definitely ask! I haven't done this for a living in about 7 years and only do it for friends or family, so I'm kind of old school. There are so many new, weird things out there to use! I believe simplicity is usually the best way! Good luck to you too! Thanks!

I'm wondering what adhesive to use to tile a shower, the guys at the store told me to use porcelain mortar, not ceramic mortar. Is this correct? I have been very meticulous thus far band I do not want to make a mistake on the last step.

I typically use Flex bond II. It comes in white
also. I don't know if they now have specific mortar for ceramic tile and porclain, maybe jaybee or Joe can answer that. To me it depends on the application. If your tiling a backsplash I would use the pre-made mastic if you tiling a shower use cement board and flex bond. This is me-old school! I know they have a ton of other stuff to use. In researching this I have seen where they use a membrane type material to seal all of the joints in a shower. This I'm still researching to see if this is the way to go or is it just another ploy to spend more money. I typically put the mortar into every joint first to give a seal before I start tiling. If your using a natural stone you need to seal it with at least two coats of impregnator 511 or something similar. There are so many new products! I liked this one because it real penetrated the tile and didn't come off when you grout. Like I said, Me ~ Old school. I have been out of the tile circle for a while, but I have not had one person come back and say, it leaked!! I just think if you use your common sense with it, and do the research, you should do fine. It's good to watch some of the videos of holmes on homes and I have also been going thru videos on U-tube of different applications before tiling. It's amazing how many different ways there are. It's just deciding which way works for you. I hope that helped a little!

I have durock on the walls, I used thin set and fiberglass mesh, green, to tape and seal the seams, they were about 3/16 inch thick. I did a good job, made sure I had mounting, wood stud, behind both panels along all seams, so the walls are tight. There's about 1 1/2 inches of bed snugging the bottoms tight, the last screw is 12in above the liner bottom. Some videos express using silicon caulk to seal the 90's all around, what do you think?

Sounds like you got it all together and ready to go! Did you use the Ditra Mesh? I've seen a few different types of pre-tile flooring and wall applications but the ditra one I've seen them use a lot on Holmes on Homes. I don't know yet what I am going to use. I only have so much money for the remodel and I have to stretch every dollar. Even my Plumber's dollars! LOL! Remember when I said I think we have a leak?? Well I decided to take the sheet rock down today and get this fixed even though I know we are planning the remodel next month. OMG! My Honey cut into the sheet rock and it looked like about 5 GALLONS of water came out! Thank God it was right over the toilet and we just opened it and let it fall in! It was actually pretty funny! I wish I had my video camera! To make a long story short, we got it fixed for now. I'm so glad we caught this before it got worse! Well~It might be worse. I won't know until I take down all of the walls next month. That was a different Easter for us!

My parents had a similar situation in their kitchen, the whole was about 3 ft by 3 ft till it was done, it took about 2 weeks for them to find the leak, turned out to be the shower pan.

I've done about half the tile, using 12 by 12 on the walls, it's lookin pretty good so far, I like the look of tile before the grout goes in.

How'd the tile come out wave? I wish I was at that point. The prep work just to get everything ordered is tough when not everyone is as helpful!! Anyway I have a question for both Jaybee and JoeCaption. As I do love to do things the correct way, It upsets me that when you pull a permit, they want to know how much you are spending so they can get a percentage. Is this the same for when you are NOT doing any structural changes and just remodeling a bathroom? I am buying some expensive stuff only because I don't want to do this again anytime soon!! The whole purpose of doing my remodel is because of piping leaks. So the plumber is going to pull the permits for the new plumbing,new water tank and the tankless water heater. My question is, if the inspector comes in and does his thing, he might ask if I have a building permit and I don't feel I should be required as the home owner doing the work to get a permit since I am not doing any structural changes? Is this correct? Thanks,

This will be a hard question to answer correctly as building permit rules will vary greatly across the country and even from one town to another. In most cases, repair work can be done without pulling a permit. Also, cosmetic changes like tile work, painting, trim etc. rarely need a permit, except in the most anal of jurisdictions. The tricky part is that if you call your local code department to ask if your project requires a permit, the answer is almost always 'yes'.

I think the best course of action for you would be to ask your local plumber. Since he is involved in the project and has dealt with the code department in the past, he can likely give you the most accurate answer.

You confirmed my feelings exactly. Certain things I agree with, I know they have laws and you need to pull permits on major things like plumbing and propane changes, major electrical and building structures so it protects you when you don't know what your doing. But I have done finished construction off and on my whole life and have worked with all kinds of professions and watched them closely. I know enough about each trade to be dangerous! I will be starting construction in 3 weeks. I'm a little nervous in what I am going to find in the walls. Mold I can deal with Termites I will freak! I will take pictures and post them as I go. thanks for being here!!

I'm back! Had lots of issues and still do with ordering my finishing fixtures, some people have no sense of customer service, but I am still moving on. My Honey and I gutted the entire bathroom, found some rotten wood and we are replacing it and the plumber is on his way to an open floor to put in the new plumbing.
I have a question for Jaybee and or Joe, I want to go with closed cell spray foam insulation and in talking with the owner of one company he stated he can spray the inside of my roof in the bathroom area. We removed all of the piping and insulation that was overhead. Long story but they did that so the crawl space would stop freezing the pipes and there were leaks anyway so nasty insualation with plastic was gross and I like the fact of doing the walls and underflooring with the closed cell but I'm not so sure of under the roof. He was talking that I should do the open cell in the roof. It would just be the bathroom. They built this like an addition so there are 3 walls not touching the existing house. We can block off the bathroom to the rest of the attic so no cold air can come in, then he can do the walls all the way up and then the roof. In doing this I am assuming I will NOT have to use any insualtion over the new ceiling. I live in New England so It can get awfully cold. What are you experiences with this? Thanks,
Nancy