How much does bathroom remodeling cost? 

According to Forbes, the average American home spends around $10,000 on their bathroom remodel.

The more ”budget-friendly" version, as they called it, is around $2,500. 

Experts believe you should take your home's value, then work out what 10% of it is. That’s apparently how much your bathroom remodeling should cost. The reason for that? Because it is one of the most-used rooms in the home. 

If your home is worth $250,000, then you should aim for a bathroom remodel of around $25,000, according to experts. It sounds like a lot of money - and it is - but with the right tweaks and installations, a well-remodeled and cared-for bathroom will add thousands to your home's value. 

As a general rule, you can expect to pay between $120 to $300 per square foot of your bathroom. If you have a bathroom that has a floor space of 72 square feet, you’ll be looking at $8,640 to $21,600. 

Materials, labor, and a number of other factors will raise (or lower) the cost. 

What should you do first in your bathroom remodel? 

One of the very first things you should do when remodeling any room in your home is find out where the important walls are — wet walls. These are walls with wet pipes behind them. You’ll want to avoid smashing those walls - and those pipes - with demolition tools if you want to avoid flooding, leaks, or costly repairs to plumbing pipes. 

Closely following learning where the plumbing pipes are, make sure that you know where the electrical system goes behind the walls of your bathroom. 

How to keep bathroom remodeling costs down

You might think that doing the job yourself is the best way to keep bathroom remodeling costs down, but that's often not the case. In fact, homeowners often report a DIY job costing them more than what contractors originally quoted them. 

There are quite a few reasons for this: 

1 - You're not taking into account your time in the quote. When you hire a contractor, you are hiring them to give your property their undivided attention. 

2 - You may not have the right tools and equipment for the job. You’ll need to buy them, which means a drive to the local hardware store; or order them online, which means a delay as you wait for the parts to arrive. All of these things are driving the price up more — gas, shipping, parking costs, paying for all of the other things you didn't need while you’re on the quest to find the things you do…

3 - Tradesmen often get parts cheaper than the average consumer can pick them up for. What you might save in doing the installation, repair, or full bathroom remodel yourself, could end up costing you more in terms of paint, plaster, tiles, and other items you might need. 

Hiring a professional, or team of professionals, is the best way to ensure that your job is done properly, the first time, without a bunch of unnecessary visits (and, therefore, costs), using reliable and reputable materials, and completed with a full guarantee/warranty that covers you for long after the contractors have left.

What shouldn't you do when remodeling your bathroom? 

Don’t dive straight into the bathroom remodel without having a plan first. That is a disaster waiting to happen, especially when it comes to trying to make materials fit in places where it just isn't possible, or worth it. 

You will want to do some serious research before attempting any kind of DIY job, and there will be a certain amount of research required even if you hire a contractor, or team of contractors. This isn't the kind of job where you can just "wing it”. That's the fastest way to burn the place down/put an entire family at risk/cause actual structural and stability problems with the property. 

How to hire the best bathroom remodeling contractor

To start with, ask lots of questions. If you have a question about your bathroom remodel, write it down and ask your remodeling advisor the next time you speak to him. 

A good company will want to make sure that your mind is put at ease at every step of the journey. They not only want repeat custom from you at some point in the future, they want you to tell your friends, family members, colleagues about them, because positive word-of-mouth is the most powerful type of advertising in the world. 

Ask lots of questions. Make sure you have some semblance of a plan - and not just in your mind. Jot it down and see how it looks on paper. Is there room for everything? Have you measured everything?