A full bathroom remodel for a standard 40 to 60 square foot room lands between $12,000 and $28,000 (£9,000 to £22,000). The range is wide because two thirds of the cost is labour, and labour depends on what the walls hide.
The line items
Demolition and disposal: $800 to $2,000 (£600 to £1,600). More if there is a concrete floor or asbestos-era material.
Plumbing first fix: $1,500 to $4,000 (£1,200 to £3,200). Moving the toilet or shower drain is the expensive decision in any bathroom. Keeping the layout can save a quarter of the total budget.
Electrical: $700 to $2,000 (£550 to £1,600). Lighting, extractor fan, shaver point, underfloor heating connection. Bathrooms have their own wiring rules everywhere, so this is not DIY territory.
Waterproofing: $1,200 to $3,000 (£950 to £2,400). The layer nobody sees and the one that causes the claims when it is skipped. Ask for documentation of the system used.
Tiling: $2,500 to $7,000 (£2,000 to £5,500). Large format tiles cost more to lay. Mosaic costs a lot more. Tile price itself is often the smaller half.
Fixtures and fittings: $2,000 to $8,000 (£1,600 to £6,500). Toilet, basin, vanity, shower or bath, taps, screen. The widest range of anything on the list.
Second fix and finishing: $1,000 to $2,500 (£800 to £2,000). Installing everything, sealing, painting, trims.
Project management and margin: 10 to 20 per cent on top if a single contractor runs the whole job. Worth paying — coordinating six trades yourself is a part-time job.
Where budgets overrun
Hidden damage found at demolition. Rotten joists, old leaks, non-compliant wiring. Set aside 10 to 15 per cent of the budget for this and you will rarely be caught out.
Changing your mind after the first fix. Moving a drain once the floor is closed means opening it again.
Long lead items ordered late. A vanity with a twelve week lead time stalls a job that had three weeks of work left.
How long it takes
Three to six weeks for a full remodel with a single bathroom. Surface-only work — new tiles, fixtures, same layout — can be done in one to two weeks.
Getting comparable quotes
Ask every contractor for the same scope in writing, with waterproofing method, tile allowance and fixture allowance stated separately. Three quotes on the same specification tell you something. Three quotes on three different assumptions tell you nothing.