Table Of Contents
Bathroom remodelling
Bathrooms are the most common part of houses. Most house owners start and finish their day there. Bathroom renovation is one of the most popular home renovations in the modern world. You can give your home a new and fresh look by renovating the bathrooms.
When you plan to renovate the bathroom, there are two main options. You either want to do it with the help of professionals or by yourself. Hiring the professionals will be quite helpful and will often give a better look.
However, if you want to do all the work yourself, you will have to consider a lot. A bathroom renovation will require time, attention, patience, hard work, and money for tools and supplies. With the help of all these things, you can achieve the dream look of the bathroom by yourself.
When you decide to do it yourself, the main problem is that you might not know all the stuff. You might not be an expert in this matter and need proper guidance about performing the job. The guide below is here to assist you with this problem. We have gathered all the information and prepared a step-by-step guide about bathroom renovation.
Cost of a bathroom renovation
Before you begin any renovation-related task, it is better to sit down and check how costly a bathroom renovation can be. Reviewing your budget and planning the renovation is a critical step and a great way to ensure your remodelling is successful.
If you hire professionals to remodel your bathroom, it will cost you between $15,000 and $18,000, on average. However, you can save a couple thousand dollars by performing the task yourself. With all these savings, you will have to welcome the responsibility. When you complete the job by yourself, you will be held responsible for anything that goes wrong.
The cost of DIY bathroom renovation highly depends on the availability of the required tools and materials. You do not have to go and buy everything. Many things are already available in your house, and you can borrow some of them from your friends or neighbours. So, most of the expenses are on the tools and materials that you have to purchase by yourself. You are doing the task yourself, so you do not have to pay for labour.
You can save money by purchasing budget-friendly and cost-effective tools and materials for the renovation. For example, it is unnecessary to buy high-end floor tiles for your bathroom. You can go for the decent ones that have modest rates. You can select the available accessories at a lower cost without compromising on quality. In this way, you will be able to calculate how much it will cost you to complete the entire project.
Planning the bathroom renovation
Once you have calculated the cost and have set up everything according to your budget, move over to the planning phase. Planning the entire task thoroughly before starting ensures everything moves smoothly until completion. The more you work on the planning stage, the easier it gets to execute the ideas you have on paper.
Here’s how you can plan your bathroom renovation to ensure you have covered every important milestone.
Choose the design
Since you are planning to give a new look to your bathroom, you must already have selected an idea in your mind about how you want to do it. Selecting the design for your bathroom is one of the most critical steps in this project.
Select your bathroom design according to your taste and personal preferences. Think about what type of design will work best in the available space. Do not forget to stay within your budgetary limitations.
Here are the typical design elements that you will have to decide.
Colour scheme
Decide the colour scheme of your new bathroom. Decide whether you would like to paint the walls or not. If you plan to change all the bathroom accessories, what colour schemes have you used before, and what experiments would you like to do this time? Select the colour theme with the help of a friend. Take suggestions from some of your artist friends. Do not go for the colour contrasts that clash with each other.
Fixtures
Your budget and plan should include installing new fixtures such as sinks, showers, taps, tubs, and commodes in the bathroom, or you could just want to go with the previous ones.
If you plan to replace some of the old fixtures, check for places to buy them at lower prices. It will help you come up with a budget faster so that you can renovate your bathroom within the limits of your planned budget.
Storage
Decide if you want to add some extra storage space in your bathroom when you renovate it completely. If you do, where will that space be, and does your bathroom area allow you to do so? Storage spaces usually include bathroom closets and other routine-use items storage racks.
Utilities
Plan where you want to locate utilities like electrical wiring and plumbing pipes. Do you wish to replace the existing lighting and plumbing system entirely or keep the previous one as is?
There is also the likelihood that you may want to return some of the wiring and pipes to set them following the bathroom’s new look.
Essential tools and materials
As we discussed this point earlier, most of your budget contains purchase expenses on tools and materials you will need to use in the process. We have made a list of everything that you will need. You can check the list and start collecting everything before starting the main project. It will save you energy and time. You can hire some of the tools as well to save some money.
- Gloves
- Goggles
- Safety mask
- Hammer
- Tape measure
- Spackle knife
- Silicone sealant
- Caulking gun
- Chisel
- Flathead screwdriver
- Adjustable wrench
- Chisel
- Bucket
- Pry bar
- Power drill
- Hacksaw
- Utility knife
- Spackle
- Stud finder
- Chalk line
- Extension cord
Depending on the type of renovation you plan to do in the bathroom, you might need some extra tools. You can take help from your friends, but ensure that they know what is required when doing renovations.
Step-by-step renovation
Now you have your renovation plan in place and have collected all the necessary tools and supplies necessary to start your renovation. It’s high time to move towards the actual task, renovation of your bathroom stepwise. We have written a step-by-step renovation guide to help you navigate the project and see it to completion.
Most people want to perform renovation in their bathroom. First of all, for starting a bathroom renovation, you will have to work with the plumbing system in your house. So, you should make sure that you take help from a plumbing expert if you do not have any experience working with plumbing pipes.
We would recommend you to ask for professional help because you might accidentally damage the plumbing system in your house. If you accidentally damage a plumbing component, you will need to call an emergency plumber to fix the problem.
Steps for remodelling a bathroom
Let’s now move towards the important steps in a bathroom renovation.
Remove the existing bathroom fixtures
If you are renovating your bathroom partially or totally, the first step to start the project is to remove the drywall and all the fixtures you plan to replace. You can renovate the bathroom yourself. It is not a difficult task, but you have to avoid potential mistakes that might be costly during the demolition phase. Listed below are some handy tips and tricks that can assist you in gutting a bathroom.
- First, shut off the water and drain the toilet to avoid unpleasant spills.
- The next step is to eliminate the insulation from the walls if necessary. You should not use a hammer on insulation. Instead, you can utilise a reciprocating saw to cut the panels. Do not forget to wear a safety mask, gloves, and goggles, so you do not harm yourself.
- Now you can remove the vanity, cabinets, mirror, flooring, and all other features you want to replace during the renovation.
Install the new shower or tub
Now it’s time to start installing new fixtures after you have gutted the bathroom. Before moving towards the installation, carefully check the subfloor. If you notice any indicators of water damage or rotten wood, replace it immediately. You can install the new shower without worrying about further damages.
Pick the basin or pan that suits your new décor when planning a shower or tub replacement. Check for the space in the bathroom when you decide the size of your tub. Do not fill up the bathroom with an unnecessary rush of accessories. Choose the shape of the basin after having suggestions from any interior designer or your friends. Basins usually come in rectangular, square, or pentangle shapes.
Check the other features of the bathroom and then decide the bay accordingly. Keep in mind the location of your door while determining the basin’s location in your bathroom space. You can also go for a combined shower and bathtub if you have enough space.
Although walk-in showers are pretty appealing and easy to maintain, to increase the resale value of your house, we would recommend you have at least one bathtub in your bathroom.
Lay the new flooring
When you have prepared the subfloor, it’s time to install the new flooring. Usually, tiles are the most common flooring choice for the bathroom floor. Consider flooring choices like vinyl or lamination. These options are quite budget-friendly, and you can easily handle them yourself.
Mark reference lines perpendicular to the wall using a mason’s chalk. Draw long continuous lines. It will help you keep your tiles in a straight line when you are placing them by yourself without any professional assistance. This will help you avoid re-doing your tiles in the future when you realise they are not aligned.
Hang drywall and start painting
When remodelling a bathroom, you may have to hang new drywall. It is time-consuming because you will have to cut new drywall and fit it around the shower walls, vanity, and other features. Be careful while cutting drywall. The cutting process is the only tricky part.
Once you start nailing up the boards, the work becomes smooth, and you can get through the process quite quickly. After hanging the drywall, the next step is painting the walls and the roof. Painting has been made easy nowadays with the help of rollers. You can easily do it by yourself.
It is most probably one of the most affordable parts of renovating a bathroom. It will give your space a whole new look and freshen up the area. Paint with a semi-gloss finish looks best in bathrooms. This paint is easy to wipe and resistant to moulds and mildew.
Install cabinets and vanity
After you have given proper attention and protocol to the walls and flooring, it’s time to bring in the cabinets and vanity along with another essential item that you want in your bathroom after renovation.
First of all, install the vanity, including the sink and faucet. Bring other things like a mirror, cabinets, and the trim around the shower or tub after you hook up the drain to the faucet.
Update the lighting
Most of the work in your bathroom is done by now. The next step is to configure electrical fixtures and update the lighting in the bathroom. Check the dimensions of your new bulbs and other electrical instruments. If they have different sizes than the previous ones, you will need to replace the wiring and spackle around existing holes in the wall.
You might have to move the power outlets in this step if you have changed the vanity arrangement in your bathroom. For this step, you will need to call an electrician, especially if you have never interacted with the home wiring before this.
Hook up the toilet
When you reach this point, your space will start looking like a bathroom. The only thing missing at this point is your toilet. You have two options in this case; either reinstall the previous one or get a newer one and install it in its place. Doing the toilet installation, in the end, is vital because it saves you from chipping the toilet when working on other bathroom areas.
Hire professionals to handle the renovation for you
The bathroom renovation gives a fresh and newer look to your house. Add finishing touches to the bathroom, and you will feel a bigger accomplishment when you do it by yourself. As you might notice, doing the work yourself, especially if it is the first time, can be quite a chore.
There is a lot that you need to get right; otherwise, making mistakes will cost you in terms of time and money. You could simply hire professionals to handle the work for you. They have all the tools, equipment, and expertise to do the job properly and in the shortest time possible. Go on, call a local expert today, and see your space transformed into a work of art!
