Two questions decide whether you call anybody: what does this cost, and how long will my house have one less bathroom. Most contractors answer the first with "it depends" and the second with a season. Below is the bathroom remodel cost in three tiers, and the honest list of what blows a schedule — with what we do when one of them happens to you.
Book a free walkthrough · See tub-to-shower conversions
If you are in Kirkland, there is a page for that specifically: bathroom remodel, Kirkland WA. Everywhere else we go is on the service area page.
Three budgets, and what each one buys
| Band | Scope | What changes | What stays put |
|---|---|---|---|
| $ | Refresh — same layout | Tub surround retiled, new vanity with a stone top, new toilet, faucet, mirror, light, paint | Every pipe and drain stays where it is |
| $$ | Full remodel — same layout | Down to the studs in the wet wall, new pan and waterproofing, tile floor, glass door, vanity, exhaust fan | Toilet, sink and shower stay in their current spots |
| $$$ | Layout change | Tub out, curbless shower in, fixtures moved, new supply and drain runs, heated floor, permit | The room, and usually the window |
These marks describe how much of the room moves, not a slab. It is the same shorthand the pricing page explains for stone, borrowed here for scope. At the walkthrough we tell you which band your bathroom is in, and the written quote after it carries the actual figure, itemized.
Two things move a bathroom between those rows faster than anything else: whether a drain has to move, and whether the shower gets glass. Moving a drain means opening the floor and, in most Eastside cities, a permit. Frameless glass is measured after the tile is set, then ordered.
A smaller room does not automatically mean a smaller number. A hall bath the size of a parking space still needs the same waterproofing, the same trades and the same fixture count — you are just buying less tile.
What that number includes, and what it does not
Included in every bid we write: floor and stair protection on the route in; demolition and haul-away of the old tub, tile, vanity and flooring; waterproofing behind and under everything that gets wet; tile, grout and caulk; a stone vanity top cut in our own shop; setting your fixtures and reconnecting the water; and a swept room at the end of every day.
Not included, and priced separately when they apply:
- Fixtures and tile above the allowance line on your bid
- Rot, mold or failed subfloor found on demolition day
- Testing for asbestos or lead in houses built before the eighties
- Moving a wall, a window or a vent stack
- New electrical circuits — that is a licensed electrician, and it is its own line
The bid is itemized, so you can lay it next to another contractor's and read them line by line.
Timeline: what we promise, and what we refuse to promise
A bathroom is not a countertop. A countertop is measured, cut and set, and the shop controls almost all of it. A bathroom depends on a city permit desk, a tile warehouse and whatever is behind your tub. The part we control, we date. The part we do not, we name in advance.
What genuinely pushes bathrooms past their date:
- Permit review. A layout change needs one, and the city takes as long as the city takes.
- Tile and glass lead times. Special-order tile ships when it ships. Shower glass cannot be ordered until the tile is set, because it is measured off the finished walls.
- What is behind the tub. Rot in the subfloor, a valve that has been dripping into the framing for years, old galvanized pipe that crumbles when it is touched.
- Walls that are not square or plumb. Normal in older houses, and it costs a day.
- A backordered vanity or a fixture that shows up damaged.
What we commit to instead of a fantasy schedule:
- You get a written stage-by-stage schedule before demolition starts — demo, rough-in, inspection if there is one, waterproofing, tile, grout, fixtures, glass, walkthrough.
- We do not open your wall until the tile is physically in our shop. Waiting with a working bathroom beats waiting with a gutted one.
- The day a date moves, you hear it from us that day, with the new date and the reason. Not at the end of the week, and not after you call twice.
- One name and one mobile number for the whole job, and a text update every week until it is done — including the weeks when there is nothing new to say.
- If we damage something in your house, we repair or replace it at our cost. That sentence is in the contract, not just on this page.
How many days you are without the room
A bathroom is not a countertop: it is a sequence of trades where each one has to cure before the next one starts. Waterproofing has to be water-tested. Grout has to set before it is sealed. Nobody can compress that, and anyone who promises to is planning to skip a step.
So instead of a number on a web page, you get a written day-by-day schedule at the walkthrough — which day the room goes out of service, which days the toilet is out, and which day you get it back. It is written down before demolition starts, and if a day moves, you hear it from us the day it moves.
If it is the only bathroom in the house, say so at the walkthrough. We sequence the job differently, set the toilet back at the end of the days we can, and tell you straight which nights you will want to be somewhere else. What we will not do is find out on demolition day.
Who is actually in your house
Our own crew does demolition, framing repairs, waterproofing, tile, the stone tops, the vanity and the fixture set, and it moves supply and drain lines inside the room. That is the plumbing we do, and the plumbing page says plainly where it stops.
New electrical circuits go to a licensed electrician, and so does anything touching gas. We book them, we pay them, they work to our schedule, and you never chase a number we gave you. The same crew is there from the first day to the last.
Stone is our day job, and your bathroom gets that
We are a countertop shop that also remodels bathrooms, not a bath franchise that subcontracts stone. The vanity top, the shower curb, the bench, the niche shelf and the window sill get cut from one slab, in one shop, by the people who templated them. A vanity top is small enough that a remnant piece often covers it — see the price tier.
Questions people ask about bathroom remodel cost
What warranty do you give?
One year on our workmanship, counted from the day we install. That covers the things we control: the seam, the fit, the sink attachment, the edge, the level. The stone itself is a separate matter — it carries the manufacturer's own warranty, and that document goes to you on install day so it lives with your house papers.
What is the average cost of a bathroom remodel in Washington State?
Statewide averages mix a Spokane hall bath with a Medina master, so they are close to useless. On the Eastside, the three bands above are what we write quotes against, and the biggest single swing is whether fixtures move.
What is a realistic budget for a bathroom remodel?
Take the band that matches the work you want, get the written quote, then hold back about a tenth of it for what shows up behind the tub. If the money only works with no surprises, it does not work yet.
Is $10,000 enough for a bathroom remodel?
That figure is the search query, not our price. In this market it lands in the refresh band — retiled tub surround, new vanity with a stone top, toilet, faucet, light, paint — as long as nothing moves and nothing is rotten. It does not buy a gut with moved plumbing and frameless glass. Anyone who tells you it does is planning to find the rest of the money later. Published market ranges from named sources are in our Washington bathroom cost guide.
What is the 30% rule in remodeling?
The rule of thumb that a single remodel should not run past about a third of the home's value. It is a lending idea, not a building one. The useful version for a bathroom: compare your budget to what similar houses on your street have sold with, and stop before the bathroom is nicer than the neighborhood.
How much does a small bathroom remodel cost?
Less than a big one, but not proportionally. Labor, waterproofing and fixture count barely change with room size — only the tile quantity does. Small rooms land near the bottom of whichever band they are in, not in a band of their own.
Do you do bathroom remodels near me?
We work in Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Bothell, Sammamish, Issaquah, Renton and Everett. Drive times from the shop are on the service area page, and Kirkland has its own bathroom remodel page.
Next step
If what you actually want is the tub gone and a walk-in shower in its place, that is a smaller job with its own page and its own number.
Book a free walkthrough — call (206) 643-9354. Leave a message and you get a call back the same business day.