How Long Does a Bathroom Remodel Take?

One of the best ways to breathe new life into your home is with a bathroom remodel. Bathrooms are rarely the most attention-grabbing rooms in your home — it’s not likely that you’re going to be hosting any parties or social gatherings there. However, the condition of your bathroom says a lot about your home as a whole and has a greater impact on your day and your guests than you probably think. 

When homeowners don’t know where to start with bathroom remodeling, they can get confused and overloaded with time management and scheduling. This is understandable, as bathroom remodels require a group of specialists from a varying number of trades to come in and do their part.

Every bathroom is different and their remodel timeline can vary wildly, however even a rough understanding of the stages and timelines of a bathroom remodel is the first step in realizing the remodel schedule.

How to Plan a Bathroom Remodel

Personalize Your Bathroom Style

With a bathroom remodel, you can bring more pleasure and satisfaction into your life. So, imagine how you want to feel in your restroom, and don’t forget the rest factor. Picture yourself starting the day looking into a frameless mirror, inside your sleek, modern bathroom, with its floating bathroom vanity, and a stylized rectangular bathtub with a minimalist faucet. Or imagine finishing off a long workday with a soothing hot bath in a classic claw-foot tub, with subtle cottage lighting, and elegant dressers covered in ornate carvings.

Personalize Your Bathroom Style

The choice is yours, so channel your inner interior designer, start looking through some styles that attract you, and create a mood board.  This leads us to the very first steps of the bathroom renovation.

Pre-Construction Period: 1-4 weeks

The foundation of any successful remodel is planning and lots of it. To be fair, “planning” is a very general term to describe everything you will be considering in a bathroom remodel. It goes far beyond picking floor tiles and the shape of the mirror to include aesthetics, budget, and functionality.

The First Stages of a Bathroom Remodel

Before you can even think about how to remodel a bathroom, you should consider the purpose of that particular bathroom and why you’re remodeling it. It’s very common for modern households to have more than one bathroom, like a master bedroom with half bathrooms or a powder room for the guests. Ask yourself the following questions to help you understand the purpose of your remodel:

1. How am I going to use this bathroom after the remodeling?
2. How often is it going to be used?
3. Is it for quick bathroom breaks or do I plan on taking long baths in there?
4. Is this a design remodel or a function remodel?
5. Do I simply need to update the fixtures (plumbing, toilet, faucet, light fixtures, etc.)?
6. Is this remodel exclusively aimed at updating the aesthetic and appearance?

These are only the most fundamental questions you will be asking yourself before the renovation. The more you get into the process of remodeling, the more questions will begin to pile up, but so will some of the answers. 

Once you figure out the purpose and goals of your bathroom remodeling project, you then have to calculate the costs of the remodel. Do this early on, so you don’t finish meticulously designing and planning your future bathroom only to realize it goes beyond your budget. Speak with a licensed contractor, who will in turn consult with plumbers, electricians, and other specialists to give you a rough estimate of how much the remodel is going to cost.

Bathroom Remodel Timeline

Working with your interior designer and plumbing engineer, you will then plan the layout, what bathroom features will go where, what materials and colors are going to be used, and the styles of the features, from the shower to the vanity.

Depending on how extensive the remodel is going to be and how many bathrooms are going to be remodeled, planning can take anywhere from one to four weeks. This may seem like a wide margin, but when you consider how many steps there are to plan, this number starts to make sense.

Demolish and Build: 4-7 weeks

Demolishing the old and building your new bathroom will take anywhere from four to seven weeks. This depends on what will be changed, added, and fixed. For a major bathroom renovation, around six to seven weeks may be required. But do keep in mind that this scheduling can depend on the type of builders and contractors you’re working with, as well, as more experienced professionals will work faster. Different contractors work at a different pace and every remodeling project is going to have its own nuances. 

What Your Bathroom Remodel Timeline Might Look Like

Before the building and remodeling can begin, the old features must be demolished. It would be nice to work around some of the old bathroom features, like the shower or toilet, however for a complete remodel, they have to go. 

1. Draining (less than 1 day): Getting rid of all water in any of the pipes, toilets, tubs, and sinks. It’s important to keep the work area dry.
   
   
2. Removing (about 1 day): The toilet, tub, sink, and other bathroom features are removed, along with any cabinets, drawers, shelves, mirrors, or vanities. Everything must go.
   
   
3. More Removing (about 1 day): The demolition team then breaks the tiling, the wall insulation (if it needs to be removed), and any other part of the bathroom that is getting replaced.
   
   
4. Old Insulation (1 day): With the walls, floors, and ceiling opened up, this gives the insulation workers the ideal window of opportunity to put in the new insulation after removing the old one.
   
   
5. New Systems (4 days): Open walls mean the plumbers and electricians can now change out old pipes, put in new wires, add power outlets, and ensure that all the systems are working properly.
   
   
6. Surfaces (6 days): Tilers and painters are tasked with retiling and repainting the walls, floor, and ceiling. Once all the surfaces have been renewed and all the pipes and electric outlets are functioning as they should be the new bath or shower is brought in.
   
   
7. Shower/Bath Unit (1 day): As it's the biggest bathroom feature, it has to be done separately from all the rest. Even a small miscalculation could require the piping layout to be changed to accommodate for the shower or bath unit. 
   
   
8. Toilet and Vanity (1 day): After being attached to the piping and checked, the toilet is fastened into place. The vanity then follows, along with the mirror.
   
   
9. Bathroom Furniture (1 - 2 days): Other pieces of furniture like cabinets and drawers are also brought in, as are decor elements.
   
   
10. Final Touches (less than a day - 1 day): Attention to detail is what makes the difference between a little redecorating and a top-down remodel. Use silicon to clog up any gaps under the toilet, vanity, and shower or tub, brush up any extra bits of tile glue, and start adding your personal touches. These final touches are the small details that bring everything together.

Tips

Modern Bathroom Remodel Tips

While it’s always recommended to leave the heavy-duty installations and lifting to the professionals, being able to check off DIY home improvement projects on your to-do list is a very useful skill to have. Knowing your way around a bathroom remodel can equip you with the tools to tackle any future projects you may have. Get familiar with the tools and materials needed for a bathroom remodel, learn how they work, and how to operate them. Learn as much as you can from this experience, even if most of the responsibilities are on the professionals.

Work closely with your contractor and interior designer. One of the major benefits of doing a bathroom remodel yourself is that you can bring your vision closer to reality. With contractors and interior designers, however, there’s a bit more guesswork involved. Professional designers and architects are trained in the craft of understanding their clients’ visions. They work to deliver results that are as close to the expectations of their clients as possible, but they can’t read your mind. So if you wish to have the kind of remodel you’ve always dreamed of, open communication with your contractors and interior designers is key.

The Benefits of Consulting With an Interior Designer During a Bathroom Remodel

Hammering down your bathroom remodel costs as early as possible is crucial to your project’s success. Budget calculation is a very important part of the pre-construction stage and an integral part of planning. Even small bathroom renovations can get a bit pricey. In California, the average cost of a bathroom remodel ranges from $14,000 to $18,000. This pricing mostly depends on the scale of the remodel and the size of the bathroom. Bathroom floor and decor aren’t necessarily costly to remodel, but if it covers a large master bathroom, the full bathroom remodels cost can go past the $20,000 mark. So plan early so you can avoid any unwanted financial surprises during the remodel.

Many older bathrooms come with a lack of power outlets. Remodeling is the perfect time to add a few extra outlets to give you extra room to work with your devices. You can even install smart outlets that come with USB slots that allow you to charge your phone while you shower.

Having a general idea of what to expect from your bathroom remodel is always helpful to be both technically and mentally prepared. It may seem like a lot of work at first, but once you get the feel for DIY and have all the right specialists by your side, you can turn any standard bathroom into a little piece of paradise inside your house.