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We live in Maryland, near the Virginia border ... and recently purchased a 100+ year old, 3 bedroom 2 bath home that's been largely rehabbed/remodeled over the last 10-15 years.
As is so often the case though, the previous owner's definition of "updated bathrooms" didn't quite meet our expectations. The upstairs bath looked pretty nice... a couple issues like peeling wood laminate on one cabinet door below the sink, but nothing major.
The main floor bath is another story. The floor has ceramic tile and that's not bad, and the toilet is newer and not a cheapie. But the tub is an older American Standard whirlpool tub that's no longer functional as a whirlpool (power isn't even run to it anymore). It has a 3 piece fiberglass surround around it where the seal has failed, and you can see evidence of black mold around the edges between it and the tub. There's also one of those bathroom fans with a built in heater, light, and night-light (4 switches on the wall for it), with a noisy/dying fan in it and yellowed, slightly burnt looking plastic vents that were clearly once a shade of white.
We ran into a BathPlanet booth at the home show where they talked us into coming out to give us an estimate to tear out the old tub and surround and remodel.
The sales guy was pleasant enough and spent over an hour with us showing us options. We put together something we thought looked excellent using their acrylic surround with a textured marble with simulated tiles and a replacement white bathtub. We went with a curved shower curtain rod vs. a sliding door since that was considerably cheaper. They also agreed to cover the ceiling over the tub with the acrylic material at "no extra charge", which I definitely liked, vs. the idea of water splashes hitting the ceiling drywall.
In the end though? His total quote came out to around $13,000!? They do offer financing so this would be paid out in monthly installments over 60 months. They also have a transferable lifetime warranty on the whole project, which I assume has some value if we went to resell the house in the future. But still, is this price completely out of line -- or actually somewhat in the realm of "expected"??
I did some Google searches on the BathPlanet franchise and generally saw a lot of good reviews of their work. Almost all of them commented that they were "expensive", but most felt the workmanship was top notch and ultimately worth it.
My wife kind of talked me into signing up for it (but we still have a couple more days in which we can cancel). The monthly payments are doable for us, but it's the grand total that still seems hard to swallow.
Talk to some other contractors. I live in the Richmond area south of you and in 2009 demolished a Jack-n-Jill bathroom and put in two individual bathrooms. This involved total demolition, rebuilding, relocating and adding plumbing, as well as all new fixtures. I did not go high-end with my finishes (these are the kid's bathrooms) but they both looked very nice. I was able to do each bathroom for approximately $9000 each.
I'm just finishing up a total gut on a bathroom in a 1930 Tudor revival... now, I've done 100% of the labor, and that will Easily be the biggest expense, but I have $700 into a brand new Kohler cast iron tub, pedestal sink and Toto toilet. Another ~$500 into sheetrock, fiber board and title/thinset/mortar, and maybe $200 in a new fan, couple of lights, paint, etc... Mind you, this wasn't a huge bathroom (5x6 of floor space, plus the 3x5 tub), but there's under $2000 in total Materials cost.
It's taken me some time though. You'll likely spend another $3k on labor for that same size space.
Please, if yo have the money, don't skimp on products. Labor is the real cost, the difference between an acrylic tub and a cast iron tub (we bought ours direct for $350/shipped, Kohler apparently has sales frequently) is simply not worth the tradeoffs. No sense in putting in cheap materials/products only to have to spend the time/money/frustration of doing it again in a decade.
Yeah, that's why I thought this might be way out of line.....
The bathroom fan was going to be replaced as part of the project, and we're talking about demo and removal of the old whirlpool tub, demo of the walls down to the studs. New water resistant boards put up with some sort of anti mildew spray/coating of theirs applied, and a BCI acrylic surround installed with a new tub:
Looks like they're using Kohler fixtures with all of it.
The contract includes a lot of "no matter what, it's taken care of" type of language - such as promise to replace any flooring as needed, any plumbing work as needed, etc. etc.
I get the idea that's part of the business model with these guys. Charge people enough so no matter what, all contingencies are covered in the price. (If they wound up having to move pipes around and redo the whole tile floor because the old one wasn't going to line up properly with the new dimensions of a replacement shower or tub, or what- not -- it's all embedded in the cost.)
That seems to be how they can provide so much "satisfaction" with the work after the sale, despite the really large up-front cost. They never have to go back to a homeowner and say, "Uh... We ran into this little problem and you're going to have to come up with another $1,000 to address it, before we can finish."
Quote:
Originally Posted by K'ledgeBldr
So, $13k for a tub?
Let me repeat that so there was no miss understanding-
If you have a nice 100 year old home, don't cheapen it with an acrylic enclosure. As mentioned above, use quality products and quality construction!! You're doing a remodel you want to look good and last 20-30 years, don't cheap out..! Find a qualified contractor, not the guy that's romancing you with the $13k price tag, you wouldn't be happy with his work even if it was half as much. I can tell by his approach he is interested in the money, not in pleasing you.
I have a tile shower in my home. After showering, I squeegee down the flat walls and wipe it down with a towel in a matter of minutes, so it always looks fresh and new.
In my vacation condo I have an acrylic insert installed because it matched the quality of the rest of that home. It looks fine, functions fine, but it is a complete bear to clean. All kind of nooks and crannies and curved surfaces, makes squeegeeing the walls down extremely difficult. Therefore it doesn't receive the after shower care it should.
I can clean and dry my tile shower after use in a matter of a couple of minutes, the acrylic takes 10-15 minutes every time.
I spent several hours last week cleaning it because of it hadn't been done as well as it should after use just because it's so difficult. I would never again consider an acrylic insert for that reason alone.
Cleaning after use may not matter to many people, but I'm a neat freak and want my shower looking new always..! I want something I can walk into without fear of touching the walls...
That's insane. We tore out a huge garden tub in our master bath. The space was too large for a standard tub so we had a custom full tile shower area with full glass door. We're talking a space that is 6'x3.5'- pretty big area. The tile guy had to pour a concrete basin, sloped correctly (you only get one shot)..
All in- material and labor it cost $7,500. Granted I did the demo work- but that isn't that much.
To give you an idea, we did a bath remodel earlier this year. We demoed the bath all the way to the studs and removed all flooring to the slab. The bath is a 12x 17 which includes a commode room and 2 walk in closets. WE replaced the tub with an enameled one, porcelain tile surround, put a water proof membrane on the ceiling, installed custom made red oak double vanity base cabinets with drawers on both sides of both cabinets using HD soft close hardware. Installed poured granite double sink vanity top with red oak back splash. We installed a new Champion 4 AS low flow commode, installed porcelain tile, installed 5 each 6 panel colonial doors, new plumbing fixtures, new drywall, insulated the tub enclosure, moved and added electrical GFIC outlets, new hi def mirrors, custom made red oak base moulding, textured and painted everything with all new bath hardware and a custom made red oak magazine rack in the commode room. The cost to our customer was $12,800.00. I would think due to the increased cost of labor where you are at it would have been higher but it's still a comparison for you. What these guys want for their work is shear robbery. I would suggest getting other prices and if you value your home, skip the cheap acrylic crap. I don't care about the warranty, it scratches REAL easy and looks like crap in about 5 years if you use it. Normally, these clowns are not around when you call for warranty. They have a tendency to come in, make a splash with business, bankrupt the company and open up under a new name. Good way to stay out of doing warranty work.
I did a complete bath remodel with new cast iron tub,sink, new tile, new fixtures, and raised the ceiling and new lights and new paint, etc. I did the work myself and spent over $8000. There is a lot of labor involved with these projects. For example, to remove the old bathroom down to studs can run $3000 but you could do that yourself.
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Not "just a tub" but .....
