Tub/shower renovation - How hard/expensive?

[RichUT]

The bathtub in our master bedroom is a real piece of crap. It's one of those plastic drop in units including the backsplash all the way up the wall.

The bottom of the tub has started to crack, which is a convenient excuse to rip the SOB out and put something new in there.

We would probably look to put a regular cast iron tub in, and tile up the shower wall with some kind of pattern the wife would pick out.

I know there would be a cost for the materials (Tub, shower hardware, tile, etc.) but I have no idea what I would be in for in terms of labor.

I'm assuming a plumber would need to be brought in to get the tub installed as well as the new shower hardware. Any idea what that would run?

Also, how hard is it to lay tile on a wall? Is labor expensive enough for me to be a lot better off trying to do it myself?

I've never done any kind of renovation in a bathroom before, so I'm just trying to get a feel for what I might be getting myself into.

Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[Stuck_At_Work]

Couldn't tell you how expensive it is to hire someone, but I re-tiled my bathroom with simple white glossy tiles and it only took a 6 - 8 man hours. There is some dry time required between steps, so you need to spread it out over a few days. That time includes replacing the backer-board which was pretty rotten in my case. From a distance, you can't tell an amateur did it. If you exam it closely, some of my grout lines aren't perfect, but I don't think it looks too bad...

 

[Summerof79]

It is something that you could do yourself. Certainly the demolition, is well within your capabilities. Once you have the plastic crap ripped out you can see what you are dealing with.

Measure everything before you Demo- Make sure the size is a standard tub enclosure. Watch "bathroom renovations" or find a how to somewhere online. this is a very labor intensive project without a hell of a lot of knowledge and skill necessary. You CAN lay Tile and you can do tile on the Walls as well. The main thing is simply doing the MATH right. and figuring WHERE you are going to need to make cuts in the tile. HINT: make sure to include your grout lines in the math!

Probably you take the tub out, and cut away the plastic around the hardware and the shower head. I will bet there is not backer board so you need to put up some waterproof backer around the area rimming the tub to put the tile on..

A girlfriend of ours did a great job on hers. She used tile much larger than I thought would look good in a small bath and it turned out great. She did the floor at an angle producing a "diamond' pattern. She did tile 1/3 up the walls all the way around the bathroom and up around the tub enclosure.

get an estimate or two. Then price out a tub, and the finest hardware, and porcelain tile ONLY GO PORCELAIN!!! it's much harder and tougher!

 

[zzzz]

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[TxEx2x]

We had a similar situation- one piece tub/shower combo in the master of a house we just bought. The fixtures were leaking and the plumber was not able to get them off- said he'd have to cut into the wall on the other side. We didn't like the tub anyway, so we decided to just replace it all.

After striking out with 3 different contractors (one said job was too small for him, one priced it about $5K, and one never called back), we decided to just DIY.

We did the demo ourselves- bought a "Sawz-All" and just cut it out in little pieces. It took about 2 hours. One word of warning- do your best to check what is behind the tub walls first... Our main electrical box for the house was behind ours. Luckily, we didn't cut any wires! We also purchased our tub and fixtures and delivered them to our house ($300).

We then hired a plumber to do install the tub. It took him about 5 hours to get it situated, stabilized and connected and to get the pipes for the fixtures installed. He was a friend of ours, so we were able to work out a very good deal for both parties. He also came back after the tiling to finish installing the fixtures.

We then put up the backerboard. Since we had no experience, it probably took longer than it should have. The backer board took about 6 hours- we wanted to put our shower head higher than normal, so we had to add pieces that went higher than one sheet. It involved a lot of cutting, and several of the smaller pieces split in the process of cutting them, but we finally got it.

The tiling itself took about 12 hours. We rented a commercial tile saw from Home Depot. We had 3 adults (but two kids that one of the adults had to entertain constantly, so only 2 adults working at any time.) The tile and supplies cost about $200 total.

We have been very happy with the results and enjoy showing it off! If we can do it, anybody can!

 

[ScoPro]

Our bathroom turned out nice:

 

[grinder]

This may appear to be an 'easy' project, but if you value your spare time, then I recommend hiring a contractor. You will thank yourself later.

I started a bathroom remodel project 2-1/2 years ago, but hit a stumbling block and haven't touched it in over a year. Will likely need to hire a contractor to complete the project, or at least the steps that I need help with.

 

[Smurfette]

A friend of mine had the exact thing happen over the summer-- Home Depot quoted him like 5K to get it done. He ended up getting it fixed for a lot cheaper though.

 

[alden]

I redid my whole bathroom 1.5 years ago.

First, if you're a first-timer doing it yourself, plan for at least 4 weekends, or the equivalent. One for demo. One for installing tub and plumbing. One for tiling. One for caulk, finishing touches, and anything else that goes wrong.

Measure off your space. Tubs come in standard sizes. Hopefully you have a standard size space. A little bigger is fine, but smaller, and you're SOL.

Demolition is fun. Perfect excuse to get a $15 sledge hammer. Just be careful about what you want to keep vs destroy. If you destroy tile, you'll have to also destroy the backer board, sheetrock, or whatever is behind it. You'll be taking that wall down to the studs. If it's sheetrock, carefully cut a straight line where you want to preserve. When in doubt, turn off electricity and water before smashing into walls. You should know how to shutoff water, gas, and electricity from outside your house.

I got a cast iron tub from HD for about $300. Thing weighed probably 200-300 lbs. They'll deliver to your house, but you'll need man help to unpack it and put it in place. I did the plumbing myself. Drain piping is usually PVC, and it's pretty easy to deal with. A plumber could probably do this pretty cheap, especially if you're not getting a city permit for it.

The faucet hardware set I got from HD for maybe $150. Careful if you get a fancy modern one that regulates hot/cold. Sometimes they don't work well in old houses because of the different water pressure between hot and cold. Soldering copper pipe is harder than PVC, but I hear there are some new crimping ones that sound pretty easy. You may be able to use compressed PVC, which is super easy. Again, you should be able to get a plumber to do this (if you've set up everything else) for a few hundred dollars.

Tile backer board is pretty easy to put in. I got some tiles from HD and some from Travis Tile on Airport Rd in Austin. Tiling is a ***** and takes forever. Keep in mind, the larger your tiles, the less tiles you have to do. Porcelain is good for floors, but I think the smaller, lighter tiles for walls are easier. I probably spent $200 on wall tiles.

I used an epoxy grout for the tiling. You can get the professional variety and sizes from Travis Tile. You cannot get this at HD or Lowe's. Epoxy may be a little more difficult to put on, since it dries faster, but you don't have to do the second step of sealing the grout later. It's also much more durable and is supposed to be more stain resistant. Cost is maybe $100 for tools and materials. The mortar is maybe $10, but add $50 if you don't have a 1/2" drill for mixing. Then you caulk up all the corners and borders (don't grout them!). Messy, but not bad. You can find silicon caulks that match the grout color at a tile store. Again, I recommend Travis Tile for this job. They seem reputable and get a lot of contractor business.

Materials are not terribly expensive unless you go to Austin Plumbing Supply or some expensive boutique place like that. Shop around, and remember that the difference between a $1000 and a $100 faucet is lost on everybody but the buyer. It is a lot of work though. You could always hire out the parts that require skill (plumbling) or that are just plain tiring (tiling).