Bathroom Remodel Cost Calculator
A bathroom remodel costs about $13,096 in Atlanta for a standard 40 square foot room, in a range of $8,886 to $17,307. But most people arrive with a budget rather than a question, so this calculator runs backwards too: $5,427 strips and refits what you already own, $10,844 buys a real remodel with a new tub and shower, and $16,466 adds full-height tile and a built walk-in shower. At $327 a square foot it is the densest room in the house.
Estimate the cost for your home
Estimated cost of the finished bathroom
$13,674
typical · range $9,442 to $17,905 · 40 sq ft · $342 per sq ft · 110 trade hours
Labour priced at national wages. Enter a ZIP code to price it for your area. 56% of this figure comes from modelled material prices — each line shows its own uncertainty.
Priced from bls.gov Aug 2026osha.gov Aug 2026and 1 more, all listed below
The one input that changes the answer for you.
The American default, and the only option here that keeps both a bath and a shower in one 60-inch opening. It is also the one that sells a house with small children in it.
A ready-made unit in a standard width, off the shelf, with the top usually included. The commonest choice and the one every quote assumes unless told otherwise.
The traditional answer. Three times the labour of vinyl because of the backer, the setting and the grouting, each of which has to cure before the next.
Tile behind the vanity and along the fixture wall, paint above. It is where tile actually earns its keep, because it is where the water goes.
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The figure above is already calculated. Each step just makes it more yours, and you can stop at any of them.
Where this lands on the budget people search for
Most people arrive at this page with a number already in mind. This is the same calculation read backwards.
This one is a $15,000 bathroom — the model puts it at $13,674, in a range of $9,442 to $17,905. To move down a step, the three levers in order of size are the bathing fixture, how much wall gets tiled, and the vanity. To move up, they are the same three.
⚠️ These are trade prices. A general contractor coordinating the four trades adds a margin on top of all of them, and it is not in this figure.
Why so much, for such a small room
- Floor area
- 40 sq ft
- Cost per sq ft
- $342
- Trade hours
- 110
- Share that is labour
- 44%
A bathroom is the densest room in a house. Four trades — plumbing, electrical, tiling and carpentry — all work inside 40 square feet, and each one has to finish before the next can start. That sequencing is why the cost per square foot is the highest anywhere in the house, why 44% of this is labour, and why a small bathroom is not much cheaper than a big one.
| Line item | Qty | Cost | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strip the room back6 h + 0.2 h per sq ft of floor | 14hour | $616–$662 | sourced |
| Skip and disposal1 per job | 1job | $240–$680 | estimated±48% |
| Permit and inspection1 where a permit is pulled | 1permit | $140–$620 | estimated±63% |
| Plumber: connect the fixtures where they are8 plumber hours | 8hour | $476–$512 | sourced |
| Electrician: GFCI, lighting and fan circuits8 electrician hours | 8hour | $472–$507 | sourced |
| Cable, devices and boxes1 per job | 1job | $160–$460 | estimated±48% |
| Tub with a shower over it (materials)1 allowance where this fixture is chosen | 1allowance | $1,150–$2,900 | estimated±43% |
| Tub with a shower over it (hours)19 hours where this fixture is chosen | 19hour | $988–$1,061 | sourced |
| Toilet1 where the toilet is replaced | 1toilet | $240–$820 | estimated±55% |
| Plumber: set the toilet2.5 plumber hours where the toilet is replaced | 2.5hour | $149–$160 | sourced |
| Stock vanity unit1 where a stock vanity is fitted | 1vanity | $340–$980 | estimated±48% |
| Vanity top, basin and faucet1 set, whether or not the unit itself is replaced | 1set | $280–$1,450 | estimated±68% |
| Fit the vanity, top and faucet5 hours | 5hour | $283–$304 | sourced |
| Ceramic floor tile and backerfloor area where the floor is ceramic | 40sq ft | $176–$440 | estimated±43% |
| Set the floor tilefloor area × hours per sq ft for the chosen tile | 14hour | $728–$782 | sourced |
| Wall tile and setting materialswall area × the share being tiled | 61.9sq ft | $210–$867 | estimated±61% |
| Set the wall tiletiled wall area × 0.17 hours per sq ft | 10.5hour | $546–$586 | sourced |
| Board, compound and paint1 per job | 1job | $120–$380 | estimated±52% |
| Board, tape and paint the room12 h + 0.2 h per sq ft of floor | 20hour | $1,100–$1,182 | sourced |
| Extractor fan, duct and grille1 where a fan is fitted or replaced | 1fan | $110–$360 | estimated±53% |
| Light fittings, mirror and accessories1 where fittings and a mirror are included | 1set | $220–$900 | estimated±61% |
| Door, casing and skirting1 where the door and trim are replaced | 1set | $200–$680 | estimated±55% |
| Hang the door and fit the trim5 carpenter hours where the door and trim are replaced | 5hour | $283–$304 | sourced |
| Silicone, snagging and final clean1 per job | 1job | $40–$120 | estimated±50% |
| Snagging and cleaning hours4 hours | 4hour | $176–$189 | sourced |
| Total | $9,442–$17,905 | ±31% |
Where these numbers come from
- What moving a fixture really costs, and what it depends on
- Over a wood floor, moving a toilet, basin or shower adds about $1,181 — fourteen plumber hours plus pipe, because the drain runs between the joists and the floor has to be opened. Over a concrete slab it is $2,892, because the new drain run has to be sawn out of the slab, dug to fall, laid and re-poured. Same fixture, same distance, different building. It is the one question worth asking before any bathroom quote is compared with any other, and almost nobody asks it.
- Labour rates by area
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, for plumbers, electricians, carpenters, drywall installers, floor layers, tile setters and labourers, adjusted to your metropolitan area. Retrieved 2026-08-20. Benefit load from BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation. ⚠️ Tile and stone setters are published for only 141 of the 530 areas in our index; outside those, that hour comes from the broader construction group for the same area. On a fully tiled bathroom it is the largest single approximation here.
- The two fittings where a federal specification exists
- EPA WaterSense, Residential Toilets states that design improvements let toilets use 1.28 gallons per flush or less, 20 percent below the current federal standard of 1.6, while an older toilet can use as much as 6. And EPA WaterSense, Bathroom Faucets states that labeled bathroom faucets using a maximum of 1.5 gallons per minute cut a sink’s flow by 30 percent or more from the standard 2.2. Neither costs extra to specify at the moment you are choosing anyway. Both retrieved 2026-08-23.
- The cheapest line here is the one that decides how it ages
- The extractor fan. EPA, Mold course and moisture control sets out why controlling moisture is the control that matters, and a bathroom is the wettest room in a house. A fan ducted into a loft moves the moisture rather than removing it, and that is where it condenses. It is a two-figure line in a five-figure job and it is the difference between a bathroom that looks new in five years and one that does not. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- Two regulated hazards in an older bathroom
- Cutting old tile is respirable crystalline silica work under OSHA 1926.1153, Respirable crystalline silica, which requires wet cutting and a written exposure control plan. And in housing built before 1978, a strip-out is far above the threshold in EPA, Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program, so paid work has to be done by a certified firm. Neither is optional and neither is a reason to panic — they are simply two things a quote should mention and often does not. Both retrieved 2026-08-22.
- The cheap thing to ask for while the walls are open
- Solid blocking in the walls beside the toilet and the bathing fixture, whether or not a grab bar is going in now. CDC, Older Adult Falls Data reports over 14 million adults aged 65 and over — one in four — falling each year, and about 37% of those falls causing an injury that needed treatment or restricted activity. Blocking costs a few dollars and half an hour while the studs are exposed, and it means a bar can later go exactly where it is wanted. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- Material prices
- Modelled estimates, not sourced prices. No public, machine-readable source of US residential material prices exists, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. Each line carries its own uncertainty band. How we estimate them.
Contractor overhead and profit applied at 33–43% over direct cost. Data last reviewed 2026-08-23.
What this figure does not include
- A general contractor's margin
- Every figure here is a trade price: what the plumber, the tile setter, the electrician and the carpenter charge, each already including their own overhead and profit. A general contractor who coordinates the four, holds the schedule and carries the risk adds a further margin on top of all of them, typically in the low tens of percent. That is real work and it is not in this number. Managing four trades yourself is how you avoid it, and it is a job.
- What is found once the walls are open
- A bathroom is the wettest room in the house and the likeliest to have been leaking quietly. Rotten subfloor under a toilet, soaked studs behind a tub, and old galvanised supply pipe that crumbles when it is disturbed are all normal findings, and none can be priced beforehand. Agree an hourly rate for repairs in writing before the strip-out.
- Moving walls or changing the room size
- Taking space from a landing or a bedroom is framing and possibly structural, and it changes the electrical and the heating too. It is a different project with a different price.
- Heating, and heated floors
- Whatever heats the room today is assumed to stay. An electric underfloor mat is a genuine and popular addition, and it needs its own circuit and its own thermostat, so it is priced separately rather than folded in.
- Asbestos and lead in older houses
- Sheet flooring, mastic and some wall boards from before the eighties can contain asbestos, and disturbing painted surfaces in pre-1978 housing brings the federal lead renovation rule into play well above its threshold — a bathroom strip-out is far past it. Testing comes first and neither is priced here.
Questions people actually ask
Can I renovate my bathroom for $5000?
Just about, and only one version of it. At trade prices in Atlanta the cheapest job that is still a renovation comes to $5,427: the room stripped, a new vinyl floor, the walls made good and painted, and everything you already own put back in. No new tub, no new toilet, no new vanity, no tile. Add a toilet, a stock vanity, a fan and lighting and it is $7,553. The moment a new bathing fixture goes in you are at $10,844. So the honest answer is that $5,000 buys a bathroom that looks new, not a bathroom that is new — and if a contractor quotes $5,000 for the full job, the useful question is which of those items is missing from the quote.
Can I renovate my bathroom for $10,000?
Yes, and it is a real remodel rather than a compromise. Around $10,844 gets a 40 square foot bathroom stripped to the studs and rebuilt with a new tub and shower, a tiled surround, a vinyl floor, a new toilet, a stock vanity with top and faucet, an extractor fan, new lighting and the permit. What $10,000 does not stretch to is tiling every wall, a built walk-in shower, a made-to-measure vanity, or moving anything from where it is. Each of those is a real step: full-height tile and a walk-in shower together take the same room to $16,466.
What does a $10,000 bathroom remodel look like?
Concretely: the room is emptied, the walls come off where they have to, and a plumber, an electrician, a tiler and a carpenter each spend two or three days in it — about 85 trade hours in total, spread over three or four weeks because each trade waits for the one before. You get a new tub with a tiled surround up to shower height, painted walls elsewhere, a vinyl plank floor, a new toilet, a ready-made vanity with a top and faucet, a fan ducted outside, new lighting and a mirror. Everything stays where it is. It looks like a new bathroom because it is one; it does not look like a magazine bathroom, and the difference between those two is mostly tile.
How much does it cost to rip out and replace a bathroom?
About $13,096 in Atlanta for a standard 40 square foot bathroom done properly, in a range of $8,886 to $17,307. That is $327 a square foot, which is the highest rate anywhere in a house, and the reason is density rather than luxury: four trades work inside 40 square feet and each has to finish before the next starts. 42% of the figure is labour. A large primary bathroom with a walk-in shower, full tile and a custom vanity runs to $24,270. And one warning about all of these: they are trade prices, so a general contractor who coordinates the four adds a margin on top that is not in them.
Taken from Google’s “people also ask” results for this search on 21 and 23 August 2026, not invented.
Other cost calculators
The first of these are the jobs closest to this one — the ones that turn up in the same quote, or instead of it.
- Walk-in shower cost
Prices a walk-in shower from its own dimensions, checks them against the published ADA sizes, and shows what a curbless entry really costs.
- Bathtub replacement cost
What it costs to swap a bathtub, including the wall that has to come off to get the old one out and the weight that decides the hours.
- Garage conversion cost
Prices the floor a garage slab really needs — it is sloped and set low on purpose — and everything a change of use brings that a refit does not.
- The full bathroom remodel cost dataset
Every unit price, every quantity rule and the reasoning behind each estimate, as a plain table.
- How we calculate
The formula, the sources, and an honest account of which parts of the model are weak.