How much to pay for new bathroom floor

January 26, 2022 4:55 PM

Got quoted $4,200 to install a new subfloor and tile - about 45 square feet. Is this reasonable?

I know this can vary quite a bit by location, but it’s pretty hard to get anyone to call you back about small jobs like this so I haven’t been able to get much in the way of competing quotes. I already have the tile and will be buying the grout myself. I *think* just replacing the tile itself should be much cheaper - I know a handyman who’s re-tiling and fixing up my partner’s bathroom for around $2,000. The wrinkles, which I don’t know how to evaluate, are 1) I believe the subfloor needs to be replaced. The floor tiling is coming away from the wall, and when I bought the place the toilet had a distinct tilt (I got a new toilet and it’s straight now, but I understand that’s probably temporary). 2) there’s a heavy claw foot tub that needs to be moved out and back in. I honestly don’t know how this is done but it definitely requires more than one person, which eliminates a lot of the smaller outfits around here.

Any advice on how much those two factors should add to the bill, and anything else to watch out for or ask?

posted by exutima to Home & Garden (17 answers total)

Response by poster: To be more specific, the estimate is to “remove the toilet, vanity and tub and save them to re-install them. Demolish the complete floor down to the stubs, provide new sub floor and concrete backboard, client to provide tiles and grout. Labor and miscellaneous materials $4,200.00.”
posted by exutima at 5:19 PM on January 26, 2022

This price doesn't sound unreasonable to me because it's a major job, way more than what your partner is having done. You can always wait to get a second estimate if something feels off. When I had a beautiful and bulky old tub like that in my old house that was also super old, even having the armatures replaced would have been super expensive. I decided against having the work done due to the price and also the fact I couldn't get a guarantee that the fix would be better due to the age of the house and parts. If you have any doubts and this isn't an emergency, why not wait?
posted by smorgasbord at 5:36 PM on January 26, 2022 [1 favorite]

Looks reasonable to me. Tearing a room down to the joists is a large messy operation and that will be 2/3 of the work. And, trust me, there will be more things they find once they get all of that ripped up. Be prepared for a bunch of "as long as we're in here" decisions. Every decision costs money.

You're also on the hook for the flooring materials so figure out what that is going to cost. Also: who is reinstalling the fixtures and reconnecting to the supply and waste lines? This quote seems to me like you need a plumber to be in on the project as well.
posted by JoeZydeco at 5:42 PM on January 26, 2022 [2 favorites]

That seems high to me. We just had almost exactly this thing done in about the same size bathroom and it cost $600. Differences: he didn't go down to the joists, he went down to the boards that sat on top of the joists, then put cementboard on top of those, and then tile on top of that. And we didn't have a giant clawfoot tub to move, that would be heavy and definitely would have added to the bill.

I had a very hard time finding someone to do this job. The guy I found was a professional (and he did a great job!) but I didn't hire him through his company, it was through "connections". Maybe that's why it was cheaper than what you're looking at.
posted by Vatnesine at 6:08 PM on January 26, 2022

It would be reasonable where I live (SF Bay Area).
posted by small_ruminant at 7:15 PM on January 26, 2022 [1 favorite]

Partially the cost depends where you are. Where I am, I would expect skilled labor to be about $100/hr. This project will involve a plumber (twice), a carpenter, someone who is skilled with cement and tile, and a fair amount of grunt labor to wrestle the tub out and back in. It's possible that only 2 or 3 people will do all of that work but if you think it will total 35-40 hours of labor, even if you're buying all the materials separately, this seems fairly typical. There may also be some material costs, like lumber, and if they are disposing of the old floor and subfloor, that could be an included cost as well. Did they tell you how many days it will take and how many hours they plan on being onsite?

Also, I would want to know:

1. How is the wall base being handled? Is any drywall or painting work going to be necessary where the new flooring meets the walls? If so, is that included in their proposal or will you have to handle that separately?

2. How are they moving the tub out and back in? Do they have to remove the door? Is anything else in the way?

3. Is there anything the contractor will be ordering that might be hard to get with current supply chain issues ("long lead items")?

Best of luck with your project!
posted by happy_cat at 7:16 PM on January 26, 2022

Did they give you a schedule of values/itemized estimate?
posted by feistycakes at 8:24 PM on January 26, 2022

It doesn't sound quite like twice as much work as at your partner's place, if everything goes smoothly. I suspect that at least some of the quote is adjusting for the reasonable chance that everything doesn't go smoothly. Also, moving and preserving a heavy claw foot job is potentially someone might want paying extra for just because it's miserable work with some risk that they will break something you intend to keep.

Get another quote. If you can't find someone to give you another quote, that's a data point that says that there's no market and you'll need to pay $4200 or more.
posted by plonkee at 3:29 AM on January 27, 2022

I just got a quote from Floor and Decor, and it's only $4 a sq ft for laying the tile, fixing my 400 sq ft of subfloor with concrete is $2500. I am doing the demo myself, but comparatively my job is $7500 for 900 sq ft of tile.

I'd get a second quote.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:53 AM on January 27, 2022

Agree with the above: If you're not quite sure that it's reasonable, unless you're in a desperate rush, just get another couple of quotes.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 8:26 AM on January 27, 2022

Have you done demolition of subfloor and re-tiling? We did that in our small bathroom, maybe half the size of yours, and it took like six weekends of pretty concerted work. Cutting through the subfloor is reasonably easy with a circular saw but you need a "flush saw" to get it to the walls. Then lots of screwing the new subfloor to the joists (trusses?) so it doesn't squeak, follwed by Ditra or other underlayment, leveling, marking the tile locations, mixing the mortar, laying the tile, and grouting the tile the next day. Plus that tub is going to require two people each trip. Then the toilet and vanity need to be installed. I don't think you need a plumber, though, unless there's some reason to change the supply lines or tub faucet. Except for painting the walls, that's basically all the labor for a complete bathroom remodel, right?
posted by wnissen at 12:29 PM on January 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

Oh, and the quality of tile work varies widely. Plenty of tile folks will just start plopping tiles in one corner, regardless of how that works with the dimensions of the room. And plenty will not really pay attention to the levelness of the tiles or the depth of the grout, leading to "lipping". Grout can be fixed after the fact, but a poorly laid tile is there until it's ripped out.
posted by wnissen at 12:32 PM on January 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

In DC this would be cheap for decent-quality work. Doing tile fast is cheapish and easy. Doing tile well is expensive. Also as a former handyman I can tell you that I quite regularly did half-assed tile jobs because people didn’t want to pay for good tile or the time to do it right.
posted by aspersioncast at 6:50 PM on January 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

Seems reasonable to me for good quality work, but I would get at least 2-3 quotes. Please be aware of whether baseboard will also need to be removed and replaced (unless it's a tile baseboard). Personally I would want a licensed plumber to do fixture removal and install, so you have accountability in case of issues in the future (things are leaking inside your walls/floor).
posted by amaire at 7:39 PM on January 27, 2022

I don't think you need a plumber, though, unless there's some reason to change the supply lines or tub faucet.

The toilet is mounted to a flange that is secured to the (new) subfloor and then attached to the old waste line. That's not something I'd try to take on by myself. And I bet that old waste line is cast iron or something half-decomposed that the plumber will want to update.

The tub might have a similar circumstance if it's not freestanding.
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:55 AM on January 28, 2022

Where I live, a toilet is legally supposed to be done by a licensed plumber or the owner themselves. Other professionals aren't allowed (and they check.)

It comes up all the time with handyman workers. Replacing a toilet is pretty simple but if they get caught doing it, they get in trouble. It's one of those "gotchas."
posted by small_ruminant at 12:46 PM on January 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

Sounds high to me and I've received approximately one estimate per month this year. I have an approximately 30 sf bathroom floor in Brooklyn for which old tile will be removed, partial subfloor will be added and new tile/grout will be installed for about $1000. In writing that last sentence I realized how much I love my contractor.
posted by ponibrown at 5:24 PM on January 28, 2022