Save money on remodeling your bathroom.
Looking to remodel your bathroom or kitchen? Well, you’re not alone! Many homeowners love to change up their bathroom and kitchen often. However, renovations like these are more expensive than most other forms because of various factors, plumbing being one of them.
It all depends on the type of remodeling you’re going for. If you’re planning to break everything down, then of course the costs will be high. If you can salvage important parts and source well for the others, then your costs could be saved. In today’s era, you also have the ability to think about and plan for longer-term costs too such as saving on your DEWA bills. Those should factor into your overall costing.
As bathrooms have a smaller space, it’s possible to do cost-cutting in many ways. Also, mixing DIY elements with some elements by professionals will keep the costs low and the job professional.
Here are some cost-saving tips on remodeling your bathroom that you should implement:
Keep the layout and size of your bathroom
Demolishing and redoing your whole bathroom involves taking out plumbing pipes and redoing them. This is including the toilet discharge and sewer pipe. It’s not only expensive to do, but causes a lot of other damage that will need to be fixed later.
If you’re planning to DIY, it will be difficult to break everything down. You’ll need protective gear for one, and you wouldn’t know the vital areas of the bathroom that you shouldn’t target. Therefore, the more sensible thing to do would be to call in a contractor, which adds up to your costs. Moreover, if you completely change your bathroom’s plumbing, you will be paying extra for a plumber too.
Load-bearing wall
The load-bearing walls are those that hold the second floor or the roof. Removing these walls is a huge project, and you might need to make changes to your whole house. The exterior walls are load-bearing, whereas the interior walls do not bear any loads. It’s fine to change up your non-load-bearing walls as they don’t interfere with the upper floors. They can be removed and remodeled more easily, and the effort, as well as cost, is lower.
However, for load-bearing walls, you’ll need to call in your contractor. To make sure your house’s structure is as sound as possible. It’s not advisable for one person to do it on their own as the amount of labor that goes is a lot.
Try to keep your drywall
Drywalls more often do not need a complete replacement during renovations because of the moisture in the bathroom. It should factor into your budget, as any wall that has mold on them should be removed. The more walls that are opened, the more they need to be worked on and fully closed at a later stage. Every wall that is closed up requires more paint and drywall material.
In case parts of your drywall are not affected, make sure not to destroy it. It’s advisable to only work on affected sections by moisture or mold. Those walls that are in close proximity to showers or bathtubs might need a full replacement, but in other areas, they should still be fine.
Recraft don’t replace
If you completely change all your fixtures it could add to your costs big time. You might need to demolish, reconstruct and then install a new fixture. All of which takes time, labor, and added plumbing costs.
Look around and make a note if these things do indeed need replacement, or if there is a way to make them work. Are the reasons for replacing them more functional or just so that they look more visually appealing? In case they are still working, then there are options to make them better looking instead of removing them entirely.
For example, your bathtub can be refinished if you use a protective coating with an attractive finish. If your bathroom cabinets have paint chipping in places, simply replace them. As for your other fixtures, there’s always a way to make them look better. Doing this will help you save costs and also reduce the time it takes to find new features.
Get a prefabricated bathtub or shower
To take out an old prefabricated base and renovate it completely with a tile base and walls is expensive. Instead, opt for a prefabricated shower stall or bathtub, which usually comes in one piece and doesn’t time to install. Your overall costs reduce by a lot. Tiled showers pretty much take days to put up.
You could start with a shower base that is prefabricated and try tiling the walls on your own if you’re keen. The labor is the more expensive part of a tiled bathroom stall, and the tile itself isn’t as expensive. However, we still suggest going for a professional to do the job.
Invest wisely in your toilet
Here, we look at long-term vs short-term costs. In the short term, complete toilet replacement with a standard toilet will indeed be less expensive. However, more water-friendly versions might be a better choice. You don’t need any expensive features, but a good design, a good flush, adequate plumbing features, and uses little water.
Toilet installation might need the help of a plumber or it could also be a DIY project.
Keep watch on electrical circuits
A remodeled bathroom usually means to upgrade your existing wires because older wires do not comply with current standards. In case your wiring is still operating, an inspection company can tell you if they can work for the renovated bathroom. In case the code needs to change, you’ll need to put in extra work. However, if all the wiring is fine, then keep it in place.
Remodeling your bathroom doesn’t have to be complex!
Keeping these tips in mind, it’s possible to remodel your bathroom and cut back down on costs. If you try to keep some things like they were, you won’t have to spend extra on demolishing and refurbishing your new bathroom. This is especially true for more labor-intensive jobs, such as tiling your entire shower or bathtub area.
Once you do remodel your bathroom, another important cost saving method is to ensure your plumbing and electricity are working well. To do that, you should enter into an annual maintenance contract with expert companies such as Octopus. We offer plumbing, electrical fixes, repainting, and AC maintenance for your home, to ensure that it stays in top shape throughout the year. For more information, please call 800 3993.
