Minor Renovation ($3.5k to $7.5k)
$3.5k to $7.5k
- - New flooring
- - New vanity and fixtures
- - Fresh paint
- - Or a prefab shower stall added
Renology cost index
Bathroom Remodel Cost 2026 (California & Washington)
Wet-room rebuilds, tub-to-shower swaps, and spa-grade upgrades.
Reviewed by Dror Gigi. Updated 2026-09-26.
Quick answer
In 2026, Renology's published bathroom remodels cost guides put the planning range at $30k to $65k. The final number depends on local labor, site conditions, material tier, permits, demolition, access, and finish level.
Category
Indoor Remodels
Local guides
6
Materials tracked
5
Timeline
3 to 8 weeks
Budget tiers
Bathroom Remodels budget levels
Use tiers to understand what kind of scope each price band usually implies before comparing local bids.
Partial Remodel ($5.3k to $15k)
$5.3k to $15k
- - Some elements replaced, not all
- - New tub or shower
- - New sink, toilet or vanity
- - New tile
Full Remodel ($8.8k to $25k+)
$8.8k to $25k
- - Major layout changes
- - Pipes and wiring moved to suit the new layout
- - Luxury or custom materials possible
- - Priced for a 35 to 50 square foot bathroom
The published figures
Why every source gives you a different number
They are not contradicting each other. They are counting different projects, and none of them says so on the page.
Open three tabs on this question and you get three answers that are thousands of dollars apart. It looks like the internet cannot agree on what a bathroom costs. It can. What it has not done is tell you that each figure is measuring a different job, which is the only thing you need in order to know which one applies to yours.
Average spend
$12,146
Angi, 2026 data
Every bathroom job its members report, from a vanity swap to a gut. Its own stated range is $2,500 to $30,000, or $70 to $250 a square foot. The small jobs pull the average down, which is why it reads low against a full remodel.
Midrange remodel
$26,138
Cost vs Value 2025, Zonda, 119 markets
One defined scope, priced by contractors: replace most surfaces and fixtures inside the existing footprint. New floor, vanity with a solid-surface top, toilet, tub-to-shower or a new surround, better lighting. It recoups about 80% at resale, its best showing since 2007.
Median renovation spend
$20,000
Houzz & Home Study, 2025
What homeowners reported actually spending, down from $24,000 the year before. A median rather than an average, so it is not dragged by the largest projects.
The three figures the rest of the internet quotes
Angi, average spendEvery job its members report, vanity swap to gut$12,146
Houzz, median spendWhat homeowners said they actually spent$20,000
Cost vs Value, midrangeOne defined scope, priced by contractors$26,138
Same question, three different projects. The spread between them is not disagreement, it is scope.
Per square foot
$70 to $250 a square foot
Angi, 2026. A 5 by 8 foot bathroom, the most common footprint in a mid-century house is about 40 square feet, which puts a full remodel of one at roughly $2,800 to $10,000 on that basis. Bathrooms are the densest room in a house: plumbing, waterproofing, ventilation and tile all land in the same few square feet, which is why the per-foot rate runs far above the rest of the home.
Read them together and the picture is consistent. A partial job, where you replace the vanity and the fixtures and leave the rest, runs in the low five figures. A full remodel inside the existing footprint sits in the mid twenties nationally. Anything that changes the room itself sits above that, and there is no ceiling on it.
Two things then move your own number off the national one. The first is where you live: California and Washington run above the national figure on labour alone, before a single tile is chosen, which is what the city ranges further down this page are for. The second is the decision in the next section, and it moves the number more than any material you will ever pick.
The decision that moves the price
Do the walls move, or not
Published ranges pool these two into one number. Los Angeles records which is which on the permit, so they can be counted.
Almost every cost guide leads with materials. Tile grade, whether the counter is quartz or marble, which brand of fixture. Those matter at the margin. The decision that actually sets the band you are in is whether anything has to be relocated, and it gets decided in the first ten minutes of the first conversation, usually without anyone noticing it was a decision.
How 6,999 Los Angeles bathroom permits are filed
Walls or openings may change4,262 permits60.9%
Nothing structural is touched2,737 permits39.1%
Single-family permits, 2020 to 2025, whose work description names a bathroom and no other scope.
60.9%
Walls or openings may change
Filed as a remodel with non-structural changes. Plumbing can move, a tub can become a walk-in shower, a doorway can shift.
39.1%
Nothing structural is touched
Filed as an interior remodel or repair with no changes in walls or openings. Same footprint, same plumbing locations, new everything else.
Nearly four in ten Los Angeles bathroom permits never touch a wall or an opening. That is the cheapest version of this project and it is far more common than the internet implies, because the pages selling you a remodel have no reason to tell you the smaller job exists.
Keeping the toilet, the tub and the vanity where the plumbing already is removes the rough plumbing, most of the drywall repair, and a whole inspection from the sequence. Move any one of them and you have opened a wall, which means a plumber, a framer, a drywaller and an inspector who all have to arrive in order. That is where the weeks go, and the weeks are most of where the money goes.
The practical version: before you price anything, decide whether the room stays as it is laid out. If it does, you are shopping in the lower band and your budget goes into finishes you will touch every day. If it does not, add the trades and the time before you add the tile.
Source: City of Los Angeles building permits (LADBS), retrieved 2026-08-27. Cohort and method described in the methodology section below.
By footprint
What it costs by the size of the room
Almost every related search on this question is a set of dimensions. Here they are, on the published per-foot band.
A small bathroom is cheap in total and expensive per foot, and the second half of that surprises people. Shrinking the room does not shrink the job: the plumber, the tile setter, the electrician and the inspector each make the same number of visits whether the floor is thirty-five square feet or a hundred. What shrinks is the tile order.
| Room | Floor area | On the published band | What it usually is |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 by 7 | 35 sq ft | $2,500 to $9,000 | The smallest full bathroom. A tub, a toilet, one vanity |
| 5 by 8 | 40 sq ft | $3,000 to $10,000 | The most common footprint in a mid-century house |
| 5 by 10 | 50 sq ft | $3,500 to $12,500 | Room for a longer vanity or a separate shower |
| 8 by 10 | 80 sq ft | $5,500 to $20,000 | A generous hall bath, or a small primary |
| 10 by 10 | 100 sq ft | $7,000 to $25,000 | A primary bathroom with a double vanity |
| 12 by 12 | 144 sq ft | $10,000 to $36,000 | A large primary with a separate tub and shower |
Floor area multiplied by the $70 to $250 a square foot Angi, 2026 publishes for 2026, rounded. It is a national band, so California and Washington sit toward the upper half of it before anything else is decided, and any change to the layout moves a room into the band above its own footprint.
Inside the number
Where the money actually goes
Bands rather than points, because the published sources disagree by scope and resolving that quietly is how a cost page becomes fiction.
What every source does agree on is the shape. A bathroom is the most labour-heavy room in a house, and it is not close. Plumbing, waterproofing, tile, electrical and ventilation all land inside a few square feet, each one a separate trade arriving in a fixed order, and none of them can start before the one in front of it has passed.
Share of a typical bathroom budget
Labour40 to 65% of the total65%
Tile and stone10 to 20% of the total20%
Fixtures and fittings10 to 20% of the total20%
Vanity and counter8 to 15% of the total15%
Glass, lighting, ventilation5 to 12% of the total12%
Permit, design, contingency5 to 12% of the total12%
Bars show the top of each band. Shares overlap because scopes differ; read them as weights, not as a pie that sums to 100.
- Labour 40 to 65%
- Plumber, tile setter, electrician, drywall, painter. The narrower the room the higher this runs, because the trades still make the same number of trips.
- Tile and stone 10 to 20%
- Floor, shower walls, a niche, a curb. Large format costs more to set, not only more to buy.
- Fixtures and fittings 10 to 20%
- Toilet, tub or shower pan, taps, shower valve. A valve is cheap. A valve you changed your mind about after the wall closed is not.
- Vanity and counter 8 to 15%
- Stock cabinet through to custom millwork, and whatever sits on top of it.
- Glass, lighting, ventilation 5 to 12%
- Frameless glass is the line that surprises people most.
- Permit, design, contingency 5 to 12%
- Small, until something behind the wall is not what anyone expected.
Two things follow from that shape. The first is that material upgrades move the total less than people expect: doubling the price of the tile on a forty square foot floor moves a small fraction of the job. The second is that anything which adds a trade visit, or a waiting day between two visits, moves it more than any material can.
It is also why the cheapest real saving on a bathroom is not a cheaper fixture. It is deciding everything before demolition starts. A shower valve costs the same on Monday as it does on Thursday; changing your mind about it after the wall is closed costs a plumber, a drywaller, a tile setter and an inspection.
A number you will be shown
The value on the permit is not your budget
We checked it expecting to publish it as a cost. It does not survive the check, and that is worth knowing before someone quotes it at you.
Every Los Angeles building permit carries a declared construction value, and it is public. That makes it tempting: a real figure, filed by a real homeowner, on a real project. We pulled 5,053 permits covering exactly one bathroom and nothing else, expecting to publish the distribution the way we do for garage conversions.
The median came back at $7,000, which is far below what a bathroom costs here and below the bottom of our own city ranges on this page. That is the point at which you either publish it anyway, or find out why. Three things say it is a form-filling habit rather than a price.
- It does not move. The median was $7,000 in five consecutive years and $7,500 in 2025. Construction costs over those years did not stand still.
- One value carries the cohort. $7,000 appears on 20.3% of all of them, with $5,000 and $8,000 behind it. There are 338 distinct values in the set and three of them cover most of it.
- It scales too neatly. Two bathrooms on one permit declare almost exactly twice one bathroom, and three almost exactly three times. Real projects do not divide that cleanly.
Bathroom, median declared value per year
2020$7,000
2021$7,000
2022$7,000
2023$7,000
2024$7,000
2025$7,500
Flat for six years, on thousands of filings a year. This is not what a price does.
Garage conversion, median declared value per year
2020$25,000
2021$30,000
2022$40,000
2023$40,000
2024$40,000
2025$40,000
Same dataset, same city, same years. This is what a price does.
Those two charts are the whole argument. They are drawn from one dataset, one city and one six-year window, using the same cohort rules. On garage conversions the most common single value covers only 12.3% of filings and the median climbed from $25,000 to $40,000. On bathrooms it does not move at all. The difference is not the city and it is not the years. It is that one of these numbers is being estimated and the other is being copied.
What to do with it. Declared value is what an applicant states so the city can calculate its fee. It is not a quote, it is not a budget, and it excludes design, permit fees, financing and most finish upgrades. If a contractor points at a permit to justify a price, or to argue that a neighbour's job cost $7,000, that is the wrong document. Ask for a line-item bid instead, and ask which trades are in it.
We are publishing a number we could not use because the reasoning is more useful than the figure would have been. Anything on this site that comes from permit data has been through this check. This one did not pass it.
State view
Bathroom Remodels ranges by state
Aggregated from published city/service guides in each state.
Local guide index
City-level bathroom remodels ranges
Open a local guide when city labor, permits, climate, or housing stock materially affect the project.
San Francisco, California
Bathroom Remodel Cost in San Francisco (2026)
$39,000-$65,000
Local range with city-specific planning context.
Encino, California
Bathroom Remodel Cost in Encino (2026)
$36,000-$60,000
Local range with city-specific planning context.
Los Angeles, California
Bathroom Remodeling in Los Angeles: Contractors, Permits and Timeline (2026)
$36,000-$60,000
Local range with city-specific planning context.
San Diego, California
Bathroom Remodel Cost in San Diego (2026)
$33,000-$55,000
Local range with city-specific planning context.
Bellevue, Washington
Bathroom Remodel Cost in Bellevue (2026)
$30,000-$50,000
Local range with city-specific planning context.
Seattle, Washington
Bathroom Remodel Cost in Seattle (2026)
$30,000-$50,000
Local range with city-specific planning context.
Material signals
Materials that move the budget
Material pricing is not the whole bid, but it often explains why two scopes with the same project name price differently.
Both
Ceramic or porcelain tile
$0.50 to $15
High-end tile can reach $35 per sq ft
Both
Granite slab countertop
About $80
Labor is extra
Both
Marble countertop
About $115
Quartz is priced the same; labor is extra
Both
Glass shower door
About $950
Average for the door and installation
Both
Vanity replacement
$300 to $3,800
Prefab or custom, by size and material
Methodology
How this cost index is built
This page combines the Renology service guide for bathroom remodels, local city/service guides, material notes, budget tiers, and editorial review. It is designed for early planning and answer extraction, not as a contractor quote.
Compare this page with the full Renology Cost Index and the full Bathroom Remodels guide before requesting bids.
See the Renology Methodology for how sources are reviewed, how ranges are normalized, and where the limits of planning data begin.
Answered for search
Bathroom Remodels cost FAQ
Short answers for homeowners and AI answer systems.
What does a $10,000 bathroom remodel look like?
It looks like everything staying where it is. At $10,000 you are replacing surfaces and fixtures inside the existing footprint: vanity, toilet, light fixtures, floor tile, a new tub surround or a tub-to-shower swap using the same drain. What it does not buy is moved plumbing, a widened doorway, a bigger shower pan or a second sink, because each of those adds rough plumbing, drywall work and another inspection. In California and Washington, where labour runs above the national figure, $10,000 is a refresh rather than a remodel.
Can you redo a bathroom for $5,000?
Only a partial one, and usually with your own labour on part of it. $5,000 covers a vanity, a toilet, a mirror, lighting, paint and either the floor or the tub surround, not both at a tiled finish. Angi puts the bottom of its national range at $2,500, which is that kind of job. A full bathroom at $5,000 is not realistic in California or Washington at contractor rates, and a bid at that number for a full scope is worth reading line by line.
Can I renovate a bathroom for $10,000?
Yes, if the layout does not move. Nearly four in ten Los Angeles bathroom permits are filed with no changes to walls or openings, which is the version of this project that fits a five-figure budget. Once the toilet or the shower moves, the plumbing, the framing and the inspection sequence all change and the number goes up. The single biggest thing you control is whether anything has to be relocated.
What is the 30% rule in remodeling?
It is a rule of thumb, not a standard: do not spend more than about 30% of your home’s value on any single renovation, and expect a bathroom to land nearer 5 to 10% of it. Treat it as a sanity check on scope rather than a budget. The more useful anchor is resale: the 2025 Cost vs Value report from Zonda puts a midrange bathroom remodel at $26,138 nationally and recoups about 80% of it, its strongest showing since 2007.
Can I renovate my bathroom for $5,000?
Not a full one at contractor rates in California or Washington. $5,000 buys a vanity, a toilet, a mirror, lighting, paint and one of either the floor or the tub surround at a tiled finish. Angi puts the bottom of its national range at $2,500, which is that kind of partial job. If a bid comes in at $5,000 for a complete bathroom, read it line by line and ask which trades are in it.
How much does it cost to rip out and replace a bathroom?
That is the full remodel, and it is the $26,138 midrange figure from the 2025 Cost vs Value report rather than the $12,146 average, because the average includes every partial job. Demolition itself is a small line. What makes the difference is whether the replacement puts everything back where it was, which 39.1% of Los Angeles bathroom permits do, or moves it, which is the other 60.9%.
Is $10,000 enough for a bathroom remodel?
It is enough for a bathroom that keeps its layout. Fixtures, surfaces and lighting inside the existing footprint fit a five-figure budget, and that is the version nearly four in ten Los Angeles homeowners actually permit. It is not enough to move plumbing, widen a doorway or enlarge a shower pan, because each of those adds rough plumbing, drywall work and another inspection.
What is a reasonable budget for a small bathroom remodel?
Small does not mean cheap per foot, it means cheap in total. A 5 by 7 bathroom is 35 square feet, so at the $70 to $250 a square foot Angi reports it lands at roughly $2,500 to $8,750 for a light job and higher once the layout moves. The per-foot rate on a small bathroom usually runs at the top of the band rather than the bottom: the trades make the same number of visits whether the room is 35 feet or 100.
How much does a 5 by 10 bathroom remodel cost?
A 5 by 10 bathroom is 50 square feet. On the $70 to $250 a square foot range Angi publishes for 2026 that is roughly $3,500 to $12,500, before any change to the layout. Add a relocated toilet or a shower where the tub was and it moves into the band above, because that is a different permit and a different sequence of trades.
How much does a 10 by 10 bathroom remodel cost?
A 10 by 10 primary bathroom is 100 square feet, which on the same $70 to $250 band is roughly $7,000 to $25,000 for the work itself. Primary bathrooms usually sit at the upper end because of what goes in them rather than the floor area: a double vanity, a separate shower and tub, frameless glass and more lighting circuits all arrive together.
How much of a bathroom remodel is labour?
Between about 40 and 65 percent, and it is the highest labour share of any room in a house. A bathroom concentrates plumbing, waterproofing, tile, electrical and ventilation into a few square feet, and each of those is a separate trade making a separate visit in a fixed order. That is also why shrinking the room does not shrink the bill proportionally.
Do I need a permit to remodel a bathroom?
For anything beyond a like-for-like swap, yes. Los Angeles files bathroom work under two standard descriptions: an interior remodel with no changes to walls or openings, and a remodel with non-structural changes. Both are permitted. Replacing a vanity in place generally is not, but moving a drain, altering a wall or changing electrical almost always is, and an unpermitted bathroom is a common finding at resale.
How long does a bathroom remodel take?
Three to eight weeks of site time for most projects, and the calendar is set by sequence rather than by hours of work. Demolition, rough plumbing, an inspection, close the walls, waterproof, tile, then fixtures, glass and paint. Each stage waits on the one before, so a single missed delivery or a failed inspection moves everything behind it, which is why a schedule with float in it is worth more than a slightly lower bid.
Does a bathroom remodel add value to a house?
A midrange one is among the better returns in the house. The 2025 Cost vs Value report from Zonda puts a midrange bathroom remodel at $26,138 nationally and recoups about 80% of it at resale, its strongest showing since 2007. Upscale remodels recoup materially less, and an unpermitted bathroom often does not appraise as finished space at all.
Why is my bathroom quote so much higher than the national average?
Usually geography and scope, in that order. California and Washington run above the national figure on labour before a single material is chosen, which is what the city ranges on this page reflect. Then check whether the quote moves anything: a bid that relocates the toilet or converts a tub to a curbless shower is not comparable to the national average for a like-for-like replacement, whatever both documents call themselves.
What should a bathroom bid have on it, line by line?
Demolition and disposal, rough plumbing with any relocations named, electrical and the number of circuits, waterproofing method, tile setting priced separately from tile supply, fixture allowances with a figure against each, glass, ventilation, paint, permit fees, and a contingency stated as a percentage. A single number for "bathroom remodel" is not a bid, it is a guess you cannot compare against another guess.
What does the value written on a building permit mean?
It is the figure the applicant states so the city can calculate its fee, and it is not the price of the job. Across 5,053 Los Angeles permits covering exactly one bathroom the median is $7,000, it has not moved in five years, and one value carries 20.3% of the whole set. It excludes design, permit fees, financing and most finish upgrades. If a contractor points at a permit to justify a price, ask for the line-item bid instead.
Is it cheaper to convert the tub to a shower or keep the tub?
Keeping what is there is always cheaper, and a straight tub-to-shower conversion using the existing drain is the cheapest change you can make. It becomes expensive when the shower needs a bigger footprint or a curbless entry, because both mean moving the drain and cutting the floor, which turns a fixtures-only job into one that changes walls or openings.
How much does bathroom remodels cost in 2026?
Renology's 2026 planning range for bathroom remodels is $30k to $65k. Final bids depend on scope, existing conditions, materials, permits, access, and local labor.
What changes the price of bathroom remodels most?
The largest pricing swings usually come from demolition, prep work, structural or utility changes, material tier, finish level, waterproofing or weather exposure, permit requirements, and contractor availability.
Are these numbers contractor quotes?
No. The cost index is a planning benchmark, not a fixed quote. Homeowners should compare the index against 2 to 3 itemized bids once the scope is clear.
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