A bathroom is small, but it packs a lot of work into a few square feet: water supply, drains, venting, waterproofing, tile, glass, lighting and an exhaust fan. The cost of a bathroom remodel in Los Angeles comes down to how many of those you change, and above all to whether the drains stay where they are.
We plan bathrooms the same way we plan kitchens. Decide what stays fixed, draw the room, then price the work behind the walls before choosing tile.
Refresh, tub-to-shower or full gut
Three scopes cover most bathroom projects.
A refresh keeps the layout and the plumbing. The vanity, the toilet, the faucets and the lighting change, and the walls get new paint. The tub or shower may be reglazed or fitted with a new surround. It is the quickest scope and leaves the walls mostly closed.
A tub-to-shower conversion removes the tub and builds a walk-in shower in its place. The drain usually shifts a few inches, the floor is built up or recessed for a shower pan, and the walls are waterproofed and tiled. Glass, a valve and a niche complete it.
A full gut takes the room to the studs. Fixtures may move, the vanity may double, the window may change, and the electrical and venting are brought up to current code. It costs the most and leaves nothing old behind the tile.
Knowing which scope you want is the first step to comparing quotes, because each one carries a different list of trades.
Tile, fixtures, waterproofing and labor
Inside any scope, the main lines look like this.
Waterproofing is the part nobody sees and the part that decides how long the shower lasts. Tile and grout are not waterproof. Behind them sits a membrane system, either a sheet product or a liquid coat, with a sloped pan under the shower floor and sealed seams at every corner and penetration. A good installer flood-tests the pan before tile goes on.
Tile is priced by area, by the tile itself and by the layout. Large-format tile needs a flatter wall. Small mosaic on a shower floor takes more labor per square foot. Niches, benches and patterns add cuts and time.
Fixtures include the toilet, the vanity and its top, the faucets, the shower valve and trim, and the glass. Each one has a wide range. The valve is worth choosing early, because it goes in the wall during rough plumbing.
Labor covers demolition, plumbing, electrical, framing repairs, waterproofing, tile, glass, paint and fixture installation. A refresh needs a few of these trades. A full gut needs all of them.
Moving the toilet or shower drain
This is where bathroom costs separate. Toilets and showers drain through large pipes that need a steady slope to the main line and a vent.
On a raised foundation, the plumber can often reach the drains from the crawlspace, and moving them is a contained job. On a slab, the concrete has to be cut, the old pipe capped, the new line laid with the right fall and the trench patched before any tile can go down. Second-floor bathrooms run their drains through the floor framing, where joists can limit which way a pipe can travel.
Moving the toilet a few feet can make a cramped room work. Moving the shower to the other side of the room can open up space for a double vanity. Both are worth pricing. We draw the room with the drains in place and with them moved, and we quote each version so you can see what the move adds on its own.
Permits
In Los Angeles and most nearby cities, a bathroom remodel that adds or moves plumbing, adds circuits, changes the venting or moves a wall needs a building permit. A like-for-like swap of a vanity, toilet or faucet may not. Each city sets its own rules, and the quote should say which permits apply to your plan and include them.
Inspections usually include rough plumbing and electrical before the walls close, sometimes the shower pan before tile, and a final. A bathroom built without a permit can raise questions when the house is sold or when an insurance claim involves water damage.
How we quote a bathroom
We start with a visit to measure the room, check the floor structure and find where the drains run. Then we draw the bathroom you want and mark what moves. The written quote lists demolition, plumbing, electrical, framing, waterproofing, tile, fixtures, glass, paint and permits on separate lines, with allowances spelled out where selections are still open.
We plan bathrooms from Sherman Oaks across Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, often alongside a kitchen, since the two rooms share plumbing trades and inspection visits. Our bathroom remodeling page explains how we plan the room, and our kitchen remodeling page covers the kitchen side when both are on the list.