When remodeling, there is sometimes a misconception that an affordable bathroom remodel is simply out of the question due to cost. Resisting this preconceived notion is the first step when sitting down with a remodeling professional. They will help you find your design style and help you determine your wants from needs.
It may not seem possible, but an affordable bathroom remodel is attainable. Read on to get ideas on how to budget for a bathroom remodel.
Paint
If you don’t have a lot to spend, then repainting will be the cheapest and perhaps, the most effective way to give your bathroom a new look. Paint portions of the interior by yourself. Most of the wall space is taken up with mirrors, showers, tiles, and bathtubs. In the end, you only have a few square feet to paint. In many cases, you can paint this by yourself in a day or two.
Another thing to consider is the moisture. Since mold and mildew develop easily in a bathroom, and humidity and temperature change often, it’s a good idea to invest in high-quality paint with a satin finish. You may also want to go over the ceiling with special bathroom paint that helps resist the growth of mold.
If your bathroom has a wooden floor, you can rip it out and replace it with a more moisture-hardy flooring, such as tile or engineered wood flooring.
Keep in mind that solid hardwood should not be your first choice for bathroom flooring. But if you already do have wooden floors, this is one low-cost way to keep them around for as long as possible.
Refresh Cabinets with New Hardware
Buying and installing new bathroom cabinets can get expensive. A far easier and cheaper way to bring life to your existing cabinets is to strip out the old hardware and replace it with fun new hardware.
To make the process even easier, before you buy the new hardware, make sure that its screw alignment matches up with the holes on your existing cabinets. This eliminates the need to drill new holes.
Use Lower Cost Lookalike Materials
Retaining and refurbishing your existing materials is always the best option for saving money. But if you must swap out materials, inexpensive alternatives often can look amazingly like the real thing.
For example, instead of real wood plank flooring, try luxury vinyl flooring. Today’s vinyl flooring looks far better than earlier iterations. Innovations such as luxury vinyl flooring and plank vinyl can even fool the eye from a distance.
High-definition laminate countertops and quartz countertops now vie with granite for the look of authentic natural stone. Faux-stone ceramic and porcelain tile backsplashes can mimic the look of travertine and marble.
If you have two bathrooms and you want to remodel one bathroom, migrate bathroom materials are cost-effective to migrate materials from one bathroom to the other bathroom. Even materials as trivial as shower curtains, pipe, and picture frames can be moved to the next bathroom.
Redo, Don’t Buy New
Replacing your old tub or shower is going to cost you a pretty penny. Instead, have it professionally relined, which is much cheaper. However, don’t try this with sink and shower fixtures as it costs more to refinish them than to replace them. Refinishing these fixtures is more expensive because very few people decide to do it unless they have old, vintage pieces, and contractors who offer this service often charge a premium price.
Touch up your tub rather than refinishing it. One step down from refinishing the entire tub surface is a tub touch-up. When your bathtub has nicks, gouges, and peeling paint, but you are not keen on the idea of refinishing the entire surface, you can spot-fix the tub. Some touch-up products, such as Super Glue White Porcelain Repair, are as easy to apply as squeezing toothpaste out of a tube.
Install
As with installing new hardware on cabinets, installing a new sink faucet is one trick designers and do-it-yourselfers alike use to make a sink sparkle without replacing the entire top or vanity.
Install prefabricated shower units are cheaper than tiled showers. The most expensive option is hiring tradesmen to build a unit out of tile from scratch. While site-built tile showers and tubs can be gorgeous and unique, consider a prefabricated shower unit. If you absolutely must have that tiled shower, fusing a poly shower pan with the tile saves some hassle and some cost.
Install your own bathroom vanity and top practically come assembled for you. Because bathrooms are small, it is possible for you to buy nearly or fully assembled bathroom vanity units and vanity tops and have them in place within a couple of hours. Vanity units come in pre-determined sizes ranging from 24 inches to 60 inches wide. Coordinating counters can be purchased that even have sinks fused into them, eliminating sink installation and caulking woes.
Resist the Urge to Move Major Plumbing
The hardest part of installing a toilet is physically moving the toilet into place. Save money by leaving the toilet and bathing facilities where they are. Do not move the plumbing when leaving everything in the same location will still satisfy your needs. Moving water supply and/or drainage immediately drives up the cost of any remodeling project.
Go Green with Upgrades
When updating your bathroom, don’t forget to redesign with the environment in mind. Low-flow toilets, sinks, and showerheads will not only help you conserve water, but they’ll also save you money. Plus, water-saving showerheads and faucets often cost the same, if not less, than traditional ones. So, you won’t have to spend money to save money here.
Buying used or repurposing materials is also good for the environment. In addition to searching sites for upcycled upgrades, search for ideas and do them yourself. For example, it’s easy to turn mason canning jars into soap dispensers.
If you find yourself needing help from professionals, contact Nicholas Design Build. They are the experts that deliver change and reimagine spaces. To find out more about remodeling contractors, also refer to this blog HERE.