Bathroom Remodel Estimator

How this calculator builds the number

Every figure the tool shows is assembled from six inputs. Nothing is pulled from a national average, and nothing is a flat price per square foot.

1. Man-hours by trade. Each level carries its own hours for demo, framing, electrical, drywall, tile, finish carpentry, paint and cleanup, then scales them by room size — 0.75 for a small 5' × 8' bath, 1 for a standard 8' × 8', 1.2 for a large 8' × 10' and 1.5 for a master 10' × 12'. A standard-size bathroom is 72 man-hours at the Standard level and 260 at Luxury: about 4.5 and 16.3 crew days at 16 man-hours a day.
2. Labor at $85 an hour. The low end of the range is hours × $85. The high end is that same figure × 1.2. The tool does not add hours for the high end — it stretches the rate to cover a slower job.
3. Subcontracts. Plumbing is subcontracted at every level, which is why the trade shows zero self-performed hours; the scope lists send panel work to an electrical sub at High-End and Luxury. Subcontract costs are marked up 20%.
4. Install materials. Backerboard, waterproof membrane, drywall, thinset, grout, fasteners and trim — a low-to-high band per level, scaled by the same size multiplier. These are the materials the crew installs, not the fixtures you pick out.
5. Site difficulty. A 0–35% step applied to labor, subcontracts and materials only. Second floor is 5%, narrow hallways or tight doorways 10%, limited parking or a long carry from the street 15%, an occupied home 20%, a third floor or attic 25%, below grade 30%, several of those stacking 35%.
6. Your own selections. Nine fixture and finish categories: tub or shower base, toilet, vanity and top, faucets, tile, shower door, mirror or medicine cabinet, light fixtures, and towel bars and accessories. The tool pre-fills a budget for the level you picked and you type over it with what you are actually buying. Site difficulty never touches these.

Add them up and you get the Estimated Total Budget. For a standard 8' × 8' bathroom on an easy site that is $8,840 – $11,424 at Standard, $17,890 – $24,242 at Mid-Range, $25,260 – $35,926 at High-End and $38,250 – $56,320 at Luxury. Change the size and every line moves with it.

Three sample outputs

These come straight out of the tool, rounded to the nearest $100. Each one includes labor, subcontracts, install materials and that level's default selection budget.

Two patterns show up straight away. The jump from Standard to Mid-Range is mostly tile — 40 man-hours of it that the Standard level does not carry at all. And site difficulty is not a rounding error: 10% on a high-end large bath adds roughly $2,500 to $3,000 to a $28,890 – $40,402 job.

What the calculator leaves out

The range covers the remodel itself. It does not cover:

• Permits and permit fees
• HVAC ductwork, furnace or AC work, beyond the exhaust-fan duct run at High-End and Luxury
• A full electrical panel upgrade or service change
• Mold or asbestos remediation
• Window or exterior door replacement
• Foundation repair, or any work outside the bathroom footprint
• Relocating main water or drain risers outside the bathroom
• Appliances and water heater replacement

The other variable is the one you control. The nine selection categories arrive pre-filled with a budget for the level you picked, but the tool has no way of knowing which vanity you settled on. If your selections are firm, type the real numbers in and the total updates as you go. If they are not, leave the defaults and read the spread as your decision space.

Permits deserve their own line. The Columbus Department of Building & Zoning Services requires a permit when plumbing or electrical is moved or added and when framing changes. A like-for-like fixture swap in the existing locations generally does not need one.

When to get a real quote

A planning range tells you whether a project is worth starting. It cannot tell you what to sign. Get a walkthrough and a written quote when any of this applies:

• The layout changes or the plumbing moves. Relocating a toilet or a shower drain is the most expensive single decision in a bathroom, and what it costs depends on what the floor and the joists underneath actually allow.
• The house predates 1960. Inner-ring Columbus bathrooms hide galvanized drains, mortar-bed tile and plaster. Galvanized lines get replaced once they are opened up, not patched.
• The bathroom is below grade or on the third floor. Moisture, egress and carrying every load up two flights all change the hours before anyone picks a tile.
• The top of the range is close to your ceiling. If the project only works at the low end of the estimate, the details need pricing before you commit to them.

For scale: the worked bathroom the contractor behind this site documented — a tub converted to a walk-in shower, the room expanded about 50% into an adjoining closet, galvanized drains replaced, tile floor and surround, owner-supplied finishes — ran 155 man-hours over 11 working days and came to $20,796 with a 20% construction contingency, before the owner's fixture selections. High mid, not luxury.

Timelines hold steadier than prices. Most gut remodels run two to three weeks, four at the longest. A like-for-like fixture swap with no layout change runs about a week.

What to do next

Start with the guide to bathroom remodel cost in Columbus, which lays out the full level-by-size grid with every figure explained. If you are not sure which level describes your project, the four tiers explained walks through what each one includes and where the money goes.

For what a fixed budget actually buys, read what a $30,000 Columbus bathroom remodel gets you. And if the project is a tub-to-shower conversion, walk-in shower conversion cost in Columbus covers the pan, the curb, the glass and the tile in detail.