What a bathroom remodel costs in Tampa Bay.
Every remodeling site in Tampa has a starting-at number on it. It is the least useful figure in the industry, because it describes a bathroom that is not yours. Here is what actually moves the price, and what a suspiciously low bid is leaving out.
Priced by written scope, never by the hour.
What a low bid is actually cutting.
When one quote lands far below the others, the money came from somewhere. There are only a few places it can come from, and every one of them is invisible the day the job finishes. This is the most useful thing on this page, so it goes first.
The waterproofing
The single most common cut. Tile and grout are a finish, not a waterproof layer. A membrane behind them costs materials and a day of labour, and once tile is on, nobody can tell you whether it is there. Ask for it as a named line and ask for a photograph of that stage.
What is behind the old tile
A cheap bid assumes the wall is fine. It quietly becomes a change order the week after demolition, when the wall is open and you have no leverage and no other contractor in the house.
The pan and the fall
A shower floor has to slope to the drain, evenly, in every direction. Doing that properly takes time. Doing it badly leaves standing water and you will not see it until the job is paid for.
Haul-away, protection and permits
Demolition debris, floor protection, dust control and the permits the job actually needs. Small lines individually, and the first ones to vanish from a number that has to look low.
The three questions that put you in a range.
Answer these three about your own bathroom and you will know roughly what kind of job you are looking at, before anybody visits.
Toilet, vanity or shower
Keeping every fixture where it is, is the efficient job. Moving one means plumbing work by the licensed trade, and on a slab it can mean opening concrete. Biggest lever there is.
Behind the tile
Dry and solid means a finish job. Years of water behind the tile means structural repair first, priced when it is visible.
Ceiling, showerhead or tub line
Same room, same trades, three different numbers. This is the line most people adjust once they see the scope written down.
What is included, and where it ends.
A written scope is only worth something if it says where it stops. These are the boundaries we put in writing before anyone starts.
How long the bathroom is out of use.
Cost and time move together, and for the same reasons. A job where nothing moves and the walls are sound is shorter as well as cheaper. A job that opens a slab gains a trade, an inspection and a wait in the middle of it.
When we tell you not to do it
Every company on your list will say yes to this job. Here is where we say no, and why. It costs us the odd project and it saves you a great deal more than that.
You are being asked to pay most of it up front
Payments should follow work you can see. A schedule tied to visible milestones protects you, and it is how our scopes are written.
Nobody has been to your house yet
A price given over the phone is a guess with a number attached. It will change, and the change will not be in your favour.
The cheapest bid will not name its waterproofing
If a company will not put that line in writing, you have your answer about where the difference went.
Lifetime warranty on our workmanship.
If the work we did fails, we come back and fix it, for as long as you own the home. Not one year. Not five. As long as you live there.
A warranty is only worth what its exclusions say. Ours are above, in the same size type as the promise. Ask any other company you are talking to for theirs in writing, and check how long the tile is covered for.
Questions we actually get asked
Why will you not publish a price range?
Because a range that does not describe your bathroom is a marketing figure, not information. The three questions above decide which range you are in, and it takes somebody standing in the room to know which side of each one you fall on.
Is the estimate free?
Yes. The walkthrough and the written scope come before you owe anything, and the price in that scope is the price.
What makes the price go up after signing?
Only two things. A change you asked for, priced in writing before it happens. Or something genuinely not visible until a wall came off, which is either covered by a named allowance or listed as an exclusion in your scope from the start.
Do you charge by the hour?
Never. Every job is priced by written scope. An hourly price gives you no number to plan around and no reason for anyone to finish.
Why is one quote half the price of another?
Usually because you are being quoted two different products. An acrylic panel system fitted over the existing walls is a genuinely different job from a tiled shower built in place, and neither company always says which one they are selling. Ask both, in writing.
The other bathroom services
Where we work
Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee and Sarasota counties. If your town is not on this list, call and ask: the answer is often yes.
A walkthrough, then a written scope with one closed price.
Never hourly, never a verbal figure, and our workmanship carries a lifetime warranty. Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee and Sarasota counties.