Sticker Shock, Meet Scope
Why does one contractor quote your bathroom at $32,000 and the next one quotes at $78,000 for what looks like the same room? And which one actually holds?
In this post, you’ll learn what price a primary bathroom remodel starts with us, the line items that move that number, why a cheap quote and an expensive quote are often two different projects, and how we lock the price.
How Much Does A Primary Bathroom Remodel Cost?
A primary bathroom remodel with us starts at $65,000, and most of our projects land north of $75,000, with construction running 8 to 10 weeks.
That covers a rebuild down to the studs: brand-new plumbing, a dedicated 20-amp outlet, permitting and inspections included in your scope of work, and a 3D design of your room before anything gets ordered.
Small hall baths are a different animal and start around $30,000, a different scope we cover in our hall and basement bathroom guide.
The bathrooms we see across Northern Virginia generally cost north of $75,000 because they require expert work, and not just a tile swap.
Here at WISA Solutions, we don’t do vanity-only updates or tub reglazing, so if that’s your project, we’re honestly not your company.
What Drives The Cost Of A Primary Bathroom Remodel
Four things move a primary bath number more than anything else: whether the plumbing stays where it is, how much tile and glass the shower needs, which cabinet line your vanity comes from, and how many comfort features get built in.
Here’s how each behaves.
Layout Changes And Brand New Plumbing
Leaving the toilet, shower, and vanity where they already sit is the cheapest version of your bathroom.
Moving them is not.
Relocating plumbing means new rough-ins, and on a slab, that means cutting concrete, setting new valves, installing a new p-trap for the sink, and a new shower drain.
We did that on a Springfield bathroom, where the proposal also flagged that the room might not widen into the family room next door if that wall turned out to be structural.
We couldn’t answer that from a photo.
Separate from any layout changes, every bathroom we remodel gets completely new plumbing, supply, and drain lines, plus a dedicated 20-amp outlet.
That’s in the price whether you move a fixture or not.
Tile, Shower Glass, And Wet Rooms
Tile and glass are where a shower quietly gets expensive, and we work mostly in porcelain tile and quartz because they still look right ten years in.
A tiled shower pan with Durock on the surround and tile flush to the ceiling is far more labor-intensive than a standard alcove with a molded base.
Frameless glass cut to fit your opening costs more than a slider.
At the top of our range is the Japanese-style shower, where the standalone tub and the shower share one open wet space, and it anchors our spa-like bathroom ideas.
Clients ask for it more than any other design.
It also carries the most waterproofing and the largest tiled surface of anything we build in a bathroom.
Vanity, Countertop, And Cabinet Lines
Your vanity is one line item that can move the budget on its own.
Our stock cabinet line starts around $400 per linear foot uninstalled.
Semi-custom starts at $650.
Our custom lines run over $1,000 per linear foot.
So the his-and-hers vanity walls clients ask for, two runs of cabinetry instead of one, land in very different places depending on the line.
Storage planning shifts, too, which we get into in bathrooms and storage spaces.
A quartz top with an undermount bowl costs more than a cultured marble deck.
The Comfort Upgrades Clients Ask For
The upgrades our clients ask for again and again are heated floors, a heated towel holder, toe kick lighting under the vanity, outlets inside the drawers, and fog proof mirrors, most of them also in our luxury bathroom remodel ideas.
None of them is the reason a primary bath costs $75,000.
Heated floors mean a Schluter Ditra Heat system under your tile with a programmable WiFi thermostat, so that’s electrical work and a different tile setting process.
Lighting prices per fixture.
On that Springfield job, extra recessed lights ran $165 each and had to be decided before drywall prep started.
Why Two Primary Bathroom Quotes Can Be ,000 Apart
A $32,000 quote and a $78,000 quote usually aren’t the same job priced differently.
They’re different jobs.
The kitchen and bath shops around here compete hard for small pull and replace work, and they water down prices to win it, which is the hard part of choosing a bathroom remodeling contractor.
Here’s what tends to be missing from the cheaper number:
- Plumbing gets patched instead of replaced, so a quote reusing what’s behind your wall isn’t comparable.
- Permitting isn’t included in the scope, but we put it in yours as a line item, including hall baths.
- The labor is subcontracted, where roughly 90% of the work on your bathroom is done by our own employees.
- The price is an estimate, not a fixed cost, and an estimate has room to grow the day the wall opens.
- Design isn’t in it, where ours is part of the project instead of a separate bill.
The estimate-versus-fixed-cost gap is the one you feel mid-build.
The permit one surfaces years later, when unpermitted work turns up at resale.
What Our Number Already Covers
Everything below is included in the contract price.
Not added later.
- A full 3D design is presented on the big screen at our design center before a wall comes down.
- Permits are pulled on your behalf, inspections are scheduled by us and written into your scope of work, and in Fairfax County, we run the pre-construction meeting with the inspector.
- Brand new supply and drain lines, a dedicated 20 amp outlet, and an exhaust fan.
- Installation by our own crew for roughly 90% of the work, with our GC running the schedule for 25 to 30 in-house installers.
- A one-year workmanship warranty from the date your project is finished.
Where Allowances Fit In
Some items ride as an allowance, a figure we budget for a fixture you haven’t picked yet, and you get credited or charged the difference on the final bill.
In that Springfield bathroom, the allowances were $450 for the shower system and valve, $400 for the toilet and seat, $200 for the vanity faucet, and $400 for accessories, including grab bars.
The homeowners picked a shower system that came in at $1,139.80 and a faucet at $306.15.
Both went over.
The toilet landed at $383.28, under.
That sheet got reconciled at the end and closed out as a credit back to them, not a bill.
How We Lock The Price Before You Sign
We don’t sign a contract off a walkthrough and a tape measure.
Before you sign, we come back, confirm every measurement, cut into the soffits, and verify what is actually behind your walls and above your ceiling.
Then the number gets fixed.
That return visit is the reason our final invoice matches our quote, and it’s how we can say $75,000 and mean it.
Because our installers are our employees, a small adjustment mid-build doesn’t become a change order the way it does when every trade is a separate sub.
You see all of it first: as-built drawings, then 3D renderings with the scope and estimate reviewed line by line.
Payment follows the work, and on that Springfield project, it ran $25,000 at signing, $25,000 at start, $13,800 after drywall went in, and the balance at completion.
We do one full design for you, and we’ll keep reworking it until you like it.
If it starts looking like the design is getting shopped around, we charge a design fee at 5% or $2,500 and up.
What Sits Outside The Fixed Price
Fixed cost is not the same as every possible cost, and we’d rather say so up front.
Our contract carves out a short list, and almost all of it is what nobody can see before the demo.
Re-routing vents, pipes, ducts, or wiring conduits we find inside a wall we open is not in the agreed price.
Neither is correcting termite, moisture, mold, or dry rot damage, nor is it correcting somebody else’s prior remodeling work.
Lead paint and asbestos are at your cost.
Changes required by an inspector or utility after approval count as an extra.
Panel work isn’t included either, unless we wrote it into your scope.
Each one goes through a written change order you sign, priced before anybody starts.
Down To The Studs, Up To Your Standards, Built By WISA Solutions
If you take one thing from all of this, take the scope question. A $75,000 primary bath and a $32,000 one usually aren’t the same room built two different ways, and knowing which line items sit inside a quote tells you more than the number at the bottom.
Fill out our contact form or give us a call, and we’ll walk you through what your bathroom would actually run.
