Why Remodel the Bathroom?
There’s no doubt that bathroom remodeling offers a high cost to benefit ratio, which is why the popularity of this home renovation project has skyrocketed in recent years. If you’re hoping to sell your home, or simply wanting to enjoy it more—bathroom remodeling can mean serious rewards that enhance your investment now and long into the future. It should be noted that the success of your renovation will depend on two important factors: the quality of the products you choose, and the expertise and professionalism of your bathroom contractors. The right bathroom remodeling company will work with you to reveal the best options you have to receive the most beneficial results possible—according to your budget, your style preferences, your functionality requests, and other considerations. As long as the quality of the products and your bathroom remodeling company are high, you can rest assured that a bathroom remodel will offer the following incredible benefits for your home: Indoor Comfort and Enjoyment: As we’ve mentioned before, a more beautiful and functional bathroom can bring plenty of satisfaction to any homeowner. This is especially true for those with home constructions that are ten years old or older. Not too long ago, construction materials were not nearly as easy to clean or maintain as they are today, which means that older bathrooms are hard to keep up—and tend to deteriorate quickly in spite of rigorous, daily scrubbing and cleaning. Replacing those products with gorgeous, gleaming sinks, showers, and tubs can affect the way the entire house feels, looks, and even smells. Increase Your Home’s Resale Value: The newest construction materials for bathroom remodeling aren’t just easier to clean and maintain—they’re smarter, too—with eco-friendly features and energy-efficient products that make bathing faster, easier, more enjoyable, and better for the environment. Smarter, greener bathrooms are the newest trend in remodeling, and upgrading with these features can mean a healthy return on your investment should you decide to sell or refinance your home down the road. Easy-Maintenance and Zero Upkeep: We’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth mentioning again. Today’s newest bathroom materials are made with advanced technology and engineering, with high-performing acrylic materials that resist mold, mildew, and are a breeze to clean. For example, our bath liners, wall surrounds, and other fixtures at Community Builders are made with materials that are guaranteed to never scratch, dent, chip, or fade—and best of all, you’ll never have to spend hours scrubbing dirt and grime off of them. With just a quick spray of a homemade cleaning solution of part vinegar and part water every now and then, your bath materials will stay looking beautiful forever.
The Most Common Types of Bathrooms (and Reasons for Remodeling Them)
The first consideration you’ll have to make when planning a bathroom renovation is the bathroom you’re going to upgrade. There are a few types of bathrooms in a home, including:
- The Master Bathroom: The master bathroom is usually the largest and most luxurious bathroom inside of a house. This is an area where relaxation and functionality should blend together in one—offering more than just a sink, tub, and a shower. The Master bathroom should be an experience, whether it’s a simple one or an extravagant one, and is a great place to consider adding in LED touch lighting, a spa or walk-in tubs, heated flooring, and other luxury features.
- Full Bath: A full bathroom features a sink, toilet, shower, and a bathtub—or often, a shower-tub combo. While a full bath can definitely be luxurious, it’s typically less so than the master bathroom and focuses more on functionality, storage, and other goals than for rest and relaxation. This room is also usually bigger than the three-quarters and half-bath bathrooms, but not as large as the master bathroom.
- Three-Quarters Bath: A three-quarters bath houses a sink, a toilet, and a shower.
- Half-Bath (Also Known as a Powder Room): A half-bath is usually reserved for guests and for entertaining. It features a sink and a toilet, but no shower or bathtub.
Once you’ve decided on which bathroom you’re remodeling, the next consideration you’ll need to make is why you’re remodeling your home. Some of the reasons for remodeling include maximizing the space of the bathroom, improving the layout, adding or re-organizing storage space, updating the décor and appliances, improving efficiency and reducing water usage, and incorporating smart technology features, among many others.
Getting Started: Planning the Perfect Bathroom Renovation
While a bathroom design specialist can help you come up with a plan for your bathroom, it’s helpful to get an idea of what you want to do with your space before meeting with a professional. For some homeowners, the improvements that they want to make will be obvious. You might want to replace an old, ugly shower or a soap-scum, mildew-covered bathtub. You may want to update the décor to something more modern and inviting. Or, if you’re getting older and worried about falls—or living with a household member that struggles with mobility issues, you may be thinking about having your shower replaced with a barrier-free replacement or a walk-in tub installation. If you’re unsure about what it is that you want to do, it might be helpful to consider the following questions to form a plan:- Is the problem cosmetic, functional, or both?
- What features would you like to see in your new bathroom?
- Are you having issues with your bathroom’s layout?
- Does the current décor style seem outdated, ugly, or otherwise bothersome?
- Would you like to upgrade your bathroom with newer, smarter features?
- Is the lighting of your bathroom too dark or too bright?
Major Renovations to Minor Makeovers: The Most Common Bathroom Remodeling Projects
In general, we can separate most bathroom remodeling projects into two categories: a full and complete renovation, and a makeover. A full renovation might consist of tearing down walls, and reconfiguring spaces, changing the layout of your bathroom, and upgrading everything inside. A makeover might focus on one or two areas of your bathroom but won’t require a heavy or intensive renovation overhaul. In fact, most makeovers at Community Builders can be completed quickly—in less than one day. To help you get an idea of some of the options you have for your next bathroom renovation, here are a few of the most popular remodeling projects that we complete every year at Community Builders:- Full Renovation: If you’re dissatisfied with the size, layout, fixtures, or overall style of your bathroom, a full renovation could be in order. A qualified bathroom contractor will know exactly how to re-configure your space to recreate the entire bathroom from scratch—with new walls, partitions, a beautiful shower or spa tub, and more.
- Bath Conversion: One of the easiest remodeling projects is bath conversion. Bath conversion can refer to a shower-to-tub or a tub-to-shower transformation, where an old bathroom fixture is converted into a different one. For those that have always dreamed of switching up one for the other, tub or shower conversion is fast, affordable, and can offer plenty of value without the hassle of a traditional bathroom overhaul.
- Walk-in Tubs and Barrier-Free Showers: We’ve mentioned this one before—but for people with low mobility, such as senior citizens or disabled members of the household, walk-in tubs and barrier-free shower installations can be a godsend. Walk-in tubs can fit easily over old tub installations, while old showers are reconditioned into barrier-free models.
- Wall Surround and Bath Liners: One of the quickest and most affordable bath remodel option is to install new wall surrounds and bath liners over the old bathroom walls. At Community Builders, we use high-quality acrylic liners and surrounds in a wide variety of beautiful designs. Our wall surrounds, and bath liners are durable and long-lasting, and designed with built-in anti-mold and mildew technologies. These products fit neatly over the existing wall, offering a huge impact in the way your bathroom looks and is maintained—especially considering the low cost of this renovation option.
How Long Will My Bathroom Remodeling Project Take to Finish?
In past decades, taking on any home remodeling project meant days, weeks, or even months of waiting on contractors, material shipping, and heavy installation work—all at an exorbitant cost. Luckily, today’s remodeling products are designed for easy installation and are more affordable than they’ve ever been before. Even so, knowing how long your bathroom remodel is going to take can be a bit nerve-wracking. As busy as we all are, it’s hard to imagine living with a non-functional, off-limits bathroom for even just a few days.
There are a great number of factors that will determine how long your bathroom remodeling project will take—most importantly, the type of remodel you’re choosing to have completed. A major renovation—or a full bathroom remodel—will take much longer than a minor makeover, which can sometimes take less than 24 hours to complete. Major renovations are much more complicated projects and can involve heavy demolition, electrical and plumbing work, and customized labor. Most will also require extra paperwork, building permits, and inspections—just to get started. It’s hard to say how long a major renovation will take without knowing the details of the project—but you can roughly estimate that it might take two or three days for every fixture being replaced, a week or longer for custom cabinetry installation, another week for reconfiguring the layout and rebuilding walls, and another few days for electrical work and clean-up. All in all, full renovations take a lot of time—so it’s best to hire a professional company that won’t waste yours.
Minor bathroom upgrades won’t require heavy demolition, pipework, wire cutting. Instead, the work done will focus on replacing fixtures like showers or tubs, bath conversion, vanity installation, and toilet replacement. Wall surrounds, bath liners, faucet and shower head replacement, and other cosmetic changes can also be made quickly and without delay. Many of these options can now be completed in less than 24 hours, using advanced, custom-fitting technology and new installation techniques.
Other factors that will affect the length of time of your renovation include the existing structure and condition of your home, and your schedule and flexibility. If you’re working with a reputable, professional bathroom remodeling company, your project coordinator will work closely with you to come up with an accurate timeline for your renovation.
The Smartest Bathroom Upgrades of 2019
There’s no doubt that bathrooms are getting smarter. One of the biggest trends in bathroom remodeling of the decade is smart products and high-tech features that focus on energy efficiency, convenience, and design. From low-flow shower heads to heated floors and LED lighting, there are plenty of smart options available to take your bathroom renovation to the next level.
Here are some of our favorite bathroom upgrades that we’ve seen so far in 2019:
- Intelligent Showers: Showers have gotten a whole lot better with the newest and latest innovations. Now, homeowners can use an app on your smartphone to control the temperature of your shower in the morning. With a tap of a button, you’ll enjoy the pre-set, perfect temperature shower, every time. You can also play music in the shower while getting ready in the morning.
For those seeking greener solutions and an eco-friendlier lifestyle, low-flow shower heads adjust the water flow adequately to limit water usage when you don’t need it. The smart sensors on these shower heads are engineered to know exactly how much water you need based on your movements—limiting the flow while you’re shaving your legs, for example, and increasing it when you’re rinsing the shampoo from your hair.
- High-Tech Toilets: Smart toilets are more than just bidets—they’re efficient, eco-friendly, and quite useful in a number of ways. These toilets are truly high-tech—and can help keep the air deodorized and smelling clean, reduce water waste with a low-flow flushing function, and keep themselves clean with integrated UV lights. Some can even play white noise to mask bathroom noises that might otherwise be embarrassing.
- Heated Flooring: A radiant heat flooring system can be installed underneath your bathroom flooring to warm up the entire room in the winter. This system helps to save in heating and cooling costs and is a very efficient way to stay warm in the winter. The settings can be controlled from your smart phone and can be set on a timer to make getting up on cold mornings much easier.
- Bathroom Fans: Ventilation in bathrooms is very important—as it works to eliminate humidity, bad smells, and excessive moisture that grows into mold and mildew. Smart ventilation takes the old, switch-style bathroom fan to new heights—with sensors that detect excessive moisture in the room, and activate themselves when it’s necessary. Like other smart features, you can also control this function from an app on your smartphone.
The Importance of Finding the Right Contractor
As we’ve stated before, the two most important factors that will affect the quality of your renovation are the materials you use, and the experts you choose. In fact, the two elements go hand-in-hand—as the bathroom remodeling company that you hire will play a large part in which bathroom materials and products you use for your home renovation.
A qualified, professional team of bathroom remodeling experts will know how to work with your budget to get the results you want. With a top-rated team standing beside you throughout the remodeling process, you won’t have to worry about future repairs, shoddy craftsmanship, or installation issues. Instead, you’ll be able to depend on them should anything ever go wrong with your installation, now and far into the future.
Hiring the best team might seem easy enough, but unfortunately, bad contractors are everywhere. You’ve probably heard your fair share of stories from friends, family members, or co-workers about shady contractors or downright scam artists, or perhaps you’ve run into one or two in the past. A bad contractor can waste plenty of your time and your money, and can turn your life upside down for a significant amount of time. This is why it’s so important to find the right contractor that you can trust—that will go above and beyond to get the results you want out of your bathroom remodel.
To find a good bathroom company, make sure to check the internet for reputable options in your area. These should be easy to spot—as they’ll have credible, full websites, plenty of online reviews, and awards from organizations like Angie’s List, the BBB, Houzz.com, and others. Next, you’ll want to request in-home visits for free consultations and pricing estimates. This will allow you to meet with a representative from each company in person, to get a feel for how they work, the customer service they provide, and also to compare remodeling quotes.
Avoid contractors that won’t meet with you on-site, or that quote a flat rate without taking a look at your property in person. You’ll also want to stay away from contractors that aren’t licensed or insured, or that lack a real website, social media accounts, or online reviews. Likewise, you’ll also want to avoid contractors with bad reviews online. You can also ask around your neighborhood, your work, or with family and friends for recommendations and referrals of companies that they’ve worked with (and felt satisfied with) in the past.
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