Statistically, the bathroom is one of the rooms you’ll use the most throughout your life. It is also one of the most intimate places in the house. This is why people care about making it feel comfortable and safe. If people don’t like how their bathroom looks, they often choose to remodel it.
However, while an interesting idea, a remodel can get pretty technical with how much work is involved. There is a lot to consider that people don’t realize until they get into it. We want to break down these ideas and show what to consider when getting a bathroom remodel.
Difference Between a Remodel And Renovation
If you consider changing your bathroom, one of the first things you need to address is what process you want. It’s common to think remodels and renovations are the same, but the two have very different approaches and reasons.
A renovation is a less intensive process of changing your bathroom. This is less about changing the appearance of your bathroom as it is about maintenance and improving the functions.
The process can involve changing everything from the tiles, bathtub, and toilet. Because of that, they also refer to this as the bathroom upgrade.
So when you say the renovation, it is when you want to change most if not all of the things in your bathroom. However, the actual layout in your bathroom will remain mainly as it is. While you might remove some items, you won’t touch the foundation or make massive additions.
On the other hand, a remodel is about changing your bathroom’s functionality and aesthetics. You can expect the bathroom to maintain the same layout in a renovation, and that is because you are just upgrading all the existing items, and that is not the case with the remodel.
You will still gut the bathroom when you remodel, but you will also completely change the layout. Some things might stay the same, but you can expect other things to be gone.
People may add a sauna, walk-in shower, or even a skylight during a bathroom remodel. To fit all of these things, you may also have to commit to making some dramatic changes.
What to Expect From a Remodel
Changing Your Piping
People decide to remodel their bathrooms to improve their appearance and upgrade the facilities. People will change their tiny bathtub to a king-sized tub or install a fancier toilet. All of this is well and good, but it also requires a lot of changes.
Aside from the facilities themselves, you have to consider if the piping and floor plan can handle these changes. You shouldn’t be surprised if a contractor asks permission to change your pipes to accommodate these changes.
While a contractor should be able to handle the task, work like that takes time and money, and you should factor that when you are planning this out to ensure you have the resources to handle it. Additionally, it can cause considerable changes to your schedule if you also need to change piping.
Ads Value To Your Home
Although the process of remodeling is expensive, there are potential rewards too. Aside from enjoying these new amenities, they make your home more valuable. If you decide to sell your house, an extra-large tub of quality flooring can go a long way in raising the price.
If you decide to do a bathroom remodel, you should speak to your realtor about having your home valued. Realtors can calculate how much value they can add and the trends that interest buyers.
They can accurately estimate how much the bathroom is worth and offer input on what else you can add. With them, realtors can provide advice on what will add the most value during a remodel and try to help you make the most of your budget.
A realtor can also ensure that your upgrades align with what increases value. People often have a bathroom remodel but realize that none of the changes add value, and that is because they are upgrading the wrong areas. Realtors keep you on track with what can benefit you.
Sustainability
When you have a bathroom remodel, you should ask how long you plan on using these things. Age-in-place type bathrooms are becoming increasingly popular in recent years. So you may want to get more use from these changes.
For your bathroom, you should invest in products and systems that will last a long time, decades even. You also have to consider your own needs in the long term and how they might change. One method people have is making their bathroom ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant, which means they can use it well into their senior years.
Examples of these long-term changes are steps for the bathtub, low-flushing toilets, or extra-large cabinets, which seniors can have an easy time using. Aside from just being easy to use, you should also make sure they are sustainable.
Even if a product can help you in the next decade, it won’t be much good if it breaks down. That is why you should also check the quality of your products and make sure they can last as long.
How Much Storage You Need
Just like your kitchen, bathrooms require plenty of storage for your things. You have toiletries, cleaning supplies, clothes, and all of that involves shelf or closet space. During a bathroom remodel, the contractor will destroy or remove all the existing shelf space, which raises the question of what you will do in its place.
You have to consider if you will need more or less space in the future to plan accordingly. Depending on your answer, this can be an opportunity to change the bathroom’s layout.
If you don’t need as much storage anymore, you can use that area for something else. On the other hand, if you need more space, you now have a chance to sort everything out. This means creating a more efficient setup that holds more but takes less space.
One popular strategy that people use is creating large cabinets that go up to the ceiling. You can enjoy plenty of space to hold all your things.
Style
One of the biggest questions you have to answer if you plan on having a bathroom remodel is what style you want. This remodeling is your chance to get a fresh start with the bathroom, so you are limited only by your imagination. However, when picking the design of the bathroom, you have to think about its purpose of it.
If the point is to give what you want, you’re free to do whatever. The only thing that limits you then is if it fits your budget. On the other hand, if you have plans to sell or rent your house, you must consider popular styles.
The bathroom is a big selling point for the house, so the bathroom should offer what the people want. With that in mind, you can model it around the features of successful homes and see if you can capture the same excitement.
You should model your bathroom around the style of the rest of your home. Doing so allows the place to feel consistent and let it blend with everything. If you feel particularly bold, you can try and do something new to tie it to your house.
Expect an Expansion
When you are thinking about a bathroom remodel, odds are you will want to add new amenities. Many people wish to add things like a sauna or a steam room to their bathroom. If not, maybe expand the features already there, like the bathtub or closet space.
While these are already great ideas, they also require a lot of room, sometimes more than your current bathroom can handle. Because of that, you should consider the possibility of expanding your bathroom.
The contractor may need to tear down some walls and make significant changes to the floor plan to make these things happen. That can take a lot of work from them to make sure it’s safe to do it and set everything up.
As you can imagine, work like that isn’t cheap, so you should have extra funds ready for it. Not only that, but they also need to check the layout to see how you can adjust it to fit those new facilities. You have to check if it can work with everything and if the facilities and the layout can handle it.
Summary
A bathroom can be a lot more work than you realize. Unlike the rest of your house, you can’t change the surface and get away with it. You have to make sure everything can still function afterward, and this can require adjustments to the plumbing, arrangement, and the whole room.
It can also be an opportunity to make some significant differences in your bathroom. You have a chance to make a fresh start and flip it to whatever you want. If you succeed, it raises the value of your home, and it offers a new experience.
All that matters is you understand the costs and time you will need to give. If you can accept that, then you can achieve that dream.
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