Bathroom Flooring Remodeling Ideas

A Contractor's Tips for Your Bathroom Makeover or Renovation

Jan 31, 2008

In a continuing series, a remodeling contractor shares ideas and cost estimates for new vinyl or tile bath flooring, with cautions concerning tile on wood subfloors.

In the original article, Bathroom Remodeling Ideas, we discussed replacing the toilet, vanity, sink, mirror, vanity light, medicine cabinet, and accessories to achieve an upgraded bath space on a budget. If you’d like to go farther with your bath remodel, here’s what you should know about bath flooring. (All costs are based on California prices. Your costs may vary.)

FLOOR COVERINGS

Replacing vinyl flooring with something new and modern is not horribly expensive – several hundred dollars. But for several hundred dollars more you could have tile flooring. (Never put carpeting in a bathroom, and please, don't use those do-it-yourself vinyl squares! You'll regret it.)

When replacing the flooring, the toilet will have to come up, so if you don't have a newer one, now is the time to replace it. The vanity doesn't have to come out; you can simply tile up to its base. But if you're getting a new vanity, I recommend pulling it out in advance and covering the entire floor. That way, if you change your mind about the vanity in the future, you won't have an ugly hole where the old vanity used to be.

Floor tile and installation labor may run around $1,000 or a little more depending on the size of your bath, the tile you choose, and who will be removing the toilet (and possibly the vanity).

Keep in mind when re-doing the floor that your baseboards will likely be removed. They can usually be saved and replaced unless you have a new size vanity. But it's not too much extra to get new baseboards if you want to change the look or style.

SUBFLOORING

We should include here a cautionary word about tile and wood subfloors. Second story bathrooms and bathrooms above crawl spaces or basements have wood subfloors. When your tile contractor comes to give you a bid, you’ll see him walking heavily on the floor to see how much the floor “flexes.” Any flex at all will likely result in cracked grout and possibly cracked tiles before too long. In this case, he’ll either give you an additional estimate for strengthening the subfloor, or he’ll refuse to guarantee the work against future cracks.

Depending on the amount of flex in the floor, he may recommend tearing up the floor and adding support (which can be very costly!) or he may deem it sufficient to lay down sheets of cement board on top of the existing floor. (Cement board comes in 3 ft x 5 ft sheets from 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick, and is often called Hardibacker, which is one particular brand of the product.) A layer of cement board could add quite a few hundred dollars to the cost of your project.

CONCLUSION

For bathroom floors, vinyl sheet flooring or tile are your best choices. If you’re handy, you can lay vinyl yourself for about $100. If you have a pro do it, it can be $300 to $500 depending on the size of your bath. The range for tile will start around $1,000 for a typical bath (excluding removal and replacement of fixtures), up to several thousands of dollars for a more complicated job.

For more extensive remodeling, including toilet, vanity, sink, mirror, vanity light, medicine cabinet, accessories, tub, and shower replacement, please see the articles Bathroom Remodeling Ideas and Bathroom Tub & Shower Remodeling.