Cheap Bathroom Renovation Ideas

Nobody likes to share bathrooms, and according to the Housing Industry Association, more Australian families are spending on extra bathrooms in their homes, even in the smallest available spaces. Even if it were done on a budget, a properly installed or renovated bathroom would add more value to your life and home.

Having your bathroom renovated cheaply doesn’t mean that you use only low-quality materials. Instead, it’s a way of ensuring that you spend money only where necessary to allow you to save more.

Average Bathroom Renovation Cost

In 2018, the Housing Industry Association performed a survey, and the results showed that the average cost of renovation is around $17,500.

However, in a separate study carried out by Houzz Australia, the results showed that people aged 50 and above spend about $12,000 on bathroom renovations, while people between 30 to 50 years spend approximately $13,000.

An Open Agent report suggests that irrespective of the budget and size of bathroom renovation, the typical cost is between $5,000 and $15,000, while premium renovation costs over $25,000.

Cost of Renovating a Small Bathroom

According to Houzz Australia’s bathroom trends study, the cost of renovating small bathrooms (not more than 5 square metres) is around $10,000.

Cost of Renovating a Large Bathroom

For a large bathroom (more than 5 square metres), the renovation cost is around $13,500.

Doing A Cheap Bathroom Renovation

There are many DIY methods involved in carrying out a cheap bathroom renovation. This can often be time-consuming but will save you a lot because you’ll mostly use affordable products.

Here are the main things that will determine whether your DIY bathroom renovation will be cheap or not:

• The size of the bathroom
• Need for structural work
• Type of surfaces and fixtures
• Need for professional personnel

Ways To Save Money On Bathroom Renovation

Having a cheap bathroom renovation may seem impossible, but you can absolutely remodel your bathroom cheaply. You might be thinking bathroom makeovers will cost a lot like most home remodelling projects. However, resisting this idea is the first step to reducing your bathroom makeover costs.

Bathroom remodelling can be stressful for homeowners, especially in terms of the high costs and unmet timelines. With the tendency for bathroom remodelling costs to be on the high side, it is essential to know how to think out of the box and find cheaper ways to remodel your bathroom.

With a cheap bathroom remodel, you’ll have a bright, functional, and clean bathroom, and most of all, you’ll save more money. To help you avoid taking the expensive route, here are some cheap bathroom renovation ideas for you.

Retrofit Your Bathroom

Having a full bathroom refit can cost a fortune, especially if you plan to change the entire layout of the bathroom. Doing this can significantly influence the labour cost and ultimately make you spend more. Maintaining the exact location for your existing shower, vanity, and toilet will make the bathroom renovation cost-effective. With this, you can quickly achieve more at a low cost.

Reconsider the Tiles

Tiling is also another aspect of bathroom remodelling that can take a lot of money. Depending on the brand and style of tiles you choose, tiling can be expensive. It is also a time-consuming and labour-intensive process, but the good thing is that you can prevent your budget from going overboard. You can do the tilling yourself, but you’ll need to follow laid tiling procedures.

One way to reduce the tiling cost is by limiting the tiling to only half the length of the wall. You can also consider wet tiling areas and feature walls alone. And if you’re an adventurous person, you can attempt to handle tiling yourself to save costs. The most important thing is for you to know how to measure and cut bathroom tiles and a few other tips to help you tile your walls and floors. But if you want to take a completely different route, you might want to consider other methods that do not necessitate the use of tiles.

Use Cheaper Identical Materials

The best choice when saving money on bathroom renovations is by refurbishing and retaining your old materials. However, if you’re bent on swapping these materials, you might want to consider using cheaper alternatives. For example, rather than using a wood plank flooring, you might want to consider using luxury vinyl flooring. Vinyl flooring nowadays is a lot better than wood plank flooring, and most of all, they are also a cheaper alternative.

Today, quartz countertops and laminate countertops compete with granite because they all look like real natural stones. Also, porcelain tiles and faux-stone ceramic can replace marble and travertine. Basically, you can lower the cost you spend on a bathroom renovation by using cheaper identical materials.

It’s best to take time to find cheap bathroom remodel materials. You can easily do this by checking online resources like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, searching for deals at thrift outlets and bargain stores, and comparing the prices from different stores.

Refinish Your Tub

You don’t have to replace your tub when remodelling your bathroom, especially if you want to cut down on your expenses. Instead, you can refinish or reline the tub. Bathtubs are repairable, and as such, you can opt for this strategy to save more money.

For hot tubs with a few nicks and cracks, refinishing wouldn’t be a bad idea. It is worth mentioning that shower liners and bathtubs are not as affordable as you may think, and you’ll need a professional for installation, which will only cost you more money. On the other hand, refinishing your bathtub will help your bathtub look better and help you save money.

Renew Cabinets with New Hardware

Deciding to buy and install new cabinets will only cause you to spend a lot, but you can avoid this. An easy and affordable way to revitalise your cabinet is by replacing old hardware with new ones.

When buying new hardware, you’ll need to ensure that it has the exact screw alignment as your old hardware. With this, you won’t need to drill new holes in your cabinet.

Install a New Sink Faucet

Just as we recommend installing new hardware on your cabinets, we also recommend installing a new sink faucet. This extra step is a straightforward way to make your sink look more appealing. You won’t need to spend so much money replacing the vanity or entire top.

Install Your Own Toilet

For this, you might need to call a plumber to help you lift the toilet unless you have the strength to do it yourself. In that case, you can proceed to install the toilet all by yourself.

The main thing involved in a toilet installation is connecting to existing plumbing. Although the physical aspect of the whole process can be really challenging, you can easily have a friend help you with that.

Do Plumbing Yourself

Another way you can cut down your bathroom remodelling cost is by doing certain things yourself. Push-in fittings and PEX plumbing pipes are now very common because you don’t need any professional experience to use these items. As such, this makes it a lot easier to handle the plumbing task yourself.

You might be tempted to move major plumbing during your bathroom remodelling, but this will only cost you more money. You can save a significant portion of money by leaving your bathing and toilet facilities where they are. Since their current location can meet your needs, there’s no need to move them to a different location. Changing the drains and water supply location can drive up your bathroom remodelling cost.

If you decide to change the location of showers, sinks, and toilets, you’ll also need to change the plumbing and piping. This will only increase the labour intensity because you’ll need to move pipes and plumbing. With that, you’ll end up spending more on your bathroom remodel.

If your aim is to only update the shower, sink, and toilet, you can simply buy new ones and place them in the same location as the previous ones. You can for instance replace the toilet seat rather than the entire toilet. Doing this will save cost and also make the project quicker.

Paint the Interior

One of the fastest ways to change the outlook of your bathroom is by giving it a fresh coat of paint. This will assist in helping your bathroom feel brighter. It is also an easy way to revitalise your bathroom. This is perfect for people who are unable to update their whole bathroom at once or individuals who simply want to improve the appearance of their bathroom. The painting will make a significant difference.

Consider painting the walls of your bathroom to remove tear, wear and scuff marks. This will also help you bring out the potential of your bathroom. Another option is to temporarily paint your tiles to make them look newer. If you’re not ready to remodel the entire bathroom, this is a step to take.

This is a task that anybody can complete. You might need a professional painter for a whole house painting job, and this is because it is a large-scale project. However, you don’t need to hire a professional painter for little painting jobs, even for the bathroom remodeling.

Most of the space in your bathroom is already taken up by cabinets, tile, showers, mirrors, and even your bathtub. Only a little room is left to paint, and in most cases, you can save money by doing the job yourself.

If you have wooden bathroom floors, you can completely remove them and replace them with tiles, but this will cost you a lot of money. Since the goal is to save money, you might want to consider retaining the wooden floor, but you can use a protective enamel to paint the floor.

However, it’s important to note that solid hardwood is not advisable for bathroom flooring. Painting a wooden floor is a cheap way to make the floor last longer.

Do the Designing

It’s a great idea to hire a bathroom designer, although this may cause you to go beyond your budget. With that said, you will need to consider doing your bathroom design yourself. You might need to hire a designer for a whole house remodeling, but since bathroom remodelling is a small-scale project, you don’t need to hire anybody.

You need to spend more time understanding your bathroom layout and learn a few basic design guidelines. With that, you can easily handle the design yourself and also save extra money.

More Budget-Friendly Tips To Renovate Your Bathroom

If you’re thinking of remodelling your bathroom, then the ideas we have provided above will come in handy for you. Even though the process can be quite expensive, there are so many easy ways to improve your bathroom without spending so much.

The bathroom remains among the critical rooms that require upgrading in a house mainly because of the value it adds. To make bathroom renovation a lot easier for you, we have provided more tips in addition to the ones above. Here’s more advice on cost-effective bathroom remodelling for you.

Plan Beforehand

Before you start your bathroom renovation, it is crucial to ensure that you have a solid plan to work with. This should cover the entire project’s budget, design, and timeline. The importance of having a budget and a solid plan beforehand cannot be overemphasised.

This will give you an effective guideline to stick to and follow throughout the renovation project. Additionally, it will also give you a better understanding of the total cost of your bathroom remodelling. It’s normal for a project to exceed the initial budget, and this can be as a result of different factors.

In most cases, a project will go beyond the budget due to unforeseen circumstances. However, if you already have a budget in place, it’s a lot easier to stay on track even if an aspect goes beyond your budget. Without a budget, you won’t be able to control your expenses, and it won’t be easy to tell when your finances start to go overboard.

If you want to cheaply remodel your bathroom, you’ll need to outline your timeline, design, budget, and every other aspect of the project before you begin.

Upgrade What You Have

Some of the bathroom ideas highlighted earlier recommend upgrading what you already have, like cabinets and other hardware fittings. This is a better thing to do, especially if you have a tight budget. You might want to consider updating some of the furniture and hardware you already have in your bathroom. This is a straightforward and cost-effective way to brighten your bathroom and also make a significant difference.

For instance, some of the things you might want to consider changing include lighting, taps, handles towel racks, toilet roll holders, and drains. Once you change all of this hardware, your bathroom will instantly look more modern and have a completely different feel. What’s more, is that you can find these items at affordable and discounted rates in different stores.

Still, wondering how you can upgrade your fixtures and hardware? Here are a few things you should try:

• Install new handles, drains, and faucets.
• Install open shelving to create more space on your counter.
• Install smaller items like robe hooks and towel racks.
• Switch out electrical plugs and plates.
• Replace old track lighting.
• Use energy-efficient bulbs.
• Re-caulk the seals around your tiles, shower, and sink.

Go Green

It doesn’t end at cheaply renovating your bathroom. You can also continue to save more even after you have renovated your bathroom. One way to help you continue saving even after you have remodelled your bathroom is by installing green water-conserving technologies in your bathroom. Doing this will help ensure the efficient use of water in your bathroom, saving more water and saving you money eventually.

Consider choosing toilets, sinks, and showerheads with minimal flow technology. This option will ensure that you are saving money, water, and the environment with time. You also don’t have to wait until you’re done remodelling your bathroom. You can include water conservation into your bathroom remodelling budget to extend your savings even after remodelling. This is also an effective and handy strategy for people who live in areas that are affected by drought.

Use Professionals For A Proper Bathroom Renovation

With these tips we have provided above, you can cheaply remodel your bathroom. However, if you are looking to do a proper remodel of your bathroom, you can speak to professionals to achieve this. A dollar sign shouldn’t stand in your way of giving your bathroom a completely new look.