In 2026 a half bath typically bids between about $3,000 and $10,000, a full hall bathroom between about $10,000 and $30,000, and a primary suite from about $25,000 to well past $50,000, with tile labour and whether any fixture moves deciding where inside those ranges a given bathroom lands.
Bathrooms are the most expensive rooms in a house per square foot, and the reason is density. Every trade in the building meets inside 40 square feet: supply lines, drains, a vent stack, exhaust ventilation, several electrical circuits, waterproofing, tile, glass, cabinetry and stone. There is no filler space, so nothing can be done cheaply by doing less of it.
The figures here are typical national ranges for 2026, and local bids govern: tile setters, plumbers and permit fees vary by metro enough to move a bathroom by a third. This page covers the three sizes, what drives the number, and a worked example for anyone searching for a cost-to-remodel-a-bathroom calculator, which is a spreadsheet rather than a tool.
Half, full and primary
The three are different projects, not three sizes of the same one, because the amount of waterproofing and tile changes with each.
- Half bath or powder room: a toilet and a sink, no bathing fixture, commonly 15 to 25 square feet. Typical 2026 range roughly $3,000 to $10,000. There is no shower to waterproof, so the job is finishes, a vanity, a toilet and paint, and it is the one bathroom a homeowner can plausibly do most of.
- Full bathroom: a toilet, a sink and a tub or shower, commonly 35 to 60 square feet, often the 5x8 hall bath. Typical 2026 range roughly $10,000 to $30,000, with the midrange gut-and-replace clustering in the middle of that band.
- Primary bathroom: usually a larger footprint with a separate shower and tub, a double vanity, sometimes a water closet. Typical 2026 range from about $25,000 to $60,000 and above once the shower is fully tiled with frameless glass, the vanity is custom and the floor is heated.
Tile, plumbing, and what happens when a fixture moves
Tile is the line that surprises people, because the material price is the small half. Setting tile is skilled hourly work, and a shower is not a floor: it needs a sloped pan or a preformed base, a waterproofing membrane behind or over the substrate, corners and a curb detailed properly, and cuts around a niche, a bench and every fixture penetration. Small-format tile, mosaic and herringbone patterns all multiply the labour hours over a large plain format on the same wall.
Plumbing splits into two categories with very different prices. Replacing fixtures in place is a day's work: new valve, new trim, new toilet, new faucet, reconnect the vanity. Moving a fixture means moving a drain, and drains need fall and a vent, so a relocated toilet or shower drain commonly means opening a floor, and on a slab it means cutting concrete and patching it. Budget for each relocated fixture separately, and expect a permit.
Two more drivers. Old bathrooms hide water damage: rot behind a leaking shower pan is the most common unwelcome discovery in a bathroom demolition, and it lands on the schedule as well as the budget. And ventilation is often absent or undersized in older bathrooms, so a new fan ducted outside rather than into an attic is frequently added scope with an electrician attached.
A worked example instead of a calculator
People search for a bathroom remodel calculator hoping for a number. The honest version is a line-item list, because a calculator that asks for square feet and a quality tier is only doing the multiplication you can do yourself. Here is a 5x8 hall bathroom, 40 square feet, gutted to the studs and rebuilt on the same layout, priced with 2026 national ranges.
- Demolition, haul-away and protection: $800 to $1,800.
- Tub or shower base, standard: $700 to $2,500 supplied.
- Waterproofing and substrate for the wet area: $600 to $1,500.
- Tile material, roughly 120 square feet of wall and floor: $600 to $3,000 depending on format and material.
- Tile setting labour: $1,500 to $4,000, the biggest single variable in the list.
- Vanity and top: $600 to $2,500. Toilet: $250 to $700 supplied.
- Plumbing labour, fixtures in place: $1,200 to $3,000. Add $1,000 to $3,000 for each fixture relocated.
- Electrical, exhaust fan and lighting: $700 to $2,000.
- Drywall, paint, trim, door and hardware: $600 to $1,800.
- Permit and inspection fees: $150 to $600.
- Contingency at 15 percent of the subtotal, because a 1970s bathroom will find you something.
Reading the total
Add the low column and the list lands near $9,000. Add the high column and it lands near $25,000, on the same 40 square feet with the same layout. That spread is the real answer to the question, and it is why any single national average is misleading: the average sits in the middle of a distribution whose two halves are different projects.
The per-square-foot check for bathrooms in 2026 runs roughly $250 to $600 for midrange work and higher for a primary suite, well above the rest of the house for the density reasons above. If a bid falls far outside it, something has been included or left out, and the itemised list will say which.
On resale, Remodeling magazine's Cost vs Value report has consistently found midrange bathroom work recovering a larger share of its cost than upscale work, and no bathroom remodel reliably returning all of it. A bathroom rebuilt as part of a buy-and-renovate deal belongs in the after-repair value arithmetic instead.
Questions people ask
How much does it cost to remodel a bathroom yourself?
Doing the demolition, painting, trim and fixture swaps yourself commonly removes a third of the labour from a bathroom, so a $15,000 job becomes something nearer $10,000. Waterproofing and the drain work are the two parts worth leaving to a licensed trade, because both fail out of sight and expensively.
How long does a bathroom remodel take?
A gut-and-replace on the same layout is commonly two to four weeks of working days, spread longer by inspections and tile cure times. Moving fixtures adds a week or more. A single-bathroom house should plan for where people will wash before demolition starts, not after.
Is it cheaper to convert a tub to a shower?
It is usually cheaper than adding a bathroom and dearer than replacing a tub with a tub, because the drain moves and the wet area grows. A prefab conversion sits at the low end and a fully tiled walk-in with frameless glass at the high end of the same job description.