Many of us dream of the perfect home, the perfect space, the perfect bathroom. Saving your hard-earned money for a bathroom renovation is a happy thought. But in the words of Willie Nelson, “We create our own unhappiness.” This blog post is not about music or the art of happiness, but it is about making sure your happy thoughts remain happy and your dreams turn to reality. 

Saving on a bathroom renovation is something we all want to achieve. I don’t care if you are doing a big, elaborate bathroom with a $60,000 budget, or if you are trying to squeeze your bathroom renovation on a tight budget. Saving a few dollars while keeping the result both functional and beautiful is what most people want.

How do we do that? Many components compound the cost of bathroom remodeling or renovation, and we probably can write a small book on that. So, here are some useful tips that will certainly help you to save money on your next bathroom renovation in Ottawa.

Keep the existing layout, don’t change locations of your plumbing fixtures.

When people think of bathroom renovations, they tend to move fixtures around the already busy and cramped space. Moving toilets, tubs, shower, and vanities around add to the cost of bathroom renovation significantly. So, if you can, keep things where they are.

Use in-stock, good quality, name brands for your products.

Try to purchase your vanity, your tub or shower base, your mixing valve or other bathroom finishing material from the in-stock selection of your local retailer. Avoid custom orders, custom sizes, and custom work. The cost goes up significantly as soon as you make anything custom. It is very common to think that if you use a custom product, you will have a beautiful bathroom. About 70% of the bathrooms that we’ve done in the past decade were finished with in-stock products and looked stunning and functioned perfectly. The secret is putting everything together as one functioning package, as one seamless piece.

Do not do the work twice or more.

Pay your tradesperson once to get the job done right. Make sure you do not try and self-manage the project, unless you’ve done that before and know what you are doing. An easy and on-budget project can easily turn into a nightmare if you start bringing different contractors and trying to connect all the dots yourself without the experience and knowledge of a general contractor. Find reputable bathroom renovation contractors in Ottawa and make them responsible for the entire project.

Don’t haggle, ask respectfully.

You will be surprised how much people are willing to go your way when they feel appreciated and respected. Simply ask your contractor if any discounts are available. Show them that you are a good customer, pleasant and easy to work with and many, many contractors would be more than happy to find creative ways to save you some money.

To summarize, here are the 4 things you can do to save on your bathroom renovation in Ottawa.

1. Don’t change the bathroom layout, keep it as is.

2. Use good quality, in-stock materials.

3. Use one general contractor to manage the trades for the job.

4. Show your contractor that you are easy to work with and simply ask what they can do to reduce the cost.

Over the years, we have done many bathroom renovations and I have to say that each time I saw customers implement these basic steps, they not only have saved thousands of dollars but had an easy renovation with a great experience and beautiful results.

Here are some recent examples of bathroom renovations we have done with the above principles. Work completed in May 2021:

We encourage you to use our online contact form to get in touch with us to see how we can work within your budget to create a beautiful bathroom that you will love.