A finished bathroom with a freestanding oval bath beside a full-height window, a glass shower enclosure, tiled walls and floor, and a wood vanity with a round basin below a wall mirror.

Typically $25,000 to $50,000

Bathroom Renovations

Bathrooms taken back to the studs: waterproofing, ventilation, relocated fixtures, and the framing changes an accessible layout needs.

Start a project inquiry

Mid-Island Renovation Group renovates bathrooms across Nanaimo and the corridor from Ladysmith to Qualicum Beach, with a main bathroom commonly running $25,000 to $50,000 and an ensuite with relocated fixtures or a curbless shower running higher. The Town of Qualicum Beach exempts plumbing fixture replacement from permit only where supply, waste and vent pipes are not rearranged, so if we move your toilet or your shower drain, we file for it. In Cedar and Nanoose Bay the same job answers to the Regional District of Nanaimo instead. On this coast the failure we find at demolition is usually years of condensation behind tile, not a burst pipe, so ventilation and waterproofing are priced as part of the job rather than as upgrades.

A main bathroom generally runs $25,000 to $50,000. An ensuite with a curbless shower, a relocated drain or a widened door runs above that, because the floor structure and the ventilation both get altered. Inside a whole-home renovation the same bathroom costs less, since demolition, mechanical rough-in and inspections are already scoped.

A bathroom that gets new fixtures in the same positions is a different job from a bathroom that gets a new layout. Moving a toilet or a shower drain means opening the floor and re-sloping waste and vent lines, and in a home built before 1990 it also means finding out what is behind the wall. That is the scale of bathroom work we take on, and that's why we spend more time on the waterproofing than on the tile.

Waterproofing and ventilation, priced as structure

Two things keep a bathroom sound, and you can't see either one once the tile is on: a continuous waterproofing membrane under and up the walls of the wet area, and an exhaust fan sized and ducted to the outside rather than into a joist bay or an attic. Bathrooms built along this corridor in the 1960s and 1970s were finished to ventilation standards that no longer apply, and what we usually find at demolition is historic condensation damage in the framing and sheathing rather than a plumbing failure. We budget for repairing that framing where the age of your house makes it likely, instead of discovering it as a change order.

Moving fixtures, floors and drains

Relocating a toilet or a shower drain is a floor-structure question first. Waste lines need fall, and getting fall across a joist bay often means either dropping the ceiling below or altering the framing, which is engineered work. A curbless shower needs the subfloor recessed at the drain, and in a home with dimensional joists that is a framing alteration rather than a mortar-bed detail. We establish where the drains actually run before the layout is drawn, because if we draw the layout before we know where the drains run, you pay to have it drawn again.

Accessible and aging-in-place bathrooms

Most accessibility work in a bathroom is structural. A curbless entry needs the floor recessed, a widened door often needs the opening reframed and sometimes a header, and grab bars need solid blocking behind the board — blocking is cheap while the wall is open and expensive afterward. If aging in place is any part of your reason for renovating, tell us at design, because the framing decisions that make it possible all happen before the drywall goes back on.

Permits and what triggers one

Replacing fixtures where the supply, waste and vent pipes stay put generally does not require a permit under the Town of Qualicum Beach building bylaw, which also excludes structural alterations from its repair and maintenance exemption. Rearranging those pipes does. The Regional District of Nanaimo, which governs Cedar in Electoral Area A and Nanoose Bay in Electoral Area E, requires a permit for interior structural renovations. We confirm which authority governs your address before we file.

How a bathroom project runs

Layout, drains and structural check
We locate the waste stack and vents, check the floor framing, and establish what a relocated fixture or curbless entry actually requires.
Hazardous materials check and permit
We survey pre-1990 construction, and file the permit application wherever pipes are rearranged or structure is altered.
Demolition, rough-in and waterproofing
Plumbing, electrical and ventilation roughed in and inspected, then the membrane installed and water-tested before tile.
Tile, fixtures and deficiency walk
Tile, vanity, glass and fixtures, then the deficiency list before final payment.

Bathrooms and moisture on this coast

Rain is background for every bathroom on this corridor, but what actually damages one comes from inside it. Under-ventilated bathrooms in homes of the 1960s and 1970s hold moisture in the framing, and that is what we open up. If your property is unserviced, around Cedar or Nanoose Bay, there is a second consideration: adding a bathroom adds fixture units to your septic system, and Nanoose Bay's Official Community Plan already identifies shallow soils, high winter water tables and the age of existing septic systems as local problem conditions.

Bathroom scope

Main bathroom renovation
Full strip to studs, framing repair where moisture damage is found, continuous waterproofing, ventilation brought to current requirements, tile and fixtures.
Ensuite with relocated fixtures
Layout change with re-sloped waste and vent lines, recessed subfloor for a curbless shower where required, new circuits and glass enclosure.
Accessible and aging-in-place bathroom
Curbless entry, widened door opening with reframing where needed, solid blocking for grab bars, and fixture heights set at design.

Where bathroom budgets actually move

The problem: You've built your bathroom budget around what you can see: tile, vanity, glass and fixtures.
What makes it harder: Your price moves on what is behind them. Rotted framing from years of condensation, a waste line we have to re-slope to move a toilet, a subfloor recessed for a curbless shower, or pre-1990 materials in sheet flooring and tile adhesive that need a survey before demolition.
What we do: We open an inspection point during design where the age of your house makes hidden damage likely, and we price ventilation, waterproofing and framing repair as line items rather than leaving them to a contingency.

More about what we do and where we work

Project inquiry

Tell us about the project

Five questions covering scope, budget, timeline and property. Enough for us to tell whether we are a fit for your project before either of us books a site visit.

Planning a major renovation?

Start with the project questionnaire — five questions covering scope, budget, timeline, and property. That tells us whether we're a fit for your project before either of us books a visit.

Start a bathroom inquiryCall TextText or Call(236) 362-4638