How much time do you spend in the bathroom?

If you’re like the average person, you’ll spend about 2 years, 125 days (male) and 2 years, 40 days (female) in the bathroom over the course of your life. Wouldn’t you like to have something pleasant to look at while you’re in there?

For some people, that might mean a renovation is in order to get a brilliant bathroom that you love. Check out basic steps for how to renovate your bathroom.

1. Dream It

The first step is to plan your renovation. What do you want your finished bathroom to look like? Pick a theme you want to aim for, then think about what elements you need to change to create that look. Definitely plan to replace any elements that are old or outdated.

If you want to enlarge the bathroom, add a toilet room, put in bigger windows, change the layout, or make other structural changes, it’s likely you’ll need a permit. Your contractor can help you figure out what you need.

2. Demolish It

If you’re going to be making major changes, you’ll have to get rid of the old before you can start adding the new. Strip out everything you don’t need to make way for your renovated bathroom.

To make your budget stretch farther, consider doing the demolition yourself. Just make sure you know what you’re doing. If you destroy something you could have kept or repurposed, doing it yourself won’t save you much in the long run.

3. Build It

Once you’ve stripped out what you don’t need, it’s time to add in the new elements. Hiring a contractor like Precise Services is highly recommended to ensure everything goes smoothly.

While the walls are open, the electrician and the plumber will come in to replace old elements and rough in any new ones that are required. If you want heated floors (highly recommended in the bathroom) the radiant flooring should be installed at this point.

Then it’s time to seal up the walls, lay the tile, and prepare to install the rest of the plumbing and electrical fixtures.

4. Install It

Now it’s time to install new plumbing fixtures like showers or toilets. Electrical fixtures like new lights and heated towel racks go in at this point.

The cabinets or shelving should go in at this point as well. If your old cabinets were still in nice shape, consider having them refinished and reusing them to save a substantial amount on the renovation.

5. Finish It

Now your new bathroom is almost complete. All that’s left are the finishing touches such as tapware, towel racks, and maybe a free-standing over-the-toilet shelf.

Again, you can save money by handling some of this stuff yourself, such as painting the walls. However, a lot of times it’s nice to just let the pros handle it.

Enjoy Your New Brilliant Bathroom

There you go! Now you get to spend all that time in the bathroom looking at something beautiful!