How Much Does It Cost to Remodel a Small Bathroom?

The most common bathroom in a Seattle-area house is a 5-by-8 hall bath: tub along the back wall, toilet, a 30-inch vanity, a window that does not quite fit the shower. It is also the room homeowners most often expect to be cheap to remodel because it is small. It is not cheap, and here is exactly why, with the numbers.

In 2026, a small bathroom runs $8,000 to $15,000 for a cosmetic update, $20,000 to $35,000 for a full remodel in the same layout, and $35,000 to $55,000 when plumbing moves or the room grows into a closet. The broader picture for bigger baths and primary suites is in our Seattle and Eastside bathroom cost guide; this one is about the small room.

Three levels for a small bathroom

• Cosmetic ($8k–$15k). Nothing moves and the tub stays. New vanity and faucet, toilet, lighting, mirror, exhaust fan, floor tile, paint. If the tub surface is the only thing wrong, a refinish ($600–$1,200) buys ten more years for a fraction of a replacement.
• Full remodel, same layout ($20k–$35k). Down to the studs. New tub or a tiled shower in the tub’s footprint, proper waterproofing, new valve and supply lines, new drain connections, a dedicated circuit for the vanity, tile floor and walls, vanity, toilet, glass. This is the tier most people actually want, because it fixes the forty-year-old plumbing you cannot see.
• Layout change ($35k–$55k). The toilet swaps walls to make room for a wider vanity, the shower takes the space of a linen closet, or the room borrows two feet from a bedroom closet for a proper walk-in. Framing, moved drains and vents, and a permit.

Why 40 square feet costs what it costs

A bathroom is the densest room in the house. Behind a 5-by-8 bath there is a drain, a vent, three supply lines, a valve, a circuit or two, a fan duct, waterproofing on every wet surface, tile on most of them, and six fixtures that each need to be set and connected. Every one of those is a trade visit, and a trade visit costs the same whether the room is 40 or 100 square feet. The fixed costs don’t shrink with the room, so a small bath can run $500 to $800 per square foot while a kitchen runs $200 to $400.

The biggest single decision inside the budget is the tub. Keeping a tub and surrounding it in tile is the cheapest wet area. Converting it to a shower in the same footprint is the most popular request we get in hall baths; our tub-to-shower conversion guide has the three price points, from a prefab pan at $6,000 to a curbless tiled shower at $20,000 and up. One warning from the resale side: if it is the only tub in the house, keep a tub somewhere.

What the bid should name

A good small-bath bid is specific about the parts you will never see. Ask for these lines by name:

• Waterproofing. A sheet membrane or liquid system on every wall of the shower and across the floor, not just a paper backing. This is where the money that matters goes.
• Valve and supplies. A pressure-balanced or thermostatic valve and new supply lines from the nearest sound pipe. In a 1960s Everett or Lynnwood rambler that often means replacing galvanized back to the main.
• Ventilation. A fan sized for the room, ducted to the outside, on a timer or humidity switch. Half the mold calls we get are a fan that vents into the attic.
• Subfloor. A per-sheet price for replacing rotten plywood around the toilet flange, which we find more often than not.

A full bathroom remodel in the same layout is three to four weeks of construction, plus two to three weeks for custom glass measured after the tile is set. Our bathroom remodel timeline shows the sequence, and this guide covers when a bathroom needs a permit (moved plumbing and new circuits do; swapped fixtures in place generally do not).

The accessible bathroom, built in now

Searches for accessible bathroom remodels are rising faster than any other bathroom query in Washington this year, and a small hall bath is exactly where it pays to plan ahead. During a full remodel these additions cost almost nothing; after the tile is up they cost a second remodel:

• Grab-bar blocking ($100–$300). Solid lumber in the walls at the shower, the toilet and the tub, whether or not bars go on today.
• Curbless or low-curb shower ($1,500–$4,000 over a curbed one). A linear drain and a recessed or built-up floor. Also the detail that makes a small bath feel larger.
• Comfort-height toilet, handheld shower, lever handles ($300–$900). Standard parts, chosen on purpose.
• A 36-inch door and a flat threshold. Only possible when the framing is open, which is now.

Our aging-in-place remodeling guide covers the rest of the house. If the bathroom is for a parent moving in, it pairs with the mother-in-law suite guide.

Small baths we remodel

Hall baths are the bread and butter of our bathroom remodeling work across Snohomish and King County: the 1960s and 70s ramblers and split-levels in Everett and Lynnwood, the 1920s baths in Seattle craftsmans, and the builder-grade baths of the 1990s in Bothell. Eduard walks the room with you, the estimate is written and itemized, and the waterproofing is in it by name.

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