Is it Worth Spending the Money on a Bathroom Renovation?

by | Nov 2, 2020 | Bathroom Renovations

Is it worth spending the money?

Bathroom, bathrooms bathrooms! According to the Appraisal Institute of Canada (AIC), bathroom and kitchen renovations are the most popular home improvement projects, as they have a 75 per cent recovery rate. That means a $10,000 renovation to a bathroom can increase a home’s value by $7,500!

Moving sooner rather than later? Regardless of where you fall, we never know what life will throw at us. With my 19 years of experience in the bathroom renovation business, everyone will appreciate a nice, clean, fresh bathroom. My advice is: don’t wait until the last minute. Even if you’re moving soon, why not enjoy that space for a couple of years? Or try renovating someone else’ bathroom. You never know what they might like or dislike. I have ripped out a newly renovated bathroom because the new homeowners felt it wasn’t their taste.

The cost of building materials continues to rise every year. The price you purchased your lumber for last year is not the same as it is now. It reminds me of a big fast-food chain that used to offer 49 cent soft serve which today is being sold for 99 cents. Pre COVID a 2×4 piece of lumber was $2.49, currently it’s $6.05!

 

Here are some other things that will change every year:

 

Fixtures

Every month throughout the year we have our suppliers and vendors dropping off their new catalogues with their new products but quietly mention there has been a small price increase. Every brand, slowly but surely, increases the price a little bit at a time.

 

Installation

Good crews are hard to find and typically have a long wait time. With that being said, the price will fluctuate with the market. If the teams are busy, they will raise their prices. When they are not busy, the price will drop.

 

Taxes

When I first started there was only GST with a 6% tax on labour. Since they implemented the HST, it has increased to 13% tax on labour. You may be thinking to yourself ‘Oh that was a while ago, you never know what the government may have in store for us because of COVID’, etc.

 

Currency

This is another place where we can have a difference in price. When the Canadian dollar is strong, the products that we import are better value for our dollar vs. when the Canadian dollar drops in value it increases our buying rate.

To me, the longer you wait, the more expensive the same renovation you planned on will become. This is why there are expiry dates on estimates and why prices may not always be able to be honored depending on what is happening in the marketplace. So what are you waiting for?

My take is that there is no better time than now to spend money on your bathroom.

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