Holy macaroni, with only one week to spare before the final reveal we may not get any sleep this next week. IT’S THE FINAL COUNTDOWNNNNN!!
In one week, all 15 bloggers’ major reveals will happen, and the winner of the Jeffrey Court announces the 6-week renovation challenge winner. Did we mention to go and give us a vote?! But only if you like that we’re keeping the process real and appreciating the tutorials we’re providing along the way. We need all the help we can get at this point.
You might think at this point that we’ll never finish…but we’re not quitters and we’re on a crazy mission to finish it in this next week!
As you see and read this post, you might be thinking, hell to the no, there’s no way. Keep the positive attitude, people. We need you to stay with us! The prep work, if you do it right, behind a bathroom remodel doesn’t happen overnight. So today we wanted to shed some light on what goes into the entire process and timeline because what you see on HGTV is no real life.
Depending on the size of your bathroom and how little or much you’re doing to it, a bathroom remodel can take anywhere from four weeks to three months.
For our clients, we usually do bigger scale bathroom projects, and we always tell them to prepare for three months. You never know what selection might be on back-order, what sub is scheduled out for weeks, how long inspections will take, and how many change orders you’ll throw at your contractor mid-project.
And when you’re DIY-ing, it can either be a good thing or a very bad thing. You might sit on your project for over a year or if you’re like us, join a renovation challenge and force yourself to get it done in 6 weeks! Genius idea, by the way. Haha!
Bathroom Remodel Process & Timeline
Typically, here’s our typical bathroom remodeling process and timeline. Take this with a grain of salt if you’re hiring out, because if there are lulls in the project – which there will be – things will get shifted around based on subs and inspections. This is just the actual time spent working in the space to install all of these line items.
Even though the actual time spent working in your space averages to 40 days, it’s the scheduling and the lulls based on lead times for materials or subs that slows the roll. When other people are involved, such as product choices, subs, and inspectors, it’s nearly impossible to line everyone’s schedules up perfectly.
For example, the inspection takes one day, and they are in and out in under an hour, but you can’t call and get an inspection on the schedule until you’re at the right spot in the project. With the plumbing rough-in inspection, everything needs to be roughed in with your plumber first before you can even call for inspection. Then, once you call the inspector, it might be a week out, or he might come the next day.
It’s the same with countertops, so depending on the fabricator you are installing, they won’t come out and measure until the cabinet is in place, so you need to wait for the cabinet delivery. Depending on if you’re doing pre-fab or custom cabinets, it could take up to eight weeks to get it delivered from the time you order, even though it takes one day to install the cabinets. Then once the cabinet is in place, your countertop installer will measure and could give you a two-week window until install. As you can tell, the waiting lulls quickly add up in-between some steps.
For us, since we have to get our bathroom done in six weeks, we took things out such as ordering some materials like a custom cabinet or countertop and are DIY’ing to save on wait time. We’re also a little nervous our glass shower door isn’t going to show up in time. Jamie did some of the plumbing and electrical work himself since our electrician and plumber didn’t know when they’d be out next since they are so backed up.
If you do have a quick timeline, some of the custom and detail work might need to go out the window! Make sure the finishes you want don’t take weeks for delivery.
What I also tell our clients and readers is that when they are hiring it out, we’re making sure it’s done right because you don’t want to sacrifice anything that you’ve been saving for years to invest into your bathroom. If you’ve always wanted that quartz countertop, the two-week wait is worth it! And if you want that gold faucet that’s on backorder for six weeks, wait for it.
Back to our bathroom project, let’s rewind over the last five weeks and give you a quick breakdown of what we’ve been up to on nights and weekends. As I said, not everything always goes to plan. I mentioned demo should only take 2-3 days, but for us, it took us seven late nights. Since we’re DIY’ing after working our typical 9-5, it took us a little longer than spending 2-3 full days getting it done. PLUS…our tile was awful to get up whoever laid that tile used some pretty intense glue! Jamie even used an electric jack-hammer and broke it trying to get all the tile to come up.
Progress Shots…
Which is another thing to remember, if you are DIY’ing, you have to make sure you have the right tools because I cannot imagine chiseling away at the tile with a handheld hammer and pry-bar. That would have taken more than two weeks alone!
After we got the demo all cleaned up, since we did a DIY custom floating vanity, you could see all the plumbing pipes that were in the former vanity. So Jamie had to open up the walls and move the plumbing around so we will be able to hide it a little bit more.
Then he had to get it all patched up, which was a five-day process. The dry time for a lot of this stuff is also what takes the longest. You mud, and then you have to wait for it to dry before you do your second and third coat.
Next we scraped and said goodbye to our popcorn ceilings! WAHOO! After that, we painted the ceiling flat and got all the walls primed and painted.
We also removed our tub and are doing a walk-in shower instead, so Jamie had to literally pour new cement down since we had a giant hole under the tub fixture that led down into the ground….which was another week long process.
We also moved some of the plumbing around on the shower walls as well. One of the aspects that changed from the initial design was the shower on/off valve placement. Originally, we had it under the shower head since we were going to have a glass shower door. Now, we are just using a glass shower wall with no door and moving the on/off valve to the back wall, so you can turn it on before getting into the shower. That way it’s the perfect temperature when you walk in!
So with one week to spare, we have our checklist down to make sure this happens! Our plumber is coming over today to help us get the shower rough-in installed, and following that, Jamie will get the waterproofing rolling. As you can see, what sometimes can take the longest in a remodel is the prepping. Once everything is cleaned up and tile is ready, it’s go-time!
So here’s what our remaining schedule looks like:
- Waterproofing: Thursday, Friday
- Tile: Saturday, Sunday, Monday
- Plumbing: Tuesday
- Electrical: Tuesday
- Install all finishes: Tuesday/ Wednesday
Just in time to wrap up – like, literally just in time! Our content is due Wednesday. Think we can do it? Planning for no sleep Tuesday!
Stay tuned for our reveal next week!
