When you have a full house, getting uninterrupted access to the bathroom can feel like snagging dinner reservations to the most exclusive restaurant in town. On days when your one bathroom home just doesn’t cut it, many of us dream of the elusive bathroom addition with privacy for everyone. The only challenge? Adding a new bathroom is pricey. But in the right home, the addition will not only improve your quality of life — it will also make the property appeal to a whole different pool of buyers when you eventually decide to sell it. “If you only have one bath and you can add to make two, that’s a huge selling feature,” says Janet Anderson, one of Tracy, California’s top real estate agents. To help you do the math, we’re breaking down the major costs and considerations associated with adding a new bathroom. This guide includes: The cost of adding a bathroom to your home will vary based on your existing space, the location of the addition, the overall size of the room, and the quality of the features. Here’s how a few of the web’s most trafficked renovation sites price out the project: Source: HomeGuideAverage bath in existing space cost: $2,500-$12,500Average bathroom in a new addition cost: $18,00-$47,000Low and high end bath addition range: $2,500-$25,000Methodology: With its network of professionals from across the country, HomeGuide uses vetted estimates from over 500,000 pros to help price out common renovation projects. Source: HomeAdvisorAverage bath in existing space cost: $5,000-$35,000Average bathroom in a new addition cost: $20,000-$50,000Low and high end bath addition range: $5,000-$90,000Methodology: HomeAdvisor averages out the data from 195,583 bathroom addition projects submitted by professionals and members. Source: Badeloft USAAverage bath in existing space cost: $3,000-$5,000Average bathroom in a new addition cost: $25,000-$50,000Low and high end bath addition range: $3,000-$75,000Methodology: Founded in 2009, Badeloft has over a decade of experience selling bathroom fixtures online and has spent 7 consecutive years on Houzz’s best-of list. Now that you have an idea of the bathroom addition cost spectrum, here’s how specific features of your home can dramatically impact the pricing of your project: If your new bathroom is close to existing plumbing, whether it’s from the kitchen, laundry room, or above or below an existing bathroom, it’ll cost less overall to run the vents, plumbing, and waste into the new bathroom. On average, hiring a plumber costs between $85-$120 an hour. The cost of labor for plumbing alone with average priced fixtures (high-end varieties may cost more to install) will range between $610-$1,180. “If you want to add a bathroom to the furthest corner of your house, then you can expect to spend 30% of your budget on plumbing and electrical alone,” says Andrew Holmes, VP of Construction at Blockhouse Residential, an award-winning construction firm in Pittsburgh. If your new bathroom space has a crawl space beneath it, the cost of plumbing and electrical work will likely go down. Alternatively, if you’re adding the bathroom above a concrete slab, you’ll have to pay extra for the labor to cut through it to run water and sewer lines. If you’re putting a new bathroom in the addition, you’ll have to include a line item for installing the foundation. Installation for the foundation can run between $4-$7 per square foot. You might be building up to add a new bathroom instead of out. In that case, you’ll need to consider the cost of adding a dormer to your home, which costs on average $115 per square foot. Water, electricity, and sewage: Bathrooms projects have a trifecta of components that come with their installation. Let’s breakdown each moving part of this process to understand how it all adds up: We reached out to Holmes to get the scoop on a recent real-life bathroom addition. Holmes specializes in ground-up new construction and rehauling existing construction. He kindly provided an example quote for a recent bathroom addition under an existing room. Here’s a breakdown of the major costs and labor, including time and materials: Two Windows: $296 220 sq. ft. 380 sq. ft. 60 sq. ft. Vanity: $500 Sink: $160 In this project, and in Holmes’ experience working with clients adding bathrooms, many of them aren’t aware how much installing plumbing, electric, and HVAC will drive up their budget. How much value an additional full bathroom will add to your home at resale depends on how many bathrooms you had to start with. “If you’re talking about a one, one and half going to a two bath, there’s going to be huge value in that. But, if you’re going from a two bed, two bathroom, to a three bathroom, there’s going to be less value,” says Stephen Mueller, a top Charlotte, North Carolina real estate agent who’s currently adding a bathroom addition to his own home. In Mueller’s opinion, adding an additional full bathroom to a one bathroom home can add between $20,000 to $25,000 in value. That’s partly because a home with two full bathrooms enters a new pool of buyers. He explains it like so: “I know the same people that will buy a one-bath home will buy a one-and-a-half bath, but buyers who want a two bath, they won’t look at a one-and-a-half bath.” As for adding an additional full bath to homes that have two or more baths? “It depends on the quality,” Mueller says, “but the appraisal adjustment is between $7,500 to $10,000.” In terms of ROI, adding an upscale bathroom renovation (costing upwards of $90,000) can net sellers a 54.7% return on their investment, according to Remodeling Magazine, which has been tracking remodeling projects nationally for nearly two decades. A mid-range bathroom addition (with a $49,598 budget on average) recoups 54%. Now that we have a complete break down of dollars and cents, let’s review ways you can save on a bathroom addition and appeal to buyers with your selections in order to maximize your investment: This new-with-tags Kohler tub was listed outside Seattle for just $250, while comparable models retail for close to $800. Even buying an older, on-trend cast iron tub for a few hundred dollars and paying the average $460 to refinish it could lead to savings. Adding a new bathroom won’t come cheap, but is the value added at resale enough to make the project worth it? “I always ask my clients, if you’re going to do an improvement like that, how long are you going to stay in the property?” says Anderson. “If it’s five years or more, it could be worth the investment. But, if you don’t think you’re going to stay in the property one or two years, then really reconsider. You’re not going to receive that return back.”Bathroom addition cost overview
Major cost influencers to consider
Proximity to existing plumbing
Nearby crawlspace
Your foundation type
Installing dormers
Cost breakdown by component
Bathroom addition: A real-life example
Bathroom Addition Under Existing Roof
Labor
Materials (Estimate)
Cost
Design & Permits
(this included all permitting for the project, as well as architectural designs)
$2,700
$2,700
Site Prep
$600
$600
Demolition & Temporary Support
$1,230
$1,230
Excavation
(to prep the area for running the plumbing, electric, & HVAC lines)
$1,800
$1,800
Foundation
$2,200
$2,200
Framing
$3,200
$3,200
Windows & Doors
$644
Door: $60
$1,000
Siding
$1,320
$6 per square foot (labor & materials)
$1,320
Drywall & Paint
$1,520
$4 per square foot (labor & materials)
$1,520
Tile
$900
$15 per square foot (labor & materials)
$900
Trim
$600
Included with labor
$600
Bath Finishes
$890
Toilet: $200
$1,750
Plumbing
$3,400
Included materials, plumbing to client purchased bathtub
$3,400
Electric
$1,300
$1,300
HVAC
$2,600
$2,600
TOTAL
$26,120
The value of adding a full bathroom
Tips to save on your bathroom addition
Is it worth it to add a bathroom?