5×8 Bathroom Remodel Cost: See Our Before & After Transformation

Small Bathroom Remodel Cost

A small bathroom remodel (around 5×8 feet) typically costs $10,000–$13,000, depending on layout changes, materials, and plumbing updates.

Keeping the same footprint and reusing existing plumbing saves the most money. 

If you are planning a small bathroom remodel and are curious about costs, a general idea would be $150-$220 a square foot depending on the materials you choose.

Updating a bathroom of any size is a home improvement project that almost always adds value to your home.

According to Home Advisor, the national average cost of a small bathroom remodel is about $7500 total cost.

Depending on what part of the country you live in, this may seem low. For example, in Massachusetts, this total cost is low!

Labor rates and the type of materials used will dictate the overall cost of the renovation. 

Here is our bathroom before we remodeled.

5×8 Bathroom Layout and Design

After searching google for updated small 5×8 bathroom layout ideas we decided to work within the same layout allowing us to keep costs down. 

Overall, a typical 5×8 bathroom layout (especially from the 70’s) doesn’t leave you with a lot of options to move things around so it made sense to leave the layout as is. 

We removed everything from the bathroom including the flooring, doors, sheetrock, toilet, vanity and tub walls.

The labor cost to demo a bathroom depends on the size and what is involved. Jim had this bathroom completely gutted in roughly 1/2 a day. 

To stay on budget, we decided to leave the existing cast iron tub and have it reglazed making it look new again. We removed all the old tile which exposed the lack of insulation.

Yes, the tinfoil looking stuff on the walls below was the insulation! Which basically meant, there was little to no insulation in the house.

Apparently this was the type of insulation they used back in the 1970’s. 

The tub was in great shape (we added an old door on top of it to protect it during demo) and if you know anything about cast iron tubs, they are very durable. 

During the bath demolition process we covered the tub with a piece of plywood in order to prevent any damage. 

Note: A full shower remodel would have cost an additional $1500 due to the labor and materials needed to create a walk in custom shower. We decided to stay on budget and keep the tub while adding fresh new tile to give a custom look.  

Keeping the existing cast iron tub saved us money as the labor to remove and replace with a full tiled shower would have been expensive.

The cost to reglaze the tub was approximately $600. 

5×8 Bathroom Layout with Shower

Once the bathroom was completely demoed, we added new sheetrock, plaster and tile around the tub area. Having a tub in one of the bathrooms is very important especially for a family with children.

Kids being able to take a bath is important! 

The picture above shows the new window (click here to see the new black exterior windows) and the Calcutta Gold tile bathroom flooring.

If you have been following our blog for a while, you know that Jim purchased this split level home last year as a flip and was recently sold. You can get caught up on all of the remodeling projects at that house here. 

Summary: 5×8 Bathroom Remodel Costs

• $600 Tub Glazing. By keeping the existing tub and reglazing it, we only needed to tile around the tub and floor.
• $200 Tile. We found the Calcutta Gold tile in 12×24 on sale for $1 a square foot so we bought as much of it as we could! You can find it here.
• $1500 Materials (insulation, Durock etc)
• $125 Grout and mortar
• $400 Pedestal sink.
• $350 Fixtures & shower valves.
• $150 mirror
• $ 925 Plumbing & electrical components (we did not move the layout so this was minimal)
• Paint $65
• $285 Solid core door
• This bathroom took about 2-3 days for Jim to finish. If you can demo and tile yourself, you will save thousands! A 5×8 bathroom remodel labor cost will vary depending on what part of the country you are in but labor costs can be upwards of $3000-$5000 a day.

Remodeling bathroom on a budget means choosing flooring and wall tile at a reasonable cost. You can absolutely get a high end look without spending thousands of dollars on tile.

What I love about this tile is the affordable price and it provides a fresh modern clean look to any bathroom. 

The 2 panel solid core doors (see that post here with a full tour of house and all the doors) are by Masonite from Horner Millwork with black door knobs and black hinges (you can shop the knobs here and hinges here). The new bathroom door looks so good!

These round knobs with square backer plate are gorgeous and look great with white craftsman style interior doors. You can see more door options here.

What Size Vanity for a 5×8 Bathroom

You can see above how we gained space to the left of the sink once we removed the old wood bathroom vanity.

The white pedestal sink (buy here) takes up less space and allows the space to breath vs a large wooden bathroom vanity.

The new linen closet provides more storage than a vanity plus it looks great!

If adding a pedestal sink isn’t your think and you prefer a wood vanity (wood vanity will provide more room for makeup ect. beside the sink) a 30-36″ will most likely fit depending on your layout. 

The rain style shower head and wand are metal brushed nickel.

They look beautiful with the gold/white tone tile providing a modern fresh look. 

We also have this similar shower fixture in a different bathroom with more options (and they are a great price!). Buying home items on Amazon will save you a ton of money. Often times, products are the same exact ones that you would buy in a specialty store.

It can be a little time consuming on Amazon trying to find what you need – I agree it’s difficult. You just need to know where to look and Jim is very good at find home products at a great price!