A bathroom renovation is bought from a document. Nothing exists yet, nobody has opened a wall, and the only thing you can actually compare between two companies is a page of text. Here is what to look at on that page.
1. The fixture list should have model numbers
“Vanity” is not a specification. “Toilet, standard” is not a specification. A quote that names the model of the toilet, the vanity, the faucet and the shower valve is a quote you can price yourself in an afternoon, and that transparency is the point.
Where a quote uses an allowance instead — “$1,800 tile allowance” — that is legitimate and often sensible, because tile is chosen late. What matters is that the allowance is a number rather than a shrug, and that you understand what happens when you go over it.
2. The waterproofing system should be named
This is the single most useful test on the page. A tiled shower is only as good as the membrane behind it, and that membrane is invisible forever once the tile goes on.
A quote that names the system and the manufacturer is describing a product with a published installation detail you can read. A quote that says “waterproofed to code” is describing an intention. Ask which product, and ask whether it goes behind the backer board or on top of it.
3. Ventilation should appear at all
In most quotes it does not, and in a snow-belt climate it should. A fan sized for the room, insulated rigid duct, and a termination through the roof or the gable rather than the soffit. It is a small line on a renovation and it prevents the defect that damages a different room of the house.
4. Find the line about what is behind the wall
This is the one that separates a scope from a sales document, and most quotes in Barrie do not have it.
Every bathroom quote in this county is carrying an assumption about the supply piping, the drain and the subfloor. A house in Painswick or Holly built between 1978 and 1998 is probably on Poly-B. A pre-1960 house in Allandale or the Orillia core is on cast iron and galvanized. A 2006 house in Bradford is on PEX and is probably fine.
Nobody quoting your bathroom has seen inside that wall. So the assumption is either:
- Named as an allowance in dollars, which you can compare and which is returned if it is not spent; or
- Hidden inside a fixed price, which you pay whether or not the risk turns out to exist; or
- Not made at all, which is a change order with a date on it.
Ask which of the three you are holding. It is a fair question and the answer tells you a great deal.
A short checklist
- Model numbers on fixtures, or a named dollar allowance
- Tile quantity and allowance, with the overage rule stated
- Waterproofing system by manufacturer and product
- Exhaust fan specification and where it terminates
- Permit included, or a written statement that none is required
- Payment schedule tied to stages, not to the calendar
- A written statement of what happens if the demolition finds something
For the underlying numbers see what a bathroom renovation costs in Barrie, and for the permit question see when a Barrie bathroom renovation needs a permit.