A small bathroom remodel in Lake County costs between $5,000 and $30,000 in 2026, and that spread annoys everyone, so here are the honest tiers. A cosmetic refresh runs $5,000 to $9,000. A full gut remodel of a 5×8 bathroom lands between $10,000 and $18,000. Custom tile work, moved plumbing and glass everywhere pushes past $20,000. Nationally, HomeAdvisor puts the average bathroom remodel at about $12,000, and our local numbers agree with that almost to the dollar. Below is where every one of those dollars goes, with photos from our own Lake County projects instead of stock renders.
Small Bathroom Remodel Cost: The Three Tiers
| Tier | Cost (2026) | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Refresh | $5,000 – $9,000 | New vanity, toilet, lighting, paint, hardware, maybe new flooring. Tub and tile stay. |
| Full remodel | $10,000 – $18,000 | Everything out to the studs, new tile shower or tub surround, new fixtures, fan, floor, waterproofing done right. |
| Custom | $18,000 – $30,000+ | Moved plumbing, curbless shower, frameless glass, heated floor, large format tile, niche and bench. |
One thing that surprises people: the size of the bathroom barely changes the labor. A 5×8 bathroom has the same toilet, the same valve, the same fan and almost the same number of tile cuts as an 8×10. You save on materials, not on trades.
Where the Money Actually Goes
| Line item | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Demolition and disposal | $500 – $1,500 |
| Plumbing (same locations) | $1,000 – $2,500 |
| Electrical, fan, lighting | $600 – $1,800 |
| Waterproofing and backer board | $800 – $1,500 |
| Tile and installation | $2,000 – $6,000 |
| Vanity, top and faucet | $800 – $3,000 |
| Toilet | $300 – $800 |
| Shower glass | $700 – $2,500 |
| Paint and trim | $300 – $800 |
Labor is roughly half of any bathroom budget, sometimes more. That is normal. A bathroom is five trades working in a closet: plumber, electrician, tile setter, carpenter and painter, all taking turns in 40 square feet.
Where the Money Hides: The Surprises
Every remodel budget needs a 10 to 15 percent cushion, because bathrooms keep secrets. The most common ones we find in Lake County homes built before the 1980s:
- Old lead or copper shower pans that were quietly leaking into the subfloor for years.
- Rotted subfloor around the toilet flange. If the toilet ever rocked, water got under it.
- Two-wire electrical with no ground, which means the new GFCI outlets need real wiring, not adapters.
- Galvanized supply lines rusted almost shut. Great water pressure upgrade, unplanned expense.
- Framing surprises where a previous owner notched a stud for reasons known only to them.
Nobody has ever opened a 60 year old shower wall and found a gift card. Budget the cushion. If we do not need it, you keep it, and everyone has a better month.
Evgheni, owner of Real Construction
Waterproofing: The Part You Never See and Always Pay For
The difference between a 5 year bathroom and a 25 year bathroom is behind the tile. Cement board, a waterproofing membrane, a properly sloped pan and sealed corners cost $800 to $1,500 and have saved more homes than any smoke detector. Tile is not waterproof. Grout is definitely not waterproof. The membrane underneath does all the real work.
Tom Silva shows the same membrane philosophy in this This Old House demo, and it is exactly how we build our showers:
A Real Small Bathroom Project, Start to Finish
Numbers mean more with a face on them. Our shower remodel in Mundelein started as exactly the kind of project this article describes: dated shower, hidden lead pan, brick surprise behind the wall. Full demo, new copper valve, cement board, membrane, subway tile, mosaic pan with a marble curb. The owners got a shower that will outlast their kids’ college loans.
We wrote up a second project with prices in our small bathroom remodel in Buffalo Grove, if you want another data point from a different village and a different budget.
Where You Can Save and Where You Should Not
Fine places to save money: keep plumbing where it is, choose porcelain that looks like marble instead of marble, buy a stock vanity, use expensive tile as an accent strip instead of a full wall, keep the tub instead of converting if it is in good shape.
Terrible places to save money: waterproofing, the shower valve, the exhaust fan and the person installing all three. A $90 fan that actually moves air prevents the mold that ruins the paint you saved up for. Fixture-wise, look for EPA WaterSense rated faucets and showerheads: same pressure feel, about 20 percent less water on the bill.
The fan deserves its own sentence, because half the small bathrooms we open have a dead or disconnected one. Here is the honest 12 minute version of what that install involves:
If your remodel is really a repair in disguise, a soft floor or a leaky surround, start smaller: our interior home repair service handles tile fixes, regrouting and fixture swaps without the full remodel invoice. And if the floor is soft because water has been escaping for years, read our guide on the early signs of wood rot before it travels beyond the bathroom.
Tub-to-Shower Conversion: The Most Requested Upgrade
Half of our small bathroom calls start with the same sentence: nobody has used the tub in years. A tub-to-shower conversion in Lake County runs $4,000 to $9,000 as a standalone project. That covers tearing out the tub, reframing the opening, building a proper pan with waterproofing, tiling the walls and setting the glass. Moving the drain adds a few hundred dollars because a shower drain sits in a different spot than a tub drain, and that work happens under the floor.
Two honest warnings from the field. First, if the house has only one tub, think twice before removing it. Families with small kids and future buyers both want at least one bathtub somewhere in the house, and appraisers quietly agree. Second, be careful with the heavily advertised one day conversion companies. The speed comes from gluing an acrylic shell over the existing mess, and we have opened enough of those shells to know what the glue was hiding. A tiled conversion takes two weeks and outlives the acrylic by decades.
The math gets friendlier when the conversion rides along with a full remodel. The demo, plumber and tile setter are already in the room, so the conversion premium shrinks to mostly materials. That is how the numbers worked on our Mundelein project above.
Do Lake County Prices Differ From Chicago?
A little, in your favor. City projects carry parking permits, freight elevators, condo board rules and union scheduling that suburban jobs skip. The same 5×8 full remodel that costs $18,000 in a Lincoln Park condo typically lands $2,000 to $4,000 lighter in Mundelein or Libertyville. Materials cost the same everywhere, so the difference is pure logistics. Our estimates always show labor and materials as separate lines, so you can see exactly where your budget is going and swap materials without renegotiating the whole project.
Design Tricks That Cost Nothing
Small bathrooms punch above their weight with a few moves the National Kitchen and Bath Association design guidelines back up: large format tile with thin grout lines makes walls read bigger, a curbless or low profile shower stretches the floor visually, vertical tile layouts add height, and a wall hung vanity shows more floor, which the eye reads as square footage. A big mirror is the cheapest square footage you will ever buy.
Small Bathroom Remodel FAQ
How long does a small bathroom remodel take?
A refresh takes 3 to 5 working days. A full gut remodel takes 2 to 3 weeks, mostly because tile, waterproofing cure times and glass measuring cannot be rushed. Custom glass alone adds a week of waiting after the tile is done, so plan the second bathroom rotation in advance.
What is the single best value upgrade in a small bathroom?
A quality exhaust fan on a timer switch, installed and vented outside, not into the attic. It costs a few hundred dollars and protects every other dollar in the room: paint, grout, drywall, mirror frames and your sinuses. Beauty fades, ventilation is forever.
Is it worth remodeling a small bathroom before selling?
A dated but functional bathroom usually needs a refresh, not a gut job. Fresh paint, new vanity, new lighting and perfect caulk lines return their cost far more reliably than a full remodel a buyer might redo in their own taste anyway.
Do I need a permit for a bathroom remodel in Lake County?
Like-for-like fixture swaps usually do not need one. Moving plumbing, changing electrical circuits or altering framing usually does, and every village has its own rules. We handle the permit when the project needs one and fold it into the quote.
Get a Real Number for Your Bathroom
Send us a photo of your bathroom and what you want changed, and we will tell you which tier you are in before anyone books a visit. We remodel and repair bathrooms across Mundelein, Vernon Hills, Libertyville, Buffalo Grove, Waukegan and the rest of Lake County. Browse finished projects in the gallery, then request a free estimate or call 224 313 2093. Honest tiers, written prices, no polo shirts.
Written by the Real Construction team from our own completed bathrooms in Lake County, Illinois. Prices current as of July 2026. Last updated July 2, 2026.