Are you considering remodelling your bathroom in the near-future? If your toilet and shower are currently teal or pink, then I hope you’re nodding your head right now. The good news is, if you can handle doing the work yourself, then the cost is really quite manageable.

You know when you get that bill from your mechanic (after your car had some work done to it) and you notice that 75% of the expense is due to labour  It’s the same story with remodels. When you pay a contractor to redo a room in your house, the majority of the expense in your bill is from labour.

So, you might not be a handyman (or handywoman), but there are a ton of resources out there today that will allow you to learn while you’re working on the job. You could simply take your search to Google or Topps Tiles and study a few other websites, or you could look for a video of the same job on YouTube. With these two main resources at your fingertips, you could really take on almost any project and you won’t have to pay that contractor!

The Bathroom Remodel

My friend is currently considering remodelling his bathroom. Actually, he’s already purchased the new tile for his floor, but is now a little uneasy about getting the project started. “It just seems too difficult” he recently told me. While I understand his hesitation, I’m still urging him to take on the project himself to save money. After all, even if you dig into it a little and find out that it is indeed a little too much to handle, you can always call a contractor at that point, but why not just jump in and get your feet wet first? There’s absolutely no harm in it.

Since I have tackled tiling before, I’ve even volunteered to be one of his resources. It’s really quite simple though.

The Process of Re-tiling

To re-tile the bathroom, you first (obviously) have to remove the old floor. For my friend, this means removing the laminate squares and the plywood flooring. He will then be left with the base subfloor and be ready to build up from there.

Since the tile can get quite heavy, it’s important to use cement board underneath the tile. So, this gets laid out next, and then you can begin with your tile job. Simply trowel on the mortar, and lay your tile, carefully spacing them out with spacers and making sure it is securely laid in the mortar and laying flush on the cement board. Once the tile is laid and the mortar is dry, the only job left to do is grout. For this, you simply mix your grout and work it into the cracks of the tile with a rubber trowel. After about 30 minutes (or whatever is specified on the mix), you can take a wet sponge and remove any excess grout that is on the tile. At this point, you’ve got yourself a whole new floor! The best part is, you didn’t have to pay that contractor and kept 75% of your money in your pocket!

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