This is the final update of the “How to finish a Basement Bathroom” project series for the Do-It-Yourself handyman or homeowner. Links to each construction phase of the project are summarized below, starting from the bare walls to the finished bathroom.
Basement Bathroom – Vanity, Toilet and Shower
Basement Bathroom Installation Cost
I did all of the labor working mostly weekends with occasional help from my teenage son. Total labor for this project was about 8 to 10 man-days; I emphasize quality and neatness when working so I may be a little slower than others. Setting the tile is by far the most labor intensive part of the project.
The total material costs were ~$5,600 consisting of:
- $1700 porcelain tile, grout and thinset mortar
- $500 shower stall bedding cement, metal lathe, shower pan liner, cement backer board, screws, glue, etc.
- $1000 vanity cabinet, sink, faucet, vanity mirror
- $600 for copper- and PVC pipe and fittings
- $100 shower valve
- $550 sewage pump (eBay bargain item) and high water alarm
- $150 exhaust fan
- $200 electrical wiring, junction boxes and misc.
- $30 building permit
- $100 2×4 boards and plywood sheeting
- $350 toilet and fittings
- $150 towel racks, toilet paper holder
- $75 paint
- $100 tile wet saw rental
I already had all the tools necessary for the project, except for the tile saw which I rented from Home Depot.
Basement Bathroom Project Phases
- Part 1 – Project overview, rough-in plumbing connections, painting the walls.
- Part 2 – Floor plan and fixture layout, relocating the shower drain.
- Part 3 – Building the shower stall and shower pan.
- Part 4 – Tile measurements and layout.
- Part 5 – Tiling the shower stall walls and floor.
- Part 6 – Soldering shut-off valves on the sink and toilet water lines.
- Part 7 – Installing the shower head and valve. SharkBite solderless fittings.
- Part 8 – Hot and cold water copper plumbing connections to the main water lines.
- Part 9 – Sewage ejector pump installation and splicing into the main sewer line.
- Part 10 – PVC sewer and outside air vent plumbing.
- Part 11 – High water alarm wiring and installation.
- Part 12 – Installing the toilet flange, setting the toilet, hooking up the water line.
- Part 13 – Bathroom vanity, sink, faucet, drain and water supply plumbing; sewage pump operation video.
- Part 14 – Vanity light and switch electrical wiring and installation. Wiring diagram of the “before” and “after” branch circuits.
- Part 15 - Wiring the light switch. Overview of the GFCI, exhaust fan and vanity light switches.
- Part 16 – Wiring and mounting the vanity light.
- Part 17 – Bathroom exhaust fan installation overview.
- Part 18 – Sewage basin closure and testing for odors; overview of the finished water and sewer plumbing.
Before and After Photos
Before - In the beginning, there were only bare walls and floor with roughed-in plumbing stubs:
Bare Walls and Floor
After – The bare walls and floor were transformed into an attractive bathroom:
Basement Bathroom – Toilet and Shower
Before – Plumbing rough-in for the toilet and vanity:
Plumbing Rough-In for Vanity and Toilet
After -Toilet and vanity:
Basement Bathroom – Toilet and Vanity
Vanity and light:
Basement Bathroom Vanity
Vanity, door and tile:
Bathroom Vanity
I hope you find this bathroom project series informative and saves you money by:
- Helping you plan your Do-It-Yourself project.
- Understand the scope of work if hiring a contractor and knowing if your getting quality results.
Thanks for reading,
Bob Jackson
Copyright © 2013 HandymanHowTo.com Reproduction strictly prohibited.
Thank you. Top quality work which is hard to find.
Excellent documentation which helped me learn a lot.
Great series. I noticed you didn’t vent the bath sink. Is that not required?
It’s a lengthy project and you missed this item.
A plumbing vent is absolutely required for the bathroom sink. It’s required by my local building codes and the Building Inspector specifically checked it was installed before signing off on my permit. On a practical note, you need the vent to prevent the sink trap from getting siphoned dry and allowing sewer gases to enter the room.
The Studor Vent installation is covered in Part 13 – see about midway down the page.
Here’s the photos of the Studor Vent from Part 13:
Studor Valve and PVC Drain Fittings
and
Fitting up the PVC Drain Plumbing
Thanks,
Bob Jackson
TonyA sent this e-mail update on his basement bathroom project:
“Thanks again for your series on finishing a basement bath. You inspired me to take on a similar project on basically a framed and stubbed basement bath in the house we bought in 2007. I’m almost done. Funny thing happened today when I tapped into the vent rough in to the roof. As I lay in bed last night thinking through my plan to cut the stub and connect the vent up, it occurred to me that it probably had been collecting water since 2003 when the house was built. Surely the builder would not disappoint and ran a straight pipe pointing to the clear blue sky. So, I decided to drill a small hole right above the end cap on the stub. Although I had my bucket ready, I still got a nice little shower and had to yell for my wife to bring me a bigger bucket as the 5qt I was holding filled pretty fast.
Anyway, thanks again for your series. It has been very helpful and I’ve referred to it often throughout my project.
-Tony”
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My e-mail reply to TonyA:
“Hi Tony,
I’m very pleased my web site was helpful to you!
> it occurred to me that it probably had been collecting water
> since 2003 when the house was built.
Your builder did you a favor by capping the bottom of the vent pipe. My builder left the bottom end of the vent pipe open to the basement and the rain water would drip onto the 2×4 wall frame. I put a plastic bucket below the vent pipe and it would have maybe 1/4 inch of water whenever I checked.
Thanks for the feedback,
Bob Jackson
http://www.handymanhowto.com
part 13 is hosed. missing much information, not complete. the page is not finished, only 1st page loads. no such before and after photos of the studor valve shown in the opening page of the series
Try the Part 13 link again, it’s working fine now. I was running a database backup and it might have interfered with the web page availability.
Let me know if it’s working for you.
Thank you for a very helpful instruction on how to add a bathroom and how to calculate the costs.
Really appreciate it.
You have the best website I’ve ever come across. I’ve only been doing diy for a few years and love it, but I’m was so tired of trying to learn from the diynetwork. They’re so heavily edited that the part I’m often interested in learning is cut out. You give great step-by-step detailed instructions that are easy to follow. My husband is amazed that I was able to remodel our guest bathroom from the subfloor up. Sites like yours make that possible. Thanks! Jill
Great article and excellent documentation really well explained. Thanks
Amazing! Really helpful. And very neat! Thanks I”ll follow it.
When the builder puts in a rough in for the toilet sink and shower are they all connected to the vent and will the shower have a trap put in that is in the concrete ? Thanks Much.
You must verify what the home builder has roughed-in. In my situation, the plumbing vent pipe to the roof is only connected to the sewage basin. I installed a Studor Mini-Vent for the bathroom sink.
I’m guessing your builder cemented in the shower drain pipe and you’re trying to determine if there’s a p-trap under the concrete? Try shining a flashlight down the shower pipe; do you see standing water at the bottom or at least what appears to be a U-curve? If the pipe is dry, pour some water down the pipe to fill up the p-trap. You should see standing water in the trap that will rise and fall slightly with changes in air pressure.
Hi Bob
Thank you so much for sharing this information. I wondered did you do the plumbing rough in work yourself? I see some DIY chatrooms say you can do this yourself but I would feel more confident having a plumber take care of that part.
The home builder roughed-in the plumbing which runs under the cement floor or in the wall:
* sewage basin
* shower and toilet drain pipes
* copper pipes inside wall for the toilet and sink
I did everything else as illustrated in the project series, including the hooking up the bathroom to the main water supply and sewer pipes. I filed for a Building Permit and passed all inspections.
If you’re not comfortable and knowledgeable in what is to be done, definitely hire a licensed plumber. Hopefully you’ll be in a more informed position having read about my basement bathroom project.
Recently pinned this project and was notified that the pin was removed due to a copyright complaint.I apologize if I in any way infringed on your copyright. (Perhaps the email, tweet and facebook “like” icons on this page should be omitted as well in order to avoid further “sharing” of this project.)
Hi Etna,
Reproduction of the Copyrighted content on HandymanHowTo.com is strictly prohibited. In my opinion, Pinterest’s business model of encouraging users to reproduce copyrighted content by “pinning” it on Pinterest.com is unethical and illegal. I therefore filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice to remove the infringing content.
Of concern for Pinterest’s users is the Pinterest Terms of Service (Section 7. Indemnity) requires YOU to defend Pinterest in the event of a lawsuit.
The following articles are helpful:
* The Reason I Just Deleted My Pinterest Account
* Pinterest: Napster for Housewives or Wake Up Call for a Better Copyright Idea?
* No, You Can’t Just Post Other People’s Stuff
Etna wrote:
> Perhaps the email, tweet and facebook “like” icons on this page should be omitted as well in order to avoid further “sharing” of this project.
E-mail, Twitter and FaceBook sharing does not reproduce the content on HandymanHowTo.com because it simply links back to the original post for the user to read. For example, clicking the e-mail icon at the end of a project generates the following message:
“Here is a link to a site I really like. http://www.handymanhowto.com/2009/02/28/finishing-a-basement-bathroom-the-complete-series/”
The problem with Pinterest is it makes a full size copy (“reproduces”) my photos on Pinterest.com, which I say is not “fair use” but copyright infringement. My prediction is the copyright issue will become untenable when Pinterest tries to monetize a business model that seemingly encourages the pinning of unauthorized content from hardworking authors such as myself.
As it stands, Pinterest complied with my DMCA request very quickly and I have no issues with HandymanHowTo.com readers who were affected. I have since blocked the ability to “Pin” my content, so this should prevent future misunderstandings.
Reading and sharing links to HandymanHowTo.com = Good! Illegal copying and posting my content on other websites = Bad!
I do appreciate you reaching out to me.
Thanks,
Bob
This is really one of the best articles I have seen! I’m preparing to build my basement bathroom and I learned quite a few things I didn’t know or think about – the basin alarm, the sink vent, SharkBite fittings and the use of the flexable sewage tee. I was really sweating the task of getting the tees into the water and sewage lines but your ideas solve that problem!!
The only thing I’d like to point out for anyone else coming into this type of a project is that it may not be possible to add the plumbing and electrical after the close-in. In my case, all of it has to be done before drywall and tiling since I have no backside access.
Thanks!
Sunil