Cost Home Book is written and edited by the Cost Home Book editorial team. The team builds the site's cost models from publicly available US wage statistics, supplier price lists and permit data, and updates each guide as those sources change. It has no affiliation with any contractor, manufacturer or lead-generation service. Figures on this site are estimates for reading a quote, not quotes.
How the figures are built
Every cost band starts as a national figure with a date on it. Where a guide is priced from published data, the labor leg follows the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the trade that does the work, and the materials leg follows a Producer Price Index series for what it is made of. Once a guide's sources section is published, both are named and linked at its foot, with the release they were read from.
The one number no dataset supplies is how much of a job is labor and how much is materials. That split is a judgement, it is stated on the page, and it is the difference between a roof price that moves with roofers' wages and one that moves with asphalt. How we calculate costs sets out the arithmetic, and the editorial policy is explicit about which figures are derived and which are estimates.
Independence
We have no affiliation with any contractor, manufacturer, marketplace or lead-generation service. The site is funded by display advertising and nothing else — no referral fees, no commissions, no paid placements. No advertiser sees a figure before a reader does. How the site is funded.
Corrections and contact
If a figure here does not match what you were quoted, that is worth knowing and we would rather hear it. Send the page, the figure and what you were actually quoted to corrections@costhomebook.com, or see the corrections policy for what happens next. Anything else: hello@costhomebook.com.
Guides by the Cost Home Book editorial team
240 in total, page 13 of 24.
Bathroom vanity installation cost$400 to $2,500eachA bathroom vanity costs $400 to $2,500 including the unit, typically $1,100. Whether the existing plumbing lines up with the new unit is what decides the price.
Bathtub installation cost$800 to $6,000eachInstalling a bathtub costs $800 to $6,000, typically $2,400. Access, where the drain is, and the weight are what change the price, not the tub.
Bathroom tile cost$10 to $40per sq ftBathroom tile costs $10 to $40 a square foot installed. Tile is what people compare and labor is where the money is: the same tile in herringbone costs twice what it does in a grid.
Master bathroom remodel cost$15,000 to $50,000per projectA master bathroom remodel costs $15,000 to $50,000, typically $25,000. Keeping the layout cuts it to $9,000 to $20,000, and that decision moves the price more than every material choice combined.
Half bathroom addition cost$5,000 to $25,000per projectAdding a half bathroom costs $5,000 to $25,000, typically $12,000. A powder room next to existing plumbing is at the bottom; one far from any drain is at the top.
Bathroom exhaust fan cost$250 to $900eachA bathroom exhaust fan costs $250 to $900 installed, typically $450. It is the cheapest thing in a bathroom and the one that decides whether the paint, the grout and the framing last.
Laundry room remodel cost$2,500 to $15,000per projectA laundry room remodel costs $2,500 to $15,000, typically $6,000. Moving laundry from a basement to an upper floor is the version that costs real money and the one people are most pleased with.
Kitchen remodel timeline$20,000 to $40,000per projectA midrange kitchen takes six to ten weeks on site and three to six months end to end. The build is the short part; the waiting is cabinets, which run six to twelve weeks from order.
Kitchen remodel return on investment$20,000 to $40,000per projectA minor kitchen remodel returns 70 to 85% at resale. A major upscale one returns 40 to 55%. The cheaper project returns a higher share, every year, in every survey.
How to pay for a remodel$20,000 to $40,000per projectA $27,500 kitchen is the largest discretionary purchase most households make outside a car, and it has no financing attached. The spread between the cheapest and dearest option is over $15,000.