How Much Does a Bathroom Remodel Cost in St. Petersburg, FL?

A bathroom remodel in St. Petersburg typically costs between $20,000 and $70,000, depending on scope. A cosmetic facelift on a standard 5x7 bathroom runs $20,000–$30,000. A full master bathroom renovation — the kind where you’re changing layout, upgrading fixtures, and installing new tile floor to ceiling — lands between $40,000 and $70,000. Luxury builds with heated floors, body jets, and custom millwork push past $100,000.

Those aren’t national averages pulled from a database. They’re what we actually see on projects in Old Northeast bungalows, Shore Acres waterfront homes, and downtown St. Pete condos. Below, we’ll break down exactly what drives those price ranges — by project scope, by component, and by the local factors that make St. Petersburg bathrooms different from what you’ll find in a generic cost guide.

What Determines Your Bathroom Remodel Cost

The single biggest factor is scope: are you updating surfaces and fixtures (a facelift), or are you gutting the room and starting over?

A facelift keeps the existing layout. Same drain locations, same wall framing, same footprint. You’re replacing tile, swapping the vanity, upgrading fixtures, maybe converting a tub to a walk-in shower. The plumbing and electrical rough-in stay where they are.

A full gut changes everything. Walls come down. Drains move. The concrete slab gets cut to recess new drain lines. Framing changes. Every mechanical system gets touched. As our owner Jeremy puts it: “A bathroom has every system a house can have packed into a small area, so it’s the most expensive room per square foot except for a very high-end kitchen.”

That’s why the price can double from a facelift to a full renovation — even in the same size bathroom.

Bathroom Remodel Cost by Scope (2026 St. Petersburg Pricing)

These ranges include labor and materials. They don’t include design fees if you’re working with an outside designer (Revolution offers design-build, so design coordination is part of our process).

Cost Breakdown by Component

Not all bathroom dollars are created equal. Here’s where the money actually goes on a typical mid-range master bath remodel:

Tile installation is almost always the largest single cost. If you’re tiling the shower walls floor to ceiling, the floor, and a tub surround, you’re looking at significant square footage of precision work — cutting around niches, drains, fixtures, and corners.

The St. Pete Factor: Local Costs Most Guides Miss

National cost guides don’t account for what makes St. Petersburg bathrooms expensive. Here are the local factors that affect your bottom line:

Cast Iron Plumbing

If your home was built before the 1970s — and in neighborhoods like Old Northeast, Historic Kenwood, and Snell Isle, most were — you likely have cast iron drain pipes. Cast iron corrodes from the inside out. It can look fine on the outside and be nearly closed on the inside.

“We almost always get a camera down the pipes to know what we’re dealing with and tell the story to homeowners,” Jeremy says. A camera scope costs $100–$300 from a plumber. It’s a small investment that prevents a massive surprise. If the cast iron needs replacing, budget an additional $10,000–$20,000 depending on how much pipe is affected and whether the work involves cutting into a concrete slab.

Old-Home Surprises

St. Pete’s older neighborhoods are full of homes that have been through decades of patchwork repairs. “In a 100-year-old house, we know that there have been four generations of grandpas and dads doing their DIY bullshit work — things we can’t see until we really are doing some destructive demo.” That’s not a scare tactic — it’s reality. Improperly wired outlets behind walls, plumbing joints held together with creative solutions, structural modifications that weren’t permitted. These discoveries happen during demo, and they add cost.

Flood Zone Considerations

Parts of Shore Acres, Snell Isle, and the barrier islands sit in FEMA AE flood zones. If your home’s renovation qualifies as a “substantial improvement” (more than 50% of the structure’s market value), FEMA regulations kick in and can affect everything — including bathroom plumbing that runs below the base flood elevation. This is specialized knowledge that most contractors don’t have. Learn more about flood zone construction requirements.

Slab-on-Grade Construction

Many St. Pete homes are built on concrete slabs, not crawl spaces. Moving a drain means cutting concrete, recessing the new drain line, and pouring new concrete. It’s significant labor that you don’t face in homes with raised foundations or basements.

How Revolution Prices Bathroom Remodels (and Why It Saves You Money)

Most contractors give you a fixed-price bid. It sounds safe — you know what you’re paying, right? The problem is that fixed bids build in padding. The contractor estimates what might go wrong, adds a cushion for uncertainty, and you pay for worst-case scenarios that may never happen.

Revolution uses a Time & Materials (T&M) model with a 30% markup — stated openly, not hidden in line items. Here’s how it works:

1. Pre-construction sharpening. Before construction starts, every line item gets reviewed. Tile selections get locked, fixture specs confirmed, and real bids come in from plumbing and electrical subs. By the time hammers swing, 75% of your line items are confirmed fixed-price. That gives you 90–95% budget certainty before day one.
2. Weekly budget reports. Every week, you see exactly where your money went. Materials invoices, labor hours, sub costs — all open book. No line item is a mystery.
3. You save when things go well. If demo takes three days instead of five, you save two days of labor. Under a fixed bid, the contractor pockets that difference. Under T&M, that savings is yours.
4. Surprises are handled transparently. When corroded cast iron or unpermitted wiring turns up behind a wall, you see exactly what was found, get the options explained, and receive a real cost for the fix. No change order battles. No “we need another $15,000 and we’ll explain later.”

This model works especially well for bathroom remodels because bathrooms are where surprises live. Every system in the house meets in one small room. T&M means what’s found gets handled honestly — no padding the bid upfront, no cutting corners to stay under a number.

What Drives Bathroom Remodel Costs Up (and How to Control Them)

Layout changes. Every drain, pipe, or wall you move adds cost. If your current layout works and you just want better finishes, a facelift is dramatically cheaper than a gut renovation.

Tile selection timing. Lock your tile choices during the permitting phase — while you’re waiting on the city, not after construction starts. Changing tile mid-project means reordering, waiting for new lead times, and potentially redoing substrate work. The rule: finalize selections early.

Scope creep mid-project. “While we’re in here, can we also...” is the most expensive sentence in remodeling. It’s fine to add scope — but know that mid-project additions cost more than planning them from the start because they disrupt sequencing.

Material lead times. Specialty tile, custom glass, imported fixtures — anything that isn’t in stock locally adds wait time. Wait time means your project sits, and a stalled project costs money even when nobody’s working.

Ways to Keep Costs Down Without Sacrificing Quality

• Keep the layout. Same drain locations, same walls = less plumbing, less framing, less concrete cutting.
• Choose standard tile sizes. Large-format tile covers ground faster and has fewer grout lines. Mosaic and small-format tile is beautiful but labor-intensive.
• Prioritize where it matters. Spend on waterproofing (Schluter system, lifetime warranty — this is not where you save money) and shower tile. Save on paint-grade trim and standard lighting.
• Scope the pipes first. A $100–$300 camera scope tells you what you’re dealing with before demo day. No surprises.

Bathroom Remodel ROI: Is It Worth the Investment?

Bathroom remodels typically return 50–70% of their cost at resale, depending on scope and market conditions. A mid-range bathroom renovation is consistently one of the top-performing home improvements for resale value.

But here’s a more honest answer: design your bathroom for how you actually live, not for a hypothetical future buyer. If you never take baths, don’t install a freestanding tub because a magazine said it adds value. If you use your shower every day, that’s where your money should go — quality tile, solid waterproofing, fixtures that feel good to use.

Jeremy’s take: “A bathroom should first and foremost be a study in utility — let luxury be based on budget and sensibility.”

The real return on a bathroom remodel isn’t just resale math. It’s walking into a room you use every single day and not being frustrated by it. As Jeremy describes what drives most projects: “When we see people talking about a bathroom, it’s generally because the bathroom is so old and crappy that it just drives them crazy every time they look at it. Instead of doing their daily duties in a place of peace, all they see is crappy dated tile, delaminating cabinetry and countertops, peeling paint with smears all over them.”

The Revolution Bathroom Remodel Process

Here’s what a typical project looks like from first call to final walkthrough:

1. Consultation (1–3 weeks)

Your bathroom’s scope gets assessed — cosmetic refresh or full gut. The plumbing stack, floor joist direction (critical if drains need to move), and ventilation all get evaluated. You’ll leave with a realistic cost range.

2. Design

Your layout gets developed with a designer or through vendor-assisted design. Tile selection, fixture selection, vanity and cabinetry choices. If ADA accessibility is a factor, that gets planned from day one. Budget conversations happen during design, not after — so you’re never surprised by what your selections cost.

3. Pre-Construction (3–5 weeks)

Your estimate gets sharpened — real costs get nailed down on every line item. Tile and fixture lead times get ordered. Sub bids for plumbing and electrical come in. Tile selections are locked during permitting so nothing stalls construction.

4. Permitting (3–5 weeks)

Plumbing and electrical permits submitted to the City of St. Petersburg. Shower pan inspection (the waterproof membrane test underneath your shower tile) is a bathroom-specific permit step. Revolution handles all of this.

5. Construction

The build sequence: demolition, framing (if layout changes), rough-in (the behind-the-wall plumbing and electrical work), Schluter waterproofing (a membrane system with lifetime warranty), tile (floors and walls), glass (shower doors), vanities, paint and fixtures, then punch list. Revolution’s 20+ W-2 carpenters handle the finish carpentry, tile work, and waterproofing in-house — not a rotating crew of subs you’ve never met.

Janet Anderson, a recent bathroom client, put it simply: “The easiest, most stress free renovation I have experienced.” She praised the communication, sub management, and budget adherence throughout the project.

Frequently Asked Questions

Key Takeaways

• A bathroom remodel in St. Petersburg costs $20,000–$100,000+ depending on scope — cosmetic facelifts start at $20K, full master bath renovations run $40–70K
• Tile installation is the largest single cost; cast iron plumbing replacement ($10–20K) is the biggest surprise cost in older St. Pete homes
• Scope a camera down your pipes ($100–$300) before committing to a budget — it’s the cheapest insurance in bathroom remodeling
• Revolution’s T&M pricing with 30% markup and weekly budget reports gives you 90–95% cost certainty without the padding of a fixed bid
• Lock tile selections during permitting to avoid construction delays and cost overruns

Planning your remodel? Start with our bathroom remodel checklist to make sure nothing gets missed. Not sure if you need a full remodel? Compare a remodel vs. a refresh to find out. Working with a compact bathroom? See our 5x8 bathroom remodel ideas. Or explore kitchen remodeling if you’re considering doing both rooms together.