Cheap bathroom cuts: which ones stay cheap later

A big remodel cannot be faked on the cheap. The better question is which corners you can cut on a tight bathroom budget without paying for it later.

The split is clean. Anything you can see is usually safe to skimp on. Anything that manages water or air is not, because bathrooms fail from moisture, and moisture failures are invisible until they are expensive.

The two skips that cause the damage

Paper-faced backer board behind tile. Indoor airPLUS rules it out around tubs and showers, directing instead to cement board under ASTM C1288, or a membrane holding an ICC-ES AC 115 evaluation report. Paper-faced board is cheaper, faster and completely hidden once tiled. Of every budget swap in a bathroom, this one does the most damage.

A fan that does not exhaust outdoors. EPA guidance is that bathroom fans vent outside. A fan discharging into an attic or a joist bay moves the moisture from a room you can see into a cavity you cannot, which can be worse than no fan at all, because everyone assumes the problem is handled.

You cannot see either one when the contractor hands over the room. Both are why a bathroom that looked finished develops a problem in year two. If a budget has to be cut, cut it somewhere else.

Why moisture decides everything

The EPA’s position is that the way to control indoor mold growth is to control moisture, and that wet or damp materials should be dried within 24 to 48 hours. A bathroom is the room most likely to breach that window, and the equipment that prevents it is exactly what the two skips above remove.

The CDC adds the ambient targets: keep humidity at or below 50 percent, use exhaust fans that vent outside, and do not carpet bathrooms. Carpet still shows up in budget bathroom jobs, and it is the surface least able to dry inside the window above.

Two things you will not get. There are no federal standards for airborne mold or mold spores, so anyone quoting you a permissible level is not citing one. And painting over mold does not fix it. The EPA says plainly that you should not paint or caulk over moldy surfaces.

Where saving money is fine

Plenty of a bathroom is cosmetic, and spending less there costs nothing later.

• Keeping the layout. Not moving fixtures is the largest saving available and has no downside beyond the layout you already have.
• Tile choice. The backing behind the tile decides whether the wall survives. The tile itself only decides how the room looks, so you can go cheap on it.
• Vanity, mirror, lighting, hardware. All replaceable later without touching anything wet, so put off the splurge here. What is worth paying for in a vanity is covered in our note on vanity value against fashion.
• Painting rather than retiling surfaces outside the wet zone.
• Phasing. Doing the waterproofing and ventilation properly now and the finishes next year beats doing everything cheaply at once.

Put off anything you can redo without opening a wall. Never skimp on what goes behind one.

Two more things budgets skip

Grab-bar reinforcing. Blocking in the wall while it is open costs very little and is a demolition job to add later. It commits you to nothing. The bars go on if and when anyone needs them.

Flooring at the fixtures. Carpet near fixtures is something EPA warns against, and Indoor airPLUS asks for a hard surface out to four feet. Cheap while the room is apart, disruptive once it is finished.

And one that is not optional at all. If the house predates 1978, the demolition itself must be done by an EPA-certified firm, and the small-job exemption does not cover demolition. You cannot budget around that cost. More on it in our note on what drives a bathroom bid.

Budget bathroom questions

Can I really do a bathroom on a small budget?

You can do parts of one. What does not compress is the waterproofing, the ventilation and, in a pre-1978 house, the certified demolition. A realistic small budget covers finishes and keeps the layout; it does not buy a full gut. Spread the visible work out over time instead of cheaping out on the hidden work.

How do I know if the backer board behind my tile is right?

Once tiled you generally cannot tell, which is why it belongs in the contract by product before work starts. Have the materials list name the board under ASTM C1288, or the membrane and its ICC-ES AC 115 report, and photograph the wall before anyone tiles it.

Is there a safe level of mold I can ignore?

No federal standards exist for airborne mold or mold spores, so nobody can give you a permissible number. The EPA approach is to control moisture and to dry wet materials within 24 to 48 hours. Do not paint or caulk over a moldy surface. That hides the mold without removing it.

Is a bathroom fan really necessary if there is a window?

A window helps, but only if somebody opens it, including in January. CDC advises exhaust fans that vent outside and keeping humidity at or below 50 percent. If a fan is fitted, the thing that matters is where it discharges: into the outdoors, not into an attic or a cavity.

Written by

Keith Guirao

Founder & Editor, ConsumersWeek

18+ years in consumer marketing and lead generation across insurance, personal finance, and home services. ConsumersWeek explains how these products are priced and sold so you can evaluate them with the same information the industry has.

About the editorLinkedIn