Licensed, Bonded & Insured · Serving Glencoe and the surrounding area
A full bathroom remodel in Glencoe typically runs $32,000 to $48,000 for a hall or guest bath and $55,000 to $95,000 for a primary suite, and takes five to eight weeks on site. Permits are issued by the Village of Glencoe at 675 Village Court. Glencoe is the smallest village on this stretch of the North Shore and the most consistently pre-war, so budgets here are driven less by the finish level than by what ninety years has done to the supply lines and the waste stack behind the plaster.
Glencoe was built out largely between 1915 and 1940, and it was built well. Tudor Revival, Colonial Revival and a handful of notable mid-century houses sit on wooded lots that are large even by North Shore standards, many of them on or near a ravine. There has been steady teardown-and-rebuild activity since 2000, so a newer house on an old street is common.
The houses are generous and the original bathrooms are not. A 1920s house here was designed with one substantial bathroom and two small ones, all of them built around fixtures that no longer exist. The work almost always starts with the same question: where does the extra width come from.
In a house of this size the answer is usually available, and the cost is usually in the plumbing rather than the framing. There is generally a closet, a back landing or an oversized hall to borrow from. What decides the budget is whether the supply and the stack serving that corner of the house have already been replaced, and that is settled with the walls open, not on paper.
Glencoe is more consistent than its neighbours, which makes the ranges tighter. These are the four houses we work in here.
| Era and style | What we find on site | What the project becomes | Typical range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1915–1940 — Tudor and Colonial Revival | Solid framing, plaster on lath throughout, cast-iron stack, galvanised supply, and small bathrooms inside large bedrooms. | Full gut with new supply and waste, width borrowed from a closet or landing, and a properly built shower floor. | $34k – $48k |
| 1940s–1950s — smaller Colonials and Cape Cods | Original 4×7 baths, one per floor, tight stair access for materials and a sloped ceiling over the tub. | Gut, plus taking width from the linen closet so a shower and a real vanity fit. | $30k – $43k |
| 1950s–1970s — ranches and mid-century houses | Copper supply, larger baths, low ceilings, wide glazing, and slab or crawl construction under the floor. | Layout usually stays. A double vanity and a level-access shower fit without structural work. | $26k – $38k |
| 2000s–present — teardown rebuilds | Modern rough-in, adequate framing, primary baths already large, and finishes that have simply dated. | Finish-level replacement. The stone and the glass decide the number, not what is behind the wall. | $28k – $44k |
These are the conditions that decide the schedule and the contingency on a job in Glencoe. We price around them rather than discovering them.
Glencoe has a high proportion of houses that have never had a full plumbing overhaul. Galvanised steel corrodes inwards, so the pipe looks fine and the pressure tells the truth. We assume replacement back to the nearest accessible branch and say so before demolition.
The stack is original cast iron in most of the village. It is often still sound and we leave it. Where it is not, a length has to be replaced inside a finished wall on the floor below, and that is the single biggest swing in a Glencoe budget.
Very little of the pre-war stock here has been reboarded. Plaster is slower to cut and it cracks in the next room if it is handled roughly, so we score and cut, and we allow for patching next door rather than hoping.
Effectively every original house in Glencoe predates 1978. The work falls under the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, so containment, HEPA cleanup and a certified firm are requirements and are part of the schedule.
Second floors that were never fully rewired can still carry live knob-and-tube in the ceiling bays. Anything we open we bring to current code, and the bathroom gets its own GFCI-protected circuit.
Interior work inside the footprint is straightforward. Touch an exterior wall for a new window or a vent and the project goes through village zoning review, and on the wooded ravine lots the tree ordinance has to be considered before any access or scaffold is planned.
Ranges, not a single number. Where a project lands depends on the scope, and we say which band we think you are in before you commit to anything.
Fixtures, tile, vanity, lighting and paint with the services staying where they are. Sensible when the room is well proportioned and simply dated.
Down to the studs and subfloor, new supply and waste, tub-to-shower conversion or a relocated vanity, rebuilt floor and a tested membrane. The standard Glencoe project.
Taking space from a bedroom or a landing, a double vanity, a freestanding tub and a glassed shower, heated floor, and a structural opening. Priced individually once the framing is seen.
Most of a bathroom budget is not the things you can see in a showroom. This is how a full remodel here divides up.
Based on a $39,000 full remodel, the midpoint of what we actually build here. The labour share rises sharply in a house where the supply has to be chased back through plaster to the basement, which is why two Glencoe bathrooms with identical finishes can be $12,000 apart.
We walk the room, look at the basement ceiling below it and at the stack, and tell you what we can see and what we cannot.
A written scope with allowances you can actually shop against, not a single number.
Submitted to the Village of Glencoe at 675 Village Court. We prepare and lodge it; you will not be at the counter.
Plumbing, electrical and framing inspected before anything is closed. This is where surprises surface, and where we come back to you if the price has to move.
A tested waterproofing membrane before a single tile goes down. This is the step that decides whether the room lasts twenty years or five.
Fixtures, glass, paint and a walk-through list that we close out before the final invoice.
Tell us about the property and what you want to change. We will walk the space, look at what is behind the walls, and come back with a written scope, a schedule and a price.
A hall or guest bathroom taken to the studs and rebuilt generally lands between $32,000 and $48,000. A primary suite usually starts around $55,000 and rises with the size of the room and the stone. A refresh that keeps every drain in place runs $19,000 to $30,000. Glencoe sits above the North Shore average mainly because the houses are larger and the original plumbing runs further.
Yes. The Village of Glencoe requires a building permit for any bathroom work that alters plumbing, electrical or structure. Applications go to the village offices at 675 Village Court and the work is inspected at rough-in and at completion. We prepare and lodge the application as part of the project.
Usually a linen closet, a back stair landing, or a slice of an adjoining bedroom. Houses of this size almost always have one of the three. The question is what it costs structurally, and that is answered with the framing exposed — these houses were built with true dimensional lumber running one way, so a header is straightforward but not free.
Five to eight weeks for a full remodel, a little longer than the North Shore average because the rooms are larger and there is more plumbing to replace. Long-lead tile and fixtures are ordered before demolition so they are not the thing holding the job up.
We run floor protection from the entry to the work area, a zipped containment wall, HEPA filtration and a daily cleanup. In a pre-1978 house that is a legal requirement under the EPA RRP rule rather than a courtesy, and it is the part most clients notice.
Often, yes. In a house of this size the usual candidates are an oversized hall, a back staircase that is no longer used, or space over a garage. It needs a drain route to an existing stack and a vent, which is why we look at the basement ceiling on the first visit.
For a bathroom inside its existing footprint no architect is needed and we handle the layout, the fixtures and the tile plan. If the project takes space from a bedroom or touches a bearing wall we bring in a structural engineer for that element and coordinate it.
Glencoe sits in the middle of our densest area. Winnetka, Highland Park, Wilmette, Lake Forest and Evanston are all regular ground for the same crews.
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Office: (773) 345-6358