Licensed, Bonded & Insured · Serving Lake Forest and the surrounding area
A full bathroom remodel in Lake Forest typically runs $34,000 to $52,000 for a hall or guest bath and $60,000 to $110,000 for a primary suite, and takes six to nine weeks on site. Permits are issued by the City of Lake Forest Community Development Department, and exterior work in the historic district also goes before the Building Review Board. Budgets here are the highest on the North Shore for two reasons: the rooms are larger, and the plumbing behind them often runs a very long way back to the nearest accessible branch.
East Lake Forest was laid out in the 1850s and built up through the estate era, roughly 1890 to 1930. The houses are substantial, the lots are large, and a great many of them sit inside a local historic district with an active Building Review Board. West of the tollway the stock is newer, mostly 1960s through 1980s, and behaves like a conventional suburb.
An estate-era house typically has more bathrooms than a modern one, and most of them are small. They were built around a household that used them differently: a substantial primary bath, several narrow secondary ones, and a back-stair bathroom for staff. Converting that plan into the two or three good bathrooms a family now wants is the work we are usually asked to do.
The complication is distance. In a house this size the nearest accessible point to pick up supply and waste can be two floors and forty feet away, which is why a Lake Forest bathroom of the same size and specification as one in Wilmette costs meaningfully more. We establish those runs on the first visit rather than at rough-in.
Lake Forest runs from estate-era houses in the east to conventional suburban stock west of the tollway, and the ranges follow.
| Era and style | What we find on site | What the project becomes | Typical range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1890–1930 — estate-era houses, East Lake Forest | Several bathrooms of different ages, long service runs, multiple cast-iron stacks, plaster and original joinery, and a historic district over the top of it. | Full gut with services traced and replaced back to an accessible branch, joinery retained and refitted, and a reworked plan. | $40k – $62k |
| 1930s–1950s — Colonials and Cape Cods | Tighter plans, one bathroom per floor, cast-iron stack, galvanised supply, and stair access that limits how material gets in. | Gut, with width borrowed from a closet or landing so a shower and a real vanity fit. | $32k – $46k |
| 1960s–1985 — west of the tollway | Copper supply, larger bathrooms, eight-foot ceilings, crawl or basement below with usable fall. | Layout usually stays. A double vanity and a level-access shower fit without structural work. | $26k – $38k |
| 1995–present — newer construction | Modern rough-in, generous primary suites already in place, and finishes approaching the end of their life. | Finish-level replacement; stone, glass and fittings drive the number. | $30k – $50k |
These are the conditions that decide the schedule and the contingency on a job in Lake Forest. We price around them rather than discovering them.
The defining Lake Forest condition. A secondary bathroom can be a long way from the nearest accessible supply and waste, so the pipework is a bigger share of the job here than anywhere else we work. We trace the runs before quoting rather than after.
Estate-era houses often have several stacks of differing ages. Identifying which one serves the room, and whether it is sound for another thirty years, is the first thing we do with a ceiling open below.
Walls are plaster on lath and the joinery around them is usually worth keeping. We cut rather than break, we set aside trim to be refitted, and we allow for patching in adjoining rooms.
The estate-era stock is entirely pre-1978. Containment, HEPA filtration, a certified firm and documented cleanup are legal requirements under the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting rule and are in the programme from day one.
A house that has been altered five times over a century has wiring from five eras, some of it still knob-and-tube. Anything we open comes up to current code and the bathroom gets a dedicated GFCI-protected circuit.
A bathroom rebuilt inside its existing walls is a straightforward permit. A new window, a rooflight or an exterior vent on a house in the historic district goes before the Building Review Board, and that review should be started well before the build.
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 every service staying put. Worth doing on a secondary bathroom that is sound but dated.
To the studs and subfloor, new supply and waste back to an accessible branch, a reworked layout, and a rebuilt waterproofed floor.
Combining a bathroom with an adjoining dressing room or bedroom, a double vanity, freestanding tub, glassed shower, heated floor and structural openings. Always priced individually.
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 $43,000 full remodel, the midpoint of what we actually build here. The plumbing and labour shares are both higher here than anywhere else on the North Shore, for the same reason: the distance from the room to the nearest point where supply and waste can be picked up.
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 City of Lake Forest Community Development Department. 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 guest or secondary bathroom rebuilt to the studs generally lands between $34,000 and $52,000. A primary suite starts around $60,000 and rises with the size of the room and the stone. A refresh that keeps the services in place runs $20,000 to $32,000. Lake Forest sits above the rest of the North Shore mainly because of how far the services have to be traced back.
A permit from the City of Lake Forest Community Development Department is required for any bathroom work altering plumbing, electrical or structure. The Building Review Board is concerned with the exterior, so a bathroom rebuilt inside its existing walls does not go before it. A new window, rooflight or exterior vent on a house in the historic district does, and that should be started early.
Distance. In a large estate-era house the nearest accessible supply and waste can be two floors and forty feet from the bathroom, so more of the budget goes into pipework and into opening and making good the route. The visible finishes are often identical.
Yes, and it is the most common request we get in this town. The limits are structural rather than plumbing: whether the wall between them carries anything, and whether the drain can move within the joist bay. Both are answered with the floor open.
Where it is worth keeping, yes. We remove and label it rather than cutting through it, and refit it at the end. It adds time to the programme and it is usually the difference between a room that suits the house and one that does not.
Six to nine weeks for a full remodel — longer than the North Shore average because the rooms are bigger and the service runs are longer. A refresh is three to four weeks.
Yes. The estate-era stock is entirely pre-1978, so the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting rule applies in full: containment, HEPA filtration, a certified firm and documented cleanup, all scheduled and priced from the start.
Lake Forest is the northern end of our densest area. Highland Park, Glencoe, Winnetka, Northbrook and Deerfield are all regular ground for the same crews.
info@reviverenovations.com
Office: (773) 345-6358