Licensed, Bonded & Insured · Serving Roscoe Village and the surrounding area
A full bathroom remodel in Roscoe Village typically runs $27,000 to $42,000 for a main bathroom and $46,000 to $80,000 for a primary suite, and takes four to seven weeks on site. Permits are issued by the Chicago Department of Buildings. The distinctive thing here is the raised cottage: a great many of these houses were jacked up over a new basement at some point in the last century, which means the services are a patchwork of eras and the floor levels rarely agree.
Roscoe Village was built for the people who worked in the factories along the river: frame and brick workers’ cottages and two-flats from the 1890s through the 1920s, on twenty-five-foot lots. It is denser and more modest than Lincoln Park, and it has been steadily upgraded rather than comprehensively rebuilt.
The characteristic building is the raised cottage. At some point — often the 1920s, sometimes much later — the house was jacked up and a new basement built beneath it. That single fact explains most of what we find: services spliced together from three eras, floor levels that do not line up between front and back, and a bathroom that was fitted into whatever space was left over.
None of that is a problem, but it does mean the survey matters. We look at the basement ceiling before we draw anything, because in a raised cottage the drain route is the thing that decides the layout, and it is almost never where the plan would suggest.
Roscoe Village is mostly one building type with one history, and that history is what the survey is looking for.
| Era and building type | What we find on site | What the project becomes | Typical range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1890–1915 — frame cottages raised over a basement | Services spliced across three eras, floor levels that step, a stack in the rear wall and a bathroom fitted into leftover space. | Full gut with the services traced and replaced, the floor rebuilt level, and the drain route established before the layout. | $32k – $42k |
| 1900–1925 — brick workers’ cottages | A tight plan on a 25-foot lot, one bathroom off a central hall, plaster on lath, galvanised supply. | Gut in place with a proper vanity and a walk-in shower won back inside the existing four walls. | $28k – $38k |
| 1900–1925 — two-flats | A bath off a rear hall, a stack shared with the unit above, shallow joists, and a board if it has been converted. | Gut in place. The toilet stays on the branch, and the room is won back with storage and a level-access shower. | $27k – $37k |
| 1995–present — rear additions and dormers | Added at various dates and to various standards, sometimes without a permit, with long drain runs and minimal insulation. | Rebuild with the fall corrected, insulation and ventilation put right, and the work brought onto a permit. | $34k – $54k |
These are the conditions that decide the schedule and the contingency on a job in Roscoe Village. We price around them rather than discovering them.
The defining Roscoe Village condition. Services were spliced when the house was lifted, so a single bathroom can be fed by galvanised, copper and plastic in three different places. We trace the runs before quoting rather than after.
Raising a cottage rarely left the floors in one plane. A bathroom floor that steps up or down from the hall has to be built back level before anything is waterproofed, and that build-up eats into the fall available to a new shower drain.
On a twenty-five-foot lot the stack is usually in the rear wall. A bathroom at the front of the house can be a long way from it, with a horizontal run already close to minimum fall. It is checked from below first.
Where the building is a two-flat or a conversion, the stack serves the unit above and below and fixes roughly where the toilet sits. A vanity and a shower have far more freedom.
The original housing here is nineteenth and early twentieth century, so the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting rule applies in full: containment, HEPA filtration, a certified firm and documented cleanup, all in the schedule.
Shared gangways, permit parking and no rear alley access on some blocks. Tile, a tub and a vanity come in the way they can, and the route is planned into the schedule rather than solved on the day.
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. Sensible where a previous remodel got the levels and the fall right.
To the studs and subfloor, services traced and replaced, the floor rebuilt level, a tub-to-shower conversion and a tested membrane.
Usually a rear or attic addition, or space taken from a bedroom, with a double vanity, a glassed shower and a structural opening.
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 $33,000 full remodel, the midpoint of what we actually build here. In a raised cottage the plumbing share runs above the figure shown, because the first job is usually replacing whatever was spliced together when the house went up in the air.
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 Chicago Department of Buildings. 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 main bathroom taken to the studs and rebuilt generally lands between $27,000 and $42,000. A primary suite, usually part of a rear or attic addition, starts around $46,000. A refresh that keeps the services in place runs $16,000 to $25,000. What moves the number most is what the services turn out to be once the floor is up.
It means the survey matters. Lifting a cottage left the services spliced together, often across three different eras and materials, and it rarely left the floors in one plane. Both have to be sorted before anything is tiled, and both are far better found on the first visit than in week two.
Yes. The Chicago Department of Buildings issues it. Replacing fixtures and finishes in place can often go through the Easy Permit Process; moving plumbing or electrical, or removing a wall, needs a full permit with drawings. We identify the route and handle the filing.
Usually yes. The limit is the fall available to the drain, and in a raised cottage that is tighter than usual because the floor often has to be built up to get it level first. We check both together with the floor open.
Often, in the basement or under a rear dormer. A basement bathroom sits below the sewer line in many of these houses and needs an ejector pump, which is ordinary work but should be priced from the start. We look at the basement on the first visit.
Four to seven weeks for a full remodel. Where the services turn out to be spliced across several eras the plumbing takes longer than in a straightforward house, which is why we trace them before quoting rather than after.
Yes. The housing here is largely pre-1978, so the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting rule applies: containment, HEPA filtration, a certified firm and documented cleanup, scheduled and priced in.
Roscoe Village sits between Lakeview and Lincoln Square, and all three, along with Lincoln Park, are regular ground for the same crews.
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Office: (773) 345-6358