Licensed, Bonded & Insured · Serving Wilmette and the surrounding area
A full bathroom remodel in Wilmette typically runs $28,000 to $44,000 for a hall bath and $48,000 to $82,000 for a primary suite, and takes four to seven weeks on site. Permits are issued by the Village of Wilmette at 1200 Wilmette Avenue. Wilmette’s lots are smaller than its neighbours to the north, so the houses are tighter and the usual project is not a larger bathroom but a much better one in the same footprint — which is also why the ranges here sit below Winnetka and Glencoe.
East of Ridge Road, Wilmette is one of the best surviving runs of Chicago-style brick bungalows and modest Colonials anywhere on the North Shore, most of it built between 1915 and 1935 on lots of forty or fifty feet. West of Ridge the stock turns to 1950s ranches and split-levels on slightly larger plots.
The bungalow bathroom is almost a standard product: roughly five by seven, tiled to a chair rail in the original hexagon and subway, one window on the side elevation, a cast-iron tub in an alcove, and a pedestal basin where a vanity should be. It was beautifully built and it stores nothing.
The work here is rarely about making the room bigger, because there is nowhere for it to go. It is about winning back the twelve inches a proper vanity needs, getting a shower that is not fighting the roof slope, and replacing supply lines that are now a century old. Done properly that is a transformation, and it is a smaller job than most people expect.
Wilmette is more uniform than its neighbours, which is good news: the ranges are tighter and the surprises are fewer.
| Era and style | What we find on site | What the project becomes | Typical range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1915–1935 — Chicago-style brick bungalows | A 5×7 bath tiled to a chair rail in a mortar bed, cast-iron tub in an alcove, pedestal basin, one side window, galvanised supply. | Full gut with new supply and waste, floor build-up rebuilt, and twelve inches won back for a real vanity and a shower. | $28k – $40k |
| 1920–1935 — Colonials and Dutch Colonials | One bath per floor, a sloped ceiling over the tub, cast-iron stack in the stair wall, plaster on lath. | Gut, plus width borrowed from the linen closet or the landing so the shower is not fighting the roof. | $30k – $44k |
| 1950s–1965 — ranches west of Ridge | Copper supply, roomier 8×8 baths, eight-foot ceilings, crawl or slab below with limited fall. | Layout normally stays. A double vanity and a level-access shower fit without structural work, and the fan finally gets ducted outside. | $24k – $35k |
| 1990s–present — rebuilds and rear additions | Modern rough-in, adequate framing, a primary bath already sized, finishes that have dated. | Finish-level replacement, with stone and glass driving the number. | $26k – $40k |
These are the conditions that decide the schedule and the contingency on a job in Wilmette. We price around them rather than discovering them.
A 1920s bungalow that has never been re-piped is on galvanised steel. It closes from the inside, so the pressure drops long before anything looks wrong. We price replacement back to the nearest accessible branch as standard rather than as a variation.
The stack runs in the wall between the bathroom and the stair in most bungalows here. It is usually sound and we keep it. Where it is not, the replacement runs through a finished wall below, and that is the main thing that moves a Wilmette budget after demolition.
The hexagon floor and the wall tile are bedded in mortar, not stuck to a board. That makes demolition heavier and dustier than a modern bathroom, and it means the floor build-up has to be rebuilt rather than simply tiled over.
Effectively the whole bungalow belt predates 1978, so the work falls under the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting rule. Containment, HEPA cleanup and a certified firm are requirements and are in the schedule and the price.
A bungalow has a shallow attic over the bathroom and no simple route out. Fans in these houses are frequently terminated into the roof space, which just moves the moisture. We run a proper duct to outside air and check what the existing one is really doing.
Interior work in the existing footprint is straightforward. On a forty-foot lot, any exterior penetration for a new window or a vent sits close to the side setback, so it goes through village review and is worth raising early.
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 put. A good option where the original tile has already been lost.
To the studs and subfloor, new supply and waste, tub-to-shower conversion or a vanity that finally fits, rebuilt floor and a tested membrane. The standard bungalow project.
Taking space from a bedroom or a rear addition, a double vanity, separate tub and glassed shower, heated floor 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 $35,000 full remodel, the midpoint of what we actually build here. Tile and waterproofing take a slightly larger share here than elsewhere, because a bungalow floor set in a mortar bed has to be demolished and rebuilt rather than simply re-covered.
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 Wilmette at 1200 Wilmette Avenue. 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 bungalow or Colonial hall bathroom taken to the studs and rebuilt generally lands between $28,000 and $44,000. A primary suite usually starts around $48,000. A refresh that keeps every drain in place runs $17,000 to $27,000. Wilmette sits a little below Winnetka and Glencoe simply because the rooms and the houses are smaller.
Yes. The Village of Wilmette requires a building permit for bathroom work that alters plumbing, electrical or structure, which is every full remodel. Applications go to the village offices at 1200 Wilmette Avenue and the work is inspected at rough-in and at completion. We prepare and lodge it for you.
In almost every case, yes. These rooms are badly planned rather than genuinely too small: a pedestal basin wastes the only usable wall, and the tub alcove eats a third of the floor. Replanning within the same four walls typically gains a full vanity, a walk-in shower and real storage, at a fraction of what an addition costs.
Occasionally, if it is sound and complete. More often the floor build-up underneath has to come out to get a proper fall to a new shower drain, and the tile does not survive that. Where a client wants the look kept we source a close modern match rather than pretending the original can be lifted and relaid.
Yes, and it is the most common request in the village. The two limits are the floor build-up needed for a fall to the drain and, in a Colonial, the roof slope over the alcove. Both are checked with the floor open before a design is committed to.
In a bungalow, often not. The shallow hip roof over the bathroom makes a proper duct run awkward, so fans get terminated into the attic where the moisture stays in the house. We check it on the first visit and duct it correctly as part of the work.
Yes. The bungalow belt is entirely pre-1978, so the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting rule applies: containment, HEPA filtration, a certified firm and documented cleanup, all scheduled and priced in.
Wilmette sits between Evanston and Winnetka in the middle of our densest area. Glencoe, Highland Park, Lake Forest, Morton Grove and Park Ridge are all regular ground for the same crews.
info@reviverenovations.com
Office: (773) 345-6358