For example, instead of real wood plank flooring, try luxury vinyl flooring. Today’s vinyl flooring looks far better than earlier iterations. Innovations such as luxury vinyl flooring and plank vinyl can even fool the eye from a distance. High-definition laminate countertops and quartz countertops now vie with granite for the look of authentic natural stone. Faux-stone ceramic and porcelain tile backsplashes can mimic the look of travertine and marble. Or you can save time, energy, and money by keeping your wooden floor and painting it with protective enamel. Keep in mind, though, that solid hardwood should not be your first choice for bathroom flooring. But if you already do have wooden floors, this is one low-cost way to keep them around for as long as possible. Instead, try relining or refinishing. Bathtub and shower refinishing is a prime example of the dictum “Repair and retain rather than remove.” If the problem is mainly cosmetic, such as a yellowed surface and some cracks and nicks, you can refinish your shower or bathtub. Alternatively, bathtub and shower liners, never a permanent fix, are not as affordable as they seem. Requiring professional installation, liners will carry you through a few years. Bathtub refinishing, instead, is more inexpensive and often looks better. MyrKu / Getty Images Some touch-up products, such as Super Glue White Porcelain Repair, are as easy to apply as squeezing toothpaste out of a tube. To make the process even easier, before you buy the new hardware, make sure that its screw alignment matches up with the holes on your existing cabinets. This eliminates the need to drill new holes. It helps that sink faucets are simple, easy, and fast to install by yourself. You don’t need to call a plumber. This not only saves on labor costs but it advances the time table. Pick up sink faucet in the morning and you’ll have it running by lunchtime; it’s that easy. If you want to have that tiled shower, fusing a poly shower pan with the tile saves hassle and costs. Building a tiled shower pan takes some time, and it’s usually best left in the hands of qualified tile setters. Toilet installation involves very few waterline hookups. The hardest part of installing a toilet is physically moving the toilet into place. For that, buy an inexpensive hand truck or enlist the services of a friend. But consider how little painting you need to do in bathrooms. The majority of wall space is taken up with mirrors, showers, tile, cabinets, and bathtubs. In the end, you only have a few square feet to paint. In many cases, you can paint this by yourself in a day or two. If you hate calling upon the services of a plumber for remodeling work, stop for a minute and ask yourself what you might be able to do on your own. With the advent of plastic PEX plumbing pipes and push-in fittings, even the least confident do-it-yourself plumber can tackle light plumbing tasks with relative ease. If your notion of plumbing work is still rooted in the days of soldering copper pipes with an open flame or working with galvanized pipes, give this idea some serious thought. You just might find out that PEX and push-in fittings are perfect for your needs. Vanity units come in stock sizes ranging from 24 inches to 60 inches wide. Coordinating counters can be purchased that even have sinks fused into them, eliminating sink installation and caulking woes. Not only do you save money because you don’t need to buy new items, but you also save on hauling or dumpster costs. Plus, you get to help the environment by not sending non-biodegradable materials to the landfill. Whole-house remodels, additions, and large kitchens can benefit from the expertise of a qualified designer. But bathrooms in most houses aren’t so complicated. Spending some time studying bathroom layouts and learning the basic bathroom design guidelines (such as recommendations from the National Kitchen and Bath Association) can give you plenty of ideas to get started. For example, there is no better way to cover up the lower portion of walls than with easy-to-install wainscot. Wainscot is a pre-fabricated board that extends as high as 48 inches and eliminates the need to patch wall dings and minor holes; wainscot simply covers it up.
