Chicago bathroom remodels fall into three cost tiers, and which one you land in depends on whether anything moves inside the walls or floor.

• Cosmetic refresh. Every fixture stays exactly where it is. New vanity, countertop, toilet, tile, lighting, mirror, and hardware. No plumbing or electrical relocation, usually no permit, and the most predictable price of the three.
• Full remodel in the same footprint. Everything comes out and everything goes back in the same positions. New shower or tub, waterproofing, tile, vanity, glass, flooring, and fixtures, with supply and drain lines staying roughly where they are.
• Gut remodel with a layout change. The toilet or shower moves, a tub becomes a walk-in shower, a wall comes out, or the room borrows space from a closet or hallway. Drain relocation, framing, permit drawings, and inspection all get added.

Bathrooms cost more per square foot than almost any other room, and that surprises people. A bathroom packs plumbing, electrical, ventilation, waterproofing, tile, glass, and cabinetry into a space that is often under fifty square feet. Very little of the budget goes to area, and most of it goes to density.

The items that move the number most are whether fixtures relocate, how much tile you run and how it is laid, whether the shower gets glass or a curtain, whether the vanity is stock or built to fit, and the condition of what is behind the old tile. A herringbone or mosaic layout takes far more labor than a straight stack in the same material. Frameless glass costs several times what a framed door costs.

AMG Proline gives you a fixed written estimate after an in home measure, itemized by trade and material, so you can see what each decision costs before anything is ordered. We do not price bathrooms off square footage averages, because the number is driven by scope rather than size.

There are two clocks on a bathroom remodel, and the first one runs before anyone touches your house.

Before demolition. Design, selections, measuring, and ordering come first. Tile, vanities, and specialty fixtures all carry lead times, and a custom vanity is built after you order it. If your scope needs a permit with plan review, that review runs during this same window. Good planning overlaps all of it so nothing sits idle.

On site. A cosmetic refresh usually takes about one to two weeks. A full remodel in the same footprint usually takes about three to five weeks. A gut remodel that relocates fixtures, converts a tub to a walk-in shower, or changes the layout usually takes about five to eight weeks.

The sequence cannot be rearranged: demolition, then plumbing and electrical rough-in, then inspection, then waterproofing and shower pan, then backer board, then tile, then flooring, then vanity and countertop, then fixtures and trim, then paint, then glass, then final inspection and punch list.

Two things about that order catch people off guard. The rough-in inspection has to pass before waterproofing goes on, so a failed inspection stops everything behind it. And custom shower glass is templated only after the tile is finished and cured, which typically adds one to two weeks at the very end. Your shower is usable before the glass arrives, but the bathroom is not finished until it does. If a frameless enclosure matters to you, build that window into your expectations rather than being surprised by it.

Late selections and mid project changes are what extend schedules most. AMG Proline locks selections before demolition and gives you a written schedule with stage dates.

The honest answer depends entirely on whether this is your only bathroom.

If you have a second bathroom, staying is straightforward. You lose one room, the work stays contained behind a dust barrier, and daily life continues around it.

If this is your only bathroom, plan carefully. There will be a stretch, usually during demolition and plumbing rough-in, when there is no working toilet, sink, or shower in the house. We can often sequence the work to shorten that window, and in some layouts we can keep a functioning toilet in place longer than you would expect. But there is no version of a single bathroom remodel with zero downtime, and any contractor who tells you otherwise is managing your expectations rather than your project.

Most single bathroom clients handle it one of three ways: staying with family for the plumbing window, arranging shower access with a neighbor or a gym, or scheduling the remodel around a trip that was already planned. We will tell you the specific dates the bathroom is out of service as early as we can, so you can arrange around real dates rather than a guess.

What we control. We seal the work area with zip wall barriers, protect the floors along the path from the entry, and run air scrubbers during demolition and drywall sanding. Water shutoffs are scheduled with advance notice. In condo buildings, a shared riser shutoff usually requires building notice, so those dates get set well ahead. We lock the site at the end of each day and clean the pathway daily.

Tell us at the estimate stage if this is your only bathroom, and we will build the schedule around that constraint instead of around ours.

Yes. We prepare the permit package, file it, coordinate our licensed trades on their filings, and schedule every inspection. You never go to the Department of Buildings.

Work that generally requires a permit: moving a toilet, shower, tub, or sink; adding or relocating electrical circuits; running a new exhaust vent to the exterior; removing or altering a wall; running a new gas line; and any change to a window or door opening.

Work that generally does not: replacing a vanity, toilet, or fixture in the same location, retiling, new flooring over the existing subfloor, painting, and swapping a light fixture for a similar one in the same spot.

The code items that come up most in bathrooms:

• Ground fault protection on receptacles, and a dedicated circuit where required
• An exhaust fan vented to the outside, not into an attic, joist bay, or soffit
• Correct drain slope and venting on any relocated fixture
• Required clearance in front of and to each side of the toilet
• Waterproofing and a properly sloped pan behind the tile
• Safety glazing on any glass enclosure

Chicago requires licensed plumbers and licensed electricians to pull permits under their own licenses for their portion of the work, which a general contractor cannot do on their behalf. Our trades hold and file their own.

The rough-in inspection is the one that matters most here, because it happens while the walls are still open and everything after it is permanent. Unpermitted bathroom work also surfaces during attorney review when you sell, and buyers routinely ask for it to be opened back up.

If you are in an association building, almost certainly yes, and board approval usually has to come before city permitting rather than alongside it. This is the most common reason a start date slips.

A typical alteration package includes a certificate of insurance from your contractor naming the association as an additional insured at the building's required limits, a scope of work description, stamped drawings for anything structural, proof of licensing and workers compensation, and a refundable damage deposit.

Bathrooms draw more scrutiny than most rooms, because they sit above other people's ceilings. Boards commonly ask about:

• The shared riser, and whether your scope requires a building wide water shutoff
• Wet over dry restrictions, meaning limits on moving a bathroom over a neighbor's living space
• A minimum sound rating for underlayment beneath new tile
• Permitted work hours, freight elevator reservation, and the protected route from the loading dock
• Where debris goes, and whether a dumpster is allowed on the property at all

The riser question is worth raising early. In many high rise units, the stack cannot move, which decides your layout before design even starts. Finding that out during board review is far better than finding it out after demolition.

Boards often meet monthly, so allow two to four weeks and treat that as part of the schedule rather than a delay. AMG Proline provides the insurance certificate, licensing documentation, and scope description your board needs, and works within your building's hours and access rules. Give us your association's packet at the estimate stage and we will complete our portion of it.

Yes. Tub to shower conversion is the single most requested bathroom project we do, and in most Chicago homes it is very achievable.

What the work actually involves. The tub comes out along with the surrounding tile and backer, usually back to the studs. The drain almost always has to move, because a tub drain sits at one end of the unit while a shower drain sits at or near the center. That means opening the floor, working with or around the joists, and setting the new drain with correct slope and venting. From there it is waterproofing, the pan, backer board, tile, valve and fixtures, and finally glass.

Curb or curbless. A standard curbed shower works in nearly any home. A curbless or zero threshold shower needs the subfloor recessed so the finished floor stays level with the rest of the room, and whether that is possible depends on joist depth and direction. Over a concrete slab it usually is not possible without either relocating the drain or building a gentle ramped approach. We will tell you which option your floor structure supports before you commit to it.

Glass. We measure, fabricate, and install shower glass ourselves through our Crestwood glass and shower door operation, which means one company is responsible for both the tile and the door that meets it. Glass is templated after the tile is set, so it lands at the end of the schedule.

One thing worth considering. If this is the only tub in the house, think about resale before removing it. Buyers with small children often screen for at least one tub. If you have a second bathroom with a tub, that concern goes away entirely.

Usually yes, but the three fixtures are not equally easy, and the difference matters when you are weighing a layout against a budget.

The sink is the easiest. It runs on a small drain and flexible supply lines, and moving it a few feet along the same wall is often straightforward. Moving it to a different wall costs more but is rarely a structural problem.

The shower is moderate. The drain has to move, which means opening the floor, and the new location needs proper slope and venting. Where the joists run relative to the new drain position decides how involved it gets.

The toilet is the biggest. It needs a three or four inch drain line running at the correct slope back to the stack, plus proper venting. That is a much larger pipe than a sink or shower drain, and it frequently conflicts with joists. Moving a toilet more than a short distance can mean cutting and reinforcing framing, or working from the ceiling below.

Where it gets harder. Over a concrete slab, relocating any drain means cutting and patching concrete. In a condo, the vertical stack usually cannot move at all, so fixtures can shift only as far as a properly sloped run to that fixed stack allows. In older Chicago homes, the stack is often cast iron buried in a masonry wall, which puts it in the same category.

We open exploratory access where we can and tell you what will move and what will not before you fall in love with a layout. Discovering it after demolition turns a design decision into a change order.

Start with the thing most homeowners do not know: tile and grout are not waterproof. Grout is porous, and water passes through it every time you shower. What actually keeps water out of your framing is the layer behind the tile, and you never see it once the job is done.

What we install:

• A moisture resistant backer board rather than standard drywall on all wet walls
• A sheet or liquid applied waterproofing membrane over that board, carried high enough to cover the full wet area
• Sealed corners, seams, and every penetration, since corners and pipe openings are where most failures begin
• A shower pan sloped consistently to the drain so water leaves rather than sits
• A bonding flange drain assembly tied directly into the membrane

How showers actually fail. In our experience the causes repeat: membrane stopped too low so water gets behind it at the top of the wet zone, an unsealed inside corner, a pan with inconsistent or reversed slope so water pools, a drain not properly bonded to the membrane, or parts from two different manufacturers mixed together in ways neither system was tested for. None of these show up on day one. They show up in year three to year seven, as a stain on the ceiling below or a soft spot at the base of the wall.

We use a single manufacturer's system throughout rather than mixing components, and the rough-in inspection is passed before any of it gets covered. This layer is the difference between a shower still solid in year fifteen and one being demolished in year five, and it is worth asking any contractor to walk you through exactly what they install.

We stop, show you what we found, and price the repair before continuing. You see it in person or in photographs, not as a line item that appears on an invoice later.

What we find most often in older Chicago bathrooms:

• Rotted subfloor around the toilet flange, from a wax ring that failed years ago
• Deteriorated framing behind old tile that was set in mortar with no membrane at all
• Mold in the wall cavity from a shower pan that has been leaking slowly
• Corroded galvanized supply lines that restrict flow long before they visibly leak
• Cast iron drain lines that are still serviceable but brittle at the joints

None of this is unusual. Bathrooms are the wettest room in the house, and a fifty or eighty year old bathroom has had a long time to accumulate small failures. Finding it is the normal outcome of opening the walls, not a sign something went wrong.

The regulated conditions. Mold beyond a limited area calls for proper remediation rather than a wipe down. Homes built before 1978 may have lead paint, and disturbing it requires lead safe work practices. Some older floor tile, adhesive, and pipe insulation contains asbestos and requires licensed abatement before demolition continues. We identify these before demolition wherever we can, rather than discovering them mid project.

Because of all this, we build a contingency allowance for unknowns into older home projects instead of quoting low and revising upward. A number that assumes everything behind the tile is perfect is not a real number, and every homeowner who has been through a surprise change order already knows it.

Yes, and it is a growing share of our work as homeowners plan to stay in houses they have lived in for decades. Accessible does not have to mean clinical, and a well designed accessible bathroom reads as a modern bathroom to anyone who does not need the features.

What we build:

• Curbless or low threshold showers with no step to cross
• Wider door openings, with thirty two inches of clear width as the working target for wheelchair access
• Solid blocking in the walls for grab bars, installed during framing even when the bars go in years later
• Comfort height toilets and vanities set to a usable height
• Handheld shower on a slide bar, usable seated or standing
• A built in bench or a fold down seat
• Slip resistant tile, which on smaller formats means more grout lines and better traction underfoot
• Lever handles instead of knobs, and a thermostatic or pressure balancing valve to prevent scalding

The one real constraint is the curbless shower. Making the shower floor sit level with the rest of the room means recessing the subfloor, and whether that is possible depends on joist depth and which direction they run. Over a concrete slab it usually requires either relocating the drain or accepting a gentle ramped approach instead of a true flush transition. We assess the floor structure before promising a specific result.

Even if you do not need any of this yet, blocking for grab bars costs very little while the walls are already open and saves opening them again later. It is the single easiest thing to get right during a remodel you were doing anyway.

AMG Proline serves the city of Chicago and the surrounding suburbs from our base and showroom in Crestwood, Illinois.

In Chicago, we work throughout the city, including Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Logan Square, Bucktown, Wicker Park, the West Loop, the South Loop, Hyde Park, Beverly, Mount Greenwood, Jefferson Park, Portage Park, Norwood Park, Edison Park, and Garfield Ridge. We work in both single family homes and condo and high rise units, including the association approval process those buildings require.

In the suburbs, we serve Orland Park, Tinley Park, Oak Lawn, Palos Heights, Palos Hills, Homer Glen, Frankfort, Mokena, Lockport, Lemont, Burbank, Evergreen Park, Naperville, Oak Brook, Hinsdale, Aurora, Evanston, and the surrounding communities.

Suburban permit requirements differ from Chicago's and vary village by village, so we file with your local building department under its specific rules rather than assuming city procedures apply.

If your address is not on this list, call us at (708) 979-3298. We frequently take projects outside it and will tell you straight away whether we can serve your location well.

Yes. AMG Proline is a licensed and bonded general contractor carrying general liability insurance and workers compensation coverage, license IL. #104.020448.

We provide a certificate of insurance on request, naming you as the property owner or naming your condo association as an additional insured where the building requires it. Associations typically require this before approving an alteration agreement, and we supply it as part of the standard package.

Our plumbing and electrical work is performed by licensed plumbers and licensed electricians who pull permits under their own licenses, which is what Chicago requires. Those licenses are separate from the general contractor license and cannot be substituted for it.

Why this matters more in a bathroom than almost anywhere else: a plumbing mistake here does not stay in the room. Water finds the ceiling below, and in a condo that ceiling belongs to someone else. If uninsured work causes that damage, you can be exposed personally, and so can your unit owner policy. Verifying coverage takes one phone call.

You are welcome to verify our license and coverage before signing anything. We will provide the documentation without being asked twice.

Call (708) 979-3298 or request a free quote, and we will set up a visit. There is no cost and no obligation for the estimate.

Here is the full sequence, so you know what you are agreeing to at each step:

• A short conversation. We ask what is driving the project, whether this is your only bathroom, and whether you are in a condo. Those three answers shape everything that follows.
• An in home visit. We measure the room, look at what is accessible of the plumbing and electrical, and identify anything that will constrain the layout.
• Design and selections. You can see tile, stone, vanities, fixtures, and glass in person at our Crestwood showroom rather than choosing from a screen.
• A fixed written estimate. Itemized by trade and material, so you can see the cost of each decision and adjust before anything is ordered.
• Contract and schedule. Stage dates in writing, including the window your bathroom will be out of service.
• Permits and approvals. We file with the city and complete your association package. This runs while materials are on order.
• Construction. One crew, one point of contact, inspections scheduled into the build.

Two things speed this up considerably if you have them ready: photographs of bathrooms you like, and your condo association's alteration packet if you are in a building. Neither is required to get started.