Bathroom renovation cost varies more by bathroom type than by any other single factor. A powder room and a primary ensuite are both bathrooms, but they differ in fixture count, waterproofing scope, tile area, plumbing complexity, and the level of design specification a homeowner typically wants. Knowing the realistic range for your bathroom type, and what moves you within that range, is what lets you have a useful conversation with a contractor instead of an uncomfortable one. Here is how the four common scopes break down in the current GTA market.
Three things before the ranges, because they determine whether your budget survives contact with the project.
HST is extra. Every figure below is the cost of the work. Ontario HST at 13 percent applies on top. A $35,000 ensuite is a $39,550 cheque. When you compare quotes, confirm in writing whether each one includes HST, because contractors present this differently and the gap looks like a discount when it is not.
Budget a contingency. Ten percent is the minimum on a newer home. Fifteen to twenty percent is realistic on anything built before 1980, where opening a wall regularly reveals something that has to be dealt with before work continues. A contingency you do not spend is a pleasant surprise. A contingency you did not budget is a stalled project.
These are 2026 GTA figures. Material and labour pricing has moved consistently upward and will keep moving. Treat them as planning ranges, not quotes.
Two fixtures, a toilet and a sink, with no shower or tub. The smallest and least complex scope.
What it includes:
What moves you through the range:
A powder room is the one bathroom where an ambitious material choice is affordable, because the areas are tiny. A tile or wallcovering you could never justify across an ensuite costs very little across forty square feet of wall. If you want one room in the house to be memorable, this is the cheapest place to do it.
Permits: usually none, provided nothing moves. If the toilet or sink is relocated, that is plumbing permit scope. Any new circuit or new wiring requires an ESA notification of work, filed by the licensed electrical contractor doing the job.
Toilet, sink, and walk-in shower. The most requested configuration for secondary bathrooms, basement bathrooms, and legal suite bathrooms. The jump from a powder room is driven by the shower: waterproofing, tile area, and the valve and drain plumbing.
What moves you through the range:
The shower is the swing factor. A curbless shower with large-format tile, a linear drain, and frameless glass runs roughly $8,000 to $14,000 of the total on its own. Everything else, the toilet, vanity, floor tile, and fixtures, shares the remainder. If your budget is tight, this is the line item to specify down. If it is not, this is where the money is best spent.
Toilet, sink, shower, and tub. The standard configuration for a primary family bathroom.
A correction worth making plainly: a four-piece is not required for a legal basement apartment. OBC 9.31.4.1 requires a dwelling unit to contain a kitchen sink, a lavatory, a bathtub or shower stall, and a water closet. A three-piece satisfies the requirement. If someone has told you a legal suite needs a tub, you have been quoted several thousand dollars of work the Code does not ask for. Confirm the scope against the requirement before you approve it.
What moves you through the range:
Splitting the tub and shower into two separate fixtures is the decision that most reliably pushes a four-piece toward the top of the range. It costs more in plumbing, more in tile, more in glass, and more in floor area. It is also the change most families are happiest with afterward, provided the room can actually take it. In a bathroom under about 60 square feet, forcing the split usually produces a cramped shower and a tub nobody uses.
The scope that receives the most design attention and the widest range.
What the premium over a family four-piece buys:
What moves you through the range:
One note on returns. Ensuite renovations are often described as the highest-return bathroom project, and that deserves qualifying. In percentage terms, a modest powder room or three-piece refresh frequently recovers more of its cost than a $75,000 spa ensuite, because the top end of an ensuite budget buys personal enjoyment rather than appraised value. Renovate the ensuite because you will use it every day. Treat the resale contribution as a partial offset, not the reason.
These apply across all four types and belong in every budget:
| Item | Typical range |
|---|---|
| ESA notification of work (new circuits or wiring) | $200 to $500 |
| Plumbing permit, where fixtures move or are added | $200 to $600 |
| Waterproofing membrane in any shower zone | $500 to $2,500 |
| Exhaust fan, ducted to exterior | $200 to $500 fixture, $300 to $600 install and circuit |
| Demolition and disposal | $800 to $2,000 |
Two clarifications on that table. Permit costs apply where the scope triggers them, so a purely cosmetic powder room refresh with no wiring and no fixture relocation may carry none of them. And note the terminology: the electrical approval is a notification of work filed with the Electrical Safety Authority, which is separate from any municipal permit. A building permit does not cover it.
The most common reason a bathroom budget breaks is not underestimating the finishes. It is the things nobody priced.
Pre-1990 material testing. Asbestos was used in tile mastic, vinyl flooring, and drywall joint compound well into the 1980s. Testing is inexpensive. Abatement is not, and it cannot be skipped once identified.
Plumbing you cannot see until demolition. Galvanized supply lines at the end of their life, a cast iron stack with a crack in it, or a drain that was never properly vented. Common in older Toronto housing and not optional to fix once exposed.
Subfloor repair. A long-term slow leak around a toilet or tub frequently means replacing subfloor and sometimes joist repair.
Structural changes. Moving or removing a wall brings a building permit and possibly engineering.
Relocating fixtures. Moving a toilet, in particular, can mean opening the floor and rerouting drain lines, and in a basement, cutting the slab. This is what the contingency is for. Ask any contractor you are considering how they handle discoveries mid-project, and get the answer before you sign rather than after.
At Maple Leaf Quality Renos, every bathroom estimate is itemized line by line. No bundled allowances that hide the real cost of the shower, no permits left off to make the bottom line look better, and HST shown clearly rather than buried.
Contact us for a free consultation and detailed written estimate.
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