What a Full Bathroom Remodel in McGregor Actually Costs (and How Long It Takes)
A full bathroom remodeling project in McGregor typically costs between $9,000 and $28,000 and takes three to five weeks from demolition to final walkthrough. The spread depends almost entirely on the age of your home, whether you’re moving plumbing or load-bearing walls, and the finish grade you choose. Call (844) 638-7249 and we’ll give you a fixed-price, line-item estimate before you commit to anything - not a ballpark, not a range, an actual number built around your bathroom and your choices.
How We Run a Full Bathroom Remodel, Stage by Stage
Most McGregor homeowners haven’t been through a gut renovation before, and the unknown timeline is what causes the most stress. Here’s exactly what happens and when you’ll need to make decisions.
Stage 1: Demolition and discovery (Days 1-3). Everything comes out - flooring, vanity, tub or shower, tile, drywall, trim. In McGregor’s mid-century CBS homes, this is also when we expose the plumbing and electrical inside the walls for the first time since the house was built. Cast-iron drain pipes from the 1960s are common in this corridor, and if we find corrosion or a belly, that’s the moment we walk you through what it means for the scope and budget. We never bury a problem behind new tile.
Stage 2: Rough-in and inspections (Days 4-8). New supply lines, drain relocation if the layout is changing, venting, and any electrical work - GFCI circuits, new lighting boxes, exhaust fan ducting - happen here. Lee County requires a rough-in inspection before we can close the walls, and the permitting backlog out of Fort Myers means we schedule that inspection the day we pull the permit, not the day we need it. We’ve been working this system long enough that our jobs rarely sit idle waiting on an inspector, but it’s a real factor in McGregor that out-of-area contractors underestimate.
Stage 3: Wall and floor prep (Days 8-14). This is where your material choices from Stage 1 become physical. Cement board goes up in wet areas, the shower pan is poured and sloped, and we level the subfloor. If you chose large-format tile - 24×48 porcelain, for example - this stage takes longer because the substrate flatness tolerance is tighter. The homeowner’s only job here is to confirm fixture placement: exactly where the showerhead hits, niche height, valve trim location. Once tile starts, moving a valve costs real money.
Stage 4: Tile, trim, and cabinetry (Days 14-21). Wall and floor tile installation, grout, vanity set, countertop template and fabrication, mirror and medicine cabinet mounting. This is the longest visual stretch but also the most rewarding - you’ll see the bathroom take shape day by day. If your remodel includes glass shower enclosure panels, the measure happens now and fabrication takes about a week.
Stage 5: Fixtures, finishes, and final inspection (Days 21-25+). Plumbing trim-out - faucets, shower controls, toilet - plus lighting fixtures, switch plates, glass enclosure installation, and a final Lee County inspection. We walk the room with you, document anything that needs attention, and don’t consider the job complete until you sign off. Every full bathroom remodeling project we finish in McGregor carries our 730-Day Done Right Promise: if something isn’t right, we make it right.
The Options You’ll Choose Between for a Full Bathroom Remodel
These are the real-world decisions homeowners make, with the honest trade-off for each. We’ll walk you through every one during the estimate, but knowing the lay of the land before you call saves time.
- Tub-and-shower combo vs. walk-in shower only. A full bathroom remodel can go either direction. Keeping the tub footprint is faster and less expensive. Converting to a curbless walk-in shower with a linear drain adds $1,500-$3,500 depending on floor structure and drain relocation. If the bathroom serves a guest room or future resale matters, keeping one tub in the house is worth considering.
- Porcelain vs. ceramic vs. natural stone tile. Porcelain is the workhorse - denser, less absorbent, holds up to Florida humidity. Large-format porcelain (12×24 or bigger) is the current standard. Ceramic saves $2-$4 per square foot installed but chips more easily. Natural stone - marble, travertine - looks stunning and requires sealing every 12-18 months; it’s the right call in a powder room, riskier in a daily-use master bath with McGregor’s hard water.
- Stock vanity vs. semi-custom cabinetry. A stock 60-inch vanity from a big-box store lands around $600-$1,200. A semi-custom vanity built to the exact dimensions of your alcove, with soft-close drawers and dovetail joinery, runs $2,000-$4,500. In older McGregor homes where wall-to-wall spacing is rarely exactly 60 inches, semi-custom means no filler strips and no dust-trapping gaps.
- Fiberglass vs. tile shower base. A pre-formed fiberglass or acrylic shower pan installs in one day and costs $400-$900. A mortar-bed tile pan takes two to three days, costs $1,200-$2,200, gives you a truly flat floor with zero pooling, and lets you match the floor tile exactly to the wall tile. In ground-floor bathrooms on slab - which is most of McGregor’s ranch stock - the tile pan is the better long-term choice because it won’t flex or creak.
- Exhaust fan capacity. Florida Building Code requires a bathroom exhaust fan vented to the exterior. A 50-CFM builder-grade fan is the minimum. We recommend 80-110 CFM for a full bathroom with a shower, and if steam is a concern, a humidity-sensing model that runs until moisture clears adds about $150-$250 to the fan cost. Worth every dollar in a climate where damp drywall grows mold fast.
What Full Bathroom Remodeling Costs in McGregor, FL
A full bathroom remodeling project in McGregor sits between $9,000 and $28,000. Where your job lands inside that range depends on five variables, and we spell them out in the estimate so you can see exactly what you’re paying for.
Bathroom size. A 5×8 hall bath and a 12×14 master suite are entirely different animals. Square footage drives tile quantity, drywall, paint, and labor hours. The low end of our range - $9,000-$12,000 - is the typical hall-bath footprint in a McGregor CBS ranch. Master baths run $18,000 and up.
Plumbing and electrical location. Keeping the toilet, sink, and shower in their existing rough-in positions is the single biggest cost-control lever. Moving a toilet drain across the room means cutting the slab, which triggers a Lee County plumbing inspection, concrete patch, and floor-leveling - typically $1,800-$3,500 by itself in slab-on-grade homes.
Wall and floor condition. In McGregor homes built before 1980, we regularly find water-damaged drywall behind old tile and rusted-out cast-iron drain lines inside the walls. Until demolition happens, nobody knows. Our estimate includes a contingency line item for this - we show it to you transparently rather than springing a change order mid-job.
Finish grade. Builder-grade fixtures (Delta, Moen entry lines) keep the budget tight. Mid-range Kohler or Delta Trinsic-level finishes add $600-$1,200. Custom shower glass, heated floors, a freestanding soaking tub, or a Toto washlet will push the number toward the high end. We spec finishes during the estimate so the price reflects real products, not allowances you’ll blow past.
Permit scope. A straightforward fixture-for-fixture replacement permit is a few hundred dollars. Adding square footage, relocating a wall, or touching the electrical panel moves the job into a different permit class with longer review times and higher fees. We pull permits for every full bathroom remodel - it’s non-negotiable if you want the work insured and resellable.
Every estimate from Groundwork Construction Co. is a fixed-price, line-item document. You’ll see the material grade, allowance amounts, labor breakdown, and permit fee listed separately. Call (844) 638-7249 to schedule your free estimate. We answer the phone with a live person - no voicemail, no waiting for a callback on Monday.
What McGregor Homes Specifically Do to This Job
McGregor’s housing stock is mostly concrete block construction from the 1950s through the 1970s - ranch homes on slab with original cast-iron plumbing that has been in the ground for fifty to seventy years. When we open a bathroom wall in a McGregor home, the first thing we check is the condition of the cast-iron vent stack and the galvanized supply risers. In homes that took floodwater during Hurricane Ian, those lines sat submerged for hours or days, and the internal corrosion accelerated. We’ve replaced more drain-waste-vent sections in this corridor in the last three years than in any other part of Lee County, and a full bathroom remodel is the logical moment to do it because the walls are already open.
The Lee County permitting office processes a high volume of post-Ian renovation permits, and full bathroom remodels that involve slab cutting or structural changes need plan review time baked into the schedule - typically one to two weeks for a straightforward permit. We handle the entire permit package in-house, including the Notice of Commencement filing, so you don’t spend an afternoon downtown. The McGregor Boulevard corridor also sits inside a zone where the historic royal palm canopy is protected; if your property line runs near the boulevard, any exterior venting or plumbing penetration that disturbs the root zone requires Lee County Urban Forestry sign-off, which we coordinate as part of the permit process.
Many McGregor homeowners who tackle a full interior remodel also take the opportunity to address the exterior - especially roof condition after Ian. We often see clients pairing a Roof Repair in McGregor or full Roof Replacement & Installation in McGregor with the bathroom work, since the same crew coordination window makes sense. When the project scope expands, our Bathroom Remodeling in McGregor team brings in the right trades across the board so you have one point of contact and one warranty.
Serving McGregor, FL - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the McGregor area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
Frequently Asked - Full Bathroom Remodeling in McGregor
Three to five weeks is the realistic window from demolition to final walkthrough. The variables are material lead times (custom vanities and specialty tile can add a week), Lee County inspection scheduling, and what we find inside the walls of an older McGregor home. We give you a week-by-week calendar at the start so you know exactly when decisions are due and when the bathroom is usable again. Call (844) 638-7249 for a timeline specific to your scope.
Yes. Any project that touches plumbing, electrical, or structural walls requires a permit in unincorporated Lee County, which includes the McGregor area. Fixture-for-fixture replacements with no layout change still need a plumbing permit. We pull all required permits, schedule the inspections, and close out the permit after final sign-off - it’s included in our estimate, never an afterthought or an extra charge.
Absolutely, and it’s the most common approach in McGregor’s slab-on-grade homes. Keeping the toilet, sink, and shower in their existing locations avoids cutting the concrete floor and saves $1,800-$3,500. You still get a completely new bathroom - new tile, vanity, fixtures, lighting, exhaust - just with the drain points staying put. We’ll show you layout options during the estimate so you can see the cost difference side by side.
Tile labor and waterproofing are typically the largest single line item, especially in a floor-to-ceiling tiled shower. The substrate prep - cement board, seam taping, waterproof membrane, pan slope - takes days of skilled labor before a single tile is set. Material choices like large-format porcelain or natural stone also move the number. In our estimate, tile scope is broken out separately so you can adjust the finish level to fit your budget without guessing.
Every full bathroom remodeling project we complete in McGregor is covered by our 730-Day Done Right Promise. If anything isn’t right - tile, plumbing, cabinetry, waterproofing - we make it right at no charge for two full years. Fixture and material manufacturer warranties (Kohler, Moen, etc.) apply on top of that, and we handle any warranty claim so you’re not chasing down a manufacturer’s 800 number. This is one of the longest workmanship guarantees in residential construction, and it’s in writing.
Get a Fixed-Price Estimate for Your Full Bathroom Remodel in McGregor
You’ll get a line-item estimate that shows exactly where every dollar goes - material, labor, permit, and contingency - with the finish-grade choices spelled out so there are no allowances to blow past. Our bathroom remodeling team serves the entire McGregor corridor and we answer the phone with a live person when you call (844) 638-7249. Upfront pricing, written in plain English, backed by a 730-Day Done Right Promise. Call today to schedule your free on-site estimate.
Written by Derek Hollenbeck, Owner at Groundwork Construction Co., serving McGregor and Lee County with full-scope home construction since 2014.