What a Full Bathroom Remodel in Marco Island Actually Costs and How Long It Takes
A full bathroom remodel in Marco Island typically runs $9,000 to $28,000 and takes four to six weeks from demo to final walkthrough. That timeline accounts for the reality of island construction: permitting through Collier County, potential plumbing rough-in surprises inside walls built in the 1970s, and the humidity that adds a day or two to drywall mud and paint curing. Call (844) 638-7249 for a free, line-itemed estimate that locks in your price before we order the first tile.
How We Take a Marco Island Bathroom from Gutted to Finished
We follow a five-stage sequence that eliminates the hurry-up-and-wait chaos homeowners hate. Every stage has a decision deadline attached, so you’re never the reason the job stalls, and we’re never standing around waiting for an answer.
Stage 1: Demolition and Discovery (Days 1-2)
We contain the work area with floor-to-ceiling plastic, run negative air, and strip the room down to studs and subfloor. On Mackle-era CBS homes, this is when we check for the rebar corrosion that salt air causes behind old tile mud beds and inside block walls. If we find spalling or rust-jacked framing, we show you photos and give you a fixed price to address it before we move forward. You’ll have already chosen your fixture set by this point, so the plumber can cap lines to match the new valve locations.
Stage 2: Rough-In and Subfloor Prep (Days 3-7)
Plumbing is relocated if your new layout moves the vanity, toilet, or shower drain. Electricians run new 20-amp GFCI-protected circuits for the outlets and any heated flooring or lighted mirrors you’ve spec’d. The subfloor gets leveled with a self-leveling underlayment, which is especially important on older Marco Island slabs where settling has left a pitch toward the exterior wall. Collier County requires a rough-in inspection before we close any walls, and we schedule it the moment the trades are done so we’re not burning days waiting for the inspector.
Stage 3: Walls, Waterproofing, and Tile (Days 8-18)
Greenboard goes up, seams get taped and mudded with setting-type compound that cures harder and faster in Marco Island’s humidity than pre-mixed bucket mud. Wet areas get a full waterproofing system (sheet membrane or liquid-applied, depending on your shower pan design), not just cement board, and we water-test the pan for 24 hours before the first tile is set. Tile installation is the longest single stretch of the project, especially with large-format porcelain or intricate mosaic patterns, and we protect the fresh grout with a penetrating sealer once it’s cured.
Stage 4: Fixture Setting and Finish Work (Days 18-25)
Vanities, countertops, toilets, trim, and lighting go in. This is where the bathroom starts to look like a bathroom again. Your mirror and glass enclosure get measured for fabrication during week three so they arrive the day the tile crew wraps up. We do a full plumbing pressure test and electrical continuity check before anything gets buttoned up, because chasing a drip inside a finished wall is the fastest way to blow a warranty budget.
Stage 5: Punch-List and Final Walkthrough (Days 25-30)
We walk the room together with a printed checklist. Grout gets touched up, paint gets spot-fixed, hardware gets adjusted. Any item you flag gets corrected before we mark the job complete. Your 730-Day Done Right Promise starts the day we both sign off on that walkthrough, so nothing gets kicked down the road.
The Choices That Shape the Final Price (and the Bathroom You Live With)
You’ll make about two dozen distinct product decisions during a full bathroom remodel. These are the ones that move both the budget and the daily experience of the room.
- Shower system vs. standard valve. A single-handle pressure-balanced valve with a fixed showerhead is the baseline. Moving to a thermostatic valve with a diverter and separate body sprays or a rain head adds $400-$1,200 in hardware and an extra day of rough-in plumbing. If you’re putting this bathroom into a Bathroom Remodeling in Marco Island project that includes a guest suite, the simpler setup usually makes more sense in a secondary bath.
- Flooring material. Porcelain tile is the island standard for a reason: it doesn’t absorb moisture, it’s dimensionally stable in Marco Island’s humidity swings, and the through-body color hides chips. Natural stone (marble, travertine) runs $6-$18 more per square foot installed and requires annual sealing. Luxury vinyl plank is a $4-$8-per-square-foot option that installs in a day but won’t add the resale value tile does.
- Vanity: stock, semi-custom, or full custom. A stock 60-inch double vanity with a cultured marble top keeps you near the lower end of the range. A semi-custom unit with soft-close dovetailed drawers and a quartz top pushes the budget up $1,500-$3,500. A fully custom built-in that incorporates a linen tower and a makeup seat is a furniture-grade job that adds a week to the schedule and $4,000-$8,000 to the price.
- Curbless shower pan. A curbless entry is what most Marco Island homeowners want for a master bath: clean sightlines, aging-in-place access, no lip to trip on. It requires recessing the subfloor or building up the bathroom floor to achieve the required 2-inch drain-to-floor-height differential per Florida Building Code, which adds $1,800-$3,200 in framing and waterproofing before the first tile is set.
- Lighting and electrical. A single center-ceiling fixture and a vanity bar are code minimums. Layering in recessed LEDs on dimmers, a dedicated circuit for a heated towel rack, and pre-wiring for a future bidet seat adds $800-$1,600 and requires its own electrical rough-in inspection.
What a Full Bathroom Remodel Costs in Marco Island, FL
Most full bathroom remodels we do on Marco Island land between $9,000 and $28,000, with the typical master bath falling around $16,000-$22,000. The spread is real, and it comes down to a handful of variables that are knowable before the first hammer swings.
The biggest cost driver is plumbing relocation. If you keep the toilet, vanity, and shower in their existing positions, you avoid cutting into the slab and re-routing drain lines, which alone can save $2,500-$5,000. The second driver is tile coverage: a wainscot-height tile job costs roughly half what floor-to-ceiling tile on every wall does. The third is the glass enclosure: a frameless heavy-glass shower door and panel set from a local fabricator runs $1,200-$2,800 depending on width and hardware finish, and that’s a line item some quotes conveniently leave out.
Every estimate we write includes demolition, debris removal, permits, all rough and finish plumbing and electrical, waterproofing, tile and setting materials, fixture installation, drywall repair, paint, and the project management to keep it on schedule. The only things that typically sit outside the base number are the finish fixtures and materials you select - tile, vanity, countertop, faucets, shower valve, lighting, mirror - and any structural repair we find behind the walls. We price those materials with you at cost-plus-transparency, never marked-up blind.
Why a Marco Island Bathroom Remodel Isn’t the Same Job It Is in Naples
If you walk a bathroom remodel on Marco Island and then the same-scope job ten miles inland in Naples, the permit folder, the wall assembly, and the corrosion mitigation are different documents. The island’s CBS homes, most of them built between 1965 and 1985 by the Mackle Company, have block walls that trapped decades of salt-laden Gulf air. When we open those walls during demo, we’re checking for rebar that’s rusted to twice its original diameter, a failure mode that spalls the concrete from the inside out and creates a moisture path straight into your new drywall if it isn’t addressed. Non-island contractors who do one bathroom a year out here tend to miss it. We see it every month.
Collier County requires a plumbing and electrical permit for any remodel that moves a fixture or opens a wall cavity, and the inspector will want to see the waterproofing before tile goes up. Marco Island’s building department is thorough and particular about floodplain compliance; if your home is in an AE or VE zone and the remodel triggers the substantial improvement threshold, the scope can expand to include elevation certification and foundation review. That’s rare on a single-bath remodel, but we flag it during the estimate so you know before you commit. These are the same conversations we have with homeowners who later ask us about Bathroom Remodeling on the mainland side of the county, where the code requirements are simpler and the walls are typically wood-frame.
The dominant construction reality on the island right now is teardown-and-rebuild, with Mackle-era bungalows near streets like Caxambas and Collier being replaced by elevated custom homes. But plenty of owners are choosing to remodel their existing baths in homes they plan to keep for another decade, and those projects succeed when the contractor understands the CBS wall assembly, the local inspection cadence, and the salt-corrosion timeline. We work across the island, from the waterfront properties near Snook Inn up to the neighborhoods around Holiday Inn Club Vacations Sunset Cove Resort, and the scope adjustments we make here don’t apply a mile east of the Jolley Bridge.
Serving Marco Island, FL - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Marco Island 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 Questions About Full Bathroom Remodeling in Marco Island
Plan on four to six weeks from the day we start demo to the day you’re hanging towels. The permitting office turnaround in Collier County adds about a week to the front end, and the tile phase is the longest stretch of the build, usually 8 to 10 working days. We give you a calendar with decision deadlines at the contract signing so you know exactly when we’ll need your tile selection, vanity specs, and fixture finishes.
Yes, if you’re moving plumbing, altering the electrical layout, or opening walls. Collier County requires a building permit with plumbing and electrical sub-permits for any remodel that goes beyond cosmetic finish replacement. We pull all permits under our license and schedule the inspections so you never have to coordinate with the county yourself. Some Marco Island condo associations also require an HOA architectural review; we can supply the scope-of-work letter they typically ask for.
You can, and keeping the fixtures in their existing locations is the single most effective way to control the budget. A same-footprint remodel where the vanity stays on its wall, the toilet stays on its flange, and the shower stays in its pan avoids cutting into the slab and re-routing waste lines. That alone can keep a project below $15,000 with mid-grade finishes, while moving drains across the room pushes it toward the upper end of the $9,000-$28,000 range.
Our estimate includes every line item tied to labor and project management: demolition, debris disposal, permit fees, rough and finish plumbing, electrical, waterproofing, tile setting, drywall, paint, fixture installation, and a project manager on site weekly. The materials you select (tile, vanity, countertop, faucets, shower valve, lighting, mirror) are priced separately at cost so you control exactly where your money goes. No allowance games, no mid-job change orders unless you change the scope. Call (844) 638-7249 and we’ll walk you through a real quote for your specific bathroom.
Every full bathroom remodel we complete is backed by our 730-Day Done Right Promise. If something isn’t right - a grout crack, a valve drip, a drawer that binds - you call us at (844) 638-7249, a live person answers, and we schedule the fix. No voicemail maze, no waiting until someone decides to call you back. The two-year window runs from the day of your final walkthrough, and it covers workmanship on everything we installed.
Get a Site-Specific Quote for Your Marco Island Bathroom Remodel
A full bathroom remodel is a five-figure investment, and the only number that matters is the one attached to your actual floor plan and your actual finish choices. Call (844) 638-7249 to schedule a free on-site estimate. We’ll measure the room, discuss what’s behind the walls you can’t see yet, and hand you a written, line-itemed price that holds. No pressure, no same-day-close pitch. Just the real numbers from a contractor who’s opened more Marco Island walls than anyone else in the room.
Written by Derek Hollenbeck, Owner at Groundwork Construction Co., serving Marco Island with upfront pricing and the 730-Day Done Right Promise.