Bathroom Renovation Cost in Canada: Prices by Scope and Room

Most people pricing a bathroom are choosing between two jobs: a refresh that keeps the walls and drains, or a gut to the studs. In 2026 the first runs about $20,000 to $35,000 and the second $30,000 to $60,000 for a main bathroom, while luxury ensuites climb past $100,000. If the shower leaks or a drain has to move, you are already pricing the second.

How much a bathroom renovation costs in 2026

Bathrooms are priced by scope: a refresh that keeps the walls, a gut to the studs, or an ensuite built around a larger shower and a double vanity. The table puts two 2026 price lists side by side, one from an Ontario renovator and one from a Calgary renovation firm.

The Calgary list runs about 15 to 25% below the Ontario one from the full renovation up, and sales tax widens the gap: on a $45,000 bathroom, Ontario's 13% HST adds $5,850 where Alberta's 5% GST adds $2,250. The firm matters as much as the province, since each price list reflects one firm's standard of work.

Cosmetic refresh

A refresh replaces what you see and leaves the framing and drains where they are. It is quicker and cheaper, but it cannot fix water damage or failed waterproofing behind the tile, so it suits a bathroom that is sound and only dated.

Full renovation to the studs

A gut renovation strips the room to the framing and subfloor, which is the chance to replace old supply lines and drains, redo the waterproofing and move a fixture if the layout needs it. The 2026 lists put a main bathroom done this way at $30,000 to $60,000, and the shower or tub choice, the tile and how much plumbing moves decide where in that range it lands. The membrane behind the tile is a small line on that quote, but its cure and flood-test days set the order of work between it, the tile and the fixtures.

Ensuites

An ensuite costs more because it is usually bigger and carries more: a larger shower, often with frameless glass at $2,000 to $5,000 for the glass alone, a double vanity and sometimes a freestanding tub. The Calgary list starts an upscale ensuite at $45,000 and says taking in a walk-in closet can push one above $75,000, while the Ontario list starts at $60,000.

Small bathroom and powder room costs

A small bathroom costs less, but not in proportion to its size. A 40 sq ft main bathroom needs the same plumber, electrician, tiler, waterproofing and inspection as a 70 sq ft one, so its price falls by far less than its floor area. A Calgary renovation firm prices a powder room, with only a toilet and a sink, at $16,000 to $22,000 in 2026, about half its price for a mid-range full bathroom.

The same packing of trades into a few square metres is why kitchens and bathrooms cost 3 to 5 times as much per square foot as other rooms in a full-home renovation, by an Ontario renovator's 2026 figures. A per-foot price is a poor way to budget a bathroom: price the scope and the fixtures instead.

Ontario prices, and what Toronto houses add

The Ontario prices in the table come from a Kitchener-Waterloo renovator's 2026 list: $20,000 to $35,000 for a cosmetic refresh and $35,000 to $60,000 to the studs, with 13% HST charged on the contract price. We start a Toronto budget from those tiers, and what changes in the city is the house.

A Toronto builder names cast iron drain stacks as common in houses built before about 1960, and says original wiring has to be replaced once it is exposed. A bathroom gutted to the studs is where both come to light, so a Toronto budget for a house of that age carries a contingency on top of the tiers and the tax.

Calgary and Vancouver bathroom prices

Bathroom renovations in Calgary cost less on one firm's 2026 list than on the Ontario one: $30,000 to $45,000 for a mid-range full bathroom against $35,000 to $60,000, and $45,000 to $75,000 or more for an upscale ensuite against $60,000 to $100,000. The same list adds a powder room tier at $16,000 to $22,000, GST of 5% is charged on the contract price, and Alberta has no PST.

Metro Vancouver bathroom work is priced through its trades. One Vancouver renovator's 2026 figures put plumbers at $100 to $140 an hour and electricians at $95 to $130, with tile setting at $8 to $15 a square foot for a basic layout and $12 to $35 or more for complex patterns, which is why labour takes the largest share of a Vancouver bathroom.

Condo bathrooms

A condo bathroom costs more to change than to refresh. Moving a drain in a condo costs $5,000 to $12,000 in one Vancouver renovator's figures, against $2,000 to $5,000 or more in a house, and the same firm puts strata approval fees at $200 to $1,000. Keeping the toilet, shower and vanity where they are avoids that cost.

Where the money goes: labour, fixtures and tile

Labour is the biggest line in a bathroom, at 40 to 50% of the budget in Metro Vancouver pricing, where in a kitchen budget cabinets take that place. A bathroom brings a plumber, an electrician, a tiler and often a glazier into a small room, each for short visits in a fixed order, and tile is set by hand a square foot at a time.

Tile adds up by area. A 5 by 8 foot bathroom with a tiled floor and a tiled tub surround takes roughly 100 to 120 sq ft of tile, so porcelain at $8 to $20 plus basic setting at $8 to $15 comes to about $1,600 to $4,200 before the waterproofing behind it. Natural stone in a complex pattern, at $27 to $75 a square foot for material and setting, comes to $2,700 to $9,000 for the same room.

What moving the toilet or shower adds

Moving a toilet or shower drain is priced by what sits under the floor. A Calgary renovation firm prices a plumbing relocation at about $2,000 to $10,000, depending on which way the floor joists run and whether a finished ceiling below has to be opened, and a Vancouver renovator gives $2,000 to $5,000 or more in a house and $5,000 to $12,000 in a condo.

A curbless shower is also the centre of an accessible bathroom, along with grab bars on solid blocking and a wider door. Someone 65 or older, or eligible for the disability tax credit, can claim up to $20,000 a year of eligible expenses for their home under the federal Home Accessibility Tax Credit.

Adding a bathroom where there was none

A new bathroom is priced differently from a renovated one, because the plumbing has to reach a room that never had any. An Ontario renovator puts the rough-in for a new ensuite at $8,000 to $15,000 before finishes, and a Toronto basement firm adds a three-piece bathroom to a basement finishing job for $11,700 before HST.

Older homes: asbestos, old pipes and contingency

Opening a bathroom in an older house finds what the quote could not price. One Vancouver renovator prices asbestos abatement on BC homes at $2,000 to $10,000 and a panel update or pipe replacement at $8,000 to $15,000.

We would budget a contingency of 10 to 20%, and 20% in a house built before 1980; an Ontario renovator's bathroom price list gives 10 to 15% for houses built before 1960, and a Vancouver renovator 15 to 20% for houses built before 1985. Money left over at the end is a better outcome than a stalled job with the walls open.

Sales tax and permits on a bathroom

Sales tax is charged on the contract price at your province's rate, from the Canada Revenue Agency's GST/HST rate table. In BC the contractor pays 7% PST on the materials it buys for the job under the BC Ministry of Finance rules for contractors, so the PST sits inside the price and the invoice adds 5% GST.

Moving a toilet or adding a shower is the usual point where a bathroom needs a permit. The City of Toronto lists repairing and replacing plumbing fixtures as work that needs no building permit, and installing or modifying plumbing systems as work that does. Calgary requires a separate plumbing permit for all new plumbing, and a homeowner doing the work in a house they live in pays $116.50 for it in 2026.

Why bathroom quotes differ

Two quotes for the same bathroom can sit far apart because they describe different jobs. The lower one has often priced allowances and unnamed products in place of the tile, vanity and fixtures you chose, left out disposal or permits, or not said whether the room is refreshed or stripped to the studs.