Cost guide · Bath remodel · Ohio

Bathroom Remodel Costs in Columbus, OH (2026)

Columbus homeowners typically pay $9,550 – $23,875 for a midrange full-bath remodel — new tile, vanity, top and fixtures with the layout left where it is. Scope is the lever here, but in a city with as much pre-war housing as this one, what is behind the wall is what decides whether the scope you agreed to is the scope you get. Here's the local math, scope by scope.

By the Home Services Marketplace Cost Desk· Updated September 6, 2026· 24 min read

A tub-shower with gray tile and brushed nickel fixtures in a remodeled hall bath

Columbus, OH typical · midrange remodel · Midrange remodel

$9,550 – $23,875

Key takeaways

$9,550 – $23,875 is the typical all-in range for a midrange full-bath remodel in Columbus, OH — new surfaces and fixtures, same layout.
Scope sets your tier; finishes only move you inside it — the table below prices a refresh, a midrange remodel and a full gut as separate projects, because that is what they are.
The single most useful warning on this page: in an older Columbus house, a refresh becomes a gut when the wall comes off. Original cast-iron waste stacks and galvanized steel supply lines behind the baths of Victorian Village, German Village, Clintonville and the University District are not visible at bid time, and they are the most common reason a project here lands a row above the one it was priced as.
Moving plumbing is the expensive decision — and in a four-season climate, where you move it to is a second decision. Relocating a toilet, tub or shower drain means floor demolition, new drain and vent work and an inspected permit. Putting the new supply lines in an exterior wall adds a freeze risk that no amount of tile will fix later.
Columbus prices under the national baseline: the RSMeans City Cost Index composite we use for this metro sits about 4.5% below the national average — among the lowest of the metros this site prices — and every range on this page is localized by that multiplier before you read it. A moderate Midwest cost of living with a trade base that is adequate to the work is most of that gap; a fast-growing metro shows up in the calendar rather than in the price list.

Columbus bathroom remodel costs at a glance

Typical midrange remodel range · installed · Columbus, OH · Midrange remodel

$9,550 – $23,875

Stock vanity, walls stay closedMost Columbus remodelsCustom tile, moved plumbing

If three bids on the same bathroom came back thousands apart, the usual explanation is not dishonesty — it is that the three contractors priced three different projects. One kept the shower where it was, one moved it, one assumed the old waste stack behind the wall would be left alone. The range above is the typical span for a midrange remodel at this scope, before your house's specifics — use it to interrogate the bids, not to replace them.

Columbus forces a second question that a newer market does not. A great deal of the housing inside the outerbelt is pre-war or early-twentieth-century, the original baths in it are small, and the bathroom has almost always been re-finished more recently than the pipe serving it. Anyone bidding honestly prices the room and the pipe as two separate questions.

A refresh, a gut renovation and a tub-to-shower conversion are priced separately in the next section, because a bathroom project's cost is set by what you are doing to the room rather than by how the room is finished.

The two surface decisions that carry the room

Cost is one axis, and the ranges elsewhere on this page are where it belongs. This is the other one. Two choices set the character and the upkeep of almost every bath project — what goes on the wet walls, and what goes on the vanity — so here are the realistic options for each, answering the same four questions: what it is good at, what you give up, how long it lasts, and what it asks of you afterwards.

Tiled wet walls

Good at: Fits any shape of room, any size of niche and any budget of design, because it is sold by the square foot rather than as a unit. It is the finish that reads as a renovation rather than a repair, it is the only practical route to a curbless or oversized walk-in shower, and the tile itself is among the longest-lived surfaces in a house. In an original bath that is already small and already odd, it is often the only option that fits the room you actually have.
What you give up: You are buying an assembly, not a product: the tile is the easy part and the waterproofing behind it is the part that fails, invisibly and expensively, if it is done badly. Grout lines are permanent maintenance. It is the slowest wet-wall option to install — setting, curing and grouting stretch the schedule, which matters more than usual in a Columbus double or half-double where the bath being tiled is the only one in the unit. And in a pre-war bathroom here the original mud-set tile and the substrate under it usually have to come out and be rebuilt before a single new piece goes on.
Typical lifespan: InterNACHI's life-expectancy chart puts ceramic wall tile at 70 years and up and tile flooring at 75 to 100. Read that as a statement about the tile only — the waterproofing, the grout and the caulk are on much shorter clocks, and the same chart rates interior caulking at 5 to 10 years. Those are what you will actually be maintaining.
Upkeep: Seal the grout on a cycle, run the exhaust fan every time, and re-caulk the changes of plane — corners, and where the wall meets the tub or the shower base. Those joints are caulk rather than grout on purpose, and they are meant to be replaced when they crack.

Acrylic or fiberglass tub-and-surround

Good at: The fastest and least expensive way to make a bathroom usable again, which is why it is the standard answer for a refresh. Few or no grout lines, a warm surface underfoot — worth something in an uninsulated second-floor bath in February — a shape that wipes clean in a minute, and an install measured in a day or two rather than a week.
What you give up: It comes in fixed sizes and a short list of finishes, so it will look like a fixture rather than a design decision, and it cannot solve an awkward room. The surface scratches and dulls with time and cannot be scoured back to new. And a genuine one-piece unit rarely fits up the narrow staircase of a German Village or Victorian Village house or through a University District double's entry — in a remodel you are usually getting a multi-piece version with seams, or a wall has to come out.
Typical lifespan: InterNACHI rates tubs and shower enclosures at roughly 50 years. In practice the finish dates long before the unit fails: most of these are replaced because the room looks tired, not because anything broke.
Upkeep: Non-abrasive cleaners only — a scouring pad permanently dulls the finish. No grout to seal; re-caulk the perimeter joint when it discolors.

Quartz vanity top

Good at: An engineered slab that is non-porous, so unlike natural stone it never needs sealing, and it shrugs off the toothpaste, cosmetics and hair products that stain a bathroom top. Consistent color from sample to slab, and it takes an undermount or integrated sink so there is no rim to clean around.
What you give up: It costs meaningfully more than laminate for a surface most guests will never touch. The resin binder is heat-sensitive, so a flat iron or curling iron left face-down can mark it permanently, and some colors are not rated for direct sun. Slab minimums mean a small powder-room top can price out of proportion to its size, and long runs will show a seam. In a narrow older stairwell, ask how a heavy top is getting to the second floor before you fall in love with one.
Typical lifespan: InterNACHI puts stone countertops in the century-and-up band, and engineered quartz is not broken out separately on the chart. Treat it as longer than you will own the house rather than as a precise figure — it will outlast the cabinet under it either way.
Upkeep: Wipe it down. No sealing, no refinishing. Keep hot tools on a mat and keep drain cleaner off the surface.

Laminate vanity top

Good at: The least expensive top by a wide margin, in a pattern range no other material matches, light enough that one person can carry it up a tight staircase, and genuinely hard to pick out at a glance in a powder room. In a rental, a student-district double, a secondary bath or a room you expect to redo again, it is the rational choice rather than the cheap one.
What you give up: Water is the enemy at exactly two places — the seams and the exposed edge — and once the particleboard core swells, the top is replaced rather than repaired. It scorches, it cannot be undermounted, so you get a drop-in sink and its rim, and the edge profile is where the eye lands if someone is looking for the shortcut.
Typical lifespan: Roughly 20 to 30 years on InterNACHI's chart, the shortest-lived surface on this page — and shorter than that in a bathroom where the edge nearest the sink stays wet.
Upkeep: Keep standing water off the seams and the backsplash joint, re-caulk where the top meets the wall, and never set a hot tool down on it.

Lifespan and upkeep sources: InterNACHI — Standard Estimated Life Expectancy Chart for Homes · HomeAdvisor — Bathroom Remodel Cost guide · Angi — Tub-to-Shower Conversion Cost guide

What a bath remodel actually changes

The two conditions side by side — what is usually being torn out, and what gets built back. Typical of the projects this guide prices, not of any one house.

Rebuilding a bath that has outlived its waterproofing

Before

A wet area holding water in rather than keeping it out

Grout and caulk lines that have opened, so water reaches the substrate behind the tile instead of running off it.
A tub or surround set on a substrate installed before sheet and liquid waterproofing membranes were common behind tile.
An exhaust fan that is undersized, or ducted into the attic instead of outside, so the room stays damp long after the shower stops.

After

A wet area rebuilt where the water actually goes

A waterproofed shower and tub surround — membrane or foam board behind the tile, not tile set straight onto drywall.
An exhaust fan sized for the room and ducted to the outdoors, which is what keeps moisture from staying in the assembly.
Layout and fixtures settled while the walls are open, which is the only point at which blocking for grab bars, a curbless entry or a moved drain costs what it should.

What changes: The room stops being a slow moisture problem, and the accessibility decisions that are expensive to retrofit get made while they are cheap.

Describes the condition typically being replaced and a down-to-the-substrate rebuild. It is not a record of one home, and no photograph here is of a specific project.

Sources: U.S. EPA — A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture and Your Home · U.S. Department of Energy, Building America Solution Center — Bathroom Exhaust Fans · U.S. Access Board — ADA Accessibility Standards (608 shower compartments, 609 grab bars)

Cost by project scope

Typical installed range by scope, Columbus, OH. What you are doing to the room sets the row; how you finish it moves you within the row.

Project scope	What it usually covers	Typical range
Refresh — tub and surround	New tub or surround, fixtures, paint and lighting. Layout untouched, walls stay closed.	$2,865 – $9,550
Midrange remodel (most common)	New tile, vanity, top, fixtures and floor — everything you see, with the plumbing left where it is.	$9,550 – $23,875
Full gut renovation	Down to the studs: new layout, plumbing and electrical rough-in, inspections, everything replaced.	$23,875 – $76,400
Tub-to-shower conversion — a different project	One tub out, a walk-in shower in, same footprint. Priced from its own band, not as a smaller remodel.	$1,146 – $14,325

The first three rows are one ladder: same room, progressively more of it replaced. The fourth row is not a fourth rung — a tub-to-shower conversion is a different kind of project in the same footprint, carrying its own band, which is why it can land under a refresh when it is a prefab kit and well above one when it is a tiled walk-in with new glass.

Where you fall inside any row is mostly the layout answer. Leave every fixture in place and you sit near the bottom of the tier; move the toilet or the shower drain and you take on floor demolition, new drain and vent work and an inspection — the work that quietly moves a midrange remodel into gut pricing.

Columbus's older stock adds a second way to change rows, and it is not a choice you make: a refresh becomes a gut when the wall comes off and the original cast-iron waste stack or the galvanized supply behind it turns out to be at the end of its life. Assume it is possible in any house of that age, and settle in advance what happens if it is true.

What moves your number in Columbus

What is behind the wall in a pre-war Columbus bath

This is the local factor that costs people the most money, and it is the reason to read a bid closely here. Victorian Village, German Village, Clintonville, the University District, Olde Towne East and the older streets of Grandview and Bexley are full of houses whose original bathrooms are small and whose plumbing predates every finish in the room. Two things turn up most often: cast-iron waste stacks, which corrode from the inside and eventually need sections cut out and replaced, and galvanized steel supply lines, which scale shut over decades and get swapped for copper or PEX while the wall is open. Neither is visible from the doorway at bid time. That is the whole mechanism behind the phrase you will hear from every honest contractor in this market — a refresh became a gut once the wall opened. Ask each bidder in writing how they price what they find: an allowance, a named unit rate, or an open change order. The unit rate is the answer you want, and the question to ask specifically is what a replaced section of stack costs and what re-piping the supply in that wall costs.

Whether the plumbing moves — and which wall it moves to

Keeping every fixture where it is is the largest saving available in a bath project, and it is free. Relocating a toilet, tub or shower drain means opening the floor, running new drain and vent lines, and an inspected plumbing permit — routinely the difference between the midrange row and the gut row above it. Columbus adds a question most Sun Belt guides never raise: which wall. Central Ohio winters cross freezing repeatedly, and supply lines run inside an exterior wall sit on the cold side of the insulation unless someone deliberately handles it. That is why plumbers here keep water lines in interior partitions where they possibly can, and why moving a sink or a shower valve to an outside wall to gain a foot of floor space deserves an explicit answer rather than a shrug. If it has to go there, ask how the pipe is being kept warm — insulation placed outboard of the pipe, the cavity detailed so room heat reaches it — and get the answer before the drywall closes. A frozen supply line inside a wall you just tiled is the most expensive way to learn this. If you are undecided about moving anything, have every contractor bid it both ways.

Columbus labor and materials

The RSMeans City Cost Index composite we apply for this metro sits about 4.5% below the national average — among the lowest of the metros this site prices — and every range on this page has already been localized by it. The explanation is unglamorous: a moderate Midwest cost of living, and a trade base that is adequate to the volume of work. Columbus is not a market where a shortage of plumbers and tile setters is bidding prices up. What growth does change here is the calendar rather than the price list — a metro adding households steadily keeps good crews booked, so the scarce thing is a start date, not a contractor. That multiplier is a market average, not your bid: a single crew's backlog moves a price further than the index does.

Adding a bath, rather than replacing one

In this housing stock, putting a bathroom in the basement or carving one out of an attic or a back bedroom is a common project, and it is a genuinely different job from replacing a bath in place — it is not the gut row with a different label. Below grade, the constraint is drainage: a fixture that sits under the level of the sewer line cannot drain by gravity, so the waste goes to a sealed pit and a sewage ejector pump lifts it, which means a pit, a pump, a vent and power for all of it. In an older basement it may also mean breaking and patching the slab to reach the drain. In an attic or a converted bedroom the constraints are different — headroom, whether the floor framing takes the load, and how far the new drain and vent have to travel to tie into the existing stack. None of that is on the scope table above, and none of it is a finish decision. Price it as its own project, with the pump, the vent, the framing and the electrical named as line items rather than folded into a square-foot number.

Licensing: what Ohio covers, and what it does not

This is worth understanding because it is unusual and it changes what you should verify. Ohio does not license general remodelers at the state level at all — the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board, inside the Department of Commerce, covers five specialty trades only: electrical, HVAC, hydronics, plumbing and refrigeration. So the person managing your bathroom remodel is not carrying a state license for that work, while the plumber touching your drain and supply is. Local government fills the rest. Inside Columbus's corporation limits, city code requires anyone acting as a plumbing contractor to hold the state OCILB specialty license and to be registered with the Department of Building and Zoning Services in order to pull permits, and it licenses home improvement contractors separately at the city level. Requirements differ once you cross a line — Dublin, Westerville, Hilliard, Gahanna, Grove City and unincorporated Franklin County are their own jurisdictions — so we deliberately do not print one rule here. Ask for the plumber's license number and verify it with the state rather than with the salesperson, and ask each bidder in writing what your address requires.

Permits and inspections

Swapping fixtures like-for-like is generally treated differently from adding, altering or relocating plumbing or electrical, which is permitted work signed off by an inspector, and the licensed trade is the one that pulls it. Ask each bidder to confirm in writing which permits their number includes and who is scheduling the inspections, and confirm the answer with the jurisdiction your address is actually in. Unpermitted bathroom work is a disclosure problem when you sell, not only a code one — and in a market where buyers look closely at what has been done to an old house, it is a problem that surfaces at exactly the wrong moment.

Fixture and surface tier

Finish level moves you within a row rather than between rows. A tiled walk-in with frameless glass, a stone top and a name-brand fixture set puts you at the top of your tier; a prefab surround, a stock vanity and builder-grade fixtures put you at the bottom of the same one.

Sources: Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board — the trades Ohio licenses

How people pay for a bath remodel

A project in this range is more often paid for over time than out of savings, and the route you take changes what it ends up costing. These are the ones people actually use, and they are not interchangeable.

Where we stand: We are not a lender and we do not arrange, broker or earn anything from financing. Nothing here is an offer of credit or a recommendation — it is background on how projects this size are usually paid for, so you can ask better questions of the people bidding on yours.

Credit the contractor arranges: Many home-improvement firms can set up financing for the job at the point of sale, through a lender they already work with. The paperwork happens alongside the contract rather than at a bank.; The tradeoff: It is the least comparable of the routes, because you usually see one option rather than several — and a plan sold as promotional can convert to ordinary interest, sometimes backdated to the start, if the balance is not cleared in time. Get the full terms in writing before the contract is signed, not after.
Borrowing against the home: A home equity loan is a fixed amount taken as a lump sum; a home equity line of credit (HELOC) is a revolving line you draw on. The FTC describes both as second mortgages when you already have a first one.; The tradeoff: Your house is the collateral, so falling behind puts the home itself at risk — this is the route with the most serious downside and it belongs on a list with the others precisely so that is visible. Federal law gives you until midnight of the third business day to cancel credit secured by your home.
An unsecured personal loan: A fixed sum from a bank, credit union or online lender, repaid on a schedule, with nothing pledged against it. Nothing about the loan is tied to the project, so the money is yours to spend on whichever bid you accept.; The tradeoff: Unsecured credit costs more than credit backed by an asset, and what you are offered depends on your own credit history. The upside of the same fact is real: nobody can take the house over it.
Manufacturer and utility programs: Product manufacturers run seasonal promotions through their certified installers, and utilities and state energy offices run rebate and low-cost loan programs for efficiency work. Both are worth asking about because both are invisible unless you do.; The tradeoff: They are conditional and they expire — tied to particular products, particular efficiency ratings, an application filed before the work starts, or a window of dates. A promotion is a reason to check eligibility, never a reason to choose a contractor.

What to ask every bidder

Who actually lends the money, and are you paid anything for placing it?The firm selling the work and the firm holding the debt are usually not the same company, and the answer tells you who to call when something goes wrong.
What is the total I will have repaid by the end, in dollars?One number, comparable across every bid. The monthly payment is not comparable — it can be lowered by stretching the term, which raises the total.
If this is a promotional plan, what happens if I have not paid it off when the promotion ends?Some plans charge the interest that accrued during the promotional period all at once. A firm that cannot answer this plainly, in writing, has told you something.
What is the price if I pay without financing?If the two prices differ, the difference is part of what the credit costs. Ask for both on the same written quote, so the bids stay comparable.

Sources: FTC Consumer Advice — Home Equity Loans and Home Equity Lines of Credit · CFPB — What is the difference between a home equity loan and a home equity line of credit?

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Do bathroom remodels pay back at resale?

Remodeling Magazine's Cost vs. Value data has consistently put a midrange bathroom remodel ahead of an upscale one on cost recouped — the money spent past the midrange tier is the money least likely to come back. Treat a bath project as something you are buying for the years you live with it, with a partial credit at resale, rather than as an investment.

The narrower Columbus argument is condition rather than percentage. In a Clintonville bungalow or a Victorian Village double where the only full bath is still the original, the work reads to a buyer as a defect fixed — and buyers of older houses here arrive already asking about the plumbing. A home inspection that turns up a corroded stack, failing galvanized supply or an active leak gets priced into the negotiation whether or not you priced it first, so the question is mostly when you pay rather than whether.

A second or third bath brought up to date reads as taste instead, and taste is what buyers discount. The one place added function genuinely counts is a house with a single bathroom, which a lot of this stock still is — but the basement or attic bath that solves it is its own project with its own budget, not a finish upgrade, and it should be justified on how you will live in the house rather than on a resale figure.

Six ways Columbus homeowners keep the number down

Settle the change-order rule before demolition, in writing, with named unit rates for the pipe. Ask what a replaced section of cast-iron stack costs and what re-piping the supply in that wall costs. In this housing stock that is the line item most likely to arrive after the contract is signed, and it is the one you can price in advance instead of negotiating from a torn-open bathroom.
Keep the plumbing where it is. If the layout works, the cheapest good bathroom is the one that stays in its footprint — and the one least likely to end up tied into a stack nobody wanted to open.
Do not buy a foot of floor space with an exterior wall. If a layout change puts supply lines in an outside wall, ask how the pipe is protected from freezing before you agree to it. It is a cheap detail to get right while the wall is open and an expensive one to discover in January.
Have all three contractors price the same scope, not three different ones. A spread tells you nothing if one bid moved the shower, one budgeted for the stack and the third assumed both were somebody else's problem.
Reuse what is genuinely sound. The original cast-iron tub in a pre-war bath is often better than anything you would replace it with and can be refinished in place — which also saves carrying a new one up a narrow staircase — and a solid cabinet box takes a new top, doors and hardware for a fraction of a replacement.
Ask when their calendar is soft. Good bath crews here book weeks out, and Columbus's exterior trades slow down in the cold months while interior work does not stop. In a growing market the start date is the scarce thing, so a start date you are flexible on is the one lever a contractor can price against without cutting scope.

Where these numbers come from

Methodology. A baseline range for each project scope is adjusted for your area by a Columbus, OH labor and materials multiplier. Both inputs are cited below, straight from the rows that produced the figures on this page. Ranges are typical costs, not quotes: your final price depends on your bathroom, what is behind its walls, and the bids you collect. Contractors cannot pay to change the numbers we publish.

This page's figures are priced from ZIP 43201, which resolves to Columbus, OH (multiplier ×0.955).

Baseline: Angi — Bathroom Remodel Cost (updated Jul 9, 2026), "Cost by Project Scope": Partial remodel = $10,000–$25,000 ("replacing at least one of the three main bathroom fixtures"). Mapped to the funnel's middle tier, "Midrange remodel".
Regional multiplier: Derived: BEA Regional Price Parities, all items, Columbus, OH (MSA) = 95.469 (2024) ÷ 100. Published metro price-level index (FRED series RPPALL18140) on the same national-is-1.000 scale the state tier uses; a consumer price-level proxy, not a construction cost index.
Figures retrieved: 2026-09-06

Full methodology →

Columbus bathroom remodel cost FAQs

What does a bathroom remodel cost in Columbus in 2026?

Most Columbus homeowners doing a midrange full-bath remodel land inside the typical range shown above — new tile, vanity, top and fixtures with the layout unchanged. A refresh sits below it and a full gut renovation above it; the scope table on this page prices each separately rather than averaging them into one number.

Why is Columbus below the national average?

Every figure on this page is a national band adjusted by a regional multiplier, and Columbus's sits about 4.5% under 1.0 — among the lowest of the metros we price. The multiplier and its source are printed in the methodology section. The reasons are ordinary rather than dramatic: a moderate Midwest cost of living, and enough plumbers, tile setters and remodelers to keep the work competitively bid. Growth here shows up as a booked calendar rather than as a higher price.

My contractor called it a refresh. Why might it end up costing like a gut?

Because of what is behind the wall, and this is the most important thing on this page for anyone with an older Columbus house. In pre-war stock — Victorian Village, German Village, Clintonville, the University District and neighborhoods like them — the bathroom has usually been re-finished more recently than the plumbing serving it. Once the wall is open, an original cast-iron waste stack near the end of its life or galvanized supply that has scaled shut becomes work that has to be done while you are in there, and it moves the project up a row. Nobody can see it from the doorway at bid time. The defense is procedural rather than technical: ask every bidder, in writing and before demolition, what a section of replaced stack and what re-piping that wall cost as unit rates.

Can I move the shower or sink to the outside wall?

You can, but it is a decision that deserves an explicit conversation rather than a nod, because Central Ohio winters cross freezing repeatedly. Water supply lines in an exterior wall sit on the cold side of the insulation unless the assembly is deliberately detailed otherwise, which is why plumbers here keep them in interior partitions wherever the layout allows. If the plan puts a valve or a supply run in an outside wall, ask exactly how the pipe is kept warm and get the answer before the drywall goes on. Trading a freeze risk for a foot of floor space is a bad trade in this climate.

How much does moving the plumbing add?

There is no single figure, because it depends on what is under your floor and how far the drain has to travel. The direction is reliable, though: relocating a toilet, tub or shower drain adds demolition, new drain and vent work and an inspection, and it is the most common reason a midrange remodel prices like a gut renovation. In an older Columbus house there is a second question stacked on it — whether the new work ties into an original stack that is itself near the end of its life. Have every contractor bid the layout both ways, and ask separately what the stack scenario costs.

What does it cost to add a bathroom in the basement?

It is a different project from the ones in the table above, so it should be quoted as one rather than compared against the gut row. The reason is drainage: a fixture below the level of the sewer line cannot drain by gravity, so it needs a sealed pit, a sewage ejector pump, a vent for the pit and power to run it — and in an older basement, often breaking and patching the slab to reach the drain. Attic and spare-bedroom conversions have their own constraints instead: headroom, whether the framing carries the load, and how far the new drain and vent run to reach the existing stack. Ask for the pump, the vent, the framing and the electrical as named line items.

Do I need a permit, and does my remodeler need a license?

The two halves have different answers here, which surprises people. Ohio has no state license for general remodeling — the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board covers five trades only: electrical, HVAC, hydronics, plumbing and refrigeration. So the plumbing on your job has a licensed trade behind it while the remodel as a whole is licensed or registered locally. Inside Columbus, city code requires a plumbing contractor to hold the state OCILB license and be registered with Building and Zoning Services to pull permits, and it licenses home improvement contractors at the city level. Suburbs and unincorporated Franklin County set their own rules, so we do not print a single rule here: ask for the plumber's license number and verify it with the state, and ask each bidder in writing what your address requires and who is scheduling the inspections.

Is a tub-to-shower conversion cheaper than a remodel?

Usually, because it is a smaller project rather than a discounted version of a bigger one — it carries its own band in the scope table above. A prefab kit conversion in the existing footprint sits at the low end of that band; a custom tiled walk-in with a new base, waterproofing and glass runs to the top of it. Before you commit in a one-bathroom house, note that conventional resale advice is to keep at least one tub in the home, and a lot of this housing stock has exactly one bathroom.