How to read a bathroom remodel bid without getting burned

Three bids arrive. They’re thousands apart and they all say “bathroom remodel.” The temptation is to treat the difference as greed on one end and a deal on the other. It’s usually neither — it’s three different jobs wearing the same name.

Here’s how to make them comparable.

The four questions

Ask every bidder the same four things, in writing.

1. Is the waterproofing system named — brand and method?

A bid that says “waterproof shower” has told you nothing. A bid that names the membrane and the method has committed to something you can check. Showers fail from behind the tile, so this is the single most important line in the document and the one most often left vague.

2. Are permits included, and who pulls them?

Permits cost money and time, so leaving them out makes a bid look cheaper. It also removes the free second opinion an inspector provides on your contractor’s own work.

3. What are the fixture and tile allowances, in dollars?

An allowance is the budget assumed for things you haven’t picked yet. Two bids can be far apart purely because one assumed builder-grade and the other assumed what you actually described. Without the numbers you’re comparing guesses.

4. What happens, in writing, if demo finds rot?

In houses from the fifties and sixties, something behind the wall is usually wrong. A good bid says so, carries a contingency, and describes how it gets approved and billed. A bid that’s silent isn’t optimistic — it’s setting up a change order.

The two systems you’re actually choosing between

Most of the price gap between bids comes down to this one decision, so it’s worth seeing side by side.

	Acrylic liner system	Tiled shower over new backer
Time on site	1–2 days	5–8 working days
Existing walls	Covered, not inspected	Opened, inspected, replaced
Waterproofing	Relies on the original wall staying dry	New membrane over cement board
If there’s rot behind	Sealed in	Found and fixed
Typical lifespan	10–15 years	25–30+ years
Best for	Rentals, quick pre-sale refresh	A house you’re staying in
Permit	Often none	Usually required

Neither is wrong. But a liner bid and a tile bid are different products, and comparing their totals as though they’re the same job is how people end up disappointed.

The pattern you’ll notice

The cheapest bid usually has the vaguest answers. That’s not coincidence: vague scope is where change orders live. A number that assumes nothing goes wrong is easy to beat on paper and hard to hold to in practice.

That doesn’t make cheap bids dishonest. It means they’re describing less work, and you should know which work is missing before you sign.

What a real contingency looks like

Not a percentage buried in the total. A named line, with a stated trigger and an approval step: what it covers, how you’re told, and that nothing gets spent without your say-so. On a sixty-year-old house, budget one or be surprised by one.

Check the registration before you check the number

Idaho registers contractors, and the Idaho Contractors Board keeps that register public. Search a company name before you sign and you’ll see whether its registration is current — and in the same search, whether there are formal actions on file against it.

It takes two minutes and it’s the cheapest homework you’ll do on this job. A bid from an unregistered outfit isn’t a bargain. It’s the one you have no recourse on when the work goes wrong.

Payment structure

A deposit to hold the start date, a draw at rough-in, the balance after your walkthrough. Never the whole job up front. Be wary of a deposit much past a third, and treat “big discount if you sign tonight” as the exit cue it is — real crews are booked weeks out and don’t need to close you in an evening.

Working through this yourself? What a remodel costs in Boise covers the money side in detail — or call (208) 247-7364 and we'll talk it through.