How to compare bathroom remodel bids line by line

Two bids for the same bathroom can differ by a large amount and both be honest, because they are describing different work. Comparing the totals tells you almost nothing. Comparing what each total buys tells you nearly everything, and it takes about twenty minutes with the bids side by side. This page is the twenty minutes.

Last updated September 2026 · No prices on this page; the Estimate Builder carries those · Part of the knowledge base

Put them on the same scope first

Before any number means anything, list what each bid includes and what it leaves out, line by line. The things that most often differ:

• Demolition and haul-away of the old tub, surround and wall material.
• The shower pan and the wall system, named, so you know what is going in rather than that something is.
• The door or the curtain, and whether a glass door is in the price or an extra.
• The valve, the shower head, and each accessory: grab bars, a seat, a hand sprayer, a diverter.
• Flooring, painting and a vanity outside the shower, which are usually separate work and sometimes quietly assumed.
• Floor protection, dust containment and cleaning, which are either in the bid or in your living room.
• Any permit, and who pulls it.

A bid that names fewer of these is not cheaper. It is smaller, and the difference arrives later as a change order or as something you do yourself.

Installed price, not materials

Ask which kind of number each bid is. An installed price covers the product and the labor together; a materials price covers the product and leaves the labor to be added. The gap between them is usually most of the cost of the job, and two bids that look far apart are often one of each. Everything we publish is an installed price, which is the only kind that can be compared between bids.

Allowances, and what happens over or under

An allowance is a placeholder sum for a selection not yet made, such as tile, a vanity or a faucet, with the difference charged or credited when the real choice is priced. It is an honest device and a normal one. It is also where a bid's total stops being a total, because a bid heavy with allowances is a bid whose number is not yet known. Ask for each allowance figure and for what the things you are likely to pick actually cost against it, and compare bids on those figures rather than on the totals.

The part you cannot see

The half of a shower that decides whether it lasts is covered up on day two. In a tiled shower that is the membrane behind the tile and a pan whose slope is built beneath it, because neither tile nor grout is waterproof. In a panel system it is the manufactured pan and the sealed panels and seams. Ask each bidder to name what is behind the surface, to say whether the pan is pre-sloped, and to say who does that work. The visible half is craft you can inspect; the bid is the only place you can see the other half. Panels against tile explains why they fail differently.

Hidden conditions, in writing

Every bathroom has a wall nobody has seen behind. What matters is what the bid says happens when something is found there. The answer to look for is a sequence: stop, show you, price it, and get your approval before that work is done. The answer to be wary of is silence, or a line that says such conditions will be billed at an hourly rate. The guaranteed price page sets out the version we work to, and the standard is worth holding every bid to.

The schedule, both numbers

A bid should say how many days the crew will be in the house and how many weeks pass between approval and the first of those days. They are different numbers, routinely confused, and a bid that gives only one of them has left you to guess the other. The timeline page explains what moves each.

The payment schedule, and what Ohio law says

Ask what each payment is tied to. The usual honest arrangement ties a deposit at signing to reserving the installation date and placing the material orders, and the balance to substantial completion, when the room is finished and usable. On larger residential contracts Ohio law, R.C. 4722.04, caps the initial payment at a percentage of the contract price, plus a share of any non-returnable special-order materials, with the rest paid in milestones as work progresses. A demand for most of the money before work starts on a large job is not merely a bad deal; it is contrary to the statute.

The guarantee, separated from the makers' warranties

Two different promises get written on one line. The contractor's own guarantee covers the work: what it covers, for how long, what it excludes, and whether it transfers when the home is sold. The makers' warranties cover the products, on the makers' terms, and they exist whoever installs the product. Ask for the contractor's promise on its own, in writing, and ask what happens in the first year if a product fails. The guarantee page is ours, written the way any contractor's should be readable.

Permits and jurisdiction

Ask who pulls any permit the work needs and which building department it goes to, because Central Ohio is not one jurisdiction and a mailing address is not a jurisdiction. The permit page explains why no website can answer that for your address. Ohio has no statewide home improvement license to check, so a bid cannot be sorted by that; sort it by its written scope instead.

Is the lowest bid the wrong one?

Not on its own. The lowest bid is the smallest bid until you have put it on the same scope as the others, and once you have, it may simply be the best price. What makes a low bid a bad sign is what it leaves out: no waterproofing named behind the wall, no written answer for what happens when something is found there, materials priced without labor, or a demand for most of the money up front. Those cost more later than the difference in the totals now. The cheapest option is the right one exactly as often as the room underneath it is sound, and nobody can see that from the outside.

Common questions