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Danitay t1_j4t4c6n wrote

This year we did 2 full bathrooms and a water heater in Bergen County. It took 3 months from signing the first contract to start work (mostly due to ordering the vanity). First bathroom was done in a month. Once that finished we signed the next contract for bathroom #2 after waiting a month for the proposal.

Work started another month later by the same crew— however it took 2 months to mostly complete due to the scope of work. The shower glass took an additional month to manufacture, so make it 3 months total. At the end I asked the plumber subcontractor to swap out our water heater— he came back 2 weeks after the bathroom was completed. We also utilized the bathroom carpenter to replace a garage entry door and a front storm door.

Both bathrooms totaled ~$55k but all materials were readily available. We bought all the tile ourselves, and ordered the plumbing fixtures directly from Build.com after verifying specs with GC.

The key is finding a good GC with reliable subcontractors and building a relationship with them. These same guys did our kitchen in 2019 (3 month job around $85k).

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NewbornXenomorphs t1_j4teeba wrote

Thank you. Any tips you can give on finding a good contractor?

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Danitay t1_j4tlz0e wrote

Referrals from people you know or neighbors is a good place to start. Once you have a recommendation then you want to make sure the contractor is a good communicator and you have a contract after receiving a proposal. It is tough because some great contractors have terrible internet presence…while some 5 star google review contractors sub their work out to subpar contractors and they reward people to leave top reviews.

I suggest making a list of projects and tackle them in phases. Huge renovations tend to have little details get lost. Working one bathroom at a time (like we did) ensured we had things like wood blocking in the walls exactly where we wanted towel bars and tp holders to go (way sturdier than a drywall anchor).

Here’s some of our projects: https://imgur.com/gallery/65aX3dU

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NewbornXenomorphs t1_j4tmxie wrote

Thanks for sharing! Your house looks exactly what I want. May have to find the comment after buying a house down the road and ask who your person is…

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Danitay t1_j4tnjo8 wrote

Sure! I’m pretty sure they serve central NJ too. I’ve got a couple different reddit posts on r/homeimprovement that I can share of the kitchen and laundy room too

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