If you are a homeowner, you understand the miracle of home equity. It’s amazing to go from renting to owning, and know that everything you pay into your house is kept as a form of wealth. This doesn’t just go for mortgage payments, of course. It also applies to upgrades and renovations that you make to your home. Adding something as simple as a bath vanity can make your home a lot more attractive to future buyers or renters, increasing the value of your home. In fact, upgrading your bathroom is the best way to up your equity, with almost 100% of renovations coming back to you in the form of equity, statistics show. But bathroom renovations can be extremely expensive. Here are three ways to make sure that you bathroom reno doesn’t cost way too much.

1. Don’t Move Any Plumbing. This is one of the biggest costs when it comes to renovating your bathroom. If you want to move your shower, sink, bath vanity, or any other water fixture, it’s going to cost you. This is because your pipes are in the walls and the floors of your house. It’s very difficult and time-consuming to move these and put them in new locations. Then you’ve got to install your new fixtures, redo the floor, make tile work alterations, and lots of other high cost jobs. Most of these will need to be completed by a plumber or other licensed contractor, and these prices can add up. Compound this that you will be doing without your toilet or bathtub or bath vanity or shower for the duration of the job, and these are considerations that may prevent you from doing something so drastic as moving you plumbing.
2. Limit Your Tile, or Buy Cheap. It’s easy to get carried away with tile. I personally love the stuff. But it can get expensive. If you need to save money, resist the urge to blow it out with tile, and limit its use to only the most necessary areas. You may also be able to find lots of tile on discount sites or at salvage places, which take tile and other materials from existing homes and sell them for a lot cheaper. Some of these places buy up old stock from retailers. More on this later. Anyway, because tiles are small, we don’t think of them as a cost killer, but they easily can be, especially those made from finer materials. I recommend tile around places you’ll be spend time or that draw the eye, like your bath vanity. A bath vanity can be a nice and functional piece, but it can be beautiful with the right tile under or around it.
3. Take Advantage of Reclamations and Salvage Stores. Every major city has stores that reclaim materials from old houses, buildings, schools, churches, and the like. These are great places to go if you need specific fixtures of other items. For instance, my wife and I needed a new bath vanity, so we went to a salvage yard and looked at hundreds they had onsite. When we finally found the perfect bath vanity, an old pedestal model from the 50’s that was nonetheless is perfect shape, we were able to buy it for $25. We’ve also bought some tile and other materials at places like this. You’re limited to what they have onsite, and not every store is as good as the other, but all in all, you’ll be able to find some great treasures, and save money, if you use places like this. Stores like Modern Bathroom are a great alternative, providing new items at prices you’d hardly expect to find from a modern retailer.

Having recently completed a bathroom renovation, these are the best ways I’ve found to save money when undergoing this process. You’ll save a lot and build a lot of equity. My goal with a bathroom reno is always to make more than 100% in equity and, using these techniques, I think it is very possible.