The hardest part of planning a remodel is that nobody will give you a number. Ask online and you get national averages that mean nothing locally. Ask a contractor and you get “it depends,” which is true and unhelpful.
Here are realistic Central Texas ranges, what actually drives them, and where budgets most often go sideways.
Bathroom Remodeling
- Cosmetic refresh — new vanity, fixtures, paint, lighting, keeping the existing layout and tile: roughly $8,000 to $18,000
- Full mid-range remodel — new tile, tub or shower, vanity, flooring, fixtures, same layout: roughly $18,000 to $38,000
- Primary bath, high-end or reconfigured — moved plumbing, custom tile, frameless glass, freestanding tub, upgraded finishes: roughly $40,000 to $90,000 and up
The single biggest cost driver is whether plumbing moves. Keeping the toilet, shower, and vanity where they are holds costs down substantially. Relocating drains means opening the floor, and on a slab foundation — which most Austin-area homes have — that means cutting and repouring concrete.
Converting a tub to a walk-in shower is one of the most requested projects and one of the most variable in price, depending on whether the drain relocates and how the waterproofing is handled.
Our bathroom remodeling work spans all three tiers, and the layout question is usually the first one worth settling.
Kitchen Remodeling
- Cosmetic refresh — cabinet refinishing or refacing, new counters, hardware, backsplash, fixtures: roughly $12,000 to $28,000
- Full mid-range remodel — new stock or semi-custom cabinets, counters, appliances, flooring, lighting, same footprint: roughly $35,000 to $80,000
- High-end or reconfigured — custom cabinetry, moved walls or islands, premium appliances and surfaces: roughly $85,000 to $200,000 and up
Cabinetry is typically the largest single line, often a third or more of the total. That is why refacing or refinishing existing boxes is such an effective way to cut cost when the layout works and the boxes are sound.
Moving walls, relocating plumbing or gas, and adding electrical circuits all push a kitchen from the middle tier into the upper one quickly. So does removing a wall that turns out to be load-bearing — which requires engineering, a header, and often a permit.
Appliances are frequently quoted separately. Confirm whether your estimate includes them, because the difference can be five figures. Details on scope are on our kitchen remodeling page.
Whole-Home Renovation
Whole-home work is priced per square foot rather than per room:
- Cosmetic — paint, flooring, lighting, fixtures, minor updates: roughly $40 to $80 per square foot
- Substantial — kitchen and baths included, some systems updated, selective layout changes: roughly $100 to $200 per square foot
- Gut renovation or luxury — down to studs, systems replaced, structural changes: roughly $200 to $400 and up
An older home carries more unknowns. Original plumbing, undersized electrical panels, aging HVAC, and non-current framing details all surface once walls open, and they surface as change orders if nobody planned for them. Our full home remodeling projects budget for that explicitly rather than discovering it mid-project.
Landscaping and Outdoor Living
Outdoor projects get planned last and often come in higher than expected, because they carry the same trade costs as interior work without the familiar reference points.
Rough Central Texas ranges: a basic concrete or paver patio commonly runs several thousand dollars depending on size and material; a covered patio or pergola adds structure, footings, and often a permit; an outdoor kitchen ranges widely with utilities and appliances driving most of it. Drainage correction, retaining walls, and irrigation each carry their own cost and are frequently what a yard actually needs before anything decorative goes in.
The item worth prioritizing here is drainage. Water moving toward the foundation is a genuine problem in this region, and a beautiful patio that slopes the wrong way creates one. Grading, downspout discharge, and surface drainage are unglamorous line items that protect everything else.
Our landscaping and outdoor living work usually starts with that question rather than with the finish selection.
What Sits Outside the Construction Number
Design fees on larger projects. Structural engineering if anything load-bearing changes. Permits, which vary by jurisdiction — the suburbs generally move faster than City of Austin. Appliances and fixtures, if quoted separately. Furniture and window treatments. And temporary housing or a rented kitchen setup if the project makes the space unusable.
Then contingency. Ten percent is the floor on straightforward work. Fifteen to twenty is realistic on older homes or anything opening walls. A contingency is not padding — it is the budget line that prevents a discovered problem from stopping the job.
Permits: When You Need Them
Permitting catches people out because the rules are not intuitive and they vary by jurisdiction.
Broadly, cosmetic work — paint, flooring, cabinet replacement in the same footprint, fixture swaps — generally does not require a permit. Work that changes structure, electrical, plumbing, or mechanical systems generally does. Removing a wall, moving a drain, adding circuits, relocating gas, or converting a space to a different use all fall on the permitted side.
Jurisdiction matters a great deal here. A project in Leander, Cedar Park, Round Rock, or Georgetown typically moves through review faster than the same project inside City of Austin limits. That difference is worth building into your schedule expectations rather than discovering it.
Two reasons not to skip a permit that should have been pulled. Unpermitted work surfaces during resale and becomes a negotiation problem for the seller, sometimes an expensive one. And insurers have been known to ask questions about unpermitted work after a loss.
If you have an HOA, that is a separate approval process with its own timeline, and it does not substitute for a permit.
Why Quotes Differ So Much
Two bids on the same project can differ by half, and the reason is almost never efficiency.
Allowances are the usual culprit. A bid carrying a $40 per square foot tile allowance against one carrying $12 is not the same bid, and you will not discover this until selection day. Ask what every allowance is set at.
Exclusions matter equally. Demolition, disposal, permits, painting, electrical upgrades, and cleanup are all things that appear in some bids and not others.
Then there is scope depth. One contractor plans to replace the subfloor; another plans to float over it. One is pulling a permit; one is not. These are genuinely different projects wearing the same description.
Ask for line-item breakdowns rather than lump sums, and compare the lines rather than the totals.
How Long It Takes
Timeline surprises cause as much frustration as budget surprises, and they are related — a longer project usually means a larger one.
A bathroom refresh commonly runs one to two weeks. A full bathroom remodel with new tile runs three to five. A kitchen refresh runs two to three weeks; a full kitchen remodel six to twelve, with cabinetry lead time frequently the governing factor rather than the labor. Whole-home renovations range from a couple of months for cosmetic work to six months or more for a gut.
Two things reliably extend a schedule. The first is decision speed — a project waiting on a tile selection is a project not progressing, and owner decisions are the most common delay nobody budgets for. The second is lead times on cabinetry, specialty tile, windows, and some appliances, which can run months and should be ordered before demolition begins rather than after.
Add permit review where applicable, and settle the sequencing question early: whether you are living in the house during the work changes both the schedule and how the crew stages the job.
Where to Save and Where Not To
Reasonable savings: keeping plumbing and gas where they are, refacing sound cabinets rather than replacing, choosing quality mid-range finishes over premium, phasing work across years, and keeping the footprint.
Poor savings: skipping waterproofing detail in a shower, undersizing electrical for how you will actually use the space, deferring anything inside a wall you are about to close, choosing the cheapest bid without checking exclusions, and cutting the contingency.
The pattern is consistent — saving on things you can see later is fine, saving on things sealed behind finishes is not.
Get a Real Number
Ranges are for planning. An actual budget requires someone in the space looking at your layout, your systems, and what you want to change.
Just Cleo Construction provides free estimates for remodeling and repair projects across Austin, Leander, Cedar Park, Round Rock, and Georgetown. Call (512) 538-3359 to schedule a walkthrough.
