Bathroom remodel cost in Chicago (2026)

Read this first: The figures come from 190 City of Chicago renovation/alteration permits issued 2025-10-16 to 2026-10-14, picked because the work description mentions a kitchen or bath and residential use. Reported cost is what the applicant wrote on the permit, which may not be what the job cost. These permits lean toward large or structural jobs: many small kitchen and bath updates use express permits or need none, so they are under-represented. Treat the numbers as context, not a quote.

Group	Permits	Median days to issue	Middle 50% (days)	Median reported cost	Middle 50% (cost)
Bath permits	133	70 days	36 days–135 days	$100,000	$60,000–$183,000

Residential renovation permits that mention a bath had a median reported cost of $100,000 (n=133). Many are basement bath additions or whole-unit jobs, so a single hall-bath refresh usually sits below these numbers. We'll only publish a bath-only median once real submissions back it up.

Labor and install only. These are labor and install prices only. Finish materials the homeowner bought (cabinets, countertops, tile, fixtures, flooring, appliances) are not included, and they often add as much as or more than the labor.

Real projects (contractor-sold prices from one Chicago-area GC, 2025-2026): no clean bath-only sample yet. Combined kitchen + bath jobs sold for $53,000, $75,500 (n=2; one excludes a ~$10,500 optional add-on). The one bath-only job (two baths plus a whole-home repipe, $55,000) is mostly repipe work and isn't representative. Project cards.

Typical finish materials (client-paid)

These are the contractor's typical averages across recent projects, not per-job receipts. Homeowners usually buy these directly, so they are on top of the labor/install prices shown here.

Kitchen: about $55,000 (cabinetry, appliances, countertops, light fixtures, cabinet pulls).
Bathroom: about $12,000 per bathroom (tile, vanity, mirrors, light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, accessories).

All-in estimate, kitchen: about $78,000 (labor/install median $23,000 + typical finishes $55,000). Bath: no bath-only labor median is published, so only the typical $12,000 per bath finish figure is shown. All-in figures are estimates, not quotes.

Approximate all-in estimates (labor/install + typical finishes, estimate only): KB-09 $53,000 + $55,000 + 2 × $12,000 ≈ $132,000; KB-10 $75,500 + $55,000 + 1 × $12,000 ≈ $142,500.

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