Bathroom Remodeling Hints: Small Price Tag, Big Impact

Unless you just completed a stunning bathroom renovation with a five-figure price tag, there’s probably at least one thing in your bathroom you’d like to change. Whether you’re dealing with a constantly leaky faucet or the whole room just looks drab and out of date, you can find many ways to make your bathroom beautiful again without breaking the bank or investing a huge amount of time. Here are a few tips to get you started:

Replace your tired old toilet. Upgrading to a sleek, easy-to-clean one-piece toilet is a surprisingly simple way to update your bathroom, and it doesn’t have to cost a lot, either. Toilet installations are often viewed as a job for a professional, but some new toilets are being designed with the do-it-yourself homeowner in mind. The new SAVER toilet from American Standard, for instance, can be installed without using any tools at all – just a simple hand-tightening is all that’s required. Plus, a new low-flow commode like the SAVER can pay for itself in water savings alone.

Clean up your caulk. If the caulk in your bathroom is grimy, prone to mildew, or cracked, replacing it is a great way to freshen up the look of your bathroom. Use a caulk softener, available at any hardware store, to soften the existing caulk and make it easier to remove. Then, a good scraping with a plastic putty knife will do the trick. After the caulk is removed, clean in between the tiles with a bleach and water solution, and allow to dry completely. Then you are ready to apply the new caulk. Tom Kraeutler of the home improvement blog TheMoneyPit.com recommends using a mildew-proof caulk for easier cleaning and longer-lasting good looks. Apply the caulk in between the tiles with a smooth, steady motion, and then smooth the surface with a moistened finger for a more even appearance.

Fancy up your faucets. Swapping out an out-of-date faucet is less expensive and time-consuming than replacing an entire pedestal sink or vanity, but can still have a big visual impact. Whether your style is clean and modern or romantic and ornate, updating your faucets can be easy and stress-free now that many manufacturers are offering easy-to-install bathroom faucets. For example, all lavatory faucets from American Standard and JADO  come with Speed Connect drains that contain only four parts -10 less than conventional drains – and are easy to install in minutes, without guesswork or special materials.

Paint your way to a beautiful bath. Freshening up the color on the walls in your bathroom can be an easy afternoon project depending on the size and structure of your bathroom. Because they are typically the smallest rooms in the house, bathrooms are a great place to experiment with color – if you hate it or change your mind, it’s easy enough to change to something else. Want to keep it simple? Pure white walls, especially when accented with glass and dark woods, are a current design trend.

Bathroom Upgrades That Will Freshen the Room and Save You Money

When you sit back to relax in the tub, or take time to preen in front of the bathroom vanity, do you often feel that the setting just isn’t giving you the comforting and spa-like experience you wish you could feel at home?

Sure, you take good care of your bathroom – you’ve scrubbed the faucets to make them as shiny as you can and everything works the way it has for many years. But maybe it’s time you gave your bathroom a refreshing change – one that not only gives you the luxurious feeling of comfort and elegance, but also that benefits your wallet and the environment.

You may be surprised to learn that bathroom showers, toilets and sinks account for about 75 percent of the water used in the home. If you haven’t replaced any of your faucets or toilets for many years, you may be not only struggling with keeping these older fixtures looking clean and fresh, you may also be paying a lot of extra money to keep them running.

Consider your toilet. Older toilets can use as much as 5 gallons of water per flush, while stylish modern toilets are designed to cut that amount by more than a third. And some models, like the new high-efficiency Aquia Wall-Hung Dual Flush HET, which uses TOTO’s Dual-Max flushing system, can use as little as 0.9 gallons per flush. These qualities earn this toilet the EPA WaterSense label for being water efficient. And being wall hung makes sense aesthetically – by hiding the tank in the wall and lifting the toilet from the floor (making cleaning a breeze), you can save a total of 9 inches of precious room space.

Now take a look at your vanity and see your faucet for what it is. If the faucet has been around for many years, excessive use may have corroded some of the metal finish, or even worn away the hot and cold labels. A new faucet would not only freshen the look of the vanity, but also give your bathroom a beautiful new look. Standard bathroom faucets use 2.2 gallons of water per minute, newer models are available that provide the robust drenching needed to clean your hands while only using a modest 1.5 gallons per minute. One is TOTO’s chic Aquia Single Handle High-Efficiency Faucet, available in heights to match your sink selection (undermount, self-rimming, or vessel).

Finally, check out the showerhead in your tub. You may already have upgraded your showerhead once since 1992, when it became a requirement that showerheads use no more than 2.5 gallons per minute. But newer models allow you to save even more water. The average person showers for eight minutes each day, so switching to a high-efficiency showerhead can save a family of four more than 8,700 gallons of water each year and reduce the demand on their water heater, saving them enough energy to power their television for a year. The Nexus High-Efficiency Showerhead from TOTO offers an invigorating showering experience with a responsible 1.75 gallons per minute water volume being consumed – which is a 30 percent savings over the legal limit.

Freshening up your outdated plumbing fixtures is a great step toward creating a spa-like atmosphere in your bathroom. Not only will you be able to enjoy the comfortable and beautiful bath space, but you’ll also know that the changes are benefiting your pocketbook and the environment.