When upstairs stops working
Converting a dining room or a den into a bedroom and a full accessible bathroom. Quacy built his first one in 2016, with a 36 inch door and a walk-in shower, and it is still the right answer for a lot of houses.
$55,000 to $68,000
Bedroom and bathroom, converting existing space
$40,000 to $52,000
Bathroom only, no bedroom
Book a Home Safety AssessmentSee the four bathroom options
The $497 assessment is credited in full.
The stairs are usually the real problem
A perfect bathroom upstairs is still upstairs.
Most families start by asking how to make the upstairs bathroom safer. It is the obvious question and sometimes it is the right one. But if a walker is already in daily use, the bathroom was never the whole problem. The stairs were.
A stair lift helps with the climb. It does nothing for carrying a laundry basket, nothing for a cup of tea, and nothing at all in an emergency when the power is out. It also means transferring on and off a moving seat twice a day, which is its own risk.
We do not install stair lifts and we are not going to pretend they solve this. Where there is ground floor space to work with, moving the bedroom and the bathroom down is the honest answer. It is more money on day one and it is the last time you have to deal with it.
The first one, 2016
A dining room became a bedroom and a six by ten bathroom.
The house had a dining room nobody ate in and a basement underneath it. We closed the opening, framed the bathroom, ran new drainage across to the stack, and built a 36 inch door so a walker went straight through without turning.
The bedroom came out around ten by twelve. Ten years on, that is still the layout we start from.
What decides the price
The plumbing run. How far the new bathroom sits from the existing stack, and whether there is an open basement below to run it in.
Slab or basement. On a slab the drainage is cut into concrete. That is a different job.
The egress window. The single biggest swing, and the one nobody mentions until after you have paid for a quote.
The egress window is the thing to check first
Ontario requires one in any room used as a bedroom.
You cannot call a room a bedroom without a window somebody can get out of. That is the building code, not a preference, and it is what the inspector will look for.
Usually no extra cost
A dining room, front room or den with a decent sized window. Most already comply, or need a smaller change than people expect. This is the version that lands at the bottom of the range.
Real money
An interior space with no exterior wall, or a window too small or too high. Cutting a new opening through brick or block means lintels, structural work and making good outside. This is what pushes a project to the top of the range.
We check this at the assessment, before anyone gets attached to a floor plan. If the room you have in mind cannot take an egress window at a sensible cost, better to know in the first ninety minutes than after the drawings.
What the bathroom actually is
Not a small bathroom with grab bars added.
A 36 inch door
Not 32, not the widest that fits. A walker goes through square without anyone turning sideways.
Curbless entry
No threshold at all. New construction means we build the floor to suit rather than working around it.
Blocking everywhere
Solid backing across all three wet walls before the tile goes on, so a bar can move later without opening anything.
Turning space
Laid out around the clearances rather than squeezed into whatever was left over.
Thermostatic valve
Temperature limit stop set at 49C, reachable from outside the enclosure.
Bedroom beside it
Same floor, a few steps, no hallway to cross in the dark.
If there is no space to convert
Then it is an addition, and that is a different project.
Everything on this page assumes there is existing ground floor space to work with. If there is not, you are building new floor area. Foundation, framing, roof and exterior envelope, all before a single fixture goes in.
We do not publish a price for that and we will not guess at one over the phone. Too much of it depends on the ground, the lot, the roof line and what the municipality will allow. Anyone who gives you a number for an addition without seeing the house is making it up.
We do build them. It starts the same way, with the assessment, and you get a real number in writing instead of a range.
Start by finding out whether the room works
Ninety minutes, and you will know before you commit to anything.
Quacy checks the drainage route to the stack, whether the joists below will take it, what the window situation is, and whether the panel has capacity for a second bathroom. Within 48 hours you get a written scope, one fixed price and a completion date.
Book a Home Safety AssessmentNot sure yet? Check the bathroom first
$497, credited in full against the project.
