How Much Does a Bathroom Remodel Cost in Huntington Beach in 2026?

A homeowner called us last month from a 1972 ranch off Edwards Street. She’d gotten three quotes for a master bathroom remodel: $14,000, $28,000, and $61,000. Same room, same square footage, same general scope. She was confused — and rightly so.

The honest answer is that all three quotes were probably real. They were just describing three completely different projects. Bathroom remodel pricing in Huntington Beach in 2026 lives in three distinct tiers, and the line between them is the difference between cosmetic work and actual construction. This is the breakdown we walk every customer through before they sign anything.

The Three Tiers — What You Actually Get

Tier 1 — Cosmetic refresh: $9,000 to $18,000

Same layout, same plumbing locations, same drain lines. You’re swapping the vanity, replacing the toilet, putting in a new mirror and light fixtures, painting, and either re-glazing or replacing the existing tub or shower surround. Standard tile work where it makes sense. No moving walls, no relocating fixtures, no permits in most cases. Five to ten working days. The bathroom looks completely new but the bones are unchanged.

Tier 2 — Mid-range remodel: $25,000 to $48,000

Now you’re touching real construction. The shower gets demolished and rebuilt with proper waterproofing (Schluter Kerdi or Hydro Ban), new tile from floor to ceiling, a frameless glass door, a curbless or low-curb entry. The vanity is custom or semi-custom with a quartz top and undermount sinks. Heated tile floors are common at this tier. New exhaust fan with proper venting. New electrical for vanity lights and outlets. Permits required. Three to four weeks. This is where the majority of JVB bathroom projects in Huntington Beach land.

Tier 3 — Custom gut renovation: $55,000 to $120,000+

Walls move. Maybe a wall comes out to merge a master bath with a closet. Maybe a window gets enlarged or a skylight goes in. Custom cabinetry from a local shop, slab walls in marble or porcelain, freestanding tub, walk-in shower with multiple heads and a steam unit, full radiant heated floors, custom lighting design, towel warmers, and finish materials specified to match the rest of the home. Five to eight weeks. This is where Huntington Harbour and Seacliff master bathrooms typically end up.

Where the Money Actually Goes

People assume the tile is the biggest line item. They’re wrong. On a typical $36,000 mid-range bathroom remodel in Huntington Beach, here’s how it actually breaks down:

• Plumbing rough-in and fixtures: $5,500–$8,500
• Tile and materials: $3,500–$6,500
• Tile installation labor: $3,500–$6,000
• Vanity, top, sinks, faucets: $2,500–$5,000
• Shower glass enclosure: $1,800–$3,500
• Electrical (lighting, outlets, fan): $1,800–$3,200
• Demolition and disposal: $1,200–$2,500
• Drywall, paint, trim: $1,500–$2,800
• Waterproofing system: $800–$1,800
• Permits and inspections: $500–$1,200
• Toilet and accessories: $400–$1,200

The line that surprises homeowners is the waterproofing. A bathroom shower built without a proper waterproof membrane is a slow-motion failure waiting to happen. We see one or two leaking 10-year-old showers every month — almost always built without Schluter or equivalent. The $1,500 you save by skipping a real waterproofing system buys you a $15,000 mold remediation project five years later.

What Coastal Huntington Beach Adds to the Bill

If your home is within a mile of the ocean, there are three things that nudge a bathroom project up versus the same work inland:

Older plumbing. A lot of HB homes from the 1960s and 1970s still have galvanized supply lines or cast iron drain lines that should have been replaced 20 years ago. Once you open a wall, you’re going to see corrosion. Rebuilding the supply lines in PEX and the drains in PVC adds $1,200–$3,500 to the project, but you don’t get to skip it. Putting new fixtures on a failing supply system is throwing money at a problem that will come back next year.

Salt-air ventilation. Coastal bathrooms need exhaust fans that actually move 80–110 CFM and vent to the exterior, not into the attic. Every salt-air home we work on shows mold in the attic above a poorly-vented bathroom. A real Panasonic WhisperGreen fan with humidity sensing is $280–$420 installed versus $90 for a builder-grade unit. Worth every dollar.

Subfloor rot. Coastal humidity plus 40-year-old wax rings means we routinely find rotten subfloor under toilets. Replacing a 4×4 section of plywood subfloor is $400–$800 of carpentry the cosmetic-tier contractors don’t budget for.

The Subcontractor Tax — Bathroom Edition

This is the line nobody itemizes. When a general contractor uses subcontractors for plumbing, electrical, tile, and glass, each sub adds their own markup, and the GC adds a markup on top. On a $35,000 bathroom, that layered margin is typically $4,500 to $7,000 of pure overhead — money that doesn’t buy you a single thing on the jobsite.

JVB Construction operates differently. Every trade is in-house and on payroll, so there’s no markup-on-markup. The same bathroom often comes in 10 to 15 percent lower with us — and the schedule is a week shorter because we control every trade. When the demo crew finishes Tuesday afternoon, the plumber starts Wednesday morning. Not “next week when his other job wraps.”

What Affects the Final Price the Most

Tile selection. Tile prices in 2026 range from $3 per square foot for builder-grade ceramic to $40+ per square foot for large-format porcelain slabs and hand-cut marble. A 90 sqft master bath is the difference between $270 and $3,600 just on material. Installation labor scales with complexity: a standard subway pattern is $9–$14 per square foot installed; a herringbone or chevron pattern in large-format tile is $18–$28 per square foot installed because of the precision required.

Shower configuration. A standard alcove shower with a curb is the cheapest option. A walk-in curbless shower with a linear drain costs $2,500–$4,500 more because it requires structural floor work to slope the subfloor and a more complex waterproofing detail. A steam shower adds $3,500–$6,500 for the generator, controls, and the sealed enclosure.

Vanity choice. A 60-inch vanity from a big-box store is $800–$1,500. The same size custom vanity from a local cabinet shop with soft-close drawers, a quartz top, and undermount porcelain sinks is $3,500–$6,500. Both work. They look completely different up close.

Whether you need permits. Huntington Beach requires a permit for anything that touches plumbing, electrical, or structural framing. The permit itself is $500–$1,200, but the time it adds to draw plans and wait for approval can stretch a project by a week or two if you start cold. Cosmetic refreshes (paint, fixtures, vanity swap) usually don’t require a permit — but the moment you move a drain or add a circuit, you do.

What to Ask Before You Sign

When you’re getting quotes from multiple contractors, the cheapest number is rarely the cheapest project. Three questions cut through the noise:

1. Is this a fixed-price contract or time-and-materials? Fixed-price is what you want. Time-and-materials bathroom projects in Huntington Beach routinely come in 30–60% over their original estimate because there’s no incentive to control hours.
2. What waterproofing system will you use behind the tile? The right answer is “Schluter Kerdi” or “Hydro Ban” or “Wedi.” The wrong answer is “tar paper” or “plastic sheeting” or any version of “we just use thinset.” Walk away from that quote.
3. Are you pulling a permit? If the answer is “we don’t need one for a bathroom” but the project includes new electrical, moved plumbing, or any framing work, the contractor is planning to do illegal work that won’t pass an eventual home inspection when you sell. Always pull the permit.

For more on what permits actually cover in HB, see our Huntington Beach permit reality post, and for the broader argument about why a single in-house team beats the subcontractor model, see Why JVB Keeps Every Trade In-House.

Ready for a Real Bathroom Quote?

If you’re considering a bathroom remodel in Huntington Beach, the only way to get an accurate price is an in-home consultation. We measure the room, look at what’s behind the walls, talk through what you’re trying to accomplish, and put together a written line-item estimate within 48 hours. No pressure, no charge.

Call Javier directly at (714) 794-5503 or request an estimate online. We respond within 24 hours and typically schedule consultations within the same week.