Bathroom remodeling on Long Island
Cost vs. Value doesn't price a Long Island market; its 2025 New York figures, the nearest, put a midrange bathroom remodel at $30,3761, against $26,1382 nationally. In Nassau County 34%3 of homes were built in the 1950s alone, and permits come from your town or village, some of which require one even to replace a fixture.
Calls are recorded. One independent company that handles bathroom remodels in the Long Island area answers.
Updated October 12, 2026
Bathroom prices from the New York market
The 2025 Cost vs. Value report lists no Long Island city, and no 2026 edition is out. Its New York market is the nearest and lies in the same metro, so its figures stand in here.
| Measure | New York market | U.S. average |
|---|---|---|
| Midrange bathroom remodel, job cost | $30,3761 | $26,1382 |
| Upscale bathroom remodel, job cost | $90,6861 | $81,6122 |
| Universal design bathroom remodel, job cost | $47,0521 | $42,1832 |
A Cape Cod or ranch bathroom is a small room, so the tile and fixture choices swing the total less than what turns up under the floor: an old cast-iron tub, a mortar bed, or a subfloor softened by a slow leak.
Nassau's postwar boom
Long Island's guides use Nassau County as their base and Suffolk County as the comparison. Nassau built in a rush after the war; Suffolk filled in later.
| Measure | Nassau County | Suffolk County |
|---|---|---|
| Homes built 1950–1959 | 34%3 | 17%3 |
| Homes built before 1960 | 66%3 | 31%3 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 85%3 | 68%3 |
If your Cape or ranch still has a single full bathroom, adding a second, or turning a half bath into a full one, is plumbing permit work with new drain and vent piping, not a simple fixture swap.
Houses, and the people who own them
Long Island is mostly owner-occupied single-family houses, which sets it apart from the city next door. The two counties look much alike on both counts.
| Measure | Nassau County | Suffolk County |
|---|---|---|
| Single-family detached homes | 76%4 | 80%4 |
| Occupied homes lived in by their owners | 82%5 | 82%5 |
Owning a detached house means there's no board or managing agent to clear, but the permit and its inspections are yours to see through. Under Hempstead's code, an owner can be held liable for work that lacks a required permit even if the work was already there when they took over the property.6
What homes here are worth
Census medians put Nassau's owner-occupied homes above Suffolk's.
| Measure | Nassau County | Suffolk County |
|---|---|---|
| Median home value (owner-occupied) | $684,7007 | $578,4007 |
Set beside Nassau's median of $684,7007, an upscale bathroom priced at $90,6861 for the New York market would not overbuild most houses. The houses around yours, and how long you plan to stay, set a more useful limit.
Pay for the bathroom trades
BLS has no May 2025 wage table for the Nassau County–Suffolk County division, so these are the New York–Newark–Jersey City metro's medians.
| Measure | New York metro | United States |
|---|---|---|
| Plumbers, median hourly wage | $37.79/hr8 | $30.67/hr8 |
| Electricians, median hourly wage | $37.99/hr8 | $30.38/hr8 |
| Carpenters, median hourly wage | $35.72/hr8 | $29.12/hr8 |
| Tile and stone setters, median hourly wage | $29.52/hr8 | $26.77/hr8 |
Plumbers and electricians earn the most above the national median, and on Long Island the town or village decides who may pull their permits. A small bathroom that keeps its fixtures where the pipes already run saves the costliest hours.
Winters and summers on the island
Long Island MacArthur Airport in Islip and Republic Airport in Farmingdale are the island's long-record stations. Both see many more freezing nights a year than Central Park.
| Measure | Islip (MacArthur) | Farmingdale (Republic) |
|---|---|---|
| Days a year with a low at or below freezing | 98 days9 | 88 days9 |
| July afternoon relative humidity | 59%10 | – |
A supply line in a Cape's knee wall or in a ranch's outside wall can freeze on those nights, so move it inward or insulate it while the wall is open. Humid summers make a fan ducted outdoors, not into the attic, the most useful upgrade in a small bath.
Well water from the Magothy aquifer
Nassau County gets all of its drinking water from groundwater stored in aquifers beneath Long Island, most of it from the Magothy aquifer.11 Each water district reports its own results; Hicksville's, from the middle of the county, lists the minerals but no hardness total.
| Measure | Hicksville Water District |
|---|---|
| Calcium, low end of range | 5 mg/L12 |
| Calcium, high end of range | 17 mg/L12 |
| Magnesium, high end of range | 6 mg/L12 |
The Hicksville Water District raises the pH of its well water with sodium hydroxide to reduce corrosion of water mains and in-house plumbing.12 Your own district's annual report is the one to read before deciding on a softener or filter for the new bathroom.
Permits
On Long Island the building department of your town, or of your incorporated village if you live in one, issues permits, so the rules change from place to place. The Town of Hempstead's code requires a plumbing permit to replace a fixture, not only to move one, and only a licensed master plumber may apply. Nassau County licenses home improvement contractors but leaves plumbers and electricians to the local building department.
- The Town of Hempstead requires a building permit before anyone starts erecting, enlarging or altering a building, but not for ordinary repairs that aren't structural.6
- In the Town of Hempstead, installing new plumbing or extending or altering existing plumbing requires a permit from the Department of Buildings.6
- Hempstead's code lets repairs to existing plumbing be made without a permit, but that exemption does not cover new soil, waste or vent pipes, added fixtures, or replacing existing fixtures with others.6
- Plumbing permit applications in the Town of Hempstead must be made by licensed master plumbers.6
- In the Village of Rockville Centre, the village's own Building Department issues residential construction permits and electrician and plumber licenses, and inspects licensed work.13
- Nassau County's Office of Consumer Affairs does not license electricians or plumbers and sends residents to their local building department for those trades.14
- The Town of Islip requires a plumbing permit for gas piping and new fixtures, and for a direct fixture replacement if new piping is involved; a Town of Islip licensed plumber must file the permit and do the work.15
Checked October 12, 2026
Before you hire
New York has no statewide contractor license, so check the city or county home improvement license where one is required, and make sure any job over $50028 comes with the written contract state law calls for.
Talk to a pro who handles bathroom remodels in Long Island
Calls are recorded. You'll be connected to one independent company that handles bathroom remodels in your area. We never call or text you. Privacy Policy ·Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
Opening up a postwar Long Island bathroom
Nassau County's houses are older than they look from the street: 85%3 predate 1980, and 13%3 went up in the 1940s. Bathrooms from those decades were small, often tiled in place over mortar, and fed by pipe that may be galvanized steel. The EPA notes that lead can collect inside galvanized pipe and later reach drinking water, and that solder made before 1986 contained high levels of lead.16
The EPA lists vinyl floor tile, vinyl sheet backing and flooring adhesives among products that may contain asbestos, which is released mainly when the material is disturbed.17 The EPA advises having an accredited asbestos professional inspect before a remodel that could disturb suspect materials, and not sanding or power-stripping suspect flooring yourself.18
For homes built before 1978, the EPA advises hiring contractors who use only lead-safe certified renovators.19 If you rent out an accessory apartment, the federal rule reaches it too. EPA's lead renovation rule generally doesn't cover homeowners working on their own pre-1978 homes, but it does apply if you rent out all or part of your home.20
Town and village rules
Hempstead's code lets repairs to existing plumbing be made without a permit, but that exemption does not cover new soil, waste or vent pipes, added fixtures, or replacing existing fixtures with others.6 That is stricter than New York City, where a direct replacement on the same valves and trap counts as cosmetic work, so check with your own building department before assuming a swap is permit-free.
Plumbing permit applications in the Town of Hempstead must be made by licensed master plumbers.6 In the Village of Rockville Centre, the village's own Building Department issues residential construction permits and electrician and plumber licenses, and inspects licensed work.13
Suffolk's towns keep their own lists too. The Town of Islip requires a plumbing permit for gas piping and new fixtures, and for a direct fixture replacement if new piping is involved; a Town of Islip licensed plumber must file the permit and do the work.15
A bathroom that works later in life
More than one in four adults 65 and older fall each year.21 The CDC's home fall-prevention checklist recommends grab bars in and beside the tub and next to the toilet, and a non-slip surface on tub and shower floors.22 In a Cape with the bedrooms upstairs, a first-floor bath that can take a shower and a grab bar may matter more than anything done to the upstairs one.
The National Institute on Aging suggests non-skid surfaces wherever a floor can get wet and a light left on in the bathroom at night.23 For the New York market, the 2025 universal-design bathroom came to $47,0521. NAHB's Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) credential trains remodelers in home modifications for aging in place.24
What happens when you call
The number on this page reaches one independent company that handles bathroom remodels in the Long Island area, and the call is recorded. You speak with that company directly about the project, the timing and the cost.
We're paid for the call by the company. You pay us nothing, and we don't call or text you later. How we make money
After you're connected
New York State does not license home improvement contractors, but some local governments do, including New York City, the City of Buffalo, and Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties; where a local license is required, the Department of State says to hire only a licensed contractor.25 Nassau County's Office of Consumer Affairs licenses home improvement contractors, and its daily-updated lookup shows each license's status and what work the contractor's insurance does and doesn't cover.14 Suffolk County's License and Complaint Violation Look Up searches county license records, including home improvement, master plumbing and master electrical licenses, by license number, name, business name, phone or address, along with complaint and violation information.26 Check a New York license
A New York homeowner may cancel a home improvement contract until midnight of the third business day after signing, by written notice that shows they don't intend to be bound; the right doesn't apply when the owner called the contractor for a bona fide emergency and signed a handwritten waiver.27
Questions people ask
How much does a bathroom remodel cost on Long Island?
Cost vs. Value has no Long Island market. Its 2025 figures for New York, the nearest, were $30,3761 for a midrange bathroom and $90,6861 for an upscale one. A postwar bath can land on either side, depending on the pipes and subfloor under the old tile.
Do I need a permit to replace a toilet on Long Island?
It depends on where you live, because towns and villages write their own rules. In the Town of Hempstead the answer is yes. Hempstead's code lets repairs to existing plumbing be made without a permit, but that exemption does not cover new soil, waste or vent pipes, added fixtures, or replacing existing fixtures with others.6
Does the county or my town issue the permit?
Your town, or your village if you live in an incorporated one. In the Village of Rockville Centre, the village's own Building Department issues residential construction permits and electrician and plumber licenses, and inspects licensed work.13 Nassau County's Office of Consumer Affairs does not license electricians or plumbers and sends residents to their local building department for those trades.14
Who will I talk to when I call?
A single independent company that handles bathroom remodels in the Long Island area picks up, and the conversation is between you and them. We don't remodel anything ourselves, and license questions go to the Nassau and Suffolk lookups, not to us.
Sources
Page updated October 12, 2026. How we source our numbers
- Zonda / Journal of Light Construction, Cost vs. Value 2025, New York, NY. Released 2025. New York, NY (Cost vs. Value market). Industry source.
- Zonda / Journal of Light Construction, Cost vs. Value 2025, national. Released 2025. United States. Industry source.
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year, table B25034. Released January 29, 2026. Nassau County, NY, Suffolk County, NY.
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year, table B25024. Released January 29, 2026. Nassau County, NY, Suffolk County, NY.
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year, table B25003. Released January 29, 2026. Nassau County, NY, Suffolk County, NY.
- Town of Hempstead, NY, Town Code Chapter 86, Building Construction Administration (eCode360). Released April 2, 2024. View source.
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year, table B25077. Released January 29, 2026. Nassau County, NY, Suffolk County, NY.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Released May 15, 2026. New York-Newark-Jersey City metro, Plumbers, United States, Electricians, United States, Carpenters, United States, Tile and stone setters, United States.
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020. Released 2021. Long Island MacArthur Airport, Islip (station USW00004781), Republic Airport, Farmingdale (station USW00054787).
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Comparative Climatic Data, average relative humidity, data through 2023. Released November 2024. Islip, Long Island MacArthur Airport (WBAN 04781).
- Nassau County, NY, Public Water Supply: Where does Nassau County's drinking water come from?. No publication date. View source.
- Hicksville Water District, 2025 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report (Public Water Supply ID 2902829). Released May 2026. Hicksville Water District, Nassau County.
- Incorporated Village of Rockville Centre, NY, Building Department. No publication date. View source.
- Nassau County Office of Consumer Affairs, Home Improvement Contractor and Other License Lookup. No publication date. View source.
- Town of Islip, NY, Department of Planning and Development, Building Division, When Is a Permit Required (2025-06-16). Released June 16, 2025. View source.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Sources of Lead in Drinking Water. Released August 2017. View source.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Learn About Asbestos. Released July 13, 2026. View source.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Protect Your Family from Exposures to Asbestos. Released June 25, 2026. View source.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Remodeling Your Home and Indoor Air Quality. Released February 17, 2026. View source.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program. Released June 17, 2026. View source.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Facts About Older Adult Falls. Released September 4, 2026. View source.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, STEADI: Check for Safety, a home fall prevention checklist for older adults. No publication date. View source.
- National Institute on Aging, Preventing Falls at Home: Room by Room. Released September 12, 2022. View source.
- National Association of Home Builders, Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS). No publication date. View source. Industry source.
- New York State Department of State, Division of Consumer Protection, Consumer Alert: Tips for Avoiding Home Improvement Scams. Released May 20, 2026. View source.
- Suffolk County Department of Labor, Licensing and Consumer Affairs, License and Complaint Violation Look Up. No publication date. View source.
- New York State Senate (Open Legislation), General Business Law, Article 36-A, Section 771. Released October 29, 2021. View source.
- New York State Senate (Open Legislation), General Business Law, Article 36-A, Section 770. Released May 29, 2020. New York State.