Twin Cities Remodel Hour

Twin Cities Remodel Hour

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Twin Cities Remodel Hour episodes

  • Twin Cities Bathroom Remodel Costs: Copper Up 30%, Vanity Tariffs

    Bathrooms are small rooms with big bills. This week we go line by line through a bathroom remodel quote: where the costs hide, what this fall's materials prices mean for you, and what to ask before you sign.

    In this episode:

    • The allowance trap: why a "tile, per allowance" line can turn into a change order after demo, and how to get it explained up front.
    • Copper and brass products, used in supply lines, fittings and wiring, rose 30.0% from September 2025 to September 2026 on the federal producer price index. Ask whether material prices lock when you sign or float until purchase.
    • The bigger picture: all construction materials up 5.7% year over year, lumber up 8.7% but down 1.4% from August, and gypsum products (drywall) up only 1.4%. October figures come out Nov. 13, 2026.
    • "Unforeseen conditions, T&M": what time and materials billing covers, and the "stop, show, sign" rule for surprise work behind the walls.
    • Imported kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities carry a 25% tariff. A December 2025 proclamation delayed the planned rise to 50% until Jan. 1, 2027, except for countries that reach trade deals.
    • Minneapolis dropped plan review for some flat roof, siding, and replacement window and door permits on Oct. 2, 2026. The city says average approval time for residential remodel permits fell from about three weeks to under one week, and it added an online Express Limited Permit option.
    • The 2026 National Electrical Code took effect statewide in Minnesota on Aug. 17, 2026, and work has started on a new residential energy code.
    • 2025 Cost vs. Value national averages: garage door replacement recoups 268% of its cost, steel entry doors 216%, and a midrange minor kitchen remodel 113%.

      • Sources:

      • 2025 Cost vs. Value Report (JLC)
      • Minneapolis construction permit process changes
      • Minneapolis permit applicants
      • Minnesota DLI electrical codes and standards
      • Minnesota DLI rulemaking docket, chapter 1322 (residential energy code)
      • PPI: Construction materials and components (FRED)
      • PPI: Lumber (FRED)
      • PPI: Iron and steel (FRED)
      • PPI: Copper and brass products (FRED)
      • PPI: Ready-mix concrete (FRED)
      • PPI: Gypsum products (FRED)
      • BLS Producer Price Index news release
      • White House fact sheet: timber, lumber and derivative product imports
      • Federal Register: amendments on timber and lumber imports
        • Subscribe to Twin Cities Remodel Hour: https://feeds.transistor.fm/twin-cities-remodel-hour

        Full transcript

        Dave Pfeiffer: ...no, read it again. Read me the exact words.

        Nina Torres: "Tile, per allowance." That's it. That's the whole line.
        Dave Pfeiffer: Per allowance. So that number next to it? It's not what your tile costs. It's a placeholder somebody typed in.
        Nina Torres: Okay, to be fair, sometimes it's a placeholder because the homeowner hasn't picked tile yet.
        Dave Pfeiffer: Sure. And then they pick tile.
        Nina Torres: And it's the tile they saw on somebody's feed, and it's triple the allowance.
        Dave Pfeiffer: Right. And the difference shows up as a change order after demo. The old tub's already in the dumpster, the bathroom's down to studs, and you've got zero leverage. That's the allowance trap. I see it in almost every bathroom quote.
        Nina Torres: Almost every?
        Dave Pfeiffer: Okay. Most. Most of them.
        Nina Torres: Because I'm going to defend the allowance for a second.
        Dave Pfeiffer: Here we go.
        Nina Torres: No, listen. When I price a bathroom and the client hasn't picked a vanity or tile or fixtures, I can either guess low and look cheap, guess high and lose the job, or write an allowance and be upfront about it. The allowance isn't the trap. The trap is an allowance nobody explains.
        Dave Pfeiffer: Okay... that's fair. I'll take that. The line's fine. The silence around it isn't.
        Nina Torres: Thank you.
        Dave Pfeiffer: So that's where I want to start today. Bathrooms. What actually drives the cost, and where it hides on the quote.
        Nina Torres: And bathrooms are sneaky, because they're small. People see a five-by-eight room and figure, how spendy can it be?
        Dave Pfeiffer: Uff da. Pretty spendy.
        Nina Torres: Because it's the most crowded little room in the house. Plumbing, electrical, ventilation, waterproofing, tile, glass, a vanity. Every trade, packed into a closet.
        Dave Pfeiffer: Okay so start with plumbing, because that's where this fall's materials picture gets interesting.
        Nina Torres: Copper.
        Dave Pfeiffer: Copper. The Bureau of Labor Statistics producer price index, the September numbers that came out mid-October... copper and brass products were up about thirty percent compared to September last year.
        Nina Torres: Thirty.
        Dave Pfeiffer: THIRTY percent. And that's the stuff in your supply lines, your fittings, a lot of valve bodies, your wiring.
        Nina Torres: Okay but... hold on. I don't want people hearing "thirty percent" and thinking their whole bathroom just went up thirty percent.
        Dave Pfeiffer: No, no. Fair.
        Nina Torres: That's a wholesale index for one material category. The copper is a slice of the plumbing line, and the plumbing line is a slice of the job. Most of what you're paying a plumber for is the plumber.
        Dave Pfeiffer: Right. That's the honest version. What it means on a quote is this: if your plumbing line says "rough-in, materials TBD," or there's a little note that material prices are subject to change, a thirty percent jump in copper is exactly the kind of thing that's going to move.
        Nina Torres: So what do you want to see?
        Dave Pfeiffer: I want to know whether the material price is locked when I sign, or whether it floats until they buy it. And if it floats, until when.
        Nina Torres: That's a good one. A lot of contractors will lock it for a set window, too. Just ask.
        Dave Pfeiffer: For the broader picture, same BLS release, all construction materials and components...

        11 min
      • Kitchen Remodel Quote Breakdown: Costs, Allowances & Material Prices

        This week we read a kitchen remodel quote from top to bottom, the way you would at your own kitchen table. We cover what each line should spell out and the questions to ask before you sign. We also cover the latest national cost numbers, material price trends and permit news for Twin Cities homeowners.

        In this episode:

        • 2025 Cost vs. Value national averages: a midrange minor kitchen remodel costs about $28,458 and recoups 113%. A midrange major costs $82,793 and recoups 51%. An upscale major costs $164,104 and recoups 36%.
        • Why small exterior jobs pay back best at resale: garage door replacement recoups 268% and a steel entry door recoups 216%.
        • Allowances: low ones are the real trap. Ask what each allowance actually buys, whether it includes installation and how overages get billed.
        • NAHB says building material prices were up 5.5% from a year ago in September 2026, the highest yearly rate since December 2022. Softwood plywood was up 15.9% and particleboard and fiberboard were up 7.8%.
        • Delivery and fuel lines can be real costs: energy inputs are up 64.1% and diesel is up 115.2% from a year ago.
        • Framing lumber fell to $459.10 per 1,000 board feet as of Oct. 30, down 4.4% from a year ago. Combined Canadian lumber duties and tariffs total roughly 35.9%, and the rates are not final.
        • Minneapolis has sped up home-improvement permits. Kitchen renovations go from two to three weeks to about four days, and roof replacements from about a week to one day.
        • A new Minnesota HOA law takes effect mostly on Jan. 1, 2027. It caps fines at $100 per violation unless members approve more and sets a process for alteration requests.

          • Sources:

          • 2025 Cost vs. Value Report (JLC)
          • Minneapolis speeds up home-improvement permits (Finance & Commerce)
          • New Minnesota law on common-interest communities (MN House)
          • Minnesota residential energy code rulemaking docket (DLI)
          • Building material price inflation nears four-year high (NAHB Eye on Housing)
          • Framing lumber prices (NAHB)
            • Subscribe to Twin Cities Remodel Hour: https://feeds.transistor.fm/twin-cities-remodel-hour

            Full transcript

            Dave Pfeiffer: ...and that's the whole thing. One line. "Kitchen remodel, complete per discussion." And then a number at the bottom.

            Nina Torres: Per discussion.
            Dave Pfeiffer: Per discussion! Whose discussion? What did we discuss?
            Nina Torres: Okay, to be fair, sometimes that's a guy who's great with a saw and terrible with paperwork.
            Dave Pfeiffer: Sure. And sometimes it's a guy who wants room to move later. You can't tell from the paper, Nina. That's the problem.
            Nina Torres: No, that's fair. That's fair.
            Dave Pfeiffer: So that's today. Anatomy of a kitchen quote. We go line by line, top to bottom, like we're reading it at the kitchen table.
            Nina Torres: The kitchen you're about to rip out.
            Dave Pfeiffer: The very one.
            Nina Torres: Okay so before we get into lines, people want a ballpark. Like... what's normal?
            Dave Pfeiffer: And I'm gonna be careful here, because I don't have a Twin Cities number I trust. The latest Cost vs. Value report is the 2025 edition. I couldn't get to the Minneapolis page, so these are national averages.
            Nina Torres: National. Say it twice.
            Dave Pfeiffer: NATIONAL. In that report a midrange minor kitchen remodel came in around twenty-eight and a half thousand. A midrange major, about eighty-three thousand. Upscale major, about a hundred sixty-four thousand.
            Nina Torres: So the range is... huge. Twenty-eight to a hundred sixty-four.
            Dave Pfeiffer: Huge. And your kitchen isn't the national average kitchen. Nobody's is.
            Nina Torres: And the payback side?
            Dave Pfeiffer: The minor one recouped about 113 percent at resale. The midrange major, 51 percent. Upscale major, 36.
            Nina Torres: Uff da. Thirty-six.
            Dave Pfeiffer: Yeah. So I tell people, if you're doing the big kitchen, do it because you're gonna cook in it. Not because it's an investment.
            Nina Torres: Okay but I'm gonna push on that a little.
            Dave Pfeiffer: Here we go.
            Nina Torres: People hear "36 percent" and think they're lighting money on fire. You're living there. You're making dinner there for ten years. That's not nothing.
            Dave Pfeiffer: No, I agree with that...
            Nina Torres: You kinda said it like a warning, though.
            Dave Pfeiffer: Fair. It's a warning about the reason, not the project. Spend it for you. Just don't tell yourself the buyer's paying you back.
            Nina Torres: Okay. I'll take that.
            Dave Pfeiffer: Alright. Top of the quote. The first real section is usually demo.
            Nina Torres: Demolition and disposal.
            Dave Pfeiffer: And what I want to see there is what's coming out. Cabinets, counters, flooring? Down to the studs? Or just the stuff you can see?
            Nina Torres: Because "demo kitchen" can mean pull the uppers... or it can mean open the walls. Very different days.
            Dave Pfeiffer: Very different. And who's hauling it? Is the dumpster in there, or is it a separate line later?
            Nina Torres: Or not on there at all.
            Dave Pfeiffer: Or not at all. Which is a cousin of my favorite topic.
            Nina Torres: Here it comes.
            Dave Pfeiffer: The allowance.
            Nina Torres: Go ahead. Do the speech.
            Dave Pfeiffer: An allowance is a placeholder. The contractor says, we'll put this much in for cabinets, this much for tile, this much for lighting, because you haven't picked yet. The trap is when that number's low. The quote looks great. Then you go to the showroom and nothing in the building costs what they budgeted.
            Nina Torres: Okay, and here's where I push back. Again.
            Dave Pfeiffer: Twice already?
            Nina Torres: Allowances aren't the trap. LOW allowances are the trap. When I price a job and the client hasn't picked a faucet, I've got two options. I guess and pretend it's a fixed price, or I write an allowance and tell them straight up it's a placeholder. The second one is the honest one.
            Dave Pfeiffer: That's... yeah. That's right.
            Nina Torres: The trick is asking what the allowance actually buys. Show me a cabinet line that fits in it. Show me a tile.
            Dave Pfeiffer: That's the move. If they can't point at a real product that fits the number, the allowance is fiction.
            Nina Torres: And ask if it includes install. Sometimes the tile allowance is material only, and the labor's a whole other thing.
            Dave Pfeiffer: And what happens when you go over. Is it just the difference? Or the d...

            11 min

          About Twin Cities Remodel Hour

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          Real numbers for real remodels: what kitchens, baths, and basements actually cost in the Twin Cities, and what to ask before you sign — with Dave Pfeiffer and Nina Torres. New episodes every Tuesday,…