A guest house remodel costs $65,000 to $180,000, with an average of $90,000. You’ll pay more for a pro to build a larger guest house with special features.
The average guest house remodel costs $90,000 though it can range from as little as $18,000 to as much as $490,000. These are large price tags, but you'd be surprised at how much money you can recoup later. However, guest house remodels are often about increasing the livability of a space and less about the flipping potential.
The project is one of the most expensive, but the good news is that there are plenty of opportunities to save. Learn all the factors that will influence how much you pay for your dream guest house remodel.
The size of your guest house plays a major role in the total cost. There will be a wide variance of costs per square foot to consider for such a large project. For example, remodeling a bedroom or living room may only cost between $20 and $60 per square foot. Kitchens—often the most expensive room to remodel—can cost anywhere from $50 to $200 or more per square foot.
Keep in mind anything that scales with a size increase will increase the cost per square foot. A good example is flooring. Hardwood costs more than other flooring options and can quickly increase the total project the more you scale up in size.
| Size in Square Feet | Average Remodel Cost |
|---|---|
| 400 | $25,000–$40,000 |
| 600 | $35,000–$58,000 |
| 800 | $52,000–$70,000 |
| 1,000 | $59,000–$81,000 |
| 1,300 | $70,000–$97,000 |
| 1,800 | $121,000–$152,000 |
| 2,500 | $180,000–$310,000 |
A home remodeling pro near you is the best person to call for this job. This type of professional, also considered a general contractor, is a one-stop shop and can do everything from layout design to getting permits and negotiating with other pros. Because they have their own teams, they can do the work quicker than other pros as well. General contractors charge daily rates between $300 and $900. This isn’t as common as project-based fees, which range from 10% to 25% of the total project cost.
Electricians can run power to a room, move a light fixture, and handle anything that involves complex electrical work. Because of this, they may charge an hourly rate or a project rate. Most electricians charge an hourly rate between $50 and $130 per hour plus materials. As far as project rate, doing a guest house remodel with a full rewire may end up costing 10% or more of the total project cost.
Plumbers are expensive for a reason. A combination of high demand, unique skills, and the importance of their work means they can charge premium rates. Expect to pay hourly rates similar to experienced electricians—between $40 and $150 per hour. While you may be able to fix small problems on your own, this large job will need a dedicated plumber either as a solo worker or as part of a general contracting team.
The above pros may not be the only ones you need to hire for a home renovation or remodel. You may need to augment a general contractor with other specialized pros. In order to keep costs low, you should hire a general contractor and follow their recommendations for outside help, but ideally, they will have everyone needed under their own umbrella.
For instance, you may want to hire an architect to help you decide on the remodel layout, help you grab any necessary permits, and may have some ideas for the space you wouldn’t have considered on your own. Architects charge an hourly rate—$45 to $250 per hour—or a project-based fee. For a guest house remodel, this could be anywhere from 8% to 20% of the remodel cost.
Local markets play a large role in the costs of a guest house remodel. High-cost-of-living areas can be much more expensive than rural zones due to ease of access to the house, material cost, and labor demand. The values below are estimates based on location, but the ratio between the most expensive and least expensive can be in these ranges or even higher depending on the season and local market conditions. If you’re in a hot market for remodels, expect to pay a premium.
| Location | Average Remodel Cost |
|---|---|
| New York, NY | $97,000–$145,000 |
| San Francisco, CA | $95,000–$145,000 |
| Los Angeles, CA | $85,000–$132,000 |
| Seattle, WA | $80,000–$130,000 |
| Atlanta, GA | $68,000–$109,000 |
| Phoenix, AZ | $65,000–$100,000 |
| Indianapolis, IN | $60,000–$100,000 |
| Columbus, OH | $58,000–$98,000 |
| Tulsa, OK | $55,000–$95,000 |
| Buffalo, NY | $50,000–$93,000 |
You should also consider the price of demolition work, permits, and any special features when budgeting for your guest house remodel.
Demolition work is one of the aspects of this job you can DIY but we add the caveat you should do it with professional supervision or alongside a contractor. The reason for this is you don’t want to hit any water, electrical, or structural aspects that you may not know are there, leading to safety hazards and costly repairs. Average demo costs for a full house sit around $15,000 but a guest house remodel would cost between $3,000 and $9,000 to demo and prep it for a remodel.
A guest house remodel will require permits in almost every city. Your general contractor will be able to handle these, but if you want to do it yourself or are simply curious, expect to pay the upper end of permit costs—between $700 and $3,500.
A remodel may lower your home insurance costs. It’s less risky for an insurance company to insure a remodeled structure than one that is in poor shape or degrading. Make sure you discuss with your insurance company how a remodel may affect your rates. Unfortunately, it isn’t a guarantee they will be lower.
Anything added during a remodel will increase the total costs. Some special features to consider include the following:
Built-in sound system: $240–$1,400
Balcony: $3,000–$9,000
Smart lighting: $400–$1,900
Fireplace: $940–$4,300
Luxury bathroom fixtures: $600–$2,300
Built-in shelving and cabinets: $1,000–$6,000
Hardwood flooring: $2,100–$6,900
Energy-efficient windows: $380–$2,800
Unfortunately, you may need to make repairs in the future. It’s a solid plan to hire the contractor who did the original work as they’re familiar with the materials used and the construction of the remodel. Repair rates for general work are around $90 to $180 per hour, not including materials. Expect to pay more for any repairs involving plumbing, electrical, or structural.
There are plenty of DIY projects you can tackle yourself—this isn’t one of them. A guest house remodel is a major project with many moving parts and should be left to professionals. Their experience and attention to detail are what you’re paying for, along with the knowledge the work is completed to a safe standard. Talk to a local home remodeling pro to discuss layouts, build times, and cost.
If you have the itch, there are parts of a remodel you may be able to DIY, things like light demo work, cutting wood, prep work, material disposal, and so on. Your contractor should sign off on any DIY work. This ensures any work you do is still up to their professional standards and doesn’t affect insurance or warranties.
A remodel may be more costly but if you want to change the layout, it’s what you’ll need to do. However, if you want to spruce up your guest house without dropping close to six figures, consider a renovation. The result may not be a structural change, but a solid renovation can change the look of a space so much that it may seem like a new structure altogether. Ultimately, the decision comes down to budget and desired outcome.
There are plenty of opportunities to save when remodeling a guest house. Consider:
Buying everything in bulk.
Negotiating labor rates for off-season work.
Using materials from the original guesthouse.
Using any and all coupon codes or loyalty programs.
Buying secondhand items like appliances, bathtubs, cabinets, etc.
Limiting accessories or special features.
Researching tax credits or environmental discounts.
Keeping plumbing in the original location.
Using open shelving.
Engineered wood instead of hardwood.
Using coated metal fixtures instead of pure metal.
While building a guest house can yield a return on investment (ROI) of between 60% and 70%, a remodel may or may not yield the same results. There are many factors at play when determining ROI for such an ambitious project—geographical considerations, market appetite, and cost basis are all contributing factors.
A guest house remodel in a healthy market should yield a similar ROI to a guest house build. This means that if a homeowner pursues a $100,000 remodel, they can expect to see a return on that investment between $60,000 and $70,000.
Home is the most important place on earth, which is why Angi has helped more than 150 million homeowners transform their houses into homes they adore. To help homeowners with their next project, Angi provides readers with the most accurate cost data and upholds strict editorial standards. We extensively research project costs to develop the pricing data you see, so you can make the best decisions for you and your home. We rely on reputable sources, including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, academic journals, market studies, and interviews with industry experts—all to ensure our prices reflect real-world projects.
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A guest house can have as many rooms as your budget allows, but two bedrooms are the most common layout. This hits the sweet spot between cost and usefulness as a one-bedroom may be too small to invite or house anything more than one or two people, while a two-bedroom guesthouse can often accommodate a small family or two couples. Many guesthouses are built like detached apartments—two bedrooms with one bathroom.
Assuming you build a two-bedroom, one-bath guesthouse, a good size is somewhere between 700 and 1,000 square feet. It boils down to the proposed use of the guesthouse—housing people indefinitely would require more space so they don’t feel cramped, but if you only use a guest house for short-stay guests, you can get away with a lot less square footage as the house will not be a primary living space.
Increasing home value and return on investment (ROI) are two different things and it’s important to differentiate between the two. While a kitchen remodel will surely raise the value of the house, it may only have an ROI of around 50%. Homeowners looking to raise the value of their home for sale will have to consider how much they will recoup by the monetary investment in projects, as the ROI percentages may be lower or higher than the added value on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
