make sure the boundary between garage and bathroom meets fire codes too.

They have luxury vinyl tile that looks like tile and can even be grouted.

Definitely address the structural issues first, then you can pick whatever floor you want.

Once the structural issues have been addressed, find a contractor who is not afraid of tile and ask for an electric heat coil in under the new floor tile.

Yes, tentative plan is to employ a structural engineer to evaluate exactly what is and isn't possible. However, the project is already more than twice the budget of 20K so am hesitant to begin moving in a direction that is even more costly.

Smit380 -I will look into luxury vinyl tile - certainly didn't realize some can be grouted! Can you share a manufacturer name?

Thanks for all advice!

Mannington, Armstrong, and Shaw all make groutable luxury vinyl tiles. (Personally, I prefer a grout-less installation. I loathe tile and grout, so I have thought about chipping out my actual tile to install grout-less vinyl tile.)

Cork glue down tiles are very light. You can get 100sf for about 80 lbs. About the same weight as vinyl. The thermal benefits of cork flooring also remove the need to add in-floor radiant heat which could add to the weight of the floor. It would be a heat break (stops the cold of the garage from entering into the bath).

Just a thought. Cork tiles are used in RV's, boats, etc because it is light weight, warm and quiet. It is a 3-in-1 product which is a bonus when you have limitations such as weight or budget.

And most bathroom renovations have an average cost of $30K. That is rarely enough to do a MASTER bath + structural engineer report + structural remediation. Those would be EXTRA costs over and above a $30K bath reno. Please check with your financial institute to find out if you can increase your budget and by how much (comfortably).

Thanks Cancork! What a great idea - I will look into cork.

And, the 40K was sans tile, vanity, shower and sink, hardware, tub, etc. Guessing that would be, at minimum another, 20K. It was primarily plumbing (move the toilet about 3 ft), demo and removal, any shoring work if we went that direction, about 7K profit...all this may be completely average. Just significantly more than originally led to believe, resulting in sticker shock. Comes down to deciding how much could be recouped at resale in next 5-10 years.