Me, handyman (demo help), general construction worker, electrician, plumbers

Since you are starting from scratch in a room that was previously a bedroom, you need to have designer configure the space. Once you have the design you can talk to contractors that will bid on the design. If you talk to more than one contractor you will then have them bidding on the same design. The contractor will give you his price after he has consulted with plumbers, electricians, carpenters, dry waller, tiler or whoever else is needed. The contractor may actually be one or more of those trades people too.

In my bathroom remodel, I didn't need a designer because I was not reconfiguring the space at all. I decided on my own which tub, sink, toilet, tile and faucets etc that I wanted. My contractor was a professional tiler by trade so he did all the tile setting but he had licensed subs for the other trades people.

This depends so much on who you find. Also on what you know, what you can learn, how much time you can spend, and what the practice is in your area.

I was lucky to find a general contractor who does everything but major electrical work and cement work. By major electrical work, I mean that when my sub panel ran out of slots, he told me I needed to hire an electrician to upgrade my service, but while I still had open slots, he was able to wire new circuits into the box and fish them through the walls and ceiling and wire the box or unit at the business end. He has done all the plumbing and laid the tile, attended training for different waterproofing methods so that he has the knowledge and later got the experience using them in his various jobs. He is a great carpenter and has built cabinets to match ones I had that had rounded corners and beadboard fronts. He put a skylight in the kitchen that brought light into a dark space and it has never leaked. He has added walls and removed walls and fixed I don't know how many errors he found behind our walls, left there by homeowners who did not know what they were doing. So if I want something done, he does it and I know it will be done right. He is picky and won't leave it be until it is right.

I found him by talking to the guys at the contractor counter at the lumber yard. I was getting ready for a kitchen remodel and I asked them for recommendations for contractors who came there who seemed to know what they were doing. One guy took me aside and showed me some pictures of Jim's work and suggested I call him. I got the names for two other guys the same way, and then called them and asked them to come and see the job. The first guy never showed. The second guy showed and his eyes glazed over when I talked with him about one of my ideas and he never gave me a bid. Jim understood my idea, pulled out his tape measure and said that there was room to do it. We talked about how we would work it, and what he thought would work better. He added to my ideas in a positive way. He treated me like just another person, not like the way some tradesmen talk down to women. He has gotten every job in my houses ever since.

Most people don't end up with a "guy" as I have had the luck to do. But I mention it because it is a possibility. Jim has a General Contractor license, which allows him to do any of the building trades in my state. He knows his limits and I trust him to not do things that are beyond him, but that is his character. Often, people doing a bathroom will hire a kitchen and bath business to do the work, and they will send out their subs as each phase comes up. All of the kitchen and bath places I visited, though, would only do the work inside an already finished space. They did not have anyone who would take down or put up walls. I bet they wanted the plumbing and electrical done already, too. They really were just glorified cabinet stores! Jim moved walls in both of the kitchens he remodeled for me.

If you are a confident person and you have a good idea of what you want in your new bathroom, then you can start exploring bathroom fixtures and furniture and see what you like and what fits in your budget. Make a list of what you need this bathroom to do for you and prioritize it. Decide on your style. Do you want cabinetry that goes down to the floor with a toe-kick? Or do you prefer the more modern Euro look with wall-hung short cabinets, or an unfitted look with console sinks and separate drawers? There are websites galore that will let you price out many different styles and qualities of cabinetry and sinks. Same with faucets and shower/tub plumbing. Determine your style, so you can know where to go from there.

Spend hours reading about remodeling disasters here in the Baths forum and in the Remodeling Forum so that you know what NOT to do and what kind of signs to watch out for when you come home at night and see what the contractors have done. Read up on showers if you plan to have a free-standing one. There are a lot of ways of doing them wrong, and a few ways to do them right. Hiring a contractor does not guarantee that it will be done right.

If you are not confident and you would rather hand it over to a stranger, then hire someone to do the design and to manage the job, but know that you will still need to know about all of the possible disasters in order to know what to watch out for! I look at it this way, it is always my money being spent, my home that I will be living in, so I better be able to understand what is being done and what is the correct way to do it. You need to at least be familiar with waterproofing methods so that you can ask the companies that you interview what method they are going to use to waterproof your shower or the walls above your bathtub.

If you have any other tricky installation that people sometimes mess up - like an acrylic shower base, I would download those instructions myself and make sure that the contractor is planning to install the base according to those instructions. Acrylic showers and tubs are often (always? I don't know) set into a bed of mortar. Even some heavier solid surface shower pans are. Not everybody bothers to read and do this. Things like this cost a lot to correct, and even if they are corrected by the contractor when they fail down the road, the inconvenience to you is enormous and your bathroom never looks "perfect" again. So I advocate that the homeowner should be aware of the installation requirements for their materials so that they can write them into the contract, or at least attach the sheet. Then, if you peek in at the end of the day and see something that you know is wrong, you can make a phone call to the general contractor and have it investigated.

Architect for addition, GC, framers, gutter guys, siding guys, roofer, excavator for new outside plumbing and sewer trench, plumbers, electricians, drywallers, tiler, painter, sod layers and paver to redo driveway and yard torn out due to locating a bath where no plumbing previously existed.

I started working with a kitchen designer, then the bath got added to that project. I used her drawings to get estimates and select a general contractor.

Oh and I second reading threads here for what not to do

"I don't understand if I am supposed to work with a contractor, a designer, a decorator or some combination of this?"

There are myriad paths to chose from. But I'd recommend:

I'd recommend you scratch out your design ideas on paper, and snip magazine photos or use a pinterest type of scrapbook to collect images of what you like.

Once you have a mini-portfolio that can be used to focus your goals for the build, then look for help.

Some contractors/builders are design-build firms. They can do design in-house. They can assess what your bathroom will need...drain/waste/vent relocation, plumbing supply, electrical supply, framing considerations, working around or relocating existing doors/windows, etc. They'll typically work with you on your design, refining your original ideas. Then they do the majority of the build themselves with in-house employees and sub out those things that they can't do, like plumbing, electrical, and sometimes tile.

Or you can hire a contractor that is well-versed in bathroom construction. They might recommend a designer for you to work with, or you can find your own designer and the three of you work together as a design team. The builder can assess your house and tell you what may or may not be feasible for your budget. You contribute your ideas and vision, the designer translates them into a working plan. Then the builder makes it all happen.

Some designers like working with certain builders. Some builders like working with certain designers. So if you start with one, they may be able to recommend the other half.

Builders for the most part can build.

Designers, you'd ant to find one that will implement your vision to give you what you want. There are some designers out there that are somewhat rigid in their methods, make sure you get a design that works for you and how you live and not a design that works for them and their portfolio.

If you have a friend or acquaintance who has had a favorable remodel or build, ask for references.