By Gene and Katie Hamilton

We’ve all seen a towel bar dangling by one end, rendering it useless for hanging towelsor anything else. Replacing a towel bar that’s pulled out of the wallboard from being used as a grab bar once too often is one of the most common repairs in a bathroom.

The job involves repairing the hole in the wall, reinstalling the bar or a new one, and then redecorating the wall with a new patch of sanded wallboard. None of these steps are rocket science, but they involve several of them.

Since the job is small and requires several different steps, you’ll be lucky to find a handyman to do it. If you do, the charge will be $88, which includes the labor and material. If you’re handy, you can do the job for about $50, the cost of a new towel bar and molly or toggle-type anchor fasteners.

Repair the old hole or holes using a wallboard compound with at least two applications; sand in between them. Paint or wallpaper before installing the towel bar. Then position each end of the bar on a wall stud (use a stud finder to locate them). Use a drill to predrill the installation holes for the fasteners and a level to make sure the bar is straight as you fasten it to the wall.

Now you know the average cost to replace a towel bar, which includes the labor and material, and what’s involved, so you can decide to do it yourself or hire a contractor. Don’t forget to adjust the cost to where you live by adding your ZIP Code.

Improvement and Repair Cost Updated 2019

The cost and time data is generated by averaging labor and material data from annually updated cost books used by contractors and refined by the authors' experience remodeling 13 houses. They are authors of 20 home improvement books and Do It Yourself or Not, a weekly column syndicated by Tribune Content Agency. The national cost can be adjusted by ZIP Code.