Bathroom Remodeling

Demolition with a hazardous material assessment first, framing and blocking for fixtures, rough and finish plumbing, waterproofing, ventilation, then finishes: drywall, flooring, painting, bath cabinets and hardware, countertops, tile with its trim, base, niches, grout and sealer, tub and shower doors, mirrors, accessories and shelving. The waterproofing sits between the rough-in and the tile and is the line that decides whether the room lasts.

If you move plumbing, alter electrical, or change the ventilation, yes. A like-for-like replacement of fixtures in the same positions sometimes does not, but a full gut and rebuild normally does. We prepare and submit the drawings and carry the application through to an issued permit with our licence number on it. Unpermitted bathroom work has a habit of surfacing during a sale.

Recorded values across our residential building permits run from $25,000 to $210,000, which is public record rather than a quote. Within a bathroom the biggest variables are whether you move a drain, whether you go from a tub to a walk-in shower, and the tile format and material. A written scope and price comes out of a site visit.

Because tile and grout are not waterproof. Grout is porous and backer board is not a membrane. What keeps water out of the framing is the waterproofing layer underneath and the detailing at the inside corners, the change of plane, the curb and the drain flange. The curb detail and the membrane connection at the drain flange are the two things worth asking about on any bathroom quote.

Yes, and it is one of the most common requests. It changes the drain position, the threshold, the floor build-up and the waterproofing detail. A kerbless or level-access shower is the more demanding version because the whole floor has to fall correctly to the drain and the membrane has to be continuous across the threshold. It is very achievable, and it costs more than a standard curbed shower.

A recess in the wall for shampoo and soap. It is a deliberate hole in a waterproofed surface, so the membrane has to be returned into it and detailed at every internal corner. Detailed properly it is completely reliable. Detailed poorly it is one of the first places a shower leaks. Niches and ledges appear as their own line in a construction budget for precisely that reason.

Yes. C-36 plumbing is on our licence, so the rough and finish plumbing is done by the company holding the contract rather than by a subcontractor whose schedule you are waiting on. In a bathroom that matters because the rough plumbing has to pass inspection before anything is covered, and the plumbing detail and the waterproofing detail have to agree with each other at the drain.

An extract fan has to move air to the outside of the building through a duct of the right diameter and a run short enough to work, terminating outdoors rather than in a roof space or soffit. Ducting, vents and ventilation are separate budget lines. In an older house the hard question is where the duct can physically run, and that is answered on the drawings rather than on site.

It depends on the scope and we will not invent a figure for a project we have not seen. What is worth planning around is that some lead times cannot be compressed: waterproofing has to cure and be tested before tile, and tub and shower doors are templated only after the tile is finished. Those two sit at either end of the finishing sequence.

It can, particularly with a high-flow or multi-outlet shower on an older or undersized heater. Water heaters are a line in the plumbing division for that reason. It is worth checking capacity at the start rather than finding out on the first morning after handover.

The budget carries a hazardous material assessment line before demolition and a remediation line after it. Older tile beds, mastics and paint layers are common places to find both in Bay Area housing stock. Finding it is routine. Finding it with no line in the budget for it is the problem.

Yes. We hold the C-6 cabinet and millwork classification and run our own wood shop with a five by twelve foot CNC router, so a vanity is made to the room rather than ordered to the nearest stock width. In a small bathroom where every inch is contested, that is usually the difference between a vanity that fits and one that nearly fits.

Contra Costa, Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Marin counties. Our permitted kitchen and bathroom work on public record sits in San Francisco, Belmont and San Leandro.