Bathroom Remodeling

More of our work is bathrooms than anything else, and more of our reviews mention them than any other room. A bathroom is the hardest small space in a house to get right: it is the only room where plumbing, waterproofing, tile, ventilation and electrical all stack inside about forty square feet, and where a single shortcut behind the wall shows up as a stain on a ceiling two floors down.

We take bathrooms down to the studs. Half-measures — tiling over old tile, reusing a valve that is already weeping, skipping the membrane because the old one 'held up fine' — are how a remodel that looked finished starts failing in year three.

What a full gut actually involves

Demolition comes out first: tub or shower base, wall tile, floor, vanity, toilet, and the substrate behind all of it. We take it back to framing so we can see what we are working with. Older Clifton and Passaic County housing stock regularly hides surprises at this stage — galvanized supply lines gone tight with corrosion, a lead bend at the closet flange, joists notched by whoever ran the last waste line, or rot in the subfloor around the toilet where a wax ring failed years ago and nobody noticed.

Once it is open, rough plumbing and electrical get set to the new layout. Moving a toilet more than a few inches means opening the floor and re-pitching the waste line — a real change, not a cosmetic one, which is why relocating fixtures costs what it does. Then comes the part that matters most.

Waterproofing is the whole job

Cement board is not waterproof. It is a stable surface to tile on, and water passes straight through it. A wet area needs a proper membrane over the board — a bonded sheet membrane or a liquid-applied coating, with every corner, seam and pipe penetration sealed and the curb and niche treated as part of the same continuous surface.

Shower pans get pre-sloped correctly to the drain so water cannot sit under the tile. Niches get pitched forward a couple of degrees so they drain instead of pooling. Curbs get wrapped on all three faces. None of this is visible when we hand the room back, which is exactly why it is the first thing skipped by anyone bidding low.

Tile, and why layout is decided before anything is cut

We set the tile layout before the first cut — where the full tiles land, where the cuts fall, how the grout lines meet at inside corners, whether the niche courses line up with the field. Getting that wrong leaves a sliver cut at eye level in the most visible corner of the room, and no amount of good workmanship afterwards hides it.

Large-format porcelain, natural stone, mosaic floors, herringbone and stacked layouts, curbless entries where the framing allows it — the tile is where a bathroom stops looking builder-grade. Movement joints go where they belong, grout and sealant are matched to the material, and stone gets sealed before it ever meets grout.

Ventilation and the things that get forgotten

An exhaust fan that dumps into the attic instead of outside is one of the most common defects we find, and it quietly grows mould above the ceiling for years. Fans get ducted to the exterior, sized to the room, and switched so they actually run long enough to clear the moisture.

GFCI protection, adequate lighting over the vanity rather than only in the centre of the ceiling, blocking in the walls for grab bars now or later, and a door that clears the new floor height — these are small items that are nearly free during a gut and expensive to add afterwards.

How long it takes and what it costs

A straightforward full bathroom gut generally runs two to three weeks of on-site work once materials are in hand. Relocating fixtures, structural changes, custom glass or a stone slab that has to be templated after the walls are set will extend that. Custom shower glass in particular cannot be ordered until the tile is finished and measured, and that lead time is usually the last thing holding up a handover.

We give a written estimate after seeing the room, not over the phone. Anyone quoting a bathroom sight-unseen is either guessing or planning to revise it once the walls are open.