Bathroom Remodeling in Scottsdale, AZ

The Part That Matters Most: Waterproofing

Everything else in a bathroom is finish. Waterproofing is the part that decides whether the room lasts twenty years or fails in five, and it is completely invisible once the tile is on. It is also the step that gets cut when a bid comes in low.

Here is the thing most homeowners do not know: tile is not waterproof and grout is porous. Water passes through the grout joints routinely. What keeps it out of your framing is the waterproofing layer underneath, and the wet areas of a bathroom need that layer covering walls and floor before any tile is set. Multiple layers can be used, and on a shower a pan sits beneath the tile as the second line of defense.

What that means in practice:

• A bonded waterproofing membrane over the substrate on all wet walls and the shower floor
• A correctly sloped shower pan, because water that does not reach the drain sits in the pan
• Sealed and reinforced corners, changes of plane and penetrations, which is where failures start
• Waterproofed niches, benches and curbs, which are the most common leak points after corners
• A leak test before tile, so a failure is found when it costs nothing to fix

When you get bids, ask each contractor to describe their waterproofing system by name. The answer tells you almost everything about the bid.

Showers, Tubs and Fixtures

Shower types. A standard stall with a door or curtain to contain spray. A shower-tub combination, which saves space and serves both functions. A dedicated shower room or wet room, which has no raised containment and instead slopes the whole floor to the drain. Curbless and roll-in showers, which remove the step entirely.

Tubs. Alcove tubs fit a three-wall recess and are the standard secondary-bath fixture. Freestanding and clawfoot tubs are a design statement and need floor structure and a floor-mounted or wall-mounted filler. Drop-in and undermount tubs sit in a built deck. Materials run from cast iron, which holds heat best and weighs the most, through porcelain-enameled steel, thermoformed acrylic and fiberglass-reinforced polyester. Clawfoot styles, including roll rim, slipper and double-ended, were at their most popular from the 1880s through the 1930s and read as period-correct rather than contemporary.

The tub question. In most secondary bathrooms, keeping a tub protects resale. In a master suite, replacing a rarely used garden tub with a larger shower is one of the most consistently satisfying changes we make. If the house has at least one other tub, the master tub is usually optional.

Electrical. Ground-fault circuit interrupter protection is required in bathrooms under US building code. Lighting should be even and bright, with at least two sources at the mirror separated by a foot or more, and fixtures in wet zones rated for splash exposure.

Service Areas

We remodel bathrooms throughout Scottsdale, ZIP codes 85250 through 85269, from Old Town condos through the 1970s Shea Corridor stock to DC Ranch and Desert Mountain. We also serve Paradise Valley, Arcadia in Phoenix, Carefree, Cave Creek and Fountain Hills. See Scottsdale Kitchen Remodeling Pros.

Related

Work that pairs with this

Clients comparing options usually read accessible bathroom remodeling alongside this page, and historic and vintage bathroom renovation comes up often enough to be worth a look before you decide. If the scope turns out to be broader than one room, renovating a powder room is the wider version of the same conversation.

We also handle our custom cabinet work and building an outdoor kitchen. Combining a bathroom and a kitchen into one contract is easier to sequence and cheaper to mobilize than running them a year apart.

Other bathroom services

• Master Bathroom Remodeling
• Luxury Master Bathroom Remodeling
• Small Bathroom Remodeling
• Guest & Hall Bathroom Remodeling
• Half Bath & Powder Room Remodeling
• Jack-and-Jill Bathroom Remodeling
• Condo Bathroom Remodeling
• Accessible & Aging-in-Place Bathroom Remodeling
• Bathroom Layout Reconfiguration
• Wet Room Conversion
• Bathroom Additions
• Basement Bathroom Remodeling
• Historic & Vintage Bathroom Renovation