The bath you use every morning.

Oak Forest, Meyerland, and a lot of Humble’s older streets have a hall bath with a tub, a small vanity, and a door that barely clears the toilet. People want a shower they can walk into and a vanity that holds more than a cup. The room does not get bigger because we wish it would. We measure the door swing, the window, and the drain. Sometimes the tub stays and the surround is the project. Sometimes the tub comes out and a curb shower fits. We say which one the plumbing allows.

Kingwood, Cypress, and newer Tomball houses often already have a primary bath with room for a glass panel and a double vanity. The failure there is usually the pan, the corners, or a fan that dumps steam into the attic. A remodel can be new tile and a real waterproofing layer without moving a single wall. Moving the shower to the window wall is a different project, and on a post-tension slab it may not be worth the cut.

Montrose and Garden Oaks add pier-and-beam floors and rooms that are out of square. A glass panel that was ordered square will show the gap. We template from the room. Original trim outside the bath is worth matching if the rest of the house still has it. A plastic surround in a bungalow can be the right cheap fix, or it can be the thing you are tired of. Both are honest conversations.

Tile is not waterproof. The layer behind it is. We put that layer on the walls and the pan, we treat the corners and the niche, and then we set the tile. A niche that is just a hole in the studs will leak behind your shampoo bottles. The curb gets the same attention. This is the part of the job you will not see in a photograph, and it is the part that decides whether the ceiling below stays dry.

Second-floor baths in Spring and Cypress need the ceiling underneath in the plan. If the old pan already stained that ceiling, we open what is wet, dry it, and rebuild it as part of the job. Closing a pretty shower over a wet ceiling is how you buy the same repair twice. Ground-floor baths on a slab need the floor flat enough for the tile. A hump at the door shows up in the grout lines.

• Pan and wall waterproofing before any finish tile.
• A fan that leaves the house, not the attic.
• Niches built as part of the waterproof layer.
• Glass ordered after the curb and the walls are real, not from a guess.

Paint in a bath wants a finish you can wipe. A matte ceiling that never dries will spot. We vent the room and we give the waterproofing time before the door is closed up for a week. Grout in a shower gets dirty. A grout that can be sealed, or a grout joint you are willing to clean, belongs in the choice of tile. Tiny tiles mean more grout. Large tiles mean a flatter wall.

Vanities made of raw particle board swell at the sink. We have opened enough of them. A plywood box or a well-built cabinet with a top that protects the edge survives the splash. The top itself can be stone, a cultured top, or a simpler solid surface. We talk about the sink you use, not a showroom photo. In a narrow hall bath, a smaller vanity with a real medicine cabinet beats a wide cabinet that blocks the door.

• Bathroom remodeling
• Tile for wet rooms
• Hall baths in Oak Forest
• Small baths in Garden Oaks

On a slab, the toilet flange and the shower drain are in concrete. Moving them is a cut, a patch, and a dust day. Keeping them and rebuilding the room around them is often the better remodel. On a pier-and-beam house we can sometimes reroute under the floor, which is messy in a different way and still has to be supported. We do not promise a freestanding tub on a new wall until we have seen the drain and the joists.

Supply lines in older Garden Oaks and Montrose houses may be a mix of old and new. If we are opening the wall, that is the time to replace a crusty valve, not the week after the tile is up. Shutoffs that do not shut are part of the scope when we find them. We would rather add them while the wall is open than leave you with a single main valve for the whole house.

Protect the rest of the house. Demo the wet finishes. Repair the framing we can now see. Waterproof. Tile. Set the vanity, the glass, and the accessories. Paint when the dust is actually gone. A bath that is painted before the tile is cut will wear that dust in the finish. We sequence it so you have one working bath in the house if you have a second one. If this is the only bath, we say how many days the water will be off and we stick to that plan.

Permits show up when plumbing moves. The city or the county follows the address. Friendswood is not Houston. Tomball is not unincorporated Harris County on every street. We check. Call (713) 909-0034 with the address and a photo of the bath as it is. Family-owned since 1993. If the only problem is a soft spot in the floor, say that. A remodel on a rotten subfloor is a repair first.

• What changes a bathroom remodel cost
• Primary baths in Kingwood
• Baths in newer Cypress houses
• Bungalow baths in Montrose

A toilet that seeped, a valve that split, or a shower that was never waterproofed can be why you are remodeling. Dry the subfloor and the ceiling below before new tile goes on. If you are filing, photograph the failure and the wet materials. We are not public adjusters. The insurer decides whether the leak is covered. The new glass, if it was not there before, is a choice you are making, and it should be written that way.

We will tell you if the room only needs a pan and a surround. Not every tired bath needs to be taken to the studs. Not every stained ceiling is a full remodel. The visit is how we tell those apart. Bring the list of what annoys you on a Tuesday morning. That list is more useful than a folder of photos from a house with a different floor plan.