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Bathroom Remodeling · From the field
Six questions to ask a bathroom remodeller before you sign anything
A bathroom is the most expensive room per square foot in a house and the one where bad work is hidden behind tile within a fortnight. A look at the questions that get useful answers — waterproofing, licences, demolition surprises and how change orders are priced.
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Quick answer
What should I ask a bathroom remodeling contractor?
Ask what waterproofing system goes behind the tile and who makes it, ask who holds the plumbing licence for the work, ask what happens if demolition finds rot or a leak, and ask how change orders are priced. Those four questions get past the showroom conversation and into the part of the job that decides whether the bathroom lasts fifteen years or three.
What goes behind the tile, and who makes it
Tile is not waterproof. Grout is not waterproof. Everything that keeps water out of the wall happens before the first tile goes on, and once tiling starts you cannot see any of it. This is the single most important question in a bathroom quote and the one most rarely asked.
A proper answer names a system: a sheet or liquid-applied membrane over backer board, or a foam board system, with the manufacturer named and the seams and corners detailed. A vague answer — "we use cement board", "we waterproof it" — is not an answer. Cement board is a substrate, not a waterproofing layer, and board alone behind a shower is how you get a leak into the room below in year three.
The Tile Council of North America publishes the assemblies that the industry actually works to, and a contractor who can say which one they are building is a contractor who has thought about it. We put the system in the written scope so there is nothing to remember differently later.
Who holds the plumbing licence
A Maryland Home Improvement Commission licence does not authorise plumbing. Moving a drain, relocating a supply, swapping a tub for a shower with a different waste position — that is licensed plumbing work, and it needs somebody who holds that licence doing it or supervising it.
So the question is simply: who is doing the plumbing, and are they licensed for it. The honest answers are either that the contractor holds the licence, or that a licensed plumber is on the job. Either is fine. What is not fine is a shrug, because the consequence lands on you — an unpermitted drain relocation is a problem that surfaces when you sell the house.
We run plumbing work with a licensed plumber rather than claiming it ourselves, and we say so on the service page. It is the one place in our fifteen services where we are not the licence holder, and pretending otherwise would be the sort of thing this article is about.
What happens when demolition finds something
Bathrooms hide water damage better than any other room, because the thing that leaks is behind the thing that looks fine. Open a floor and you may find a soft subfloor around the toilet flange, a joist with rot where a shower pan failed twenty years ago, or a supply line someone repaired with the wrong fitting.
This is not a sign of a bad contractor. It is normal. What separates a good quote is whether it says in advance how such a finding is handled: inspected, photographed, priced as a written change order, and your decision before work continues. A quote with no allowance and no process means the conversation happens when your bathroom is already open.
Ask for a contingency figure as well. On a house older than about thirty years we would rather name a realistic allowance for what is likely behind the walls and return it unspent than quote low and have an awkward conversation on day three.
How change orders are priced
Every bathroom has change orders, because choices get made in front of real walls that could not be made over a table. The question is whether the pricing mechanism is agreed beforehand or invented in the moment.
A reasonable arrangement: labour at a stated rate, materials at cost plus a stated percentage, each change written and signed before it is done. An unreasonable one: verbal agreement and a number on the final invoice. The second version is how a bathroom that was quoted at one figure arrives at a very different one, and the dispute afterwards is unwinnable because nothing was written.
This matters most on tile upgrades, niche and bench additions, and fixture changes, which is where most change orders actually come from. Our bathroom remodel cost guide gives the figures for the common upgrades so you can see what a change should cost before anybody prices one.
Two more worth asking
Where will we wash? A single-bathroom house is a different project from a house with two, and it changes the sequence. A good contractor plans the critical path so the room is out of use for the shortest possible window rather than sitting part-finished waiting on a trade. Ask how many days with no bathroom, specifically, and whether the number assumes the tile has arrived.
And: who is actually in my house? Employees, long-standing subcontractors, or whoever is available that week. There is no single right answer, but there is a right way to answer it. We self-perform the trades we are licensed for, which is the reason the same people are there on day one and day fifteen.
If it is an accessibility project — grab bars, a curbless entry, a wider door — ask whether the contractor has done one, and whether they know the dimensions. The federal accessibility standards are the reference for clearances even in a private home, and falls in bathrooms are common enough that the CDC tracks them. Guessing at grab-bar blocking is the kind of thing that only matters once.
If you only skim
The short version
- Ask which waterproofing system goes behind the tile, by manufacturer name.
- Cement board is a substrate, not waterproofing.
- MHIC does not authorise plumbing — find out who holds that licence.
- Expect a written contingency for what demolition finds in an older house.
- Agree change-order pricing in writing before work starts, not after.
- In a one-bathroom house, ask how many days the room is unusable.
The trade behind this post
Bathroom Remodeling
Reading because you have this exact problem? Call and describe it. You’ll get a straight answer on whether it’s something we do and roughly what it runs.
(301) 524-1729See how we do bathroom remodelingWhat bathroom remodeling costs in MarylandOn the job
The work this post is about.
Trade photography, stage by stage. Photos of our own recent jobs come out at the walkthrough, on the actual house.
Straight answers
What homeowners ask next
Not covered here? Call and ask — you’ll get a real answer, not a “depends on the job”.
A straightforward hall bath with a tub-shower, new tile, vanity and fixtures sits in the mid five figures in most of our area; a primary bathroom with a tiled shower, bench, niche and relocated plumbing runs well above that. Our bathroom remodel cost guide breaks the figures out by scope rather than giving one headline number.
Three to five weeks for a full remodel is realistic, with the longest single wait being tile and waterproofing cure times that cannot be shortened. Anybody promising ten days is either leaving the plumbing where it is or not letting mortar and membrane cure, and the second one fails.
Replacing finishes in the same footprint usually does not. Moving plumbing, altering electrical circuits, or changing anything structural usually does, and the rules differ by county — Frederick, Carroll, Washington, Montgomery and Howard all have their own permit offices. We pull what the scope needs rather than deciding a permit is optional.
Yes, and plenty of clients do. The two things to agree first are lead time, because a job stalls waiting on a vanity, and responsibility — if an owner-supplied item arrives damaged or does not fit the rough-in, that sits with you rather than us. We will tell you the rough-in dimensions before you order.
Across Frederick County and Maryland within about 90 minutes of Frederick — eight counties from Hagerstown across to Annapolis, including Middletown, Myersville, Thurmont, New Market and Mount Airy. Maryland only; we do not work in Washington, DC. Call (301) 524-1729 to walk the room.
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