Full Bathroom Tear-Out and Rebuild on an Older Home

Older homes don't always show you their problems right away. The tile looked rough on the surface - cracked grout, failing joints - but the real issue was behind the walls. Water had been getting in for a while, and once we pulled everything off, we could see exactly what we were dealing with: original wood lath that had taken on moisture damage behind the surround. That's the kind of thing a fresh re-grout won't fix.

We did a full tear-out. Every bit of old tile and damaged wall material came out so we could start clean. The tub was in good shape, so we protected it throughout the job and kept it in place - no reason to replace something that doesn't need it. Once the walls were stripped back, we rebuilt them the right way using GoBoard waterproof tile backer on all three surround walls. That material is built for wet areas and gives the new tile a solid, moisture-resistant surface to bond to.

From there, the rest of the bathroom followed. New flooring went down, fresh tile went up in the surround, new fixtures were installed, and the walls got a new coat of paint. The old pedestal sink got swapped out for a vanity - better storage, cleaner look. New lighting went in above the mirror too. The finished space feels completely different from what we started with.

This is the kind of work we do a lot of - bathroom remodels where the visible problem turns out to be covering up a bigger one underneath. It takes more time to do it right, but cutting corners on water damage just moves the problem forward. We handle everything from the demo all the way through to the finished product, so you're not coordinating between multiple contractors or wondering who's responsible for what. One crew, start to finish.