Bathroom Remodeling in Tampa Bay, FL

A remodel starts with tearing out the old shower or tub wall. That is the moment you find out whether the wall behind it is dry, solid and flat. Soft drywall, rusted fasteners, dark staining on the studs or a musty smell all point to water that got behind the tile years ago and kept going.

Anything damaged gets cut out and replaced before new work goes in. Framing is checked for plumb and for square, since a wall that leans will make every tile row look crooked once the pattern starts. Plumbing valves and the shower arm are set at the right depth now, so the trim sits flush with the finished tile later.

CGE does the demolition as part of the remodel and covers the floors and counters outside the bathroom first. Reviewers mention daily cleanup, which matters when the only bathroom in the house is the one being rebuilt.

Tile and grout are not waterproof. Water passes through grout joints and even through some stone. What keeps a shower from leaking into the wall is the waterproofing layer behind the tile: a sheet membrane or a liquid-applied coating that wraps the walls, the curb and the floor as one continuous shell.

The weak points are the corners, the seams, the valve openings and the drain. Those get reinforcing fabric or preformed corners so there is no gap for water to find. Many installers flood-test the pan before any tile goes on, leaving water in the shower floor to confirm the level holds.

The shower floor also needs a slope toward the drain, built into the mortar bed beneath the tile. A quarter inch of fall per foot is the usual target. Too flat and water pools. Too steep and the floor feels strange underfoot. Small mosaic tile follows that slope easily, which is one reason it is so common on shower floors.

CGE's photos include a herringbone mosaic shower floor behind glass and a black and white mosaic floor in a small bathroom. Mosaic suits a shower floor for practical reasons. More grout lines mean more traction, and small pieces bend around the slope to the drain without awkward cuts.

Herringbone is a pattern that exposes sloppy layout. Every piece has to start from a true centerline, and the pattern has to meet the walls and the curb cleanly. Pieces at the edges are cut to fit, and the cuts should look planned instead of leftover. A dry layout on the floor before any mortar goes down saves a lot of correction later.

On the walls, dark herringbone like the green tile in one of CGE's shower photos shows every grout line, so spacing has to stay consistent from the first row to the last.

A recessed niche gives you a place for shampoo that does not drip onto a shelf. It is built into the wall between the studs, lined with the same waterproofing as the rest of the shower, and sloped slightly outward so water drains instead of sitting in the bottom. The back and sides are tiled, and the niche is sized to the tile so no sliver cuts show.

Plan the niche height early. It should sit at a comfortable reach, clear of the valve and the shower head, and its edges should line up with the grout lines of the surrounding wall when possible. When the layout is not planned ahead, the niche ends up cutting through tile rows in a way that looks accidental.

Corners between walls and at the floor get flexible caulk, not grout. These joints expand and contract, and rigid grout cracks there within months. Proper installers leave those corners open during grouting, then fill them with a matching sealant.

A tub surround follows the same logic as a shower: solid backing, a waterproofing layer, then tile. The gap where the tile meets the tub deck needs a flexible sealant, because the tub moves a little when it fills with water and a person steps in. CGE has installed large neutral tile around a tub, and marble-look wall tile beside a freestanding tub and a window opening, which adds cuts around the sill and the return.

Windows inside a shower area need sloped sills so water runs off instead of sitting on a flat ledge. The tile around the opening is cut carefully, and the corners are sealed with a flexible joint.

Bathroom floor tile often ties the room together. Matching or complementing the shower floor looks intentional, but transitions between materials need thought. A threshold or a clean tile edge at the door keeps a flat line, and the floor beneath has to be flat enough for the tile size you picked.

Bathrooms are hard to price without seeing them. Thales visits, measures the shower, tub and floor, looks at what the room has now and talks through what you want. Then he prices the job. The estimate is free.

CGE moves furniture with care when the homeowner cannot leave, protects the rest of the house and cleans up as the work goes. The company is licensed and insured, with workers compensation, general liability and umbrella coverage. Call or send the form to set up a visit.