A Shower Floor Is a Roof Laid Flat
Think about how a roof keeps rain out. Every layer overlaps the one below it, and everything slopes toward the gutter. A shower floor has the same job turned upside down. The membrane under the tile has to run up the walls, lap at every seam and pitch toward the drain. Miss one corner and water finds it.
You won't see the failure for a while. Grout darkens, a tile sounds hollow when you tap it, and one day the floor next to the tub gives a little under your foot. That's the subfloor going soft. A lot of the bathrooms we open up in Sonoma County are in houses from the 1960s and 1970s, when a hot-mopped tar pan under the shower was the standard. So every job starts with what's under the finish. The tile comes second.
Bathroom Remodeling Services
Bathroom RemodelingComplete remodels, from demolition to the final inspection. Waterproofing, plumbing, electrical, tile, vanity and fixtures handled as one job with one written price.Bathroom Remodeling →
Shower Remodels and Walk-In ShowersTear out the old fiberglass surround or the leaking tile and build a shower that drains the way it should. Low or zero curbs, frameless glass, benches and niches are all options.Shower Remodels and Walk-In Showers →
Tub-to-Shower ConversionsIf the tub hasn't held a bath in years, it can become a roomy walk-in shower without moving a wall. Less work than a full remodel, and the room gets a lot more useful.Tub-to-Shower Conversions →
Bathroom Tile InstallationFloors, shower walls and accent walls, set flat over proper backer board and membrane. Porcelain, natural stone or handmade tile, laid out so the cuts land where nobody looks.Bathroom Tile Installation →
Accessible and Aging-in-Place BathroomsGrab bars backed by solid blocking, curbless entries, shower seats and handheld sprayers, so you can keep using your own bathroom safely for years.Accessible and Aging-in-Place Bathrooms →Why Sonoma County Homeowners Choose Us
- You see the full price before demo day. Labor, materials and scope are spelled out in a written estimate.
- Problems get shown, not buried. If we pull the vanity and find rotted subfloor or a weeping supply line, you see the photos and we talk it through before anything gets covered up.
- Permits are on us. We file with the right building department for your address, meet the inspector on site and finish with a signed-off final.
How It Works
- Reach out. Call or fill in the form with your town and a quick note about the bathroom.
- We visit. We measure, check the floor and the plumbing, and go over layout and finishes with you.
- You get it in writing. A written estimate with the scope and price. When you're ready, we file for the permit and get materials on order.
- We build it and close it out. Tear-out, plumbing and electrical rough-in, waterproofing, tile, fixtures and glass, then the final inspection with the city or county.
Ready to retire that old shower? Call (707) 873-7591 and we'll come take a look, free.
Call (707) 873-7591Remodeling Bathrooms Across Sonoma County
Every corner of the county has its own kind of bathroom. In Rohnert Park, most homes went up during the 1960s and 1970s building boom, so we see a lot of original tub-and-tile alcoves and exhaust fans that barely move air. Older houses near downtown Petaluma and around the Sonoma Plaza tend to have cast-iron drains and walls that aren't quite square, which changes how tile gets laid out. Out in west county around Sebastopol, many homes run on well water, and the minerals in it leave scale on glass and fixtures fast. In Santa Rosa, we work on everything from 1950s ranch houses in Montgomery Village to homes rebuilt after the 2017 fires. And around Healdsburg and Windsor, subdivisions from the 1990s and 2000s are reaching the age when the first builder-grade showers start to leak.
Common Questions
It depends on how far you go. Swapping a tub for a shower or refreshing the tile and fixtures costs far less than taking the room to the studs and moving the toilet or the shower drain. Your tile choice, custom glass and whatever turns up behind the old walls move the number most. We'd rather give you a real figure than a guess, so you get a written price once we've seen the room and talked through what you want.
Sometimes. That budget can cover a tub-to-shower conversion or a refresh of the vanity, toilet, lighting and floor in a smaller bathroom. A full remodel with new plumbing, a tiled shower and glass usually costs more here, mostly because of labor and the permit work involved. Tell us your number at the estimate and we'll be straight with you about what it buys.
Each city in Sonoma County has its own building department. A remodel in Santa Rosa goes through the city's Building Division, and Petaluma, Windsor, Healdsburg and the others handle their own. Homes outside city limits, like Glen Ellen, Kenwood or Forestville, go through Permit Sonoma. Tile, cabinets and countertops on their own usually don't need a permit, but new plumbing, wiring or a rebuilt shower do. We take care of the filing.
Plan on three to six weeks of work for a full remodel once demolition starts, and less for a tub-to-shower swap. The permit comes before that and can take a few weeks depending on the department. Frameless glass gets measured after the tile is set, so it's usually the last piece to go in. If it's your only bathroom, tell us early and we'll plan the order of work around it.
It changes a few choices. Well water in west county often carries a lot of minerals, and they leave white scale on glass, grout and fixtures. We lean toward larger tiles with fewer grout lines, glass with a protective coating, and finishes that wipe clean easily. A softener or filter is a plumber's call, but it's worth asking about if you already see buildup. Our shower remodel page goes into the details.
Yes. The usual changes are grab bars screwed into solid blocking inside the wall, a curbless shower with a linear drain, a handheld sprayer on a slide bar and a seat you can actually sit on. For a walker or wheelchair, a wider door makes a big difference. Our aging-in-place bathroom page walks through how we plan it.