Bathroom Remodeling in Alexandria, VA

What a bathroom remodel in Alexandria actually involves

• Demolition down to framing. Tile, tub or shower base, vanity and flooring out, and the walls opened to studs where the wet wall is. On an older house this is where you find corroded supply lines, a rotted subfloor around the toilet flange, or a joist somebody notched to run a drain.
• Electrical and ventilation. GFCI protection, correct fixture clearances around the tub and shower, and an exhaust fan ducted to the outside with adequate capacity. A fan that terminates in the attic is a mold problem with a switch on the wall.
• Waterproofing the wet area. This is the part that matters most and is the least visible when it is done. A tiled shower needs a continuous waterproof assembly behind the tile, correctly detailed at the curb, the corners, the niche and the drain, with a sloped substrate. Cement board alone is not waterproofing.
• Tile, stone and layout. Full-height walls, floor layout set from a center line so the cuts land symmetrically, and a shower floor pitched correctly to the drain in every direction.

What we typically find on a Alexandria house of this era (1750 to 1950 in the core, 1940 to 1975 in the west end). In Old Town the finds are structural and logistical at once: altered framing, party-wall conditions, and no way to get material in except through the front door. In Del Ray and Rosemont it is more familiar — plaster, original wiring in places, and rot where the porch meets the house.

Lead paint: the rule that applies to most of Alexandria

One regulation shapes almost every project on older housing here, and it is the one homeowners hear about least. Under the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, disturbing painted surfaces in a pre-1978 home requires a certified firm, a contained work area and a defined cleanup process. Most of Alexandria's housing stock predates 1978, so assume this applies to your house unless someone has established otherwise. We are an EPA lead-safe certified firm and we work that way as a matter of course. If you are getting bids and nobody else has raised this, that tells you something worth knowing about the bids.

What drives the cost on a Alexandria bathroom remodel

You will notice we do not publish a price range. That is deliberate: the number depends on things nobody can see from the street. Here is what genuinely moves it, so you can interrogate every estimate you receive, including ours.

• Tub-to-shower conversion versus a straight replacement. A conversion changes the drain, the waterproofing and usually the framing at the curb.
• What the demolition finds. Rot at the flange and at the base of the wet wall is common in bathrooms over thirty years old and it is not optional to fix.
• Adding a bathroom where none existed, which is a plumbing project with a bathroom attached rather than the reverse.

The mistakes we get called in to fix

• Tiling directly over unmodified cement board and calling it waterproof. It is not a waterproof membrane, and the shower will eventually wet the framing behind it.
• Ordering the shower glass off drawings instead of measuring the finished tile. Glass is not adjustable.
• Doing plumbing work without a permit in a house you intend to sell. It is disclosable and it is discoverable.

One licensed team, one contract, one point of contact

Bathrooms are small, which fools people into thinking they are simple. They are the densest plumbing in the house, the wettest assembly in the house, and the room where bad waterproofing shows up two years later as a stain on a ceiling downstairs.

Our position is simple and it is checkable. We hold MHIC #111971 in Maryland. We carry general liability and workers' compensation coverage, and we will send you the certificates before you sign rather than after you ask twice. Our subcontracted trades carry their own coverage and their own trade licenses, and the trade permits are pulled under those licenses, as they are required to be. You sign one contract with one company, and that company is the one answering the phone when something needs answering.

Where we work in Alexandria

• 22301
• 22302
• 22304
• 22305
• 22314
• Old Town
• Del Ray
• Rosemont
• Beverley Hills
• Seminary Hill
• North Ridge

How a Alexandria project runs

1. A free visit that produces a document, not a pitch. No presentation, no same-day discount, no financing conversation before anyone has looked at the house. We measure, we photograph, we ask what is not working, and we leave you with something written you can compare against every other bid.
2. Feasibility against Alexandria rules, before design. We establish what the City of Alexandria will require for bathroom remodel at your address, and what your lot, your zoning and your existing house will allow.
3. Everything priced and agreed before a permit is filed. You see the scope broken into line items, the allowances stated as real numbers rather than vague placeholders, and the process for handling anything discovered mid-project. Only then does the permit package get assembled and submitted, with us answering the reviewer rather than forwarding comments to you.
4. One crew, one schedule, one closeout. MHIC #111971, Our own supervision on site, inspections met by us, and a documented punch walk with the permits closed out at the end.

Bathroom Remodeling across Alexandria

Old Town, Del Ray, Rosemont, Beverley Hills, Seminary Hill and North Ridge are all inside our regular working area, along with 22301, 22302, 22304, 22305, 22314. Alexandria rewards work that respects the review process and punishes work that ignores it. Unpermitted or unapproved exterior changes show up at resale and become the buyer's leverage. What buyers and appraisers in this market respond to is modernized interiors behind historically correct exteriors, usable rear yards and terraces, and kitchens that work in a footprint that was never meant to hold one — worth knowing whether you are renovating to stay or renovating to sell.

Homeowners here usually reach us for more than one thing at a time. Related work in Alexandria: kitchen remodeling in Alexandria, basement finishing in Alexandria, whole-home renovation in Alexandria, interior painting in Alexandria.

We came to general contracting from the outside of the house in, which is the part most remodelers subcontract and hope for the best on. That means the same company handling your interior can also handle roof replacement, siding, aluminum siding, gutters, soffit and fascia and window replacement — under one contract, with one warranty conversation instead of three companies pointing at each other about where the water came from.

Alexandria bathroom remodeling questions