Bathroom Remodeling in Bethesda, MD

What a bathroom remodel in Bethesda actually involves

The closed floor plans in Bethesda's 1950s colonials mean almost every interior project here involves at least one wall, and in a colonial that wall is frequently carrying load from the second floor.

Bethesda's core is mid-century brick colonials, Cape Cods and split-levels built out along the River Road and Old Georgetown corridors, mixed with a steady layer of teardown-and-rebuild on the larger lots.

• 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.
• 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.
• Vanity, fixtures and glass. Cabinetry set level, fixtures installed and tested under pressure, and shower glass measured after tile — never before.
• Finish and punch. Paint, trim, mirrors, accessories, and a walkthrough where every fixture gets run and every joint gets checked.

Lead paint: the rule that applies to most of Bethesda

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 Bethesda's housing stock predates 1978, so assume this applies to your house unless someone has established otherwise. We hold the certification and we price the containment into the job rather than discovering it later. A bid that never mentions lead on a house of this age is a bid that has not been thought through.

What drives the cost on a Bethesda bathroom remodel

Anyone can publish a range. Almost nobody can publish one that survives contact with an actual house, which is why we do not. The list below is the honest version: the specific things that decide whether your project lands at the bottom or the top of whatever range you have in your head.

• Tub-to-shower conversion versus a straight replacement. A conversion changes the drain, the waterproofing and usually the framing at the curb.
• Whether it is an upper-floor bathroom over finished space, which raises both the protection requirements and the consequences of getting waterproofing wrong.
• Adding a bathroom where none existed, which is a plumbing project with a bathroom attached rather than the reverse.

A single bathroom in its existing footprint runs a few weeks of active work, with the tile and waterproofing sequence carrying mandatory cure and inspection points that cannot be compressed. Moving fixtures adds time on both ends. Adding a bathroom in new space is a longer project with more inspection stages.

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.
• A shower floor that does not slope consistently to the drain. Water sitting in a corner is a grout and mold problem forever.
• Ordering the shower glass off drawings instead of measuring the finished tile. Glass is not adjustable.

One licensed team, one contract, one point of contact

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 Bethesda

• 20814
• 20816
• 20817
• Wyngate
• Sumner
• Bradley Hills
• Glen Echo Heights
• Westmoreland Hills
• Edgemoor

How a Bethesda project runs

1. Free on-site consultation and a written scope. We walk the space with you, measure, look at what is behind the finishes where we can, and write down what you actually want out of the project rather than what is easiest to sell.
2. Feasibility against Bethesda rules, before design. We establish what the Montgomery County Department of Permitting Services will require for bathroom remodel at your address, and what your lot, your zoning and your existing house will allow.
3. Fixed written scope, then permits. A line-item scope with allowances stated plainly and a change-order process agreed in advance. We prepare and submit the permit package and handle review comments ourselves.
4. Supervised production and a clean finish. MHIC #111971, one point of contact for the whole job, trades sequenced against the inspection calendar, and a closeout that includes the punch walk, the closed permits and the product documentation in one package.

Bathroom Remodeling across Bethesda and Montgomery County

Our crews cover Wyngate, Sumner, Bradley Hills, Glen Echo Heights, Westmoreland Hills and Edgemoor, across 20814, 20816, 20817. What buyers and appraisers in this market respond to is sightlines from the kitchen into the family room, a primary suite that does not feel like a converted bedroom, and a lower level that reads as living space rather than as a basement — 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 Bethesda: kitchen remodeling in Bethesda, basement finishing in Bethesda, whole-home renovation in Bethesda, interior painting in Bethesda.

There is a specific failure mode we exist to prevent: the interior contractor who opens a wall, finds water damage, and hands you a roofer's phone number. Because roofing, siding, aluminum siding, windows and gutters, soffit and fascia are trades we perform ourselves, the envelope is inside your contract rather than outside it, and there is no second company to schedule, vet and argue with.

Bethesda bathroom remodeling questions