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Bathroom Remodel Contractor in the Houston Metro
The hall bath in a 1962 Meyerland ranch and the primary bath in a 2006 Cinco Ranch two-story hold the same fixtures and almost none of the same problems. One hides cast iron drains, galvanised supply, a mud-set floor on slab,…
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- 20+ years remodeling
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- 102 ZIP codes covered
In short
The order is the same in both houses; the middle stretches or collapses. Containment goes up from the entry door to the bathroom, then demo runs to studs and to slab or subfloor. In an older house the job pauses there for a look: closet bend corroded at the hub, a lead bend under the toilet,…
What the work involves
The order is the same in both houses; the middle stretches or collapses. Containment goes up from the entry door to the bathroom, then demo runs to studs and to slab or subfloor. In an older house the job pauses there for a look: closet bend corroded at the hub, a lead bend under the toilet, galvanised branches choked internally, cloth-wrapped conductors or aluminium branch wiring in the switch box. In newer stock the finds are duller: a fan ducted into the attic, an unsloped pan, greenboard behind tile. Then the sequence resumes. Supply is reworked in PEX or copper back to a sound connection rather than spliced onto what is left. Drain replacement on a slab means saw-cutting, trenching, re-pouring. The valve is set to the depth of the finished wall, not the studs. Electrical follows: GFCI protection, fan and light, blocking for glass hardware. Then backer board, waterproofing, a flood test on the pan, tile with soft joints at every change of plane, and last the vanity, top, toilet, trim and glass templated to what was actually built.
What gets specified, and why
In older houses the material list starts underground. Cast iron that is sound gets a no-hub coupling to new PVC; cast iron that is thin gets replaced rather than patched. Galvanised supply is not worth reviving, so branches go to PEX or copper back to a live main. Aluminium branch wiring is pigtailed with connectors rated for that use, not twisted to copper under a wire nut. Above the slab both houses get the same wet-area assembly: cement or foam backer board, then a sheet or liquid waterproofing membrane, because backer board is not a water barrier and grout never was. Vanity boxes should be plywood; particleboard swells at the toe kick in this climate and stays swollen. Porcelain tile is more forgiving than natural stone here, since stone wants sealing and shows hard-water spotting. Quartz tops tolerate scale better than honed marble. For glass, look for a coating applied at the factory rather than a bottle of sealant handed over at the end.
Why the Gulf Coast changes this job
Under an inner-Loop slab the drains are usually cast iron sitting in expansive clay, and the seasonal wet-dry cycle keeps working the joints while the pipe thins at the hub. Cutting slab to replace a line is ordinary work there. In Katy, Cypress and Fulshear the slab is often post-tensioned, so a saw cut in the wrong place can hit a tendon; a drain move gets scanned and planned, or the layout is adjusted so nothing has to move. Humidity is the constant in both. Air sits near saturation for months, so a fan discharging into the attic instead of through the roof or a gable grows mould on sheathing regardless of the house’s age. Older homes also carry popcorn ceilings from an era when those textures could contain asbestos, so they get tested before anyone scrapes. Newer homes mostly bring hard-water scale on glass and seized cartridges.
Where these jobs go wrong
Saw-cutting a post-tension slab without scanning is the one with the worst ending, and it is entirely avoidable. Tying new PEX into a length of remaining galvanised is nearly as common; the old pipe is still the restriction and the joint is a corrosion cell. Reusing a corroded closet bend because the toilet sits over it and hides everything. Setting tile directly over a slab crack with no uncoupling or anti-fracture membrane, then blaming the clay when the joint telegraphs through in year three. Filling the tub-to-tile joint with grout instead of silicone, which is a movement joint no matter what it looks like. Leaving the toilet flange below finished floor after tile build-up, so the wax ring is asked to bridge a gap it cannot. Ducting the fan into a soffit, where the discharge finds its way back into the attic. Tiling over greenboard in a shower. None of these are visible at handover; all of them surface later.
What moves the price
House age drives more of the number than the finish selections do. Slab work is the big lever: relocating a toilet or shower drain means cutting concrete, and on a post-tension slab it means scanning first. Repiping a galvanised system through the attic, replacing failing cast iron, or correcting aluminium branch wiring are all real line items that produce nothing you can see. Second-floor bathrooms add access and structural questions a slab-level bath never raises. Moving a wall depends on whether it carries load. Tile format matters more than tile price: large-format needs a flatter substrate and more labour, and mosaic or herringbone is slow. Custom glass, a custom vanity, and a thermostatic valve all move the total. So does permitting route, which differs between the City of Houston and unincorporated Harris or Fort Bend County.
How a project runs
We walk the bathroom, look at the house’s age, the panel, the water heater, the attic above and any visible plumbing, and say plainly what is likely behind the walls. Scope and selections are settled before demolition, because a decision made mid-job costs more than the same decision made early. Permits are pulled where the work requires them. Demolition is followed by a documented look at what was uncovered, and if the condition of a drain or a circuit changes the plan, you see photographs and a revised scope before we proceed. Rough-in, inspection where applicable, waterproofing and flood test, then finishes. To have your bathroom looked at before you commit to anything, call (281) 235-6971.
Common questions
Does a 1970s bathroom always need the drains replaced?
No. Cast iron that is still thick at the hub and draining well can be coupled to new PVC and left in service. What matters is condition, not age. We look at the pipe once demo opens it up, and the decision gets made on what is actually there rather than on the year the house was built.
Can a shower drain be moved on a post-tension slab?
Often, but not casually. The slab gets scanned to locate tendons before any cut, and the new trench is routed around them. Sometimes the scan says the cut is not worth the risk, and the better answer is adjusting the layout so the drain stays where it is. That conversation happens before demolition, not during.
Is aluminium branch wiring in a 1970s house a problem?
It is a known concern at the connections rather than in the wire itself. Where we open walls and find it feeding the bathroom, the terminations get corrected with connectors listed for aluminium-to-copper use. It is not a reason to panic about the house, but it is a reason not to reuse existing device connections quietly.
Why do newer houses need work at all?
Because the failures are in the build details rather than the materials. Fans vented into attics, shower pans with no slope under the liner, greenboard behind tile and particleboard vanity boxes are all common in 2000s stock. The plumbing is usually fine; the wet-area assembly frequently is not.
Bathroom Remodel Contractor by location
We cover 102 ZIP codes across the Houston metro. Pick the area closest to you:
- Bellaire 77401
- Brookshire 77423
- Cypress 77429
- Cypress 77433
- Fresno 77545
- Fulshear 77441
- Houston 77002
- Houston 77003
- Houston 77004
- Houston 77005
- Houston 77006
- Houston 77007
- Houston 77008
- Houston 77009
- Houston 77010
- Houston 77011
- Houston 77014
- Houston 77016
- Houston 77018
- Houston 77019
- Houston 77020
- Houston 77021
- Houston 77022
- Houston 77023
- Houston 77024
- Houston 77025
- Houston 77026
- Houston 77027
- Houston 77028
- Houston 77030
- Houston 77031
- Houston 77033
- Houston 77035
- Houston 77036
- Houston 77037
- Houston 77038
- Houston 77039
- Houston 77040
- Houston 77041
- Houston 77042
- Houston 77043
- Houston 77045
- Houston 77046
- Houston 77047
- Houston 77048
- Houston 77051
- Houston 77053
- Houston 77054
- Houston 77055
- Houston 77056
- Houston 77057
- Houston 77060
- Houston 77063
- Houston 77064
- Houston 77065
- Houston 77066
- Houston 77067
- Houston 77068
- Houston 77069
- Houston 77070
- Houston 77071
- Houston 77072
- Houston 77074
- Houston 77076
- Houston 77077
- Houston 77079
- Houston 77080
- Houston 77081
- Houston 77082
- Houston 77083
- Houston 77084
- Houston 77085
- Houston 77086
- Houston 77087
- Houston 77088
- Houston 77090
- Houston 77091
- Houston 77092
- Houston 77093
- Houston 77094
- Houston 77095
- Houston 77096
- Houston 77098
- Houston 77099
- Houston 77204
- Katy 77449
- Katy 77450
- Katy 77493
- Katy 77494
- Missouri City 77459
- Missouri City 77489
- Orchard 77464
- Richmond 77406
- Richmond 77469
- Rosenberg 77471
- Simonton 77476
- Spring 77379
- Stafford 77477
- Sugar Land 77478
- Sugar Land 77479
- Thompsons 77481
- Tomball 77377
Planning bathroom remodel contractor?
We measure, look at the slab and the existing rough-in, and give you a scope you can actually compare against another bid.
MS Home Remodeling · 1530 W Sam Houston Pkwy N, Houston, TX 77043 · (281) 235-6971