Planning a bathroom remodel in Saratoga Springs
How to plan a bathroom remodel in a Saratoga Springs house, from what demolition usually reveals to waterproofing, ventilation, layout and permits.
Plan a bathroom remodel in Saratoga Springs around what's behind the walls and under the floor, then pick the tile. In a lot of the city's older houses the bathroom was added or redone long after the house was built, so expect a patched subfloor, old drain lines, no real ventilation, and tile stuck to materials that were never meant to get wet. Settle the layout, build the shower's waterproofing right, and only then put up finishes.
What comes out with the old tile
The finished surfaces of an old bathroom don't tell you much. Once the tile and fixtures are out, the same things show up again and again.
Water damage around the toilet and tub is the most common. A wax ring or tub drain that leaked slowly for years softens the subfloor, and sometimes the joists under it.
Joists cut for plumbing come next. Every plumber who's been through the house notched a joist to get a drain across, and after a few rounds the floor is weaker than it looks. Some need sistering or blocking before new tile goes down, because tile cracks on a floor that flexes.
Then the pipes themselves. Cast iron, galvanized steel, and lead bends at the toilet all turn up in older houses. They may be near the end even if they aren't leaking yet, and replacing them is a lot easier with the floor already open.
Older showers were often tiled right onto drywall or plaster with no membrane at all. And plenty of these bathrooms have no exhaust fan, or a fan that blows into the attic. Both put moisture into the walls, the ceiling and the roof framing.
In a house built before 1978, test for lead paint before demolition. Old pipe insulation and some older flooring and adhesives can contain asbestos, so have anything suspicious tested before it's disturbed. If either test comes back positive, qualified professionals have to handle that part of the work.
Fitting a layout into a small old room
Bathrooms in older Saratoga Springs houses tend to be small and odd-shaped, tucked under a roofline or cut out of a bedroom or closet. Leave room in front of the toilet and on each side. A toilet wedged between the tub and the vanity is the most common complaint in old baths, and it's the one you notice every day.
Watch the door swing. If the door hits the vanity or the toilet, a pocket door or a barn-style slider can sometimes fix it. Look hard at the window, too. A lot of old baths have one in the tub or shower wall, and that's a moisture problem unless it's flashed and trimmed carefully or moved. And check the slope of the ceiling before you put a shower under it. You need headroom where you stand at the showerhead.
Moving the toilet is the most expensive layout change, because of the size of the drain and the slope it needs. Moving a vanity is generally easier. If you're torn between keeping the tub and building a walk-in shower, our post on tub to walk-in shower conversions goes through the tradeoffs.
Waterproofing is the part you never see
Tile and grout aren't waterproof. Water goes through grout and gets to whatever's behind it, so the shower lives or dies on the layer under the tile. A properly built shower has a waterproof membrane or a sealed backer board system on the walls, a pan or sloped waterproof floor that sends water to the drain, and careful sealing at the corners, the niche, the bench and every pipe that comes through the wall.
When that layer's missing or done badly, you find out years later: loose tile, soft walls, a stained ceiling downstairs, or mold. Our article on signs of a leaking shower behind tile lists what to watch for in a shower you already have. In a remodel this is where we spend the most care. Ask any contractor you're talking to which waterproofing system they use and how they test it before the tile goes on. If they can't tell you, keep looking.
Venting it for winter
Capital Region winters make bathroom moisture a bigger deal. Warm, wet air from a shower condenses on cold outside walls, window frames and the underside of the roof deck. A fan sized for the room, ducted all the way outside, and left running long enough after each shower heads off most of it. Older bathrooms often relied on the window for ventilation. These days the standard is a fan ducted outdoors, and adding one is a normal part of the job.
Outside walls in older houses often have little or no insulation. When a bathroom's exterior wall is open, insulate it. That also helps keep the pipes in that wall from freezing in February. Our post on bathroom exhaust fans and mold goes deeper on sizing and venting.
Permits and the order of work
Bathroom work that changes plumbing, adds or moves circuits, or alters framing generally needs a permit, so check with the City of Saratoga Springs building department first. If the work changes the outside of a house in a historic district, say a new window or a vent cap people can see, it can also need Design Review Commission approval.
A full remodel tends to run like this:
- Site visit, measurements and design.
- Written scope, price and payment schedule by phase.
- Order fixtures, vanity, glass and tile.
- Demolition, then a look at the subfloor, framing and pipes.
- Framing repairs, rough plumbing, electrical and fan duct, with inspections where required.
- Backer board, waterproofing, and a flood test of the shower pan.
- Tile, then grout and sealing.
- Vanity, toilet, fixtures, lights and accessories.
- Glass enclosure.
Glass is the usual wait at the end. Frameless glass gets measured from finished tile, so you may shower behind a temporary curtain for a short while before it arrives.
Finishes that are easier to live with
What you pick changes how much cleaning you do. Bigger tiles mean fewer grout lines to scrub and seal. Porcelain is dense and shrugs off water. A quartz or solid-surface vanity top skips the sealing some natural stone needs. Matte black and brushed finishes hide water spots that polished chrome shows. The bathrooms on our site, from the white vanity with a glass walk-in shower to the subway-tile and accent-tile showers, stick to simple palettes and still look finished.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a permit for a bathroom remodel in Saratoga Springs?
Generally yes, if you're moving or adding plumbing, adding circuits or changing framing. Replacing a vanity or toilet in the same spot may not need one. Ask the city building department before work starts.
Can you tile over my existing bathroom tile?
In a few cases, but we rarely recommend it. Tile over tile hides whatever damage is underneath, raises the floor, and does nothing for the waterproofing behind a shower.
What if the floor is rotted under the toilet?
The bad subfloor gets cut out and replaced, and any weak joists get reinforced before new flooring goes down. We put any added work in writing and agree on it before it goes ahead.
From tearing out the old tile to setting the last faucet, we design and build bathrooms in Saratoga Springs and the towns nearby. To get a feel for the schedule, read how long a bathroom remodel takes, or see finished rooms on our bathrooms page.
