Inwood, Manhattan
Bathroom remodeling in prewar Inwood apartments
Bathroom remodeling in the prewar apartments of Inwood, including one-bathroom homes, with the out-of-use days planned before we start.
A bathroom in a prewar apartment is usually the smallest room in the home and the one nobody can do without.
That is the constraint the whole job runs on. Most apartments in these buildings have one bathroom, so the question is not only what it will look like but how many days the household is without it, and what the plan is for those days.
Call (929) 695-6242 to talk about the bathroom.
What a bathroom job covers
- Taking the room back, usually to the substrate, because tiling over old work in these buildings rarely lasts.
- Waterproofing before anything is tiled.
- Wall and floor tiling, set out so the cuts land where they are least visible.
- Fitting the bath or shower, sink, toilet, and any built-in storage.
- Ventilation improved where the room allows it.
- Painting and finishing.
Plumbing work is carried out by the licensed trades New York City requires for it, brought in and sequenced by us as part of the job.
Need to know how many days the bathroom would be out of use?
Call about your bathroomWhat your building will check
Bathrooms attract more attention from boards and managing agents than any other room, and for a good reason: this is where water can reach a neighbor.
Where things can move. Buildings set their own limits on relocating a bathroom or its plumbing, and those limits vary building to building. If your plan moves the toilet or the shower, that is the first thing we check with yours, because it can decide the layout before anything else does.
Waterproofing and inspection. Expect the building to want to know how the room is being waterproofed, and in some cases to want to see it before it is covered.
Hours. New York City allows construction between 7am and 6pm on weekdays, with any other time needing authorization, and buildings frequently narrow that further.
Keeping the rest of the apartment out of it
The bathroom is usually in the middle of the apartment, so the route to it runs through everywhere you live. We seal the doorway, protect the floor along the route, and take debris out the same day rather than letting it sit. Cutting tile and old mortar is the dustiest part of the job, and where it can be done outside the apartment or with extraction on the tool, it is.
Need to know how many days the bathroom would be out of use?
Call about your bathroomWhat decides the price
- Whether anything moves. Keeping the toilet, sink and bath in place is the biggest saving on a bathroom.
- What is behind the tiles. In prewar bathrooms there is often old work, and sometimes damage, that only appears once the room is opened up.
- Tile choice and setting out. Large-format and patterned tile take longer to set, and small rooms have proportionally more cutting.
- Waterproofing and substrate. Doing this properly is not the place to save money, and it is a real line in the price.
- Access and hours. A walk-up or a short permitted working day adds labor to the same work.
Questions about bathroom remodeling
How much does it cost to redo a bathroom in NYC?
The range is wide because two bathrooms of the same size can be completely different jobs. Leaving the fittings where they are, tiling a small room in a simple format and keeping the existing layout is at one end. Moving the toilet or the shower, which brings permits and licensed trades in, is at the other. We look at the room, write out what it needs in parts, and price those, so the choices are visible rather than hidden inside one number.
What happens if we only have one bathroom?
We plan the job around that from the start, because it is the normal case in these buildings rather than the exception. Before we begin you get a realistic count of the days the room is unusable, and we sequence the work so that number is as small as it can honestly be: everything ordered and on site before demolition starts, waterproofing and tiling run without gaps, and the toilet reconnected at the earliest point the sequence allows. Some households stay and make arrangements, some move out for that stretch. We would rather you decide that with a real number in front of you.
How do you keep dust out of the rest of the apartment?
We seal the doorway to the work area rather than hanging a sheet over it, protect the floor along the route in and out, and use extraction on the tools that make the most dust. Debris is bagged and taken out the same day. At the end of each day the parts of the apartment you are still living in get cleaned, and so do the common areas we have carried through, because your neighbors notice that before they notice anything else.
Talk it through
Tell us the apartment and the building, and we will tell you what the work involves.
(929) 695-6242