Bathroom Remodeling in Tampa

A full bathroom remodel takes the room back to the studs or slab and rebuilds it: plumbing changes, electrical and lighting, a waterproofed shower, tile, vanity, toilet, fixtures and paint. A cosmetic refresh, by contrast, keeps the tub, toilet and layout and changes only surfaces.

Most Tampa homeowners want something in between: the layout works, but the tub-shower combo is tired, the vanity is too low and the fan barely moves air. We walk the room with you, tell you what is worth keeping, and write a line-item proposal so you see where the budget goes.

As a state certified general contractor, we run every trade under one contract. Your project manager schedules the plumber, electrician and tile setter, meets the inspectors and keeps you updated.

A master bathroom remodel is usually where people want the biggest change. The common requests we hear in Tampa: take out the garden tub nobody uses, build a larger walk-in shower with a bench and niche, add a double vanity with more drawer space, and get a toilet into its own nook if the room allows it.

Moving fixtures is where a master bath plan gets real. On a slab-on-grade house, which describes most homes in Hillsborough and Pinellas, relocating a toilet or shower drain means cutting the concrete, trenching for the new line and patching it. That is very doable, but it is one of the biggest factors in cost and schedule, so we flag it early instead of surprising you mid-project.

One reviewer, Michael, had Dean manage both his kitchen and his master bathroom, a common pairing covered further down this page.

Hall baths in Tampa homes are often small, an alcove tub, vanity and toilet, and they get hard daily use. The best upgrades are practical: durable porcelain tile, a vanity with real storage, better lighting, a fan that clears the mirror, and a tub or shower that is easy to clean.

Many families keep a tub in the hall bath because it is the only tub in the house, which matters for bathing small children and for resale. If nobody uses it, converting it to a walk-in shower is a popular, practical upgrade. See our page on walk-in showers and tub-to-shower conversions for how that works.

If you searched for a shower remodel near me, you probably have a leaking or moldy tile shower, a dated fiberglass insert, or a tub-shower combo you want to turn into a real shower. Each starts the same way: remove everything to the framing so we can see what is behind it.

A good custom shower has a sloped floor that actually drains, a waterproof membrane that runs up the walls and into the niche, blocking in the walls for grab bars or a bench, and a valve placed where you can turn the water on without getting soaked. Frameless or semi-frameless glass finishes it off. Yexenia, one of our reviewers, describes the custom shower Adam's team built for her with marble-look tile and gold finishes.

Porcelain tile is our default recommendation for Tampa bathrooms. It absorbs very little water, holds up to humidity and is available in looks that would be fussy or expensive in natural stone. Marble-look porcelain gives you the veining and light color of Carrara or Calacatta without sealing, etching or staining worries.

Large-format tiles (24 inches and up) mean fewer grout lines, so small bathrooms look bigger and clean easier, but they demand a flat substrate. On shower floors, small tiles or pebble mosaics give your feet more grip and follow the slope to the drain.

A new vanity changes the room more than almost anything else. Comfort-height vanities (closer to kitchen counter height) are popular in master baths, while floating vanities can make a small hall bath feel more open. We install stock, semi-custom and custom units, plus quartz or other solid-surface tops.

Brushed gold, matte black and polished nickel are all common right now. Pick the valve, faucets and accessories from one finish family, and choose a pressure-balancing or thermostatic valve for comfort and safety.

Tampa air is humid most of the year, and a bathroom adds steam on top of that. Many older bathrooms have a fan that is undersized, noisy, or vented into the attic instead of outside, which pushes moist air where it can cause mold and damage. During a remodel we size the fan to the room and duct it to the exterior.

A humidity-sensing or timer switch helps. Good ventilation protects your paint, grout and vanity, and it is one of the cheapest, most important parts of the job.

Tile and grout are not waterproof. Water moves through grout lines, and what stops it from soaking the wall is the layer behind the tile. Older Tampa showers were often built with tile over greenboard or a simple paper barrier, which is why rot behind old shower walls is such a common find.

We build showers on cement board or foam board with a bonded or liquid-applied waterproofing membrane carried over seams, corners, niches and the bench, and we test the shower pan before tile goes down. You never see this layer, which is exactly why you should ask any contractor how they handle it.

Many neighborhoods around Tampa, including Town 'n' Country, Carrollwood, Temple Terrace and much of Pinellas, are full of concrete block ranch homes built from the 1960s through the 1980s. When we open the walls and floor in these bathrooms, we sometimes find original galvanized steel supply lines or cast iron drains that have corroded from the inside.

Nobody can confirm this before demolition, so we tell you up front that it can happen, show you what we find, and give you a written change order with options before any extra work. Replacing aging lines while the walls are open is far easier than coming back later.

If the job moves plumbing, changes electrical, alters walls or replaces a shower pan, expect to need a permit. Who issues it depends on your address. Homes inside the City of Tampa (South Tampa, Seminole Heights, New Tampa) go through the City of Tampa building department. Unincorporated areas like Town 'n' Country, Westchase, Carrollwood and Brandon go through Hillsborough County. Pinellas addresses go through their city, such as St. Petersburg, Clearwater or Largo, or Pinellas County for unincorporated areas like Palm Harbor.

Florida has recently changed some permit exemptions for small projects, so check current rules with your building department before you skip a permit. When you hire us, we pull the permit as the licensed contractor and schedule the inspections. Our guide to bathroom remodel permits in Hillsborough County goes into more detail.

It depends on the scope, the permit and how quickly your selections arrive. A straightforward hall bath with no layout changes moves much faster than a master bath where drains are relocated through the slab and a custom glass enclosure has to be measured after tile is set.

Permit review, inspections between phases, special-order tile or vanities, and anything hidden behind the walls all add time. Your proposal includes a projected timeline, and your project manager updates it as the job moves. We would rather give you an honest range than a promise we cannot keep.

Size matters less than people expect. The biggest drivers are whether fixtures move, how much tile goes on the walls, whether you choose a custom tile shower or a tub, the glass enclosure, the vanity and countertop, and what we find when the walls come open. Plumbing changes in a slab foundation and full-height tile walls add the most.

The smartest way to budget is to decide which two or three things matter most to you and spend there. Our bathroom remodel cost guide for Tampa walks through the factors in more detail. For a number specific to your bathroom, get a free estimate. We also offer build now, pay later financing with easy approval and no large down payment.

Doing both rooms in one project often makes sense: one mobilization, one dumpster, one project manager, and trades that move from room to room without separate scheduling. Konstantin in Largo had his kitchen and bathrooms done as part of a full home renovation managed by Dean.

The tradeoff is living through more disruption at once. We plan the sequence so you keep at least one working bathroom whenever the house has more than one. If you are considering it, ask about our kitchen remodeling work during the same estimate visit.

Our office is on Memorial Highway in Town 'n' Country, and we remodel bathrooms across Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. Each area has its own housing stock and permit office, so we have local pages for St. Petersburg bathroom remodeling, Clearwater bathroom remodeling and South Tampa bathroom remodeling, where flood zones and condo rules can shape the project.