Bathroom Remodeling in Catonsville, MD

What changes when the bathroom is 85 years old or more?

Almost everything behind the tile. A bathroom in a pre-1940 Catonsville house rarely has square walls, a level floor or a simple path for pipes. Those prewar houses cluster in Old Catonsville, Central Catonsville and Summit Park, and Winters Lane. In these houses we plan for:

• Plaster and lath walls that come down in the bathroom and have to meet the plaster in the next room cleanly
• Floors that have moved. A century of settling can leave a floor out of level, and it has to be corrected before large tile goes down.
• Joists cut by earlier plumbers, which sometimes need sistering before they carry a new tub or a tiled floor
• Several generations of pipe and wire. County rules don’t force you to replace an old electrical service or aluminum wiring, but anything new is wired under a permit.

Tiling around a window in the tub wall

Older bathrooms sometimes have a window right on the tub wall, and it’s one of the trickier details in a remodel. We’ve built marble-look tile surrounds with the window inside the tub enclosure and matte black trim.

Done right, the sill slopes so water runs off instead of pooling, the frame is protected, and the waterproofing laps onto the window opening. If the window is already soft, we replace it before tile; see our door and window installation work.

Westview Park bathroom updates

Westview Park’s roughly 1,800 homes went up between 1955 and 1967, and plenty of them still have hall baths in the original layout. These rooms are more regular than prewar bathrooms. The work is mostly an upgrade of what’s already there: a new tub or a tub-to-shower conversion, a vanity with real storage, better lighting and an exhaust fan that actually vents outside.

Adding a basement bath near the Patapsco

If a new bathroom is part of a basement project, check your flood zone first. Catonsville borders Patapsco Valley State Park, and in Baltimore County, finishing a basement on floodplain property needs a building permit. A floodplain permit also can’t be closed until a land surveyor provides two elevation certificates. The county’s Permit Review Tool shows your status, and our basement finishing page covers the rest of that job.

Catonsville’s historic districts and your bathroom

Interior work in Old Catonsville, Summit Park or Winters Lane isn’t subject to county design review. The county’s historic tax credit doesn’t cover a new bathroom, though old plumbing replaced as a repair may qualify on a contributing home if you get approval before work begins.

Bathroom permits in Baltimore County

The remodel itself is exempt from a building permit. The plumbing and electrical aren’t, and the licensed trades file those permits first. Confirm for your address.

For the room next door, see kitchen remodeling in Catonsville, and for how we build showers, our main bathroom remodeling page.