Bathroom Remodeling in Parkville, MD

What’s behind the tile in a Parkville bathroom?

In most Parkville bathrooms, what’s behind the tile is 60 to 80 years of history. Census estimates put more than half of Parkville’s homes between 1940 and 1959, so the original walls, subfloor, supply lines and drain have usually been through at least one round of patching. We expect to find some mix of soft subfloor near the toilet or tub, old leaks that were caulked over rather than fixed, and older galvanized or mismatched piping.

None of that is a reason to worry. It’s a reason to open the room fully. A cosmetic refresh over failing materials tends to come back as a stain on the ceiling below. When we take a bathroom down to studs and subfloor, we can repair the framing, square up the walls for tile and replace lines wherever the old ones are exposed.

Does every old Parkville bathroom need a full gut?

Not every one does, though most original Parkville bathrooms are better off with it. Here’s how we usually decide:

• Full gut and rebuild. The tile is cracked or loose, the tub surround has failed, or the floor flexes underfoot. We remove everything and rebuild with cement backer board and a rolled-on waterproofing membrane before any tile goes up.
• Partial update. The tub and wall tile are sound and the floor is solid. A new vanity, toilet, lighting, mirror and paint can make this a short job.
• Half bath or powder room. Common in townhouses and in homes where a later owner squeezed one in. These are often a few days of work covering the vanity, floor tile and fixtures.

Making a compact mid-century bathroom work

Bathrooms from the 1940s and ’50s were built small, so layout matters more than finishes. We look at where the window sits relative to the tub, which way the door swings and whether the vanity can run longer on one wall. A glass enclosure instead of a curtain, a recessed niche framed between studs, and a mirror sized to the vanity all make a narrow room feel bigger.

On one small bath we kept the window inside a new marble-look tile tub surround and finished the trim in matte black, with a white vanity to keep the room light. That kind of plan suits a room with a single window.

Townhouse bathrooms in Ridgeleigh and other rows

Attached homes add a few planning items. Ridgeleigh alone has more than 1,100 townhomes, and census estimates show roughly three in ten Parkville homes share a wall with a neighbor. Demolition noise carries through party walls, and older stairwells can be tight for a new tub or a long vanity. We measure the path in before ordering anything, and we seal the doorway so dust stays inside the bathroom.

Where the permits come in

Parkville bathrooms answer to Baltimore County, and here the permits sit with the trades rather than the room itself. Baltimore County lets only a County-licensed plumber and a registered electrical contractor apply for permits on new or moved piping and new circuits. At the estimate we go through which of those permits your bathroom will need.

For the rest of the house, see our Parkville kitchen remodeling and deck work in Parkville pages, or the Parkville remodeling overview for local housing details. For floors beyond the bathroom, see our flooring installation work.