Planning a Bathroom Remodel: What to Decide Before You Get a Quote

Begin with what the room has to do

A bathroom is small, and every choice in it affects every other choice. Before you pick tile or look at vanities, decide what's wrong with the room today. Is it dated? Hard to use? Too dark, too cramped, or tough to keep clean? The answer shapes everything that follows, and it keeps the project from growing into something you didn't intend.

Johnson's Painting & Roofing describes itself as a local, family-owned business, and its remodeling work covers tile work, plumbing installation, shower and tub installation, custom carpentry, custom vanities, fixture installation, flooring installation and drywall installation. That's most of what a bathroom needs, which means the work can often be coordinated with one company instead of several.

Tub, walk-in shower, or both

This is the decision with the biggest effect on the layout. A tub gives you a place to soak and is often handy for bathing small children. A walk-in shower opens up the room, is easier to step into, and is often easier to clean. In a small bathroom, you may only have space for one.

Johnson's also lists making a home more accessible among the remodeling ideas on its site. If someone in the house has trouble stepping over a tub wall, a walk-in shower with a low threshold changes daily life more than any finish ever will. Think about who uses the bathroom now and who will use it in ten years, then choose accordingly.

Tile: the choice you'll see every day

Tile covers the most visible area in a bathroom, so it deserves the most thought. Size, color, finish and grout all count. Smaller tiles mean more grout lines, which looks busy and means more to clean. Larger tiles give a calmer surface, but they ask for a flatter wall behind them.

Grout color is a bigger design decision than it seems. Light grout under light tile disappears. Dark grout around white tile draws a sharp grid across the wall. Neither one is wrong, but it should be a choice you made, not a surprise. Look at physical samples in the room, since bathroom lighting changes how a color reads.

Vanity, fixtures, plumbing and flooring

A custom vanity can be sized to the room, which matters in a bathroom where a standard cabinet is a few inches off. You can choose the height, the storage inside, and how much counter space you want. It's one place where custom carpentry earns its keep.

Fixtures are the small parts people touch every day: faucets, shower valves, handles, towel bars. Pick them early, because the plumbing has to be set up to match them. Changing a faucet style after the walls are closed can mean reopening the wall.

If you're moving a sink, a toilet or a shower, the plumbing work grows. If everything stays where it is, the scope stays smaller. Tell the contractor up front if you're keeping the layout, so you're both quoting the same job.

Floors in a bathroom face water, so choose something made for it and ask about the surface underneath. The subfloor should be solid and dry before anything goes down. If the old floor has soft spots near the toilet or tub, say so. Those spots usually point to a moisture problem that needs fixing first.

Drywall installation is part of the scope too, and walls that have been damaged by moisture or opened for plumbing need to be finished and painted properly. Johnson's does painting as well as remodeling, so the last coats of paint can be part of the same project.

Questions to settle before the quote

Write down your answers to these and have them ready. They make a first visit useful for both sides, and they stop surprises later.

• Are you keeping the current layout, or moving the tub, shower, toilet or sink?
• Do you want a tub, a walk-in shower or both, and who needs the room to be easier to use?
• What tile do you like, and have you looked at samples in the room itself?
• Do you want a custom vanity sized to the space, and how much storage do you need?
• Have you chosen your faucets and shower fixtures, or do you need help narrowing them down?
• What does the floor look like underneath, and are there any soft spots or past leaks?
• How long can your household go without this bathroom, and do you have another one?

That last question gets overlooked. If this is the only bathroom in the house, the schedule becomes a big part of the plan. Talk through it at the quote so you know what to expect day by day.

Start with a free quote

When you're ready to talk through your bathroom, call Johnson's Painting & Roofing at (580) 695-9941. Quotes are free, they serve Lawton and Duncan, the line is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and se habla español. Bring your list, any photos of rooms you like, and a few ideas about what bothers you most about the bathroom you have now.