Answers
Kitchens and bathrooms
Where the money goes in a kitchen or bathroom, and which details decide whether the work is still sound in ten years.
8 questions
- Got a $30k bathroom quote - is that insane?Not automatically, but you cannot tell from one number. Ask for it broken out — demolition, plumbing, electrical, framing, waterproofing, tile, vanity and tops, glass, paint — with the allowances stated. Then get three quotes on the same written scope.Read the answer
- Converting the tub to a walk-in shower - anything to know?A few things. Keep at least one tub in the house if you have small children or plan to sell to families. On a slab the drain usually has to move, which means cutting concrete, and the pan has to be sloped and waterproofed properly — that is where these fail.Read the answer
- Shower is leaking behind the tile - what went wrong?Almost always the waterproofing, not the grout. Grout was never waterproof; the membrane behind the tile is what keeps water out. Once water has been getting behind for a while there is usually wet framing, so a surface repair is money thrown away.Read the answer
- Reglaze the tub or replace it?Reglaze when the tub is structurally sound and the problem is the surface — stains, dullness, small chips, a colour you hate. Replace when it is cracked, when it is thin acrylic that flexes, or when you are moving plumbing or retiling the surround anyway.Read the answer
- Tiles keep cracking / popping up - why?Usually one of four things, and none of them is the tile: movement with no expansion joints, a slab crack telegraphing through, poor mortar coverage, or the wrong mortar for the tile. Fixing the tile without fixing the cause just resets the clock.Read the answer
- Refacing vs replacing kitchen cabinets?Reface when the boxes are solid, the layout works and you are happy with where everything is. Replace when the boxes are swollen particleboard, when the layout has to change, or when you want drawers instead of doors in the base cabinets.Read the answer
- Quartz or granite?Quartz for most kitchens: non-porous, no sealing, consistent pattern. Granite for outdoors and for heat, because quartz can scorch under a hot pan and will yellow in direct sun. Whichever you pick, seam placement and templating after the cabinets are set decide whether you are happy.Read the answer
- LVP over a slab - what prep do I need?Flatness and moisture, in that order. Most LVP wants the slab flat within about three-sixteenths of an inch over ten feet, and Florida slabs on grade need a moisture test rather than an assumption. Then leave the expansion gap the manufacturer specifies.Read the answer