Barrington, Illinois
Bathroom Remodeling in Barrington
The gap between the quote and the final number on a bathroom is decided in the first two days, behind the tile.
An old Barrington bathroom has usually been leaking longer than you think
A tiled shower built before about 1990 was built over a mortar bed and a pan that was never meant to last forever. By the time a tile goes loose or a grout line goes dark, water has often been reaching the subfloor and the joists under it for years. You cannot see any of that from the doorway, and no honest builder can price it from the doorway either.
So we do demolition and inspection as the first phase, with a figure attached to each thing we might find. You see the joists and the supply lines with your own eyes, and you approve the real number before a single finish is ordered. It is a less comfortable conversation than a flat quote. It is also the reason our final invoice tends to look like our estimate.
The cheap test
Press the tile in the corner of the shower where the wall meets the floor. If it gives at all, or sounds hollow compared with the middle of the wall, the substrate behind it is already gone. That one spot usually predicts the whole job.
Call (847) 380-8212What we do here
The rest of the work in Barrington
Same builder, same crew, whichever of these you need.
Custom Home Building in Barrington
Skycrest Homes builds custom houses in Barrington, on village lots and on the acre parcels at the edge of town. Walk the lot with the builder before you buy it.
Read the pageHome Remodeling in Barrington
Everything Skycrest Homes does in Barrington: custom builds, whole-house remodels, kitchens, baths, lower levels and porches. One builder for the whole list.
Read the pageBasement Remodeling in Barrington
Finished lower levels in Barrington: theaters, bars, gyms and guest suites. We fix the water and the ceiling height first, then build the room you asked for.
Read the pageBathroom Remodeling
How a bathroom here gets run
One room, one crew, a fixed sequence, and a finish date you can plan around. Barrington is close enough that nobody is driving an hour to hang one door.
- Strip to the studs and the subfloor, then inspect and price what is actually there before ordering anything.
- Waterproofing is a membrane system, not a sheet of green board, and it gets flood-tested before tile.
- Fixtures, tile and glass selected and ordered up front, because a three-week lead time on a shower door is what turns a six-week job into a ten-week one.
Nearby
Finished work in Barrington
Photographed on site. Ask us what went wrong on any of them.
Questions
Asked in Barrington
Something not answered here? Call (847) 380-8212 and ask us directly.
How long will I be without the bathroom?
Four to seven weeks for a full gut of a hall or primary bathroom in a Barrington house, assuming selections are made before we start. Custom glass, stone slab and anything that has to be ordered rather than picked off a shelf are what stretch it. If it is your only bathroom, we will tell you that up front and plan the sequence around it.
Why do bathroom quotes vary so much between builders?
Mostly because of what is assumed about what is behind the wall, and what is assumed about the waterproofing. A quote that assumes nothing is rotten and that green board counts as a waterproofing system will always be the cheapest one on the pile. It is also the one most likely to move once the wall is open.
Can you match the style of an older Barrington house?
Yes, and it is a common request here, because a lot of these houses have real character and a bathroom that looks like a hotel undoes it. We will show you where period-appropriate choices are easy and where they are a false economy, such as plumbing fittings that look right and fail in five years.
On the map
Where Barrington is
Lake and Cook Counties. Close enough that a site visit is a drive, not a trip.
Building or remodeling in Barrington
Tell us the address and what you are thinking about. You will get a straight answer on whether it works, what it costs and how long it takes, including when the answer is no.