Shower Installation in Randolph County: A Shower Set Right the First Time

Most Shower Installation jobs start one of two ways. Either you want the tub gone and a walk-in shower in its place, or your stall is too far gone to fix. Either way, we work in the same order.

First we shut the water off and pull the old unit. Then we check the framing and the subfloor before anything new goes in. Next come the drain, the valve, and the pan. The pan gets set dead level. After that, the walls get ready for tile or a surround.

Trim, shower head, and door go in last. We tool the caulk lines so they look clean. Here is what I see in older Randolph County houses. Lift out an old pan, and the bottom plate behind it is soft more often than not. You can push a screwdriver right into it. I would rather find that on day one than after the tile is up.

A dripping head, plus hot and cold that come and go, usually means a worn cartridge. That is a repair. Nothing gets torn out. A soft floor, wiggling tile, or a musty smell is a different story. That means the pan or liner is letting water slip past.

Thin grout cracks that keep coming back are the ones that trick people. You fill them, they look fine, then they open again. Here is why. The crack is not the problem. The wall is moving because it is wet behind there. No amount of grout stops a moving wall. When the same crack opens twice, I stop patching and start looking.

• 1. Press the shower floor with your foot and feel for give or flex.
• 2. Tap the tile low on the wall and listen for a hollow sound.
• 3. Check the ceiling or wall below the bathroom for brown stains.
• 4. Look at the floor just outside the curb for lifting trim or curling vinyl.
• 5. Smell the room after it has been shut up for a day, musty means damp.
• 6. Watch one grout crack after you fill it, if it splits again water is behind it.
• 7. Run the shower ten minutes and check the crawl space under the drain.

If someone handed you a price for a full rebuild, slow down. A lot of drips are just a cartridge, a head, or fresh caulk. Those are parts. Nothing gets knocked out.

Fixing a shower door that sags and drags is a small job too. So is redoing grout on one wall. We do those all the time, and we will not talk you into more.

A full Shower Installation earns its money when the pan is cracked, the valve body is worn, or the wood is wet. Once a panel is off, we tell you what we see. If it were my bathroom and only the valve was shot, I would swap the valve. I say that out loud, even though the big job pays better.

Once your Shower Installation date is set, empty the room. Take out towels, baskets, and whatever is stored in nearby cabinets. One bathroom in the house? Figure out now where everybody washes up for a day or two.

Make your picks early. Valve type, tile or a ready-made surround, glass door or curtain. Nothing drags a job out like waiting on a special-order part. That wait is not us being slow. It is a truck somewhere.

Going with a curtain? Measure your rod and add extra so it hangs loose. Make sure the liner hangs inside the pan. Keep kids and pets out while we work. There are tools on the floor, an open drain, and wet-saw dust. I hang plastic in the doorway, and people still cannot believe how far that gray dust travels.

The houses around here are all sorts. Mid-century homes, brick ranches, old farmhouses, and newer builds out around Archdale and Trinity. Older places often still have galvanized or cast iron drain lines. We use the right adapters to join new PVC to them. You cannot just glue PVC to old iron and hope.

Thick clay soil and short crawl spaces change our drain slope and our time under the floor. On a tight crawl, I am on my back with a flashlight in my teeth. A tie-in that takes twenty minutes in a basement can eat half the morning. Mineral-heavy well water is the other thing. Scale chews up cheap cartridges, so we pick valves that handle it.

• Asheboro, Randleman, Liberty, Ramseur, Franklinville, Seagrove, Staley, Archdale, and Trinity
• Permits and inspections handled through the county or the town, depending on where you are

We will not give you a number before we see the bathroom. What moves the price is simple. Tile takes more labor hours than a ready-made surround. Pan size matters. A glass door is more work than a rod and curtain.

Damage you cannot see is the big one. Rotted framing, a soaked subfloor, or a failed liner all add hours. Moving a drain or valve means opening a wall.

Access counts too. A job on a slab and a job over a crawl space are not the same day. Then add permits and inspections where the county requires them. Tipping is never expected here. One more thing. A second-floor remodel almost always costs more than the same shower downstairs. Everything comes up the stairs, and the drain gets chased through a ceiling.

The EPA WaterSense program has homeowner guidance on finding and fixing leaks if you want to read more before calling us.