Completed project: a full bathroom renovation in Richmond Hill

The homeowners in Richmond Hill were living with the bathroom the builder gave them two decades ago — a beige-tiled drop-in soaker tub nobody used, a laminate-top vanity with an oval sink, and grout that had long since given up. They wanted the whole thing gone and rebuilt around a proper walk-in shower, without losing the family tub. We took it down to the studs and started over.

What the homeowners wanted

The brief: keep a bathtub for the kids, but carve out a generous walk-in shower with frameless glass, wrap the room in a modern grey tile, and finish it with a clean new vanity, toilet and lighting. Because a bathroom mixes water, tile and daily wear, they wanted it built to last — not a cosmetic refresh that looks good for a year and leaks in three.

Demolition and what we found

Every bathroom has a story behind the tile. Once we stripped the old surround and opened the walls, we found the usual issues in a house this age — framing that needed attention around the old plumbing and a fan that had never vented properly. Taking a bathroom back to the studs is the only way to correct the things that caused problems the first time instead of tiling over them.

Waterproofing, tile and the walk-in shower

This is where a bathroom is made or broken. Every wet surface was waterproofed before a single tile went up. We ran large-format grey marble-look porcelain up the walls — fewer grout lines to clean and fewer places for water to sit — and set a recessed niche for bottles at shower-head height. A vertical band of dark mosaic tile runs through the shower as an accent, and the whole room was laid out from a centreline so full tiles land where the eye goes first.

Fixtures and the finish

With the tile cured and grout sealed, we set a one-piece skirted toilet — easier to clean, with no awkward gap to trap dust — and hung a white shaker vanity to keep the room bright against the grey tile. Last came the frameless glass panel and rain shower head, measured on site after tiling because no real wall is perfectly plumb. A new, properly-ducted exhaust fan makes sure the moisture problem never comes back.

The result

The room that used to waste space on an unused tub now reads twice as big, with a walk-in glass shower, a bright vanity and warm lighting. It is a different project from our Aurora master bathroom renovation — a different tile, a different layout — but built to the same standard.

What a bathroom renovation like this costs

Bathrooms are quoted after a free site visit, because the fixtures, tile and scope drive the number more than the square footage does. As a rough guide for the York Region market:

• Powder-room or cosmetic refresh: $2,500–$5,000
• Mid-range full bathroom (walk-in shower, new tile, vanity, toilet): $9,000–$16,000
• Large ensuite with custom tile and frameless glass: $16,000–$30,000+

Every bathroom is different, so every project gets its own fixed-price quote after we see the space — no surprise line items later.

Why hire a professional for a bathroom

• Waterproofing is invisible once it is tiled — get it wrong and the bill shows up years later as a stain on the ceiling below.
• One accountable team for demo, plumbing, tile and finish beats coordinating three trades who point at each other.
• Proper fall on the shower floor, solid blocking behind the glass, and a fan that actually vents are the details that separate a bathroom that lasts from one that does not.
• Your workmanship is guaranteed, and the job is done to a schedule instead of dragging across months of weekends.

Bathroom renovations across York Region

We renovate bathrooms for homeowners across Richmond Hill, Aurora, Newmarket, Vaughan, Markham, King City, Stouffville, East Gwillimbury, Bradford and the wider York Region — from compact powder rooms to large primary ensuites. We handle the whole job end to end through our bathroom renovation service, along with the smaller jobs that keep one in shape like fresh caulking, toilet replacements and faucet swaps.

Thinking about your own bathroom? Request a free estimate and we will give you a clear, fixed price.

"Take a bathroom back to the studs and you only do it once. Tile over the old problems and you will do it twice."