After: freestanding tub with floor-mounted filler beneath a wide window, floating wood shelves and large-format tile, Salmon Creek master bathroom remodel

Salmon Creek Master Bathroom Remodel

Salmon Creek, Vancouver, WA

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Project Overview

The owners of this Salmon Creek home called us about water damage in their master bathroom. It turned out to be worse than they thought: the original tile had been spot-bonded and the shower floor was sloped wrong.

We repaired the damage, retiled the room the right way, made the shower curbless, swapped the tiled tub deck for a freestanding tub and added heated floors.

The Challenge

What looked like a small leak was a bigger problem. When we pulled the tile, we found the original builder had set it with spot bonding: a few dabs of mortar per tile instead of full coverage.

That leaves hollow pockets behind the tile, and in a wet area it gives water a path into the walls and floor. Industry standards call for at least 95% mortar coverage behind tile in showers.

The shower had its own problem. The floor wasn't sloped correctly toward the drain, so the builder had added a tile at the entrance as a makeshift curb, and water still escaped underneath it. By the time we arrived, the damage had spread under the house.

The rest of the primary bathroom was dated too: a drop-in tub boxed into a tiled deck, MDF baseboards that don't hold up to water, and a showerhead mounted too high for the homeowners.

Before: shower during tile removal exposing isolated mortar dabs from the original spot-bonded installation, Salmon Creek bathroom remodel — Before

After: curbless shower with mosaic floor, drain, handheld shower and tiled niche ledge, Salmon Creek bathroom remodel — After

The Solution

After: freestanding tub, floor-mounted filler, floating shelves and large-format floor tile, Salmon Creek bathroom remodel

After: frameless glass shower door and stone-look tile walls above a mosaic floor, Salmon Creek bathroom remodel

After: shower valve fitted into new large-format stone-look wall tile, Salmon Creek bathroom remodel

After: handheld shower beside a tiled ledge and recessed niche beneath the window, Salmon Creek bathroom remodel

We brought in a water damage restoration crew to dry out and repair the damage under the house, then removed the tile throughout the bathroom. Every tile was replaced and set with full mortar coverage, and the homeowners chose new tile in a color close to the original.

The walk-in shower is now curbless. We rebuilt the shower floor with the correct slope to the drain, so water stays in the shower without a curb, and lowered the showerhead to a height that fits the homeowners.

Large-format tile wraps the walls up to the shower window, with a small mosaic on the floor for grip, a tiled ledge with a recessed niche for storage, a handheld shower, and a frameless glass door.

The tiled tub deck came out, replaced by a freestanding tub with a floor-mounted tub filler and a tile wainscot around it. Tiled baseboards replaced the MDF throughout the room, heated floors now run under the new tile, and new toilets finished the project.

Masters Construction completed this bathroom remodel in Salmon Creek.