Remodeling a tub or shower is different than almost any other job in the house. Actually, it is kind of a combination of many remodeling skills, all of which must be perfect in order to attain the desired result.
At first glance, replacing a tub or shower might seem like and other job in the home. We replace floors, toilets, carpet, dishwashers, lights, wallpaper, paint, tile and almost anything else in the house. For “do-it-yourself-ers” the “Zen of Motorcycle Maintenance” kind of appeal of figuring out a remodel can be satisfying.
I myself decided one afternoon about 10 years ago that I would build a deck in my back yard. It was “Vini Vidi Vici (I came, I saw, I conquered)” and soon, the deck was finished just in time for Father’s Day. Also, I had acquired a new set of tools, spent time with my kids (until their cartoons came back on), worked with my wife (until her friend came over) and invested in Johnson and Johnson stock to make back some of what was spent on band-aids, first aid cream and an ace bandage.
But, the deck was finished. I even bought a new barbecue to adorn it.
While we are all entitled to the joy of fixing and building in and around our home, there are some jobs best left to the pros. Baths and showers are among those jobs.
Why, you ask?
The skills required for correctly installing a bath or shower are actually different than the skills required for laying tile, doing carpentry, changing out a plumbing fixture or building a deck. The skills required for a bath or shower job are geared toward building a system that will last forever, and always be completely waterproof. This is hard, not because the carpentry or tile setting is hard, but because of the micro-physics involved. Water molecules are the 3rd smallest known molecule at only .29 angstrom. That is roughly 100,000 times smaller than the smallest particles used in grout! The average steel tub expands by approximately 1/8 of an inch during each use, easily overcoming the distance necessary to break seals intended to keep water on the inside of the tub. What happens when water penetrates one part of the system? Well, just see for yourself!This is not a job for mom, dad, super-mom, super-dad, the faint of heart or the not-so-faint-of-heart. It is not even a job for a handyman or a general contractor. This is a job for a specialist. It is a job for an organization that has experience, longevity and can guarantee that your bath or shower system will not leak or degrade for as long as you own your home. (That is us, of course)