Primary Bathroom Shower in Ocoee
A dated tile shower taken back to the studs and the slab, rebuilt on cement board under a rolled waterproof membrane, and closed with a frameless glass door.
Free Estimate- Location
- Ocoee, Florida
- Scope
- Primary bathroom shower rebuild
- Permitting
- City of Ocoee Building Division
What Did This Ocoee Primary Bathroom Look Like Before the Rebuild?
Beige, and about twenty years out of date. The shower was lined in square taupe tile with a small mosaic floor, a chrome corner caddy screwed to the wall, and a glass panel that stopped halfway.
Look closely at a shower like that and the grout tells you how long it has been working. Darkened joints along the base, a patched line where the floor meets the wall, sealant that has been renewed more than once. None of it had failed yet. It was heading that way, which is the right moment to rebuild rather than the wrong one, because a shower that has already leaked takes the subfloor and sometimes the ceiling below with it.
The homeowners wanted the same footprint to feel twice the size. That comes down to three decisions: bigger tile, less visible hardware, and clear glass instead of a half panel. Statewide Home Remodeling handled the full scope, the way our bathroom remodeling jobs normally run.
How Was This Shower Rebuilt From the Slab Up?
Demolition took the old shower down to the studs and opened the drain in the slab. New framing went in and was checked for plumb along every face, because a wall that is out by a small amount over eight feet becomes a tapering grout joint that no amount of tile skill can hide. Then the waterproofing, then the tile, then the glass. Most of the money and nearly all of the risk sit in the two stages that get covered up. You can see the rest of our work in the remodeling portfolio, but this one is worth following step by step.
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Before Square taupe tile, mosaic floor, chrome caddy. Sound, but on borrowed time. -
Demolition Down to studs, with the drain opened up in the slab and the valve height roughed in. -
Framing Every face levelled before it is closed. This is the step that decides the grout lines. -
Tile Large format tile set straight onto the cured membrane, held flush by leveling clips. -
Waterproofing Membrane half rolled on. Grey board is uncoated, red is done, which is the whole point of a colored membrane. -
Finished Frameless glass on the same opening. The room did not grow, it just stopped being interrupted.
Why Does Waterproofing Decide Whether a Tile Shower Lasts?
Because tile and grout are not waterproof. They never have been. Water passes through a grout joint, and what stops it reaching the framing is the layer underneath.
Here that layer is USG Durock cement board with EdgeGuard, coated in a red liquid membrane rolled over the whole enclosure. The photograph beside this catches it mid application, which is the useful thing about a colored membrane: grey board is uncoated, red is done, and a missed patch is obvious to anyone standing in the room rather than invisible until it matters. Two coats, and the second one goes on crosswise to the first.
The corners and the seams take the most attention, because a corner moves slightly as a house settles and an unsealed one opens. The niche is formed and coated on every face before a tile goes near it, and the inlet where the mixing valve comes through is sealed around the pipe rather than caulked afterwards.
Nobody will ever see this layer again. That is precisely why it gets skipped by contractors working to a number, and it is why a shower that looks identical on handover day can fail in five years while another one is fine at twenty. Florida humidity does not forgive it.
Does a Bathroom Remodel in Ocoee Need a Permit From the City?
Plumbing work does, and it goes to the City of Ocoee rather than to Orange County. That catches out contractors who work mostly in unincorporated parts of the county and assume the county office handles everything west of Orlando.
Ocoee runs its own Building Division at 1 N Bluford Ave, with applications submitted through permits.ocoee.org. Filing with the wrong office does not get you rejected so much as delayed, and the delay lands before demolition rather than after, which is the worst place in a schedule to lose a week. On a job with a construction value over $5,000 a Notice of Commencement also has to be recorded with the Orange County Comptroller before the first inspection can be scheduled.
We file all of it ourselves rather than pushing it onto a subcontractor. If you are planning home remodeling in Ocoee, call (407) 508-4052 and we will walk the room with you.
Thinking about your own shower rebuild?
Tell us what you want done and we will get back to you. Please give us a real name, phone, and email so we can actually reach you. For a middle-of-the-night emergency, skip the form and call or text (407) 508-4052.