The part of a bathroom you never see decides the rest
Tile and tapware are the part you choose. Membranes, slope and blocking are the part that decides whether the room still looks right in ten years — and in a condo, whether it stays your problem rather than your neighbour's ceiling.
01
Layout and fixtures
The drain locations decide the plan, so they are established before anything is drawn. From there it is a question of what the room can gain — a walk-in shower where a tub is dead space, a wider vanity by borrowing from a closet, a door that swings the right way. Each option comes with its cost, so you are choosing between numbers rather than moods.
02
Waterproofing and substrate
The part nobody photographs and the only part that decides whether the room survives a decade. A bonded waterproof membrane taken up the walls and over the curb, not just across the floor. Sloped mortar beds to the drain. Level, solid substrate under every tile. In a condo this is also your neighbour’s ceiling, which is why we do not treat it as optional detail.
03
Tile and stone
Layout set out before the first sheet is cut, so cuts land where they are least visible and grout lines carry through from floor to wall. Large-format porcelain, slab stone, or zellige where the room can carry the irregularity. Niches framed and waterproofed as part of the wall rather than cut in afterwards.
04
Vanity and storage
Drawn to the wall it sits on rather than bought to the nearest size. Drawers that clear the trap, interiors fitted for what actually gets stored, and a counter with the sink cut where you use it. This is where most condo bathrooms find the storage they were missing.
05
Tapware and fittings
Specified early, because a wall-mounted tap or a concealed thermostatic valve changes the rough-in, and the rough-in happens before the walls close. We work from lines we know — Kohler, Duravit, Graff, Dornbracht, TOTO — and confirm availability before anything is committed to the drawings.
06
Install and finish
Trades sequenced so the glass goes in after the tile has cured and the tapware after the glass, rather than everything being adjusted around damage. Silicone lines cut clean, doors hung square, the extractor actually tested. The room is handed over working, not nearly working.
If it’s a condo, five things decide the layout
In a house most of this is negotiable. In a condo the building decides more of the room than your taste does, and these are the five that shape every plan we draw.
- The toilet barely moves.
- A toilet needs a short, steeply sloped run to the stack. In a condo with a structural slab you cannot drop that pipe into the floor, so the toilet stays close to where it is unless the whole floor is built up. Showers and vanities have more freedom; the toilet almost never does.
- Below your floor is someone’s ceiling.
- This is the reason waterproofing in a condo is not the same job as waterproofing in a house. A failure does not stain your subfloor, it damages the suite below and becomes an insurance matter between two owners. We build the assembly for that consequence, every time.
- Water shutdowns get booked, not requested.
- Reconnecting a bathroom usually means shutting down a riser, which affects every unit on it. Buildings schedule those in advance with notice to residents. It is a fixed point in the schedule, and forgetting it is a common way a renovation loses a week.
- Ventilation ties into a shared duct.
- Your extractor vents into a building duct with its own capacity, not out through a wall. Oversizing the fan does not help and can push air the wrong way. Sizing to what the duct will actually take is what keeps steam and mirrors under control.
- The board still has to approve it.
- Anything touching plumbing or waterproofing needs an alteration agreement and certificates of insurance before a tile comes off. We prepare and submit the package as part of the job.
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See your bathroom priced before you talk to anyone.
Pick a look, tap the fixtures you like and tell us about your home. The estimator prices the whole room, materials and installation, as you go, and the product list is yours to keep either way.
Bathrooms we've built
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Liberty Village Suite
Bathroom questions, answered
What condo owners ask before the tile comes off.
Can I move the toilet?
Usually only a short distance. The waste line needs continuous fall to the stack and, on a concrete slab, there is nowhere to gain that fall without building up the entire floor. Vanities and showers have far more latitude. We confirm what your specific unit allows at the walkthrough rather than guessing from the floor plan.
Can I swap the tub for a walk-in shower?
Very often yes, and in a one-bathroom condo it is the single change that most improves how the room feels. The considerations are drainage position, waterproofing the larger wet area properly, and resale — a unit with no tub at all can narrow your buyer pool, which matters if you may sell within a few years.
How long does a bathroom renovation take?
Typically three to four weeks on site for a single bathroom. The full timeline including design, selections and board approval usually runs eight to ten weeks. Tile curing and glass templating are fixed waits that cannot be compressed, so a schedule promising two weeks start to finish is not being straight with you.
What does a bathroom renovation cost in Toronto?
Fixtures and materials alone typically land in the high teens to low thirties depending on what you specify, and our estimator will price that side of it precisely in about two minutes without asking for your email. Labour, rough-in and installation are quoted separately after a walkthrough, because they depend on your unit rather than your taste.
Do I need board approval for a bathroom renovation?
Yes. Bathrooms touch plumbing and waterproofing, which is exactly what alteration agreements exist to govern, and buildings are stricter about bathrooms than almost anything else for that reason. We prepare the application, the insurance certificates and the elevator booking for you.
Can I use the estimator instead of booking a call?
Yes. You pick a look, the fixtures and a few details about your home, and it gives you an all-in estimate for materials and installation, plus a spec sheet with the exact products. It is free and needs no account, and if you decide to build with someone else, the spec is still yours.
Start with a free walkthrough
We'll check the stack, the slab and the building's rules, then price it properly.