Free written scope consultation - allowances, timeline, and change-order rules on paper before a single trade is scheduled
Fast, Reliable Bathroom Remodeling Across Alamo Heights
A full bathroom remodel in Alamo Heights typically runs $9,000 – $28,000, while a small bathroom remodel lands between $5,000 and $12,000. Those numbers include the inspection, the written price, and the crew that leaves shoe covers at the door. If you’re reading this from a 1930s Tudor off Broadway or a mid-century ranch off Nacogdoches, you already know the older homes here hide things behind the tile. We’re Elmstead Remodeling San Antonio, and we coordinate scheduling from our San Antonio office while our crews work locally in Alamo Heights. Call (432) 233-0976 when you want a written price before any work starts.
Why Elmstead Remodeling San Antonio Is Alamo Heights’s Preferred Bathroom Remodeling Company
Families in Alamo Heights call us because we’re calm about the parts of a remodel that make other contractors go quiet: the permits, the preservation review, the clay soil under a pier-and-beam floor. Our Bathroom Remodeling team starts every project the same way, with an inspection that looks for what the last remodel covered up. We don’t guess at what’s behind the wall; we open it carefully and document what we see.
Every crew member who walks through your door in Alamo Heights is background-checked and uniformed. Drop cloths go down before the first tool comes out. Shoe covers stay on the whole time. If your kids are napping or doing schoolwork, we run quiet tools where possible. It’s not a special request. It’s the Cedarwell Care Promise, and it’s baked into every project we quote from Terrell Hills to Olmos Park.
Styles & brands we work with
Small Bathroom Remodel in Alamo Heights
A Small Bathroom Remodel in Alamo Heights usually means working within a room that was never designed for two people to stand in at once. Homes here from the 1920s through the 1950s often have compact hall baths and guest baths, some still with their original pedestal sinks and tile wainscoting. The job involves replacing the fixture set, updating the vanity, addressing any water damage at the tub-to-wall connection, and often reconfiguring storage so the same square footage actually works for a family. In Alamo Heights, these remodels run $5,000 – $12,000.
Working With the Original Footprint
We don’t push a bigger footprint onto a small bath. Instead we look at what’s actually robbing space: a swinging door that doesn’t clear the toilet, a vanity that juts past the entry, a tub you never use. Moving plumbing adds cost. Reframing a pocket door or swapping an inset vanity for a wall-mounted one often solves the same problem for less.
Code Upgrades That Come With the Territory
When we open a wall in a small bath in Alamo Heights, the inspector sees what we see. That often means adding GFCI protection that wasn’t there before, bringing the vent fan up to current CFM requirements, and repairing framing that’s been notched too deep for plumbing. We write these allowances into the contract up front, so you know what a code upgrade costs before we’re standing in your hallway with a saw.
Shower Remodel in Alamo Heights
A Shower Remodel in Alamo Heights is one of the most common requests we get, especially from owners of houses built before 1960. The original three-wall surrounds are often leaking behind the tile, and the pan has cracked or settled with the floor. Replacing the shower involves demolition down to the studs and joists, correcting any slope or rot we find, rebuilding the waterproofing system, and installing the new pan, valve, and enclosure. In Alamo Heights, these jobs run $3,000 – $8,500 depending on what the demo reveals.
Walk-In Shower Conversions
Many Alamo Heights homeowners ask us to remove the tub entirely and build a curbless or low-curb walk-in shower. The catch on pier-and-beam homes is the floor. Clay soil movement over decades can leave a 2-inch slope across a bathroom, and a walk-in shower needs a near-level base to drain correctly. We check the subfloor before we quote the pan.
Historic Materials and Tile Work
If your home sits in a historic district, the city may ask your shower base and wall materials to match the character of the original finishes. We’ve had clients order a standard fiberglass pan only to find the preservation review requires a tile base. We now confirm the material requirements at the start, so your order matches your permit.
Trusted Brands We Service in Alamo Heights
We install and service fixtures and finishes from names you can research yourself: Kohler, Moen, Grohe, KraftMaid, Wellborn, Cambria, and Silestone. If you already have a Kohler valve body in your Alamo Heights bath and want to keep it, we work with it. If you want a new Moen posi-temp valve and a Grohe handheld, we’ll spec it into the written quote. We also work with Atlas and PGT products where the project calls for them. Using brand-name components matters here because the manufacturer warranty travels with the house, not with the contractor who installed it.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterCommon Bathroom Remodeling Problems We See in Alamo Heights Homes
- Knob-and-tube wiring behind the tile. Opening a wall in a 1920s Craftsman often reveals wiring the code won’t let us leave in place. The replacement work gets done before the rough-in inspection, and it’s written into your contract as an allowance, not a surprise.
- Pier-and-beam floors that moved years ago. Clay soil and mature tree roots shift the framing under your feet. A floor that looks fine with vinyl on it may slope badly once we pull it up, and a walk-in shower won’t drain right until we correct it.
- Notched or undersized joists under old tubs. Cast-iron tubs were heavy, and plumbers sometimes cut into the framing to make the drain fit. We’ve found joists compromised enough that a structural repair had to happen before the new shower went in.
- Historic district material reviews. You can’t always drop a standard acrylic surround into a Spanish Eclectic home, even if it fits. The preservation review may require a tile base or a specific finish, and that changes the order before the rough-in, not after.
Pricing for Bathroom Remodeling in Alamo Heights, TX
Here’s what we see in this market. A full bathroom remodel in Alamo Heights runs $9,000 – $28,000. That range accounts for the condition of the framing, the plumbing, and whether mud-set tile needs to come out or the vanity can stay. A small bathroom remodel, the hall bath or guest bath, typically runs $5,000 – $12,000. A shower remodel alone, without touching the vanity or floor, falls between $3,000 and $8,500.
| Project Type | Alamo Heights Price Range |
|---|---|
| Bathroom Remodel | $9,000 – $28,000 |
| Small Bathroom Remodel | $5,000 – $12,000 |
| Shower Remodel | $3,000 – $8,500 |
What moves a quote up is usually what the demo uncovers: rotted subfloor, outdated wiring, a pan that leaked into the joists for years. We price those as written allowances before any work starts, and any change order is approved in writing while you can still see exactly what we saw. Call (432) 233-0976 to schedule a free estimate in Alamo Heights.
We Also Serve Cities Near Alamo Heights
Our crews work throughout the Alamo Heights area, and we regularly take on bathroom remodels for homeowners in San Antonio, Schertz, Fair Oaks Ranch, and Bulverde. If you’re just outside the Alamo Heights city line, visit our Bathroom Remodeling in Alamo Heights page or call us directly. We’ll let you know next steps for your specific address.
Serving Alamo Heights, TX - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Alamo Heights area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About Bathroom Remodeling in Alamo Heights
The three we see repeatedly are knob-and-tube wiring, floor joists that were notched for old plumbing, and pier-and-beam floors that have moved on the clay. Each one gets documented in writing before we proceed, and each one has an allowance in your original contract so the price change isn’t a shock. Call (432) 233-0976 and we’ll walk you through how we handle these specific to your street.
Yes, a bathroom remodel typically requires a permit, and the permit triggers inspections at the rough-in and finish stages. If we open a wall and find wiring or framing that doesn’t meet current code, the inspector will require the correction before we can close it back up. We build those corrections into your contract as allowances and handle the permit ourselves.
If your home is in a designated historic district, the city’s preservation standards may require that visible materials match the character of the original house. A standard fiberglass shower pan sometimes has to be swapped for a tile base. We check the material requirements at the start, before anything is ordered, so you don’t pay for a pan you can’t use.
The expansive clay soil under Alamo Heights, combined with mature tree roots, shifts pier-and-beam foundations over time. A bathroom floor that has settled even an inch can prevent a walk-in shower from draining or a new tile floor from staying crack-free. We don’t guess at this; we check the subfloor and framing before we quote the shower.
We write allowances into the contract for the conditions we can’t see until the tile comes down: framing repair, subfloor correction, wiring replacement. When a surprise does appear, we document it in writing, tell you what it costs, and get your approval before we do the work. Nothing gets added without your signature, and the estimate you call for is always free. Call (432) 233-0976.
On a 1930s Tudor off Broadway, our crew opened a bathroom wall to replace a cast-iron tub and found the original framing had been notched for plumbing, leaving the floor joists undersized. We paused, documented the load-bearing damage in writing, and got a change order approved before sistering the joists and installing a Kohler tub with a modern waterproofing system. The permit’s framing inspection sign-off came only after the structural repair was verified. That’s how we handle every surprise in Alamo Heights: find it, show you, price it in writing, and only then move forward.
If you’re planning a bathroom remodel in Alamo Heights and want a contractor who will tell you what the walls are hiding, call (432) 233-0976. We’ll schedule a free estimate, inspect the space, and hand you a written price before any work begins.
Written by Graham Stein, Owner at Elmstead Remodeling San Antonio, serving Alamo Heights and the surrounding area.
