Anyone used the company Re-Bath

[rowech]

Thoughts/Impressions?

[Kodos]

We had them do our downstairs shower/tub liner. Pretty satisfied with the result. They are a bit pricey.

[Swaggs]

I have heard not such great things about Re-Bath and Bath Fitter. I considered using a local Bath Fitter when I recently did my bathroom, but after some digging, heard a lot of horror tales about improperly sealed work that resulted in underlying (and in some cases mold damage). Also repeatedly heard and read that it is tough to get them back out to complete repairs and flaws once they are paid. Granted that is, in all likelihood, the result of poor installation by their local vendors. I think their best attribute is the speed in which the work can be completed (a bathroom remodel can take up to a month or more if you have to wait on supplies and deal with different professionals like plumbers, tile installers, electricians, etc.), which obviously is more convenient than being without a working bathroom for an extended period of time.

In my case, I decided to gut it and go with ceramic and glass tile. We are fortunate enough to have another easily accessible bathroom, so we could go without for 3-4 weeks, and I had a trustworthy installer that I was comfortable enough to allow them to work in my home without my being their constantly. If you just to replace your existing stuff with just a tub or a shower unit, without extensive tile work, I imagine you could get that done for cheaper or nearly the same price (again, it will probably come down to convenience of use).

[rowech]

We will never have tile again...our bathroom is a disaster because of it, a crappy vent van, and a small space. Worst bathroom design ever.

[Swaggs]

How much room do you have and what are you looking to do/have?

[PackerFanatic]

We had them come in and re-do our shower. We didn't have the bathtub done, but the shower was area was pretty bad (the old lady had wallpaper in by the shower, that's how bad it was) We paid a little over $2000 for the whole thing, but actually ended up getting really lucky. Apparently the first guy that came and assessed everything didn't do a very thorough job. They ended up needing to take out most of the wood walls because of all the mold damage (they would do this normally, but it would have cost a lot more). They told us this up front but that they couldn't charge us more because we already signed off on the quote. We were impressed with the work they did and it's held up great

[rowech]

It's so hard to describe what our bathroom looks like because nobody has anything like it. We essentially have a little cubby room that has a shower and toilet. There is a door to this room. It is very small, the vent sucks, and we now have mold/mildew on our walls. Leaving that room you go into the bigger part of the bathroom which is quite large. There's a 36" vanity and then a dressing table type deal beside it, all with counter on it. Underneath a window is a tub that has tile around it. In between the tub and shower (in the other room) there is a wall with a window in it which is to let light into the small cubby but overall it's pointless. The tile around the tub goes up and into the cubby around that window to produce a shelf on the tub.

We're getting a new toilet, vanity, sink, top, etc. Not a concern no matter who we go with. We have no concerns about those no matter who we go with. It's how the shower/tub will get treated that we are torn on. Either way, we're doing a 3 piece shower unit....

If we do the high end remodeling place, they want to knock out the current wall, extend it by taking out the tub to make our shower 6" larger then tiling all the floor in the cubby and main.

The refit folks want to just fit over the current shower, fit over the current bath. The problem with that is the bath sits under an exterior window so you will have tub walls going up and around an exterior window with no shower bar and no real reason to put one up because there are cathedral ceilings.

That's the best description I can give....

We can go with one company and seemingly pay 10-12 K probably and just have it all done, bam, done. Or, we get the stuff that we can't do on our own refit, pay a friend to take out the tub and tile around it. (closing plumbing of course) Then, we tile it all on our own...the drawback being tiling after everything is already in.

We've never tiled before so we're not sure if we can tile around stuff or if the tile should be down first and then everything else put in secondly. In addition, not sure if you're supposed to take off baseboard prior to tiling or just tile up to baseboard and grout.

Confused?

[rowech]

One other important consideration in all this is what does it take to be considered a full bath? Will shower, toilet, sink suffice or do you have to have the tub? How important would a tub in the master be knowing there is still a tub in the other bathroom?

[Kodos]

Just to clarify my post, we didn't get the tub insert that they offered. I was just trying to distinguish a shower that runs into a tub versus just a shower without a tub.

[Swaggs]

Hmm... couple of thoughts (probably in reverse order):

Full bath is kind of a vague term. You would probably want it to be a four-piece (tub, shower, vanity, toilet), but I think most people consider it to have a vanity/sink, toilet, and either a tub or shower. Having the four-piece would definitely be an asset when it comes time for resale (particularly for women).

Tiling yourself probably depends on what you have to work with. For flooring, if you are working on a concrete slab that is fairly level or replacing existing tile (although it can be a pain to remove/clean) it won't be terrible. If you are going to need to tear up subflooring (so that your tile is even with or close enough that you can use some sort of transition strip to match it up with the flooring in adjacent rooms) or need to level the floor, it will be a pain. If you aren't going on concrete, you'll want to lay it on Hardie Backerboard (or a similar product) so that the tiles and/or grout don't crack. You'll also need it, rather than drywall or plaster, if you are applying tile in any areas where it might get wet (surrounding showers or tubs w/ showerheads, etc). Getting the surface suitable is 75% of the work. After that, figuring out a good layout is the most important thing. You'll want to plan things out, so that if (or more likely how much) your room is out of square, you can hide it, make sure that you account for grout lines when spacing, and also so that you don't end up with small or thinly cut tiles (for example if you start with a full 12-inch piece on the left side of the room and run the whole length, you don't want to end up with a 2 inch wide piece on the right -- you would rather cut the piece you are starting with so that the pieces on the left and right are roughly even).

To answer your specific question. You'll want to tile the floor and walls before you put in your toilet and probably before you put in your vanity, but obviously after the plumbing is in prepared. You'd want the tub and shower pan in place before tiling.

You'd want to run your tile to within roughly 1/4-inch of the wall and then buy some quarter round or shoe moulding to install around the baseboard. If your baseboard is painted, you can get it for pretty cheap and just paint it w/ the baseboard. If it is wood, it will be more expensive and you might have to play around to get it color-matched. You can also get some types of ceramic tile "baseboard" (but it sounds like you already have baseboard). Another thing that may throw you off is what to do around the doorcasing near the floor -- you will want to cut it off w/ a flush saw (they are like $10-20 at Lowe's or Home Depot), even with the height of one of your tiles, so that you can slide one underneath it (as opposed to trying to cut the tile to the contour of your doorcasing).

If it was me, and you can afford to do so, I would probably hire the professionals and tear out the wall. If ventilation is a problem, opening that wall up will help with air circulation in the cubby and, in general, I think having a more open room would be more desirable in a resale situation and you guys will probably enjoy it more, as well. I also think that it sounds like the Re-Bath might look cheesy being cut around the window, whereas tile would probably look pretty sharp. One thing that is fairly popular now is having the toilet in a separate space (so that, you can use the restroom while your spouse can take a bath or work at the vanity), so if you could somehow manage to have the toilet in the cubby while bringing the shower into the larger space, that would probably be the best (hard for me to say without knowing the layout very well).

Sorry for the ramble, hope it helps. I just finishing doing both of mine earlier this year, so I have played through a lot of these scenarios recently.

[rowech]

Appeciate the input Skaggs. We talked the realtor we used to buy our house as well as a realtor friend and they both said absolutely keep the bath because like you said, women like the idea of having it. The other thing we found out is that the guy who came out represending the major company had two or three businesses of his own go under. Even though he doesn't run the company he's with, he certainly now worries me. In addition, one of the realtors said to keep it simple and not price ourselves out of our prospective market. Our house is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, great room style house. Perfect house for a couple starting out that can't afford a super nice house but wants something a little better. He said if we go overboard on the bathroom, it'll help it sell but might not give us the same value back out that we think we'll be getting.

[CU Tiger]

I would not use them for a long term solution if you are getting ready to sell, different story.

My experience is their work just doesn't hold up, and may actually mask a problem...again though it is a francchise and as always YMMV with different owners and even different install crews.

[rowech]

We're taking a look at our project in a different way. We're breaking it up into chunks so we can see it better.

Stage 1 -- Replacing vanity area and shower area...we're going with either rebath or another company to do this.

Stage 2 -- tiling floor and replacing toilet...these two things strike me as things we can do or pay a friend of ours to do rather than having a company do. Could save us a lot in the long run.

Stage 3 -- tearing down tiling around our tub and put up new tiling....again someone we or a friend can do saving us money.

I really feel a lot more comfortable with this approach because of breaking it up cost wise as well as being able to visualize what's going to take place a lot better.

[CU Tiger]

a few thoughts about that approach
- You want to run your flooring under your vanity in most cases.
- Vanity is very easy to replace, Id say much easier than tiling the floor.
- The tiling has to come down if you are replacing the tub/shower to et the new one in and you dont want an open hole here in the interim(or exposed sheetrock)
- Really a bath remodel needs to be done at once imho
- Like damn near all resi construction projects start at the ceiling and work down...
- You are not going to want to be tearing out tiling from around the tub with a new floor there begging to get nicked up...ditto for a new vanity
- Tile is one of those tricky bitches it is so easy in theory, and anyone can get the concept in 10 minutes but it takes years to be good. On a side note here, I can't tell you how many homes we go in where owners have cut corners and it is obvious (not saying that you would do this at all) but if you aren't comfortable changing a vanity blindfolded I would not think of touching a tile job. Actually one of the jokes in my company and one of my sales girls and a field sup have both picked it up from me and copy it, if I see a flooring job (tile and hardwood/pergo are most common) that is obviously a home owner special I will always ask "Who did you get to do these floors, I am thinking of redoing mine"
The beaming homeowner always brags about how easy it was or how great her hubby was, that is a lead in for a compliment and even a joking "If you ever want to do some work on the side let me know I might hire you"...at this point its pretty much a given its a closed sale for us...

Seriously think about this...the tile is easy to stick down, getting the lines perfectly straight and the grout right is tough....and if its not right, anyone who spends time in many houses or in the construction field in any way will know it as soon as they walk in.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

a few thoughts about that approach
- You want to run your flooring under your vanity in most cases.
- Vanity is very easy to replace, Id say much easier than tiling the floor.
- The tiling has to come down if you are replacing the tub/shower to et the new one in and you dont want an open hole here in the interim(or exposed sheetrock)
- Really a bath remodel needs to be done at once imho
- Like damn near all resi construction projects start at the ceiling and work down...
- You are not going to want to be tearing out tiling from around the tub with a new floor there begging to get nicked up...ditto for a new vanity
- Tile is one of those tricky bitches it is so easy in theory, and anyone can get the concept in 10 minutes but it takes years to be good. On a side note here, I can't tell you how many homes we go in where owners have cut corners and it is obvious (not saying that you would do this at all) but if you aren't comfortable changing a vanity blindfolded I would not think of touching a tile job. Actually one of the jokes in my company and one of my sales girls and a field sup have both picked it up from me and copy it, if I see a flooring job (tile and hardwood/pergo are most common) that is obviously a home owner special I will always ask "Who did you get to do these floors, I am thinking of redoing mine"
The beaming homeowner always brags about how easy it was or how great her hubby was, that is a lead in for a compliment and even a joking "If you ever want to do some work on the side let me know I might hire you"...at this point its pretty much a given its a closed sale for us...

Seriously think about this...the tile is easy to stick down, getting the lines perfectly straight and the grout right is tough....and if its not right, anyone who spends time in many houses or in the construction field in any way will know it as soon as they walk in.

Know about the vanity going on top of the tile but just typed it up that way to make it easier. Currently the bathroom has carpet in the main area and linoleoum (sp?) in the small area...no old tile to rip up from the floor. We're doing the entire project at once but we're not using a company for all of it I don't think.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

I would not use them for a long term solution if you are getting ready to sell, different story.

My experience is their work just doesn't hold up, and may actually mask a problem...again though it is a francchise and as always YMMV with different owners and even different install crews.

They have a lifetime warranty on their work.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by rowech

They have a lifetime warranty on their work.

The problem with that is that they will come in and repair their (cosmetic) work, but if you get mold behind or water damage to your drywall, framing, ceiling beneath, etc., you are on your own there (in most cases, unless you feel like a lawsuit).

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

The problem with that is that they will come in and repair their (cosmetic) work, but if you get mold behind or water damage to your drywall, framing, ceiling beneath, etc., you are on your own there (in most cases, unless you feel like a lawsuit).

big +1....and in my experience there materials seem to wear very quickly...the work is warranted but if the material looks old in 2 years, that is normal wear and tear.

but it sounds like you are self committed so I wish you the best of luck and hope you have a great experience.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

big +1....and in my experience there materials seem to wear very quickly...the work is warranted but if the material looks old in 2 years, that is normal wear and tear.

but it sounds like you are self committed so I wish you the best of luck and hope you have a great experience.

Nah...we haven't decided anything yet. We still have three more companies coming out and a guy that is a friend of some friends who has done some really great work on their houses.