Licensed and Insured
Both credentials are current in New Hampshire. Written proof is provided before anyone opens a wall or a floor in your bathroom.
Professional Bathroom Remodeling in New Hampshire
New Generation General Construction remodels bathrooms in New Hampshire, from a guest half bath to a full primary suite. The work covers demolition, framing corrections, subfloor repair, waterproofing, tile, fixtures and trim. Plumbing and electrical get coordinated with licensed trades where the work requires it. Every project starts with the floor and the walls behind the tile. Those decide whether the finish lasts five years or twenty five. Nothing gets tiled over a problem. That rule has no exceptions here.
A bathroom is the only room in the house designed to get soaked every day. Everything in it is a water management assembly wearing a decorative finish. Tile is not waterproof. Grout is not waterproof. What keeps water out of the framing is the membrane or backer system behind the tile. Nobody ever sees it. That is exactly why it is the first thing cut when a bid comes in low. It is also the thing that quietly fails.
Homeowners call for three reasons. The bathroom is dated and everything is getting replaced at once. Something has failed, usually a shower that has been leaking into the floor for longer than anyone realized. Or the layout does not work and walls, plumbing or a window need to move. The third one is the expensive one and it gets priced honestly up front. Moving a drain is a different job than swapping a vanity. Those two always get quoted separately.
01 Bathroom Waterproofing and Tile in New Hampshire
The waterproofing system is decided before any material is ordered. Cement backer board goes on wet walls, never drywall. Green board is moisture resistant, not waterproof, and it does not belong in a shower. Over the backer goes a liquid or sheet membrane, carried into the corners and up from the pan. Seams and changes of plane get treated with banding. Done correctly the assembly holds water even if every grout line in the shower fails. Eventually they all do.
The floor under the tile matters as much as the walls. Tile is rigid and unforgiving, so it cracks when the floor moves under it. Joists that deflect too much over their span will crack a tile floor no matter how well it was set. On an older house that often means sistering joists or adding blocking before anything goes down. Natural stone is stricter than ceramic and needs a stiffer floor, which is a cost decision made very early.
Shower pans are where most failures start. A properly built pan slopes to the drain over its whole surface. The slope is built into the substrate, not faked with thinset under the tile. Curbs and benches get waterproofed on every face, including the top and the back, because water sits there. Preformed pans work well and cost less in labor. Mud set pans allow any size and shape. Both are fine. Neither is fine if the slope is built wrong.
02 Ventilation, Framing and What Goes Behind the Walls
Bathroom ventilation matters more in New Hampshire than almost anywhere. A fan has to move enough air for the size of the room. It also has to duct to the outside. Not into the attic. A fan dumping humid air into a cold attic builds ice dams. It grows mold at the same time. That duct gets insulated, sloped and terminated at a proper exterior cap, every time. There is no shortcut there. It is also the cheapest item on the whole estimate.
Demolition is where the real scope appears. Behind an old bathroom wall there is usually something nobody planned for. Rotted framing under a leaking shower. Plumbing that was reworked twice and vented improperly. Wiring that predates any modern requirement. Those get corrected while the wall is open, because the alternative is tiling over them and paying twice. The estimate carries an allowance for it, and the allowance gets explained rather than buried in a total. Surprises are worse than allowances.
Layout changes are the line between a cosmetic remodel and a real project. Swapping a vanity, a toilet and a tub in place is straightforward. Moving a drain means opening the floor and reworking waste lines that have to keep their slope. Moving a wall means framing, and sometimes it means a header. Those get priced separately from the finishes so a homeowner can see exactly what the new layout is costing them. Sometimes that number changes the whole plan.
03 Why Bathroom Quality Matters in New Hampshire
A failed bathroom does not stay in the bathroom. Water that gets past the tile goes into the subfloor, then the joists, then the ceiling of whatever is below. On a second floor bathroom that is the kitchen or the living room. By the time a stain appears downstairs, the framing has been wet for a long time. The repair is no longer a bathroom job. It is an expensive structural one with a bathroom sitting on top of it.
Permits exist here for plumbing and electrical, and they exist for good reasons. Vent sizing, trap arms, GFCI protection and clearances around fixtures are not opinions. Most New Hampshire towns require a permit for a bathroom that involves moving plumbing or adding circuits. Inspections happen while the walls are open, which is the only time anyone can actually see the work. A remodel that skipped inspection is a problem at resale, not just a risk today. Both matter to the same buyer.
The cheap bathroom bid saves money behind the tile, which is the only place it can. Green board instead of backer. No membrane. A pan sloped by feel. A fan vented into the attic. Every one of those is invisible on handover day and every one of them is what fails in year four. Ask any bidder what goes behind the tile and how the fan is vented. The two answers separate the estimates faster than the price ever does.
