Bathroom Remodeling in Dunwoody, GA
The bathrooms in Dunwoody's 1960s and 1970s housing are small, compartmented, and built to a standard nobody uses any more. Opening one up is straightforward. Opening one up in a pre-1978 house has a procedure attached.
A 1970s bath is a lot of painted surface in a very small room
Dunwoody is the only town on our list whose dominant construction decade is the 1970s, and its bathrooms are the clearest illustration of what that means. The era's plan is a compartmented one — a separate water closet, a narrow vanity alcove, a tub in an alcove of its own — with a small window, painted casings, and a door that is frequently original. Every one of those surfaces is a painted surface in a room with almost no volume, which makes containment and cleaning under the federal lead-paint rules more demanding here than in a much larger space, and window replacement is covered whatever the square footage. On top of that, the 1963-to-1971 subdivisions that give Dunwoody its character — Dunwoody North from 1963 and 1964, Dunwoody Club Forest whose first residents arrived in 1971 — were built when a primary bath was a courtesy rather than a room, so the design brief here is nearly always about borrowing space from an adjacent closet or bedroom rather than reorganizing what is already there.
The same caveat everywhere: waterproofing is not a finish
In every town on this list, the part of a bathroom that decides whether it is still good in fifteen years is the assembly you cannot see. Pan slope, membrane, corner treatment and the transition at the curb or the threshold are specified in writing and inspected before a single tile goes down. It is the least photogenic week of the project and it is the only week that cannot be redone later without taking the room apart again.
What this covers
Each of these is a service in its own right, offered in Dunwoody and everywhere else we work. What follows is how it goes in Dunwoody specifically, rather than a fifteenth thing we do.
Primary Baths
Layout, then drainage and structure, then the surfaces.
Guest & Hall Baths
Small, old, and constrained — which makes them interesting, not minor.
Aging-in-Place Modifications
A design problem, not a medical one — and best done years early.
Questions about bathroom remodeling
How long does a primary bath take?
Design is typically six to ten weeks. Construction runs about eight to twelve weeks for a primary suite bath, longer if the room is moving or growing. Tile and glass are the two lead times that set the end date, and both are ordered during design rather than after demolition.
What investment range does a primary bath usually land in?
Most primary baths land in our first two bands. We publish all four ranges, with what each one typically includes and who we are not the right firm for, on The Right Fit — the ranges are there rather than here because a number without those four blocks around it is worse than no number.
Can the shower be curbless?
Usually, and it is worth asking early rather than late. A curbless shower needs the slope built into the floor structure, which means we have to know before the framing is closed up. On a slab it is a different conversation from a house over a crawl space, and Discovery is where that gets settled.
What does the five-year workmanship warranty cover on a bath?
Our workmanship, including the waterproofing assembly and the tile setting. Fixtures, glass and surfaces carry their own manufacturer warranties. The scope, the exclusions and the term are printed in your contract and we will email a copy any time you ask.
Tell us about a house in Dunwoody
The town is pre-filled. Four short steps, and it ends with a call from Priscilla within one business day.
Tell us about your house.
A Discovery visit is free, it happens at your house, and it ends with a written summary of scope and a realistic investment band.
