Tiburon's homes are built around the view, and many of its bathrooms were too. A lot of houses on the peninsula went up in the 1960s and 1970s, when big windows, skylights and sunken tubs were in style. Today those rooms tend to share the same problems: a sunken tub that's hard to get in and out of, single-pane skylights that drip condensation in winter, carpet or vinyl near the toilet, and shower stalls far too small for the size of the room. Plenty of houses climb steep lots off Paradise Drive and toward Ring Mountain, with stacked levels and long plumbing runs. Old Town Tiburon and Ark Row add a different kind of house to the mix: small older buildings with tight bathrooms. Across all of them, the goal is usually the same: a bathroom that matches the quality of the rest of the home.
We remodel bathrooms throughout Tiburon, from homes in the Lyford Cove and Old Town areas to houses high on the ridge. The work here usually means reworking a primary bath around a roomy glass shower and two sinks, or building in aging-in-place features for owners who intend to stay on the hill for good. Some homes also have a guest bath on a lower level that hasn't been touched since the house was built, and it's often the easier project to start with. Ring us to arrange a visit, and the plan and price will follow in writing.
Updating a 1960s or 1970s View-Home Bathroom
The bathrooms from Tiburon's building boom often have the bones of a great room, just with the wrong features. Sunken tubs are the most common thing we remove. They're hard to clean, harder to step into as people get older, and the space underneath is often hiding old drain parts. Filling that area in gives us a level floor for a curbless shower or a freestanding tub. Skylights are the next issue. Older single-pane units let heat escape and drip condensation onto the floor on cold mornings, so we replace them with insulated units or, if they're in the shower area, rethink where they sit. Carpet in a bathroom, still found in a few homes, comes out every time. We also look closely at ventilation, since large rooms with high ceilings need more air movement than the code minimum to clear steam. Homes in Kentfield from that period tend to have the same issues, just with a different view.
Hillside Homes and Long Plumbing Runs
Many Tiburon homes step down the hill in levels, which affects how a bathroom remodel is planned. The bathroom may be several floors from the water heater, so hot water takes a long time to arrive. A recirculation pump or a small point-of-use water heater can fix that, and the remodel is the time to add one. Drains on lower levels may need to be checked for slope and condition all the way to where they leave the house, since problems there can back up into a new bathroom. Access can be tricky too, with long stairways or narrow driveways, so we plan deliveries and debris removal before work starts. Inside, we take advantage of the view wherever we can, with clear glass, a window placed at the right height and privacy glass where neighbors can see in. The Town of Tiburon issues the permit, and we manage the application and every inspection. Homeowners just over the hill in Corte Madera on the Christmas Tree Hill side often run into similar plumbing questions.