Van Nuys has a lot of post-war housing, which means a lot of original showers reaching the end of their waterproofing. Here is what drives the price, what the work involves, and how to read a bid before you sign it.
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A shower remodel is priced by what is behind the tile, not by the tile. Much of the housing across Van Nuys and the San Fernando Valley dates from the 1940s to the 1960s, and a shower of that era was usually built over a mortar bed with no membrane, or one that has long since finished its service life. The real scope only appears once the tile comes off, so treat the first quote as an estimate against an unopened wall.
Some Valley homes sit on a raised foundation and some on a concrete slab. If your bathroom is on a slab and you want to move the drain, the work involves cutting and patching concrete, which is a meaningful line item. If the plumbing is reachable from a crawl space, relocating a drain is far less disruptive. Ask which you have before committing to a layout that moves the fixtures.
Floors and doorways are protected, then the tile and substrate come out and the framing and subfloor are exposed. Long-term leaks around an old pan commonly rot the bottom plate or the subfloor at the curb, and that has to be corrected before anything is built over it. Expect the scope conversation at this point rather than at the end of the job.
Cement board or foam backer goes up, seams are treated, and the whole wet area is waterproofed. A sloped mortar bed or a pre-formed pan establishes fall to the drain. Slope is not a preference; water that stands does not stay outside for long. Ask each bidder to name the membrane system they use, because a specific answer signals a crew that works to a method.
The drain is plugged, the finished pan is filled, and the water is left standing long enough to prove the assembly holds before any tile goes over it. It costs almost nothing, takes a day at most, and is the only point in the project where finding a defect is still cheap. Ask when it will happen so you can see the water sitting in the pan yourself.
Frameless glass is typically templated only after the tile is finished, and fabrication commonly adds one to three weeks before the shower is usable. Glass left out of a quote is a common reason one bid looks cheaper than another. A straightforward shower with no layout change and no hidden damage generally runs two to three weeks of working time, and longer if concrete or framing is involved.
Van Nuys is part of the City of Los Angeles, so bathroom work is permitted through the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety rather than a county or independent city office. Replacing finishes in the same footprint sits at the light end; altering plumbing, moving fixtures or touching framing does not. Confirm your specific scope with LADBS, or have your contractor confirm it in writing before work begins.
Unpermitted bathroom work is one of the most common problems surfaced during a sale, when an appraiser or a buyer's inspector notices a shower that does not match the permit history. Resolving it retroactively is slower and more expensive than doing it in order, and it can hold up a transaction. It can also complicate an insurance claim if a water loss starts in work that was never inspected.
Three bids for the same shower can differ by a factor of two, and the spread usually reflects scope rather than greed. Put the same written scope in front of everyone, then ask each the same questions: which waterproofing system by name, how the pan is sloped, whether they flood test, what the allowance for hidden damage is, and whether glass is included. Once the scopes match, the remaining difference reflects the crew and the schedule.
Almost every shower that fails early fails for the same short list of reasons, and none of them involve the tile. A membrane that stops at one corner, standard paper-faced gypsum board inside the enclosure, a dead-flat bench that holds a puddle over a seam, grout mistaken for a waterproof barrier, and a drain assembly mixed across two incompatible systems. An exhaust fan venting into the attic instead of outdoors belongs on the same list.
Stone in a shower can be beautiful, but stones differ considerably in how absorbent they are and how they react to the acidic cleaners commonly sold for bathrooms. If you want stone, ask how that particular stone should be set, what sealer it needs, how often it needs resealing, and what you must never clean it with. Get those answers before buying the material rather than after it is on the wall.
Tegula Stone is a connector, not a contractor. We do not perform shower remodels, employ crews, supervise job sites, or become a party to your contract, and being reachable through us is not an endorsement or a guarantee of anyone's work. Verifying license status with the Contractors State License Board, confirming insurance, contacting references and reading the contract before paying are steps to take yourself, however you found the contractor.
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