Most Burien bathrooms were built with a standard 5-foot alcove tub-shower combo. For the 55-year-old homes common here, these combos are showing their age: cracked fiberglass, mildewed grout, outdated tile, and valves that barely work. The #1 upgrade we do is converting that tub combo to a spacious walk-in shower. In Burien, where homes average $525,000, shower remodel projects range from $4,000 for a basic upgrade to $13,000 for a high-end custom shower with steam, body sprays, and premium stone.
Burien sits just south of Seattle along the Puget Sound coastline, where the community's mid-century heritage and ongoing revitalization create a compelling remodeling market. The neighborhood surrounding Three Tree Point — a quiet residential peninsula jutting into Puget Sound — features waterfront and water-view homes where premium kitchen and bathroom remodels are common. The streets radiating from the Burien Town Square along SW 152nd Street showcase the city's 1950s and 1960s core housing stock: modest but well-built ramblers and Cape Cod-style homes with original kitchens that feature linoleum floors, metal-edged countertops, and painted wood cabinets. The Gregory Heights neighborhood offers slightly newer 1970s construction, while the Seahurst area near Seahurst Beach Park draws families with its combination of natural beauty and reasonable home prices. Burien's diverse community — with significant Latin American and East African populations — has transformed the city's culinary landscape along Ambaum Boulevard, and this diversity extends to kitchen remodeling preferences with homeowners requesting features suited to various cooking traditions. At a median home value of about $525,000, Burien represents excellent remodeling value for homeowners looking to modernize older homes without the price premium of Seattle or the Eastside.
Our shower remodels include complete waterproofing with the Schluter Kerdi system — this is non-negotiable in the Pacific Northwest. We see too many Burien homes with hidden mold damage from showers that relied on outdated waterproofing methods. Beyond waterproofing, we handle everything: framing adjustments for curbless or zero-threshold entries, plumbing rough-in for rain showerheads and body sprays, custom tile installation, frameless glass enclosure fabrication and install, and accessories like built-in benches, recessed niches, and grab bars. One contractor, one timeline, one point of contact.
Burien's mid-century homes share a common bathroom configuration: one full bathroom (tub, toilet, sink) in approximately 40 square feet, positioned between two bedrooms with a single door entry. This layout worked for the two-person households of the 1950s but is insufficient for today's families. The most impactful renovation in Burien is not upgrading the existing bathroom but adding a second one — converting a hallway linen closet into a half-bath, finishing a basement bathroom, or claiming space from an oversized bedroom for a three-quarter bath. These additions require tying into the existing waste stack and adding a dedicated vent line, work that requires a licensed plumber familiar with the cast-iron drain configurations common in Burien's post-war homes. The Three Tree Point peninsula along Puget Sound is an exception — waterfront homes here are larger with higher values, and bathroom remodels match the premium expectations of a coastal address.
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