Most Kirkland bathrooms were built with a standard 5-foot alcove tub-shower combo. For the 38-year-old homes common here, these combos are showing their age: cracked fiberglass, mildewed grout, outdated tile, and valves that barely work.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 Kirkland, where homes average $950,000, shower remodel projects range from $8,000 for a basic upgrade to $24,000 for a high-end custom shower with steam, body sprays, and premium stone.
Kirkland's charming waterfront identity along the eastern shore of Lake Washington shapes its remodeling character in ways unlike any other Eastside city. The downtown waterfront district between Marina Park and Juanita Bay features a mix of beautifully maintained 1930s-era cottages and modern infill homes where homeowners blend contemporary kitchen design with Kirkland's relaxed coastal aesthetic. Along Market Street and in the Moss Bay neighborhood, bungalow-style homes from the 1940s and 1950s often feature compact kitchens designed for a different era — these are perfect candidates for wall removal to create the open-concept layouts today's buyers expect. The Juanita neighborhood, stretching along Juanita Drive NE, contains many 1970s ramblers and split-levels with original harvest gold and avocado green bathrooms ready for transformation. Kirkland's Totem Lake area has seen significant new development, and newer homes there often need only cosmetic updates like countertop and cabinet upgrades. With Google's expanding campus bringing new residents and tech salaries to the area, Kirkland's median home value has climbed to approximately $950,000, making strategic kitchen and bathroom remodels a smart investment for resale value.
Our shower remodels include complete waterproofing with the Schluter Kerdi system — this is non-negotiable in the Pacific Northwest. We see too many Kirkland homes with hidden mold damage from showers that relied on outdated waterproofing methods.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.
Kirkland's bathroom remodeling challenges concentrate in the Juanita neighborhood, where thousands of 1970s ramblers and split-levels line the streets between Juanita Drive NE and 132nd Avenue NE. These homes were built during the harvest-gold-and-avocado-green era with fiberglass tub surrounds, cultured marble vanity tops, and exhaust fans vented into the attic rather than outside — creating the moisture-damaged roof sheathing our crews find during nearly every Juanita demo. The lakefront homes present a different issue: high water tables and seasonal flooding near the Juanita Bay wetlands mean any ground-floor bathroom renovation must include sump pump verification and waterproof membrane installation extending twelve inches up every wall, not just in the shower. Kirkland's Totem Lake area, now rapidly urbanizing with mixed-use development, has newer condo bathrooms where the challenge is aesthetic rather than structural — replacing builder-white tile and chrome fixtures with the matte-black hardware and large-format porcelain that current design demands.
Verified activity