Primary Bathroom Remodel in Inglewood

A complete rebuild of a primary bathroom in Inglewood. The owners wanted a freestanding tub, a large glass shower and a double vanity in a dark, modern palette.

Project at a glance

Location	Inglewood, CA
Completed	2025
Project type	Primary bathroom remodel, full gut
Scope	Demolition to studs, new rough plumbing and electrical, drywall and cement board, waterproofing, large-format tile, freestanding tub, frameless glass, double vanity with black counters, lighting

Rough plumbing

With the walls open, the supply and drain lines were rerouted for the new tub position and the shower valve. The first photos show the new copper and the framing before any board went up.

Waterproofing

The shower walls were built up in cement board and coated with a waterproofing membrane before tile. This is the step that separates a bathroom that lasts from one that leaks in five years.

Tile and finish

Marble-look panels on the main walls with black textured tile in the shower, a freestanding tub in front of the glass, and a long double vanity in white with black stone counters and wall sconces.

The result

A bathroom that works like a small spa and has none of the original plumbing behind the walls.

What waterproofing actually is

The photographs from this job show the stage nobody sees in a finished bathroom: rough plumbing in open framing, then the waterproofing, then tile. That middle layer is the entire reason a shower lasts.

Tile is not waterproof. Grout is not waterproof. Water passes through both, slowly and constantly, and arrives at whatever is behind them. In a properly built shower it arrives at a continuous membrane that carries it back to the drain. In a badly built one it arrives at drywall, framing and subfloor, and it stays there.

This is why a shower can look immaculate and be failing. The failure is behind the tile, and the first visible symptom is usually a stain in the room on the other side of the wall, or a soft floor outside the shower door — by which point the framing has been wet for a long time.

The parts that have to be right

• A sloped substrate. The floor of the shower has to fall to the drain under the waterproofing, not just at the tile surface. If the slope is only in the tile, water sits on the membrane.
• A continuous membrane. Bonded sheet or liquid-applied, taken up the walls and lapped correctly at every corner, change of plane and penetration. Corners are where it fails.
• The right board. Cement board or a foam backer board behind tile in a wet area. Ordinary drywall behind a shower is a defect, and green board is not a substitute for waterproofing.
• A drain that is part of the system. The membrane has to be clamped or bonded into the drain assembly so water reaching it has somewhere to go.
• A flood test before tile. Plug the drain, fill the pan, leave it, and check the ceiling below. It is the only way to know the assembly holds, and it can only be done at one point in the job.

Rough plumbing is a one-shot decision

The other thing those open-wall photographs show is that the position of every fixture, valve and drain is decided at rough-in. Shower head height, the location of the valve, whether there is a hand shower on a bar, whether there is a niche and where it lands in the tile pattern — all of it is fixed before the walls close.

Changing any of it afterwards means opening finished tile. This is why we would rather spend an extra hour with a homeowner standing in the framed room, marking heights on the studs, than have that conversation once the walls are closed.

A niche is a hole in your waterproofing

Recessed niches are the most requested feature in a modern shower and the most common place for one to leak, because a niche is a deliberate hole in a wet wall. Done properly it is a fully waterproofed box with a sloped sill so water runs out rather than pooling, and the membrane wrapped continuously into and out of it. Done as an afterthought it is a shelf cut into a wall.

Before, during and after

Related: Bathroom remodeling · Remodeling in Los Angeles County

What a primary bathroom rebuild involves

A primary bathroom taken back to the framing is permitted work whenever plumbing, gas or circuits move. The order matters: rough plumbing and electrical are inspected before anything is closed, then the shower pan and waterproofing go in, then tile, then fixtures, with a final inspection at the end. Our bathroom remodel permit guide explains what triggers a permit in the City of Los Angeles and the surrounding cities, bathroom remodeling describes the service, and we work throughout Los Angeles County.

Questions about primary bathroom remodels

How do I know if my existing shower is leaking?

Look for staining or a musty smell in the space on the other side of the shower wall, grout that stays dark long after the shower has been used, loose or hollow-sounding tiles, and any softness in the floor at the shower entry. A shower can look perfect and still be wet inside the wall.

Is a curbless shower a good idea?

It looks good, it is far easier to use as you get older, and it is more demanding to build. The floor has to be recessed so the slope to the drain starts below the surrounding finished floor, which means either framing modification or a slab detail. It is very much worth doing — it is not something to add at the last minute.

Can you re-tile a shower without redoing the waterproofing?

You can, and we generally will not. Removing tile disturbs whatever is behind it, and if the shower was built before modern membranes there may be nothing worth preserving. Re-tiling over an unknown or damaged substrate is spending real money on a finish attached to a problem.

Does the bathroom need a new exhaust fan?

Almost always. Rooms with a bathtub or shower require mechanical exhaust straight to the outdoors — 50 cfm intermittent or 25 cfm continuous under the California Mechanical Code (§405.3). Older fans are frequently undersized, noisy enough that nobody uses them, or ducted into the attic, which simply relocates the moisture problem.

More of our bathroom remodeling projects, and the bathroom remodel cost guide for what these projects run in Los Angeles.

Thinking about a similar project?

We replace the plumbing while the walls are open so you never do it twice. Green Design and Build is a licensed residential general contractor (CSLB #1110975) based in Van Nuys. We reply within one business day.