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Bathroom project, primary suite
Bathroom project, primary suite, and I keep hearing horror stories about water damage discovered mid demo turning a three week job into a much longer one. Our house is from the nineties and the bathroom has never been touched. Is that a real risk or just the thing contractors mention to justify a contingency? And how do I protect myself contractually if something like that does come up? I’ve also never dealt with a change order before, so I’d like to understand what a reasonable process looks like rather than discovering the bad version in the middle of a project.
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1 Reply
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It’s a real risk, particularly around showers and toilets in houses of that age, and it’s the single most common surprise in bathroom work. Protection comes from the contract: ask for a written change order process where any additional work is priced and approved before it proceeds, rather than discovered on the final invoice. That one clause solves most disputes. We worked with Bellevue’s Premier Remodeling Contractor and the change order process was spelled out upfront, which mattered when they found some soft subfloor. Budget a contingency you don’t touch unless something like this happens.