What we renovate · Guest Bathrooms
Water, Stacks and What Is Behind the Tile
The most disruptive and most discovery-prone part of a guest room, and the one guests judge the hotel by.
Key count, the scope you are facing, and your occupancy pattern. Those three tell us whether the program is achievable.
Occupied
Guests are inside the building while we work
Per key
The number that decides whether the project works
Shoulder
Florida seasonality dictates the program
Licensed
General contractor, licensed in the state of Florida
You are working above somebody sleeping
Bathrooms stack vertically, so work in one is directly above an occupied room. Water testing, plumbing changes and demolition all carry the risk of a leak into a paying guest's room below, and the way that risk is managed is most of what separates a good bathroom program from a bad one.
Stack condition is also the item most likely to change the scope mid-project. The first few bathrooms opened tell you what the rest will need, and that information arrives after the contract is signed. Pricing bathrooms without a provisional allowance for stack work is pricing an unknown as though it were known.
What matters
- Waterproofing, installed and flood tested before anything covers it.
- The condition of existing stacks, which is a real unknown.
- Working over occupied rooms, and how that is sequenced.
- Accessibility requirements, which are scrutinized.
- Exhaust and moisture control in a Florida building.
Why flood testing is not negotiable
A flood test fills the waterproofed area, holds it, and confirms nothing passes through before any tile goes down. It takes hours and it is the only point at which a failure costs nothing to fix.
After tiling, the same failure means removing the tiling. After occupancy, it means removing the tiling and compensating the guest below. There is no version of the schedule where skipping it is the cheaper option.
How we handle it
- 01Open up the first bathrooms to establish real conditions.
- 02Flood test waterproofing before tiling, every time.
- 03Sequence vertically where possible to reduce occupied exposure.
- 04Renew stack sections where investigation shows it is needed.
- 05Protect and re-inspect the rooms below.
Flood test every bathroom before tile goes down, with no exceptions for schedule. A leak discovered after tiling means removing the tiling, and a leak discovered by the guest below means removing the tiling and comping the room.
Said plainly
Where we stop
We will not price stack renewal before opening up. Existing stack condition in an older Florida hotel is genuinely unknown and guessing it is how bathroom budgets fail.
FAQ
Common questions
- Why are bathrooms the risky part?
- They stack vertically over occupied rooms, and water goes downwards.
- Do you flood test?
- Every bathroom, before tiling, with no exceptions for schedule.
- Do the stacks need replacing?
- It depends on their condition, which is unknown until opened. We will not guess it.
- Can bathrooms be done separately from rooms?
- Possible and usually less efficient — the room is out of service either way.
The reality
The Property Improvement Plan
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Displaced Revenue
hotel renovation displaced rooms revenue loss
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Florida Seasonality
florida hotel renovation season timing shoulder
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Cost Per Key
hotel renovation cost per key benchmark
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The Reopening Date
hotel renovation reopening date bookings
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Next step
Find out what is actually wrong with it.
An inspection, photographs of what we found, and a written scope. If the honest answer is that it can wait another season, that is the answer you will get.