Sherwood Shower Remodeling

A Sherwood shower is built twice: once to hold water, once to look good

Every shower we build has two layers. The first is a sealed, sloped enclosure that would keep water out of your walls even if no tile were ever installed. The second is the tile, glass and fixtures you chose. JDI Construction, a family-owned design-build remodeler based in Vancouver, WA, since 2007, gives the first layer the same care as the second, because it is the one that cannot be fixed later without starting over. For Sherwood homeowners replacing a shower that came with the house, that order of priorities is the main thing to look for in a contractor.

Our designers and installers are one team. The person specifying your drain, niche and glass is working alongside the people who will frame and waterproof it, so the design reflects how the shower will be built, not just how it will photograph.

Where a shower succeeds or fails

Almost everything that matters is covered up by the end of the job. These are the points we check before the tile goes on:

1. 1
   

   Slope to drainThe pan, the bench and the bottom of each niche all tilt toward the drain, so nothing holds standing water.
2. 2
   

   Tile & groutThe finish layer. It sheds most of the water, but it is not what keeps the wall dry.
3. 3
   

   Sealing the seamsInside corners, the curb, valve openings and the drain connection get extra attention, since that is where failures begin.
4. 4
   

   AccessibilitySolid backing in the walls for grab bars now or later, a seat, and a threshold low enough to step over easily.

Decide these while the walls are still open

Size comes first. Taking out a tub and using its full length gives you a shower you can move around in, and it is the most common change we make. Check that the house keeps a tub somewhere before you commit. Entry is second: a curb is straightforward, while a curbless floor has to be recessed into the framing, which is easy to plan and hard to add as an afterthought. Then come the built-in pieces. A bench, niches, a handheld sprayer on its own valve and blocking for future grab bars all have to be framed and plumbed before waterproofing. Glass is the last decision in appearance but an early one in practice, because the curb and walls are built to suit the door you want.

What Sherwood showers tend to need

Sherwood's population nearly quadrupled during the 1990s and kept climbing through the 2000s, so a large share of the city's showers are the same age and the same type: a molded fiberglass or acrylic unit, or a small tiled stall on a builder's pan, with a framed sliding or pivot door. They were inexpensive and quick to install, and after twenty or thirty years of daily use they show it. The surface dulls, the caulk lines darken, and the door hardware corrodes. Whether water has reached the framing is something nobody can tell from the outside, which is why we plan every replacement as a rebuild from the studs. If the subfloor or wall framing is damaged, we find it and repair it before a new shower goes over it.

In a two-story Sherwood house the primary shower usually sits above a finished room, so a slow leak shows up as a ceiling stain downstairs long after it started. The few older houses around Old Town raise a different question, which is whether the existing drain and supply lines are worth reusing at all. And everywhere in the Tualatin Valley, long wet seasons mean a bathroom dries slowly, so we pair the new shower with a fan that is ducted outdoors and sized for the room.

Shower and bath projects from around the metro

The projects below are in Beaverton and Portland, not Sherwood. Open any of them for the full set of before and after photos:

Beaverton · Nearby

Forest Green Kitchen and Bath Remodel in Beaverton, OR

See the project

Portland · Nearby

Bathroom Renovation in Portland, OR

See the project

Portland · Nearby

Vintage-Modern Bathroom Remodel in Portland, OR

See the project

Beaverton · Nearby

Bright and Airy Bathroom Transformation in Beaverton, OR

See the project

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What does a shower remodel cost in Sherwood?

The spread is wide because "new shower" covers very different work. Swapping one prefabricated unit for another is the least involved. A tiled walk-in with a custom pan, frameless glass and a relocated or linear drain is a larger project, and curbless construction adds further framing and waterproofing labor. Tile choice and layout, the number of valves and heads, and any repair to what we find under the old unit also move the figure. You will get an itemized estimate once we have seen the bathroom and agreed on a design, so the number describes your shower specifically.

How long does a shower remodel take?

Less time than a full bathroom, though more than the demolition day suggests. Membranes and mortar need to cure, tile and grout need to set, and glass is templated after the tile is complete and installed when it arrives. Skipping any of those waits is how showers fail early, so we do not. Before work starts you will have a written sequence, and if this is your only shower we will talk through how to manage the gap.

Why Sherwood homeowners hire JDI

The same team is responsible for the framing, the waterproofing, the tile and the glass, and that work is covered by a 5-year workmanship warranty. Where the job needs a plumbing permit from the City of Sherwood or an electrical permit from Washington County, we apply for it and meet the inspector. One more thing you should know up front: we are a Vancouver, WA, company, and Sherwood is across the metro on its southwest edge. We do make that trip, and we set the schedule so each visit gets a full stage of work done.

JDI Construction. "Built by family. Trusted by neighbors." Family-owned and building since 2007 from our base in Vancouver, WA, with shower remodeling for homeowners in Sherwood, Tigard and Tualatin.