A condo bathroom renovation is a normal bathroom renovation with two extra clients: the strata, and the person living under your shower. Get both onside early and the job runs like any other. Skip either and the job stops. Here’s what we sort out before demolition on every strata job, from Metrotown towers to Yaletown to the Richmond mid-rises.
Strata approval
Almost every strata in BC requires written approval before an owner alters anything that touches common property or the building’s systems, and a bathroom does both. Plumbing that runs through the slab is common property. Waterproofing that protects the unit below is, in effect, a building system. Read your bylaws, then submit before you book anyone.
What the strata usually asks for:
- A description of the scope, with drawings if the layout changes.
- The contractor’s insurance and WorkSafeBC coverage.
- Confirmation of the waterproofing method, sometimes with a spec sheet.
- Working hours, and how noise and dust will be managed.
- An elevator and loading plan.
- Sometimes a deposit against damage to common areas.
Allow two to six weeks. Some councils meet monthly. We supply the insurance, the waterproofing spec and the work plan as a package so the application goes in complete.
The unit below
This is the part that makes a condo shower different. In a house, a failed shower rots your own subfloor. In a strata, it stains the ceiling of the unit below, and depending on your bylaws you may be liable for the repair. The shower has to be built as a complete waterproofing assembly with a membrane on every wet surface, bonded to the drain, and tested with the drain plugged before a single tile is set. We do that on every shower anyway; in a strata we photograph the test and keep it on file, because it’s the document that protects you if anything ever comes up. Our note on what’s behind a tiled shower explains the assembly.
Moving the drain
Keeping the shower, toilet and vanity where they are is the biggest saving in any renovation, and in a condo it’s also the difference between a permit-free job and a major one. Moving a drain in a concrete building means core drilling through the slab, an engineer’s sign-off in many buildings, and a plumber working in the ceiling of the unit below. It’s possible. It’s slow, expensive, and the strata will have opinions. If the layout works, keep it and spend the money on the assembly and the finish.
Elevators, hallways and hours
Demolition debris and tile go down and up the same elevator your neighbours use, so the building will want it booked, padded, and used within set hours. Hallways and the elevator lobby get protected with board and film. Noise bylaws in most buildings limit demolition and tile cutting to weekday daytime hours, which sets the pace of the job. We build the schedule around the building’s rules from the start instead of arguing about them on day two.
Dust and water
A condo has no yard to cut tile in. We set up cutting in the bathroom or on a protected balcony with water-fed saws, seal the doorway with a zipper wall, and run air scrubbers where the building or the client wants them. Water gets shut off at the unit valve, and if the building’s shutoff has to be used, that’s coordinated with the strata manager days ahead.
What changes in the tile work
Not much, and that’s the point. The floor is a concrete slab, so flatness is usually good and the prep is about crack isolation and moisture rather than levelling. Heated floors go over an uncoupling membrane the same way. Large-format porcelain and slab walls work well in the newer towers, where the rooms are square and the walls are straight. Older wood-frame condos in Kitsilano or Fairview are closer to a house: framing that has moved, walls out of plumb, more correction before tile. Our bathroom renovations page covers the assembly in either case.
Timeline
A condo bathroom takes about as long as a house bathroom, three to five weeks for a full rebuild, plus the approval time at the front. The approval is the part people forget to budget. Start it before you pick tile.
Where we do this most
The Burnaby towers at Metrotown, Brentwood and Lougheed, downtown and Yaletown in Vancouver, and the Richmond mid-rises around Brighouse and Capstan. Each building has its own rules, and we’ve worked under most of them.
If you’re planning a condo bathroom, request a quote and send us your strata’s renovation form along with the photos. We’ll fill in the parts that are ours.