Free written scope consultation - allowances, timeline, and change-order rules on paper before a single trade is scheduled
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterFast, Reliable Bathroom Remodeling Across Irvine
A full bathroom remodel in Irvine typically runs $9,000 – $28,000, with smaller baths landing between $5,000 and $12,000. The biggest variable isn’t labor or materials – it’s the HOA architectural review and City of Irvine permit queue that runs in front of the work. Penhallow Remodeling handles the submittal, the waiting, and the build as one sequenced calendar, so your bath never sits stripped to the studs while a committee decides whether your vent cover matches the village palette. Call (936) 259-2607 if you want a written price before anyone touches a wall.
Why Penhallow Remodeling Is Irvine’s Preferred Bathroom Remodeling Company
Trevor Nash runs the Penhallow crews that work Irvine’s planned villages week in and week out. We know the villages – Woodbridge, Northwood, University Park, Turtle Rock – and we know what each architectural committee flags on the first pass versus what sails through. That’s not company marketing. It’s the lived pattern from submitting dozens of bathroom packets into Irvine’s dual-approval system, where the HOA review gates the city permit and the city permit gates the tear-out.
Our Irvine jobs follow The Kingswell Way, the operating standard behind Penhallow since 2004: a written price before any work starts, a defined arrival window, and a written 365-Day Done Right Promise on every project. If the work fails inside the guarantee period, we return and fix it at no charge. No service call, no re-inspection fee. You also get a free second visit if a repair fails – that’s baked into the written guarantee, not a verbal promise made at the door. Background-checked, uniformed technicians do the work, and a live person answers the phone 24/7. You’ll never get a voicemail maze when you call our office.
As part of our commitment to Bathroom Remodeling done honestly, we carry no re-inspection fees and no surprise change orders floated as an afterthought. The number on day one is the number on the invoice – unless you approve a written change order first, which we’ll walk you through line by line.
Small Bathroom Remodel in Irvine
A Small Bathroom Remodel in Irvine usually means a guest bath, powder room, or hallway bath built between 1970 and 2010 that needs new fixtures, flooring, a vanity, and a refresh without moving walls. These jobs run $5,000 – $12,000, and the price shifts depending on whether we’re keeping the existing footprint or re-roughing plumbing for a relocated drain or shower valve. In Irvine’s tract-built villages, the fastest path is often keeping the wet-wall where it is and upgrading the surfaces around it – that avoids triggering full plumbing re-permitting and keeps the HOA submittal to finish-exterior items only.
What a Small Bath Update Involves
We pull the old vanity, floor tile, and shower surround. Then we inspect the subfloor and wall cavity for dry rot behind failed grout lines. If it’s clean, we set new tile, a new vanity, and new fixtures from Kohler, Moen, or Delta. If the rough-in is dated or the vent stack is undersized, we flag it and price the correction as a written change order before cutting.
When Irvine Homeowners Choose a Small Remodel
Most South Irvine homeowners call us when the guest bath starts failing precisely because it’s the least-used room – caulk shrinking around the tub, grout cracking from seasonal humidity swings, and a vanity swollen from splash exposure. A small remodel is the fastest way to stop a slow leak from turning into a subfloor replacement job. We schedule around your HOA review, not in front of it.
Shower Remodel in Irvine
A Shower Remodel in Irvine replaces the existing shower pan, surround, valve, and often the glass enclosure without touching the rest of the bathroom. Most Irvine jobs run $3,000 – $8,500 for a direct shower replacement and $4,500 – $12,000 for a full walk-in conversion with a new pan and re-worked drain. The difference comes down to what’s behind the old tile – homes from the 1980s stucco-and-wood-frame era frequently hide dry-rotted subfloor under old shower pans, and that has to be addressed before new waterproofing goes in.
Walk-In Shower Conversion
The tub-to-shower conversion is the most requested shower job we do in Irvine’s older villages. Homeowners want to age in place or just ditch the tub nobody uses. We demo the tub, re-set the drain to code, install a cement board substrate (the moisture-resistant layer behind your tile), then waterproof with a liquid membrane before tile. Expect $4,500 – $12,000, and in northeast Irvine – Portola Springs, the Great Park Neighborhoods – the wildland-urban interface rules can add fire-resistant vent and eave details that coastal neighbors never deal with.
Frameless Glass Enclosures
The frameless glass itself is a product call, not a structural one. We coordinate the enclosure measurements after tile is set, so the glass clears the finished surface by the right tolerance. The enclosure, the fixture finish, and any window visible from the street are the three things Irvine HOAs care about most on a shower remodel – we put all of them in the submittal packet before we pull the city permit.
Trusted Brands We Service in Irvine
We stock the finish lines most Irvine committees approve on the first pass: Kohler and Moen fixtures, KraftMaid and Wellborn vanities, Caesarstone and Silestone quartz tops, Delta and Toto for periodic replacements. We don’t carry Abodu, Cover, Dvele, or Mighty Buildings in our standard material mix – those are new-construction framing systems that don’t come up in a bath remodel – but we’ll order and install any spec-grade line a homeowner requests. Because we keep common finish samples and manufacturer lead times on hand for the Irvine market, we can give you a hard availability date before you commit.
Common Bathroom Remodeling Problems We See in Irvine Homes
- Missing the HOA architectural review submittal on street-visible items. A replacement window, an exterior vent, or a finish the committee treats as part of the front elevation – skip this and the City of Irvine won’t issue the permit, no matter how ready the crew is. The bath sits torn open until the packet clears.
- Rot behind the old tub and shower pan. In the 1970s – 2000s stucco-and-wood-frame stock across Northwood and Woodbridge, a failed drain or worn grout seeps water into the subfloor for years before you see it. When we open the wall, the damage is often worse than the tile condition suggested.
- Undersized venting from the original mechanical design. Older bathroom exhaust fans in Irvine tract homes were sized for code minimums of their year, not for today’s sealed-envelope and low-VOC material standards. If the fan can’t move the air, no amount of tile work prevents condensation damage.
- Draw and material commitments made before approval lands. We’ve seen contractors order custom cabinetry and schedule demolition, then hit a two-week HOA delay. The cabinets sit in the garage, the bath is gutted, and the homeowner is paying finance costs on a stalled job. We sequence materials and permits around the approval gates, not in the wrong order.
Pricing for Bathroom Remodeling in Irvine, CA
Here’s what bathroom work costs in Irvine right now. These are the ranges we bid in – not national averages, not “pricing varies” without numbers.
| Scope of Work | Irvine Price Range |
|---|---|
| Full Bathroom Remodel | $9,000 – $28,000 |
| Small Bathroom Remodel | $5,000 – $12,000 |
| Walk-In Shower Installation | $4,500 – $12,000 |
| Tub-to-Shower Conversion | $3,500 – $10,000 |
| Shower Replacement | $3,000 – $8,500 |
| Bathroom Vanity Installation | $800 – $3,000 |
What moves the number up or down: the condition of the subfloor when we open the wall, whether the drain and rough-in need re-working for a different layout, and whether the HOA packet includes exterior-visible items that slow the calendar. A master bath in University Park on a concrete slab with no rot can land at the low end. A second-story guest bath in Portola Springs with a failed old pan and WUI vent requirements lands at the high end. Call (936) 259-2607 and we’ll put a written number in front of you – free estimate, no obligation.
We Also Serve Cities Near Irvine
Our crews cover Irvine daily and schedule regularly in Tustin, Santa Ana, Orange, and Villa Park. The approval choreography is different in each – Santa Ana and Tustin run city-permit-first for most single-family baths, where Irvine layers the planned-village architectural committee in front. We know which calendar applies where, and we plan the job around it.
Serving Irvine, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Irvine area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About Bathroom Remodeling in Irvine
Yes, for any remodel that touches something the architectural committee treats as exterior-visible – replacement windows, exterior vent covers, or finish items on the front elevation – the HOA review must clear before the City of Irvine will issue the building permit. The HOA is the first gate. We file the submittal packet ourselves and build the schedule around that sequence. Call (936) 259-2607 to talk through your specific village’s requirements.
Plan on two to six weeks added by the HOA architectural review, depending on the village’s board meeting cadence and whether the packet has every required document on the first pass. We submit a complete packet with finish schedules, paint codes, and window specs to avoid the back-and-forth that adds weeks. The City of Irvine permit review runs its own clock after the HOA clears. We tell you both timelines upfront in the written estimate.
A typical packet includes the finish schedule, material and color samples or manufacturer specifications, a window and vent replacement detail if street-visible, and site photos showing the current front elevation. We compile and submit all of it. You sign the authorization, but Penhallow does the packet assembly – that’s part of the job we take on so you don’t sit at a committee meeting explaining a window spec.
Yes, and we always handle them as written change orders with a line-item price before work proceeds. If the subfloor under an old tub drain is dry-rotted – which we see regularly in 1980s Woodbridge and University Park stock – we photograph it, show you the scope, and hand you a written number. Nothing is billed as a surprise, and no change starts without your signature.
If we’re swapping the vanity, flooring, and fixtures in place – no plumbing re-roughing, no window change, no structural movement – it’s typically a cosmetic refresh with no permit and no HOA filing. The moment a drain moves, a window changes, or a fan vent is re-routed, the permit and HOA gates open. We’ll tell you which path your job falls on and quote accordingly. Call (936) 259-2607 for an exact read.
Written by Trevor Nash, Owner at Penhallow Remodeling, serving Irvine with the Kingswell standard – written price first, real arrival windows, and the 365-Day Done Right Promise on every job.