A bathroom is the smallest room you’ll remodel and the one with the least margin for error. Water is looking for a way into your walls every single day, and a bathroom that’s beautiful for 2 years and leaking by year 3 wasn’t remodeled, it was decorated. MASACO Construction is a woman-led design-build firm based in Plano, and we remodel bathrooms across Dallas with the same discipline we bring to a whole house: one design, a written scope, waterproofing that’s tested before tile goes on, and one project manager who sends you photos every week.
Tub-to-shower conversions and wet rooms, the two requests we hear most.
Most primary bath calls in Dallas start with the same sentence: “We never use the tub.” The 1980s garden tub in a Far North Dallas two-story and the 5-foot alcove tub in a 1960s Lake Highlands ranch both eat floor space that a real shower would use better.
Tub-to-walk-in shower. We remove the tub, rebuild the floor and walls, set a new drain, and build a shower the size of the old footprint or larger. A tub alcove is usually 60 inches wide, which makes a generous shower with a bench and a niche. The decision points are the curb (a low curb or none at all), the glass (frameless panel or door), and whether the drain stays put or moves to a linear position along the wall.
Wet rooms. A wet room waterproofs the entire floor and puts the shower and, often, a freestanding tub inside one continuous tiled space with a curbless entry. It’s the cleanest look in a modern primary bath and the most forgiving for aging in place, and it demands the most from waterproofing and drainage, because the whole floor is a shower pan. Floor slope, a properly sized drain, and glass placement all matter more than they do in a conventional shower.
If it’s the only tub in the house, we’ll talk through whether to keep it, since many Dallas buyers expect at least one.
Waterproofing is the job, and tile is just what you see.
Tile is not waterproof. Grout is not waterproof. What keeps water out of your framing is the system behind the tile: a sloped pan, a waterproof membrane on the floor and walls, sealed seams and corners, a properly flashed drain, and a curb or threshold that’s wrapped, not just tiled.
Our standard is straightforward. The shower is waterproofed as a continuous system, the pan is flood tested with the drain plugged and water standing for a set period, and the test is photographed and sent to you in that week’s written photo update before any tile is set. Niches and benches are built into the waterproofing, not cut into it later.
This is also where older Dallas houses need extra attention. A 1950s bath in Casa Linda or Lochwood may have a mortar-bed pan with no membrane at all, and a 1920s Tudor bath in the M Streets may be sitting on framing that’s seen 100 years of humidity. We open the floor, evaluate what’s there, and fix the structure before the new waterproofing goes on top of it.
Ventilation, and why Dallas bathrooms grow mildew.
North Texas summers are humid, and a bathroom that can’t clear its own moisture will show it at the ceiling corners and behind the toilet within a couple of seasons. Two problems are common in houses built before the 1990s: a fan that’s too small for the room, and a fan that’s ducted into the attic instead of through the roof or a wall to the outside.
We size the fan to the room and the shower, duct it to the exterior with insulated duct so it doesn’t drip condensation back into the housing, and put it on a timer or humidity sensor so it actually runs long enough after a shower to matter. In a wet room or a bath with a steam shower, ventilation is part of the design, not an accessory.
Aging-in-place details that don’t look clinical.
The best accessibility features are the ones nobody notices. A curbless shower entry reads as modern design and happens to work for a walker or a wheelchair. A bench in the shower is a place to shave your legs and a place to sit if you’re unsteady. A hand shower on a slide bar is a rinsing tool and a seated-shower tool. Comfort-height toilets, lever handles, and a wider door swing are invisible until you need them.
The one detail you can’t add later without opening the wall is blocking for grab bars. We install it behind the tile at the locations a bar would go, so that if you or a parent ever need one, it’s a 20-minute job instead of a demolition. For Dallas homeowners planning to stay in the house, or remodeling a bath for a parent moving in, we design the whole room around these details from the first sketch. Our general contracting page covers how we handle larger accessibility scopes.
Tile, fixtures, and the selections that set the schedule.
A bathroom’s calendar is decided by 3 orders: tile, glass, and the vanity. Tile lead times vary widely, and large-format or imported tile can take many weeks. Frameless glass is measured after tile is finished and fabricated after that, which puts it near the end of every bathroom schedule. Vanities range from stock to custom with the same lead-time logic as kitchen cabinets.
Our design team walks you through tile with an eye on installation, not just looks: large-format tile needs a flatter substrate, natural stone needs sealing, mosaic floors slope more easily in a curbless shower, and a tile with a high slip rating belongs on the floor while a polished one belongs on the wall. Fixtures get selected together so the finishes match across the faucet, shower valve, towel bars, and hardware, and the shower valve is chosen before rough-in because it goes into the wall first.
We finalize all of it in the 3D model so you see the tile layout, the niche placement, and the glass before ordering. Once selections are in hand, the site work moves without waiting on deliveries, with one project manager sending you a weekly written photo update. The job ends with a walkthrough, a punch list closed before final payment, and a care guide for grout, sealant, and stone.
Relocating drains on a slab foundation.
Most DFW homes sit on a slab, and most bathroom layout changes involve moving a drain. Turning a tub into a shower with a linear drain, shifting the toilet to open up the vanity wall, or converting a closet into a shower all mean the drain under the concrete has to move.
The process is routine for a crew that does it regularly: cut the slab along the new drain path, excavate, run new drain and vent piping with correct slope and tie-ins, get the rough plumbing inspected, then backfill and pour the slab back before the floor is rebuilt. In 1950s to 1970s homes, especially in Lake Highlands, Lochwood, and Casa Linda, the existing under-slab drains are often cast iron that’s corroded or bellied, and a bathroom remodel is the right time to replace the section under the bath rather than connect new fixtures to a pipe that’s about to fail. A camera inspection of the line before design tells us what we’re working with.
Pier-and-beam houses in the M Streets, Kessler Park, Hollywood Heights, and parts of Oak Cliff and Lakewood are the exception. Drains run in the crawlspace and move more easily, but the subfloor and joists under an old bath frequently need repair while the floor is open.
Permits and inspections for a Dallas bathroom.
Bathroom remodels that move plumbing, add or relocate electrical circuits, or change walls require permits from City of Dallas Development Services, generally a building permit plus plumbing and electrical permits with rough-in and final inspections. A like-for-like fixture swap in the same location typically doesn’t. We pull what’s needed, schedule the inspectors around the waterproofing and rough-in, and close out the permits at the end so nothing lingers on the property record.
University Park and Highland Park, the Park Cities, have their own building departments and their own review process. Bathrooms rarely trigger conservation district or historic overlay review in neighborhoods like Lakewood, Swiss Avenue, or the Bishop Arts area, since those rules focus on exteriors, unless the project adds or changes a window.
Bathrooms we remodel across Dallas neighborhoods.
The house shapes the bathroom. In Preston Hollow and University Park, primary baths tend to grow into adjacent closets and become full wet rooms with separate water closets. In Lake Highlands, Casa Linda, and Lochwood ranches, the primary bath is often tiny and the project is about borrowing space from a closet or hallway and dealing with the slab. In the M Streets, Hollywood Heights, and Kessler Park, original baths have character worth keeping and plumbing worth replacing. Uptown townhomes bring HOA rules and stacked plumbing to the plan. Far North Dallas two-stories usually have the square footage already, with 1980s layouts and finishes ready for a full reset.
Bathroom work lives under our general construction category, pairs closely with kitchen remodeling, and is often the first phase of a whole-home remodel. See finished work at /projects/. We run the same process from our Plano headquarters across the metro: start with Plano or Fort Worth, or go directly to bathroom remodeling in Plano and bathroom remodeling in Fort Worth.
How we price it.
After design, you get a fixed-scope proposal that lists the work in order: demolition, structural repair if needed, plumbing and electrical rough-in, waterproofing, tile, fixtures, glass, and finishes. Selections you haven’t finalized are carried as allowances with a stated amount for each, so you see the budget’s shape before anything is ordered. When a selection lands above or below its allowance, we reconcile it in writing.
Bathrooms are where hidden conditions show up most: a rotted subfloor, a corroded drain, framing that isn’t plumb. Every one of those becomes a written change order with the cost, the schedule impact, and a photo of what we found, signed by you before we proceed. Payment follows a draw schedule tied to milestones, with lien releases delivered with each draw. The long version is at /process/.
Think Massive. Build Smart. If you’re done stepping over a tub you never use, book a consultation. We’ll look at the room, check the slab, and show you the 3D model of the shower you’d actually want. Book a consultation.
What's included.
- Tub-to-walk-in-shower conversions and curbless wet rooms
- Full waterproofing system behind tile, flood tested before tile goes on
- Linear or center drains with slab-cut drain relocation where needed
- Ventilation fans sized to the room and ducted to the exterior
- Frameless glass, niches, benches, and grab-bar blocking behind the walls
- Tile, stone, and large-format installation with proper substrate prep
- Vanities, countertops, plumbing fixtures, and lighting selections
- Electrical updates including GFCI circuits and heated-floor wiring
- Aging-in-place details: curbless entries, comfort-height fixtures, hand showers
- Permits and inspections through City of Dallas Development Services
How the project runs.
- Consultation and bathroom walk. We look at the existing bath and the floor under it. We confirm slab or pier-and-beam, find the drain and vent locations, check the fan ducting and the panel, and ask how you actually use the room, because a primary bath and a kids' bath are different projects.
- Design and 3D visualization. Our design team draws the new layout and builds a 3D model so you can see the shower size, the glass, the niche placement, the vanity height, and the tile pattern from the doorway. Fixture and tile selections happen here, and the model is revised until it's right.
- Fixed-scope proposal with allowances. You get a written scope listing demolition, waterproofing, plumbing, electrical, tile, glass, and fixtures, with allowances for any selection still open. Lead times for tile, glass, and vanities are confirmed so the site schedule is built around real delivery dates.
- Permits, demo, and construction. We pull the permits, then run demolition, plumbing and electrical rough-in, inspections, waterproofing and flood test, tile, fixtures, and glass in order. One project manager runs the job and sends you a written photo update every week, including the flood test.
- Walkthrough, punch list, and care guide. We run every fixture, check drainage, glass alignment, and grout with you, and write down anything that needs attention. The punch list closes before final payment, and your care guide covers grout, sealant, glass, and stone maintenance.
