Glass City houses were built to last, and plenty of their bathrooms have outlived several rounds of patching. Up under a sloped ceiling or down where the sewer can rise, we rebuild each one for the house around it.
Jeannette Bathrooms
Close to 1,500 Jeannette houses predate 1940, older owners are common, and stretches of the city's sewer still mix rain with wastewater. Those facts shape six kinds of bathroom work here.
Jeannette's charter as a city dates to 1938, and roughly 1,500 houses here are at least that old. Their baths have usually been reworked by owner after owner, which can leave mismatched pipe, layered flooring and patch upon patch.
Stripping to the framing exposes every pipe; galvanized and tired cast-iron runs get replaced, and the floor is trued before tile. Plaster walls are opened only where the work needs it, then patched to match, so untouched rooms keep their original walls.
What prewar walls hideOwners past 65 run about two in five of Jeannette's owner-occupied homes. When the only bath sits at the top of the stairs, the tub ledge is one climb too many, and the wish is a shower you simply walk into.
In place of the tub goes a shower with little or no threshold, plus grab bars fixed to framed backing, a folding bench, a hand spray and tile that grips. If the hall allows, the doorway gets widened at the same time.
Accessible bathroomsThe median Jeannette house is valued near $114,000, and 47 percent of current owners moved in after 2009. People who picked the city for its prices want a bath that feels new without sinking more into it than the house returns.
We keep the toilet, sink and tub where the drains already run, which holds the cost down, and put the money into the parts you use daily: tile, a solid vanity, good light and a fan that actually clears the room.
Bathroom cost rangesOne Jeannette household in three rents, and the city's fire department checks every rented unit ahead of each new lease. A landlord wants the bath finished, working and dry by the time that inspection is booked.
We plan the bath into the gap between leases, choose finishes that take rough use, and make sure fans, outlets and fixtures all work. The unit is ready when the fire department arrives, not the week after.
Jeannette rental rulesAbout 43 percent of Jeannette households are one person living alone. A solo bath can skip the second sink and the soaking tub; it needs storage that is easy to reach, surfaces that clean quickly and a shower that is safe to use alone.
A single vanity with deep drawers, a recessed medicine cabinet, a bench-height seat in the shower beside its grab bars, and big tiles with few grout lines. The room takes ten minutes to clean, not an hour.
Small bathroom layoutsDuring the July 2019 storms, one West Jeannette basement took on as much as four feet of sewage and water, since some city lines carry rain and waste together. A toilet or shower in a basement there is the first fixture a backup reaches.
Where the new fixtures sit below the street sewer, we add a backwater valve so sewage cannot flow back in, plus an ejector pump where gravity cannot carry the drain away. Finishes go on walls and floors that tolerate water.
Basement bathroomsFigures: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020–2024, City of Jeannette (rounded). Sewer backups and the MAWC project: Tribune-Review, 2019 and 2024.
The rest of the job
How it runs, what it costs and who builds it are on our main bathroom remodeling page.
A Bathroom in Jeannette
The city's permit office and rental rules treat a bath like a kitchen. What sets a Jeannette bathroom apart is underground: sewers that still carry rain in places, and radon readings higher than most towns we work in.
City HallBuilding and code office
City Hall issues permits, a fire-safety check precedes each new lease, and curbside collection refuses demolition debris. Each is explained on the kitchen page for Jeannette, and none changes for a bath. We handle the permits and the hauling, so nothing on that list surprises you mid-job.
Jeannette rules, explained$14.3MMAWC sewer project, announced 2024
West Jeannette's 12th-to-15th-street blocks have seen repeat backups, and in 2024 the county authority announced $14.3 million in work to separate stormwater from those lines. Until that work reaches your street, a basement bath should be built as if the next storm will test it.
Basement bathrooms41%Jeannette tests at 4 pCi/L or more
Of 3,868 radon tests in Pennsylvania's registry carrying a Jeannette address, 1,596 met or passed the state's action level, about two in five. Test before a basement bath is framed; if the result comes back high, a mitigation system is installed first.
PA DEP: Radon in the Home (opens in a new tab)Bathroom Questions
Jeannette homeowners and landlords tend to ask these five first. The usual order of work is on our bathroom service.
Ask a QuestionIt depends on how much moves. A remodel that keeps every fixture where the drains already run sits at the low end, which matters in a city of modestly priced houses; replacing old pipe, turning the tub into a shower or adding a bath downstairs costs more. The figure comes in writing after our visit.
Bathroom cost rangesIt is a one-way valve on the drain line that closes if sewage tries to flow back into the house. The residential code requires one when a fixture's rim sits below the next manhole upstream on the public sewer, which is often true of a basement bath. We check the elevations before planning.
Basement bathroomsOften. The city's application covers renovation work inside the house, and Pennsylvania treats new, moved or replaced piping as beyond ordinary repair. A fresh vanity and tile on untouched plumbing usually need nothing. Any permit the job does need is ours to file at City Hall.
34 Pa. Code §403.62 (opens in a new tab)Yes. The application asks if the property lies in a mapped flood hazard area, and the answer shapes what can go in below grade. If yours does, we plan the basement bath around it before anything is drawn, and choose finishes that can take water.
In most prewar houses, yes. Galvanized steel rusts from the inside, narrowing the pipe and weakening the joints over the decades. Once the remodel has the walls open, swapping it costs a fraction of a separate job later, and the new bath begins with clean water lines.
What prewar walls hideOther Services
Around Jeannette we also rebuild kitchens to fit the house, dry out basements after backups and repair porches on the old streets. Pick a service below.
Kitchen RemodelingNew layouts, new cabinets, new counters: framed, built, and installed by the same crew.View Service
Attic FinishingUnused attics framed into bedrooms and offices: subfloor, insulation, drywall, and a proper stair.View Service
Basement FinishingUnfinished basements turned into real rooms: framed, insulated, drywalled, and finished by our crew.View Service
Additions & ADUsAdditions and accessory dwelling units (ADUs), framed from the ground up and tied in clean.View Service
Windows & Exterior DoorsWindows and exterior doors set, flashed, and trimmed so water stays out of the wall.View Service
Exterior Restoration & Structural RepairsRotted trim and siding, sagging joists, failed sills: opened up and repaired to solid wood.View Service
Decks & Covered PatiosDecks, covered patios and three-season rooms, flashed to the house and built for Westmoreland winters.View ServiceVerified Google Reviews
5.0 out of 5 · 17 reviews
Written by the homeowners we've worked for across Westmoreland County. Every one verified on Google, every one pulled from the real feed.
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Tell us about the project in the form or give us a call. Either way, estimates are free and the number is the number — priced to the actual work, written down before anyone swings a hammer.
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Trafford, PA 15085
