A Garden City bath that has never been opened, a townhouse bath against the neighbor's wall, a tub an older tenant can no longer climb into. No two Monroeville bathrooms need the same fix, so we start every one by asking who uses it.
Monroeville Bathrooms
Fifties houses make up a quarter of Monroeville, apartment buildings of ten or more units hold over a fifth of its homes, and some 2,100 people past 65 live on their own. Six bathroom projects follow from that.
Garden City and its sister subdivisions from the middle of the 1950s set Monroeville's pattern, and about 3,500 homes here date from that decade. A bath that has never been gutted is past seventy, with pipes and a subfloor to match.
Demolition reaches the framing, leaving every pipe exposed for a close look. Failing galvanized or cast-iron runs are replaced, and the subfloor is repaired wherever water softened it. The rebuilt room gets a waterproofed shower and a fan that exhausts outside.
Old pipes and hidden damageA third of Monroeville's owners have reached 65, and roughly 2,100 people in that age group keep house alone. For them, climbing over the tub wall is a daily risk, with nobody nearby to steady them.
Out comes the tub; in goes a shower entered at floor level, with grab bars screwed into backing framed between the studs, a seat at chair height and matte tile that grips. An adjustable-height hand spray suits anyone.
Accessible bathroomsTwenty-nine percent of Monroeville's renting households are led by someone 65-plus, and buildings with ten or more apartments account for over 3,000 homes. Landlords with older tenants want unit baths those tenants can keep using safely for years, without moving out to find one.
Unit by unit, we trade tubs for low-entry showers with seats and grab bars, set vanities at a comfortable height and brighten the lighting at the mirror and the door. The county's master-plumber rule for rentals covers every pipe we touch.
Tub-to-shower conversionsForty-two percent of Monroeville homes have three bedrooms and another fifth have four or more, while about one household in five is raising children. When one full bath serves the whole household, a second is the obvious next room.
We look for space in a closet, over the garage or beside the primary bedroom, list them on the plumbing plan the county has to approve, and build once it does. Plumbing and wiring are each inspected before the walls close.
Adding a bathroomAbout 1,150 Monroeville homes are townhouses or other attached houses. A bathroom there often backs onto a shared wall, so the sound of a running drain or a fan can carry next door, and the room has no window to the outside.
We wrap new drain lines in sound insulation where they run along the party wall, choose a quiet fan ducted to the roof or the back wall, and add light where daylight never reaches. The room ends up calmer on both sides.
Ventilation and moistureWhen the basement of a fifties house becomes the den, the only toilet suddenly feels a long climb away. A bath down there answers to two checks: a radon test before building, and the sewer test when the house sells.
After the radon reading, floor and area drains stay separate from the new sanitary piping, and a toilet lower than the sewer gets a sealed pump basin. Water-resistant board plus an exhaust fan ducted through an outside wall finish the room.
Basement bathroomsFigures: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020–2024, Municipality of Monroeville. Subdivision dates: Monroeville comprehensive plan, 2005. Inspection items: Monroeville occupancy checklist, 2021.
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 Monroeville
Monroeville's permits and occupancy inspections are no different for a bath than for a kitchen. Two details belong to the bath alone: what the occupancy checklist asks of every bathroom, and how radon tests in the 15146 read below grade.
15–30 daysPermit review, business days
Building & Engineering wants a plot plan with each application and reviews it over 15 to 30 business days. Electrical work goes to a third-party inspector and plumbing to the county. Our Monroeville kitchen page walks through all of it, and a bath follows the same route.
Monroeville rules, explainedGFCIRequired in every bathroom
Ahead of each new occupant, the municipal inspector checks that each bathroom has at least one outlet and that it is GFCI-protected, along with every outlet near water. Smoke detectors older than ten years have to be replaced. A bath we rebuild meets that list on day one.
Monroeville typical inspection items (PDF) (opens in a new tab)38%15146 basement tests, 4 pCi/L+
Thirty-eight percent of basement radon results the state has logged for the 15146 met or topped Pennsylvania's action level. You will use a lower-level bath daily, so we want a reading before any studs go up, and mitigation in place first when it is high.
PA DEP: Radon in the Home (opens in a new tab)Bathroom Questions
Five questions we hear before a Monroeville bath comes apart, answered for this municipality.
Ask a QuestionScope decides it. Refreshing surfaces in the current layout costs least; converting a tub, adding a bath or building one below grade with a pump costs more, county plumbing fees included. Expect a written price after our walkthrough, and see the bathroom service for usual ranges.
Bathroom cost rangesIt can. Before a Monroeville sale, the municipal authority's certification may dye-test downspouts and area drains, run smoke through the lines and send a camera down the lateral; the paperwork goes in a month or more before closing. A lower-level bath we build keeps every area drain off the sanitary line.
Monroeville Code §316-91 (opens in a new tab)If a fuel-burning appliance sits in a bedroom or its attached bathroom, Monroeville's occupancy checklist calls for a carbon monoxide alarm inside that bedroom. Homes with fuel-fired appliances or an attached garage also need one near the furnace area. We check both before the inspector does.
Monroeville typical inspection items (PDF) (opens in a new tab)No. The residential code sends exhaust air outdoors, and an attic, soffit or crawl space does not count. In older houses we sometimes find a fan blowing into the attic, which leaves moisture on the roof framing. We duct the new fan through the roof or an outside wall instead.
Ventilation and moistureYes. Where the wall has no blocking, we open a small section, add wood backing between the studs and patch it, or use anchors rated for the load in tile. It is a small job, and it is worth doing before a fall, not after one.
Accessible bathroomsOther Services
Around Monroeville, we also wire kitchens to the checklist, dry out basements and bolt decks the way the inspector wants. See those services 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
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Trafford, PA 15085
