Small Bathroom Remodels in Jacksonville

Most of the bathrooms in Jacksonville's ranch houses from the 1950s to the 1970s are small: a hall bath about five feet by eight, with a tub across the back wall, a toilet beside it and a vanity by the door. A remodel there is mostly a question of inches.

The layout is set less by taste than by clearances in the plumbing code and by where the drains already are in the slab.

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The clearances that set the layout

These come from the residential code the county inspects to, and they decide what fits:

• The toilet needs 15 inches from its centerline to a wall or fixture on each side, and 21 inches of clear space in front.
• A shower must be at least 30 by 30 inches inside, with an opening wide enough to step through.
• The bathroom needs an exhaust fan vented outside or an operable window. In Jacksonville humidity the fan is the one to rely on.
• Outlets near the sink are GFCI-protected.

Making the room work

• A shower in the tub's footprint, with a fixed glass panel instead of a door, makes the room read larger; see [tub-to-shower conversions](/services/tub-to-shower-conversion).
• A wall-hung vanity, or a narrower one, frees floor space and makes the floor easier to clean.
• A pocket or outswing door gives back the space an inswing door needs to clear the toilet.
• Larger tiles and fewer grout lines, a niche in the shower wall instead of a caddy, and a mirror cabinet over the sink.

What turns up in an older small bath

Behind the walls of a 1950s to 1970s bathroom there is often galvanized supply pipe, a cast iron drain and a tub set in a mortar bed. A small room does not mean a small scope: once the walls are open, replacing the old supply and drain while they are exposed is usually the right call, and it is permitted plumbing work everywhere on the First Coast.