Bathroom remodeling in Carroll County

11%⁴ of the county's homes were built before 1940, whether out on a farm lane or along a town street. A bath in a house that old may sit on joists that were notched for earlier pipes, with floors that slope and walls that aren't square, so ask how the company prices leveling and framing repairs it finds after demolition.

Before you plan around an old bath, find out what's already been done to it. Carroll County's permit portal has records from 2019 onward with all documents and basic information for 1988 to 2018; documents from those years, and any permit before 1988, take a Public Information Act request.⁹ A past plumbing permit can tell you when the supply lines or drain were last replaced.

EPA's lead renovation rule requires anyone paid to disturb painted surfaces in a home built before 1978 to be lead-safe certified, and the EPA says about three-quarters of U.S. homes built before 1978 still contain some lead-based paint.¹² Carroll houses built before 1978 fall under that rule, so ask about certification before anyone sands painted trim or cuts into old plaster. The EPA notes that lead can collect inside galvanized pipe and later reach drinking water, and that solder made before 1986 contained high levels of lead.¹³

Carroll County's Water Resources Element says the county has eight incorporated municipalities and that all of them except Sykesville own and operate their own water systems.² In the countryside around them, a bath's water usually comes from a private well. The Maryland Department of the Environment says a private well should be sampled at least once a year for total coliform bacteria, nitrates, total dissolved solids and pH, by a state-certified laboratory, and again any time the water's odor, taste or appearance changes.¹⁴ If the house has a softener or filter, tell the company so the new lines run through it.

More than one in four adults 65 and older fall each year.¹⁵ The CDC's home fall-prevention checklist recommends grab bars in and beside the tub and next to the toilet, and a non-slip surface on tub and shower floors.¹⁶ In an older house with a high-sided tub, replacing it with a low-threshold shower is often the change that matters most.

Help in the county starts at the aging office in Westminster. As a Maryland Access Point agency, the Carroll County Bureau of Aging & Disabilities connects older adults, adults with disabilities and the people who care for them with services.¹⁷ The state program it can point you to: Maryland's Accessible Homes for Seniors program serves owner-occupants with at least one resident 55 or older whose household income is no more than 80% of the statewide or Washington, DC metro median.¹⁸ The program makes zero-interest loans deferred for 30 years, or grants of up to $25,000 for applicants who don't qualify for a loan, for changes such as widening doorways, accessible showers, ramps, grab bars and lever handles; applications are available from local county housing offices and Maryland Access Point agencies.¹⁸

NAHB's Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) credential trains remodelers in home modifications for aging in place.¹⁹ Ask whether anyone on the crew has that training, and whether blocking for grab bars can go into the walls while they are open. The National Institute on Aging suggests non-skid surfaces wherever a floor can get wet and a light left on in the bathroom at night.²⁰

You call the number on this page. The call is recorded, and it goes to one independent company that handles bathroom remodels in the Carroll County area. You talk with them directly about your project, timing and price.

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Before you sign anything, look the company up yourself. Maryland's Home Improvement Commission licenses home improvement contractors and salespersons, and its License Search shows whether a license is current.²¹ Check a Maryland license