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Schluter Bathroom Remodeling: The San Jose Owner’s Guide
A Schluter bathroom remodel in San Jose typically runs $10,620 – $33,040, depending on shower size, tile selection, and how much of the existing waterproofing needs to come out. We install Schluter KERDI and DITRA systems on most shower and floor rebuilds, and we keep the core components coming through the shop regularly. The call usually starts the same way: someone pulls up a loose tile in a shower that was only “fixed” a few years ago, and underneath they find drywall that’s turned to oatmeal.
That’s the moment you realize the last contractor skipped the waterproofing layer entirely. Tile and grout are not waterproof. Never have been. Schluter’s membrane system is what keeps the water off the framing, and when it was never installed, or was installed wrong, the shower fails from the inside out.
Which Schluter Models This Applies To
We work with the full Schluter shower line: KERDI-BOARD for walls, KERDI membrane for seams and corners, the KERDI-SHOWER tray and curb systems, and DITRA underlayment for bathroom floors. If your shower has a Schluter drain assembly (the square stainless grate is the usual tell), we can match it. Here’s the compatibility gotcha most homeowners don’t know until it’s too late: Schluter shower trays are pre-sloped for specific drain locations. A center-drain tray won’t work for a drain that sits 16 inches off the back wall, and vice versa. If someone installs the wrong tray and tries to make up the difference with extra mortar, the slope goes wrong and water pools in the corners. We see this in San Jose homes built or remodeled in the 2000s and early 2010s more than anywhere else.
On the OEM versus aftermarket question: for the membrane, the bonding flange, and the drain grate, we recommend Schluter’s own parts. The tolerances matter, and the warranty protection is tied to using the system as a system. For setting materials, a quality unmodified thinset from a name like Laticrete or Mapei works fine and is what most tile setters pair with Schluter membranes. That’s not cutting corners. It’s the manufacturer’s own spec.
As far as branding: Penhallow Remodeling San Jose is an independent contractor. We are not affiliated with Schluter Systems, and we don’t claim to be. We install their products because they’re the most reliable waterproofing system we’ve found in two decades of bathroom gut-jobs, including a stretch of Willow Glen remodels that taught me how much a properly detailed membrane matters in this climate.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Schluter Bathroom Remodeling Is Failing
- Grout cracking along the shower floor perimeter. This usually means the substrate under the tile is flexing. A properly installed shower tray on a solid subfloor shouldn’t move. When it does, water gets under the tile and the membrane is the only thing saving you.
- Musty smell that never goes away. Water is sitting somewhere it shouldn’t be. In Schluter showers, this often traces to a seam that wasn’t properly embedded in thinset, or a corner that got patched with the wrong material.
- Tile tenting or lifting off a shower wall. That’s the tile pulling away because the surface behind it is swelling. When KERDI-BOARD is installed correctly, this doesn’t happen. When someone used regular drywall behind the membrane and water got in through a failed corner, the board swells and pushes the tile out with it.
- Water staining on the ceiling below the bathroom. By the time you see a stain on the ceiling below, the leak has usually been going for a while. The shower pan or drain flange is the prime suspect, and it’s the last thing you want to ignore in a San Jose house with hardwood framing.
- Loose or rocking shower floor tiles. A properly bedded Schluter tray doesn’t flex. If tiles are rocking, the tray or the substrate under it has failed, or someone used a modified thinset where the spec called for unmodified and the membrane never fully cured bonded.
See the difference
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After
Before
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Before
AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
A full Schluter bathroom remodel in San Jose runs $10,620 – $33,040. A smaller guest bath with a tub-to-shower conversion and KERDI waterproofing starts around $5,900. A walk-in shower rebuild with new KERDI-BOARD walls, a KERDI-SHOWER tray, new fixtures, and floor tile typically lands between $5,310 and $14,160. A complete gut with moving plumbing, custom tile, and a curbless entry can push past $30,000.
What drives the number up or down: the size of the shower footprint, whether we’re moving the drain, tile choice (big-box porcelain versus a handmade tile), and whether the subfloor or wall framing needs repair before the Schluter components go in. We write all of that into a line-item quote before any work starts. Parts, labor, and the 365-Day Done Right Promise are in the same document. If something fails inside that year, we come back and fix it at no charge. No service call fee, no re-inspection. That’s the same promise in writing on every Schluter shower we build in San Jose.
DIY or Call Us?
You can check a few things without a contractor: examine the grout lines around the drain grate for cracking, look at the shower corners for separated caulk, and run the shower for 10 minutes while someone watches the ceiling below with a flashlight. That kind of inspection is safe and smart.
Pulling tile, cutting out a failed membrane, re-bedding a drain flange, or resetting a Schluter tray is not a weekend job for most homeowners. These showers are waterproof systems, and a mistake in a corner seam won’t show up for six months. By then, the framing is wet and you’re into a much bigger repair. If you’ve already had this shower “fixed” once and the same problem came back, give me the real problem and I’ll give you the real number. Call (669) 274-2362 and we’ll walk you through what we’d look for on a first visit.
FAQs
Twenty to thirty years is a realistic lifespan for a properly installed Schluter system in our climate, and the membrane itself carries a limited warranty from Schluter when installed to spec. The weak points are installer errors at seams, corners, and the drain flange, not the material. We warranty the workmanship for a full year, and if a workmanship defect shows up after that, we’ll still come out and give you an honest assessment. Call (669) 274-2362 to talk through what you’re seeing.
Sometimes. A single failed corner or a drain grate that’s come loose can often be cut out, re-membraned, and re-tiled in a day. If the failure is widespread, the honest answer is a full shower rebuild. We won’t sell you a patch that lasts six months. Call (669) 274-2362 and we’ll tell you which situation you’re in.
A typical Schluter shower rebuild in San Jose takes five to eight working days from tear-out to final grout. Larger bathrooms with custom tile and plumbing moves can run two to three weeks. We give you a written schedule and a written arrival window before the first day, and the crew shows up when we said they would.
We keep KERDI membrane, KERDI-BAND, corner pieces, and shower tray spacers on the truck for most standard jobs. Shower trays and drain assemblies are usually ordered to match the specific footprint and drain location, which adds two or three days. For pricing on a specific part, call (669) 274-2362 and we’ll give you a line-item number before anyone schedules anything.
Because Schluter’s bonded membrane system catches water at the surface instead of letting it saturate a mortar bed below the tile. In San Jose’s older homes with wood-framed second-floor bathrooms, that difference is often what keeps a shower leak from becoming a ceiling demolition downstairs. When we also install Kohler or Moen fixtures and Cambria or Silestone vanity tops, the whole bathroom carries layered warranties: ours, the fixture manufacturer’s, and the surface manufacturer’s.
Written by Trevor Nash, Owner, Penhallow Remodeling San Jose at Penhallow Remodeling San Jose, serving San Jose and nearby areas.
