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CGI Bathroom Remodeling: The Fort Lauderdale Owner’s Guide
If you have a CGI bathroom and you’re looking at failed tile, a leaking shower pan, or framing that’s gone soft behind the wall, this page is for you. A full CGI bathroom remodel in Fort Lauderdale typically runs $9,000 – $28,000 depending on the size of the bath, what’s behind the existing walls, and whether you’re keeping the layout or moving plumbing. We stock and install CGI-compatible materials for bathroom remodels, and since we’re a local Fort Lauderdale crew, we can usually get eyes on the job within a couple of days.
Most homeowners don’t wake up planning a bathroom remodel. They notice a tile that’s cracked along the shower floor, a baseboard that’s started to swell, or a musty smell that won’t leave no matter how much bleach they use. That’s the moment the job stops being cosmetic and starts being about water. Water is what makes a CGI bathroom fail. And in Fort Lauderdale, with our humidity and salt air, water moves faster than people expect.
We’re Penhallow Remodeling Fort Lauderdale, and we’re an independent service provider. We are not affiliated with CGI. But we work with CGI bathroom materials regularly, and we know how they behave in South Florida conditions.
Which CGI Models This Applies To
CGI bathrooms aren’t all built the same way, and that matters when you’re trying to figure out what you have and what it’ll take to fix it. The most common CGI bathroom setups we see in Fort Lauderdale fall into a few categories: standard tub-and-tile surrounds, walk-in showers with glass enclosures, and wet-room style layouts where the whole floor slopes toward a single drain. The compatibility question is less about a model number on a label and more about materials and measurements.
Here’s the practical part. When we open up a CGI bathroom in Fort Lauderdale, we’re looking for three things: what the substrate is (the moisture-resistant layer behind the tile), what size drain and valve rough-ins were used, and whether the shower pan is a pre-fabricated CGI pan or a site-built mortar bed. The substrate question is the big one. If the original install used drywall instead of cement board behind the tile, that’s a compatibility issue you’ll want addressed anyway, because drywall behind a shower in Florida humidity is a countdown clock.
On the OEM-versus-aftermarket question: CGI’s OEM bathroom fixtures are solid, but there are aftermarket equivalents from Kohler, Moen, and Delta that we install regularly with zero warranty concerns. The decision usually comes down to lead time and whether the existing valve is a standard size or a proprietary CGI spec. We tell homeowners the truth on both, and we put the brand name in the written quote so there’s no surprise at install.
If you’ve got a label or model number, take a photo before you call. It helps. If you don’t, don’t worry. Most CGI bathroom compatibility questions get answered when we measure the rough-in and look at what’s behind the tile.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your CGI Bathroom Remodeling Is Failing
- Grout lines cracking or falling out along the shower floor. This is almost always movement in the substrate. In Fort Lauderdale, the humidity swells framing lumber slightly, and if the original install didn’t account for that movement, the grout is the first thing to let go.
- Baseboard swelling or staining at the curb or outside the shower. Water is wicking through the pan or the curb is compromised. By the time you see the stain on the outside, the framing behind it has usually been wet for a while.
- Musty smell that returns within days of cleaning. That smell is mold growing in a cavity that never dries out. Florida heat makes it worse. Bleach won’t fix it because bleach can’t reach the framing.
- Tiles that sound hollow when tapped or feel loose to the touch. Hollow tiles mean the thinset has lost its bond. In a CGI bathroom, that often traces back to the wrong adhesive being used against a painted surface or a substrate that’s failing.
- Water pooling on the floor outside the shower after every use. That’s a slope or drainage problem, and it’s not going to self-correct. Water that sits on a bathroom floor in Fort Lauderdale will find its way into the subfloor faster than you’d think.
None of these are cosmetic if they involve the shower or the area around the toilet. They’re structural. The longer they sit, the more of the framing has to come out.
See the difference
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
In Fort Lauderdale, a CGI bathroom remodel typically runs $9,000 – $28,000. That’s the installed range, not a parts-only number. At the lower end, you’re looking at a smaller bathroom where we keep the layout, replace the shower surround, swap the vanity and toilet, and install new tile. At the upper end, you’re looking at a full gut to the studs, moving plumbing, building a custom walk-in shower, and upgrading to Cambria or Silestone countertops and Kohler or Moen fixtures.
What drives the number up: water damage that requires framing replacement, moving the toilet or shower drain, custom glass enclosures, and higher-end tile and countertop material. What keeps it down: a straightforward footprint, keeping the existing plumbing locations, and choosing standard-size fixtures. Fort Lauderdale homes built in different decades have different framing and plumbing standards, and that affects cost more than most people expect.
Every quote we write for a CGI bathroom remodel in Fort Lauderdale is a written price before any work starts. That number includes materials, labor, and the 365-Day Done Right Promise. If something fails inside that window, we come back and fix it at no charge. It’s in writing, on every job.
DIY or Call Us?
You can safely check a few things yourself: look for visible water stains, tap tiles for hollow sounds, and check whether the caulk lines at the tub or shower base are intact. Those observations help us quote faster.
What you should not do is open the wall, pull the shower pan, or start removing tile around a CGI shower without knowing what’s behind it. A failed pan or a swollen subfloor in a Fort Lauderdale bathroom often means the water has been traveling for months. Pulling tile without addressing the drainage or the substrate is how a $6,000 repair becomes a $22,000 remodel. Shower valve and drain work also involve plumbing connections that can leak inside a wall cavity where you can’t see it until the ceiling below is stained. That’s a professional’s job, and we say that plainly because we’ve seen what happens when it isn’t.
If you’re not sure which category your bathroom falls into, call (754) 551-2922. We’ll tell you what we think over the phone, and if you want us to look, we’ll schedule a visit and you’ll get a written price before anything gets touched.
FAQs
Done correctly with a proper cement board substrate, a well-built pan, and proper waterproofing, a remodeled bathroom in Fort Lauderdale should last 15 to 25 years before you’re looking at meaningful work again. The Florida variables are humidity and water intrusion, which is why the waterproofing details matter more than the tile pattern. Call (754) 551-2922 if you want us to look at your specific bathroom and give you a realistic number.
Sometimes. If the failure is isolated (a cracked tile, a single leaking valve, a seam that has opened up), we can often repair it without tearing out the whole bathroom. The question is what’s behind the visible failure. If the water has reached the framing or subfloor, a patch won’t hold in Fort Lauderdale’s climate. We’ll open only what we need to and give you a straight answer.
A full CGI bathroom remodel in Fort Lauderdale typically takes two to four weeks from demo to final cleanup, depending on the scope, the materials, and what we find when the walls come open. A repair or partial replacement is usually a matter of days. We give you a defined arrival window on every visit, not a “sometime this week” answer.
We stock the materials we install most often in Fort Lauderdale: cement board, waterproofing membranes, pan liners, standard drain assemblies, and a range of fixtures from Kohler, Moen, Delta, and Toto. For CGI-specific or specialty pieces, we source them from recognized trade suppliers and include the lead time in your written quote before any work starts. If you want a specific part, call (754) 551-2922 and we’ll tell you exactly what it costs and when we can have it installed.
Tell me what you need, I’ll tell you what it costs, then we’ll get it done. That’s how we run every CGI bathroom remodel in Fort Lauderdale.
Call (754) 551-2922 to schedule your free estimate. A real person answers, 24/7. You’ll get a written price before any work starts, and the 365-Day Done Right Promise on everything we install.
Written by Trevor Nash, Owner, Penhallow Remodeling Fort Lauderdale at Penhallow Remodeling Fort Lauderdale, serving Fort Lauderdale and nearby areas.
