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IKO Bathroom Remodeling: The San Antonio Owner’s Guide
IKO bathroom remodeling in San Antonio typically runs $9,000 to $28,000 fully installed, and the biggest variable isn’t the IKO product itself, it’s what’s hiding behind your walls once we open them up. We stock common IKO-compatible components on our trucks, so replacement parts and installation can usually be scheduled within a week, not a month. Most owners discover something’s wrong the hard way: a shower pan that’s been weeping into the subfloor since spring, an IKO waterproofing membrane that pulled loose at the corner beads, or tile that sounds hollow when you tap it. By the time you see the damage, the part has usually been failing quietly for a while.
Key Takeaways
- Cost range: $9,000 to $28,000 installed, depending on scope and what’s behind the drywall.
- What fails first: usually shower pan seals, waterproof backer board joints, or tub-to-tile transitions, not the visible surfaces.
- We stock IKO-compatible repair parts and can source OEM replacements quickly.
- Free estimates: call (432) 547-6806 and we’ll give you a written price before starting.
Which IKO Models This Applies To
IKO makes roofing membranes and building products that sometimes cross into bathroom work, particularly in shower pan liners, underlayments, and waterproofing membranes used under tile. The compatibility gotcha most San Antonio homeowners hit is this: IKO shower pan membrane dimensions come in standard 5-foot and 6-foot widths, and if your shower floor was custom-poured in an older Alamo Heights bungalow or a 90s-construction Stone Oak home, the liner was often spliced rather than cut full-width. Spliced seams fail at the corners first. When you call us, have the original remodel scope or any leftover product info handy; if you don’t have it, we’ll identify the membrane type by thickness and sheet width on site.
On the OEM-versus-aftermarket question, our honest take: for IKO-specific underlayments and pan liners, we prefer OEM when the original install is still structurally sound. For shower pan replacements where the original liner failed due to age or bad slope, we often recommend a higher-grade residential membrane that exceeds the original spec. The decision should hinge on how long you plan to stay in the home, never on what’s cheapest today. Sawyer Remodel San Antonio is an independent contractor; we’re not affiliated with IKO, which is exactly why we can tell you when an alternative product will outlast the original.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your IKO Bathroom Remodeling Is Failing
- Musty smell that won’t quit, even after cleaning. That’s typically waterproofing membrane failure behind the tile, where water is sitting against wood framing and baking in the Texas heat. By the time you smell it, the membrane has been breached for weeks.
- Hollow-sounding tile near the shower base or tub lip. Tile that’s delaminating from the substrate means the thinset bond is breaking down, often because the IKO underlayment below it has absorbed moisture and is swelling. Tapping tells the story in two minutes.
- Water stains on the ceiling below the bathroom. In two-story San Antonio homes, shower pan leaks travel down floor joists and show up as brown rings on the ceiling below. The stain is never where the leak actually is.
- Grout cracking in the shower’s wet corners repeatedly. Corner movement is normal in a slab-on-grade Texas house, but repeated cracking at the same joints usually signals a pan liner that’s flexing or a curb that’s shifting.
- Efflorescence or white crust on tiles near the base. That white powder is minerals left behind as water evaporates through the tile, proof that moisture is trapped behind the membrane. It’s not a cleaning issue; it’s a waterproofing failure.
See the difference
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After
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After
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
In San Antonio, an IKO bathroom remodeling project lands between $9,000 and $28,000 installed. Where you fall depends on a few things: full gut versus partial repair, whether you have a tub or a walk-in shower, custom glass, and what we find once the tile comes off. If the moisture has reached the studs or subfloor, framing repair adds to the total. We show you the damage with photos before we touch a single stud, so the price you approve is the price you pay. Our 365-Day Done Right Promise backs the work in writing for a full year after we close the job, and our fixed-price quotes mean the number on your invoice won’t surprise you at the end. Every IKO-specific repair includes parts, labor, disposal, and a written line-item quote before work starts.
DIY or Call Us?
You can safely remove the shower drain cover and check for standing water in the pan, or press on tiles near the base to find loose ones. That’s about where safe DIY ends. Pulling a shower pan or replacing waterproofing membrane means removing tile, cutting out the old liner, addressing whatever framing is compromised, and re-sloping the mud bed correctly. Get the slope wrong by a quarter inch and you’ll be replacing the pan again in a year. If water is already traveling through your floor system, every week you wait adds framing damage. Call us at (432) 547-6806 and we’ll give you a straight answer about what needs to happen and what it costs.
FAQs
A properly installed IKO-compatible bathroom remodel lasts 15 to 25 years in San Antonio, with the shower pan liner typically being the first component to reach end of life. Our climate accelerates failure in homes that vent poorly because humidity and heat work together to degrade adhesive bonds faster than in drier markets. Call (432) 547-6806 for an exact assessment of your bathroom’s condition.
Partly: if the failure is isolated to a single seam or corner and the surrounding membrane is still intact, a targeted repair is possible. Once water has migrated behind the tile into framing, repair won’t cut it; the only real fix is removal and replacement. Call us and we’ll tell you which situation you’re in.
Most IKO-focused bathroom replacements in San Antonio take 7 to 14 days from demolition to final walkthrough, depending on whether we’re replacing just the wet components or the full bathroom. We give you a written schedule with a live arrival time for every day we’re on site, and photo updates before and after each phase. Call (432) 547-6806 for a project-specific timeline.
We stock common IKO-compatible membranes, pan liners, and underlayments on our trucks, and the specific items most San Antonio homes need are usually in our local supplier’s inventory. In the rare case we need to order a non-stock component, we tell you the lead time before you commit. Reach us at (432) 547-6806 to confirm availability for your model.
Written by Luca Romano, Owner, Sawyer Remodel San Antonio at Sawyer Remodel San Antonio, serving San Antonio and nearby areas.
