NYS and NYC M/WBE Certified Contractor
When you open your Shelter Island home after a long winter, the last thing you want is a bathroom that tells the story of every storm and humid summer it survived. Grout that’s cracked, caulk that’s failing, tile that’s lifting off a subfloor that absorbed more moisture than it should have these aren’t just cosmetic problems. They’re the result of a coastal environment that works against standard materials year-round, and they get worse every season you leave them alone.
A well-executed bathroom renovation changes that. You get a space that’s waterproofed correctly from the substrate out, built with materials that can actually handle the humidity and salt air that come with being surrounded by water on all sides. That means the finish lasts not just for the summer you renovate, but for the decade after it.
For second-home owners especially, there’s a practical side to this that goes beyond aesthetics. A bathroom that’s been properly renovated with a real waterproof membrane, correctly vented exhaust, and quality fixtures is a bathroom that doesn’t become a mold problem while you’re back in the city. That peace of mind is worth more than the upgrade itself.
We’re a licensed renovation and environmental remediation contractor serving Shelter Island and the broader East End of Long Island. With more than 5,000 completed projects across New York State, we’ve worked on enough older coastal homes to know that what you see on the surface rarely tells the whole story.
What separates us from the typical bathroom remodel companies serving this area is straightforward: we hold asbestos abatement licenses, lead abatement credentials, and mold remediation certifications in-house. For a home built in the 1960s or 1970s which describes a significant portion of Shelter Island’s housing stock that’s not a minor detail. It means that when demo reveals something unexpected behind your walls, we don’t stop the job and call someone else. We keep moving.
We also handle the permit process with the Town of Shelter Island’s Building Department directly, including compliance with the 2025 NYS Energy Code and flood zone requirements that apply to many waterfront properties on the island. You don’t have to manage that from Manhattan.
It starts with a real conversation about what you’re working with. We talk through the age of the home, what you know about its history, what you want the bathroom to look like, and what your timeline is especially if you’re trying to have everything finished before the season starts. For Shelter Island homeowners, the October through May window is usually the best time to schedule a full renovation. The ferry wait times are shorter, the island is quieter, and your home is unoccupied, which means we can work without disrupting your summer.
Once we’re on-site, we do a thorough assessment before any demolition begins. In homes built before 1980, that includes checking for asbestos-containing materials in floor tiles and pipe insulation, and evaluating for lead paint on trim and doors. If we find anything, we handle it ourselves permitted, licensed, and documented before the renovation continues. This is the step that catches most homeowners off guard when they hire a contractor who isn’t equipped for it.
From there, the build-out follows a clear sequence: waterproofing the substrate, rough plumbing and electrical, tile and fixture installation, and final trim work. We pull all required permits with the Town of Shelter Island’s Building Department, schedule inspections, and don’t hand the bathroom back to you until it has a certificate of occupancy. When the job is done, you get a finished bathroom not a punch list.
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A bathroom renovation on Shelter Island isn’t a one-size-fits-all project. The homes here vary from Victorian-era cottages in Shelter Island Heights to mid-century waterfront properties near Coecles Harbor to newer construction closer to Dering Harbor and what each one needs depends heavily on its age, its exposure, and what’s already been done to it over the decades.
What every project includes is a full scope of work managed under one roof. That means demolition, hazardous material assessment and abatement if needed, waterproofing, plumbing and electrical coordination, tile installation, vanity and fixture work, and final finishes. We don’t subcontract the complicated parts out to someone you’ve never met. The same team that assesses the job is the team that finishes it.
For properties in FEMA flood zones which covers a meaningful portion of Shelter Island’s waterfront homes we account for the applicable elevation and construction requirements under Chapter 68 of the Town Code before the project starts, not after. And because many of our clients on Shelter Island are managing renovation decisions from off-island, we communicate proactively throughout the job. You won’t be chasing us for updates. We’re available around the clock, every day of the year, because a project on an island with limited contractor access deserves that level of accountability.
Yes but it requires planning that most contractors don’t think through ahead of time. Shelter Island is only accessible by ferry, either via the North Ferry from Greenport or the South Ferry from North Haven near Sag Harbor. Every truck, every pallet of tile, every piece of equipment crosses on one of those two routes. In the summer, wait times can be significant, which affects scheduling and material delivery windows in ways that don’t apply anywhere else on Long Island.
We account for the island’s logistics from the first day of planning not as an afterthought. We stage materials, coordinate delivery windows around ferry schedules, and build contingency time into the project timeline for weather and seasonal delays. If you’ve had a contractor quote a job on Shelter Island without mentioning any of this, that’s worth asking about before you sign anything.
A midrange full bathroom renovation nationally runs around $26,000 on average, but on Shelter Island, that number tends to run higher for a few reasons. The cost of getting materials and crew to the island adds to the baseline. The age of the housing stock the median construction year here is 1974 means there’s a higher likelihood of finding asbestos tile, lead paint, or moisture damage behind walls during demo, and handling those properly adds to the scope. And the expectations in this market are different: homes worth $2 million or more call for fixture and finish selections that reflect that investment.
A realistic range for a full gut renovation of a primary bathroom on Shelter Island, with quality materials and proper remediation if needed, is typically $35,000 to $75,000 or more depending on scope. The best way to get an accurate number is a site visit because what’s behind the walls matters as much as what you’re putting in front of them.
This is one of the most common scenarios in Shelter Island homes built before 1980, and it’s exactly where hiring the right contractor upfront makes the biggest difference. In a typical situation, a remodeling contractor who isn’t licensed for hazardous materials has to stop the job, bring in a separate abatement company, wait for that work to be permitted and completed, and then restart the renovation. That sequence can add weeks to your timeline and significant cost to your project especially on an island where coordinating multiple contractors is already a logistical challenge.
We hold asbestos abatement licenses and lead abatement credentials (LBP-F122209-1) in-house. If demo reveals asbestos floor tile, pipe insulation, or lead-based paint, we handle it ourselves permitted, documented, and compliant and the renovation continues without a full stop. Mold remediation works the same way. We assess, contain, remediate, and rebuild. One contractor, one timeline, no handoffs.
In most cases, yes. The Town of Shelter Island requires a building permit for renovation projects exceeding $10,000 in value, and a full bathroom remodel almost always clears that threshold. You’ll also need a certificate of occupancy upon completion, which means the work has to be inspected and approved by the Town’s Building Department before the job is considered finished.
There’s an additional layer for properties in FEMA-designated flood zones, which applies to a significant number of Shelter Island’s waterfront and near-waterfront homes. Those properties are subject to Chapter 68 of the Town Code, which adds elevation and construction requirements that have to be factored into the scope before work begins. The 2025 NYS Energy Code, which took effect at the end of last year, also added new compliance requirements for ventilation and lighting in bathroom renovations. We manage the entire permit process application, plans, inspections, and certificate of occupancy so you’re not navigating Town Hall on your own.
This is the reality for most of our clients on Shelter Island. A large portion of homeowners here are based in Manhattan or Brooklyn and are managing renovation decisions from off-island, often without being able to check in on the job in person during the week. That dynamic puts a premium on communication and accountability in a way that a local homeowner situation doesn’t.
We’re available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year. That’s not a figure of speech it’s how we operate, and it’s reflected in the reviews we’ve received from Long Island homeowners who specifically mention our responsiveness as a standout. We send updates proactively, flag anything unexpected before making decisions that affect your budget, and don’t wait for you to call us to find out what’s happening. If something comes up on a Tuesday afternoon while you’re at work, you’ll hear from us before you hear about it from someone else.
It’s genuinely the best time, for a few practical reasons. Between October and May, the island is quieter, ferry wait times are shorter, and your home is likely unoccupied which means we can work a full schedule without disrupting your time there. Material deliveries are easier to coordinate, and the Town of Shelter Island’s Building Department is generally less backlogged, which can speed up the permit and inspection process.
There’s also a timing incentive specific to Shelter Island’s second-home market: if you want the bathroom finished and ready before Memorial Day weekend, you need to start the conversation in the fall or early winter. A full gut renovation takes time, and accounting for permit processing, any remediation that comes up during demo, and the island’s logistics, a spring deadline is easier to hit when the project starts in November or December than in March. Many of our Shelter Island clients plan it exactly that way commission the work in the off-season, arrive for the summer to a bathroom that’s already done.
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