Faucets, toilets, shut-offs, tub and shower work, and the rough-in behind a Campton remodel — including the job we get asked about more every year: turning a garage, a basement, or the space over the barn into an apartment with its own kitchen and bath.
Beebe River is a mill village, and it still looks like one. A lumber company put up a sawmill and a village there in 1917, ran a logging railroad up the valley, and cut out the spruce in about seven years. Then the Draper Corporation moved in and made bobbins at Beebe River for decades. Some of those company houses still have families in them. They went up fast, to a pattern, and a century of owners has added to the plumbing one project at a time.
The older houses up around the Upper Village and along Route 175 — the stretch with the 1855 Town House, now the historical society’s — tend to tell the same story in a different accent. A bathroom fitted into what used to be a bedroom closet. Galvanized supply joined to copper. A cast-iron stack patched with plastic somewhere around 1985.
The newer question is the second unit. Campton has had a zoning ordinance since February 1974, last amended in March 2024, and it has its own rules for accessory dwelling units; state law has required towns to allow ADUs alongside single-family homes since 2017. A second kitchen and bath means a second set of fixtures tied into drains and vents that were sized for one household, and a water supply — well, precinct, or district — that now has to carry two.
Planning an apartment over the garage in Campton? Figure out the drain route before the floor plan. Kitchens go where the waste line can reach.
Drains first, always. A new kitchen and bathroom need a waste line with real fall and a proper vent, and the route that line can take decides where the kitchen goes — not the other way around. In a basement apartment, if the new fixtures sit below the main drain leaving the house, the waste gets pumped up through an ejector pit. That’s a common setup and a reliable one. It’s also a cost worth knowing about before the drawings are final.
Then supply. The unit gets its own shut-offs, so a leak in the apartment doesn’t mean shutting off the main house. Hot water gets a decision: one bigger heater, or a separate one for the unit, which keeps showers from colliding and makes it obvious who uses what. On a private well, we look at the pump and the pressure tank too, because two households draw differently than one.
And paperwork. A faucet or a toilet swap generally doesn’t need anything from the town. A new dwelling unit does. Get the permit sorted before the walls open, because that permit is also what triggers the setback and zoning check — a check that’s cheap on paper and expensive after the framing is up. We’ll line our rough-in inspection up with everyone else’s schedule.
Fixture work in Campton — a faucet, a toilet, a fresh set of shut-offs — generally runs $200–$600 installed. Accessory-apartment plumbing and remodel rough-in are quoted per project once we’ve seen the plan and the basement. Bring us in while the layout is still a sketch; drains are a lot cheaper to move on paper.
Most likely, but read the town’s accessory dwelling unit rules before you design anything — Campton’s zoning ordinance has its own section on them, and state law has required towns to allow ADUs with single-family homes since 2017. Then have the plumbing looked at. Where the drains can run usually decides where the kitchen goes.
Not a deal-breaker. If the fixtures sit lower than the main drain leaving the house, the waste has to be pumped up through an ejector pit. It’s a common setup and it works well, but it’s a real cost, it needs its own vent, and it’s better known about before the layout is final.
A house built quickly around 1917 and changed by everyone since. Look for galvanized supply narrowing on the inside, cast iron patched with plastic, and a bathroom where a closet used to be. None of that stops a remodel. It just means opening walls with somebody who expects to find it and prices it honestly.
For swapping a faucet or a toilet, generally no. For a remodel that moves plumbing, and for anything that adds a dwelling unit, talk to the town first. The permit is also what triggers the zoning and setback check, and that check is far cheaper before the walls go up than after somebody has framed them.
Often, yes. Two households on one tank means somebody’s shower goes cold at the wrong moment, and separate heaters make it plain who uses what. If space is tight, one larger heater can work fine. We’ll look at the demand on both sides of the wall and tell you which one actually pencils out.
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