Fixture swaps, shut-off valves that actually shut, tub and shower work, and full bathroom or kitchen rough-in for the remodel. Tamworth has no zoning ordinance, which surprises people from away — but the state plumbing code still applies, and a bathroom that isn’t vented right is a bathroom that smells. We do it properly.
Tamworth is one of the few towns around that never adopted zoning. What the town does have is a Building Notification for any work over five thousand dollars, a floodplain permit if you’re in the mapped zone, and a driveway permit from the Road Agent if you’re opening onto a town road. That’s the local layer. Above it sits the state building and plumbing code, and the rule that plumbing work is done by a licensed plumber, no matter how loose the town is.
Most of the remodel work we see here is one of three things. A Chocorua or White Lake camp being turned into a year-round house, which means a bathroom that was fine for July has to survive January. A ski house off Route 16 or 113 that’s getting a second bath, because five people sharing one is how weekends fall apart. Or an old village house — Main Street, Chocorua village — where the kitchen hasn’t been touched since the last owner and the stops under the sink are the original multi-turn valves that haven’t closed in twenty years.
There’s also a steady rental trade. Between the Barnstormers crowd, the White Mountain hikers, and the ski traffic, a lot of Tamworth houses are rented some of the year, and a rental bathroom gets used hard by people who don’t know where the shut-off is. We build those to take it.
If you’re opening a wall in a Tamworth camp for any reason, call us before it closes again. Adding a shut-off or moving a freeze-prone run while the wall is open is a small job. After the drywall goes back up, it’s a remodel.
The porch bathroom. Somebody, decades ago, closed in a screened porch on a Chocorua cottage and put a toilet and a lav in it. It worked fine in August. Now the cottage is a year-round house and that bathroom has two exterior walls, no insulation under the floor, and a supply line that freezes the first hard week of December. Fixing it means pulling the supply back inside the heated part of the house, insulating the waste run, and usually adding a shut-off so the room can be isolated on a bad night without draining the whole place.
The second bath in a ski house. Most of the ski houses off Route 16 were built with one bathroom and a lot of bunks. Adding a half-bath is a modest job if it can back onto the existing stack; putting a full bath on the far end of the house means a new drain run and a new vent through the roof, and in a house on a slab that means cutting concrete. We’ll tell you which of those you’ve got before you commit to a layout.
The village kitchen. Older houses on Main Street and in Chocorua village still have galvanized supply in places, and galvanized closes up from the inside over sixty years until the kitchen faucet runs at a trickle. A new faucet won’t fix that. Replacing the run from the basement up to the sink will, and while the cabinet is out is the time to do it.
Fixture jobs in Tamworth — a faucet, a toilet, new stops — generally come in around $200–$600 installed. A porch-bathroom rescue or a second bath is quoted after we’ve seen the house; a walk-through before the plan is drawn tends to save more than it costs.
You need to file a Building Notification with the town for any project over $5,000, and if you’re in the mapped floodplain you need a floodplain permit. The state plumbing code applies regardless, and plumbing has to be done by a state-licensed plumber. No zoning doesn’t mean no rules — it means fewer local ones.
With the water line and the drain, not the tile. Find out where the supply enters and whether it runs through unheated space; find out where the kitchen and bath drains leave the building and how deep. Those two things decide whether the house survives its first winter. Everything else is finish work.
Often, if it can go near the existing stack and the venting works out. A half-bath backing onto the current bathroom wall is usually a modest job. Putting one on the far side of the house means a new drain run and vent, which is where the cost climbs. We’ll look at the framing and tell you straight.
We’ll swap the stops at the same time, every time. An original multi-turn valve that hasn’t moved in twenty years is a valve that fails the day you need it. New quarter-turn stops cost little on a job we’re already doing, and a working shut-off at every fixture is the cheapest insurance in the house.
Yes. Pressure-balanced or thermostatic shower valves so a guest doesn’t get scalded when someone flushes. Labeled shut-offs at each fixture and at the main. Supply lines that are braided, not plastic. Tamworth rentals get used hard by people who don’t know the house, and the plumbing should assume that.
Tell us what’s happening and we’ll give you a straight answer — what it likely is, what it should cost, and when we can be there.
Describe what’s happening and where the property is. We’ll come back with a straight answer on what it likely is, what it should cost, and when we can be there. If it’s an emergency, say so in the first line.
We reply to every request within 2 business hours.
