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Ada's luxury & spa-bath specialist · Fixed-price contracts (the quote is the price) · 3D design sketch on the first visit · 2-year workmanship warranty · 4.7★ on Google
Real tile-and-mortar showers, freestanding soaking tubs, heated floors, steam showers, and wellness baths for Ada Village, the Thornapple River corridor, Ada Township, and the Forest Hills and Cascade border. No shower-liner gimmicks. No one-day acrylic inserts. No allowance games. The price we quote is the price you pay — and we handle the Ada Township permit pathway start to finish.
Book Your Free Discovery Call619 36th St SW, Wyoming, MI 49509 · About 25 minutes from most Ada addresses. By appointment only — we come to you for in-home consultations. · Open in Google Maps →
Ada is not city Grand Rapids. The lots are larger, the primary suites are bigger, the finish expectations are higher, and the permit pathway is its own animal. Most Ada bathroom projects are not flips — they're long-term investments in a forever home inside the Forest Hills Public Schools district. The companies competing for this work split into two camps: one-day acrylic shower installers, and out-of-state programmatic websites with a Pennsylvania phone number and no real local presence. Thornapple is neither. Four real things make a Thornapple bathroom remodel the right fit for an Ada home.
An estimate is a guess. A fixed-price contract is binding. On a $50,000 to $80,000 luxury Ada bath, that distinction is the single most important protection you have. Once design and scope are locked, the number we put in writing is the number you pay — no allowance games, no end-of-project reconciliation, no surprise change orders. The only way it moves is if you choose to change scope, and that's priced and approved before any work happens. Compare that to a competitor's estimate that's merely "valid for a year." See how the process works.
Our in-home Ada consultation is a working session, not a sales pitch. We measure your space, build a real 3D model in front of you, and hand back a budget range tied to actual scope choices — tile, stone, fixtures, shower configuration, whether you want a soaking tub or a steam shower — before you commit to anything. You walk away knowing what's possible in your Ada bathroom and what it would cost.
Several West Michigan companies will drop an acrylic shower system over your existing space in a day and call it a remodel. That's not what we do. We build real Ada bathroom remodels — permits, waterproofing membrane, sloped tile pans, plumbing, custom tile, electrical — backed by an honest 2-year workmanship warranty on our labor. Not a 25-year product disclaimer with carve-outs you'll never read.
Ada's permit pathway is unusual — building permits route through Cascade Township, and a bath that adds a fixture on a well-and-septic lot can pull in Kent County Health. We verify your situation up front, submit through Ada Township Planning and Zoning, coordinate issuance through Cascade Township, and schedule every inspection. You never call a building department. It's all part of the fixed-price contract.
A spa primary suite in an Ada Township estate home and a powder room in an Ada Village character home are very different jobs. The Thornapple process — discovery, design, fixed price, build, walkthrough — is the same for both. Ada primary suites are usually large enough that most of the luxury and wellness options below are genuinely on the table for your home.
The most common Ada project, and the one Ada is built for. Curbless tile shower, freestanding soaking tub, double vanity with stone tops, water closet, layered lighting, heated floors, and millwork-level finish. Often pairs with a walk-in closet redesign next door. See full detail on luxury bathroom remodeling in Grand Rapids.
A bathroom designed as a wellness environment: a steam shower with a built-in bench and aromatherapy port, a deep freestanding soaking tub, heated tile floors, towel warmers, a sauna-adjacent dry zone where the lot allows, and circadian lighting that shifts warm in the evening. Ada's HNW, forever-home, wooded-and-river setting is exactly where this scope earns its keep.
The bath your kids share, your in-laws use, your dinner guests see. In an Ada home, this is the bath that quietly tells visitors how the rest of the house is finished. We treat it like the visible space it is — vanity, tile, fixtures, lighting, and ventilation upgraded as a coordinated unit, at a finish level that matches the primary suite.
The smallest bath in the house often does the most styling work. Designer wallpaper, a statement mirror, a custom or vessel vanity, stone, and lighting that makes the room feel curated rather than ignored. Quick to design, quick to build — usually 2 to 3 weeks — and a frequent first project for Ada homeowners testing how we work before a larger primary suite.
For many Ada clients, this is the home they intend to grow old in. Curbless zero-threshold showers, comfort-height fixtures, reinforced walls for future grab bars, wider doorways, slip-resistant tile that still reads as luxury. Built so today's spa bath quietly serves the next 30 years. Detail on our accessibility remodeling page.
Removing a tub you don't use and building a real tile-and-mortar curbless shower in its place. Done right — with proper slope, a linear drain, and a full waterproofing membrane — this is the single most-requested upgrade in Ada primary baths, and the one acrylic-insert competitors simply cannot match.
Ada Township's permitting pathway is its own animal, and most Ada homeowners don't know the mechanics until they're in the middle of a project. Building permits and inspections are issued through Cascade Township — Ada contracts that work out. You submit the application and plans to Ada Township Planning and Zoning, the Zoning Administrator signs off on conformity with Ada's standards, water and sewer connection fees are paid where applicable, and the application then moves to Cascade Township for issuance and inspection.
Any bathroom remodel that relocates plumbing, adds or moves electrical circuits, or touches structural framing requires a building permit, with plumbing, electrical, and mechanical trade permits riding along. A purely cosmetic refresh — paint, a like-for-like vanity or fixture swap, no plumbing changes — usually does not. We confirm which side of that line your scope sits on during the in-home consultation.
There's a wrinkle specific to Ada: many properties — particularly larger lots along the Thornapple River and in less-dense Ada Township sub-areas — are on private wells, septic systems, or both. A like-for-like remodel that keeps the same fixture count usually doesn't touch the septic side. But a gut remodel that adds a fixture — a second sink, an added shower, or a new bathroom — can trigger a Kent County Health Department review for drain-field capacity and well-setback verification, on top of the township permit. We map that out in discovery so it's priced into the fixed contract and scheduled into the timeline, not discovered mid-build.
Thornapple handles every step of that pathway as part of the fixed-price contract — the Ada Planning and Zoning submittal, the Cascade Township coordination, the Kent County Health filing where it applies, and every rough-in and final inspection. You don't step into a township office. Full breakdown on our Grand Rapids remodeling permits page.
Below are honest 2026 ranges for Ada bathrooms. Pricing depends on scope, square footage, and finish level. Ada numbers index slightly higher than the Grand Rapids metro median because the housing stock and finish expectations push more projects toward primary-suite, luxury, and wellness scope. Final pricing is always locked into a fixed-price contract after design. For a deeper breakdown, read our full bathroom remodel cost in Grand Rapids guide or run a quick estimate in the cost estimator.
A focused update for a guest or hall bath — new vanity, fresh tile, modern fixtures, lighting, paint, and flooring inside the existing footprint. Plumbing stays where it is. The right fit when the layout works but the finishes feel a decade or two behind the rest of your Ada home.
A full remodel inside the existing walls — new tile shower with frameless glass, custom or semi-custom vanity, quartz or stone tops, upgraded plumbing and electrical, designer lighting, and quality finishes throughout. Minor layout tweaks and small plumbing relocations included.
A spa-quality primary bath — curbless tile shower, freestanding soaking tub, double vanity, heated floors, premium fixtures, custom stone and tile work, and millwork-level finishes. Includes meaningful plumbing relocation and the kind of details you notice every morning. The most common scope in Ada Township and Ada Village primary suites.
Primary bath taken to the studs and reimagined — footprint expansion, a custom steam shower, a sauna-adjacent dry zone, designer stone, integrated closet redesign, and a full systems upgrade. The right scope when you want the bath to feel like a private spa wing of your Ada home.
Original Ada homes and older river-corridor builds sometimes carry a modest adder once we open walls — original copper, dated drain configurations, or framing that wasn't designed for a heavier modern tile-and-mortar shower assembly. We plan for those realities in the discovery phase and price them into the fixed contract so they don't become surprise change orders mid-project. For more on what drives the price, read our bathroom remodel cost guide.
Five phases, no surprises. Every one is documented in your project portal so you always know where you are — which matters on a multi-week luxury Ada bath where stone, custom vanities, and specialty fixtures all have their own lead times.
Want more detail on any phase? Read the full design-build remodeling process — or jump straight to booking a discovery call.
Real Thornapple projects from Ada and the surrounding West Michigan communities. Descriptive names — no client names, no street addresses.
A primary bath taken down to the studs and rebuilt as a daily spa retreat for a West Michigan family planning to stay in the home long-term. Scope: curbless walk-in tile shower with linear drain, freestanding soaking tub, double vanity with stone tops, custom tile feature wall, heated tile flooring, layered lighting, and an upgraded ventilation system. Exactly the luxury scope Ada primary suites are built for.
A dated primary bath transformed into a clean-lined modern retreat. Scope: bold statement tile, frameless glass shower enclosure, custom floating vanity with integrated storage, statement pendant lighting, and quartz tops. The layout stayed inside the existing footprint — the transformation is entirely about finishes, fixtures, and how the room feels at 6 a.m.
A classic-meets-modern primary bath built for a family planning to stay in the home for the next 30 years. Scope: custom tile, dual vanity, freestanding tub, curbless walk-in shower with built-in bench, reinforced wall blocking for future grab bars, and slip-resistant tile that still reads as luxury. Aging-in-place features designed into the architecture rather than added on later — a perfect fit for the Ada forever-home mindset.
In Ada, the bathroom is increasingly where the day starts and ends on purpose — not just a utility room. The HNW, forever-home, wooded-and-river setting drives real appetite for a bath that functions as a wellness environment. That means a steam shower with a built-in bench, a deep freestanding soaking tub positioned to catch the morning light or the tree line, heated tile floors underfoot, towel warmers, dedicated ventilation that keeps the room dry, and layered, dimmable lighting that shifts warm in the evening. Where the lot and floor plan allow, we'll work a sauna-adjacent dry zone into the design. We plan a wellness bath as one integrated system, not a shopping list of fixtures bolted into an old layout.
For a meaningful share of Ada clients, the same bath also has to work for the next thirty years. The Forest Hills Public Schools district brought them in, the relationships and the address are settled, and the plan is to age in this home. The goal isn't a clinical, institutional space — it's a beautiful spa bath that quietly makes life easier as the years go on. A zero-threshold tile shower that reads as luxury today and becomes essential tomorrow. Comfort-height fixtures and wider doorways that disappear into the architecture. Reinforced walls so grab bars can be added later without tearing into tile. Slip-resistant tile that still feels like stone underfoot.
Done right, you won't see the planning. You'll see a bathroom that simply feels good — at fifty, at seventy, at every stage in between. The full breakdown lives on our accessibility remodeling in Grand Rapids page and our luxury bathroom remodeling page. This Ada page is part of our broader bathroom remodel service line.
Ada sits at the heart of several established West Michigan communities, and they share the same housing stock and the same homeowners. We work across all of them — from luxury spa primaries in Ada Village to modern primary baths in Cascade Township to spa-quality remodels in East Grand Rapids. The same fixed-price, design-protected process runs every project. This page is part of our broader Grand Rapids remodeling practice and our parent bathroom remodel service line.
The real questions Ada homeowners ask before booking a bathroom remodel — not the generic ones the other guys recycle.
Ada bathroom remodels land in four practical bands, and they index slightly higher than the Grand Rapids metro median because Ada's housing stock and finish expectations push more projects toward primary-suite and luxury scope. A focused guest or hall bath refresh inside the existing footprint runs $20,000 to $30,000. A full mid-range remodel with a new tile shower, custom vanity, stone tops, and upgraded plumbing and electrical typically runs $35,000 to $50,000. A luxury primary or spa bath with curbless tile shower, freestanding soaking tub, double vanity, heated floors, and meaningful plumbing relocation lands at $50,000 to $80,000. A wellness or suite-plus build that pulls the bath to the studs, expands the footprint, and adds a steam shower or sauna-adjacent dry zone starts at $80,000. Every Thornapple project is locked at a fixed-price contract once scope is finalized — the quote is the price you pay. Full breakdown in our bathroom remodel cost guide.
Almost always, yes — and Ada's permit pathway is unusual. Any bathroom remodel that relocates plumbing, adds or moves electrical circuits, or touches structural framing requires a building permit, with plumbing, electrical, and mechanical trade permits riding along. Ada Township contracts with Cascade Township for permit issuance and inspections: you submit the application and plans to Ada Township Planning and Zoning, the Zoning Administrator signs off on zoning conformity, and the application then moves to Cascade Township for issuance and inspection. A purely cosmetic refresh — paint, like-for-like vanity or fixture swap, no plumbing changes — usually does not require a permit. We handle the entire pathway end-to-end so you never coordinate with either township. Full detail on our remodeling permits page.
Most Ada bathroom remodels run 4 to 8 weeks from demolition to final walkthrough. A powder-room refresh can finish in 2 to 3 weeks. A luxury primary or spa bath with custom tile, a steam shower, heated floors, plumbing relocation, and longer material lead times on stone and fixtures can push toward 10 to 12 weeks. Design and permitting through Ada Township and Cascade Township add a few weeks before demolition begins. We map every milestone in your project portal before demo day, so you always know what's happening on-site and what's coming next.
Yes — this is the most-requested project type we build in Ada. Ada's housing stock and homeowners skew toward primary suites large enough to support a true spa experience: a curbless tile wet room, a freestanding soaking tub, a double vanity with stone tops, heated tile floors, a steam shower, layered and circadian lighting, towel warmers, and a dedicated ventilation system that keeps the room dry. We design wellness baths as a complete system rather than a collection of fixtures, and we price the whole thing into one fixed contract. Full detail lives on our luxury bathroom remodeling page.
Yes — and it's a natural fit for the Ada market. Many Ada homeowners bought into the Forest Hills Public Schools district years ago and intend to stay in the home for the rest of their lives, so the bathroom is a long-term investment rather than a flip. We design curbless zero-threshold showers, comfort-height fixtures, reinforced walls so grab bars install cleanly later, wider doorways, slip-resistant tile that still reads as luxury, and layered lighting that protects against falls without ever feeling clinical. Done right, the planning disappears into the architecture — you see a beautiful spa bath, not an accessible one. Full detail on our accessibility remodeling page.
Many Ada properties — particularly larger lots along the Thornapple River and in less-dense Ada Township sub-areas — are on private wells, septic systems, or both. A like-for-like bathroom remodel that keeps the same fixture count usually doesn't touch the septic side. But a gut remodel that adds a fixture — a second sink, an added shower, or a new bathroom — can trigger a Kent County Health Department review for drain-field capacity and well-setback verification, on top of the Ada Township building permit. We confirm your water and waste situation during the discovery phase, fold any Health Department step into the timeline, and price it into the fixed contract so it never becomes a surprise mid-build.
Real tile, real mortar, real waterproofing — never a liner. Several West Michigan companies will install an acrylic shower system or a one-day Jacuzzi-style insert over your existing space. That's not what we do. We build true curbless tile-and-mortar showers with a proper sloped pan, a waterproofing membrane, and a linear drain, integrated into a full design-build remodel that includes permits, plumbing, electrical, and finish carpentry. The result is backed by an honest 2-year workmanship warranty on our labor — not a 25-year product disclaimer with carve-outs you'll never read. On a luxury Ada bath, the difference shows in both the look and the lifespan.
Yes. If you have at least one other working bathroom in the home — and most Ada homes have several — you can keep using it through the entire project. We install plastic dust barriers to contain the work zone to the bathroom being remodeled, protect floors and finishes along the path to the work area, and bring our own portable restroom for the crew so they never use your other baths. Your daily routine stays close to normal.
Our full bathroom remodel page — scope, process, what's included, and FAQs.
Heated floors, frameless glass, steam showers, custom vanities — what a luxury primary bath remodel looks like.
What a bathroom remodel actually costs in Grand Rapids and Ada — fixtures, tile, labor, and what drives the price.
Curbless showers, comfort-height fixtures, and reinforced blocking — lifelong-design baths that still read as luxury.
When the bath needs more room than the footprint allows — bump-outs and primary-suite additions in Ada.
Run a quick range for your specific bathroom scope before booking the discovery call.
It starts with a free discovery call — a quick conversation to talk through your project, get honest answers, and see if we're the right fit. No commitment. No pressure. Just clarity.
Book Your Free Discovery CallOr call us at (616) 404-3400
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