Garvin's Home Innovations

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Cambridge, MD
Garvin's Home Innovations

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Kitchen & bath, start to finish. I run the whole job. Dorchester · Talbot · Caroline. (443) 521-1388

10/28/2026

Three bids, almost never apples to apples. Not because contractors are shady — because nobody writes the same scope unless you force them to.

One includes demo to the studs, waterproofing, haul-off. Another stops at the tile. A third prices labor only and hands you the materials list. The bottom line tells you nothing. The scope does.

Allowances hide more. Five dollars a foot tile versus twelve: same tile either way, but one bid looks a lot cheaper and you pay the difference at the store. Then there's what's inside the walls. Some guys still use cement board because it's cheap. You'll never see it on a walkthrough, but it's the difference between a shower that lasts and one that doesn't.

Those differentiators are baked into the price, and you can't see them from the number. If you're comparing bids, ask each one what's behind the wall. If price is all that matters, I'm probably not your guy, and that's okay.

10/19/2026

What’s behind your shower tile matters more than the tile.

I’ve torn out a lot of old showers. Most of the bad ones were built the same way: cement board, a vinyl liner in the pan, and a mud bed on top. Water gets through the grout, soaks into the mud, and sits on that liner. If the liner’s torn, folded wrong, or nailed through, it finds the framing. You don’t see it until the floor goes soft or the ceiling below gets a stain.

Cement board like Durock isn’t waterproof. Water goes right through it and follows every screw hole straight to the studs.

There are a couple of solid ways to build a shower. The one we use is Laticrete. What matters is where the waterproofing goes: right behind the tile. Water stops there. It never gets into the board or the studs.

That’s what these pictures are. Every seam, every screw, the niches, the curb—all sealed before a single tile goes up. Nobody sees it once the tile’s on. It’s the part that decides whether you’re calling someone again in ten years.

10/12/2026

When a room in your house is torn out, you are living around it. Plastic up in the kitchen. One shower for the whole house. Coffee in the dining room because the kitchen is half there.

Every day nobody shows up is another day you live like that.

That is what one job at a time means for you. Your job is not split with three other houses. Nobody gets pulled across town when somebody else yells louder. Your room does not sit open while the tile is “on the way.”

Fewer days torn up. The same face every day who knows your house. Questions answered on the spot, not next week.

Your house gets done, and you get it back. Start to finish.

10/06/2026

How the material process actually works:

You pick the tile. The cabinets. The counters. The faucets, the lighting, the colors.

That part is where a remodel gets heavy. If you are doing it yourself, you are the one calling the store, the cabinet guy, the counter place, and the plumber, and none of them have the same picture of the job. You get a stack of links and a deadline. You guess. Something shows up that does not fit the room, or it blows the number, and you find out in week three.

That is not how I work. After we sign, the vendor already has the job before the appointment is even made. The layout, the sizes, and the allowance. You are not walking in cold.

You walk in, point at what you like, and walk out. I am there for the color and the style, and we hold every pick up against the allowance before anything gets ordered. If it blows the number, you hear it there, not after it shows up. That help is part of the job. Not a charge.

You are not managing vendors. You are not chasing lead times. You are not wondering what got left out. You pick. I order it. I install it. I run the whole job.

I ran manufacturing for years before this. The job was already planned before anyone touched it. I still work that way. That is what makes start to finish actually finish.

09/29/2026

This is a proposal. Not an estimate. Not a guess sold off as a fixed price.

The horror stories I hear are bathrooms and kitchens. Someone gets a number on a napkin, or a contract wrapped up like a real proposal that is nothing more than an estimate. They say yes, and halfway through they find out what wasn't included.

That is not how I work. It is on paper before a hammer comes out. What I am doing, what I am not doing, the materials budget, and when the money is due. A maybe is said up front, not in week three.

Swipe through. That is what you would sign.

If it isn't written down, it isn't the job.

Garvin's Home Innovations · Cambridge, MD · MHIC #94849

09/21/2026

Barbara said it best:

"Joey and his crew did an amazing job transforming our outdated bathroom into a beautiful modern space. From the tub to a walk-in tiled shower, new vanity, and fresh finishes, everything looks incredible. Professional, clean, and a pleasure to work with. Highly recommend Garvin's Home Innovations."

Before to after. Tub to tile shower. Same room, different life.

Garvin's Home Innovations | Mid-Shore kitchen & bath

09/17/2026

This is how I keep the shop.

You can’t see how I work until I’m in your house. You can see how I keep my tools.

My trailer is set up like a workshop. Festool on the walls, everything in its place, painted and clean. Not a pile of plywood shelves and loose gear. The way I run my shop is the way I run your job.

A clean trailer isn’t about looking good. It’s about not losing a day hunting for a tool, not tracking dust through your house, and not cutting corners because the right blade or bit is buried in the back. Everything has a home. Everything gets put back.

That doesn’t stop at the trailer door. It shows up in how the house is protected, how the work is sequenced, and how the last punch gets done before I leave.

If the inside of my trailer looks like this, imagine what the inside of your bathroom looks like when I’m done.

09/07/2026

Not all “cabinet paint” is the same.
A lot of what gets sprayed on cabinets is really wall paint in a different can. Looks fine the day it’s sprayed. Six months later, the fingerprints, cleaner marks, and soft spots start showing.
We use General Finishes Enduro Pigmented Poly, tinted to the color you want. It’s a professional cabinet finish — harder, smoother, more chemical and water resistant, and built to hold up like a factory-finished cabinet.
Sprayed with an HVLP gun — the same equipment auto body shops use — so there’s no brush marks, no drips, just a smooth factory-type finish.
And it’s water-based, so it’s safe to spray in your home. No harsh fumes. No waiting days for the smell to leave.
Same color. Different finish.

08/31/2026

Took the shower wall out of a small master bath and put glass in.
Same footprint. Didn’t add a foot. You can see the whole room from the doorway now. It just doesn’t feel like a box anymore.
Start to finish. I run the whole job.

08/24/2026

Same size room. Couldn’t steal another foot. They needed it safer to stay in, not a bigger bath.

Fold-down seat and grab bars that don’t look like a hospital. Tile came from Shorely Beautiful LLC.

Don’t always need a bigger room?

Address

6061 Todds Point Road
Cambridge, MD
21613

Website

https://garvinshomeinnovations.com/

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