Bathroom remodeling in New Orleans means soft joists under a tub, a stack with no fall, and humidity that keeps the room wet after the fan quits. A shotgun bath tucked at the rear and a slab bath in Gentilly do not offer the same look underneath. Describe the floor you have before you describe tile.
On a raised house the overflow and the trap drip into open wood. Joists darken, the gallery or hall ceiling below stains, and the floor feels only a little soft. Lead and cast iron at the tub hide the leak. Fans in these baths often blow into a joist bay or a low attic, so the deck is soaked and a roofer gets called for a pipe. On slab houses the water travels under the pan and shows up as loose tile, a sweet closet, or a warm spot.
Camelbacks stack a bath over a lower room and put the leak on the ceiling below. Long shotguns put the bath far from the stack with almost no slope, so the line is slow and the cleanout smells. A vanity on an outside wall rots the sill. Wind-driven rain on the same exterior wall can soak the cavity from outside, which means the pipe is innocent.
If you can look under the house, do it before you call. White crust, dark joists, or a steady drip at the trap is the report. On a slab you will not get that view, so bring the loose tile and the smell instead. A new surround on a rotten subfloor is wasted work, and so is a new pan on a slab that is already wet past the doorway. Mention if the rest of the house racks or if doors drag. The new work has to sit on something still sound.
Call with the neighborhood and the house form. Raised shotgun, camelback, center hall, or slab ranch. Say what is soft, what stains the ceiling below, and whether the fan grille is black. Mention sewage smell separately from a clean leak, because the fall in these yards is poor. The trade needs the wet structure. The finish you like is the last thing to describe. Call the number on this page.