Your Selma hall bath may still have the tile it got in the 1970s. A Riverdale kitchen could be older than that, and a Kingsburg home from the 2000s may have a garden tub that rarely gets used. South Fresno County covers all three, within about 40 minutes of our shop.

Highway 99 cities and unincorporated towns

Fowler sits about 11 miles southeast of downtown Fresno. Selma, about 16 miles out, has Highway 99 running through town, and Kingsburg, on the banks of the Kings River, is known for its Swedish heritage and a coffee-pot water tower visible from the freeway. Away from 99, the unincorporated communities of Caruthers, Riverdale, and Laton sit about 15 to 23 miles south of Fresno. Selma incorporated in 1893, and Fowler and Kingsburg followed in 1908.

Drive times from our Fresno shop

From our shop on E Madison Ave, route estimates put Fowler about 20 minutes away, Selma about 25, Kingsburg and Caruthers about 30, and Riverdale about 40. Those are light-traffic figures, which makes South Fresno County one of the closer parts of our service area outside the metro.

A wide spread of housing ages

Census figures show how different these towns are. Selma’s median home dates to about 1979, roughly half its homes were built before 1980, and the 1970s alone account for about 1 in 5. Kingsburg’s median is closer to 1988, and about 73% of its homes are owner-occupied, the highest of these five towns. Kingsburg also keeps a solid group of 1960s homes, about 12% of its housing.

Fowler is split: about 17% of its homes were built before 1950, yet roughly 37% date from 2000 or later. Riverdale and Caruthers lean older, with medians around 1974 and 1977, and in Caruthers the 1970s alone account for nearly a third of homes. Census samples in communities that small are thin, so treat those two as rough estimates.

Remodel work these eras tend to call for

• Pre-1950 homes in Fowler and Riverdale: plaster walls, cast-iron tubs, cramped baths, and galvanized pipe feeding the fixtures.

• 1950s to 1970s ranch homes, especially in Selma and Caruthers: soffits over the cabinets, kitchens walled off from the living room, original wall tile, and a single tub with a shower head above it.

• 1980s and 1990s homes: oak cabinet doors, tile counters with grout that won’t come clean, cultured-marble tops, and fiberglass surrounds.

• 2000s homes in Kingsburg and Fowler: granite, oversized garden tubs, and builder-grade shower pans due for replacement.

In any pre-1978 house, work that disturbs paint has to follow EPA lead-safe rules. Replacing counters, a vanity, or a tub is fixture-level work; moving a drain or adding a circuit means licensed plumbing and electrical trades, which we evaluate during the consultation. Our bathroom remodeling page explains how bath scopes are set.

Permits in South Fresno County

Selma, Kingsburg, and Fowler are incorporated cities, so permits there go through each city. Our City of Selma permit guide walks through that office. Caruthers, Riverdale, and Laton are unincorporated, which puts them under Fresno County; the Fresno County permit guide covers that process. Your project’s specific permit needs are confirmed during the in-home consultation.

Starting your estimate

Use the bathroom estimator or the kitchen estimator to answer questions about size, scope, layout, and finish level. At the end, you add your contact details and ZIP code and see a planning range, which is not a quote. When the project fits, you can pick a free in-home consultation time on the calendar; we offer them Monday through Saturday. Planning a kitchen and a bathroom together? Run the estimator once for each room.