Accidental bathroom remodel

[mattblast]

Loaded up the truck and took it to the dumpster at work.



I saved some pieces to harvest tile from. The scrap will be tossed with my household trash (I get a 96 gallon can and weekly pickup)

My work dumpster gets emptied every Monday morning so as long as I can fit my stuff no one minds.

Here it is when I arrived.



And after dumping a truckload of debris.

 

[CGT80]

It already looks better with so much of the pink out of there.


Angle stops and supply lines caused water leaks in many of the commercial suites that I have worked on. It is very important to ensure they are in good shape. Of course toilet seals are easy to repair and the big deal is from showers (occasionally installed in commercial buildings).


Looks like a great project that was much needed.

 

[James-W]

It already looks better with so much of the pink out of there.

Looks like a great project that was much needed.

I agree, now he can rebuild it and make it exactly the way he wants it to be. There are times when you can "fix the problem" and then there are times when you need to just gut the room and start over.

That is what we did with my oldest daughter's downstairs bathroom. She has two bathrooms, one upstairs and one downstairs so it wasn't a big deal when we gutted the downstairs bathroom. With everything out of the bathroom we were able to make it the way she wanted it to be. It turned out great and she loves it.

 

[mattblast]

I’m thinking of keeping old pan. It’s not original to he house and it works fine. It’s a bit dirty from demo but that will clean up. Hard part will be removing old caulk from front edge that sealed against shower doors.



It will save a lot of time and frustration reusing it.



I’m going to remove the closet framing and make it open shelves. Funny that they put a header in since it’s not load bearing.

And the original design had a lowered shower ceiling. Any reason to keep this?



It does give space for recessed light but I don’t need to keep that. Only other plus is that the lower ceiling keeps heat in the shower better and makes it easier for steam to escape to the higher ceiling (and the exhaust fan)

The hall bath had same thing but I decided to keep it lower in the remodel.

 

[chaosracing]

No reason to keep the lower ceiling. Header over a closet door even though non load bearing shows whoever built the house did it properly. It was what they did back in the day before builders got cheap.
If it was my house, I would ditch the shower pan and start over with new stuff.

 

[rburke65]

I remember we had the pink tile growing up in the thr 50s. We were big time!

 

[jd_1138]

I remember we had the pink tile growing up in the thr 50s. We were big time!

I think the sales brochures of the era would've described it as "salmon" in color. I guess I'm a bore. I'd pick off white for a bathroom, maybe black and white subway tile.

A friend gave up on tiling his bathroom and asked me to finish it. I did so, but I felt the tiling design choice was bizarre -- cream in color with 2 inner black squares. I felt like saying "um, 1981 called and they want their tile back".

But I said nothing and just finished the job. It's now a rental, and he bought a different house.

 

[mattblast]

Took the drop ceiling and closet out.





I’ll have to secure the side wall of the shower to the joists as it is now loose without closet there.

 

[Falcon67]

X2 on removing the lower ceiling - but I'd put back a insulation contact compatible can with a dimmable LED, just because. We have a huge master shower - 36 w x 72+ with a skylight and I'd much prefer a couple of LED cans vs that skylight. It's just not that much light. The sky light is fun in winter - warm shower, dry almost all off then a ice cold condensate drip hits you in the back...

 

[mattblast]

If it was my house, I would ditch the shower pan and start over with new stuff.

I was debating if it should stay or go and your post pushed me in the right direction.

The drain was filled with oakum and lead. Usually you can chisel out an inch then pry the rest of the lead out but because of a lip at the edge of the drain it had to be chisled bit by bit.



Got a lot of lead.


And the results

 

[C_F]

Melt that lead down & make bullets! Also, it's really lucky you caught the problem when you did, before of the water caused an arc at the light & started a fire.

Looking forward to your continued updates.

 

[mattblast]

Melt that lead down & make bullets!

I have close to 300lbs of lead and an old school propane smelter. So far I’ve just made ingots from a muffin pan but have been saving them up.

 

[Marctrees]

Matt - So now you have that romex tail hanging w the old shower light.

Rather than delete that entire switch leg.. consider re purposing it to a new location where it will reach for a new light.

If you want to re use the tail for a new shower light.. I'm not sure what current Code is on that.


Marc

 

[3xpendable]

I’m surprised that tile was not mudset being that old.


Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[mattblast]

I’m surprised that tile was not mudset being that old.

The floor was originally but was replaced. Walls were just attached to drywall.

 

[johnnyradiant]

Schluter walls or cement board painted with Red Guard?

Good call on the base. Take your time seating the new one and then make sure you give it a nice cardboard skin so you don't chip your new base putting everything back together.

One of our recent bath remodels had the clients do their shower walls in solid surface. Can't remember if it was Corian or another line, as that part was between the clinet and the countertop people. Because they were working with one piece per wall extra time was spent making sure everything was plumb and square. I'm glad my wife just wants tile 'cause our 110 yr old house doesn't know what plum and square is and getting things around our new shower was trying enough to get it close enough.

 

[chaosracing]

Schluter walls or cement board painted with Red Guard?

Good call on the base. Take your time seating the new one and then make sure you give it a nice cardboard skin so you don't chip your new base putting everything back together.

One of our recent bath remodels had the clients do their shower walls in solid surface. Can't remember if it was Corian or another line, as that part was between the clinet and the countertop people. Because they were working with one piece per wall extra time was spent making sure everything was plumb and square. I'm glad my wife just wants tile 'cause our 110 yr old house doesn't know what plum and square is and getting things around our new shower was trying enough to get it close enough.

My dad just did that with his shower stall. They custom cut the pieces to fit the walls, even if out of level and plumb. His guy came out with a laser measuring system and got it that way. Very nice and clean install. Makes it very easy to keep clean.

 

[mattblast]

After leaving the tile covered drywall outside for the week (in the rain) the tile was easy to pop off.

Here is the harvesting process.


Scraper with a few taps of a hammer then pry up. Tile either came off cleanly or snapped in half. I saved about 80%

Here’s what I recovered.



Then I took another trip to my work dumpster to dump the final load of debris (any new debris will go out with normal trash)

Last task of the day was to tear off the old fiberglass and replace it with rock wool. I hate this step. It’s itchy to work with but I wanted to get it all done in a sitting so I can shower and be done with it.

The hard part was filling in the corners which originally had no insulation. On one I just pushed the rock wool in with a putty knife and it took about 30 mins to fill it up bit by bit. The other was a double 2x4 cavity so I drilled some holes and filled them up with larger pieces the used the putty knife to push it to the bottom. Went much faster.


This is the wet wall between the two upstairs bathrooms.


Had to pull out an extra 2x4 which was used to support shower door.



Tomorrow I’ll shave high studs and fur out low ones and level the ceiling if all goes according to plan. Plus secure shower wall to ceiling joists.

 

[CGT80]

Melt that lead down & make bullets!...............

That is what I was thinking.



I built myself an automated boolit casting machine and love it anytime I can get free lead.

 

[mattblast]

Made a bunch of drywall shims from some 0.050” thick chipboard cut into 1-1/2” strips. No one in NJ/PA seems to stock these so I made them myself.



High spots were power-planed and low spots were shimmed. Makes for a much flatter drywall install.



One stud was bowed out 1/8”!



All joists and studs are now aligned except for the inside of the closet which was heavily bowed on outside and needs 1/4” of shims on the inside. I’ll probably just sister on a 2x to give a new nailing surface (or perhaps I’ll just replace the 2 bad studs).

While doing the electrical work I noticed that the bathroom light circuit is now a dedicated 15a circuit. I may end up cutting that line and tying the lighting into the dedicated outlet circuit (and run 12g to the lights)

 

[mattblast]

And the medicine cabinet framing. It designed so that I need a 2” spacer from the wall to the vanity to be centered.



That’s all for tonight.

 

[mattblast]

Got the rough wiring done and a few odds and ends such as fire stopping and foam insulation around the window.



Exhaust fan enclosure. Last bathroom I used a style that doesn’t require access to framing (remodel) and it has a wide lip at the bottom edge that makes it harder to drywall to. This new construction style is better. And no sharp edge to get cut on.


Fire stopping of 2” hole with a wooden plug and fire stop caulking.


Window insulated with low expanding foam.


Temp light wiring. All rough wiring is done and I left wire long until I decide on switch position. (3 gang)

Have to install two studs in back of shower and vapor barrier then I’m ready to drywall.

 

[mattblast]

Things didn’t go as quickly as I planned. The two walls of the shower were out of plumb by 1/2”-3/4” and that would have made tiling difficult. Plus the glass shower door wouldn’t look very good with a big gap on top.

So I took down the wall between the shower and closet and started to reframe it.





And the exterior wall was shimmed with tapered strips of 2x4 and now it’s within 1/16” of plumb.



Plan is to complete framing and put drywall ceiling in place tomorrow.

 

[spoonsports86]

Forgot to show the “best” part. The hide away toilet paper holder!

Plus a hide away toothbrush/soap/cup holder





(I recently sold the two from the hall bath on eBay for about $50).

those are awesome... you selling them?

also bath remodel is coming out great

 

[mattblast]

Finally got some time tonight to work on the bathroom. Got the new framing up and it’s perfectly plumb.



My toenailing with a pneumatic nailer needs to be improved. It’s good enough for this wall but half the toenails ended up at the wrong angle or they stick out a bit and need to be hammered in. I just can’t seem to get the hang of it.



And to the question in the previous post - these will eventually end up for sale on eBay.

Hoping to pick up 2 sheets of drywall for the ceiling and the shower valve tomorrow so I can get an early start Saturday.

 

[mattblast]

Yesterday was very productive. A buddy from work came by and helped me get a load of supplies from Home Depot, then we brought everything upstairs. Drywall, cement board, compound, and a few odds and ends.

First step was to fix the leaking T at the cold water supply. Then I squared up the cut of the sink drain line and soldered on a trap adapter.

I added the backer boards where the drywall meets the cement board and installed a 6 mil vapor barrier.



The first sheet of drywall for the ceiling was exactly a 4x8 area and needed a square hole for the exhaust fan. That was the hardest sheet to put up because of the weight and the rest went in easily.



I skipped lunch and had to stop with 1 sheet to go at dinner time.



I’ll get that last sheet up this morning (there is one other small sheet needed in the wall of the closet but that will wait until the shower valve is installed).

After the valve and closet drywall is up, then I am mostly at a standstill until the shower pan arrives. I can’t install any cement board in the shower or on the floor without it. That gives my wife and I time to pick a vanity and tile and get them in order. The last vanity took about 4 weeks to come in. I need a 22”x36” unit and prefer a custom one rather than stock.

The house is a mess with tools everywhere. So a big part of today will be getting everything down to the garage and putting it away.



Most of these tools are no longer needed, or won’t be needed until much later.

 

[mattblast]

Got the shower valve plumbed. The body of the valve was removed during soldering to prevent any heat damage.



The crazy thing is that the valve is identical to the one used for a bath but you need to cap the spout hole. The only indication you need to do this is buried in the pictograph instructions with a small note that the cap is not included.

 

[Marctrees]

mattblast -

Very knowledgeable skillful work, and documentation.

Definitely above average.

Realizing the need for the shimming, stuff like that.

Sloppy non caring workman would not even think of those important details.

You learned somewhere.

Great job !!

What do you do for work ?

Marc

 

[mattblast]

Just paid for the vanity. It’s going to be about 4 weeks before it arrives.



Full overlay. Soft close full extension drawers. Cherry Kraftmaid brand. Plywood construction.



Ended up running about $900. So far I’m just under $2000 and that includes the not yet installed cement board.

I wasn’t going to order it today but as my wife and I sat down with the designer we learned it was the final day or 20% discount.

 

[Marctrees]

Kraftmaid is verry nice..

But I am still shocked about $900 for a 3' vanity relatively basic, no matter how nicely made.

$900 NO **** ?????

I'm assuming that is just the cab, no top or sink.

Marc

 

[mattblast]

Great job !!

What do you do for work ?

Marc

Thank you. This is bathroom remodel #6 - all were complete gut jobs over the last 15 years. 3 in the last house and now 3 in this house.

Technically I’m head of purchasing but I also do IT and technical support / training for CAD/CAM software and hardware. It’s a small company and I wear a lot of hats. Over the years I’ve collected a full assortment of tools and skills and it helps that I find it fun to tear into a project.

 

[mattblast]

I'm assuming that is just the cab, no top or sink.

Just the cabinet. I could build it for a lot less and that includes the cost to buy an old shaper and a set of rail & stile knifes and premium hardware. It would have been about $400 in maple with a more basic door style but this is the master bath so we splurged!

It does bother me that it costs so much. The plywood upgrade alone was $150 in the cabinet. I’m saving thousands in labor so in the end it’s not a big deal. I figure it will end up around $4000 total but would be closer to $12,000 had I hired a “pro”.

 

[Marctrees]

"Technically I’m head of purchasing but I also do IT and technical support / training for CAD/CAM software and hardware. It’s a small company and I wear a lot of hats. Over the years I’ve collected a full assortment of tools and skills and it helps that I find it fun to tear into a project."

Now, THAT is funny..

Often, seems usually, one in your postion would not even know what a Lug Wrench is.

VERY knowledgeable GJ'r, VERY multitalented.

Marc

 

[LXCam]

Matt, looking great bud. And good thing you plumbed up the shower wall. I just finished my project from hell and like you had a substantial waiting time on the shower base. When I ordered my frameless enclosure I elected to use their base to save me some time and effort since everything had to be perfectly square and true or the frameless glass kit wouldn't work. Well what was supposed to be 2 weeks turned into almost six. Hopefully you don't go thru the same BS.

My biggest PITA was getting the framing dead nuts on since the shower butted to a exterior wall that had a 3/4" bow in it AND the adjoining wall wasn't square to it. So I elected the straight cut both 2x6 and 4x12 for my backing and sister the old studs. This forced me to thicken the exterior wall an inch so I didn't have a jog in it and the other wall I was able to clean up the squareness. Looking at my floor tile you'd never have a clue I did it.

In the end it was worth alllll the effort. Keep up the great work.

 

[Marctrees]

matt -

You may legitimately have bigger fish to fry than to chase after saving a few hundred..

But wouldn't a local custom kitch cab shop be like 50% ?

Or, I may be living in the past.

Seriously, I dunno..

Just sounds crazy high.

Marc

 

[Marctrees]

VERY nice LX.

Did you do the shower tile ?

Marc

 

[LXCam]

VERY nice LX.

Did you do the shower tile ?

Marc

Ya I did it and thanks. Was the first time cutting glass though, that was a learning curve. Those sheets only came like this.



So I had to cut all the half and quarter pieces.




The other hint I'd offer up matt is backing for towel racks and such. In my case the wife couldn't make up her mind what size and where. I just didn't have time for that nonsense so I covered myself for any option. .



I'd also suggest bedding the pan in mortar if you hadn't considered it. It makes all the difference in the world stopping any kind of movement

 

[Marctrees]

Yup, the meat backing is a minor yet major good thinking.

WAYYY better than toggle bolts or plastic anchors.

I've done alot of custom Fab work, but never laid tile.

O YAAA, now I remember...

When I was a Young Pup and working as Maintenance Electrician just out of School, Dunwwody in MN...

Living in the Iron Range of MN..

Working at a Taconite steel ore processing plant..

Dang 450' x 90' REAL live Sand beach..

Re doing a 3 season cabin..


Putting those varied size old school rectangle slate pieces in a front hall..

Decided to make the grout line wider than standard..

What a silly Goose idea..

Understand ?

The different rectangle sizes are made to fit together ONLY with a particular grout width...

Figured out a total mistake shortly after I started...

Was young and foolish.

Now, just Old and Foolish.

But I have learned...

Some anyway.

Marc



Marc

 

[Marctrees]

Looks like a blueprint for a Nukelar reactor !!!

Marc

 

[LXCam]

Yup, the meat backing is a minor yet major good thinking.

WAYYY better than toggle bolts or plastic anchors.

Marc

Marc you have no idea. The wall buts up to another bathroom so it's loaded to the hilt with plumbing. I always cussed mounting anything on it because ya were never certain what you might hit. Some AC plywood ended that bs.

Looks like a blueprint for a Nukelar reactor !!!

Marc

Haha, ya that template was for the shower drain and crapper. It also tripled as my square gauge for the walls when framing.