Bathroom remodeling

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor
Yeah man, go ahead and do most of the work, but hiring a freaking plumber for a half hour or labor to move the pipe. It will get done right and get done faster and may cost less than your fixtures.

It's a good experience, I think. It's a lot less troublesome when it's not some emergency and you can learn at your own pace.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

BTW, we planned to remodel our bathroom too. Looks like I may be accelerating those plans as I just discovered there is a leak behind the shower knob.

So in a couple months I may have some good hard personal experience to share on a similar project that might even include some fun subfloor replacement!!!!

 

[sohcrates]

google john bridge tile forums. great source of info for all your bathroom tiling / shower enclosure questions.

 

[FP]

We remodeled our bathroom in Feb. We tore everything down to the studs and started from nothing. We didn't have to move the toilet but we did turn the shower stall into a shower/tub enclosure which wasn't fun.

iamwiz82 is right, it can be fun or a pain. In my case it was a pain and I would gladly pay a plumber to do it again. We had 2 joint failures (one major, one minor) and then end result was about half an inch of water sitting in the kitchen one morning. The problem was there wasn't enough room to solder the back of the copper pipes. I thought I had gone all the way around but apparently I hadn't. I simply don't do plumbing enough to become an expert at it. Thus I will leave it to the experts next time 🙂. I did call in an expert after the 2nd failure and he had the thing fixed in about 5 minutes. To this day I still worry about the other joints.

Re: the greenboard/Hardibacker question... A friend of mine who does a lot of remodeling suggested we put up the following in the shower/tub enclosure...

Stud -> Aquabar -> Greenboard -> Hardibacker -> Tile

Turns out this might have been the worst order of things although when the inspect came to look at everything he didn't mention anything.

Oh well. You live and you learn. 🙂

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
if you don't mind me asking,

how much do you estimate all this will cost you in materials?

i have to redo my kids bathroom and probably our master bathroom within the next year or so.

There's a huge range of prices for remodeling a bathroom. Depending on the size of the room, and the materials, it can vary from a few hundred (gut the room to the studs, new wallboard, shower enclosure, wall paper, new sink base and sink) to quite a few thousand. Just the showerhead and faucets can vary from $25 to several hundred, depending on the quality, type of metal, and style you decide to go with.

Are you planning to simply do a face-lift? Or a complete remodeling job?

Oh, and OP, since the rest of the room is gutted, I wouldn't screw around trying to remove the stippling on the ceiling, unless you're really trying to save money. But greenboard is pretty darn cheap, compared to the value of most people's time. The only thing that would make me hesitate would be the discovery of blown in cellulose insulation sitting right on top of the ceiling. I hate that stuff with a passion.

my wife wants to gut it, i'd rather just do a face lift.

definitly need new tiling all the way around, floor and walls, but i love the old bath tub (Cast iron / porelain) and the big 5 gallon tank toilet.

but she doesn't like the colors, they are an olive green and i'm not sure it's worth it to have those re-colored.

so, if she insists on more neutral colors than we are talking a complete redo of everything.

 

[sohcrates]

I re-did our master bathroom (relatively small) for about $2500 last year.

Did all the work myself. Gutted shower and installed new plastic base. all new cement board. tiled floor to ceiling. new shower controls. also ripped out entire floor and re-tiled. kept toilet. got a new double vanity and custom cultured marble top, as well as new sink faucets. and new frameless all glass shower door.

Bathrooms can definitely be done on a budget, as long as you are somewhat handy and do your research.

for instance, i found frameless shower doors averaging $1000 and up, but i randomly was thumbing through a catalog in lowes and found a real kohler entry level door for $500.

also, i found the lowes custom vanity counter tops kind of expensive. so i went into a random "appliance and kitchen" outlet store and found the same stuff "marblux" brand for much less.

i'd say i spent almost as much time researching all the different places to buy stuff as i did actually doing the project. don't get suckered into HD or Lowes exclusively.

 

[SearchMaster]

Originally posted by: amdskip
A wet wall is usually a 2x6 wall instead of 2x4 so there is physically more room for a vent stack to run up through the roof. Usually the water supply lines are in the wall too but those are pretty easy to move around. The waste line is your biggest challenge.

Will you have to move the gas line?

I assume by gas line you mean the vent stack? That's what I meant 🙂 - it's not a real gas line. It's a 2x4 wall not a 2x6 wall. The vent line is along a different wall. I still haven't looked at the situation under the room yet, I'll finish the demo this week then make decisions about moving the toilet.

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
OP, have you had experience with plumbing before? It's all pretty easy to work with, but it takes patience, measure-twice-cut-once mentality.

Yes, not a ton of experience but a bit. I enjoy new plumbing, existing plumbing is a bitch when stuff is rusted together. I don't think I'll have a problem with the new fixtures, I've done that before, or possibly moving the toilet supply line, but I am worried about the waste line. I'm not a particularly patient person by nature but knowing that I have no real deadline on the project helps my psyche a ton.

Originally posted by: sohcrates
google john bridge tile forums. great source of info for all your bathroom tiling / shower enclosure questions.

Will do - thanks for the tip.

I have a brother-in-law who is a contractor, and I may call in a favor at some point and have him help with a couple of the tougher jobs. That way I can watch him and learn and have it done right.

Still working on the demo though. It's tough when you only have a couple of hours a night to work on it.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Good luck in your endeavors...I like Home Improvement but not balsy enough to just start ripping out drywall and such. (I'm in the process of buying a house now actually, wouldn't mind doing some hands on work but would ideally like it all to be done already) 🙂

 

[SearchMaster]

Update 1 - 12/6/07 - well, phase I is complete - the demolition. It went very well all things considered. My goal was to get the demo done this week, not cause any water leaks or electrical shorts, and not to damage any other part of the room. Mission accomplished! Everything looks pretty good, there are a couple of studs near the toilet that have some slight water damage but the subfloor is in very good shape.

I looked under the room and I think moving the toilet won't be that bad if we go through with it. It's PVC and not iron, which is good.

I have not removed the closet wall yet. My wife is out of town and I'm waiting to show her things before making a permanent decision on that. We'll need to do exact measuring and planning before we proceed on that. But if it works out, it sure will make things nice in there.

 

[bctbct]

10%- complete
90%- to go

:thumbsup:

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
texture ceiling shouldn't be sanded. instead, take warm water an mist the ceiling with a sprayer. Let it sit for a few minutes, then scrape off the texture with a 4" putty knife. the surface underneath may vary, so it might be able to be taped as is, skim coated, or may require replacement or lamination with 1/4" rock

Providing they haven't painted it with something like KILZ...🙂

But yeah, textured ceiling comes off amazingly well with a pump sprayer and a large putty knife. As long as you keep it level and don't gouge the foundation too much...a light skim coat for whatever texture you want and prime/paint is all you need to do.

My master bath was 'hand' popcorned and it looks pretty good except the edges were the previous homeowner globbed it on too much...it's pretty well sealed; I tried to wet a corner but the stuff is on there. I may try alcohol to cut the latex paint...just have to be careful of other surfaces.

 

[SearchMaster]

I haven't tested the texture removal yet, but I don't think it's been painted with anything.

10%- complete
90%- to go

I'm not sure if that's encouraging or discouraging, but I'm still optimistic FWIW.

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: SearchMaster
I haven't tested the texture removal yet, but I don't think it's been painted with anything.

10%- complete
90%- to go

I'm not sure if that's encouraging or discouraging, but I'm still optimistic FWIW.

Discouragement doesn't come until month 3 of a two week project. 😉

 

[Vette73]

Me and my wife bought a forclosure house. We gutted the master bedroom and bath and tore a lot of the other rooms up. Here is what I found out...


Don;t waste your time on greenboard. Even greenboard makers changed their stats on greenboard after it has shown to be alomst no better then regular white board in most uses.
What I did was use GP DensArmor drywall (Lowes) for the bathroom and hardibacker for the top of the tub surround. I will use a Schluter shower kit over the GP drywall for the walk in shower.

Plan to take longer then you think it will take to do the job. Don;t rush as a water leak after the wall is up will be a real pain. If your are not 100% sure about a fitting or connection then take it apart and start over. I did that several times with my tub and I did not call the drywall guys until i was REALLY happy with all the wiring and plumbing.

Go ahead and use 12ga wire and wire any room for 20amps. You never know what people will use in a room so don;t try and pinch pennies by using 14ga wire and 15amp outlets. Here is a site to where I got my CGFI outlets. they have free shipping and are much cheaper then any other place i could find, even eBay. They also have bathfans and other items so i ordered a fair amount from them.

For the person that said they had a problem with a pipe fitting, in a pinch you can use whats called Sharkbite. It connects copper pipes without solder/flames/etc... I have used 3 in our bathroom remodel as there was to much water in the pipe for me to get a good solder on them. They cost around $5 each so not really worth doing a full bath in them but for trouble areas they can save a lot of time and headaches.



Any other questions i will try and help with what i know and have learned from my work so far. 🙂

 

[SearchMaster]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Me and my wife bought a forclosure house. We gutted the master bedroom and bath and tore a lot of the other rooms up. Here is what I found out...


Don;t waste your time on greenboard. Even greenboard makers changed their stats on greenboard after it has shown to be alomst no better then regular white board in most uses.
What I did was use GP DensArmor drywall (Lowes) for the bathroom and hardibacker for the top of the tub surround. I will use a Schluter shower kit over the GP drywall for the walk in shower.

Plan to take longer then you think it will take to do the job. Don;t rush as a water leak after the wall is up will be a real pain. If your are not 100% sure about a fitting or connection then take it apart and start over. I did that several times with my tub and I did not call the drywall guys until i was REALLY happy with all the wiring and plumbing.

Go ahead and use 12ga wire and wire any room for 20amps. You never know what people will use in a room so don;t try and pinch pennies by using 14ga wire and 15amp outlets. Here is a site to where I got my CGFI outlets. they have free shipping and are much cheaper then any other place i could find, even eBay. They also have bathfans and other items so i ordered a fair amount from them.

For the person that said they had a problem with a pipe fitting, in a pinch you can use whats called Sharkbite. It connects copper pipes without solder/flames/etc... I have used 3 in our bathroom remodel as there was to much water in the pipe for me to get a good solder on them. They cost around $5 each so not really worth doing a full bath in them but for trouble areas they can save a lot of time and headaches.



Any other questions i will try and help with what i know and have learned from my work so far. 🙂

Thanks, that's great advice.

Discouragement doesn't come until month 3 of a two week project.

True, but I tried to make it clear that I have no deadline, for my own sanity. I told my wife it was probably going to take several months just to prepare her and she was okay with that. As long as I can keep dust to a minimum (did I mention the UNBELIEVABLE dust I made during initial demo?), I don't think it will be a huge disruption to our lives.

 

[sohcrates]

i've used those sharkbite connectors as well. they work surprisingly well when you cannot physically get a torch into a tight spot.

i suspected i had some water penetrating the tile in my master shower. sure enough, when i took the wall down YUCK

the whole wall of tile basically came down with one shot.

luckily, in the end it turned out pretty good