It must be reno season on the Board, lots of folks sprucing their places up. I really prefer to do that stuff in the winter, when its dark out early, and outside activites are less than in the warmer months. However, my reno of the back hall bath in November got me thinking its been since I moved into the house in 1998 for the main bath, and about 1999 for the ensuite, and they're both really dark, and could use an update. Nothing major, just paint a lighter colour, and change out the light fixtures and bath hardware.
Finally convince myself that it'll look good, give my spirits a boost, and really, they're such small rooms, can have them both done in 2 weekends and a few evenings. Great, select the paint (budget saving by using the paint from the back hall powder room in main bath! and selecting a pale lilac for the ensuite so towels still match and goes with the bedroom darker plum), decide I like the hardware from the back hall bath, and yes! Lowe's has a 20% off sale, so manage to get that from 3 stores. REALLY like the light in the back hall bath, but to get 3 of the 3-light ones was going to cost $750 plus taxes - not going to happen! so back to the drawing board.
Wander into our 3rd big-box store (only in Canada, Rona) and low and behold, they have my dream lights on for about $140 each, instead of the $250! so grab 2 (all they had) PLUS they had another similar light fixture on sale for $100, last one, grab that one for the ensuite, yay! This is WAAAAYYYYY more than i have EVER spent on lights, but console myself with looking at the average ones and find they're almost $100.
The ensuite had some water issues that i know i need to deal with, some of the drywall beside the shower was bubbling, and the fake wooden (that pressed cardboard-like trim that apparently is popular instead of fingerjoint pine...stuff should be illegal, its destroyed if any moisture gets on it-useless in bath and kitchen grr) trim on the other side is swelling. Thought it best to recaulk the entire shower and repair that bit of drywall before starting to paint, so, Monday night after work, I scrape all the silicone off the bottom edges of the walls/floor in my ensuite and put on a silicone removing gel to sit while Scout and I go for our hike. After we get back and eat, I figure i've got time to finish cleaning off the silicone and hopefully even redoing the caulk so I can use that shower in the morning.
Gah,,,,,,,don't think the walls are supposed to move when you are trying to scrape the silicone off cracking the grout....that can't be a good sign....yup, my "simple" little pick-me-up spruce-up paint-job has now turned into a full-blown, rip the walls back to the studs, bathroom reno. Sigh. Planning on keeping the built-in vanity and mirror, hopefully the toilet (i'm on a well so it really doesn't matter that its not one of those minimum water use toilets, its what was previously "low flow"), and the shower doors.
The destruction starts Good Friday, a friend is coming to help pull down the tile and walls so we can see how much damage there actually is. I really really really was NOT planning on this! and I sure hope that its just the drywall behind the tiles, and not the floor too, i really like the floor tile, and ripping up ceramic floor tile is a nasty job. Sigh. Had my shower this morning in the main bath. At least I have another bathroom (although its currently a disaster with no hardware, drop clothes everywhere, and in the middle of a paint job), consider myself fortunate. And there is no way i can afford to have someone come and do this, so, i guess i will be hanging cement board, and tiling, in the near future. Worked around work, dog classes, and now we're into show season, so it may be a bit longer before i have my bathroom back!
Well, have fun. That's a big undertaking. OH did all of ours, I barely did a thing and I'm so glad of that. Will we get before and after photos?
And, we do have a low flow toilet, even though we are on a well. They don't work. I imagine I don't need to say more.
Scoutpout (04-01-2015)
The before pictures will show parts of things off....but i can try! Going to get a coat of primer on the main bath hopefully before dog school tonight (late class doesnt start until 8pm), and have to get the shower doors and frame removed from the ensuite tomorrow AFTER dog class (early class tomorrow, 6:30pm and i am usually running into the training hall at 6:32! just can't seem to get home from work in time) because my friend is showing up to start tearing walls out at 8am Friday.
and, ew, yes, er, thank you, VERY good to know. i guess thats what the fellow in the plumbing department of Lowe's was trying to tell me by showing me the "flushing" numbers - apparently an 800 is perfect, and they go downhill from there... he said don't even think about getting one with a rating less than around 700. My current one is having a bit of a problem with spraying over the side of the tank when its filling, but Dad said he'd look at that. Hopefully a fixable issue.
Oh, feel your pain! Fortunately, as we torn down the tile surround, we found everything to be in great shape. Another fortunate find, subfloor was also in great shape; we were prepared to have to replace it. Actually, no water damage at all.
At this point, new tub and surround is in, walls and ceiling painted, new flooring down, part of the wainscoting in (just enough to install the toilet, and toilet put in today. What's left is the rest of the wainscoting and the vanity and its plumbing, new towel bars. New lights have been installed. We were very fortunate, DH has a friend who is a licensed plumber. He replumbed for the new vanity; old one had only one sink, new one has two. He spent 5 hours. We fed him dinner and then he asked for $325 for his work where plumbers around here get at least $100 an hour and that's on the low side.
Found the exact faucets I wanted at Lowes but wow were they expensive. Started hunting on line and found Faucet Direct had them for only slightly more than half price.
DH took time off for the destruction part of the work but now is back working nights. So, that means there is limited time for continued progress. That's OK, we can take a shower and have the second toilet (so I don't have to wake him up trying to sneak into the master bathroom). I still have to wash face and brush teeth in the kitchen sink.
We did have a full bath in the basement but it was in such poor shape when we bought the house we tore it out. All the plumbing and electric is still there so we will replace it when we redo the basement.
Have experienced the spraying problem with the toilet tank and it was not a hard fix at all. At the most, you might have to replace the innards.
Good luck. You'll be so happy with the results.
Scoutpout (04-02-2015)
Oh, I know I will when its all over. but in the meantime, yikes. still trying to wrap my head around tearing out my shower and who knows how much more....it was just supposed to be a quickie fixup! Didn't get the priming done before dog school last night -spent the 2 hrs instead pulling MORE silicone caulk off from around the top of the vanity and taping that for paint, and removing the old light fixtures and putting up the temporary "paintable" ones. and more masking in prep for painting. I don't like to mask trim ceiling etc, i'd rather hand-finish that kind of edge, but the toilet edges, vanity top etc. i do. still have to mask the edges of that huge mirror, its like 8ft long and no way can i take it down myself, so will do my best to get the primer and new paint just behind the edges of it. Then after class i started taking down the shower doors and removing the shower heads (i JUST installed them a couple months ago!) in the ensuite. Have the bottom track of the shower doors and the side "extensions" to remove tonight after dog class-they're firmly siliconed in place and will require more blades and patience than I had at 11:00 last night. Anyway, pics of the the mostly-before:
Main Hall bathroom - its a good size with double sinks, but very dark with the burgundy walls and the black counter and sinks.-thankfully the cabinet walls and shower are white.
ensuite is tiny, 5ft deep by about 6ft wide, you can just get door swung open without hitting the toilet, but not if someone is in there! its definitely a 1-person-at-a-time room
the shower i was quite happy with that will now be leaving...
and the reason for the destruction - the wall is literally crumbling apart
Boy, that wall is bad. You're lucky you caught that when you did.
When we redid our bathroom, hmmm, 15 or more years ago, all advice was to put cement board behind the shower and/or tub walls. Probably with the age of our house back there was just drywall that was no longer dry, from water seepage despite good looking grout and real tiles. We liked the tiles, they were little 2" square white ones with a snowflake sort of embossing in green. But the tub was shot, too vigorously cleaned by the previous owner with abrasives cleanser and there was no way to get the tub out without removing at least several low rows of tile. Wouldn't you know it? The drywall was in perfect shape. Since we now had to replace it anyway we almost wished it wasn't so good.
yes, i just touched it last night and that happened, the whole way moves in when you gently push on a tile....
thats what i'm afraid of with the shower - greenboard behind the bottom 3 or 4 rows shot, but then fine above and i'll be upset that i have to tear it all out...but, i don't see a way to only do the bottom bit, replace the drwall with more appropriate cement board or tile backer board, and then re-tile and have it be ok.... oh how i wish that i'd torn out and replaced with or at least put the cement board overtop of the greenboard before i had the tiler install the tiles 16 years ago-they'd probably still be fine!
Oh, you do have a project. Luckily, we found no water damage behind the tiles and they've been in since 1968.
Had to cut out a huge hole in the drywall where the new vanity is going because of having to replumb. Had to put in new drywall, mud the joints and painted to have a good seal on it.
Sending good thoughts that it's a small area.
Well, on the happier note, the main bathroom has the new colour on the walls and the lights are up (no lightbulbs in them yet!), but the ceiling needs touching up around the edges, the trim needs painting, and i have to hang the new towel bar and robe hook. It sure does look different!I'll do a picture once its all finished
My helper at about 11pm Saturday night - I wanted the wall painting on that main bath done before Mum and Dad came up for dinner on Sunday
The bad news is that the shower walls in my ensuite were rotten about 3ft up the walls of the ensuite shower. I guess maybe thats good news, as when we first starting hitting and pulling at the tile about 5 ft up the wall, it was solid, and I was thinking, "why am i doing this? its fine! i've imagined it all!" that thought quickly gave way to "thank goodness we caught it now, before it really did damage, and we had to rip up the subfloor!"
you can see the mould on the back of the drywall, it goes up about 3ft
That same back corner with the tile and board off- you can see the studs are wet up about 3ft
the shower curb -totally rotten, we were easily able to pull the tiles off the top (they're outside getting rained and snowed on, hopefully easier to clean off), you can see in the previous photo and this one that there was a rubber liner under the concrete floor pan, but it did no good on the curb, and in fact was holding water under the concrete- soaked concrete is heavy and does not want to break up into managable pieces!
The front right side of the shower, with everything removed - the drywall has yet to be removed to the next stud back behind where the toilet belongs. You can see the water sitting on the vapour barrier and the subfloor, vapour barrier and that last bit of drywall are gone now.
Took two truckloads of moulding icky stuff to the dumpster. and then sprayed down the walls and floor with bleach solution, closed the door and left the window open till yesterday. Much better. All dry, no more mould. Now the "great debate" about replacing it with a pre-fab unit vs tiling it again, plus the shower pans all seem to have the drain at left or right, like a tub would, not in the centre. and they're narrower - space is 60x36, but they seem to come 60x30. oh well, just as well we managed to save the tiles from the curb. Currently have my sink stuff (toothbrush, makeup, face cleaning stuff) in the ensuite, and shower stuff in the main hall bathroom. Scout is getting used to me making trips outside the room in the middle of the night that don't include him! thats what i miss the most, the toilet in the ensuite, weird.
WOW, you sure have a job to do. So glad you caught it before there was any more damage. You're through the worse part; from now on it's all rebuilding.
We used Bath Fitters for the tub and surround and I love it. We did take down the tile and remove the cast iron tub and they did the rest, plumbing, fixtures and all. They guarantee no leaks. You'll have to put up the cement board. It's not cheap, but a good quality product. If you decide to go that way, PM me for a few hints. They come in and measure and custom make what you need. It's installed in a day.
Nothing better than having a helper. Experienced that today while trying to paint the wainscoting and Archie felt his tail would make a better paintbrush.
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