If your house is old sufficient for a bathroom restoration, you could want to go on as well as entirely gut it. I started my shower room remodel last month with a full demolition. If I had not, a number of problems would have been inaccessible for fixing ... or even undiscovered. Here's exactly what I discovered when I opened the wall surfaces as well as ceiling of my 1981 apartment below in the Quad Cities.
Deal with pipes shocks
Below's another thing I found. I'm not a plumbing expert, but I see a problem below. Picture if that section of common drain line for our back-to-back sinks got clogged. Currently imagine running a snake in there from one sink. Do you assume it would make the turn? Possibly not. We transformed it out and also counter both.
Repair termite damage
When I opened the outside wall surface, I discovered termite damage in two areas: the king stud, jack stud, and also paralyze on the tub side of the window and also the jack stud beyond of the window. The good news is that the damage was done long ago. As long as I have actually lived right here, the owners' organization has stayed up to date with termite treatment and surveillance, however I understand there was a duration when they really did not. Thus the damages I discovered.
Replace deteriorated subflooring
Along with the termite-damaged wall, I additionally found rotten subflooring near the bath tub. This was mainly from getting also wet, and also I thought it because ceramic tiles had begun popping up because area.
Make up for no or little insulation
I recognized we had insulation in our walls. I assumed it was R-11 fiberglass batts because our upstairs neighbor's icemaker had a negative leak a couple of years ago, securing half of our utility room ceiling and also part of the wall. The typical wall surface had R-11 batts. I figured the rest of the wall surfaces did, also. I understood they had insulation due to the fact that I've inspected behind button and receptacle plates.
I got a little shock when I took the drywall off of that outside restroom wall surface and also saw this:
This is actually an advantage, in such a way, because it implies I'll obtain even more renovation than I believed I was getting.
Seal up the air leakages
Yes, our 1981 apartment is leaky. I understood about the large bath tub openings and other plumbing penetrations since I have actually seen them from the cellar. I really did not recognize that the wall surfaces were encased with asphalt-impregnated fiber board (Celotex) that provided lots of air leakage pathways. Again, looking on the bright side, that implies I'll be able to make more improvement than I 'd assumed.
I can not wait to do a blower door examination when it's all done. Unfortunately, I won't be able to separate out the improvement due only to my bathroom job. The proprietors' association just had the entire flooring sealed with spray foam insulation. I'm presuming our complete air leakage will be around half of just what it was.
Mount an exhaust fan and solution ductwork
Did I discuss our condo was constructed in the 80's? The master bath has a window, so normally, it didn't require an exhaust fan, right? Incorrect. I've overcome a year of information on temperature level and family member humidity because shower room without an exhaust fan. Now I'm placing one in and also will accumulate a lot more data. Keep tuned for the outcomes.
But even if your restroom currently has a fan, I would certainly wager it does not move sufficient air. The normal bath follower moves about half its ranked air flow. If your bathroom fan isn't really available from the attic room, opening up the ceiling is the only means to get at the air duct and repair it. What you see because image below prevails for bath follower air ducts: sagging flex air duct that makes too many turns. (That's not my brand-new follower, by the way.).
Address other potentially unknown repair needs.
Numerous years ago we had to do some plumbing benefit the tub in the hall shower room. When the plumbing technicians had the wall surface opened up, I asked to place valves in on the cold and hot water lines so that if anybody needed to work on that plumbing in the future, they wouldn't need to turn off the water to the whole structure.
So they place in the shutoffs. When I opened up the wall, I saw them as well as took this image:.
I would certainly utilize that shower a few times throughout the years and always wondered why the stress was so reduced. Currently I comprehend. The plumbings installed the valves yet then really did not open them totally. Those red takes care of must be straight according to the pipes. Nice!
I additionally located that our ceiling had two layers of drywall. We have a smooth ceiling throughout our condo, yet the initial ceiling was stippled. Luckily, it wasn't a snacks ceiling, which might include asbestos.
And I uncovered the original, hideous wallpaper.
If you're redesigning a shower room, there a lot of excellent reasons to copulate as well as gut it entirely. That's exactly what I'm doing. We're almost all set to start shutting it back in, so stay tuned here for even more stories from the washroom.