If your house is old sufficient for a bathroom restoration, you may intend to go on and also totally gut it. I began my washroom remodel last month with a total demolition. If I hadn't, a variety of troubles would have been not available for fixing ... and even undiscovered. Below's just what I found when I opened up the walls as well as ceiling of my 1981 apartment below in the Quad Cities.
Take care of plumbing shocks
Right here's an additional thing I located. I'm not a plumbing expert, yet I see a problem here. Imagine if that area of usual drain line for our back-to-back sinks obtained clogged. Currently think of running a snake in there from one sink. Do you assume it would make the turn? Most likely not. We transformed it out and counter the two.
Repair termite damage
When I opened up the exterior wall, I found termite damage in two locations: the king stud, jack stud, and also cripple on the tub side of the window as well as the jack stud beyond of the home window. The bright side is that the damage was done long ago. As long as I've lived here, the owners' organization has actually stayed on top of termite therapy and also monitoring, yet I understand there was a duration when they really did not. Thus the damage I located.
Change deteriorated subflooring
Along with the termite-damaged wall, I also located rotten subflooring near the bathtub. This was mostly from obtaining too damp, as well as I thought it due to the fact that floor tiles had begun appearing in that area.
Offset no or little insulation
I understood we had insulation in our walls. I assumed it was R-11 fiberglass batts since our upstairs next-door neighbor's icemaker had a poor leakage a few years earlier, getting fifty percent of our laundry room ceiling as well as part of the wall surface. The common wall had R-11 batts. I figured the remainder of the wall surfaces did, too. I understood they had insulation because I've inspected behind button and receptacle plates.
I obtained a little surprise when I took the drywall off of that exterior washroom wall surface as well as saw this:
This is really a good idea, in a manner, due to the fact that it implies I'll obtain more enhancement compared to I thought I was going to get.
Seal up the air leakages
Yes, our 1981 condo is leaky. I understood about the big tub openings as well as various other pipes penetrations because I've seen them from the basement. I really did not recognize that the wall surfaces were covered with asphalt-impregnated fiberboard (Celotex) that provided great deals of air leak pathways. Once more, viewing on the bright side, that suggests I'll be able to make even more renovation than I would certainly believed.
I cannot wait to do a blower door examination when it's all done. Sadly, I will not be able to separate out the improvement due only to my restroom job. The owners' organization simply had the whole flooring secured with spray foam insulation. I'm thinking our complete air leakage will be around half of just what it was.
Set up an exhaust follower and repair ductwork
Did I state our condo was integrated in the 80's? The master bathroom has a home window, so naturally, it didn't need an exhaust fan, right? Incorrect. I have actually overcome a year of information on temperature level and loved one humidity in that restroom without an exhaust fan. Now I'm putting one in as well as will gather a lot more information. Remain tuned for the outcomes.
However even if your shower room already has a fan, I 'd bet it does not relocate enough air. The common bathroom follower stirs half its rated air flow. If your bathroom fan isn't easily accessible from the attic, opening up the ceiling is the only means to get at the duct and also fix it. What you see because picture listed below is common for bathroom fan air ducts: sagging flex air duct that makes a lot of turns. (That's not my new follower, by the way.).
Address other potentially unknown repair needs.
Several years ago we had to do some pipes help the bathtub in the hall shower room. When the plumbers had the wall opened up, I inquired to put valves know the cold and hot water lines to ensure that if anyone needed to work on that plumbing in the future, they would not need to turn off the water to the whole building.
So they put in the shutoffs. When I opened up the wall, I saw them and also took this photo:.
I 'd make use of that shower a few times throughout the years and always wondered why the stress was so low. Currently I understand. The plumbers mounted the valves however after that really did not open them completely. Those red handles should be straight according to the pipelines. Good!
I likewise located that our ceiling had two layers of drywall. We have a smooth ceiling throughout our condominium, yet the original ceiling was stippled. Luckily, it wasn't a popcorn ceiling, which might consist of asbestos.
And also I discovered the original, horrible wallpaper.
If you're redesigning a bathroom, there a lot of great needs to copulate as well as digestive tract it entirely. That's just what I'm doing. We're almost ready to start shutting it back in, so remain tuned for even more tales from the Dunlap washroom.