If your house is old sufficient for a restroom 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 hadn't, a number of problems would have been not available for fixing ... or even undiscovered. Here's what I discovered when I opened up the walls as well as ceiling of my 1981 condominium below in the Quad Cities.
Deal with pipes shocks
Below's an additional point I located. I'm not a pipes specialist, yet I see a trouble below. Imagine if that section of common drain line for our back-to-back sinks got clogged. Currently visualize running a snake in there from one sink. Do you assume it would certainly make the turn? Possibly not. We altered it out as well as balance out the two.
Repair termite damage
When I opened the outside wall, I located termite damages in 2 locations: the king stud, jack stud, and cripple on the bath tub side of the home window and the jack stud on the other side of the window. The bright side is that the damages was done long ago. As long as I've lived here, the proprietors' organization has stayed on top of termite treatment and also surveillance, however I understand there was a duration when they didn't. Hence the damages I discovered.
Change decomposed subflooring
In addition to the termite-damaged wall surface, I additionally discovered rotten subflooring near the bathtub. This was primarily from getting also wet, and also I presumed it because floor tiles had actually started popping up because area.
Make up for no or little insulation
I knew we had insulation in our wall surfaces. I thought it was R-11 fiberglass batts due to the fact that our upstairs neighbor's icemaker had a negative leak a couple of years ago, securing fifty percent of our laundry 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, too. 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 exterior restroom wall surface and saw this:
This is really an advantage, in such a way, because it means I'll get more renovation compared to I thought I was going to get.
Seal the air leakages
Yes, our 1981 apartment is leaky. I learnt about the huge bath tub openings and also other plumbing penetrations since I've 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 paths. Once more, viewing on the silver lining, that suggests I'll have the ability to make even more renovation compared to I 'd assumed.
I can't wait to do a blower door test when it's all done. Sadly, I won't be able to separate out the improvement due only to my restroom work. The owners' association simply had the entire flooring sealed with spray foam insulation. I'm guessing our total air leak will certainly be around half of exactly what it was.
Set up an exhaust fan and also repair ductwork
Did I discuss our condo was constructed in the 80's? The master bathroom has a window, so normally, it didn't need an exhaust follower, right? Wrong. I have actually got over a year of information on temperature level and loved one moisture in that shower room without an exhaust fan. Currently I'm placing one in and will certainly gather much more data. Keep tuned for the results.
Yet even if your shower room already has a follower, I would certainly wager it does not move sufficient air. The common bath follower moves about half its ranked air flow. If your bathroom fan isn't really available from the attic room, opening www.dunlapconstruction.com up the ceiling is the only way to obtain at the air duct as well as repair it. Exactly what you see because picture listed below is common for bathroom fan air ducts: sagging flex duct that makes way too many turns. (That's not my new fan, by the way.).
Address other potentially unknown repair needs.
Numerous years ago we had to do some pipes work for the tub in the hall washroom. When the plumbing professionals had the wall opened, I inquired to put shutoffs know the hot and cold water lines to ensure that if any person had to service that pipes in the future, they wouldn't have to switch off the water to the entire building.
So they put in the shutoffs. When I opened the wall surface, I saw them as well as took this picture:.
I would certainly use that shower a few times for many years and also constantly wondered why the pressure was so low. Now I understand. The plumbing technicians installed the valves but then didn't open them completely. Those red manages must be straight in accordance with the pipelines. Great!
I additionally discovered that our ceiling had two layers of drywall. We have a smooth ceiling throughout our condo, but the original ceiling was stippled. Fortunately, it had not been a popcorn ceiling, which could contain asbestos.
And also I uncovered the original, ugly wallpaper.
If you're remodeling a washroom, there a great deal of good needs to copulate and intestine it totally. That's just what I'm doing. We're practically all set to start closing it back in, so stay tuned for even more stories from the washroom.