If your house is old sufficient for a washroom remodelling, you might intend to go ahead and also totally gut it. I started my washroom remodel last month with a complete demolition. If I hadn't, a variety of troubles would certainly have been inaccessible for repair work ... and even undiscovered. Right here's just what I found when I opened the wall surfaces and ceiling of my 1981 apartment here in the Quad Cities.
Repair plumbing surprises
Right here's an additional point I discovered. I'm not a pipes expert, but I see an issue here. Picture if that section of common drain line for our back-to-back sinks got clogged. Currently envision running a snake in there from one sink. Do you assume it would certainly make the turn? Possibly not. We altered it out and also offset the two.
Repair termite damages
When I opened up the exterior wall surface, I located termite damages in 2 areas: the king stud, jack stud, as well as cripple on the bathtub side of the window and also the jack stud beyond of the window. Fortunately is that the damage was done long ago. As long as I've lived right here, the proprietors' association has stayed up to date with termite treatment and monitoring, yet I recognize there was a period when they really did not. Hence the damages I found.
Change deteriorated subflooring
Along with the termite-damaged wall, I also found rotten subflooring near the tub. This was mostly from getting also wet, and also I presumed it because ceramic tiles had actually started appearing in that area.
Offset no or little insulation
I recognized we had insulation in our wall surfaces. I assumed it was R-11 fiberglass batts due to the fact that our upstairs next-door neighbor's icemaker had a bad leak a few years ago, getting fifty percent of our laundry room ceiling as well as part of the wall surface. The common wall surface had R-11 batts. I figured the rest of the wall surfaces did, also. I recognized they had insulation since I have actually inspected behind switch and also receptacle plates.
I obtained a little shock when I took the drywall off of that outside restroom wall as well as saw this:
This is Bathroom Remodeler really an advantage, in such a way, since it indicates I'll obtain more enhancement than I thought I was going to get.
Seal up the air leakages
Yes, our 1981 condominium is leaking. I knew about the large bathtub holes and various other plumbing infiltrations due to the fact that I've seen them from the cellar. I really did not recognize that the wall surfaces were sheathed with asphalt-impregnated fiberboard (Celotex) that gave lots of air leakage pathways. Once more, viewing on the bright side, that implies I'll have the ability to make even more improvement compared to I 'd assumed.
I cannot wait to do a blower door examination when it's all done. Regrettably, I will not be able to separate out the renovation due only to my shower room job. The proprietors' association just had the entire floor secured with spray foam insulation. I'm presuming our complete air leak will be around half of what it was.
Set up an exhaust fan and fix ductwork
Did I discuss our condo was integrated in the 80's? The master bathroom has a window, so naturally, it didn't need an exhaust fan, right? Wrong. I've got over a year of information on temperature level and also family member humidity in that restroom without an exhaust follower. Now I'm placing one in and will certainly gather more data. Remain tuned for the results.
But even if your washroom currently has a follower, I would certainly bet it doesn't move enough air. The common bath follower moves about half its ranked air circulation. If your bathroom fan isn't available from the attic, opening up the ceiling is the only means to obtain at the duct and fix it. Just what you see because picture below prevails for bath follower air ducts: sagging flex air duct that makes a lot of turns. (That's not my new follower, by the way.).
Address other potentially unidentified repair needs.
Several years ago we needed to do some plumbing work for the bathtub in the hall bathroom. When the plumbing professionals had the wall opened, I asked to place valves know the hot and cold water lines to ensure that if anybody needed to deal with that pipes in the future, they would not have to switch off the water to the whole building.
So they put in the valves. When I opened the wall surface, I saw them as well as took this image:.
I 'd make use of that shower a couple of times for many years as well as always wondered why the stress was so reduced. Now I understand. The plumbings installed the shutoffs however after that really did not open them fully. Those red deals with should be straight in accordance with the pipelines. Good!
I additionally discovered that our ceiling had two layers of drywall. We have a smooth ceiling throughout our apartment, but the initial ceiling was stippled. Thankfully, it had not been a popcorn ceiling, which can include asbestos.
And I found the original, horrible wallpaper.
If you're remodeling a washroom, there a lot of excellent reasons to go all the way and also digestive tract it entirely. That's what I'm doing. We're nearly ready to start closing it back in, so remain tuned for even more stories from the restroom.