If your house is old sufficient for a washroom renovation, you may want to go ahead and completely gut it. I started my restroom remodel last month with a complete demolition. If I hadn't, a number of problems would have been unavailable for repair ... or even obscure. Below's just what I discovered when I opened up the walls and ceiling of my 1981 apartment below in the Quad Cities.
Take care of plumbing surprises
Here's an additional thing I discovered. I'm not a plumbing specialist, yet I see an issue here. Think of if that section of usual drainpipe line for our back-to-back sinks got obstructed. Currently think of running a snake in there from one sink. Do you think it would certainly make the turn? Most likely not. We changed it out as well as balance out both.
Repair termite damage
When I opened up the outside wall, I located termite damage in two locations: the king stud, jack stud, and maim on the tub side of the home window as well as the jack stud on the other side of the home window. Fortunately is that the damages was done long ago. As long as I've lived below, the owners' organization has stayed up to date with termite therapy as well as monitoring, however I recognize there was a period when they really did not. Thus the damages I found.
Change rotted subflooring
In addition to the termite-damaged wall surface, I also located rotten subflooring near the bathtub. This was mainly from obtaining too wet, as well as I believed it since floor tiles had actually begun appearing because location.
Make up for no or little insulation
I understood we had insulation in our wall surfaces. I assumed it was R-11 fiberglass batts because our upstairs next-door neighbor's icemaker had a negative leak a few years back, obtaining half of our laundry room ceiling as well as part of the wall surface. The usual wall surface had R-11 batts. I figured the rest of the walls did, as well. I recognized they had insulation due to the fact that I've checked behind switch and also receptacle plates.
I obtained a little surprise when I took the drywall off of that exterior washroom wall surface and also saw this:
This is actually a good thing, in a manner, since it indicates I'll obtain even more renovation compared to I assumed I was getting.
Seal up the air leakages
Yes, our 1981 apartment is dripping. I found out about the large bath tub openings and also various other pipes infiltrations since I have actually seen them from the basement. I didn't know that the walls were sheathed with asphalt-impregnated fiber board (Celotex) that gave lots of air leak paths. Once more, viewing the silver lining, that implies I'll be able to make more renovation compared to I 'd thought.
I can't wait to do a blower door examination when it's all done. However, I will not be able to separate out the improvement due just to my shower room work. The owners' organization just had the whole flooring sealed with spray foam insulation. I'm guessing our complete air leakage will be around half of just what it was.
Set up an exhaust fan and also repair ductwork
Did I mention our apartment was integrated in the 80's? The master bath has a home www.dunlapconstruction.com window, so naturally, it really did not require an exhaust fan, right? Incorrect. I've overcome a year of data on temperature level as well as relative moisture in that washroom without an exhaust fan. Currently I'm putting one in and also will accumulate a lot more data. Remain tuned for the outcomes.
However even if your bathroom already has a follower, I 'd bet it doesn't relocate sufficient air. The normal bathroom fan stirs half its rated air circulation. If your bathroom fan isn't really available from the attic room, opening up the ceiling is the only way to obtain at the air duct and also fix it. Just what you see in that picture listed below is common for bathroom follower ducts: sagging flex air duct that makes too many turns. (That's not my new follower, incidentally.).
Solve other potentially unknown repair needs.
Numerous years ago we had to do some plumbing help the bathtub in the hall bathroom. When the plumbers had the wall opened up, I asked to place valves in on the hot and cold water lines to ensure that if any person needed to service that plumbing in the future, they wouldn't need to shut off the water to the whole building.
So they put in the valves. When I opened the wall, I saw them and also took this picture:.
I would certainly make use of that shower a couple of times throughout the years and also always asked yourself why the stress was so low. Now I recognize. The plumbers installed the valves but after that really did not open them fully. Those red deals with need to be straight in accordance with the pipes. Wonderful!
I likewise discovered that our ceiling had 2 layers of drywall. We have a smooth ceiling throughout our condominium, but the initial ceiling was stippled. The good news is, it wasn't a popcorn ceiling, which might contain asbestos.
And I uncovered the original, gruesome wallpaper.
If you're remodeling a bathroom, there a lot of excellent reasons to go all the way as well as gut it entirely. That's what I'm doing. We're virtually prepared to begin closing it back in, so remain tuned for more tales from the restroom.