Why You Must Completely Demo Your Restroom When You Remodel



If your residence is old enough for a shower room renovation, you may wish to proceed and completely digestive tract it. I began my bathroom remodel last month with a complete demolition. If I hadn't, a variety of troubles would certainly have been unavailable for repair work ... and even obscure. Below's just what I located when I opened up the walls and ceiling of my 1981 condo right here in the Quad Cities.

Take care of 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 obtained obstructed. Currently visualize running a snake in there from one sink. Do you assume it would certainly make the turn? Possibly not. We transformed it out and also balance out the two.

Repair termite damage
When I opened up the outside wall surface, I located termite damages in two places: the king stud, jack stud, and maim on the bath tub side of the home window as well as the jack stud on the other side of the home window. The bright side is that the damages was done long ago. As long as I've lived below, the proprietors' association has stayed up to date with termite treatment and also tracking, but I understand there was a duration when they didn't. Hence the damages I discovered.

Replace deteriorated subflooring
Along with the termite-damaged wall, I additionally discovered rotten subflooring near the bathtub. This was primarily from getting also wet, and also I presumed it because floor tiles had begun appearing because area.

Offset no or little insulation
I understood we had insulation in our wall surfaces. I believed 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, obtaining half of our utility room ceiling as well as part of the wall surface. The common wall surface had R-11 batts. I figured the remainder of the walls did, also. I knew they had insulation since I have actually 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 improvement than I believed I was getting.

Seal up the air leaks
Yes, our 1981 condominium is leaking. I found out about the big bathtub holes as well as various other pipes infiltrations because I've seen them from the basement. I didn't understand that the wall surfaces were encased with asphalt-impregnated fiber board (Celotex) that gave lots of air leakage pathways. Again, looking on the bright side, that implies I'll be able to make more enhancement than I 'd believed.

I cannot 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 bathroom work. The owners' organization simply had the entire flooring sealed with spray foam insulation. I'm guessing our total air leak will certainly be around half of just what it was.

Set up an exhaust fan and fix ductwork
Did I state our apartment was integrated in the 80's? The master bath has a window, so naturally, it really did not need an exhaust fan, right? Incorrect. I have actually got over a year of data on temperature level as well as family member humidity because shower room without an exhaust fan. Now I'm placing one in as well as will accumulate a lot more data. Keep tuned for the results.

But even if your washroom currently has a fan, I would certainly wager it does not move enough air. The regular bath follower moves about half its rated air circulation. If your bath follower isn't obtainable from the attic, opening the ceiling is the only method to get at the air duct and repair it. What you see because image listed below prevails for bathroom fan air ducts: drooping flex air duct that makes too many turns. (That's not my new follower, by the way.).

Fix other potentially unknown repair needs.
A number of years ago we needed to do some plumbing benefit the tub in the hall shower room. When the plumbings 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 would not 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 make get more info use of that shower a couple of times for many years as well as always questioned why the pressure was so low. Now I understand. The plumbers installed the shutoffs however then didn't open them fully. Those red takes care of need to be straight in accordance with the pipelines. Good!

I also located that our ceiling had 2 layers of drywall. We have a smooth ceiling throughout our condominium, but the initial ceiling was stippled. Luckily, it wasn't a snacks ceiling, which might include asbestos.

And I uncovered the initial, ugly wallpaper.

If you're remodeling a washroom, there a lot of good needs to go all the way and also digestive tract it completely. That's exactly what I'm doing. We're practically all set to start shutting it back in, so stay tuned for even more stories from the bathroom.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *