Why You Should Totally Demo Your Restroom When You Remodel



If your house is old sufficient for a shower room renovation, you may want to go ahead and completely gut it. I started my restroom remodel last month with a complete demolition. If I had not, a variety of problems would certainly have been inaccessible for repair ... or perhaps obscure. Here's exactly what I located when I opened up the walls as well as ceiling of my 1981 condominium here in the Quad Cities.

Take care of pipes shocks
Right here's another thing I located. I'm not a plumbing professional, but I see a problem below. Picture if that area of usual drain line for our back-to-back sinks obtained blocked. Now envision running a snake in there from one sink. Do you think it would make the turn? Most likely not. We altered it out as well as counter the two.

Repair termite damage
When I opened up the outside wall surface, I located termite damages in 2 places: the king stud, jack stud, and also maim on the tub side of the window and also the jack stud on the other side of the window. The bright side is that the damage was done long ago. As long as I have actually lived below, the proprietors' organization has actually stayed on par with termite therapy and monitoring, yet I comprehend there was a period when they really did not. Therefore the damages I found.

Change rotted subflooring
Along with the termite-damaged wall, I likewise located rotten subflooring near the bath tub. This was mainly from obtaining also damp, and I thought it because floor tiles had started popping up because location.

Offset no or little insulation
I knew we had insulation in our wall surfaces. I assumed it was R-11 fiberglass batts since our upstairs neighbor's icemaker had a negative leak a few years earlier, taking out half of our laundry room ceiling and part of the wall surface. The typical wall had R-11 batts. I figured the rest of the wall surfaces did, as well. I understood they had insulation due to the fact that I've inspected behind button and also receptacle plates.
I got a little shock when I took the drywall off of that exterior bathroom wall and also saw this:

This is really an advantage, in a manner, due to the fact that it suggests I'll obtain even more improvement than I believed I was getting.

Seal the air leaks
Yes, our 1981 condo is leaking. I learnt about the big bathtub openings as well as other plumbing infiltrations because I have actually seen them from the basement. I really did not know that the wall surfaces were covered with asphalt-impregnated fiberboard (Celotex) that offered lots of air leak paths. Once again, viewing the bright side, that implies I'll be able to make even more enhancement compared to I 'd thought.

I cannot wait to do a blower door test when it's all done. Sadly, I will not have the ability to separate out the renovation due just to my washroom job. The proprietors' association simply had the whole floor secured with spray foam insulation. I'm guessing our overall air leakage will be around half of what it was.

Install an exhaust follower as well as fix ductwork
Did I state our condominium was built in the 80's? The master bathroom has a window, so naturally, it really did not need an exhaust follower, right? Wrong. I have actually got over a year of data on temperature as well as loved one humidity because restroom without an exhaust follower. Now I'm placing one in as well as will certainly gather much more information. Stay tuned for the outcomes.

But even if your washroom already has a follower, I 'd bet it does not move enough air. The common bath follower stirs half its ranked air circulation. If your bath fan isn't really easily accessible from the attic, opening up the ceiling is the only website means to get at the air duct and also fix it. Exactly what you see because photo listed below prevails for bath fan ducts: drooping flex air duct that makes way too many turns. (That's not my new fan, incidentally.).

Fix other potentially unknown repair needs.
Several years ago we needed to do some plumbing benefit the tub in the hall shower room. When the plumbing professionals had the wall opened up, I asked to place shutoffs know the hot and cold water lines to ensure that if any person needed to work on that plumbing in the future, they wouldn't have to shut off the water to the entire structure.
So they place in the shutoffs. When I opened the wall surface, I saw them and took this photo:.



I 'd use that shower a few times over the years and always questioned why the pressure was so low. Currently I comprehend. The plumbers installed the valves but then really did not open them totally. Those red handles must be straight in accordance with the pipelines. Great!

I also discovered that our ceiling had two layers of drywall. We have a smooth ceiling throughout our apartment, yet the original ceiling was stippled. The good news is, it had not been a snacks ceiling, which could contain asbestos.

And I uncovered the initial, ugly wallpaper.

If you're redesigning a shower room, there a great deal of great reasons to go all the way and also intestine it totally. That's what I'm doing. We're almost all set to start shutting it back in, so remain tuned for more tales from the shower room.

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