Why You Must Totally Demo Your Restroom When You Remodel



If your house is old sufficient for a shower room improvement, you may want to proceed and also completely intestine it. I started my shower room remodel last month with a total demolition. If I had not, a number of problems would have been inaccessible for fixing ... or perhaps undiscovered. Here's just what I located when I opened up the walls and also ceiling of my 1981 condominium right here in the Quad Cities.

Take care of pipes surprises
Here's another point I discovered. I'm not a pipes professional, yet I see an issue here. Think of if that area of typical drainpipe line for our back-to-back sinks got blocked. Currently think of running a snake in there from one sink. Do you think it would make the turn? Probably not. We changed it out and also balance out both.

Repair termite damage
When I opened up the exterior wall surface, I located termite damages in two places: the king stud, jack stud, as well as maim on the tub side of the home window and also the jack stud beyond of the window. The good news is that the damage was done long ago. As long as I have actually lived below, the owners' organization has stayed on par with termite therapy and also surveillance, yet I recognize there was a duration when they didn't. Thus the damage I found.

Change decomposed subflooring
In addition to the termite-damaged wall, I additionally discovered rotten subflooring near the tub. This was mainly from obtaining too damp, and I presumed it because floor tiles had begun appearing in that location.

Offset no or little insulation
I knew 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 bad leakage a couple of years back, obtaining half of our utility room ceiling and also part of the wall. The typical wall surface had R-11 batts. I figured the rest of the walls did, too. I understood 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 shower room wall surface and also saw this:

This is actually a good thing, in a way, since it indicates I'll obtain even more renovation compared to I assumed I was getting.

Seal up the air leakages
Yes, our 1981 condominium is leaking. I found out about the large bath tub openings as well as various other pipes penetrations because I've seen them from the basement. I really did not recognize that the walls were sheathed with asphalt-impregnated fiber board (Celotex) that supplied lots of air leak pathways. Again, searching the bright side, that suggests I'll be able to make even more enhancement compared to I 'd assumed.

I can't wait to do a blower door examination when it's all done. Regrettably, I will not have the ability to separate out the improvement due only to my restroom job. The owners' association simply had the entire floor secured with spray foam insulation. I'm thinking our total air leakage will certainly be around half of exactly what it was.

Set up an exhaust follower and fix ductwork
Did I state our condo was integrated in the 80's? The master bathroom has a home window, so normally, it really did not require an exhaust follower, right? Incorrect. I have actually overcome a year of information on temperature level and also loved one moisture because washroom without an exhaust follower. Currently I'm placing one in and will certainly gather extra information. Remain tuned for the results.

But even if your restroom already has a follower, I would certainly bet it does not move enough air. The typical bathroom fan stirs half its ranked air flow. If your bathroom follower isn't available from the attic room, opening the ceiling is the only way to obtain at the duct as well as repair it. Exactly what you see in that image below prevails for bath follower ducts: sagging flex air duct that makes a lot of turns. (That's not my brand-new fan, incidentally.).

Solve other potentially unknown repair needs.
Numerous years ago we had to do some plumbing benefit the bathtub in the hall restroom. When the plumbing technicians had the wall surface opened, I asked them to put shutoffs know the cold and hot water lines so that if anyone had to work with that plumbing in the future, they wouldn't have to shut off the water to the entire building.
So they put in the valves. When I opened the wall, I saw them and also took this picture:.



I 'd utilize that shower a couple of times over the years as well as constantly wondered why the pressure was so reduced. Currently I understand. The plumbing technicians installed the valves but then really did not open them totally. Those red handles ought to be straight in accordance with the pipelines. Wonderful!

I also found that our ceiling had 2 layers of drywall. We have a smooth ceiling throughout our apartment, but the original ceiling was stippled. The good news is, it wasn't a snacks ceiling, which can contain asbestos.

And I discovered the initial, gruesome wallpaper.

If you're redesigning a washroom, there a great deal of great reasons to go all the way and also digestive tract it totally. That's exactly what I'm doing. We're nearly ready to begin closing it Bathroom Remodeling back in, so remain tuned for more tales from the shower room.

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