If your house is old enough for a shower room renovation, you might intend to proceed and totally intestine it. I began my bathroom remodel last month with a total demolition. If I had not, a variety of troubles would certainly have been unavailable for repair service ... or perhaps obscure. Below's just what I found when I opened up the walls and also ceiling of my 1981 condo here in the Quad Cities.
Fix plumbing surprises
Here's another thing I found. I'm not a plumbing expert, but I see a problem here. Think of if that area of typical drain line for our back-to-back sinks got clogged. Now imagine running a snake in there from one sink. Do you think it would certainly make the turn? Possibly not. We transformed it out and also balance out the two.
Repair termite damage
When I opened the outside wall surface, I discovered termite damage in 2 areas: the king stud, jack stud, as well as paralyze on the bathtub side of the window and also the jack stud beyond of the window. The good news is that the damages was done long ago. As long as I have actually lived right here, the owners' organization has stayed on top of termite treatment and surveillance, however I understand there was a duration when they didn't. Hence the damages I discovered.
Replace rotted subflooring
Along with the termite-damaged wall, I additionally discovered rotten subflooring near the bathtub. This was primarily from getting also wet, and I presumed it because floor tiles had begun popping up because area.
Offset no or little insulation
I knew we had insulation in our wall surfaces. I thought it was R-11 fiberglass batts since our upstairs next-door neighbor's icemaker had a poor leakage a few years back, taking out half of our utility room ceiling and part of the wall surface. The common wall had R-11 batts. I figured the remainder of the walls did, too. I recognized they had insulation because I have actually examined behind switch as well as receptacle plates.
I obtained a little surprise when I took the drywall off of that exterior shower room wall surface and saw this:
This is really a good idea, in a way, since it suggests I'll get more enhancement compared to I assumed I was getting.
Seal the air leaks
Yes, our 1981 condominium is leaking. I found out about the large bathtub holes as well as other plumbing infiltrations due to the fact that I have actually seen them from the cellar. I really did not know that the walls were sheathed with asphalt-impregnated fiberboard (Celotex) that offered lots of air leakage pathways. Again, searching the silver lining, that suggests I'll have the ability to make even more enhancement compared to I would certainly believed.
I can not wait to do a blower door examination when it's all done. Regrettably, I will not be able to separate out the enhancement due only to my restroom work. The owners' organization simply had the entire floor sealed with spray foam insulation. I'm guessing our total air leak will certainly be around half of exactly what it was.
Set up an exhaust fan and solution ductwork
Did I state our condominium was integrated in the 80's? The master bath has a home window, so normally, it didn't need an exhaust follower, right? Wrong. I've overcome a year of information on temperature and loved one humidity in that washroom without an exhaust follower. Now I'm placing one in as well as will accumulate a lot more data. Keep tuned for the outcomes.
But even if your washroom currently has a fan, I would certainly wager it does not move sufficient air. The normal bath fan moves about half its ranked air flow. If your bathroom fan isn't really easily accessible from the attic, opening the ceiling is the only way to obtain at the duct as well as fix it. Exactly what you see in that picture listed below is common for bathroom fan air ducts: drooping flex duct that makes way too many turns. (That's not my new follower, by the way.).
Fix other potentially unidentified repair needs.
A number of years ago we needed to do some plumbing help the bathtub in the hall restroom. When the plumbings had the wall surface opened, I asked them to place shutoffs in on the hot and cold water lines to make sure that if anyone needed to work with that plumbing in the future, they wouldn't need to switch off the water to the whole building.
So they place in the shutoffs. When I opened the wall, I saw them as well as took this picture:.
I 'd utilize that shower a few times over the years and always wondered why the stress was so reduced. Currently I comprehend. The plumbings set up the valves yet after that didn't open them fully. Those red handles check here should be straight in accordance with the pipelines. Good!
I also found 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 popcorn ceiling, which can consist of asbestos.
And I uncovered the initial, ugly wallpaper.
If you're redesigning a shower room, there a lot of good needs to go all the way and also digestive tract it entirely. 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 washroom.