If your home is old sufficient for a shower room remodelling, you may want to go on as well as completely digestive tract it. I started my restroom remodel last month with a full demolition. If I hadn't, a number of troubles would have been inaccessible for repair work ... or perhaps undiscovered. Right here's what I discovered when I opened the wall surfaces as well as ceiling of my 1981 apartment here in the Quad Cities.
Take care of pipes shocks
Here's one more point I located. I'm not a plumbing professional, however I see a trouble below. Envision if that section of typical drainpipe line for our back-to-back sinks obtained obstructed. Currently think of running a snake in there from one sink. Do you believe it would certainly make the turn? Possibly not. We transformed it out and offset the two.
Repair termite damage
When I opened up the outside wall surface, I found termite damage in 2 areas: the king stud, jack stud, and also maim on the tub side of the window as well as the jack stud on the other side of the window. The bright side is that the damages was done long ago. As long as I've lived here, the proprietors' organization has stayed on par with termite treatment and also surveillance, however I understand there was a duration when they didn't. Hence the damages I discovered.
Change decomposed subflooring
In addition to the termite-damaged wall surface, I also found rotten subflooring near the bath tub. This was mainly from getting as well wet, and also I suspected it since tiles had actually begun popping up 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 neighbor's icemaker had a poor leak a couple of years back, obtaining fifty percent of our utility room ceiling and also 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 switch and also receptacle plates.
I obtained a little surprise when I took the drywall off of that outside washroom wall surface and also saw this:
This is in fact a good idea, in a way, due to the fact that it suggests I'll get even more renovation compared to I believed I was going to get.
Seal the air leakages
Yes, our 1981 apartment is leaking. I knew about the large bathtub openings and various other plumbing infiltrations because I've seen them from the cellar. I didn't recognize that the wall surfaces were covered with asphalt-impregnated fiberboard (Celotex) that provided lots of air leakage paths. Again, viewing the bright side, that indicates I'll have the ability to make more enhancement compared to I 'd believed.
I can not wait to do a blower door examination when it's all done. Sadly, I will not be able to separate out the enhancement due just to my washroom job. The owners' association just had the whole floor sealed with spray foam insulation. I'm thinking our total air leak will be around half of exactly what it was.
Install an exhaust follower and solution ductwork
Did I mention our condo was constructed in the 80's? The master bath has a home window, so normally, it really did not require an exhaust follower, right? Wrong. I've overcome a year of data on temperature and relative moisture because shower room without an exhaust fan. Currently I'm putting one in as well as will certainly accumulate a lot more data. Keep tuned for the outcomes.
However even if your shower room currently has a fan, I 'd wager it doesn't relocate enough air. The typical bathroom follower moves about half its ranked air flow. If your bathroom fan isn't obtainable from the attic, opening the ceiling is the only way to get at the duct and also fix it. Just what you see because photo below prevails for bath follower air ducts: sagging flex duct that makes too many turns. (That's not my new follower, by the way.).
Address other potentially unidentified repair needs.
Numerous here years ago we needed to do some pipes benefit the bathtub in the hall washroom. When the plumbing technicians had the wall surface opened, I inquired to put valves in on the cold and hot water lines so that if anybody had to deal with that plumbing in the future, they would not need to turn off the water to the entire building.
So they put in the valves. When I opened the wall surface, I saw them and took this image:.
I would certainly make use of that shower a couple of times throughout the years and constantly wondered why the stress was so reduced. Now I comprehend. The plumbing technicians installed the valves yet after that really did not open them fully. Those red handles need to be straight according to the pipes. Nice!
I likewise discovered that our ceiling had two layers of drywall. We have a smooth ceiling throughout our condominium, yet the initial ceiling was stippled. The good news is, it had not been a snacks ceiling, which might have asbestos.
And also I found the original, gruesome wallpaper.
If you're redesigning a shower room, there a lot of excellent reasons to copulate 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.