If your house is old sufficient for a bathroom remodelling, you may wish to go on as well as completely gut it. I started my restroom remodel last month with a complete demolition. If I hadn't, a variety of troubles would certainly have been inaccessible for fixing ... or perhaps obscure. Right here's exactly what I found when I opened the wall surfaces as well as ceiling of my 1981 condominium here in the Quad Cities.
Fix pipes surprises
Here's another point I discovered. I'm not a plumbing specialist, however I see a problem here. Imagine if that area of typical drain line for our back-to-back sinks obtained blocked. Currently visualize running a snake in there from one sink. Do you believe it would make the turn? Possibly not. We altered it out and balance out the two.
Repair termite damages
When I opened up the exterior wall surface, I found termite damages in two places: the king stud, jack stud, and also paralyze on the bath tub side of the window as well as the jack stud on the other side of the window. The good news is that the damage was done long ago. As long as I have actually lived here, the owners' organization has stayed on par with termite treatment as well as tracking, however I understand there was a period when they didn't. Therefore the damage I located.
Replace decomposed subflooring
Along with the termite-damaged wall surface, I also found rotten subflooring near the bathtub. This was primarily from getting too wet, as well as I thought it since tiles had actually started popping up because location.
Offset no or little insulation
I knew we had insulation in our walls. I thought it was R-11 fiberglass batts because our upstairs neighbor's icemaker had a bad leakage a couple of years back, securing half of our laundry room ceiling and part of the wall surface. The usual wall surface had R-11 batts. I figured the remainder of the walls did, too. I knew they had insulation due to the fact that I have actually checked behind button and also receptacle plates.
I got a little surprise when I took the drywall off of that outside bathroom wall surface as well as saw this:
This is actually a good thing, in such a way, since it means I'll obtain even more improvement compared to I believed I was getting.
Seal the air leakages
Yes, our 1981 condominium is leaky. I found out about the huge bathtub holes and also other pipes penetrations since I've seen them from the basement. I really did not know that the wall surfaces were sheathed with asphalt-impregnated fiberboard (Celotex) that gave lots of air leak paths. Again, viewing the silver lining, that implies I'll have the ability to make even more enhancement than I 'd assumed.
I can't wait to do a blower door test when it's all done. Regrettably, I will not be able to separate out the improvement due just to my bathroom work. The owners' organization simply had the entire flooring sealed with spray foam insulation. I'm thinking our overall air leak will certainly be around half of just what it was.
Install an exhaust fan and repair ductwork
Did I discuss our apartment was constructed in the 80's? The master bathroom has a home window, so normally, it didn't need an exhaust fan, right? Wrong. I've got over a year of information on temperature level and also loved one moisture because shower room without an exhaust fan. Now I'm putting one in and will certainly accumulate a lot more data. Stay tuned for the results.
Yet even if your washroom currently has a fan, I 'd bet it doesn't move sufficient air. The normal bath fan stirs half its rated air flow. If your bathroom fan isn't accessible from the attic room, opening up the ceiling is the only means to obtain at the duct and also fix it. What you see because picture below www.dunlapconstruction.com prevails for bath follower ducts: drooping flex duct that makes way too many turns. (That's not my new follower, by the way.).
Address other potentially unknown repair needs.
Several years ago we needed to do some pipes help the bathtub in the hall restroom. When the plumbing technicians had the wall opened up, I inquired to put shutoffs know the hot and cold water lines to make sure that if anybody needed to work on that plumbing in the future, they would not need to turn off the water to the entire structure.
So they place in the valves. When I opened up the wall surface, I saw them as well as took this image:.
I 'd make use of that shower a couple of times for many years and also always wondered why the pressure was so reduced. Currently I comprehend. The plumbing technicians installed the valves yet after that didn't open them fully. Those red handles need to be straight in accordance with the pipelines. Good!
I additionally discovered that our ceiling had two layers of drywall. We have a smooth ceiling throughout our apartment, however the original ceiling was stippled. The good news is, it wasn't a popcorn ceiling, which can include asbestos.
And also I found the original, horrible wallpaper.
If you're remodeling a bathroom, there a great deal of good needs to go all the way as well as intestine it totally. That's just what I'm doing. We're nearly all set to start shutting it back in, so remain tuned for more stories from the bathroom.