If your residence is old sufficient for a restroom remodelling, you might wish to go on as well as totally digestive tract it. I started my shower room remodel last month with a total demolition. If I hadn't, a number of problems would certainly have been inaccessible for fixing ... or perhaps obscure. Right here's what I located when I opened the wall surfaces and ceiling of my 1981 condo here in the Quad Cities.
Repair plumbing surprises
Here's another point I discovered. I'm not a pipes professional, yet I see a problem below. Picture if that section of usual drainpipe line for our back-to-back sinks got obstructed. Currently think of running a snake in there from one sink. Do you believe it would make the turn? Possibly not. We altered it out and counter both.
Repair termite damages
When I opened up the outside wall surface, I found termite damages in two areas: the king stud, jack stud, as well as maim on the bathtub side of the home window and the jack stud on the other side of the home window. Fortunately is that the damages was done long ago. As long as I've lived right here, the proprietors' association has kept up with termite therapy and surveillance, but I understand there was a period when they really did not. Hence the damage I discovered.
Change rotted subflooring
In addition to the termite-damaged wall surface, I additionally found rotten subflooring near the bathtub. This was mainly from getting as well damp, and also I suspected it because tiles had started appearing because location.
Offset no or little insulation
I recognized we had insulation in our walls. I thought it was R-11 fiberglass batts since our upstairs neighbor's icemaker had a poor leak a few years ago, taking out fifty percent of our utility room ceiling and also part of the wall surface. The typical wall had R-11 batts. I figured the rest of the walls did, too. I knew they had insulation due to the fact that I have actually examined behind button and receptacle plates.
I got a little shock when I took the drywall off of that outside shower room wall and saw this:
This is in fact an advantage, in a way, due to the fact that it suggests I'll get more enhancement than I assumed I was going to get.
Seal up the air leakages
Yes, our 1981 condo is dripping. I understood about the big bath tub holes and also other pipes penetrations since I have actually 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 pathways. Once again, looking on the bright side, that suggests I'll be able to make more renovation than I 'd assumed.
I can't wait to do a blower door examination when it's all done. Unfortunately, I won't have the ability to separate out the renovation due only to my restroom job. The proprietors' organization simply had the entire flooring secured with spray foam insulation. I'm guessing our complete air leakage will certainly be around half of exactly what it was.
Set up an exhaust follower and fix ductwork
Did I mention our condominium was integrated in the 80's? The master bathroom has a window, so naturally, it didn't need an exhaust fan, right? Wrong. I've overcome a year of information on temperature level and also relative moisture because bathroom without an exhaust follower. Currently I'm placing one in and will collect extra information. Remain tuned for the results.
But even if your bathroom currently has a follower, I 'd wager it does not relocate enough air. The typical bathroom fan moves about half its ranked air flow. If your bathroom follower isn't available from the attic room, opening the ceiling is the only method to get at the air duct as well as repair it. Exactly what you see in that image below prevails for bath follower ducts: drooping flex duct that makes Dunlap Construciton way too many turns. (That's not my new follower, by the way.).
Solve other potentially unknown repair needs.
Several years ago we had to do some pipes help the bathtub in the hall restroom. When the plumbing technicians had the wall surface opened up, I inquired to put shutoffs in on the hot and cold water lines to make sure that if any person needed to deal with that pipes in the future, they wouldn't have to switch off the water to the whole building.
So they put in the valves. When I opened the wall, I saw them as well as took this image:.
I would certainly utilize that shower a few times throughout the years as well as always wondered why the stress was so reduced. Now I understand. The plumbings installed the shutoffs yet then didn't open them totally. Those red manages must be straight in accordance with the pipes. Nice!
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. Fortunately, it had not been a popcorn ceiling, which can consist of asbestos.
And I uncovered the original, gruesome wallpaper.
If you're renovating a bathroom, there a great deal of good needs to copulate as well as intestine it totally. That's what I'm doing. We're practically all set to start closing it back in, so remain tuned for more stories from the bathroom.