Why You Ought To Totally Demo Your Restroom When You Remodel



If your home is old enough for a washroom remodelling, you could wish to go ahead and totally digestive tract it. I started my shower room remodel last month with a full demolition. If I hadn't, a variety of issues would certainly have been inaccessible for repair ... or perhaps obscure. Here's what I located when I opened up the walls and also ceiling of my 1981 condominium here in the Quad Cities.

Fix plumbing surprises
Here's an additional thing I located. I'm not a plumbing professional, but I see a trouble here. 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 think it would make the turn? Probably not. We changed it out as well as counter the two.

Repair termite damage
When I opened up the exterior wall, I discovered termite damages in 2 areas: the king stud, jack stud, and paralyze on the tub side of the home window and also the jack stud beyond of the home window. The good news is that the damage was done long ago. As long as I have actually lived right here, the proprietors' association has stayed on top of termite therapy as well as surveillance, but I recognize there was a period when they didn't. For this reason the damages I discovered.

Replace decayed subflooring
In addition to the termite-damaged wall, I additionally located rotten subflooring near the tub. This was mostly from obtaining as well wet, and also I believed it due to the fact that floor tiles had actually begun popping up because area.

Offset no or little insulation
I understood we had insulation in our wall surfaces. I believed it was R-11 fiberglass batts because our upstairs neighbor's icemaker had a poor leakage a few years ago, getting half of our laundry room ceiling as well as part of the wall surface. The usual wall surface had R-11 batts. I figured the remainder of the wall surfaces did, also. I recognized they had insulation because I have actually inspected behind button and receptacle plates.
I obtained a little surprise when I took the drywall off of that outside bathroom wall as well as saw this:

This is in fact a good thing, in such a way, due to the fact that it suggests I'll get more enhancement compared to I assumed I was getting.

Seal the air leaks
Yes, our 1981 condo is leaky. I knew about the big bath tub holes and various other plumbing penetrations because I have actually seen them from the basement. I really did not recognize that the walls were covered with asphalt-impregnated fiberboard (Celotex) that gave lots of air leak pathways. Once again, viewing the bright side, that suggests I'll be able to make even more enhancement compared to I would certainly believed.

I cannot wait to do a blower door test when it's all done. Unfortunately, I won't be able to separate out the improvement due only to my bathroom work. The owners' organization just had the whole flooring secured with spray foam insulation. I'm thinking our complete air leak will certainly be around half of just what it was.

Install an exhaust follower and fix ductwork
Did I mention our condo was integrated in the 80's? The master bath has a window, so naturally, it really did not need an exhaust follower, right? Wrong. I've overcome a year of data on temperature level as well as relative moisture in that washroom without an exhaust fan. Currently I'm putting one in and will certainly collect a lot more data. Keep tuned for the results.

Yet even if your restroom currently has a fan, I would certainly wager it doesn't relocate enough air. The regular bath follower moves about half its rated air circulation. If your bath follower isn't really easily accessible from the attic, opening up the ceiling is the only means to get at the air duct and also fix it. Exactly what you see because picture listed below prevails for bath follower air ducts: sagging flex duct that makes way too many turns. (That's not my new fan, incidentally.).

Address other potentially unknown repair needs.
A number of years ago we needed to do some plumbing help the bathtub in the hall washroom. When the plumbers had the wall opened up, I asked to place shutoffs in on the hot and cold water lines to ensure that if any person had to deal with that pipes in the future, they would not have to turn off the water to the whole building.
So they place in the shutoffs. When I opened the wall surface, I saw them and also took this photo:.



I 'd use that shower a few times over the years and also constantly questioned why the pressure was so reduced. Currently I comprehend. The plumbing technicians set up the valves yet after that didn't open them fully. Those red takes care of must be straight according to 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. Luckily, it had not been more info a popcorn ceiling, which might consist of asbestos.

As well as I uncovered the original, hideous wallpaper.

If you're redesigning a shower room, there a lot of excellent needs to go all the way as well as gut it entirely. That's exactly what I'm doing. We're almost all set to start shutting it back in, so stay tuned for even more tales from the shower room.

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