If your residence is old enough for a shower room improvement, you may wish to proceed and also completely digestive tract it. I began my bathroom remodel last month with a complete demolition. If I hadn't, a variety of troubles would certainly have been unavailable for repair work ... and even obscure. Right here's just what I located when I opened up the walls and also ceiling of my 1981 condo here in the Quad Cities.
Repair plumbing surprises
Right here's an additional point I located. I'm not a pipes specialist, yet I see a trouble below. Picture if that section of common drain line for our back-to-back sinks got clogged. Currently imagine running a snake in there from one sink. Do you think it would make the turn? Possibly not. We transformed it out and also counter both.
Repair termite damage
When I opened up the exterior wall surface, I located termite damages in 2 locations: the king stud, jack stud, and cripple on the bathtub side of the home window as well as the jack stud on the other side 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 actually stayed on par with termite therapy as well as monitoring, yet I comprehend there was a period when they really did not. For this reason the damage I found.
Change decayed subflooring
In addition to the termite-damaged wall surface, I also found rotten subflooring near the tub. This was mainly from getting as well wet, and also I thought 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 due to the fact that our upstairs neighbor's icemaker had a negative leak a couple of years ago, taking out half of our laundry room ceiling as well as part of the wall surface. The common wall surface had R-11 batts. I figured the remainder of the wall surfaces did, too. I recognized they had insulation since I have actually inspected behind switch and also receptacle plates.
I got a little surprise when I took the drywall off of that exterior shower room wall and also saw this:
This is in fact a good thing, in a manner, because it implies I'll get more renovation compared to I thought I was going to get.
Seal the air leakages
Yes, our 1981 apartment is leaky. I understood about the large bathtub holes as well as various other pipes infiltrations due to the fact that I've seen them from the basement. I didn't understand that the wall surfaces were encased with asphalt-impregnated fiber board (Celotex) that gave great deals of air leakage pathways. Again, searching the bright side, that implies I'll be able to make more enhancement compared to I would certainly believed.
I cannot wait to do www.dunlapconstruction.com a blower door examination when it's all done. Regrettably, I will not have the ability to separate out the enhancement due just to my restroom work. The owners' association just had the whole floor secured with spray foam insulation. I'm presuming our complete air leak will certainly be around half of exactly what it was.
Set up an exhaust fan and fix ductwork
Did I mention 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? Incorrect. I have actually overcome a year of data on temperature and also loved one humidity in that bathroom without an exhaust follower. Now I'm placing one in as well as will certainly accumulate a lot more data. Stay tuned for the outcomes.
But even if your restroom already has a follower, I 'd bet it doesn't relocate sufficient air. The typical bathroom follower stirs half its rated air circulation. If your bath follower isn't really easily accessible from the attic, opening the ceiling is the only way to get at the air duct and repair it. Just what you see in that image below prevails for bathroom fan air ducts: sagging flex air duct that makes too many turns. (That's not my new fan, incidentally.).
Fix other potentially unknown repair needs.
Numerous years ago we had to do some pipes work for the tub in the hall washroom. When the plumbers had the wall opened up, I asked to place valves know the hot and cold water lines to ensure that if any person needed to service that pipes 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 and took this photo:.
I 'd use that shower a couple of times for many years as well as constantly questioned why the stress was so low. Now I understand. The plumbers set up the valves however then didn't open them completely. Those red manages must be straight in line with the pipes. Wonderful!
I likewise found that our ceiling had 2 layers of drywall. We have a smooth ceiling throughout our condominium, yet the original ceiling was stippled. The good news is, it had not been a snacks ceiling, which could have asbestos.
And also I found the original, gruesome wallpaper.
If you're renovating a restroom, there a lot of great reasons to copulate as well as gut it entirely. That's what I'm doing. We're almost all set to start shutting it back in, so stay tuned for even more stories from the bathroom.