Why You Need To Entirely Demo Your Restroom When You Remodel



If your home is old enough for a restroom renovation, you may wish to go ahead and completely digestive tract it. I started my bathroom remodel last month with a total demolition. If I hadn't, a variety of troubles would have been not available for repair service ... or even undiscovered. Right here's exactly what I located when I opened the wall surfaces and also ceiling of my 1981 condo below in the Quad Cities.

Take care of pipes shocks
Here's another point I found. I'm not a plumbing professional, but I see an issue here. Picture if that section of usual drainpipe line for our back-to-back sinks got blocked. Currently think of 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 outside wall surface, I located termite damages in two places: the king stud, jack stud, and cripple on the bath tub side of the window as well as the jack stud beyond of the home window. The good news is that the damages was done long ago. As long as I've lived below, the owners' organization has actually stayed on par with termite therapy and surveillance, however I recognize there was a period when they really did not. For this reason the damage I found.

Replace rotted subflooring
In addition to the termite-damaged wall, I likewise located rotten subflooring near the tub. This was primarily from obtaining as well damp, and also I thought it since floor tiles had started turning up in that area.

Make up for no or little insulation
I understood we had insulation in our wall surfaces. I assumed it was R-11 fiberglass batts due to the fact that our upstairs neighbor's icemaker had a negative leakage a few years earlier, taking out half of our laundry room ceiling and part of the wall. The common wall had R-11 batts. I figured the rest of the walls did, too. I knew they had insulation because I have actually examined behind button and also receptacle plates.
I obtained a little shock when I took the drywall off of that exterior shower room wall surface as well as saw this:

This is really a good thing, in a way, because it means I'll get more improvement compared to I believed I was going to get.

Seal up the air leakages
Yes, our 1981 condo is dripping. I found out about the huge bathtub openings and various other plumbing infiltrations since I've seen them from the cellar. I didn't recognize that the walls were encased with asphalt-impregnated fiberboard (Celotex) that gave lots of air leak pathways. Once again, looking on the silver lining, that implies I'll have the ability to make even more improvement compared to I would certainly thought.

I can not wait to do a blower door test when it's all done. Regrettably, I will not be able to separate out the enhancement due just to my restroom job. The proprietors' association simply had the entire flooring sealed with spray foam insulation. I'm presuming our total air leakage will be around half of exactly what it was.

Mount an exhaust follower and also fix ductwork
Did I mention our condominium was constructed in the 80's? The master bathroom has a window, so naturally, it didn't need Dunlap an exhaust fan, right? Wrong. I've got over a year of information on temperature level and also family member humidity in that washroom without an exhaust follower. Currently I'm placing one in as well as will gather much more data. Stay tuned for the outcomes.

Yet even if your washroom currently has a fan, I 'd wager it does not relocate enough air. The typical bathroom follower moves about half its rated air circulation. If your bathroom follower isn't easily accessible from the attic, opening the ceiling is the only means to obtain at the duct and also repair it. What you see because image below prevails for bath fan 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.
A number of years ago we had to do some pipes work for the bathtub in the hall restroom. When the plumbing professionals had the wall opened, I asked them to place shutoffs in on the cold and hot water lines so that if any individual had to deal with that pipes in the future, they would not need to turn off the water to the whole structure.
So they place in the valves. When I opened up the wall surface, I saw them and also took this photo:.



I would certainly utilize that shower a few times over the years and also constantly wondered why the pressure was so reduced. Now I understand. The plumbers mounted the valves yet then didn't open them totally. Those red deals with should be straight in accordance with the pipes. Wonderful!

I likewise located that our ceiling had two layers of drywall. We have a smooth ceiling throughout our condo, however the initial ceiling was stippled. Thankfully, it had not been a popcorn ceiling, which can include asbestos.

And I found the initial, hideous wallpaper.

If you're redesigning a bathroom, there a great deal of excellent reasons to go all the way and also gut it totally. That's just what I'm doing. We're practically prepared to begin shutting it back in, so remain tuned for even more tales from the washroom.

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