Why You Should Totally Demo Your Bathroom When You Remodel



If your home is old sufficient for a bathroom remodelling, you might intend to go ahead and also totally digestive tract it. I began my bathroom remodel last month with a complete demolition. If I hadn't, a variety of issues would certainly have been unavailable for repair service ... or perhaps undiscovered. Right here's exactly what I located when I opened the wall surfaces and also ceiling of my 1981 condo here in the Quad Cities.

Repair plumbing surprises
Here's one more thing I located. I'm not a pipes expert, yet I see a trouble below. Think of if that section of common drainpipe line for our back-to-back sinks obtained blocked. Currently imagine running a snake in there from one sink. Do you think it would make the turn? Possibly not. We transformed it out as well as balance out the two.

Repair termite damage
When I opened up the outside wall, I located termite damage in 2 areas: the king stud, jack stud, and also paralyze on the bathtub side of the home window and also the jack stud beyond 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 recognize there was a period when they really did not. Therefore the damages I found.

Change decomposed subflooring
In addition to the termite-damaged wall surface, I likewise found rotten subflooring near the tub. This was mostly from obtaining as well damp, as well as I suspected it due to the fact that tiles had actually started turning up in that location.

Make up for no or little insulation
I recognized we had insulation in our walls. I assumed it was R-11 fiberglass batts since our upstairs next-door neighbor's icemaker had a poor leakage a few years back, taking out fifty percent of our utility room ceiling as well as part of the wall surface. The common wall surface had R-11 batts. I figured the rest of the wall surfaces did, also. I knew they had insulation due to the fact that I've inspected behind button and receptacle plates.
I obtained a little surprise when I took the drywall off of that exterior washroom wall as well as saw this:

This is in fact a good thing, in a manner, due to the fact that it means I'll get even more renovation than I believed I was getting.

Seal up the air leakages
Yes, our 1981 condo is leaky. I understood about the large bathtub holes and various other pipes infiltrations because I have actually seen them from the cellar. I really did not know that the walls were covered with asphalt-impregnated fiber board (Celotex) that supplied great deals of air leak paths. Once more, looking on the bright side, that means I'll be able to make more improvement than I 'd thought.

I can't wait to do a blower door examination when it's all done. Unfortunately, I will not have the ability to separate out the renovation due only to my shower room job. The owners' association just had the whole flooring secured with spray foam insulation. I'm presuming our overall air leakage will certainly be around half of exactly what it was.

Set up an exhaust fan and fix ductwork
Did I state our apartment was integrated in the 80's? The master bath has a window, so naturally, it really did not require an exhaust fan, right? Wrong. I have actually overcome a year of data on temperature and also loved one humidity in that washroom without an exhaust follower. Now I'm placing one in and also will collect extra data. Stay tuned for the outcomes.

However even if your bathroom currently has a fan, I 'd bet it doesn't relocate enough air. The typical bathroom fan stirs half its rated air circulation. If your bath follower isn't really available from the attic room, opening up the ceiling is the only means to get at the air duct as well as repair it. Exactly what you see because picture listed below is common for bathroom follower air ducts: sagging flex duct that makes a lot of turns. (That's not my new follower, incidentally.).

Fix other potentially unidentified repair needs.
Several years ago we needed to do some plumbing help the bathtub in the hall restroom. When the plumbings had the wall surface opened up, I asked to place valves in on the cold and hot water lines so that if anybody needed check here to work on that plumbing in the future, they would not need to turn off the water to the whole structure.
So they place in the shutoffs. When I opened up the wall, I saw them as well as took this image:.



I would certainly make use of that shower a couple of times throughout the years as well as constantly questioned why the pressure was so low. Now I recognize. The plumbing professionals mounted the shutoffs yet after that didn't open them completely. Those red deals with should be straight in line with the pipelines. Wonderful!

I likewise found that our ceiling had two layers of drywall. We have a smooth ceiling throughout our apartment, however the original ceiling was stippled. Luckily, it wasn't a popcorn ceiling, which can consist of asbestos.

As well as I discovered the initial, horrible wallpaper.

If you're renovating a restroom, there a great deal of great reasons to copulate as well as gut it entirely. That's exactly what I'm doing. We're practically all set to start shutting it back in, so remain tuned for more tales from the bathroom.

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