If your home is old enough for a washroom remodelling, you might intend to go ahead and totally intestine it. I began my restroom remodel last month with a total demolition. If I had not, a variety of troubles would certainly have been unavailable for repair work ... and even obscure. Below's just what I located when I opened up the walls and ceiling of my 1981 condo here in the Quad Cities.
Fix pipes surprises
Right here's one more thing I discovered. I'm not a plumbing professional, however I see an issue right here. Imagine if that section of usual drainpipe line for our back-to-back sinks obtained obstructed. Currently envision running a snake in there from one sink. Do you assume it would certainly make the turn? Most likely not. We altered it out as well as balance out the two.
Repair termite damage
When I opened the outside wall, I found termite damage in 2 areas: the king stud, jack stud, as well as paralyze on the bathtub side of the home window and also the jack stud beyond of the window. Fortunately is that the damage was done long ago. As long as I have actually lived right here, the owners' association has actually stayed on top of termite treatment and surveillance, however I comprehend there was a period when they really did not. For this reason the damage I located.
Change decomposed subflooring
Along with the termite-damaged wall, I additionally discovered rotten subflooring near the bathtub. This was primarily from obtaining also damp, as well as I thought it due to the fact that ceramic tiles had begun popping up because area.
Offset no or little insulation
I understood 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 laundry room ceiling as well as part of the wall surface. The common wall surface had R-11 batts. I figured the rest of the walls did, also. I knew they had insulation due to the fact that I've examined behind switch as well as receptacle plates.
I obtained a little surprise when I took the drywall off of that outside 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 leaking. I found out about the big bathtub holes as well as various other pipes infiltrations due to the fact that I've seen them from the basement. I didn't know that the walls were sheathed with asphalt-impregnated fiberboard (Celotex) that supplied great Dunlap deals of air leak paths. Once again, viewing on the silver lining, that means I'll be able to make even more enhancement than I 'd believed.
I cannot wait to do a blower door examination when it's all done. However, I will not have the ability to separate out the renovation due just to my shower room job. The owners' association just had the entire flooring secured with spray foam insulation. I'm thinking our overall air leakage will be around half of just what it was.
Mount an exhaust follower as well as fix ductwork
Did I mention our apartment was constructed in the 80's? The master bathroom 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 level and also relative humidity because shower room without an exhaust fan. Now I'm placing one in and also will gather much more information. Stay tuned for the results.
Yet even if your shower room currently has a fan, I would certainly bet it doesn't relocate sufficient air. The common bathroom fan stirs half its ranked air flow. If your bath follower isn't obtainable from the attic, opening the ceiling is the only way to obtain at the duct and also fix it. Exactly what you see in that image below prevails for bath follower air ducts: sagging flex duct that makes too many turns. (That's not my brand-new fan, by the way.).
Fix other potentially unidentified repair needs.
Numerous 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 put valves in on the cold and hot water lines to make sure that if anyone needed to service that pipes in the future, they would not need to switch off the water to the entire 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 make use of that shower a couple of times for many years and always questioned why the pressure was so low. Now I recognize. The plumbers set up the shutoffs yet after that didn't open them fully. Those red takes care of should 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 condo, yet the original ceiling was stippled. Thankfully, it wasn't a snacks ceiling, which might contain asbestos.
And also I found the original, gruesome wallpaper.
If you're renovating a restroom, there a lot of excellent reasons 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 stories from the washroom.