If your home is old enough for a shower room improvement, you could want to go ahead and completely intestine it. I started my shower room remodel last month with a full demolition. If I had not, a variety of issues would certainly have been inaccessible for repair service ... and even obscure. Right here's exactly what I found when I opened up the wall surfaces and also ceiling of my 1981 apartment right here in the Quad Cities.
Take care of plumbing surprises
Here's an additional point I discovered. I'm not a plumbing expert, yet I see a trouble right here. Visualize if that area of typical drain line for our back-to-back sinks obtained obstructed. Now picture running a snake in there from one sink. Do you think it would certainly make the turn? Most likely not. We changed it out and also balance out the two.
Repair termite damages
When I opened the exterior wall surface, I located termite damages in two places: the king stud, jack stud, and maim on the bath tub side of the home window and the jack stud on the other side of the home window. The bright side is that the damage was done long ago. As long as I've lived here, the proprietors' organization has stayed on top of termite treatment and also surveillance, however I comprehend there was a period when they really did not. For this reason the damages I located.
Change decayed subflooring
Along with the termite-damaged wall surface, I also located rotten subflooring near the tub. This was primarily from getting as well wet, as well as I thought it due to the fact that ceramic tiles had started popping up because area.
Make up for no or little insulation
I recognized we had insulation in our walls. I assumed it was R-11 fiberglass batts due to the fact that our upstairs next-door neighbor's icemaker had a bad 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 inspected behind button and receptacle plates.
I got a little shock when I took the drywall off of that outside restroom wall and also saw this:
This is in fact a good thing, in a way, since it indicates I'll obtain even more renovation compared to I assumed I was getting.
Seal up the air leakages
Yes, our 1981 apartment is leaky. I understood about the huge tub openings as well as various other pipes penetrations since I've seen them from the basement. I didn't know that the walls were sheathed with asphalt-impregnated fiber board (Celotex) that gave great deals of air leak paths. Once more, looking on the bright side, that indicates I'll have the ability to make even more improvement compared to I would certainly assumed.
I cannot wait to do a blower door examination when it's all done. However, I won't have the ability to separate out the enhancement due just to my washroom work. The owners' association just had the whole floor secured with spray foam insulation. I'm presuming our overall air leakage will be around half of what it was.
Mount an exhaust follower and solution ductwork
Did I state our apartment was integrated in the 80's? The master bathroom has a window, so normally, it didn't require an exhaust follower, right? Wrong. I've overcome a year of information on temperature level and also loved one humidity in that bathroom without an exhaust follower. Now I'm putting one in and also will certainly gather more information. Keep tuned for the results.
But even if your restroom currently has a fan, I 'd wager it doesn't relocate enough air. The typical bathroom fan stirs half its ranked air circulation. If your bath fan isn't really easily accessible from the attic, opening the ceiling is the only way to obtain at the air duct and also fix it. Exactly what you see in that image listed below is common for bathroom fan air ducts: sagging flex duct that makes a lot of turns. (That's not my new follower, by the way.).
Resolve other potentially unidentified repair needs.
Several years ago we had to do some pipes benefit the bathtub in the hall restroom. When the plumbing professionals had the wall opened, I asked them to put shutoffs in on the hot and cold water lines to make sure that if any person needed to service that plumbing in the future, they would not need to turn off the water to the entire building.
So they put in the valves. When I opened the wall surface, I saw them and also took this photo:.
I would certainly utilize that Bathroom Remodeling shower a few times throughout the years and constantly wondered why the stress was so low. Now I understand. The plumbings installed the valves yet after that didn't open them completely. Those red handles ought to be straight according to the pipes. Nice!
I additionally located that our ceiling had two layers of drywall. We have a smooth ceiling throughout our apartment, yet the initial ceiling was stippled. Luckily, it had not been a snacks ceiling, which might contain asbestos.
As well as I found the initial, hideous wallpaper.
If you're redesigning a shower room, there a lot of good needs to copulate and intestine it totally. That's what I'm doing. We're virtually prepared to begin closing it back in, so remain tuned for more stories from the restroom.