If your house is old enough for a bathroom remodelling, you might wish to go on as well as totally digestive tract it. I started my restroom remodel last month with a total demolition. If I hadn't, a variety of issues would certainly have been unavailable for repair ... or perhaps obscure. Right here's what I located when I opened the walls and also ceiling of my 1981 condominium here in the Quad Cities.
Repair pipes surprises
Below's one more point I discovered. I'm not a pipes professional, however I see an issue below. Imagine if that area of usual drain line for our back-to-back sinks obtained obstructed. Now imagine running a snake in there from one sink. Do you believe it would certainly make the turn? Possibly not. We altered it out and also offset the two.
Repair termite damage
When I opened up the outside wall surface, I found termite damage in 2 areas: the king stud, jack stud, and also cripple on the bathtub side of the window as well as the jack stud on the other side of the window. The bright side is that the damages was done long ago. As long as I have actually lived below, the proprietors' organization has stayed up to date with termite therapy and also monitoring, however I comprehend there was a period when they didn't. Thus the damage I found.
Change deteriorated subflooring
In addition to the termite-damaged wall surface, I also discovered rotten subflooring near the bath tub. This was mostly from getting too wet, and also I thought it due to the fact that tiles had actually begun popping up in that location.
Offset no or little insulation
I knew we had insulation in our walls. I assumed it was R-11 fiberglass batts because our upstairs neighbor's icemaker had a poor leakage a couple of years ago, getting fifty percent of our utility room ceiling and part of the wall. The typical wall surface had R-11 batts. I figured the remainder of the wall surfaces did, also. I knew they had insulation because I've inspected behind button and also receptacle plates.
I obtained a little shock when I took the drywall off of that outside bathroom wall and saw this:
This is really an advantage, in a manner, due to the fact that it suggests I'll obtain even more improvement than I thought I was getting.
Seal up the air leakages
Yes, our 1981 apartment is leaky. I learnt about the big bathtub holes and various other pipes infiltrations due to the fact that I have actually seen them from the basement. I didn't know that the walls were encased with asphalt-impregnated fiber board (Celotex) that gave great deals of air leakage pathways. Once again, searching the bright side, that means I'll have the ability to make even here more enhancement than I would certainly assumed.
I cannot wait to do a blower door test when it's all done. Unfortunately, I will not have the ability to separate out the enhancement due just to my shower room work. The proprietors' organization just had the whole flooring sealed with spray foam insulation. I'm guessing our complete air leakage will be around half of just what it was.
Set up an exhaust fan and also repair ductwork
Did I state our condominium was built in the 80's? The master bathroom has a window, so normally, it didn't require an exhaust follower, right? Wrong. I have actually overcome a year of information on temperature and loved one humidity because bathroom without an exhaust follower. Now I'm putting one in and will collect a lot more information. Remain tuned for the outcomes.
But even if your bathroom currently has a follower, I would certainly bet it does not relocate sufficient air. The normal bathroom fan stirs half its ranked air circulation. If your bath fan isn't obtainable from the attic room, opening the ceiling is the only way to get at the duct as well as repair it. Just what you see in that photo listed below prevails for bathroom follower air ducts: drooping flex air duct that makes a lot of turns. (That's not my new follower, incidentally.).
Fix other potentially unidentified repair needs.
Several years ago we had to do some plumbing benefit the bathtub in the hall restroom. When the plumbings had the wall opened, I inquired to put valves in on the hot and cold water lines to make sure that if anyone had to deal with that pipes in the future, they wouldn't need to switch off the water to the entire structure.
So they put in the valves. When I opened up the wall, I saw them and took this picture:.
I 'd use that shower a couple of times for many years as well as always wondered why the stress was so reduced. Now I understand. The plumbers mounted the valves but after that really did not open them fully. Those red handles need to be straight in accordance with the pipes. Nice!
I additionally discovered that our ceiling had two layers of drywall. We have a smooth ceiling throughout our apartment, however the original ceiling was stippled. The good news is, it wasn't a snacks ceiling, which might consist of asbestos.
And I uncovered the original, hideous wallpaper.
If you're redesigning a restroom, there a lot of great reasons to copulate and intestine it completely. That's just what I'm doing. We're practically all set to start shutting it back in, so stay tuned for even more tales from the shower room.