If your residence is old sufficient for a shower room improvement, you may wish to proceed and also completely digestive tract it. I began my washroom remodel last month with a complete demolition. If I hadn't, a number of issues would have been inaccessible for repair ... or even undiscovered. Right here's exactly what I discovered when I opened the wall surfaces and also ceiling of my 1981 apartment below in the Quad Cities.
Fix plumbing surprises
Here's another thing I discovered. I'm not a plumbing professional, however I see an issue right here. Envision if that area of usual drainpipe line for our back-to-back sinks got blocked. Now picture running a snake in there from one sink. Do you believe it would make the turn? Probably not. We changed it out and also counter both.
Repair termite damage
When I opened up the exterior wall surface, I discovered termite damage in two places: the king stud, jack stud, as well as paralyze on the bath tub side of the window as well as the jack stud on the other side of the window. Fortunately is that the damage was done long ago. As long as I have actually lived below, the owners' association has actually kept up with termite therapy as well as monitoring, yet I comprehend there was a period when they really did not. For this reason the damages I found.
Replace rotted subflooring
Along with the termite-damaged wall, I additionally discovered rotten subflooring near the bathtub. This was mainly from getting also wet, and also I presumed it because floor tiles had begun appearing because area.
Offset no or little insulation
I knew we had insulation in our wall surfaces. I thought it was R-11 fiberglass batts since our upstairs neighbor's icemaker had a poor leakage a few years earlier, getting 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 remainder of the walls did, also. I knew they had insulation since I have actually checked behind button and also receptacle plates.
I got a little surprise when I took the drywall off of that outside bathroom 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 thought I was going to get.
Seal up the air leakages
Yes, our 1981 apartment is leaky. I learnt about the huge bath tub openings and also various other plumbing penetrations because I've seen them from the basement. I didn't understand that the wall surfaces were encased with asphalt-impregnated fiberboard (Celotex) that provided lots of air leakage pathways. Again, searching the bright side, that implies 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 just to my shower room job. The owners' association just had the entire flooring sealed with spray foam insulation. I'm thinking our total air leakage will certainly be around half of exactly what it was.
Set up www.dunlapconstruction.com an exhaust fan and solution ductwork
Did I state our condominium was integrated in the 80's? The master bath has a home window, so normally, it didn't require an exhaust follower, right? Incorrect. I have actually overcome a year of information on temperature and loved one moisture in that bathroom without an exhaust follower. Now I'm putting one in and also will collect a lot more information. Stay tuned for the outcomes.
However even if your bathroom currently has a fan, I would certainly wager it does not relocate enough air. The common bath follower moves about half its ranked air flow. If your bathroom fan 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. What you see because photo listed below is common for bathroom fan air ducts: drooping flex duct that makes way too many turns. (That's not my new follower, by the way.).
Fix other potentially unidentified repair needs.
A number of years ago we needed to do some plumbing help the bathtub in the hall restroom. When the plumbings had the wall surface opened, I asked them to place shutoffs in on the hot and cold water lines to make sure that if anyone had to work with that plumbing in the future, they wouldn't need to switch off the water to the whole building.
So they put in the shutoffs. When I opened the wall, I saw them and took this picture:.
I 'd make use of that shower a couple of times for many years and also constantly questioned why the pressure was so low. Now I recognize. The plumbing professionals installed the shutoffs however then really did not open them completely. Those red handles need to be straight according to the pipelines. Wonderful!
I additionally found that our ceiling had two layers of drywall. We have a smooth ceiling throughout our condo, however the original ceiling was stippled. The good news is, it wasn't a popcorn ceiling, which might consist of asbestos.
And also I uncovered the initial, gruesome wallpaper.
If you're redesigning a bathroom, there a great deal of good reasons to go all the way and also digestive tract it totally. That's exactly what I'm doing. We're practically ready to begin shutting it back in, so stay tuned for even more stories from the bathroom.