litesout

I'm making this thread mostly to document the remodeling of my master bathroom. It actually started 9 days ago, and once I get caught up I plan on posting my progress daily. If there is any progress that is.

First off, after doing some naive looking online and talking to a friend who does tile work I put together a list of things I wanted to do.

1. Tear out shower, floor tile and tub surround. There's some serious water damage in the shower that I knew about when I bought the house. Figure if I'm going to retile that, I may as well retile it all so it matches.

2. Replace the shower doors with frameless ones.

3. Replace the garden tub with a jetted tub.

4. Replace the vanities and tops.

Along with the water damage in the shower the vanities were very dated and seriously looked like repurposed kitchen cabinets. The "hers" vanity was also very short. The top didn't come up to my ass short. And I'm none too fond of the massive frameless mirrors.

Those were the big 4. I went to a tile warehouse a few months ago and picked out the color I wanted. Guy doing the tile had already measured out the bathroom and went with me. He wrote up an estimate for the cost of materials. Based on that, and prices from home improvement stores and the internet I made my list.

Here's the before pictures.



Tub, shower, and the "his" vanity. Yes, the vanity tops and tub are jade green cultured marble. And yes there is a light under the vanity behind glass block.



The very low "hers" vanity.



Just a somewhat long shot of the bathroom.

litesout

Day 1. Tuesday 11/06/12

Demolition

This is where the nightmare begins. The shower came down very easily, mostly due to the rot. What we found was truly amazing. The builder actually used drywall in the shower. He really did just tile over sheetrock. Under the marble sill at the base of the shower door they used plain lumber. In fact, we only found one piece of pressure treated lumber in the whole shower. The whole thing is really quite confusing. Its like they poured the foundation and left out that part and put in a pre formed pad for the shower. But when they did, they left a 6" gap between the foundation and the pad. In essence, we found a mote there. I'll let the pictures explain.



Drywall behind tile. They did at least use the moisture barrier between the block wall and the drywall.



What's left of the framing under the marble sill. There was no solid wood left there. And the vertical 2x4s framing the walls on either side of the marble sill are rotten about a foot from the ground.



The "mote" around the shower pad.



The demo of the shower stall only took a few hours. One of the walls came down in one piece by hand.

litesout

Day 2. Wednesday 11/07/12

Met the guy helping me at the tile warehouse after work. We got a flatbed and went to work. I don't have the receipt with me, so I don't have exact numbers, but the list showed a quantity of 18" tiles for the floor, 12" tile for the shower, 4" tile for the shower floor, mortar, grout and caulk. Estimated cost for the materials was $538. I was quite happy to find that the tile I was getting was on clearance and they had plenty for my job......almost. They had no 4" square tile at all. We decided to go with the 12" square sheets of 2" tile. Its a lot more per square foot, but we figured that the cost would be offset by the savings on the larger tiles. We were wrong. Very wrong. The original estimate was off. The price he listed for the 18" floor was actually the price the place showed per square foot. The price he listed for the 12" tile was actually the unit price for the 6" tile.

After all that, and some other price differences and substitutions the final bill came to $1066 and change. Needless to say, I was not happy. We're at the second day of the project and I'm already way over budget. Not to mention the additional costs associated with the water damage (some of which I planned for.)



All unloaded and sitting on the garage floor.

litesout

Day 3. Thursday 11/08/12

We pulled up the floor tile today. It went pretty quick. The tile was so loose in places we were able to pull it up by hand. They used tar paper under it for some reason too. Of course the builder only tiled up the vanities, not under them. No surprises, pretty easy night over all.



Bare floor!

terdonal

Looks like this is going to be interesting reading as you work your way through this Reno.

litesout

Day 4. Friday 11/09/12

Didn't do much. Some clean up mostly. I got home kinda late. Visited a few cabinet shops. Got an estimate from a major kitchen and bath company for new vanities and a tub. Came to about $4000. After seeing some of their prices, I would've left if the girl showing me around hadn't been incredibly cute. One of the big reasons it was so much is the vanities are not standard sizes. The "his" is 42" and the alcove for the "hers" measures 59" wall to wall. The tub is a 60x40 garden tub, but I could probably modify the surround for a standard 60x42 tub. Went to a cabinet shop in town and looked at some custom vanity cabinets there. Got an estimate for about $350 for the his and some options for the hers.

When I got home, my buddy came by and picked up his tools. He had another (paying) side job that weekend. Given his situation, I'm not going to complain about him taking a paying job. Besides, my shower still isn't completely dried out. We got the vanity tops off and the vanity cabinets removed before he left though. Found a nice big hole in the wall behind the his vanity.

litesout

Day 6. Sunday 11/10/12

No, I didn't do anything on Saturday. I needed a day off. Didn't do too much on Sunday. Broke down the old vanity cabinets and moved them to the debris pile. Did some other cleaning and set up a different fan to help dry the wood around the shower faster.

litesout

Day 7. Monday 11/11/12

Came to the realization that a new tub is out of the question. With the tile going so far over budget and vanities costing more than I had anticipated its just no longer in the budget. Started looking around for information on refinishing. I don't actually use the tub that often, and I really just wanted to get rid of the jade green. Made a few calls and got some good information. One company I called was actually doing a job in a close by neighborhood the next morning. The guy asked if he could come by and estimate the job. I said sure, 9am is fine.

I left an hour and a half early for work and stopped at the cabinet shop to place my order. The shop I went with orders their cabinets from the manufacturer in Alabama. They place orders once a week and as long as there's 10 cabinets on the truck they don't charge shipping. They had a big kitchen order already so I wanted to make sure I got in with it. Ordered a 42" cabinet for the his and a 51" cabinet for the hers. Total cost was $701.56. The cabinets are hardwood with soft close hinges and full extension soft close drawers.

I'm planning on having the existing tops refinished when the tub gets done. One company I spoke with said they do cultured marble vanity tops for $25 per linear foot. Much cheaper than buying a new one. They also said they'd do the tub for $300. Ideally they want to do that after everything else is done to avoid the risk of chipping the tub or the vanity tops during installation.

litesout

Day 8. Tuesday 11/12/12

Refinishing guy shows up at 8:55am. This was unfortunate as I didn't actually make it home until after 1:30am. Really nice guy, very knowledgeable. He showed me a bunch of pictures and walked me through the process. He looked at the tub and vanity tops and said they were in really good shape and would be fine to resurface. No additional work would be necessary. When I went out to get a tile for some color matching I made a horrible discovery. 2 cases of the 12" tile are the wrong color! I'm going to have to take them back to the tile place and swap them out for the right color. Anyway, the guy quoted me about $1000 for the whole job. For what he was going to charge for the vanity tops, I can get new ones. Probably not going to go with him. Probably going with the other place. They seem to have some good reviews and an A+ rating with the BBB. I have plenty of time to determine a course of action though. The vanity cabinets won't be here for another 4-6 weeks.

Speaking of the vanity cabinets, I think I screwed up. I don't think I'll be able to reuse the long vanity top. The sink may be in the wrong place. I won't know for sure until the cabinets actually get here though.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

Stupid question, but putting it on credit or using another bathroom until after you have time to bump the budget up an option?

I'd just hate to see you putting so much blood sweat money and tears and end up feeling like you just put lipstick on a pig (not trying to be a prick).

J.

thunder04

iTrader: (1)

This looks like quite a project. Can't wait to see how things turn out!

chill_dog

Sucks all of the trouble you're having. I hope it turns around for you at some point. Looking forward to following the progress.

Gfaze

Waiting to see how this turns out.

Acura_Dude

OP very nice thread. Definitely a tough job. Renos are always full of surprises.

litesout

Well, I've been using the other bathroom since we started. There are 2 main points to the renovation, both of which will be satisfied by time this is all said and done. First and foremost was to fix the water damage and hopefully keep it from making a speedy return. Second was to get rid of the jade green cultured marble. Whether refinished or replaced the vanity tops will be updated. It'll cost me under $200 for both to be refinished. Personally, I like the molded sinks. Always have. They're very functional, easy to clean, and you don't have to reseal them. It would've been nice to put in a jetted tub, but honestly it would've gone to waste. I've been in the existing tub twice in the 3 1/2 years I've owned the house. Something about washing your face in the same water your ass has been soaking in for the last half hour doesn't appeal to me. Having it refinished is a perfectly acceptable solution to me. The only real compromise I've made thus far is the tub. The rest I just haven't figured out yet.

In reality, I'm winging the whole project. I knew going into it that there was no way to plan for everything. Three big expenses I have yet to figure out are vanity tops (replace, resurface, what to do with the larger one), shower door, and faucets. I've got another month to figure them out, so I'm not real worried.

Tile guy's coming over on Sunday to do some more work. Should have more progress and more pictures then. I'm hoping to get the framing repairs done, the tub area demo'd and fiber board on the wall. If any tile goes up, that's a bonus.

Scottman111

That rot

RaviNJCLs

iTrader: (4)

^^^^

Ouch. I know if a lot of us dig deep under our bathrooms or kitchens we will find some rot but that looks like a lot more than normal.

litesout

Day 12. Saturday 11/17/12

Took the two cases of 12" tile that were the wrong color back and swapped them out. Randomly ran into a friend of a friend in there. Hadn't seen them in a while, it was nice. Went to a few places on the north end of town to get some estimates on vanity tops. First place told me about $700 for granite tops. They had them in stock, but didn't have 2 pieces that matched well. Got some interesting ideas from another guy who does custom work. He had a bunch of tumbled marble tile. Not sure how it would look. I'm really starting to have trouble visualizing it all.

I was having trouble finding a compatible vanity top and was about to give up the search for the day when I stumbled across a habitat for humanity restore. They take in donations and sell them. Kind of like a Goodwill or Salvation Army for building supplies. They didn't have anything, but as I was walking out to the car the guy started yelling at me. I turned around and he said they had another one. Guy was just pulling in had one that he was donating. It was the perfect size, has the sink centered, and the basin is exactly the same as the others. It was meant to be. They were going to charge $20 for it, but I threw in an extra $20 as a donation. Figure Habitat for Humanity is a good cause.

Also picked up the new shower set. Got it at Lowes.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_356580-866-8...ell&facetInfo=

Total cost for the day was around $180 for the shower set and vanity top.

litesout

Day 13. Sunday 11/18/12

Finished off the demo. Got the tile down from around the tub and cut out the rotten portions of 2x4. The tile around the tub was put on drywall sheets that were on top of another layer of drywall. Made demo super easy. The entire portion of wall came off in one piece and only left a few nail holes behind.



Naked tub shot



After drying it out for a week we decided to remove the piece of pressure treated 2x4 that was there and replace it with new. Once it was cleaned up we could really see the extent of the damage. That channel is a good 4" deep and goes all the way around the shower floor. That's why the rot was so bad. The walls were improperly done and the water just sat there. Wont be an issue when we're done. Walls will be properly sealed and the channel filled in with concrete rather than wood.
This portion of demolition has been brought to you by Dunkin Donuts.



Concrete's in and framing is done.



Started putting up plastic vapor barrier. You really only have to use it on the concrete block walls, but we're wrapping the whole shower in it.

Also plumbed in the new shower valve. I got Sharkbite fittings to convert from the existing copper lines to the new CPVC lines. If you've never used them before, I highly recommend them. They're slip fittings, but they don't leak and they're certified for hot water use. Best thing to happen to plumbing since the long tee shirt. Working with CPVC is just like working with regular PVC but the glue is different. It stinks a lot more. And the screw fittings are actually CPVC to brass. Cutting out the old valve wasn't too bad and plumbing in the new one was super easy. Bad things happened when I turned the water back on to the house. First off, you'd think they'd ship the shower valve with the cartridge in the off position. They did not. I came back in to find about 1 1/2" of standing water in the shower floor. Got it shut back off and drained. Had someone come over to turn on the water slowly while I turned the valve to the off position only to discover that it leaks. It was leaking at the screw fittings. I used 2 wraps of teflon tape per the manufacturer recommendation, but it was dripping. So, turned the water back off and pulled it all out (uncoupling those sharebites without their special tool is a bitch, by the way.) Unscrewed the fittings and used about 8 wraps of teflon tape. Still dripped, but not as quickly. It was getting late and nothing was open so I just left the water off and only turned it on when I needed it.



Sharkbites

Edit: Forgot to mention that we went to Home Depot for some supplies. Got the plumbing parts to plumb in the shower, a piece of sheetrock to replace the wall behind the vanity with the hole in it, concrete nails, and some other odds and ends. Total cost for today was $135

litesout

Day 14. Monday 11/18/12

Stopped at a plumbing supply place on the way home from work. The guy who worked there had no idea why a brass fitting would leak. The plumber who was there picking up supplies told me he'd seen it before. He recommended something called Leak Lock. I had never heard of it before, but figured I'd give it a shot. As soon as I got home, I pulled the shower valve back out and unscrewed the screw fittings. I applied the leak lock to the male and female threads as he suggested and wrapped the male side in 8 wraps of teflon tape. It went together easy and doesn't leak! The leak lock is blue and gets everywhere. When I was done it looked like I had given a hand job to a smurf. Stuff would not wash off no matter what I did.

Due to the water mishaps we couldn't get much done. It still needed to dry out a little more. We got some misc framing done and the new piece of sheetrock cut and installed. Framed the area for the new alcoves too. Found out they're the perfect size for my shower beers!

Total cost for today: $11 for leak lock.

litesout

Day 15. Tuesday 11/19/12

Big day today. We finished all the framing, poured the last bit of concrete and got all the plastic up. Most of the fiberboard went up as well. It comes in 3'x5' sheets and the shower is 63" long. Instead of being able to use one piece along the back wall, we had to cut everything in 2 piece sections. I'd say we got about 85% of it done though. We'll finish the rest when he comes back to tile. Had to pick up some 1x2's to shim out the wall the shower valve is on. The sharkbites and CPVC fittings are a lot larger than the copper fittings that were there before.



Fiberboard is going up! Its like a giant puzzle.

RaviNJCLs

iTrader: (4)

Looks good.

litesout

Thanks Ravi. Should look even better after tomorrow. Hoping we can get a lot done, but a lot of it will depend on whether or not I can get back to the tile place after work today. We forgot about the decorative stripe when we were buying supplies so I need to get that today. Otherwise we'll only be able to tile about 2/3 of the way up tomorrow.

Acura_Dude

Excellent work! Your last three posts made me lol. "Brought to you by Dunkin Donuts" and "When it was done it looked like I had given a handjob to a smurf."

terdonal

You are certainly coming along with this reno. Nice reading and seeing the pics of your progress.

chill_dog

Glad to see things appear to be turning around and working out for you! Looking good.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

Awesome progress, glad it's all turning out great.

litesout

The Dunkin Donuts sleeve was totally unintentional. Just happened to fall off my buddy's coffee right there and we hadn't swept yet. I didn't even realize it was there when I took the picture, but I lol'd when I saw it. Really wish I had taken a picture of my hands after putting the plumbing back together. I didn't want to touch anything though. That stuff's like white lithium grease, it gets on EVERYTHING.

Gotta charge the camera batteries tonight. The real good stuff's coming tomorrow!

litesout

This is my first major renovation project. I've done small ones in the past, but nothing to that extent. It really is nothing at all like I expected. I've pulled old camper trailers and mobile homes down for complete demo too, but this is nothing like that. Its one thing to tear something down that you know will be taken away in the back of a truck, its another thing all together to take something down that you're going to have to build on again. This board is full of young people and first time homeowners like myself (the first time homeowner part, not the young part .) I hope my experiences will help others understand the true reality of what a huge undertaking this is. Both physically and financially. I seriously went into this thinking that it would only cost me about $2.5 - $3k. I'm almost there already and still have another $2k to go at least. Plus whatever I wind up paying my buddy for his time and expertise.

Acura_Dude

Sounds like some rough stuff to get on you and everything else.

Scottman111

Those shark bite things really are awesome. I know a lot about construction but plumbing isn't necessarily a strong point so those things are life savers. I've noticed with slow drip leaks that they tend to fix themselves after a few hours or maybe a day. Put a bucket under them and see what happens.

One of my favorite parts of tile work was installing the fiber/cement board...you're right, was like doing a big puzzle each time

Nice work so far, looking forward to the next updates.

NSXNEXT

iTrader: (2)

Probably the best lesson you've learned. Plan for overages. Unless the house is brand new you're always going to find something that you didn't plan for, mistakes made, etc.

Glad to see you're correcting the problems the right way. A few more dollars to fix it right will go a long way.

litesout

Day 19. Friday 11/23/12 (Black Friday)

Took Wed/Thurs off for the Thanksgiving holiday. Between work and preparing for the holiday there just wasn't any real point doing anything else. Friday after work I went back to the tile place and picked up some decorative trim pieces. I originally went in there looking for the foot long stone tile pattern strips and something to fill a 1" space on the wall. The tile is 12x12 and one of the wall spaces is 14" wide. Rather than cutting 2 tiles to fill the space, we were going to try to find something decorative. Well, I found something that killed 2 birds with one stone. Found these really nice looking 12x14 stone and glass tile strips. Really wish I had taken a picture of them but it seems I didn't.

Its something similar to this, but different colors.
http://www.homedepot.com/Flooring-Ti...&storeId=10051

The rows are each 3/4" and they're on a mesh that can be easily cut. Figured run a row up each side like a pin stripe. We could then continue the line around the tub surround.

litesout

Day 20. Saturday 11/24/12

My only day off from work. We started work at 9am. Got the rest of the fiberboard cut and up on the walls. Also got the sill framed, wrapped and fiberboarded.



Niche inserts cut and installed.



The sill framed out, covered and ready for tile.



Missing pieces of the puzzle are in.

After all the board went up, we sealed the corners and larger seams with cement sealant. Then we started figuring out where we wanted to start the tile. I can truly appricate what they mean when they say don't stick the first tile until you know where the last one will go. Had we just started at the bottom corner it would've looked terrible. There would've been some really awkward and bad looking lines around the windows and there would've been about a 1 1/2" tile going down one of the sides of the back wall. We started at center and went out both ways from there. As for the window, we figured out how we wanted the bottom portion of the "L" to look and spaced from there. Then we put some ledger boards at the bottom, leveled them, and screwed them into the wall. That serves as the base for the tile and keeps them from sliding down as the mortar cures. We worked until 8:00 and got about 2/3 of the shower done. That was the easy 2/3 though.



Finally starting to look like a shower again!



The shower valve came with a "grout guard" for you to tile around. Most people just a square hole to size around it, but this guy is pretty handy with a tile saw. Is it overkill? Yes. The escutcheon has a seal around it and is a lot larger than the actual grout guard.



Those niches were truly a pain in the ass. We sloped the bottom pieces slightly so water won't collect in them. Functionally great, but the sides had to be cut with an angle at the bottom. The original framing behind them wasn't square either so each tile had to be trimmed to fit. But I'm getting ahead of myself, we didn't even touch those until Monday.



Final shot after we were done for the day. And after 11 hours, we were truly done for the day.

Yumcha

Nice progress! And at prior moat.

litesout

Day 22. Monday 11/26/12.

Short day. We both had to work in the morning, so we didn't get started until about 5. We were going to put up the tile mosaics as a trim line in the shower. They're 12" high and there's 18 rows of tile. The pattern on each sheet is set so they can just be stuck to the wall to make a continuous line from one sheet to the next. Well, the pattern repeats itself every 6 lines so we were able to cut them into thirds and make a 4" trim stripe. It looks good, a lot better than I expected.



Close up of trim stripe on the wall. They cut just like regular tile on the wet saw. And we kept all the little scraps to fill spaces when we do the tub surround. The whole shower only took 2 sheets at $9.99 each plus tax.



Finished the niches. Those took forever! The grout lines will be a little bigger around them just due to the cuts not being 100% exact. Lots of little pieces had to be cut and hand trimmed. Now I see why they pre fab those and sell them for just shy of a small fortune.



Just another shot of the trim. We didn't want to go any higher than the trim today. The weight of the tiles above would push down the top tile of the trim stripe and make them uneven.

litesout

Day 23. Tuesday 11/27/12.

Today didn't get off to the greatest start. Got a call from the cabinet place. The factory isn't fullfilling any orders that they have placed in the last 3 weeks. They deal with other cabinet makers, but they're either cheap chinese flat pack cabinets. Real wood, but made in China and assembled there in the shop. The other ones are more expensive. They said they'd offer me the next step up in cabinets at the same price. Made arrangements to go and have a look the next day.

Between being sick, family drama, and other incidentals I was exhausted. We worked on though. Wanted to get the rest of the shower tile on the wall. Got almost everything done, then we ran out of tile. Don't remember if I mentioned it before, but the 12" tile came from 2 different batches and the sizes were slightly off. The tile we had been using was actually 11 3/4" square while the tile from the other batch is 11 7/8" square. I've got 3 cases of the other, but we can't use it in the shower. Going to use it for the tub surround and some other places. Anyway, we came up 3 full tiles short.



All to the way to the ceiling! I just thought it would look better that way.







The hole where the missing tiles will go. We probably wouldn't have done that anyway. Same reason as the trim tiles, the weight of the tiles above would've pushed down the little tiles above the window.

litesout

They are amazing. Used them again on black Friday to go from old grey poly to CPVC on a friend's hot water heater. They sprung a pinhole leak on Thanksgiving day and it was spraying all over their a/c unit. Had to replace the line from the wall to the hot water heater. The shut off valve was bad too, it leaked through so just replaced it while we were there.

The fiberboard was great to work with. Incredibly strong too! I stood on the middle of a piece with one end propped on a 2x4 and it didn't crack! The dust was horrible though, and it turned to a paste on my car the next morning on my way to work. Had to stop to wash it off because I couldn't see out any of the windows!

I had planned for some overages, but nothing like this. Huge lesson learned on my part. If possible, double check your estimates too. I placed way too much faith in the one that I got.

Thanks Yummy! That was probably the worst of it and the root of most of the problems. One of my best friends has been watching the progress of this too. He's going to need to do this soon as he has similar problems. Our houses are in the same neighborhood, built around the same time but by different home builders. Will be interesting to see if his has the moat too.

terdonal

Looking good, really enjoy watching your progress and the trials and tribulations that one can encounter in a reno such as this.

litesout

Day 24. Wednesday 11/28/12.

Went by the cabinet place to look at the alternative vanity cabinets. They're quite nice. Door style is just a little different, but I like it. Color is about the same. Close enough that I won't notice the difference. Verified with him that the price will remain the same and these will still come with the toe kicks, filler boards and scribe mouldings.

He had talked to somebody else from the cabinet company. Apparently they laid off a bunch of people and are in the process of restructuring. They canceled a lot of orders and probably lost a lot more business down the road by doing so. Wouldn't surprise me if they went completely out of business.

No other progress today. Planning to pick up Tuesday when I get back from vacation.