If your residence is old enough for a washroom restoration, you may wish to proceed as well as totally intestine it. I started my bathroom remodel last month with a total demolition. If I had not, a number of issues would certainly have been unavailable for fixing ... or even undiscovered. Below's what I discovered when I opened the wall surfaces and ceiling of my 1981 condo right here in the Quad Cities.
Deal with pipes shocks
Below's one more point I located. I'm not a pipes specialist, yet I see a problem here. Picture if that area of typical drainpipe line for our back-to-back sinks got clogged. Now visualize running a snake in there from one sink. Do you assume it would certainly make the turn? Most likely not. We altered it out and also counter both.
Repair termite damages
When I opened up the exterior wall surface, I located termite damages in 2 locations: the king stud, jack stud, and maim on the bath tub side of the window as well as the jack stud beyond of the window. The good news is that the damage was done long ago. As long as I have actually lived right here, the owners' organization has kept up with termite therapy and surveillance, but I understand there was a duration when they didn't. Therefore the damage I discovered.
Replace rotted subflooring
Along with the termite-damaged wall, I likewise found rotten subflooring near the tub. This was primarily from getting too damp, and I believed it because ceramic tiles had actually begun appearing in that area.
Make up for no or little insulation
I understood we had insulation in our wall surfaces. I assumed it was R-11 fiberglass batts since our upstairs next-door neighbor's icemaker had a negative leakage a couple of years earlier, securing fifty percent of our utility room ceiling as well as part of the wall. The typical wall had R-11 batts. I figured the rest of the walls did, as well. I recognized they had insulation due to the fact that I've examined behind button and also receptacle plates.
I obtained a little shock when I took the drywall off of that outside restroom wall surface as well as saw this:
This is actually a good thing, in a way, due to the fact that it suggests I'll obtain more enhancement than I thought I was going to get.
Seal the air leakages
Yes, our 1981 apartment is leaking. I found out about the huge bath tub openings and various other plumbing infiltrations because I've seen them from the basement. I really did not know that the walls were sheathed with asphalt-impregnated fiber board (Celotex) that offered great deals of air leak pathways. Again, looking on the silver lining, that indicates I'll have the ability to make more improvement compared to I would certainly assumed.
I can not more info wait to do a blower door examination when it's all done. Unfortunately, I won't be able to separate out the improvement due only to my bathroom work. The owners' association simply had the whole floor sealed with spray foam insulation. I'm guessing our total air leak will certainly be around half of exactly what it was.
Set up an exhaust fan and also repair ductwork
Did I mention our condo was built in the 80's? The master bath has a home window, so naturally, it didn't require an exhaust fan, right? Wrong. I have actually got over a year of information on temperature and also relative moisture in that washroom without an exhaust fan. Now I'm putting one in as well as will certainly gather extra data. Stay tuned for the results.
But even if your washroom already has a follower, I would certainly bet it doesn't relocate enough air. The normal bath fan stirs half its ranked air flow. If your bath follower isn't really accessible from the attic, opening up the ceiling is the only way to obtain at the duct and also repair it. Just what you see in that picture listed below prevails for bathroom follower air ducts: sagging flex air duct that makes too many turns. (That's not my brand-new follower, by the way.).
Solve other potentially unknown repair needs.
Several years ago we had to do some pipes help the tub in the hall shower room. When the plumbing technicians had the wall surface opened, I asked them to put valves in on the hot and cold water lines so that if any individual had to work with that plumbing in the future, they would not need to turn off the water to the entire building.
So they put in the shutoffs. When I opened the wall surface, I saw them as well as took this photo:.
I 'd utilize that shower a couple of times throughout the years and constantly questioned why the stress was so reduced. Now I recognize. The plumbers mounted the shutoffs however then didn't open them fully. Those red takes care of ought to be straight according to the pipes. Good!
I also found that our ceiling had two layers of drywall. We have a smooth ceiling throughout our apartment, however the initial ceiling was stippled. Thankfully, it had not been a popcorn ceiling, which can include asbestos.
And I discovered the original, hideous wallpaper.
If you're redesigning a shower room, there a lot of excellent reasons to go all the way and intestine it totally. That's exactly what I'm doing. We're virtually prepared to begin closing it back in, so stay tuned for even more stories from the restroom.