Our Bathroom Remodel

We have been thinking about remodeling both of our bathrooms for some time and, having fairly recently completed the bathroom in the basement satisfactorily, we are keen to get underway on the main bathroom upstairs.

Several months ago we got an excellent deal on a  beautiful bathroom vanity so we snapped it up and it remains in our garage. Since then we have been thinking about the fixtures and other details and have been slowly acquiring things so it won't cost so much all in one go. The biggest headache is about the bathtub/shower unit that is currently an ugly blue tile which was originally badly done and very badly caulked. Our three options were to smash and remove the whole lot and replace it all with something. This would be the costliest and most work, but would probably yield the nicest looking result. More realistically, we were thinking about either plastic molding around the whole lot, or painting the ceramic tile. Bearing in mind that we are wanting to sell the house in a year or so, we figured on a combination of the last two: Painting the actual tub and putting molding up around the walls.

After much thought, some research and much more thought, we decided on painting the bathtub and buying a surround for the walls. We had already obtained a rather fancy vanity and some fixtures to match, so we took a trip to Lowe's for the surround, a new toilet, some drywall, trim and various other bits and pieces.

After a trip to Sherwin Williams where I purchased the special paint for the tub (apparently the only place you can purchase the only product that will do this job), and a trip to a value hardware outlet for a cheap paint sprayer and respirator, I was ready to get wrecking

We decided to get the bath and surround done as a first stage and do the rest at another time. So, the first thing to do is remove all the tile and, with it, the wall. Once gone, I can paint the tub without worrying about masking. The very first thing I did was lay an old blanket in the tub and attach the edges so the tub was protected from falling debris. Then, while my father in law removed the tiles around the fixtures so we could see what we were dealing with in terms of plumbing, I started scoring the edges where the tile ended. After I had scored I used a hacksaw blade (I didn't have a dry wall saw handy) to cut out the wall so I could remove as much as possible without smashing stuff. It is important to remember that there will be studs, probably every 15 inches, which you won't want to saw through. There is bound to be some smashing and breaking but keeping it to a minimum not only makes things easier, but also reduced risk of tiles falling in the tub or cutting my shins. Basically, I just chipped and hacked away until all the tile and wall was gone and then I tidied everything up in preparation for the painting.

We had been advised that the only product to use was a special tub painting kit only sold at Sherwin Williams. It turns out that this is called XIM Tile Doc although I doubt it is actually the only product of its kind. After discussion with the store manager I decided to spray rather than brush, even though my original adviser suggested brushing.on the paint. The thinking was that I would achieve a more even finish. However, with hindsight, I wish I would have started off brushing because I am not an expert and it is much more difficult that I thought it would be. Having said this, the initial coats that I sprayed on probably gave me a really good start to the job. I had procured a very cheap spray gun as I was advised that there was probably not going to be a way that I would clean it sufficiently that it could be used again. I also bought a respirator as protection against brain damage. Despite the instructions, which suggested a plethora of products that weren't available, I was advised that the only other thing I would need to buy was the Xylene which is a kind of thinner that I used as part of the surface preparation.

So, the steps were to firstly remove all caulk or anything else so that there was access to the entire tub. The caulk was removed using a combination of fingernails, scraper, and Goof-Off which is awesome stuff. After that I did a general clean of the tub with a standard spray and scourer to make sure that any soap scum and water marks were eradicated. Then I sanded with a 220 grit sandpaper and vacuumed the entire surface to get rid of any dust or fluff. The final stage of the surface preparation was to wipe over the entire surface with a cloth dampened with the Xylene.

I won't go into any detail on the spraying except to say that I used a compressor regulated to around 40 PSI with an air filter attached. I tried my best to adjust the air and paint flow to get the optimum paint distribution; easier said than done. My wife, daughter, and cats left the house which stank for the next couple of days. I opened all the windows, turned off the air conditioning and sweated bullets for the duration; it was horrendous. After each coat I waited 2 hours before applying the next. After 4 thin coats sprayed on it was obvious this wasn't going to work so I bought a good brush for around $10 and did a couple more coats that way. It was immediately obvious to me that this was the way to go.

This part is pretty straightforward in terms of 'how to' but can be a pain in the behind. This pain can be considerably reduced with the purchase of a heat gun. I got mine for around $20 and it is basically an industrial strength hair-drier; do not use it in this role, however, as it will remove your scalp. What it does is melt the glue and make the linoleum more pliable and less brittle. Just hold it in one hand and heat while you scrape with the other. In our case there was a layer of squares on top of the original linoleum. There was a layer of papery-cardboardy crap that was not coming off the floor at all easily so we just made sure there were no major bumps and decided we would put the under-layment on top of that.

This is the smooth layer of wood that you want to put down in an upstairs bathroom before laying down the new linoleum or, presumably, tile. It has a bunch of 'X' marks on one side indicating where to put the nails when the floor is in place. So why use this and not a regular sheet of wood that would be cheaper? I guess this stuff is specially made not to buckle or warp. This would be really bad under your new floor. Figure out how much area your room is and how you will cut the boards, then get cutting. You'll want to get it pretty tight around the edges but not so tight that you can't get it in there in the first place. Just bear in mind the thickness of your trim and make sure that it will cover any gaps around the edges of the room. Once you get a piece in place, go ahead and drive a nails in around one edge and work your way to the other edge so that it stays flat. For the first line, you can probably get closer to the wall than the first set of 'X's.

Note: At this stage I didn't realize that there are two types of surround, one that glues onto the drywall and another that attaches directly to the studs. We had already procured the latter and I didn't want to take it back. So after the step I am describing, we took the drywall back off and prepared to mount the surround....this opened a can of worms  which I won't describe here as it is specific to how our house was made and involves crooked studs!

Once any plumbing has been done, if needed, you can get the drywall in the bath area so you can put in the tile or surround on top. It is probably best to start with the side you have the fixtures because this will be the hardest to make fit. Before you can put any drywall in, you will need to make sure that you have studs under where the edges will be so that no edge is left 'hanging'. I was lucky in that I was so close to other studs that I could just screw another right up against one that already exists. Once these new studs are in place there is something to screw the wall to around all the edges.

This step first involved removing the drywall that I had previously put up thinking that the surround would glue there. The surround I had already purchased required nailing and gluing directly to the studs!

After that and what seemed like several weeks dealing with various issues including a warped stud and arbitrary plumbing issues, we managed to get the surround in place. The instructions for this would be specific to the type of surround you have so my going into detail probably won't help any. The only advise I would have is to makes sure that the nailing edges will lay flat on the studs at the same level and use an arbitrary straight line somewhere on the wall, outside the area of the surround. This way you can measure the location of the pipes that will eventually extrude from the surround and cut holes, preferably using a 'hole saw'.

When I first cut some drywall and fit it in a space it was apparent that this method wouldn't work very well: Because the nailing edge of the surround is about 1/8" thick, it sets one end of the piece of drywall out by that much and the rest pivots on the edge. Basically, it just doesn't sit flat and would be a nightmare to finish nicely. We decided, therefore, to only drywall up to the edge of that nailing edge and then fill the rest in with drywall compound.

This I did in a series of layers with the mesh type tape between them.

We only had one sink previously and our new vanity has two. Therefore we needed to tear into the wall to see what we have and what we need to do. The first step was to measure the back of the vanity so we know where the holes will be in relation to the wall. Then we drew this onto the wall and cut out first where we knew we needed a hold for the new valves and drain, then where the existing valves and drain were. It was immediately apparent that there was nothing we could already use and we would have to plumb across so we just went ahead and removed the rest of the drywall between. This way we had a clear space to work with and full access to the two studs we would need to go through.

Somehow we needed to extend leftwards for each of the pipes so we would need to route these around each other within the confines of the wall. This took a bit of thought and planning. The first thing we could do without shutting off the water to the entire house was to cut into the old copper drain pipe and fit a new section with a two T joints, one to replace the old corroded one and another to go to the new sink. Realizing that there might be nothing holding the vent at the roof, we got this section ready first so that after cutting out the old section we could just slide the new one in its place.

The new section was made from 1.5 inch PVC pipe which is way cheaper than copper and probably more durable anyway. So, to convert from the copper, we needed to use rubber 'boots'. Care had to be taken when choosing these because, even though both pipes are 1.5 inches, this measurement refers to the inside of the pipe rather than the outside and, because PVC is far thicker than copper, the 'boot' has a wider end for the PVC. In our case it was 1.5 one end and 1.25 the other.

We decided to just do one at a time and start with the hot water line because that will be the closest and most direct.

If you're doing this, be sure to shut off the water first and then open some taps downstairs to get all the water pressure out of the system.

First, we would need a series of elbows to go around where the new drain line would come out so we got that all cut and ready then soldered that together outside the wall. As much as possible we did this for ease of access. Similarly, with the T joint, we attached this to the new stretch of pipe which was to run horizontally so that the orientation didn't matter. Before we could fit this into the wall space, however, we had to cut notches in the two studs for the pipes to fit. Then we attached the entire length to the existing hot water line and continued with the rest until we had a complete new line. Once that was in place and the valve attached we could move onward.

Much the same as before only we had to go around other pipes twice this time and there was less space which made the soldering more difficult.

After filling with drywall compound, layer by layer, up to the edges of the tub surround, things were simple and moved quickly such that I didn't get around to taking pictures. So, after patching drywall, I primed and painted without worry for the floor since it wasn't installed yet. All I needed to worry about covering was the bath tub and surround. Once painted, the linoleum was cut and glued in place, then the trim was put in, followed by the toilet.

We had got a good deal on a vanity several months ago but it was over 300lbs so we enlisted some help from a friend with experience in the moving trade and got that in place. Then I connected the water lines and drains, mounted the mirror and light, along with various other cosmetic accoutrements and the project is complete.