Home Improvement/Repair Questions

[Road Guy]

haven't seen the porcelain ones, just the fiberglass types - used that on mine in the basement and it worked well - only bad thing is it gets nicked very easily while you are tiling the rest of the shower - I put some tarps down but probably should have put some cardboard down as well to protect it

 

[Supe]

Sounds good.  Are they flanged for easy waterproofing?  Now I need to measure and see if I can use a standard size.  I think I have a 30-something by 60 inch tub, but I can't remember whether it's boxed in on the sides or not.  I'd rather not have to "shrink" the shower to fit, though it wouldn't be hard.  I do have a window in there, but I think I'm just going to buy a vinyl fixed window and PVC trim and caulk the bastard in place.  It's the only source of natural light in there.

 

[Road Guy]

yes there was plenty of room to overlap the tile down into the flange so you don't have any water leakage

 

[Master slacker]

Simple question regarding bathroom remodel.  What is a reasonable and realistic time estimate for a now-avid home improvement DIY person to redo a standard bathroom shower (just the shower), which would include the following tasks - demo 3 walls of 4-inch white tile, demo green board, remove mold / mildew on any surfaces, install cement board, install waterproof liner, install new tile of some sort?  

The only catch is that this is our only bathroom and only shower.  If I absolutely need to, I can always put up visqueen to cover any incomplete walls to take quick showers, right?  Thoughts?

 

[Road Guy]

if you are not changing any plumbing then I think it could be reasonably done in a long weekend - starting demo like Thursday night working nearly non stop Friday through Sunday.

Doing the tile is a 2 day task because you need to put a dead board down around the bottom near the pan - but not at the bottom - so that the weight of the tile rests on the board (which is screwed into studs) and then you are going to wait 24 hours before you remove that board. Then you have the grout, which doesn't take long, but again you will want to have 24 hours between when you finish it and before you put water on it (& I normally put a sealer on it after the 24 hour cure time for the grout) so that's another few hours..

below is junior learning to do tile.. I put the boards a little higher than normal because I was going full to the ceiling with the tile, normally you could put it at the top height of the bottom row of tile so that you just have to slightly cut the bottom row of tile before its "done"

we were without water at our town house a long time ago and we just used one of those solar showers / camping showers in the backyard (in bathing suits) to get by..

 

[envirotex]

Anybody use one of those porcelain shower pans in lieu of doing a cement pan/tiled floor?  Looking at replacing the soaker tub with a big walk-in shower, and it sure seems like one of those would save a lot of headache and labor costs, not to mention I like the look of them better than a big tile "curb".

We DIY'ed everything but the shower pan...We had someone come a pour a custom fiberglass pan so we could get the dimensions that we wanted. Also...highly recommend this: https://www.houzz.com/product/23215606-frameless-clear-tempered-glass-shower-doors-brushed-nickel-44-48x76-contemporary-shower-doors

We used the three-sided enclosure.

 

[snickerd3]

Anybody use one of those porcelain shower pans in lieu of doing a cement pan/tiled floor?  Looking at replacing the soaker tub with a big walk-in shower, and it sure seems like one of those would save a lot of headache and labor costs, not to mention I like the look of them better than a big tile "curb".

we used swanstone when we took out the tub for walk in.  prefab custom size pan with solid wall panels top is the new bottom is what we took out

 

[Supe]

We DIY'ed everything but the shower pan...We had someone come a pour a custom fiberglass pan so we could get the dimensions that we wanted. Also...highly recommend this: https://www.houzz.com/product/23215606-frameless-clear-tempered-glass-shower-doors-brushed-nickel-44-48x76-contemporary-shower-doors

We used the three-sided enclosure.

I think we'll end up with the roller doors on this one no matter what.  The toilet is close to the tub, and would block or necessitate a short swing-out.

 

[Master slacker]

Doing the tile is a 2 day task because you need to put a dead board down around the bottom near the pan - but not at the bottom - so that the weight of the tile rests on the board (which is screwed into studs) and then you are going to wait 24 hours before you remove that board. 

Ok, that doesn't seem too bad.  May decide to take a week vacation and we can stay with dad while this is done.  For the dead board, we have a classic cast iron bathtub that we'll be reusing.  Do dead boards still apply?

Except for how dirty and nasty the example below is, our tub is exactly like this one with the exact same tile and soap holder, but we'll have ours reglazed. 

 

 

[Road Guy]

so the tub, even iron / steel  will flex some when you stand in it / fill it with water, etc so the main reason for the dead board (crib board) is to make sure the tile isn't resting on it - or else its going to crack when the tub moves a bit. but I think you could put that last row of tile in and grout it same day without many issues - then you caulk between the bottom row of tile and the tub

you have access to a wet saw? will make the job go much easier also..

 

[Road Guy]

also those little pre fab insets (purple thing in my pic) was a total PIA to deal with, the inside is tapered so all the cuts have to trapezoidal (is that a word?) but they do look cool when finished -

If you didn't follow along in the basement thread here is the mostly finished product -

Shower Tile & wonder-board, grout, misc. ...... $600 bucks

Doors (from Home Depot)  $500 bucks

Purple Box - $75!!!

Shower Faucet .. $200

Toilet ....$300

Sink.. $400

Floor Tile ... $250

toilet paper stand with shop towels on it.. priceless... (actually got that from goodwill)

I had someone do the framing and sheetrock so probably a grand for that & the rough in plumbing?

 

[Master slacker]

Got the sheathing and asphalt paper up.  Getting the shingles up will be fun as it was a bear to get the asphalt paper under the existing shingles and the new ones need to slide under the old ones.  Only had one day (of three) to work this weekend because life. 

 

[tj_PE]

my laundry room should start looking pretty this week and should be back in service by end of week too! I NEED MY LAUNDRY BACK lol.

 

[jeb6294]

Well, I went from thinking I'd have a new floor in the entryway/hall/kitchen by the time the wife got home from her week in Dallas to hoping I have the kitchen and stove back in the kitchen by the time she's back.  The vinyl tile is looking really nice and it is really pretty easy to put in, but I ended up having to tear the old floor out down to the plywood sub-floor first.  It was bad enough that I had to rent an electric floor scraper and it still took me two days to get it all out.

 

[jeb6294]

I decided to go with the grout lines which adds a bit on the PITA meter, but once that's in, it'll look just like stone tile.  Every once in a while I would start to complain about cutting tiles until I remembered what it'd be like if I was putting in real tile.  Just score it with a sharp razor fold it and it snaps right along your line.  I had one odd spot where the little pantry is next to the nook where the fridge goes.  Even after I got it cut out, I still wasn't sure how it'd work because I was literally installing tile around a corner.  Easy-peasy...heat the stuff up with a hair dryer and it got soft enough to fold it in half without breaking.  Slide the tile under the door jamb/trim and then fold the little sliver back over.

 

[MA_PE]

looks good, Jeb  nice job.

 

[Road Guy]

it does look good. How was the pulling out the old wood flooring?

 

[tj_PE]

 

[tj_PE]

Current laundry room status: obsessed with the wall color! And hoping for floors/trim tomorrow, builtin Thursday, and reconnecting Friday! 

 

[Dleg]

I think you should go with black.