Bathroom Remodel

[A. Spruce]

Day 14 - fairly unproductive day. Spent the first half of the day chasing materials, the latter half I got two doors trimmed out, a tv mount on the wall, and a small drywall patch done. There were probably a few other minor incidentals in there somewhere that I'm missing.

The plan was to install the closet rods and build a shelf system, but the double clothes rods got pretty darned tall and I didn't want this to be a problem for the client, so I have to wait until Monday when she will be home to approve the height of everything. I rushed over there this morning to get other details sorted out with her, then this popped up right after she left for work. Oh well, Monday is yet another day.

Monday our doors should be on site, so I expect some showy progress.

[Shannon]

The preformed foam Schluter shower pans are even easier to install. But I agree schluter has great materials to work with including kerdi, kerdi board and their ditra products.

[A. Spruce]

Interestingly, HomoCheapo online showed they carried the Kerdi, unfortunately, local stored carried another brand. Did a local search for Kerdi suppliers and found a reasonably close alternative. Love the simplicity and workablility of the Kerdi!

Interestingly, when my partner picked up the Kerdi, he called and told me he bought the "small" roll. A quick calculation told us we needed the "large" roll, so he returned and swapped for the larger roll. The bathroom is 5'6" x 7'3", add 6" up each wall and we had just enough material to cover the floor and then run a strip up the corners and seam that will be in the surround.

While he did the actual installation, I was watching the process intently. It was extremely easy to install, easier than anything I've ever seen to date. Kudo's to Kerdi! I'll definitely use it on the next project.

[A. Spruce]

Day 15:

Doors arrived today, got them installed and trimmed out. Got the closet organizer built and installed, and all the remaining trim and base installed and prepped for paint. I say "prepped" because the caulking requires 2 hours drying time before painting it, so pretty much could only paint what I'd been able to install last Friday.

As always, many other details were dealt with on the way to the finish line of this project. I've got another full day tomorrow, surround is scheduled for Thursday next week, then we top out the plumbing on the following Monday for the win!

This has been a very enjoyable project for great clients. I'll be glad to be finished with it, yet excited for the next one to begin.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know, pix or it didn't happen! I've got a bunch to get edited already, and will have more at end of day tomorrow. Until I can get them posted, you'll just have to take my word for it that the whole thing is pretty darned awesome!

[Shannon]

Im sure it looks great.
What happened to retirement,lol?

[A. Spruce]

I know, right? I'm actually planning to open up shop again within the next 6 months. Now that I'm much older and wiser, things are going to be quite a bit different from 20 years ago

[Shannon]

Good luck with your new venture!

[Aaron]

Yeah thats awesome, gotta make payments on that Suburban.

[A. Spruce]

Yeah thats awesome, gotta make payments on that new Suburban.

Fixed it for ya!

Funny thing is, 6 months ago, the Burb was the perfect vehicle for the direction we were headed, now a truck is in order. Oh well, it's only money, right?

[A. Spruce]

Day 16:

Was able to do everything on the punch list, you know, all the little annoyances that it takes to wrap up a job. Things like finishing the paint work, building the closet organizer shelves, door hardware, cleaning up the job site for the clients to move back in, that sort of thing.

Now, we wait! Shower surround won't be in until the Thursday next week, then we top out the plumbing the following Monday. At that point we will be completely done.

[A. Spruce]

[rant] I had to build the shelf unit for the closet because there wasn't a premade or kit available. No problem, done it plenty of times before. Evil Orange has a special section for all things shelving. GREAT! Except they keep the peg board (side pieces) over in the trim aisle. So, you grab the side pieces in one aisle, then go all the way to the opposite corner of the store for the shelf clips, 'cuz that's where all the shelf crap is, right?

Well, what you don't know is that shelf pegs are 1/4", the standard of cabinetry in the US since it's inception, and the F'ing peg board is 5mm, about 1mm smaller than the industry standard peg, but you don't know this until you're on site, have the cabinet built and try to insert the pegs so you know what length to cut your shelves . . .

Go back to Evil Orange the next day to find the correct size peg, they're not with the peg board, they're not in the shelving area, search store for a lot lizard to try and find these stupid elusive pegs. Oh, here, let's put them on the nut and bolt aisle, because, yeah, THAT makes sense!

Evil Orange is SUCH a time suck because of their inability to organize a store logically. I hate that place with a passion. [/rant]

[Aaron]

I rarely shop HD, I usually go to Menards. But they're a regional store here in the Midwest. I find it a lot calmer to shop there than HD, and their prices seem to always be lower too.

I know for a fact peg board would not be in the shelving area; instead it would be where all the other 4x8 sheet paneling is. But I'm almost positive all the pegboard hardware is in one spot, both sizes.

[A. Spruce]

By "peg board" I meant the pre-drilled melamine panels you can buy for shelving.

I prefer Lowe's over Evil Orange. We have a couple of local construction supply companies, but they are more specialized and don't carry a lot of the finish hardware or specialty things like shelving, and they're not particularly convenient to go to.

I still sorely miss Lumberjack/Payless-Cashways/Furrows! They were nearly as plentiful and well located as Evil Orange is these days, had much of the same products, though I'd argue better quality overall, and they knew how to treat contractors and business professionals while still being able to cater to the public.

[Aaron]

Peg board is the 4x8 sheets of melamine-coated masonite. Yep. Got it in my basement.

I remember the masonite comes in different thicknesses, too. Like 1/4" and a floppy 3/8". Gotta go with the thicker one.

So? Status of the bathroom reno?!? Pics?!?

[A. Spruce]

Peg board is the 4x8 sheets of melamine-coated masonite. Yep. Got it in my basement.

Oh, for the love of God, man! Melamine shelving!!!
https://images.homedepot-static.com/pro ... 4_1000.jpg

So? Status of the bathroom reno?!? Pics?!?

If all goes according to plan, wall panels go in this Thursday, if that happens, then plumbing top-out will be the following Monday and the job will be completely finished. Still have not had a chance to edit the pix yet, will try to get to it this week.

[Shannon]

As soon as you said "peg board" my mind went to the same product Aarons did.https://www.homedepot.ca/product/cutler ... 1000165172
But as I read along I relized you were talking about adjustable closet shelving parts.
It was totally the "peg board"reference.

[Shannon]

SPOILER ALERT! later this year we will be releasing a daily vlog of the bathroom project that the recent" how to" videos have be coming from. Something really different from us and I'm excited to see how it is accepted by our subs? This project was a complete gut and would typically have been 10-11 working days for me but ended up being like 20 days I think ,with all the videos we shot really slowing things down. Hope it is received as well as we think it will!

[A. Spruce]

This project was a complete gut and would typically have been 10-11 working days for me but ended up being like 20 days I think ,with all the videos we shot really slowing things down.

This project was 16 days, I worked by myself for about half of that, my partner and I both the other half. I've got about half a day to babysit the wall panel installers and then both of us another half a day for the plumbing top-out. Having to wait for these things has pushed the job to just over 4 weeks, but actual working time was only 3 weeks.

[Aaron]

I will hopefully begin my custom shower upstairs the first week of Oct. It's a funky narrow bathroom with a narrow shower. Inspired by Shannon's video I'm going to see about putting in a niche, I think I have the stud space for it. Going to hire a carpenter for the framing of it, and he should sub out a plumber I think.

[A. Spruce]

Make sure you have the details worked out with whomever you hire so you know exactly what they're going to be doing and what they'll be sub'ing out or leaving for you. And, be sure to post lots of pix, you know how we like our pix around here!

[Aaron]

Yeah, I hope to make up some drawings, and of course lots of before/after pics!

I really just need all the framing and plumbing, and possibly the Kerdi board installation. I'll probably just do the tiling myself. Nothing fancy at all!!!! Just square white ceramic tiles, nice and cheap, like $1.00 a square foot or whatever!

[A. Spruce]

I highly recommend you go to the Kerdi website and watch their vids, it is WAY too easy to do to pay someone else to do it. If you can set tile, you can set your own Kerdi board and Kerdi membrane.

[Shannon]

Ya Kerdi board is super simple.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccBd93ozcJM

[A. Spruce]

Well, after a 12 hour day, we finally finished the bathroom project . . . sort of . . .

My partner will take care of the last few details, the worst of which is applying white window film to the 10 light bath and closet doors, everything else is a 10 minute touch-up.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I still got pix to edit and post, just haven't had time to do it. The partner is supposed to send me the pix he took today, otherwise I'll have to arrange to go back and get my own. At any rate, the project is done, everyone is happy, on to the next one.

[Shannon]

White window film? Never seen this before

[A. Spruce]

Yup, just like any other tinting, except it's white. We wanted to order the doors with obscure glass, but it would be 8 weeks and $1000 more per door. Windo tint only adds time and materials, probably around $200 when all is said and done

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Artscape-Ri ... /301840198

[Aaron]

So the guy I'm having doing the framing and carpentry came over to check out my bathroom situation never heard of Schluter or Kerdi, he's just used Durock, which he just calls tile-backer. So given the small size of the shower stall, I may just have him use whatever materials he's used to using.

[A. Spruce]

Since you're not doing the work, it doesn't really matter what is used. My suspicion is that your guy simply hasn't seen or experienced Kerdi yet. It's well worth the time to look through their website and watch their YT vids. This alone sold me on it, then actually using it REALLY sold me on it!

[Aaron]

Yeah. Prolly just use what he's comfortable with. I'll be doing the tiling myself. I'm just gonna use the 4x4 square ceramic white tiles. They are just a breeze to install and crazy cheap.

[A. Spruce]

Finally getting some pix edited and posted. We last left off with the recessed header. Intricate job, but well worth the effort. This allowed us to push the wall 12" into the closet which made a significant difference to the bathroom space. FWIW, this was an exterior wall, the house had about 6' added onto the side of it, which is why we had the space to move the wall.

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This is the current configuration of the wall. We installed a Toto wall mounted toilet and there will be a handheld shower wand on this wall as well. Don't mind the notes, this pic was edited for future location of the appurtenances, such as the grab bar blocking.

S1410002B.JPG (301.19 KiB) Viewed 189 times

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This is the wet wall and pocket door frame. The black pipe under the shower valve is the remnants of the old vent that had yet to be moved. This was one of those pocket doors in a box, you have to assemble the frame from horrid, terrible, awful instructions, and there's nothing that makes it square or straight. I DO NOT recommend these to anyone, buy a preassembled frame, it's worth the money! At any rate, we sheeted the bedroom side with 3/4" plywood so that the frame would not only be more rigid against possibly abuse, we also hung a tv on the bedroom side and wanted plenty of meat in the wall to get a hold of. Other than recessing the floor for the tile mud bed, this was the bulk of the framing mods.

pocket frame.JPG (266.58 KiB) Viewed 189 times