Bathroom re-do----BRAGGING!!

[chablis]

IMG00030-20120115-1037.jpg

My husband has managed to redeem himself in my eyes with the progress on the master bath re-do.

An unnoticed crack in a shower floor pan softened the floor, and led to major mold. When I darn near broke my ankle stepping from joist to joist, I started making dark threats.

Mind you, he's out of town for the most part, so all progress was very slow, and came to a grinding halt during the sailing season. I've lived with a semi-gutted bath and construction materials for the last ten months or so.

The big soaking tub was removed from its deck and put into the garage for eventual replacement. The shower, much of the floor, and about half the dry wall in the bathroom were similarly removed.

R. decided to install a whole-house shutoff valve in the floor where the tub deck will be. We upgraded from polybutyl to pex tubing. Got to love those Shark-Bite connectors, valves, and fittings! He put in an access panel on the floor to be able to turn off the whole house from the inside. This is a huge improvement from the original shutoff valve just past the meter. That side of the house is prone to accumulating snow drifts. Imagine having to dig through three feet of snow to turn off the water if the dishwasher suddenly decides to spew!

All floor joists got sistered with 2 x 6s to compensate for the additional weight of the upgrades we decided on. We added six more piers under the house.

Next, the floor insulation was removed, and a new box for the heat tape was installed under the house, with a boxed-in affair to ensure it was more secure. This was a good idea, since I had awakened one February morning to find the pipes frozen and the heat tape plug lying on the ground.

We replaced the old insulation (R-11 crap) with R-21. We installed a Y-fitting from the heat duct to a site under the tub deck, and fitted that out with fine mesh hardware cloth. No more chilly tub bottom!

We replaced the original mobile home window with a vinyl tilt-in double hung window.

We then installed 5/8 inch marine plywood as the floor deck, and covered that with Allure. We've had Allure in the kitchen for five years with no problems. We chose a light faux stone finish.

Next came the plumbing for the shower. We chose a Delta Multiple Choice shower valve, with two body jets. We installed Shark Bite shutoff valves for the hot and cold supply lines, and cut an access panel in the adjacent bedroom wall.

Set for this weekend is the installation of the Swanstone shower pan, waterproof barrier, and concrete board, as well as creating a pony wall between the shower and the tub. On top of the tub pony wall we are placing a glass block window.

The next step will be greenboarding the wall around the tub, and then we get to do the tiling.

Since the old tub had a tile surround that hadn't cracked over the seventeen years we've had this home, we figured that the piers are probably well below the frost line (we never have issues with skirting bulges, either.)

This horrendoma is what we found when we first started to dig into the project:

[chablis]

I will be adding more pictures to this thread as I get them uploaded.

[Greg]

Sailing??? Something that I miss, no wonder work stopped I can't blame him!!!

Glad that headway is being made.

Greg

[bobfather99]

Looking forward to more pics. Nice job!!

[Steve-WA]

Folks smarter than me say that green board is a ripoff - no different than regular rock. Recommend hardibacker