My first bathroom tile project

[diydanny]

Hello, the wife and I have only one bathroom. I want to demo, replumb, and retile the tub surround. However, we would need to use this bathroom and bathtub/shower daily.


I am thinking about plastic walls, curtains, etc to contain the water as best possible during the remodeling process. The more I come up with water containment ideas, the more Im leaning towards this doesn't seem too realistic.

Has anyone tried this? Any success?

[Tool Guy - Kg]

Yes, absolutely. I’ve done it on many jobs. If you’ve got bare walls or cement board walls at the time, roll 3 lengths (one for the left, one back, and one right) of 1x2 into the top of the plastic so you can screw the plastic in place securely. Once the tile is up, ditch the wood and just tape the plastic. I cut an 11’ length of 8’ tall plastic to cover the left, back, and right sides. Then use a tension bar and curtain for the front.

[diydanny]

Thanks tool guy!

[Redlands Okie]

Taking a bath instead of a shower eliminates a lot of the issues.

[Shady at Best]

Dan,
Not a big deal at all, especially with 2 grown ups who will try not to make a mess of it. And since its not like the tile is what makes a shower waterproof. Do as others have said, hang some thick plastic and call it good. Or you can always go this route.

[diydanny]

Thanks. That shower tent is cool.

I’m gonna slowly proceed with caution.

I did a small test area outside the shower doors and the crappy mosaics come off easy enough with a hammer and scraper, at least so far. Hopefully will expose an accessible edge or seam to start removing in chunks.

Looking into the access panel area there is studs, then the old wood lath (without plaster), then cement board, then the mismatched marble mosaics.

[Tool Guy - Kg]

Don’t forget to protect the tub from impact damage as you work.

[diydanny]

Thanks tool guy, I ended up using cardboard and then plywood to protect the tub. Working good so far with the demo.

Have a layer of plastic hanging then an inside tarp.

[diydanny]

Looks like I have some brickwork to do before I continue. The mortar on the back wall is deteriorating and a brick or two needs replacement.

Probably having zero waterproofing contributed to the damage. Glad I’m doing this.

[diydanny]

Please change the title to, “My first bathroom tile project.”

[Tool Guy - Kg]

I went to change the tile, but CX beat me to it.

[diydanny]

Thanks again tool guy and cx!

Project is slowly moving. Tuckpointing is done and much sloppier than I expected from myself. Glad it’ll be hidden. Next time I’ll try using a grout bag. The bricks and mortar looked better than I thought after I cleaned the mortar and efflorescence(?) deposits off. Happy about that.

I ran my 6’ level across the small 1x studs and vertically on each and they look pretty decently plumb/level and square with each other. However, I am not confident with the 100 year old masonry nails holding forever as there is rust present, and the middle stud is loose on the lower section.

I have white coated tapcons in the garage and am planning on installing a few of these on each stud into a good brick. I like to wedge a plastic cut off zip tie into the drilled hole and then install the tap con. Does this sound like a good idea?

Then I am going to reinstall the wood lath horizontally over these small studs to place the wedi board closer to the very small tub flange and follow their instructions.

Thanks for all the help.

[cx]

Originally Posted by Dan

I like to wedge a plastic cut off zip tie into the drilled hole and then install the tap con. Does this sound like a good idea?

Not sure I'd think that a good idea on the first try, Dan. I think I'd wanna use the proper sized hole for the fastener and use it as designed. When trying to re-install a Tapcon you've had to remove, I can see trying something like that, but I have no real idea how well it might hold.

[diydanny]

Thanks cx. I’ll use the tapcons as designed first try.

[diydanny]

I was able to countersink most tapcons on first try as designed. A couple gave me problems so I had to use plastic zip ties stuck in the hole to snug em up good.

Shimmed as needed to get real close with a 3’ and 6’ level all across. Surprisingly was pretty close to level and plumb overall, but needed attention in a few areas.

I had an assortment of paint stir sticks from over the years and there were 3 different thicknesses among them which worked well. Happy about that.

Do I need to worry about square much? I believe square is the corner measurements from bottom to top.