Ian's master bath remodel

[imatx]

Hi there,

Been looking over this forum for a couple weeks and the info here is great. While I have gained a lot of info, I figured I would start a project thread as I have some current questions and will most definitely have more later on.

Basically I am remodeling our master bathroom. The stall shower was leaking which prompted the idea to just gut it. Here is some basic info:

House is about 50 years old. Concrete slab. Stall shower that is 32" square and right now the tiled shower ceiling is ~1' lower than the rest of the ceiling, but I plan to raise that to match the regular ceiling. This bathroom is seriously small, so it isn't a huge project, but it is a big deal for me. I have quite a bit of patience to figure things out, and want to make sure this is done correctly.

The plan is to use 3x6 white ceramic tile (sort of like subway tile I guess) in the shower and throughout the bathroom. Also plan to have some sort of tile floor. Basically going with a fairly color neutral look and trying to keep it somewhat within the same era of the house. There is one exterior wall, that holds a window and dry area of bathroom.

What I have done so far:

Old tile and old shower/pan have been ripped out. I am about to go through the drywall today to bring it down to studs. Fixtures, old crappy vanity and toilet are out as well. I put a dollar plug over the toilet pipe to keep the sewer gas out. Toilet and location of vanity/sink are staying put as there really isn't any room to move this stuff.

I also still need to remove the lame tile floor that is in there as well.

I plan on doing a mud shower pan and using concrete board for the walls and then tiling over that. Initial questions I have are:
-I know I have to use a moisture barrier behind the concrete board in the shower, but can I just use drywall over the studs in the non-wet areas? I have seen a variety of answers regarding this, but every situation seems slightly different.
-I assume I will need to have some sort of moisture barrier on the small exterior facing wall?
-One of the walls of the bathroom butts against the other bathroom in the house. Part of the wall (where the vanity/sink will be) is opposite of the other bathroom's shower/tub. Do I need to put moisture barrier over that? Or would it just be easier to put a barrier throughout the bathroom?

I have some tile and pan related questions, but will wait on those until I get near that time.

Thanks for the help!

[cx]

Welcome, Ian.

Is easy. You must have a moisture barrier behind, or waterproofing membrane on the face of, all wallboard in the shower wet area.

You do not need, nor do you want in your geographic location, any such barrier on the interior of any of the walls outside the wet areas.

My opinion; worth price charged.

[WendyHMN]

Since you mentioned sewer gas, I'll remind you to stuff something into the pipe that used to go to your vanity drain and shower drain. Even if you still have a P-trap for either of those you will probably have it run dry during construction. The sewer gas from either of those is just as toxic. I put in a steam generator with its own drain and I have to remember to pour a cup of water down there every week until I get my shower door and can actually use the thing (flushing the generator just to fill the trap would be rather wasteful).

[imatx]

Thanks for the quick responses, it's been a few days since I started this thread.

I have both the vanity drain and the shower drain plugged, along with the toilet at the moment.

So far I have been able to replace a stud and part of a sole plate that was completely rotted. I will post some pictures tonight, as I have some questions regarding stud placement/plate placement on one wall of the shower, as it is incredibly tight with the other bathroom's plumbing and the shared vent pipe.

Also, I realized I have a cast iron drain, and the pipe is pretty crusty. The old shower had drainage issues, so would chipping out the slab to expose the horizontal pipe and replace with pvc be the best course of action?

The one question I have about chipping out the slab is that all of the water lines run in the slab (house was built in 1960) and the two water lines for the shower are opposite the wall where water line comes in from the street. I would assume as long as I limit my chipping to roughly the same width as the hole around the drain is I should be fine? This probably makes no sense, but I will post pics later one once I am home from work.

Once I get some of these framing and plumbing issues out of the way I can then get on to talking about tiling =).

Also, are there any good resources about proper stud/framing repair online? I haven't had a chance to go to the library yet.

Thanks.