The TWO YEAR bathroom remodel

[DaveGordon]

With some encouragement, here's the story with pichers...
In September of 2006, my loving wife told me that in honor of my upcoming 50th birthday she wanted to get me a 50” flat screen TV. We had lived for too long a time, however, with unfinished wallboard and trim around a newly installed door in our master bath from the installation of our two-story deck. I asked her if I might instead get a tradesman to repair and finish that job instead of the TV. I also wanted to replace our original shower, which was failing quickly. She agreed, and after daydreaming a bit it was decided that WE would attempt to refinish the master bath ourselves. Given my very limited DIY skills and no experience with tiling or wallboard, this was an ambitious and daunting task.

After a little online research (the John Bridge Ceramic Tile Forum was a HUGE help and learning resource) and combing through my back issues of TOH, we gleefully began the demolition in October. It is now November 2008 and we have actually been able to use the bath again. I have a very patient wife indeed…and the luck of living in a home with TWO full baths.

I came up with a desire for a glass block shower, and learned of the IBP Glass Block Grid System that places real glass block in a precision engineered, custom-manufactured aluminum grid. Because skilled labor is generally not required, an IBP grid system can cost less to install than traditional mortared glass block or glass pavers. We decided to make this the focal point of the new master bath, with a custom made acrylic receptor, and remain within the existing dimensional footprint of the room. We also wanted to replace the ceramic floors with new ceramic, and she wanted the floor to be heated. Finally, we both liked the look of vessel sinks and wanted to create a double sink vanity to replace the original oak vanity with the cultured marble integrated sink.

Here is the plan for the remodeled bath, and some photos of the “before” situation. The “before” pictures were taken before the window was replaced with the door that exits onto the upper level of the deck to the outdoor spa.

[DaveGordon]

Demolition begins. The back and left hand walls are exterior; the right-hand wall abuts a hall bath. I always wondered what was in that space behind the bookcase niche that was between the old shower head wall and the right-hand wall. I found out… dead space!

The third pic is a view of the original floor and shower receptor. The lower right corner was basically flaking away.

The fourth pic...hmmm...It was very interesting to discover this stud that was cut and basically hanging from the top rail.

[DaveGordon]

The former medicine chest was in the “box” frame next to the outlets on the right. Just to the right of this pic is the entry from the master bedroom. On the left you can see the newly adjusted framing for the flush-mount medicine chests that will be installed over the vanity.

In the second pic, the old shower receptor pan has been removed and the drain repositioned (by a plumber friend) for the new shower receptor. My wife wisely lets me tackle electrical work but nothing that might flood our home. She evidently fears water more than fire!

In the third pic the new custom-built 42”x42” neo-angle shower receptor has been installed by the fabricator, Heartland Luxury Bath. I later affixed a circular patch of ¾” plywood to the underside of the subfloor to fill the former shower’s drain hole, seen to the left of the receptor edge.

The fourth pic shows the “ladder” blocking between the studs to the left will be used to affix the screws of the shower grid frame. There is similar blocking on the right hand wall.

In the fifth pic, we pulled the insulation and placed foam board against the outside wall at the advice of everyone who told us NOT to put plumbing in an exterior wall. We also added another 2” of depth to the stud wall by adding perpendicular 2x4s to the front of the existing studs. We then added fiberglass insulation batts in front of the foam to further insulate the wall space. Our plumber has run the copper for the Kohler Shower Tile shower head and one of the two body sprays.

[DaveGordon]

The first pic shows the plumbing for the other body spray and the Danze main valve and diverter (bottom to top).

Pic 2 shows the plumbing copper for the Danze faucets that will be set flush to the backsplash.

The third pic shows the 1/2” HardiBacker is installed on both walls of the shower, from floor to ceiling. Beneath it is 8 mil poly sheeting attached to the studs over the insulation and down over the lip of the receptor. We taped and mudded the seams when we tiled the walls to avoid “speed bumps”. I later learned here that, since there would be no water on the walls outside the shower we could have used regular drywall for the walls in the rest of the room and the ceiling. I found the HardiBacker product fairly easy to work with, cutting it with a masonry blade in my circular saw. Noisy, and a lot of dust, but wore goggles and a mask.

The fourth pic...the square cutouts were easy, but the valve was a little more daunting. My sabre saw left the marks on the surface of the Hardi.

In the last pic, the 4x4 white tile and the corner shelves are in, with the Kohler and Danze fixtures installed. We used Custom’s FlexBond grey thinset (a HUGE mistake…lesson learned to use WHITE next time). We also invested in Laticrete epoxy grout. Wicked difficult to work with vertically, counting the cents as each plop of grout hit the floor. Laying down poly helped me save much of the “drops” and mash them back into the joints. Invented a lot of profanity during this process, but we’re really glad we used the Laticrete. We used Latisil caulk whenever a change of plane was encountered.

[DaveGordon]

Onto the vanity area. The Warmly Yours floor heating system requires a dedicated circuit, and a handyman was called in to pull the wires from the basement to the room (a quicker alternative to waiting until I had enough time to snake wires through existing house conduit up two floors). The conduit leading down from the expanded outlet gang box carries the Warmly Yours power and the sensor wires, which cannot run in the same conduit. The switches from right to left, respectively, control the light fixture over the vanity, the integrated light within the exhaust fan and the fan itself. The outlet is fed from the abutting hall bath where the GFCI outlet lives. The curved conduit feeds the internal outlet within the vanity for the right-hand (his) side of the vanity; there is also a convenience outlet that I installed in the left-hand (hers) side of the vanity. In retrospect, I would have placed the right-hand one up in the medicine chest, but at least my rechargeable toothbrush and beard trimmer are out of sight within the vanity cabinet and not on the counter.

In the second pic the ¼” HardiBacker is screwed to the subfloor floor over a bed of thinset to fill any voids, and seams beneath the mat have been mudded and taped. The Warmly Yours mats have been affixed with staples and hot-melt glue where the wires turn and are detached from the mesh. I also found the Warmly Yours exceedingly easy to work with, and the included directions and layout plan from the company were great! We ended up using the two-step method of embedding the mats in thinset and then tiling over that once the first coat had set. Again, novice tiling skills drove the decision here, but we were able to create a fairly level surface with the thinset that safely encased the wires from trowel damage and allowed us to lay the tile level without any lippage.

In the third pic the sheetrock walls have been primed and the vanity has been brought in. Normally the vanity would be installed on top of the tile, but with the height of the vanity and the vessel sinks we needed every portion of an inch we could get, so we set it directly onto the subfloor and attached it to the wall studs behind. It made for a good workbench as you can see. The Warmly Yours power and sensor wires can be seen hanging from their outlet box. We’ve yet to grout the tile on the left that will be behind the toilet.

Pic 4 shows that the 12x12 porcelain floor tile is FINALLY being installed, on the diagonal of course…why make anything EASY on ourselves? We used the angle of the receptor as the starting point, laying full tiles where the shower entry will be. We again used the FlexBond thinset for both steps (encasing the Warmly Yours and setting the tile). Given my newbie sloppiness, I blue-taped around the receptor edge, and left it there until we installed the matching autumn green Latisil...the same color of the Laticrete that we used on the floor. MUCh less profanity grouting a floor versus a wall

The fifth pic, we start the vanity top and backsplash. 3/4” plywood and ¼” of HardiBacker is placed atop the vanity. Again, due to the height of everything, we bypassed the normal advice of TWO sheets of ¾” plywood. We did beef up the corners of the vanity and added a 2x4 cross-brace at the center beneath the plywood. The left-hand convenience outlet can be seen in the lower left. This outlet is fed with BX running against the rear interior wall of the vanity cabinet. You can see the included Circuit Check hanging from the Warmly Yours wires at the gang box. The Circuit Check™ immediately beeps when a short in the system is detected and alerts you to a potentially damaged cable before you lay the tile over the floor warming system.

[DaveGordon]

Pic number 1 shows my patient and loving spouse working the dry layout of the 1x1 marble tiles for the vanity top. These were a nightmare to scribe and cut to the corner wall where she’s working, but all fingers remain where they were originally.

In the second pic you can see we used Schluter Rondec in a brushed nickel finish to edge the vanity top. Luckily the front fascia of the vanity itself above the molding panel was just wide enough to take a single strip of marble that we affixed directly with FlexBond.

In the third pic, we used Schluter Jolly, also in brushed nickel, to solve the problem of how to finish the bottom of the strip of marble on the left-hand side of the vanity top; the front edge ended at the edge.

The fourth pic shows that, grouting with Laticrete again, the backsplash and top are in. We sealed the marble prior to grouting, just to make the release easier (another tip I learned here, which helped a TON). We used matching Latisil at the junction of the backsplash and top. I really like the stair-step, but it caused me more calculating than it should have, to correctly cut the Rondec and include the little corner piece dimensions. The beautiful wife helped here a LOT as well, helping me double-check each “measure twice, cut once” step.

IN the fifth pic, we're getting closer to the finish line, with the sinks and the brushed nickel Danze faucets installed. The plumber attached the drains and pushed the trap towards the back of the vanity to allow us more room within the cabinet for storage…thank heavens for smart tradesmen. The top corner of the toilet is visible in the lower left. Somewhere we found the time to grout that wall and attached the baseboard molding before that toilet went in.

[DaveGordon]

The walls are painted, the light fixture and the molding are installed, the switchplates are on and the Warmly Yours thermostat is connected and heating up the floor (that is, once I installed the breaker into the main panel and heated up the dedicated circuit). As mentioned before, there is also an overhead light integrated into the exhaust fan.

Picture 2...I love the serendipity of this picture, because it illustrates one of the things that brought us smiles while this project was taking SO long to complete. We had acquired many of the products early on and stored them unopened in the garage. It was a totally non-intended surprise that the grooved and bullseye molding we chose for around the doorways echoed the grooved and bullseye molding on the vanity’s front edge stiles and the grooved base of the one-piece toilet we had selected. Some might call it “design with an eye to continuity”…I call it “design dumb-luck”, but I really like it nonetheless. Since the right-hand side of the doorway to the master bedroom was too thin to take a full bullseye at the corner I chose to miter the molding at the floor around this door, but all the rest of the molding corners around the doorways are bullseyes.

The third picture...So as to not scratch the IBP grid, we chose to install it last. The grid actually comes in 3 parts (the 2 walls and the transom) that lock together (not particularly easily, either, but once they’re together, they’re TOGETHER). 3 of the 4 mounting holes are visible in the right-hand upright against the wall. We had pre-measured the placement of these holes to install the “ladder-blocking” between the studs seen in an earlier picture to ensure we had a strong mounting surface for the lag screws. A masonry drill bit went right through the tile without any cracking. Per the IBP directions we ran a bead of silicone along the top of the receptor curb before we placed the grid. Thanks to the great IBP directions and schematics, the receptor and its curb were built to a perfect fit for the grid.

In the fourth picture, you can see the Weck 8x8x3 1/8” Nubio glass blocks we chose and purchased from Rock Valley Brick & Supply, the IBP distributor in NW Illinois. The vinyl “boots” that are included with the system are pictured here. Each block is inserted into one of these boots before being slid (slightly pounded, actually…sore hands) into the holes of the grid.

In the fifth picture, the blocks are all in and ready to be sealed from the inside with silicone. We also sealed the seams between the 3 parts of the grid and the junctions at the walls and curb with clear silicone.

[DaveGordon]

The first picture here shows the blocks from the inside.

In the second picture, the Alumax door is attached. The door is the same make and model that IBP includes with their pre-packaged “kits”. We couldn’t take advantage of the “kit” due to the footprint size. The smalles the IBP Neo-Angle “kit” comes in is 51”x51”, and our plan limited us to 42”.

[DaveGordon]

So finally, here are the "lived-in" pichers. We're still debating about whether to paint that towel hook/shelf white or leave the oak finish.

I AGAIN can't offer enough thanks to John, the moderators and each of you for your knowledge sharing, support, humor and friendliness. On the rare occasions I've actually had something to share with others, it's been an honor to feel a part of this community.

Please feel free to ask me any questions about OUR experience. We really love the remodeled bath, and feel kinda proud we were actually able to DO it (even WITH all of the flaws that my wife calls un-noticeable but that drive me nuts when I notice them).

Peace and blessings to all during the upcoming holiday season!

Regards.

Dave

P.S. FINALLY having that virtual beer...CHEERS to all of you

[Davy]

Turned out real nice, Dave. Good job.

[ddmoit]

Wow!

Seeing that hammer resting on the vanity made me cringe, though.

[DaveGordon]

Thanks a lot, Davy...I appreciate it.

LOL, Dan. It's actually the handle of a rubber mallet. The wife and I used it to "gently" ease a couple of the glass blocks into their slots. What looks like the hammer's claw is actually the plastic "pot scraper" my wife bequeathed me...my surrogate "pro caulk" tool that I wrote about in another thread.

Compliments coming from pros...we are humbled indeed.

Didn't think it would ever end, but taking our time gave me time to rush back here and do searches every time something ELSE would come up that had me stumped.

Thanks again.

Regards.

Dave

[Marge]

For a couple of self-described non-DIYers you should be pretty darn proud. The bath came out looking great and we assume you're still married?

If so, double points!

[muskymike]

Very nice job Dave!!

[Dryseals]

Looks great. I showed the wife the shower, she likes it. Went to the IBP site, thanks. Looks like we have a winner.