First Floor Bathroom Project - Week 1 (Jun 8-9)

Like most other projects, first up is demolition. We've decided to gut the bathroom back to the studs. There is an uneasy mix of old plaster walls and more modern drywall. None of it is in good shape. There was some ill-fitting trim work and a crumbling tile floor.

The floor is crumbling because it wasn't on a stiff enough surface. Mostly, the floorboards under the area have rotted some (especially around the toilet). So not only are the walls and ceiling going, but the floor and sub-floor are coming out. Then we'll stiffen up the existing joists, lay down 3/4" plywood level with the joists, the durarock (or mud - not sure yet) and then the tile on top of that.

The weekend project went pretty well. Actually, I got a lot further than I expected. Getting the vanity out actually took a while because I had to shutoff the house water, cut and cap the hot and cold lines, cut the PVC waste drain and build a cap for that before I could take it out. After that, things went quick and I didn't loose more than a few grams of blood. However, Monday morning, I'm pretty much a study in body parts that can ache...

	This is early in the demo. All trim has been removed (window, floor, ceiling) as well as towel bars and toilet paper hanger. This shows the north west corner.
	And here is the south west corner. The other corners look pretty much like they did before. Even here, the most noticeable thing is the window trim (minor as it was).
	Next up was tearing out the walls and ceiling. Here you can see the east wall exposed as well as some ceiling
	Here is the south wall (south east, really). The bricks are the chimney. The gray/white thing to the right of it is a duct for the 2nd floor bathroom. The gray/white stuff is suspected to be asbestos, but I'm not going to touch it!
	Here is the south west corner of the room. Much of this has been open for a while.
	And the north-west corner of the room.
	The west side of the room (the other side of that wall is the bookcases for the study)
	Then it was on to the floor. Fortunately, the white tile that was installed wasn't affixed all that well (and much of it was cracked or outright broken), so I just got a flat bottom shovel and scrapped the tiles off. Went pretty fast (10 minutes), so here's what was left.
	And in the "You can't call it demolition unless it's truly dangerous" category, here is a shot of the sub-floor being removed. The while you see under the joists is in fact the basement bathroom (which, understandably, is a complete wreck right now). I need to cut the rest o the subfloor back before this is clean.

Last updated June 11, 2001