Adventures in DIY

[PetersCreek]

And now for something even farther off topic...

For the last few weeks, I've been plugging away at remodeling our master bathroom. I'm not talkin' just paint and towel bars. We're pretty much gutting the place. My garage looks like a Home Depot warehouse...tile, thinset, grout, light fixtures, vanity cabinets and top, vessel sinks, water fixtures, and a whirlpool tub.

What with my day job, a limiting physical condition, and other life goings-on, it's been pretty slow going but it's finally starting to look like some progress has been made. I've grabbed a snapshot of the progress here and there and put them in a project gallery.

If you've got anything going on, feel free to share it here.

[sarongsong]

Thanks, gonna borrow your shower floor idea for my current impossibly uneven one!
Not mine, but quite admirable:
Basement Project: Hand-made Lamborghini Countach

[SeanF]

Looks like a lot of work, Peter.

The only DIY I've done recently was to put a bookshelf in my office closet.

Not just a normal bookshelf, though - it's two-sided and built on a 12-inch lazy susan. When the sliding door to the closet is open, the bookshelf can be rotated to get at books on either side.

[mike alexander]

Last winter I finally finished the master bathroom I started a couple of years before. One of those 70's vintage things with yellow formica counter and flocked metallic wallpaper.

The big thing was gutting to the studs and opening the room up. Signature piece was one of those triangular Jacuzzi tubs in the corner. I did very careful measurements and worked out that if I removed the door and frame I would have exactly enough room to maneuver the tub in. Except that I forgot the new tub was four inches higher than the old one.

Patching the hallway wall I had to rip out was a real pain. Tub worked out nicely, though.

[LotusExcelle]

I'm considering doing a DIY bathroom upgrade in the master bath. Its... bad. Cramped and seriously way out of date. But I don't trust in my carpentry skills yet and my plumbing skills... well I can fix a faucet. But I also don't want to accidentally shower the room underneath it.

[samkent]

Home Depot ALERT!!

I just completed a bath remodel as well. To the studs and sub floor.

So I decided to keep the 48 vanity and just repaint it. But the top was deep blue formica with baby blue sink insert. Icky I know, but it was the 80's and I was building the entire house as well as working. The ex wife talked me into it as it was to be the kids bath and I had my plate full.

So to today. I chose a solid surface with built in sink for $170 at HD. Adding the cost of the solid counter and adding a sink, my labor with an overall 2 week dead line. I figured it was quicker and cheaper and looked quite nice. But when I got home and started the assembly I noticed the error of my ways. The fawcet was drilled for 8 inch centers and what I chose was a reasonable priced 4 inch fixture.
So there I was at 8:30 PM the day before my dead line rushing out to Lowes and HD. The 8 inch fixtures started at $100 and went up from there! Twice what the 4 inchers cost. They had me by the short hairs and I had to pony up.
Does the world need 8 inch centers for a bath?

[geonuc]

Nice cat.

[PetersCreek]

Thanks, gonna borrow your shower floor idea for my current impossibly uneven one!

If you're going to tackle a tile shower yourself, you may find this site invaluable. I stumbled across it after getting my project underway and it steered me away from trouble on what I hadn't yet started. If I'd found it before starting, I absolutely would have gone with the Kerdi shower system.

[sarongsong]

There's an amazing amount of information packed into that site---thanks again!

[PetersCreek]

I finally finished setting tile in the shower area and grouted today. After some caulking and touch up painting, I get to hang the new shower door and install the shower trim hardware.


Click for larger image

[danscope]

Hi, Good job. Remember to read and understand your hardware directions well, and procede under caution as per 'application' for your situation. If need be, return to the seller to exchange for the correct one, or best advice in how to use the one you have.
A well lit garage makes a great staging area, truly nesessar to the success of the job. The trick is to finish the job in a timely manner . Success will be forthcomming. The smart guys read...often.
Best regards, Dan

[mugaliens]

Sweet, Brett!

[PetersCreek]

This update isn't very far down the road from my last but it feels like a project milestone: the shower area is pretty much done. The last obstacle to putting the shower back in business was the shower door I installed Saturday. Once the silicone bead cured overnight, we could shower upstairs again! Besides the newness factor, the experience was doubly odd after showering in the tub downstairs for so long. It's larger, there's no curtain constantly brushing against us, and we have the feel of tile underfoot again.

For reference, the photo on the left is a "before" picture of sorts, taken after I began demo. I was so intent on getting started, taking a pre-project photo slipped my mind. On the right, of course, is the completed shower.


Click for larger images

All that remains in this area, is a wall cabinet that's still on order and some paint on the window and door trim, plus a little touch-up here and there. Next week, I start removing the old whirlpool tub and tub deck in the outer bath.

[chrissy]

Looks great Brett, I am always doing stuff to my house, I have knocked walls out and rebuilt them making an archway, tiling floors and walls in my down stairs toilet and laying floating floors in the three bedrooms. A womans job is never done. I have pictures but they are too big in size to upload.

[cosmocrazy]

I don't have any projects on. But i do a lot of this kind of work as part of my job. Looks very good to me, nice work!

[JustAFriend]

Never had any problems doing bath remodels.
(Other than making the mistake of doing one during an Ohio winter - did you ever try to shower in an unheated basement during the middle of winter??? Brrrr...)

The only DIY project I ever regret doing was tiling my kitchen floor. Did a great job, but even with kneepads I blew out both knees and haven't been the same since... next time I'll hire someone to do that part.

[Fazor]

The only DIY project I ever regret doing was tiling my kitchen floor. Did a great job, but even with kneepads I blew out both knees and haven't been the same since... next time I'll hire someone to do that part.

That's what my bro does, though they haven't had work since circa Thanksgiving.

The other week he got a side job, and afterwards he said something like "It was great to find some work, but after being off so long, look what it did to my knees." His knees were bruised to hell, swollen, and had cuts around where the edges of the pads run (and yes, he was wearing knee pads).

Doesn't sound appealing to me.

[PetersCreek]

My knees can give me trouble, too. Heck, in my condition, almost everything gives me trouble. I spent a lot of time on my knees in the shower area: floor demo, two layers of sand mix ("deck mud"), mortaring the curb, tiling, grouting, caulking, sealing, whew! I trashed the first pair of knee pads I bought...cheap, uncomfortable, aggravating pieces of junk they were. I paid a bit more for the current gel-filled pair and they work pretty well.

[Fazor]

I spent a lot of time on my knees in the shower area

Thank you. I'm filing that away for the next time I need to black-mail a moderator.

...err, I mean... good post.

[Click Ticker]

We're finishing our basement for much needed (okay - wanted) additional space. Quite a project. If anyone wants to know a nice trick to hang 14 ft sheets of 5/8th's drywall on a nine foot ceiling with just you and one other person - I know one, thanks to my father-in-law.

Building nice maple cabinets now.

[PetersCreek]

The main trick I know is to use a "dead-man". You don't have to buy beer for a dead-man, which I consider a huge benefit at the end of the day.

[Moose]

The main trick I know is to use a "dead-man". You don't have to buy beer for a dead-man, which I consider a huge benefit at the end of the day.

I dunno, if the song's right, your "dead-man" wouldn't say no to a stiff drink at the end of it.

[Click Ticker]

The main trick I know is to use a "dead-man". You don't have to buy beer for a dead-man, which I consider a huge benefit at the end of the day.

Much easier in fact. Better support for the entire sheet and less lifting involved. He made a giant lever. Screw short 2 x 6 into the studs near the ceiling. The lever was a long 2 x 4 rectangle hinged to the 2 x 6. Slide the sheet up the lever, lift against the ceiling, hinged suport legs drop down to the floor and the sheet is held.

No beer for a big lever either.

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[PetersCreek]

And this jig has to be removed and re-attached for every sheet?

[Click Ticker]

And this jig has to be removed and re-attached for every sheet?

Back out four drywall screws - slide down the wall - rinse and repeat. The thing I liked about it is that it holds the entire sheet against the ceiling with no flex. All you have to hold is drywall screws and a driver. When you're hanging 14' sheets, two dead men won't hold the middle and end flat.

Plus it's cheap. Buy a couple 2 x 4's and some hardware. And you can use the 2 x 4's to build something else when you're done, so it's recyclable.

A pro wouldn't use it. They've got better tools. But for a one time project, it beat spending money on tools that I'll never use again. And it beat paying a pro to hang it.

[PetersCreek]

Hmmmm...if I ever have to drywall another ceiling, I'll have to give that some thought. Although, it's unlikely I'll ever use 14' sheets! The only place I could conceivably use them is upstairs...but they won't make it up the stairs.

[Click Ticker]

We wanted minimal seems. They were actually a bit over 14', but we trimmed 16' to fit. Had to remove a basement window to get them down there (daylight level) because there's no way they were making it down the stairs. I learned how to remove and re-install siding for that one.

BTW - nice work on the shower. I'll let you know when we're ready to tile the floor of the new bathroom.

[Tarkus]

After watching much of Holmes on Homes we decided not to risk DIY and now have the professionals in replacing bathrooms and laundry.

I've kept the DIY to outdoors and decorating. So good on those who have the confidence to rework a bathroom... Well done

[Fazor]

[ZOMBIE ALERT! THREAD RESSURECTION]

Likely starting my next DIY this weekend. Bathroom faucet's been dripping for some time. It's old. Like, original Greek pipework old. Pre Alexander.

Anyway, it's been dripping for some time. But it's getting worse, and now it's leaking inside the wall and down into the basement. Not good. Plus Tara had gotten sick of the crappy caulking and cut it out, and attempted to use those stick-on caulking strips. Bad. But now we can see where the depression-era shower surround (eh, so not *that* old) is peeling away from the wall in spots. And you can see that they've had water problems back there in the past.

So . . . time to install a new shower surround and faucet handle (the actual faucet head was replaced recently, so I'll be keeping that.) I was afraid there'd be extensive work needed to the wall under the surround, based on the percieved water damage. But my shower has an access panel from the guest-room closet, so that'll certianly make the faucet work easier, need it come to that. And I've looked around and from what I can see, there's not a big problem with water damage. Might have to fix some of the plaster down around the tub, but not as far up the wall as I was afraid of.

Either way, should be intersting. Hopefully won't be hard, but I'm afraid to say that. The things that shouldn't be difficult are the things that tend to hit you with surprises.

[peter eldergill]

I find stuff that's "not so hard" ends up taking about 5 hours

Pete