Basement Bathroom

[tt3]

If anyone's interested in the progress of our bathroom. The outgoing plumbing is done, next comes the cement, walls, incoming, fixtures... etcetra.
here (http://www.treml.org/tandv/pics/basement/index.htm)

[Weston]

Hey Tony... are you going to have to put a pump in for the plumbing? Reason I ask is because i had a townhome with a basement that I considered puting a bath in, but in order to do it I would have had to put a pump in to accomodate the drain pipes for a toilet and/or shower.

I never did it because of that

[tt3]

No, thankfully we're on a hill and the sewer pipe takes a pretty good dive past the point of our connection. Everything is below grade. The biggest thing we were worried about was the bedrock being too close to the floor. Only had to jackhammer out a little bit.

[Weston]

Ahhh... no "poo pump" necessary! Should make it easier 8)

[tt3]

we poured the cement this weekend, took only about half a day. Picts to come, probably.

[tt3]

Our progress. we got the shower in and had an issue (http://www.treml.org/tandv/pics/basement/wet.htm).
follow the links at the bottom to complete the story. :lol:

[tt3]

Inspector, huh? Theres an interesting thought ;) The rubber boots we used for the connections didn't need anything over them as they're under ground. If they were above they'd have to be covered so the light didn't degrade them.
The water comes from the back yard and seeps in at the foundation.

[SGTDad]

Nice trick with the drainage path for your seepage - I like it! At some point though, you should put in a good perimeter drain along that side of the house. I'd hate to see nice work ruined by a few days of really heavy rain.

[Weston]

Good work T!

[tt3]

Nice trick with the drainage path for your seepage - I like it! At some point though, you should put in a good perimeter drain along that side of the house. I'd hate to see nice work ruined by a few days of really heavy rain.

Yeah we were chuckling about it while we were doing it. Two years ago we put a few yards of dirt against the house to help with the drainage, this summer we're going to put a proper drain field around the house.

[Patrickz]

When I had to grind out a 1foot square hole in my dads sub-floor for the p trap for the shower, I thought that was hard but your work in stone is crazy hard. Good job!

[tt3]

Another update on the work. No pics yet, but soon. We've got most of the plumbing done, and I'm hanging sheetrock where I can. We've decided to try and level the floor as much as we can before we proceed with the vanity and can.
Working with cement will be oh so super fun again. :shock: :|

As soon as I get pics of the progress I'll put them up. Its cool to see it coming along.

[seattle]

Looks like a lot of work.

[Weston]

I feel you on the concrete work... Looking forward to seeing pics

[tt3]

an Update. (http://www.treml.org/tandv/pics/basement/index.htm)

[Will'sdad]

Nice big shower. Looks like it's coming along nicely chugchug:

[Weston]

Good work! :)

[SGTDad]

Looks good! Kinda cool to see PVC, copper and galv plumbing all in the same picture!

[tt3]

Looks good! Kinda cool to see PVC, copper and galv plumbing all in the same picture!

Any wonder why we're not going to tackle the whole house plumbing? :lol:
Two stories of galvinized, I shudder at the work!

Thanks guys, its coming along. We still have to pour a leveling layer of concrete, then its to the tiling.

[woodchuck]

It's just pipe laying. You know how to do that. Doing fine so far.

When we bought our first house it was a two family, old, so I decided to re plumb the whole building before we rented it out, first plumbing project ever, ripped out everything, had a garden hose hooked up to the city feed to get water for the toilet. with a two family evrything has to be independant and shopping is parts x2, valvles every where, it took two weeks and all commercial grade(code) copper, only $400 in parts.

When you get ambitious I'll bring my torch and stuff. You would provide the beer...right?

[tt3]

It's just pipe laying. You know how to do that. Doing fine so far.

When we bought our first house it was a two family, old, so I decided to re plumb the whole building before we rented it out, first plumbing project ever, ripped out everything, had a garden hose hooked up to the city feed to get water for the toilet. with a two family evrything has to be independant and shopping is parts x2, valvles every where, it took two weeks and all commercial grade(code) copper, only $400 in parts.

When you get ambitious I'll bring my torch and stuff. You would provide the beer...right?

Yeah, man, cold beer alright! Its not the putting in the new that has me trembling, its tearing out the old. More specifically getting to the old! :lol:

[woodchuck]

Many pro's will just leave the old stuff in the walls, especially on a two story, make a hole in the basement and make a big enough hole next to the old one to cut it short, push it into the wall cavity and bring the new one through or cut a hole- say behind the Bathroom vanity to cut the old stuff out of your way then there's enough room to solder in the new lines and put one drywall patch in, simple. :D

[tt3]

Hey now thats not a bad idea! We'll almost certainly go with cpvc through it all, so its even easier (and 75% cheaper)

[woodchuck]

You know, the code writers are changing their stance on cpvc, not so good, short term failures and long term health issues. My personal choice would be copper, commercial thickness, unless you won't be there long<50years :) , I know it isn't as inexpensive as cpvc but when you put it in a wall and forget where it is or don't put a protector into it there won't be a leak when you drive a screw, it'll just push out of the way, not so with cpvc, screws and nails go right into it, I'm not a copper investor-should be-but it's something to think about.

Now, back to that cold beer, all this talk about weekend warrior stuff is getting me thirsty, :drinkers: aahh , that's better. still a little dry though. :D

[tt3]

This was never to be our "lifetime house." I don't know, if you got your pipes strapped in every few feet there's not much give. Its still ok up here, so we'll use it! :lol:
Who knows with our new house...

[sao95]

I saw a documentary on the old guys who first started workin in the pvc plants, I guess the first ones were overseas, they were all dying of cancer from inhalation, makes ya wonder, it is definately cheaper and easier though..

[tt3]

Another update (http://www.treml.org/tandv/pics/basement/)

[sao95]

is that greenboard tony?

[tt3]

Which one where?
Probably not, since I don't know what it is... :oops:
:lol:

[sao95]

drywall that is usually used in bathrooms and what not, (it has a green surface) used in places where there will be alot of moisture. And since it's in a basement kinda a double whammy.

[tt3]

Nope, its your standard plain ol' drywall. I did put 6-8 inches of cement board along the bottom for the cement and tiling and if we get any gushers or something. It was nice not being freaked everytime the trowel bonked the wall as we were smoothing.
Gonna slather kills or 123, then mildew/moisture resistant tinted to our chosen color. (Who knows what that'll be :roll: )

[sao95]

well you'll just have to tear it all out and start over :P

[tt3]

well you'll just have to tear it all out and start over :P

And have it ready for the inspection, right? :lol:

[sao95]

oh, did I mention, my inspections aren't tough when there is a keg nearby :lol:

[tt3]

By GUM I hate sheetrock muddin'. On the second coat and its coming along, but sloooooooooooooooooooooooooowly. Looks like we might not get much time to use the bathroom by the time its finished either.
Anyone have good tips on wetsanding? I've never tried it with success, but would love to be able to cut the dust. Best I've ever been able to do is make a minor dent in the mud and a major f-up of the paper side of the sheetrock.

[Weston]

Add that to the list of things I don't like to do... tiling, mudding..

[tt3]

Add that to the list of things I don't like to do... tiling, mudding..

Thats funny! Once the mudding is done and the paint is on guess what we get to do? Yeah, tile. Good news is we should be able to bang it out in an afternoon, then grout on another afternoon and

[sao95]

I've never heard of wet sanding, so can't help ya there, but they make a sanding attachment that hooks to your shop-vac, costs around 25 bucks I think, not sure how well it works, but I'm guessing it must work somewhat....
second coat, your alomost done :D

[jeffus]

3M makes a sanding sponge that works really well. You can use it dry or wet. It's a little slower wet, but cuts way down on the dust. You wet it and ring it out, sand until you start seeing dust, wet, rinse, repeat....:D

[tt3]

Sao, I've got one of those attachments and used it with some success when I did my office, but the block and screen is too big for over the shower. My fil has a contraption he set up from an old kirby vacuum, hose up to the palm sander, and where the bag once attached is another LONG hose out the old dryer vent and to the yard. Now that really cuts down on the dust...
I think I'm mostly just whining.

[sao95]

stop whining :p

[stretch]

I don't know why you bothered with all that "code" malarky, when you could just jury-rig a perfectly functional water heating system like this...

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/7235/photo1952db9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Will'sdad]

laughing laughing laughing

[tt3]

here's the weekends work... and nap time and and and
We're looking at finishing up the little pieces along the edges and possibly grouting Thursday.
Then on to the doors and pisser, vanity and sink and all.
http://www.treml.org/tandv/pics/basement/newtile01.jpg
http://www.treml.org/tandv/pics/basement/newtile02.jpg

[tt3]

Nice! I almost went with that tile in our bathroom but the wife nixed the idea. You're a better man than me Gunga Din for crafting your own shower floor. Mine would probably leak from the get-go.

Nah, thats the bathroom floor... the small white area in the upper right is where the porcelain god will sit. With the next batch of thin set I mix up I'll put the toilet ring attacher dohicky into it and make sure its level. It'd be a bummer to have a crooked toitie.
The shower itself is to the left.
Tiling is soooo tedious, but I can't see paying someone $8 a sq.ft. to do it.

[sao95]

tile looks good tony :)

[Don-Dad]

All the nice work and if i recall there is a chance you might be moving soon?

[tt3]

yeah, sucks don't it? Get it the way we want it then blow. We'll see how it works out though, who knows. I'm still doing close to my best work on it ;)

[Jackson's Dad]

Looks good.

Speaking of tile floored showers, I have a question for all you handy guys. Our shower's floor is all tile. The tile's pretty ugly, and a little uneven in places. How easy is it to remove the tile, smooth out the uneven parts, and retile it? (We've done normal tile work before, but nothing this touchy.) Is this something I could reasonably do, or is it better to get a pro to deal with shower floors?

Dan

[woodchuck]

The head is looking good TT, who knows, the next place might be even more fun to work on.

JD- Take a 4" grinder or a dremel if the joints are thin and take out the grout around a tile then start lifting that one tile with a hand maul and wide masonry chisel, wear safety glasses please, tap with a medium force and keep the bevel side of the cisel blade down so you don't dig into the floor.

If it's the small mosaic tiles that come on a mat, then a narrower chisel, some guys upgrade to a flat shovel but unless you have a huge shower it woon't take that long with a chisel, plus you have more control.

[tt3]

Ok, some quick updates.
http://www.treml.org/tandv/pics/basement/grout02.jpg

http://www.treml.org/tandv/pics/basement/grout01.jpg

Grouted, shower door on.
I just have to get the last couple of basetiles on from the shower to the door, then we're putting the rest in and its done.
done, I say done.
Just in time to move, dammit.

[tt3]

The tile guy I talked with was telling me $8/sqft is a bargain, and it'll be more for smaller tile. Then he told me "but I charge way more than that, but I garuntee it for as long as you own your house." Tiling is a bear. If I were to do it again, I'd still do it myself, but... for something like a shower floor where it matters I'd be inclined to go pro.

Oh, I forgot to add, on the second picture there's some sheetrock mud sticking out, I had to do a quick touch up before I finish those tiles around that little bit of wall...

[Patrickz]

A tile pro in our area charges 30 a sq ft. I would be very weary of anyone charging you 8. I charge by the hour for tile work and have done a fair amount of it but I would not attemt a shower floor if it was on a second floor.

Tony- That is awsome tilwork my friend. Small tiles like that is a pain to grout and lay. Good job!!

[Jackson's Dad]

Thanks for the advice guys. Yeah, it's a pretty big shower, on the second floor. Plus, if the previous homeowner did it himself (like I suspect), there may be "surprises" a-waitin'.

I'll have to get a quote from a tile guy. After I get the quote for repairing the deck, though.

[Porschephile]

tt3, at least the bathroom work will help on thr resale of your house, think of it that way!

[tt3]

One more update. (http://www.treml.org/tandv/pics/basement/)

[mnsahd]

The bathroom looks great! :supz:

[sao95]

looks good tony, I really liked how you did the threshold, looks sharp :)

[jeffus]

Looking Good!

You'll get more than your money back when you sell.

[Weston]

Nice job!