Downstairs Bathroom Progress

So...since we had to remove 16" of the wall from floor to ceiling, this left some patching that I needed to finish. It has been staring at me ever since. You can see what I mean below. I am glad that we were able to save the pieces using the Dremel because it made it less work for me overall.



I had to cut some grooves into the the current plaster so I could actually tape before mudding. If it just mudded on top of those seams, they probably would have cracked within a week and caused me undue stress. My walls are veneer plaster, so what that consists of is:

1st Layer - Blueboard
2nd Layer - Plaster
3rd Layer - Skimcoat

This equals to about 1" thick walls compared to normal drywall at 1/2".

I used my scraper to chip away at the skimcoat layer. Of course some of the plaster came with it, so I filled that in and then taped the seams.



You are probably wondering why it is pink. Well, I purchased a small container of touch-up joint compound when I was repairing dings in our other walls. It goes on pink and dries white. I used what I had left just on taping the seams. Then I purchased a 5-gallon bucket of Joint Compound as I will be needing it for the upstairs bedroom anyway.

Here is the 2nd coat (after taping). Since the wall was so uneven, I figured i would just skim coat the whole thing to make it smooth and even. There is a real art to mudding. If you can do a good job mudding, there is less sanding to do (of course you still have to sand though).







And of course the final coat. This is before sanding. I am not the quickest when it comes to mudding, but it looks pretty smooth to me.




Primed and Painted and now back to the way it was. Just need to install the top molding and cabinet and it will be like nothing ever happened.

Here is a picture of where the toilet is going to be with the plywood reinstalled. We are going to tile the floor since someone at work graciously donated his leftover Slate Tile. Just need to pick up a couple of more. So, we need to install the cement board on top of what we have there now. It is going to look GREAT.

I am going to cut the 12x12 tiles into 6x12 pieces and lay them along the 3' side so that it makes the room feel longer. The camera was giving me problems, which is why you are not seeing any pictures of the sink.

Plumbing Progress

3Steps Forward...2 steps back.

2 weekends ago I helped Anthony install his new 60" Monster TV. I think I am finally over my jealously until he reminds me that his TV is 44% larger than my 50" TV. Things never go quite as well as you want. We hung the TV on Saturday, but were unable to run all of our wiring so we finished on Monday. It is a thing of BEAUTY!!



Since the plumber gave me a good deal on roughing in the bathroom, he needed a 2nd set of hands for running the plumbing from the basement to the 2nd floor. That was accomplished this past weekend. The plan was to get the 2nd floor toilet and sink drain connected to the main drain and vent. Since the new bathroom is on the 2nd floor, we had to tear up the downstairs bathroom. We cut a 16" chase from floor to ceiling. This required removing the toilet and sink in the bathroom. Since this is our only bathroom, Tanya left for the day with the children to visit my brother.

Since we have 1" thick Veneer Plaster walls, I didn't want to just break the plaster with the hammer and then try to figure out how to repair it later. I used the Dremel Multimax to cut through the plaster. Then we were able to break it off in sections that we could re-use. Thus saving a lot of time when I tape and mud the cut seams.




The plumber thought it was a good idea to replace the steel sink drain pipe. He said that overtime the buildup from "stuff" can decrease the inner diameter of the pipe. Boy, was he right!! He said he had never seen it so bad. We were lucky if we could stick our fingers through the hole. The other problem was that the drain from the sink to the main drain was pitched in the wrong direction - so instead of 1/4" drop for every foot of run towards the drain, it was pitched towards the sink, thus causing an uphill battle for drain.

No wonder our sink had a slow drain before!!

He also said he will replace the steel drain for our bathtub as well.



We used his Cast Iron Cutter to cut the vent stack and drain. That stuff is HEAVY!!! Took 2 of us to carry an 8' piece out the door.




Our nice new bathroom drain and main drain and vent stack. He also added an Air Admittance Valve at the sink for extra venting. The first PVC pipe that you see running vertically connects the toilet and sink upstairs to the main drain. The 2nd pipe is the main vent stack.



The upstairs rough-in pics. The venting for this will be an Air Admittance Valve (AAV).

The IRC requires all structures to have one main vent which runs undiminished in size from the building main drain up and out through the roof. Additional auxillary vents may be terminated through the roof, through the wall, in the attic space or an unlimited number of AAV's.

Of course to tear up the floor so the plumber could run his pipes, I had to remove the wall I had installed for the new door. I also had to remove the finished landing area. Tried taking up the hardwood nicely, but it got destroyed in the process.