Bathroom

As we battle major septic tank issues in the basement, the upstairs bath is slowly starting to progress. The septic system is draining very slowly and water frequently backs up into the basement. Usually it is minor and drains slowly but all goes down. We eventually reached Drain-con 4 when not so nice things began floating up from the drain. Plumber pending.

The bath upstairs was a total gut including replacing and sistering floor joists because they had been hacked away for past plumbing. About 2 ½ feet was gained by hijacking a closet adjacent to the bathroom in the third bedroom.

In all its mid-century (not so) splendor. I'm not sure what the original bathroom looked like but the faux marbled paneling has long overstayed its welcome.

Once gutted it takes on a completely different look.

In the second picture the line where the wall changes back to plaster is the old closet. This is where they ran the stack up which will have to be relocated into the wall.

There was some serious structural issues with the floor joists. Unsafe amounts of the of the floor joists were cut out to allow for plumbing. The one joist cracked completely through during demolition. 

Quite an open view from the kitchen to the bathroom.

A new window was installed and moved to the right a couple of feet to allow for a shower installation. Currently the entire wall into the hallway is removed as a new header will be installed and a pocket door added to save on space. Since there was only one pocket door remaining from the the downstairs pair I decided to reuse it here. 

 

After the joists were shored up, a new subfloor and overlay were installed. A new vent stack and drain/vent for the sink were also installed. 1/2" copper was replaced with 3/4" PEX throughout. Additional 2x4 framing was added 16" OC and to fill in where the closet door was into the bedroom. 

The old pocket door was given new life with a Stanley pocket door kit. This will be much more convenient than having a large door swinging into the bathroom. 

Shower pan was mortared in place and rough framing installed. Challenges would evolve due to the wall to the bottom left of the slanted exterior framing is solid block making it difficult to attach anything. Fortunately there was already a groove in the block that I was able to run a new vent line from the shower into the attic to join the main vent. 

I decided to use the Schluter system to get the best water proofing possible. I was really impressed with this product. 

I wanted to keep an older, classic feel so went with a simple subway tile and white grout. This was my first attempt at tiling so I figured the white on white would also hide any minor flaws.