My Bathroom Reno Diary

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Joel

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Our story begins with a lonely second-level kitchen, leftover from a time when the house was split into two apartments. Since the reunification, it had become a giant, mostly-empty laundry room.

My fiancée and I just purchased the house (our first!) a few months ago. We've got lots of ideas, but not much cash or experience. I've spent many hours researching, and I think I now know enough to proceed cautiously. Thus, the "before" photos:

Note the lovely upper cupboards that had been painted yellow:
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Exterior wall:
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This was a pantry. Our master bedroom is on the other side of this wall:
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All sealed up and ready to make a mess:
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Having never done this kind of thing before, I wasn't sure what to expect. I figured I could get the demo knocked out in a weekend or two. I was very wrong.

There were a few things that slowed me down: first and foremost was my own inexperience. I'm not the type of person to rush into anything, so I'm pretty slow. To make myself feel better I tell myself I'm not slow, just "measured."

But in addition to that, there had been drywall screwed over top of the old plaster and lath. Drywall looks pretty easy to remove under normal circumstances, but without the empty space of the stud bays behind it, I had to peel it off the way you would with just plaster. However, with all the (extra-long) screws holding it down, it wasn't easy.

Additionally, the ceiling is 9-feet high, which means that to reach the top part of the walls or the ceiling itself, I had to use a ladder. Climbing up and down so much definitely slowed me down. On top of all that, I'm wearing a respirator through the whole process. The house is over 100 years old, so who knows what kind of unpleasantness I'd be breathing in otherwise. Good for my health, but not so much for my productivity. The mask felt tight, especially on the bridge of my nose, and I just didn't feel as unconstrained as a normal person moving about.

Oh, and also I'm doing this all by my lonesome.

With all those excuses in hand, it probably took me 3 weekends of work just to get it to look like this:

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The opposite wall is down to bare studs, so it's not all bad, but the side you see in that photo has been driving me crazy. Since that wall was a pantry on the kitchen side and a closet on the bedroom side, there are 4 plastered surfaces to clear!
 
At this point, we weren't sure if we wanted to go to the trouble of taking down the ceiling. The main problem is that there is 12-16 inches of blown-in insulation in the attic, lying directly on top of the ceiling. In the end, though, we decided that, since the room was going to be a bathroom, there would be loads of moisture and we weren't sure how the plaster ceiling would handle it. The last thing I want is to do all this work and have problems with the ceiling down the road, so I might as well rip it out, too.

So I found my way up to the attic and shoveled most of the insulation into a giant pile over the hallway ceiling. I'll replace it when we're all done. I've been thinking I might put down a subfloor up there, but I'm not sure yet. We could definitely use the space, but it's not exactly easily accessible.

Anyway, once the insulation had been moved, I started taking the plaster off the ceiling. I also had to take off the 1x4 wood strips that had been used to hold up the ceiling tiles.

Here's what the ceiling looks like now:
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The plaster has also been mostly removed from the exterior wall:
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Now I've got to start pulling down the lath. I'm not exactly sure the best way to remove it from the ceiling. I'll start with my hammer and pry-bar, and once I've got a bit of a hole, maybe I'll start swinging the sledgehammer.

Anyway, that takes us up to the present day. It's been a lot of work already and it feels like it'll never end, but I've got to keep pressing on, so hopefully I'll have another update after this weekend.
 
Thanks for posting some great photos and welcome to the forum. I have done a few old houses very much like yours and know how much work you have put in so far. Just keep plugging away you are taking it all down and that will make the rest that much easier.

Looking forward to watching your thread and helping with questions when I can.
 
Well, you have a nice start. Just keep thinking how much you'll enjoy it when you are finished and remember the old saying...How do you eat an elephant?...One bite at a time.

Oh yeah, what about permits and inspections? Who will be doing the electrical and plumbing?
 
Old lath could have been left in place and new rock installed over it on the ceiling.
I remove it on the walls so I can add fire blocking at the top and bottoms of the walls and new wiring, plumbing, insulation.
 
No idea why you left the trim around the windows, it's all got to come off anyways to install new sheet rock.
 
Thanks for the encouragement -- it gets weary doing all this by myself, so your kind words are greatly appreciated. :)

Oh yeah, what about permits and inspections? Who will be doing the electrical and plumbing?

Because it's a super old house and we want to put a fairly large tub in, I'm planning on having an engineer come look at it once everything is exposed. Once I've gotten their recommendation, I'll head to the city for permits.

The existing pipe in the house is Uponor AquaPEX (the plumbing was all replaced around 2010). It looks pretty straightforward to install, so if the city will let me I'll rent/buy the PEX expander and do it myself. I'm assuming that will be ok, so long as they inspect the final product before I close up the walls.

Electrical is another story. I'll hire an electrician to do that work. The existing outlets need to be replaced anyway as they aren't GFCI.

No idea why you left the trim around the windows, it's all got to come off anyways to install new sheet rock.

The photos are of a work in progress -- the trim will come off in due time. Actually, one of those windows is coming out entirely, so there's definitely a lot in that picture that won't be around when all is said and done.
 
About the lath on the ceiling, take the sludge to the attic and tap it down.

I thought about doing that, but I was worried about my weight on the beam from above plus the force of the sledge removing the lath from below. Maybe that's unreasonable -- I just don't know enough to be sure it wouldn't cause a problem. I might see if I can climb high enough on the ladder to pop my head above the ceiling and swing down on the lath that way.

Old lath could have been left in place and new rock installed over it on the ceiling.

This would make a lot of sense. I'm taking it down to the bones everywhere else, though, so for now the plan is to remove it all.
 
The best way I have found to get lath off is with a good size crow bar. Just hook it in behind the lath and pull it to you the weight of the crow bar will be like your hammer from the other side.

As to PEX I like the system that uses the stainless bands and the crimping tool. I haven’t had a leak yet with them. Nice part is the one crimping tool works on all size of bands.
 
Joel, it looks like quite a big job. Thank you for posting the photos.
Its neat to see the lath behind the removed walls and such. I have an old house but the people who built it did it on the cheap so there is no lath in the walls-- they just put up thin plywood panels over the studs. I'm guessing that is not the normal procedure when building houses.

There is no shame in working slowly to make sure you do it right.

What are you going to do with all of that scrap lath? I wonder if it can be repurposed for something else.

I hope that everything goes well with the permits and the rest of the project. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your progress, but I'm sure it will take time, so no rush. :)

Bud, do you have a link to the the type of pex and bands you're talking about?
 

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