"Pixel" (Improbcat)
10/25/2016 at 09:56 • Filed to: None
5
14|
"Pixel" (Improbcat)
10/25/2016 at 09:56 • Filed to: None | 5
| 14 |
After !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in my bathroom wall/floor it was time for some serious demo. Had some people over and between the 4 of us we stripped it back to the walls.
I’d hoped to get the old tub out intact, but it quickly became obvious that the room was essentially built around it, and it wouldn’t come out without even more demo. So out came the sledgehammer, and the tub was reduced to bite-sized chunks that would fit out the window. I then discovered that there was no wall covering behind the tub, so that area had filled in with cellulose when I did blown-in insulation a few years ago.
Fortunately the insulation wasn’t near the leak and was dry. The stuff in the wall is also hard-packed enough that it is staying in place. I’ll use some blueboard to seal the wall back up before the shower unit goes in.
This let me expose the rotted area, and while it is bad, it is nowhere near as bad as feared. Only one of those vertical studs is load-bearing (though I found another load-bearing stud that was cut off 4 ft up so that needs fixing). and the damage to the beam is fairly contained. The joists took no structural rot, so I will sister them to be sure, but won’t have to replace them.
So out came the sawzall. The beam is 6"x6", I roughly cut a 4" x 33" x 1.5"deep section, and a smaller 4" x 12" x 1.5" deep section in the center of it. Once I chizel & sand to exactly those dimensions it will allow me to rip a pressure-treated 2x6 to a true 4" width, cut it to length and lay it in there. I think between wood hardener, epoxy glue and a bunch of 4" screws this beam will be nearly as strong as it was before. Then I have to sister the floor joists, cut out the 1" of rot on the top of the two and replace it with good wood, and build the two wall studs back down to the repaired beam.
Then I can replace the subfloor & wall covering in this corner and start making it look like a bathroom again.
Party-vi
> Pixel
10/25/2016 at 10:04 |
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I am not looking forward to my tub replacement, as I’ve only got the one bathroom in the house.
ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
> Pixel
10/25/2016 at 10:05 |
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I envy your home repair skills. I am useless with anything more than a drill and have neither the time nor budget to “practice” anywhere to learn.
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Pixel
> ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
10/25/2016 at 10:18 |
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I was very lucky that my late father did home remodeling for a bit, so I was able to learn a lot from him. Since then it has been like car work, I do a project and it turns out okay, which gives me the confidence to try another more complicated project, and so on and so forth.
The fact that I can probably finish this project for under $2K, while paying a contractor would be $10K+ easily is a great incentive to push my skill set and figure it out on my own.
jimz
> Pixel
10/25/2016 at 10:19 |
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ugh, water is a dick. essential to life, but destroys everything it touches.
OCD-CO
> Pixel
10/25/2016 at 10:24 |
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I am SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOO thankful I do not live on the east coast in an older home like this. Not to be disrespectful of course, but this would be a nightmare and I can do most anything with a home.
How old is the house?
ESSSIX GmbH - Accountant/Wagon Thumper
> Pixel
10/25/2016 at 10:35 |
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Ugggh... I’ll be doing this next year. The house we’re buying is old construction like that. Plaster central. And the Bathroom is the first thing we’re attacking.
arl
> Pixel
10/25/2016 at 10:35 |
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Looking good man, looking good. Lucky the water damage wasn’t worse.
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Pixel
> OCD-CO
10/25/2016 at 10:48 |
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The house was built sometime pre-1895(exact records were lost in a town-hall fire), and is built on the foundation from a pre-1875 building.
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ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
> Pixel
10/25/2016 at 11:14 |
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You are quite fortunate indeed.
Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig
> Pixel
10/25/2016 at 11:56 |
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Man. Nothing scarier than rot like that. Good catch, and I’m glad it’s not worse.
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OCD-CO
> Pixel
10/25/2016 at 14:12 |
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You definitely get cool points though. That is some age!
shop-teacher
> Party-vi
10/25/2016 at 14:14 |
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Porta-potty time!
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Pixel
> OCD-CO
10/25/2016 at 14:25 |
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Yeah, she is a grand old dame of a house, and I’ve spent the 4 years I’ve owned her trying to slowly return her to her former glory.
rockingthe2
> Pixel
10/25/2016 at 21:49 |
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Luckily I’m in the same boat for the skill set, and unfortunately in a similar boat with the house, since my comment on your last post I too found a bit more damage and now I’m replacing a door before I can put the deck back on. Fun times.