i was wondering about regional options... so i am glad.. my shotgun attempt hit something .... lol ... my point was ... OP is in a box .. of FIXING WHAT IS THERE ... i asked him to step out of the box ... and think along other lines ... depending of course.. on budget etc ... and immediacy of goals ... if i had crumb munchers... and i wanted a green lawn for them to play in.. i would not waste a year or two.. trying to renovate this alleged lawn ... there are times and places for checkbook gardening ... and if lawn is supremely important ... then spend the money ... it would be no different.. in a new house.. as updating a kitchen counter.. or replacing carpet ... just think of it as outdoor carpet ... and finally ... you could end up spending a heck of a lot of money trying to save this stuff ... and maybe.. end up spending more than sod will ever cost you .... good luck ken ps: of course.. if you are the pick up the gauntlet.. and this will not defeat me .. and i will die trying to overcome it.. good luck.. i am just playing off your need.. as you stated.. of walking around barefoot ... in the very near future ...

I would not recommend spraying such a large area with Roundup. While it is not nearly as toxic as many other pesticides, it does have some effects that are possibly causes of concern. It has been shown to cause abnormalities in fetal development in rats and humans and possibly other mammals. It is considerably more toxic to aquatic life and amphibians and one study shows it affects earthworm populations and nitrogen fixing bacteria. In small doses, over small areas, for particularly tough weeds, it's a good tool for the job, but widespread spraying is not a safe or proper use of the product. If you are in Quebec its use is banned for cosmetic purposes. You can turn over the grass, as Ianna suggested, cover the area with landscape fabric or something else for two weeks, or just till it all in. If you till it in, be prepared for a sudden explosion of weed seed germination. Tilling it a couple more times a week or so apart will kill off most of those new sprouting weeds, and you will have rid the soil of much of the dormant seeds and you'll have fewer weeds in the long run. There are several planting options for the area, depending on what you want it to look like. If you want it to resemble a lawn, you can spread clover seed. Clover makes an excellent lawn for a low to moderate traffic area, it does not need mowing, it needs less water than grass, and it improves the soil, in case you want to do serious gardening there at a future date (and your horses will probably eat it if you want to put them back there). Wildflowers are great and look beautiful. Don't buy super-cheap mixes - get a nice one with a good mix of seeds. Some sort of rock garden would be nice and many of those plants are very low maintenance. BP

Andrew ... If I till up the grass and shovel out the sod, is regrowth of the grass going to be a big issue since I'd be tearing out the roots anyways? It depends on the kind of grass. Those that spread by underground rhizomes (Bermuda and a few others) are likely to regrow from chunks of rhizomes. And if you don't patrol the area and remove all the survivors for a couple of growing seasons, they will re-establish. The rhizomes are the drought and overgrazing survival strategy - despite the name, Bermuda grass is an African savannah grass and has to deal with 6 months of no rain and being grazed by bazillions of migrating wildebeests and gnus. Making the switch to Buffalo Grass, we used a sod-cutter to remove the lawn, then tilled in compost and fertilizers and raked out grass roots and rhizomes before plugging the buffalo grass in ... and still had regrowth. We should have spent a lot more time - perhaps all summer - on getting the Bermuda killed off. I confess my errors here: http://lazygardens.blogspot.com/2009/08/watching-grass-grow-week-20-confessing.html Solarizing deeply enough to kill Bermuda's rhizomes will damage the surface roots of any trees and shrubs in that area, possible stunting or killing the greenery. The rhizomes are usually in the top 6 inches of soil, as are the tree and shrub's feeder roots. I had a client who refused to use "chemicals" like I advised and solarized around her bushes instead ... she killed quite a few by cooking the roots. My approach - leaving the dead grass to decompose under the new planting - creates open channels where the decomposed roots used to be. Lazy aerating. :) I think of it as a cover crop. zensojourner - Where do you live that Bermuda grass is so easy to kill? I use a lot of glyphosate because I clear out weed-infested landscapes and Bermuda lawns for a living/hobby, converting them to xeriscapes and lower maintenance landscapes. In the dusty desert SW, wind-blown weed seeds are ubiquitous and omnipresent and we have three weed-sprouting seasons (spring, monsoon and early winter) to deal with. Some of the seeds can persist in the soil for 10+ years and then sprout. Roundup and all its kin are contact herbicides. You are incorrect. Glyphosate is a systemic herbicide, not a contact herbicide. It translocates to the roots and kills the plant from the roots up. The problem with Bermuda is that it has such a huge underground component it's hard to get it all in the first application. You can improve the kill by having several inches of lush growth to spray, but in most of its range it takes two or more applications. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate Brand name really does not matter, glyphosate is glyphosate is glyphosate. You have been misinformed. The current brand-name "Roundup" added a knock-down contact herbicide to the formula (read the label) because homeowners are impatient to see weeds shrivel ... it's not necessary. So I use the generic single herbicide. =========== And about that Rodale study: "Researchers tested four combinations of Roundup on cultured human cells" and blah,blah,blah .... Cell cultures are fragile. You can kill or damage them by adding almost anything that disrupts their unprotected cell membranes. Try adding 20% acetic acid, the commonly used "organic" herbicide and see how fast they die. Even baking soda can kill them or damage them. Here is a link that might be useful: Bermuda images

For starters ... do you have a tub/shower combo or is this just a stall shower? Can you post a picture of the current bathroom? It can be several hundreds to replace a stall shower with a synthetic modular unit up to many thousands if there is structural damage. But don't dawdle on this repair, because if the tiles are falling off, the floor is next to go.