re-doing master bath - contractor wants to demo ceiling below

15 years ago

Hello,

So I am totally new to remodeling and this is our first huge remodel in our home. We are doing the demo ourselves but then our contractor is doing the rest of the work. He suggested that we demo the ceiling below the bathroom to save time and money.

Is this really a better way?

We are gutting the exisiting bathroom and adding more space to it from a closet. Aren't we going to have to rip up all of the floor anyway to reset all the water lines? (each line is going to have to be moved from its current location) Or does this in fact save us from ripping up some of the floor as well?

Our house is 104 years old so I feel like the less ripping up the better....but I know that I know nothing about remodeling!

Thanks for any advice!

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Comments (5)

pepperidge_farm
15 years ago
Funny you should run into this question...

We DIY'd the whole master bath reno, and DH wanted to rip up the ceiling below (in the living room); our project took a total 15 months; I know how "fast" we work. I said NO WAY!

That being said, there were a few issues that came up, we did end up with a small cutout (that has yet to be repaired) to access some pluming we were trying to run. Our sub-floor boards actually ran underneath the walls! We could not take them out or they would be unstable at the perimeter and we would have had more work trying to sister joists to put them back.

Sooo, there may be a good reason to do it. It may not be necessary.
golddust
15 years ago
We are doing the same thing. DIY bathroom project that was started last June.
DH wanted to tear out the ceiling downstairs and I insisted we would not. Our house is 103 years old and we, too, have floors under the walls and needed to plumb, etc. We ended up sawing through the subfloors and glueing and screwing 1 x 12 sheeting before glueing and screwing 1" thick plywood.

We had to add new beams in our ceiling to support the new floor. I lived with a dead man (propping up the floor upstairs) in my living room for *months*.

Our ceiling wasn't level so we ended up shimming it and adding a false ceiling.

Here is a few photos of our big mess.

Here is a link that might be useful: DIY Bathroom photos
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classicalone
15 years ago
If the project isn't going to take too long, and if it saves having to take up the subfloor, I see no reason not to remove the ceiling of the room below.

We DIY'd and it took forever, and we needed to take out the subfloor anyway to shore up the joists.
spanky67
15 years ago
I'm just wrapping up a bath gut and rebuild. I completely gutted the room, including the old tile floor, mudjob it sat on and the 1x6 subfloor. Even with that I had to cut a hole in the ceiling below to access the shower elbow (took out the tub and replaced with shower only).

Couple of thoughts:
1.Is the ceiling below plaster or sheetrock? If it's sheetrock...and you can live with the mess...a tear out might be easier to work with. Having said that, a small hole (I consider 2' x 2' to be small) is VERY easy to fix on sheetrock. As I found, you'll only need access to the tub/shower trap from below.

2. Plaster is a MAJOR pain in the @ss to patch. I love plaster. Have it in my house now. Love how it paints and prevents sound transmission thru the house. Even with all that, I would consider a complete tear out of plaster if A. the space is small, and B. you can live with the mess.

If I had to cut a hole larger than 2ft square in my ceiling that was plaster, I would plan to hang a "new" ceiling of sheetrock over the hole and remaining plaster. It's about the only way to guarantee a clean looking ceiling.

I just reread your post. Have you ever gutted something before? There's A LOT more too it than most realize. Let me know if you're new at it and I'll share what I know.
golddust
15 years ago
We cheated and ran the shower pipe outside the house instead of through the floor. As soon as we paint it to match the house, you won't hardly notice it at all, especially since it is on the back side, second story of our house.

re-doing master bath - contractor wants to demo ceiling below

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pepperidge_farm

golddust

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