The answer to the 'How long does it take' question

14 years ago

There were a couple threads a month or two ago asking how long a bathroom remodel takes. My opinion was quite a bit shorter than others, so now I'm putting my money where my mouth is and posting a real-life example. We'll see if I can live up to my own expectations. :-p

The setting: Mr. Weedy and I are giving my sister 3 days of free labor for Christmas. She wanted a bathroom in her basement. We did quite a bit of planning in advance and she purchased all the materials, which were delivered yesterday. We arrived last night and went to work this morning. My brother heard about the fun and decided to fly out to help as well.

Here's what we started with:

The drains for tub, toilet, and sink were already roughed in (the pipes you see sticking out of the concrete). Mr. Weedy played plumber all day and worked on the grinder pump, which is a bucket in the floor that the bathroom drains into (the black plastic manhole cover near the cabinet). He installed the pump, connected the bucket to a vent (rough in already nearby) and to the main drain. It took him all day and evening and 4 trips to Lowe's. Here's his handiwork.

My brother and I cleaned the floor, pulled the foil-faced insulation off the walls (it was falling apart) and added a subfloor: landscape fabric, then Delta FL, then 3/4" OSB. It took until lunch to do 2 4-foot widths of floor along the 40-foot length of the basement.

In the afternoon we stapled up a vapor barrier, framed out next to the wall, and then framed in the rest of the walls, including a tub alcove and a door. We were done by dinner. (The vanity and tub are just set in, not all the way installed).

At 5:00 2 electricians showed up (local code requires master electricians to do all electrical work) and in an hour and a half installed a box for the fan and vented it outside, and wired for 1 light fixture, 3 outlets, and a switch.

In the interest of full disclosure, we did have good help from the small hands of a couple of my sister's kids. They pitched in to scrub the floor, fetched tools for us, fought over who got to run the shop vac as we made our mess, and made forts out of the lumber off-cuts outside. :-)

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Comments (12)

busybme
14 years ago
Moving right along! You have a lucky sister! That is a wonderful idea for a gift.
pepperidge_farm
14 years ago
You guys are semi-pro, if not all pro by now!!

I'll give you that starting with raw space certainly takes less time than dealing with all the irregularities of an older home reno, and once we got past the tear down, and rip out and repair, and OMG, how is any of this going to be made plumb or level, it definitely cruised along. But not in 3 days for us.

I am as always going to enjoy your picumentary! Was the bike helmet regulation for the construction zone?
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weedyacres
Original Author
14 years ago
I realized I might be coming across as a bit arrogant in my assertion that bathrooms can be done quickly. Please believe me when I say my intent is not at all "look how fast we are, what's wrong with the rest of you." I just am baffled by contractors who say it'll take a month, and am trying to paint a more realistic picture of what I think is reasonable.

We've had plenty of oops and rework along the way (there's nothing like tipping a wall frame up and realizing you cut all the studs an inch and a half too long), and as I'm typing it's 11:30 and Mr. Weedy is still finishing up the shower valve so the inspector can do the framing/rough-in inspection in the morning.

Anyway, Mr. Weedy was the plumber again all day. He started with the tub and after putting together the drain assembly, realized it wouldn't work with the rough-in. The tub drain was positioned over the rough-in drain, but it has to connect with the drain from the overflow, making it 8 inches off. Plus that connection is typically under the subfloor, so we ended up having to build a 4" high platform for the tub and toilet to sit on, giving us enough below-subfloor room to do the drain.

Here's the tub on its new platform.

Other than some supporting carpentry, I was left to work elsewhere in the basement, so I worked on framing the bedroom (including closet and soffit) along with BIL, who's now ready to finish the rest of the basement on his own. :-)

Kid brother, meanwhile, finished up the subfloor (another 400 square feet or so). That entailed moving a ton of stuff outside and then back in again. Fortunately 7 kids and 14 hands make light work. I suggested they do a "clean sweep" with it while it was outside, but we didn't quite get to it.

Here's the clutter pile.

And here's the finished subfloor.

After dinner, sis put the FG batts in the walls. We showed them how to finish installing the tub wall panels after the inspection and before drywall.

We're heading out at the crack of dawn to another sister's, who lives 2 hours away. We'll help her out with stuff for a few days (last year's Christmas gift) while the drywall guy does his thing. We'll be back on Monday to button things up.

Fingers crossed for the inspector to pass everything!
busybme
14 years ago
Ok, weedy, it's Friday. How did the inspection go? Are you guys back to this project for the weekend?

It will be fun to see it with drywall.

Sandy
weedyacres
Original Author
14 years ago
The inspector came Thursday morning and passed everything except wanted a vent pipe on the sink. So Mr. Weedy explained over the phone how it needed to be done, they went and bought a bunch of PVC, and worked for 4 hours to get it done (said they've gained a new appreciation for Mr. Weedy).

Inspector came back out Friday and gave them the green light. The drywaller is there today doing his thing (we don't do drywall). We'll be back Monday to finish up, fingers crossed.

In the meantime, we've been having fun at my other sister's. So far we've painted all her house trim and soffits (got to rent a JLG lift), trimmed a bunch of trees, re-screened her back porch, and built a trash enclosure. Still need to do a couple plumbing jobs and repair some brick before the day's done.
weedyacres
Original Author
14 years ago
We're b-a-a-a-c-k! Due to the inspection delay, the drywall got delayed, so instead of today being the final sand, it was the second coat of mud and tomorrow morning will be the final sand. So we couldn't paint. We did everything-but: Mr. Weedy did the finish plumbing in the tub/shower and everything-but-final-hookup for the sink and toilet, I put down the vinyl floor and nailed the baseboards, and we hung the door. Sis will paint in the morning after the drywallers leave, and they'll hook up the fixtures. She promised me final photos by the time we get home late tomorrow night.

In the meantime, here's where we are:

I also managed to frame another long wall and closet while my better half was plumbing, so they've just got one wall to go in their basement.
kaleinani
14 years ago
Weedacres-You two are amazing. I have followed along with the kitchen remodel, Jack and Jill's bed and bath, the upstairs laundry, the foyer and dining room, the master bedroom, the addition, the deck, and now your aid and assistance to help your sister. Have I forgotten anything? I am almost sure I have. Whew, I am exhausted just naming those things...LOL.

I think the thing I most admire about you and Mr. Weedy is the fact that you two work together so well. I loved it when you said that you and Mr. Weedy bounce ideas off each other. Sometimes it seems like the only thing I want to bounce off my DH is maybe a hammer. I can't say not really, because sometimes that is the way I feel.

Another thing I admire, is your work ethic. When my DH and I are doing something, when it is 5 o'clock, to him it is quitting time, even though we may be in the middle of something. We started our kitchen remodel on Feburary 1. Indecisions, complications, even anger has kept us from finishing. We are almost there, just the quarter round on the cabinets and figuring out a backsplashand adding the light rail. There were times I wondered if we would end up in divorce court. Also there were times I wondered if I would resent even cooking in the kitchen because of a lot of consternation between me and DH. I love my kitchen anyway and don't really think about all the arguing trying to get to this point. WOW!!! Where did all that come from???

Okay, what a simply amazing job on your sister's bath. What a good sister you are and Mr. Weedy a great brother in law.

Thanks Weedy for all the incentive you give me.
pepperidge_farm
14 years ago
OK Weedy- looking pretty darn good, but.... this is longer than 3 days! Not that I am in any way saying that it isn't great time!

You two are all that and more.

kaleinani- well, I know whatcha' mean.

Looking forward to the finish pics, Weedy!
weedyacres
Original Author
14 years ago
kaleinani: We both agree that we're lucky we work well together. Though what you call our work ethic can sometimes be our undoing, as we're both so good at delayed gratification that we can miss out on doing fun stuff because we're just going to finish one more thing. Thanks for your kind words, and hang in there!

Yes, pepperidge, this project took longer than 3 days. It would have been one week start to finish had the vent pipe issue not arisen, 3 days of which was our time and the rest waiting for drywall to dry (their total hands-on time was about 4 hours in 3 different visits). So it's a good illustration of how one small hiccup can cause a delay longer than the hiccup lasted. If we'd passed inspection Thursday, the drywallers could have hung/taped/mudded that day, and had their follow-ups done no later than Monday morning. Instead, because they had another job Friday, they didn't hang until Saturday, so they didn't finish until Tuesday. Because of that, the main crew (us) was gone, so my sister had to finish up, and it took her 2 days to do what we could have done in a few hours, thanks to her posse of young'uns. That delayed the electricians, who didn't want to come and do finish electrical until the room was painted. So Monday evening became Friday (tomorrow). In retrospect, had Mr. Weedy vented the sink (a 1-hour job), the bathroom would have been finished 4 days earlier.

We did floor and frame the basement though, in that 3 days, in an attempt to make up for the bathroom downtime. :-)

Anyway, dear (pregnant) sister has primed, painted and plumbed, and here's how it now looks.

She's now having second thoughts about the paint color, and is contemplating going one shade darker on the paint strip. It's hard for me to advise on color when I'm not in person. Any opinions from the rest of you?
raehelen
14 years ago
I like that colour- I'm always leery of going too dark in a basement bathroom, and she's already got the dark wood vanity. If she wants more oomph she could try to get that in a shower curtain, towels, accessories, etc.

Once our basement BR is finally done, I'll have to do a counter post- ie, How Long does it REALLY take? :>) We started last year, and we're almost done...

You guys are phenomenal!
semi
14 years ago
The Weedys ROCK. I've been enjoying reading about the monster deck, so it amazes me that you take a break to help out your family build a BATHROOM! Your talents are wonderful. Great work.
pepperidge_farm
14 years ago
Awesome!

FWIW, I think either way color wise would be fine. She could still jazz it all up with accessories.

I actually have a strong art background, though even though I can understand a lot about how color works, ect., I am useless when it comes to selecting wall color. I had to have a friend (artist) come and help walk me through choosing the wall color in my master bath as I thought it was a bit complex.

Congrats!

The answer to the 'How long does it take' question

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The answer to the 'How long does it take' question

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