Removing concrete floor in very old bathroom

13 years ago

I recently purchased an old brick home with tons of character. That's a nice way to put it. My soon to be wife wants a new floor in the bathroom and didn't care much for the green toilet.

So I tear out three tile floors to get to six inches of concrete. I've removed almost all of concrete and I see some of these joist are notched down below the level I want the floor. My question is if I sister these joist and try to make the floor level, will the floor be supported properly if the sister joist are a little above the tops of some of the joist but not all? I hope that question makes sense. Also, what size board should I use to sister.

One more thought, I've read a lot of post re: bath floors and what is the order from bottom to top, ply? then paper? then what quick set? what? The walls are Vitrolite which is ok and we are trying to keep the house true to the time so I want to keep it. Should the floor tile be set under or level to bottom of border. I've never tiled before....help please

Thank You

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Comments (2)

sombreuil_mongrel
13 years ago
If:
You were going to use stone tiles, and the original joists were notched deeply for plumbing, and you had no obstacles (wires, pipes, etc.) in the way;
Then:
You could sister the joists with new stock of the same size, doubling the built strength and resistance to deflection.
The subfloor and underlayment must be up to the task based on what the finish is. Large-format stone needs the greatest amount of support, small mosaics need the least (in the tile family), and vinyl needs no support at all beyond what springiness underfoot you are willing to live with. Create your own (tile) reality here.
If you are satisfied that you need no structural enhancements beyond the original construction, you can sister with 2x4's or 6/4 stock screwed/glued to the sides of the joists. Select very straight stock for this and run string lines across the ends to set them evenly. If you are making up for 6" of mortar now removed, you may need to raise the level considerably to meet your Vitrolite walls (unless you're adding a baseboard tile to cover the gap?) so plan the heights out really well considering what you will use as finish. To get the floor back up to the previous height, sistering may call for 2x6's (or more) to achieve the needed height. I'd probably use two layers of plywood and Kerdi membrane for a tile floor; assuming 24" centers on your old framing. If 16" centers and very stout joists (I've seen 3x12's used in old houses) then one layer of 3/4" plywood is fine, plus the Kerdi. Search the "Bathrooms" forum for full discussions and how-to's on Kerdi and it's sister product Ditra.
Casey
tim_ateo
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for the advice. We are going to use small hexagon pattern tiles so yea I'm concerned with raising the floor to the proper height. I'm not sure how much space to leave for tile between the floor and the bottom of existing border tile.
I was suprised to see the 24" centers. Sounds like you've done this a few times. Thanks again Oh, and no wiring found but there was plumbing going to the tub so that explains the notch. It just threw me off because the notch is 3' instead of 3".??? It goes in front of the toilet so that must have something to do with it.
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I just went through a complete demo of my old 35yr old custom shower base. thanks for all who posted here. That helped me get started. Spanky67 was right. You go at it an inch at a time with a chisel. However, if you can rent a rotary hammer, that would save you a ton of time and effort. I first tried a hand chisel and a sledge hammer but could see that I would be wasting at least 4-6hrs on a 3'x4' shower base. Instead, I picked up a 3-in-1 rotary hammer at Harbor Freight for $80. It has a chisel/hammer function. It took less than 30 minutes to get all the concrete out. The trick is to place the chisel right between the tiles. Mine were the small size ~1x2" or so. Going right on the ceramic tile is much harder to break. The hardest part once done was actually hawling the heavy concrete downstairs. If any of you are remodeling a custom shower base with a lead/metal shower pan liner, here's a tip on how to remove the liner and the drain: Don't wast your time trying to unscrew the old drain out to get to the pan liner. You'll waste so much time because the drain is metal and it's so rusted that you can't unscrew it. What I did in my case was first get a pair of snips and cut the pan liner all the way to the drain, then cut around the drain to free up the liner. Once it's removed, discard it. By then you would have exposed your subfloor. Then use a reciprocating saw or circular saw and set it to 1/2" or 5/8" deep(depending on your subfloor thickness), then cut a 2'x2' section. remove it and pry it out. once you can see the drain pipe and have access to it, you can take a hacksaw and cut below the drain. Discard the drain. You can easily replace extend/raise the pipe up iff needed by adding a small section to it. Caution: Always be careful when cutting into the subfloor. even though the subfloor below showers/bathrooms usually is more roomy (at least 8 to 12" deep), you can still run into pipes that you could accidentally damage. That could cause you more work/headache than you ever need. That's it! I wish I read this post before starting my remodel. it would have saved me some time. Happy Remodeling! MaxRelax
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Removing concrete floor in very old bathroom

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sombreuil_mongrel

tim_ateo
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Removing concrete floor in very old bathroom

Comments (2)

sombreuil_mongrel

tim_ateoOriginal Author

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tim_ateo
Original Author