My bathroom renovation: Before and after. Many, many pics.
My bathroom in my 1925 Center-hallway Colonial Revival was horrifically unattractive. At some time period in the 1970s, someone else put cheesey-looking 4" ceramic tile on top of (gasp) the original 1920s white 1" hexagonal tile.
Sometime in the 1970s, someone on hallucinogenic drugs put up wallpaper with black and red psychedelic butterflies. True story. As if that weren't enough (and it was) they put up extra-crappy 4" beige tile as wainscoting, using some low-rent constructive adhesive, and some of these tiles were laid on TOP OF the black and red psychedelic butterflies.
The substrate (where the wall tiles were placed) was a mess, so no two tiles are level with one another.
And then...
In 2005, the people who were going to "flip" the house put some 12" faux stone floor tile atop the 4" ceramic tiles on the flooring. So now our radiator is slowing disappearing into a chronology of cheap floor tiles through the decades.
My goal was to restore the 1920s look. The good news was, as we started tearing into walls, we found a hole for the old medicine chest and even old wiring for the porcelain sconces, so the restoration part went pretty well. We hired a lot of people, including boiler repairmen (to do the radiator repair), plumbers, electricians, plasterers and a carpenter to do the wainscoting. I did the demolition, the painting and the clean-up. ;)
The flooring is sheet vinyl, sold at a linoleum store in Hollywood. I checked the entire country and that was the only place I could find that sold it.
The sheet vinyl really does look like real tile. In fact, it's so realistic that THREE construction guys were fooled by it, thinking it was real tile. We had a professional floor guy do the installation and he did a beautiful job. Before he could install it, he had to apply THREE coats of floor leveler to clean up the mess we found hidden under those two layers of floor tile.
And we had to set the toilet up on a marble slab because the old flange was 1" too high after all those other floors were removed. We had two plumbers give estimates on replacing the flange and both said it would require tearing up the concrete floor in the bath *and* the kitchen ceiling. One of the reasons the radiator repair was so expensive was because an old elbow - buried underneath the radiator - had started leaking. To our surprise, we found six solid inches of concrete beneath the old tile floor. I'd expected three or four. Six was insane. And just tearing open one little hole for that radiator elbow cracked the kitchen ceiling below.
I started this in mid-January. The project took a little time. :)
First, the before photos (awash in Beige):
Radiator is slowly disappearing under many layers of tile.
The floor was a horrible mess. I'd hoped to save the old 1920s hex tile, but it had been torn up and replaced with concrete.
Messy.
Electrical goes in.
New floor and new bathroom:
Radiator returns after being removed, sandblasted and powder coated.
Wainscoting goes in.
Paint job complete!
A shiny new pedestal sink (Kohler's Memoirs) will be installed as soon as I get the special order faucets in.
Comments (26)
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So many Bathroom/Shower questions- Warning, Long! w/pics
Comments (5)Mr. Vincent, THANK YOU----Your link is worth it's weight in gold! It's clear, big pictures, step-by-step and after we went through it a couple times we just Know we can do it! Now, about that Chloraloy---we've called several places and they don't carry it. Is there another name it goes by? I've been asking for Chloraloy Membrane Shower pan Liner. Should I be asking for it by another name? Also, Husby came home in the wee hours of this morning with a bag of SpeedSet (I had not heard of it here) and said because we have to get the tiles set and grouted at least around the toilet area so that we can set the toilet, it was the quickest setting and allows us to grout in 6 hours. Does this sound right to you? thetews, Thank you so much! It's funny, when Husby told me he could steal 23" from the bedroom to add to the bathroom I looked at him like he was nuts! I was thinking " 23 inches? Might as well have said 3 inches for all that little bitty 23" is gonna give me". Boy, little did I know then, when it comes to bathrooms, especially showers, 23" is like 10 feet -- with bathrooms, every inch counts! LOL As it was, for 30 years when we sat on the toilet our knees hit the wall in front of us so for all these years we've sat on the toilet at an angle. I can hardly wait to sit on a toilet straight-on! It's the little things that excite me. LOL I awoke this morning with every bone in my body aching. I ached where I didn't realize I had places! Taking down shower tiles, curb, vanity, toilet, leveling floor, dragging out bins of cement, lathe, old wet drywall ---granted I didn't do it all but the little I did do, boy, I see how pro's earn every penny they make! There are 6 adults using one bathroom right now and will be until our new Toto toilet is in place. Hopefully we don't open any Pandora's boxes along the way so that we can get this bathroom done in as short a time as possible. Wish me luck! And thank you so much for responding----means a lot!...See MoreSmall bathroom before and after pics
Comments (34)Thanks for the info dpowlan. We had actually planned to put the toilet under the sloped roof and put a small shelf behind the toilet; essentially bumping it out about 6-8 inches, and then put a curbed skylight above it to combat the lack of headroom. Our contractor (at the time) seemed to have no problem with that. We were also going to run our shower all the way back to the roof and put in a shelf and a bench. However when the plumber showed up he told us he was pretty sure that that was not to code. My contractor then called me and said that all the walls in the bathroom had to be at least 5 ft tall per code. Which meant building a wall out from the sloping roof and losing 12 sq ft. Soo our small bath just became much smaller. It is good to hear that the internal dimensions of your lovely shower are 36 x 45. Our "new" dimensions will be approx 42 x 34. I looked at your pics and stopped hyper-ventilating a bit and thought, "Ok that looks roomy and do-able, if we are somewhere close to that size-wise we may be ok" Anyway, thanks for the help. You give all of us small bath people hope!!...See MoreBathroom Reveal, Thanks to the Bathroom and Remodel Forums! (pic
Comments (56)This old thread got revisited. @dani_m08 to answer the question about extra probe, I believe I ordered an extra one when I bought the set up. The probe wire is just setting in the junction box I think but honestly I cant remember. When I laid out the underfloor heating and the probe, I just ran another probe near the first probe, and it was then sealed into the floor self leveling compound as per instructions. then the end was just threaded into the wall like the one that would be live, and not connected, but just laying there in the box. Regarding the tile layout. I just decided to run it this way, after getting instructions on the 90Degree way, IIRC. The herringbone that I love is from my childhood and the side walks in my neighborhood that all ran at 45Degree. so that to me is herringbone. I know you posted on @sochi thread about her amazing bathroom and a wall mounted faucet. I would totally do it if I had the right sink for it. In my case I had made my sink out of soapstone and an integrated backsplash. The pictures of this bathroom reveal are no longer available because of the use of photo bucket, when it was Gardenweb. I did not keep my account with photo bucket. I'll add some of the reveal pictures so you can see the sink and floor. Regarding the sink there is no ledge for water to drip from my hands when using the faucet. The water drips right into the sink. In my other bathroom with a deck mounted faucet I am always wiping up drips and it is a nuisance. I much prefer the setup for this sink. Below: I love the flush finish from the faucet to the bottom of the sink. nothing drips on a counter or edge of a sink. Below: looking in from the doorway. Below: Here I am finishing up the sink. the backsplash was epoxied on as a separate piece. The whole soapstone install in the room took next to nothing to buy as they were all small pieces that I epoxied together with a 3 part stone epoxy. Below: this is the counter at the tub, and is in 2 long pieces but I was able to epoxy them together at there edges to make a wide slab for the top. All the soapstone was finished with a 60 grit sandpaper to be rough and this lovely soft tone of blue/green/gray/white. I did not oil it so this color tone would remain light. Below: If I recall correctly @sochi helped me decide on this Hubberton Forge Mirror. I have 3 different metals in this room, but they are all a cool silver to black color. Below: the center of this tower shares space with the kitchen on the other side of the wall. there is also some extra space that houses some electrical wiring. this is an old simple house. this bathroom was an add on when it got move to the farm in the 30s IIRC. The plumbing was all rearrange and some of the details that were orignially there I kept but updated it, such as this tower feature. The old one went and the carpenter did a wonderful job with this one. Below: This feature was another thing I kept from the old bathroom but flipped it from the other end and had the carpenter put drawers in it. Before it was a hell hole. things got lost and the build was soooo old and creapy I didn't like using it for storage. Now it is perfect for storage....See MoreDIY bathroom reno finally complete! Before and after pics
Comments (43)Just one side note, it was mostly DIY- all of the plumbing and tub installation was done by a plumber. And the plaster walls were resurfaced by a professional. They were pretty bad after removing the tile. And my husband wanted plaster not Sheetrock....See More- 16 years agolast modified: 11 years ago
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rosemarytOriginal Author