Advice needed on bathroom remodeling

Parent Cafe
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<p>I am thinking of having some work done on my master bath, and I would greatly appreciate some advice, general or specific, and/or recommendations for helpful web sites or reference books.</p>

<p>I have a largish master bath that is 15 years old. What has prompted this urge to have work done is some water damage that is occurring where the shower door opens and the fact that the carpeting (what a bad idea) is disgusting. The shower is separate, the toilet is in a small separate room, and there is a large whirlpool tub as well as dual sinks. My first priority is tile for the floor, replace the shower stall, get rid of the huge mirror, and new cabinets if the money stretches. We like the layout and don’t intend to move anything.</p>

<p>I don’t even know where to start. A few friends have recommended the comprehensive services of The Great Indoors. Anybody here have experience with that store? My aim is to maintain the integrity of the house and to appeal to potential buyers down the road (selling obviously not a possibility with DS in college). I don’t care about making “a personal design statement,” but want it to look light, airy, and refreshing. There is a lot of new construction in fairly close proximity.</p>

<p>What else is pertinant information? How should I start? (I have already followed my first impulse, and gone to Barnes and Nobel and looked through their books, which I didn’t find useful enough to buy, and the resources in our library are pathetic).</p>

<p>Thanks so much for any advice…</p>

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<p>Thank you for starting a thread that has little to do with politics! I have one suggestion: if you are thinking about tiling, think about epoxy grout. It is a little harder to work with than the regular kind and a bit more expensive, but the benefit of never having to seal it is priceless! It is completely stain-proof. I will never, ever use regular grout again.</p>

<p>And while you are re-doing the floors, you might want to think about adding an in-floor heating system. My friend remodelled her bathroom and thinks it is the best feature ever created! Her cats lounge on the bathroom floor and completely ignore the fancy cat cozies she bought for them.</p>

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<p>I have not heard of The Great Indoors (but cute name) but we re did two bathrooms in 2006. One was 50 years old, the other near 40, gutted both keeping the same tiny layouts.
We (read I, H only came when dragged) started at Expo Design Centers and local Bath and Kitchen remodel firms for ideas and styles available. I collected brochures and kept a spiral notebook of suggestions from each location we visited. In the end, I did order some of the plumbing fixtures and tile online, but not without seeing them in person locally, first.
Started this in the spring, got the contractor on board in the late summer and work started in October when the college kids were absent. Since they were our only bathrooms, we did them sequentially rather than concurrently. The first was done in time for T’giving break; we started the second on the Monday after T’giving and it was done by the time the Christmas breaks started.</p>

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<p>My favorite home design site is apartmenttherapy dot com. It’s kind of like a combination blog and discussion board focused on good, functional design. There is an emphasis on small spaces, but they talk about houses too. Their motto: “Saving the world, one room at a time.” I get a lot of good ideas there - and someday I hope to use them :-). You can search their archives to find bathroom-specific postings.</p>

<p>I would recommend checking your public library for bathroom design books. There are lots of good ones out there. You could check Amazon for ideas (and see which books have the highest user ratings) and then see if your library has them.</p>

<p>We remodeled our 1945 bathroom about 7-8 years ago. I spent a lot of time in a very good tile store with beautiful displays, which helped me visualize possibilities. I went to a local bathroom/kitchen plumbing fixture store with many pieces on display, a huge selection of catalogs, and a staff who listened to me making vague comments and then pointed me to things I liked that were also affordable. I did it backwards - bought all the pieces (including bathtub, sink, toilet, new window, lighting, and storage cabinet) and put them in my garage, then went to find a tile guy, who helped me find a general contractor. It still worked out well.</p>

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<p>Tile flooring is sooo cold in the winter…good advice for heaters. I recently put in Brazilian cherry flooring in my master bath, and love the richness and warmth. We incorporated a piece of marble where the shower door might drip, as well as a piece to step from the tub. This same marble was used on two walls of the shower stall, with glass on the other two. I looked through tons of magazines, and collected pictures of everything I loved. You begin to see a pattern of what attracts your eye. I am in the beginning stages (prints) of building a new home, and honestly, will probably do the Brazilian cherry flooring again.</p>

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<p>Remodeled our 60 yr. old bath for the second time recently. It was a smaller bath so the $$ for marble on the floor wasn’t much different than tile. If you can swing it, using marble is a great choice aesthetically. We’ve done tons of tiling & like it, but the marble looks so great we’re glad we went w/ it. Not as difficult to work with as you might imagine.</p>

<p>Anyway, it’s another option to consider.</p>

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<p>Ah, a new bath. We just completed our master bath remodel before Christmas. </p>

<p>Who is going to do the work? Will you act as your own contractor and hire individual craftsmen, or do you want to go with a company that does it all? </p>

<p>It sounds like this will be your first remodel experience. One of the first things I would do is ask your friends for references. If possible, find craftsmen or contractors who depend upon the goodwill of their clients in your area. You don’t want to work with a company or with individuals that have no investment in their reputation in your locale.</p>

<p>Personally, I think in a bathroom remodel where you aren’t moving plumbing or walls, it’s pretty easy to act as owner/contractor as long as you have the time. This is the big “if”, as it does take time. You can save a lot of money this way, however. There are books that can lead you through the process- check out Amazon- and show you the steps from demolition to completion.
Then you pick out your own materials and hire your own subcontractors. Some people don’t have the time or inclination to do the research required to find good people and pick out their own stuff, and others love it. It just depends on what you want. If you prefer, there are companies that will do it all for you, and usually much more quickly than you could do it yourself. I found that the savings of doing it ourselves is substantial - probably saved about $25,000, but it took me a year. Because I am home and my kids are gone, it was a perfect project for me.</p>

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<p>I’ve had excellent experiences working with the designers at Expo, particularly for a bathroom that was just finished.</p>

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<p>We’ve re-done lots of bathrooms in the past, and are currently working on an entire house (investment property), including gutting 2 bathrooms.</p>

<p>I like expensive-looking stuff, but I’m pretty much a cheap-skate…so we’ve done most, not all, of our purchasing of the materials at Lowe’s. I love going into the hoity-toity bath stores to get ideas, but I find their prices to be obscenely high. I also don’t see the value of a general contractor who subcontracts the plumbing, elect, carpentry, tiling, etc. Bathrooms are pretty straight-forward, and after picking up a couple design books (Lowe’s or Home Depot has lots, and can really give you lots of practical ideas), you can easily find the subcontractors yourself and not pay the overhead of a general contractor.</p>

<p>If you live in an area that has Angies List, I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!!! (especially if you don’t personally know people who can give you reliable recommendations). For our rehab house, we have had outstanding results on everything from windows to electricity to plumbing…you read others’ reviews and can tell their ratings by Angies List. Definitely worth the money to sign up if you have a project coming up.</p>

<p>Get at least 2 estimates for everything you plan to do…we found a $300 difference between plumbers ($900 vs. $600) for the same work. Actually, the $600 guy did a couple of extra things for us.</p>

<p>If you think you’ll be selling the house in the next 10 years, go for neutral earthtones for the walls and tile—you can add pizzazz with color for towels, rugs, etc. And go for upgraded faucets, etc.—those are really nice touches. Basically, go for the stuff in there that you see over and over in the design books–don’t go too trendy (ugh–remember those pink bathrooms from the 50’s/60"s). Another great idea to get ideas is to go through model UPSCALE homes. There’s nothing like seeing a bathroom in 3-D to really get an idea of what you want (same reason the hoity-toity bath stores are good).</p>

<p>RE: lighting…in our “real house”, which already came with an awesome bathroom, they did interesting things with the lights. There are recessed (“can”) lights over the sinks, but in the middle of the room, and over the tub, are light fixtures that you would normally not think of as “bathroom” styles…The bigger one would look good over a big hallway, or over a dining room table. Those really add a lot of class, and I would never have thought to do that on my own. It’s a big bathroom, so there’s lots of room to do this kind of thing. I put a faux-oriental rug in the middle of the room…helps for the walking across cold tile thing, and it also makes it look more elegant, and less bathroomy…</p>

<p>A specific tip for your bathroom…MAKE SURE the subfloor is in good shape, from where the leak was. If it looks bad once the carpet is up, it should be removed, to make sure there are no further problems (mold or rotting wood) underneath. In our rehab house, they had previously had a leak and had it repaired. Once we really got into it, we realized that they did a really crappy job of fixing it…and there was a lot more damage underneath than we knew about. H ripped up all the old tile from the floor, and then promptly put his foot through the floor to the crawlspace. We had to replace floor joists, as well as the subfloor. This is an extreme, but something to look at. When we sold a previous home we lived in, the buyers’ inspector noted “softness” in the floor in front of the shower (also a carpeted bathroom). We took up the carpet and realized the floor was damaged and had to fix it…and we never knew there was any problem at all. </p>

<p>Good luck. Last thing…watch HGTV and DIY networks…they have several shows devoted to bathroom remodels (and the Flip this House show almost always involves bathroom re-dos).</p>

<p>Whew…that was a long one…sorry. It’s just what is occupying a good deal of my gray matter these days.</p>

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<p>Anyone tried actually doing the bathroom themselves? We are in need of a new bath in what was the kids bathroom (there was a leak we did not know about and the structure that supports the tub base rotted and the bottom of the tub broke). Not good timing with kid in college and not many $$s to spare - but our master bath does not have a tub just a big shower and I really like to have baths so want it fixed. </p>

<p>Anyone ever installed a bath themselves? It would be in the same location as the old one. My husband is willing but I am a bit nervous!! I am thinking we should rip the old tub out ourselves but pay a plumber to install the new one. Willing to have a go at tiling myself. Anyone done that? The floor seems doable but I would like tile on the tub walls to use as a shower and that seems a little more scary.</p>

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<p>Anyone tried actually doing the bathroom themselves?</p>

<p>upon reading the title of the thread my thought was " do not have my husband do it"</p>

<p>Ask me how many bathrooms we have- then ask how long it has been since I asked about the leak in the wall where the shower is- and how that translated to taking the sink out without a replacement? :p</p>

<p>tile is easy</p>

<p>[Ceramic</a> Tile Do-It-Yourself - Tile Doctor](<a href=“http://www.thetiledoctor.com/]Ceramic”>http://www.thetiledoctor.com/)</p>

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<p>swimcatsmom, hiring a plumber to do the bath replacement job is a wise idea. I would also make sure that the subfloor and the joists are structurally sound before you put tiles over them. Tiling is not that big of a deal, any handy person with the right tools can do it.</p>

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<p>I recently redid an 18 year old master bath for almost the same reason. It had a shower and a whirlpool tub, but the tub stopped being used some time ago. We replaced the single person size shower with a two person size shower with two shower heads. I also added a linen closet because the bathroom had none.</p>

<p>We added a heated floor – VERY NICE.</p>

<p>At first I was wary about replacing my old toilet because of worries about problems with the 1.6 gallon toilets. Put in a Toto comfort height toilet and it was well worth it. </p>

<p>I say get 2-3 estimates. I say look at people who do their own work and do not subcontract. If you have the time and energy to be your own general contractor, go for it.</p>

<p>Just as Expo Design is higher end Home Depot, The Great Indoors in higher end Sears.</p>

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<p>I would love to update our master bath, but don’t see it happening too soon. Heated floor will be a must since the cold garage is under the bathroom and closet. We have a double sink and other than a great place for a cat to lounge while we brush our teeth, don’t find it all that useful. The shower is a little small. The previous owner was a big guy, so when he built the second garage, installed a large shower in the full bathroom . I could use a linen closet in there too. The vanity and fixtures are blah , contractor specials.</p>

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<p>Dual shower is a wonderful suggestion! </p>

<p>I have not heard of TOTO toilets and had to look them up. Gotta love those atomic force microscopy pictures of the ceramic surface:</p>

<p>[SanaGloss</a> Glazing](<a href=“http://www.totousa.com/ourbestfeatures.asp]SanaGloss”>http://www.totousa.com/ourbestfeatures.asp)</p>

<p>I absolutely hate cleaning the floor around the toilet base, so our next toilets will be wall-mounted!</p>

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<p>

Yea - kind of my thought. I remember when we had someone install a new sink in the kitchen with the counter top - the guy asked who had installed the old one (husband) and commented that he could see why we had problems because the water ‘just would not know which way to go’! And the previous countertop - you know the old saying ‘measure twice - cut once’ - my dear husband miscut the hole for the cooktop then did it again for the sink!! (did not cut the hole too small for either of course) Had to live with a very odd looking counter for several years before we could afford a another new one.</p>

<p>Thank you for the tile link.</p>

<p>

Yea I think I will go the route of plumber for the tub and have a go at the tile ourselves. Our floor is a concrete slab so I think we should be ok there. My husband does not like the idea of tile for the wall (wants those prefab shower walls) but I really like the idea of the tiled walls and a curved shower rail plus curtain - always seem to have problems with the sliding doors plus I think they hold in the moisture and we et a lot of mildew. Plus it is flipping hard to clean the tub with those doors.</p>

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<p>Just another vote for heated floors. Underfloor heating is just inexpressibly wonderful. Heated towel racks are nice too. </p>

<p>Good luck with the whole thing!</p>

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<p>For some good advice, search for GardenWeb forums; there’s one specifically for bathrooms, as well as others for remodeling, flooring and cleaning. I’ve gotten a great deal of help there over the years.</p>

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<p>For those who put marble in the bathroom, how does it hold up with shampoo, hair conditioner and other toiletries that are acidic.</p>

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<p>A second vote for the Gardenweb forums. Kitchen one is excellent. Here’s link to bath:</p>

<p>[Bathrooms</a> Forum - GardenWeb](<a href=“Bathroom Forum | Houzz”>Bathroom Forum | Houzz)</p>