Although I just posted the Bathroom Remodel Plan, I actually started working on the room a couple of weeks ago when the wife was out of town. I figured that since I was going to fill the house with dust from the Hardwood Floor Patch Job, I might as well start skim-coating the bathroom walls with mud. To begin, I had to take everything out and scrape down the walls and ceiling.
Finally, the mud work began. As I’ve written many times on this blog, I hate doing mud work. I’ve gotten better at it, but that doesn’t make it pleasant.
It’s not putting on the mud that’s so dreadful; it’s the sanding. To minimize the dust in the house, I had to do it with the bathroom door closed. If I wear a breathing mask, I can’t wear my glasses or they’ll fog up. It’s just as well because they get so coated with white dust that I can’t see anything anyway. This is how thick it comes down.
After sanding, I had to put on another coat of mud, let it dry, sand it down, and repeat as many times as necessary to get a smooth finish. And since I have a single-bathroom house, I couldn’t shower in between stages. I don’t know how, but I managed to get the room (and myself) cleaned before the wife got home.
I hoped that I could scrape the crack in the ceiling and patch it with tape and mud over it. But when I starting taking off the plaster, I saw how damaged the area was. I quickly realized that I needed to cut out the cancer.
Fortunately, I had some spare drywall in the garage. Unfortunately, modern drywall is nowhere near the thickness of 50-year-old plasterboard. That meant I had to shim the ceiling joists to level the insert. As annoying as that was, it wasn’t nearly as annoying as what was about to happen. We have loose (non-asbestos) insulation in the attic. Since the pitch of the roof is so mild, I couldn’t reach all the way into the narrow corner to remove the insulation above the cracked plaster. That meant I had to cut out the ceiling and let it fall all over me. I itched for days.
It took some time, but I cut shims for the ceiling and got the new drywall installed fairly flush with he existing surface. I put some tape and a rough coat of mud on the joint, but I didn’t get a chance to sand it because we’ve been entertaining guests for the past couple of days. It was nice to take some time off.
To recap, here’s where we are in regards to the plan:
Remove everything that’s not necessary or nailed downScrape the walls and ceilingSkim coat the wallsPatch the ceiling- Remove the old tile (down to the studs)
- Remove the sink and vanity
- Prime and install the new beadboard
- Remove the toilet
- Tile work done
- Install a new toilet
- Prime the walls and ceiling
- Paint the walls and ceiling
- Buy and install a new sink
- Return everything to the room
- Bathtub refinished
The tile guys come on Tuesday. That means we have all weekend to finish the mud work, remove the sink and vanity, demo the tile, and hang the new bead board. It would be nice if we could prime the walls and ceiling, but that’s a lot to do in one weekend. The way these old houses were constructed, it’s going to be tiring and time consuming just to get the tile and backer board/grate off the walls in the first place.
UPDATE: Bathroom Remodel 3: The Hard Work
Tags: Bathroom, Drywall, Dust, Mud, Remodel, Sanding, Scraping
