Okay so when last we left off we talked about coming projects on the house. The main project we’d like to focus on is turning this room into a finished fabulous bathroom. I’d like to restate that we already have permits to finish this bathroom.
View ImageCrammed full of crap which is our way…You can see that I’ve done the initial framing for the bath with backers for towel bars- grab bars.
View ImageOne issue that I didn’t think of at the time is what to do about this siding. I would like to carefully remove it and install the earthquake shear panels in this area. As you can see there are several soil stacks in the way that will have to be removed for access. Also the closest window is pretty rotted away to nothing and I’ve bought a replacement for it.
But, how to remove the siding without destroying it?!?!!? Any ideas? Then how do I strip the siding back to bare wood (safely and effectively as there is lead paint there for sure) and reinstall it? I want to install house wrap and flash the window openings with peel and stick flashing. There also is a question on how far I should strip the siding. Should I do this entire side then I can flash that far window also. Unfortunately that far away soil stack is the one most used on the house as it connect the only working bathroom to the sewer main….that’s gotta stay attached and working as much as possible. View ImageThat nearest soil stack shoots way up to the third floor. This stack is not being used at all so I think it makes sense just to remove it entirely and replace it with modern no-hub cast iron when we get to redoing the upper bath.
Check out what looks like an old boarded up window and the lame t-111 siding in this pic. More evidence that this back part of the house was probably a porch at one time.
View ImageAnother shot of the weird old patch job and old window. It might be fun to put a window back in but the city won’t allow it because the house is too close to the property line on this side for any additional windows. I don’t honestly think I noticed this when we bought the house…
View ImageHere’s the bathroom window with no header, and no weights that we want to replace.
View ImageHere’s the fancy-cool new marvin ultrex window I bought to replace the rotted original….only problem is, is that for some reason I bought a replacement window that is several inches bigger in both dimensions! I’m not sure why in the heck I did that…I’m also not sure now if it’ll work…
View ImageWhen I do get to replacing the window I’ll have to reframe the opening and add an actual header like these we did on the other side of the house.
View ImageAlong one wall of the bathroom half the height of the wall is foundation. We’re not sure what we are going to do along this wall. One idea is to tile it as a wainscot and continue the tile around the room. Since we are planning on tiling the room in an antique tile style this idea should work out nicely. Irene has a tile plan worked out for the bathroom I believe.
View ImageAstute readers will notice that the sole plates in the bathroom are not pressure treated lumber. When building on concrete using regular lumber is generally a no no. I applied a water proofing membrane to the bottom of the sole plate which should be okay with the inspector but I need to check. If not he’ll probably make me pull this up and redo it…which would mean basically redo the framing for the bathroom entirely!
View ImageThe shower area is going to be the biggest puzzle to figure out. We’re not doing a bath just a stand-up shower. The dimensions for the shower are 3by5′ with the shower head probably coming out of the ceiling and the shower controls near the door to the shower which will be the 3′ side nearest the door. Ya a diagram would help but the computer that has all those plans on it died on me and I haven’t gotten it back from the shop yet.
The fun and exciting things about this are that I get to pour a mud bed-why not just concrete? and slope it correctly and form a curb.
View ImageHere is a picture of the type of drain that I was hoping to use. Its from a company called quickdrain and they are newish to the U.S. Using this drain I can do a simple slope towards the drain, not a fancy 4 way slope you have to do with a standard center drain. One problem is that I thought this company had a rear discharge model…which I can see nicely hooking up to the drain line in the above picture. With how the drain line is above slab I don’t know how I’m going to get a standard bottom discharge drain to work unless I have a very thick mud bed. Also, I’m not sure if these drains are approved for use in Alameda… I could be looking at a pretty serious step up into the shower if I don’t plan this right. When I’m old I don’t want to have to take a giant step over the shower curb and into the shower…
View ImageHere’s a shot from the quickdrain website that’s very close to what we want to do. Except that the solid wall on the right will actually be a door.
Another interesting mystery to be solved is how to water proof the shower enclosure on the two walls. The quickdrain comes bonded to a
http://www.noblecompany.com/Portals/0/PRODUCT%20INFO/Product%20Descriptions/NobleSeal%20TS%20Product%20Decription%200409.pdf”>nobel seal TS water proofing material flange. The nobel seal TS is interesting as it fully water proofs the floors,walls etc. Using this product I can just use regular plywood for the walls and the tile is thin-setted to the nobel seal. Seems interesting and much more likely to be a whole lot more waterproof than cement backer board with felt tacked up underneath it. Water is the enemy of old houses so what ever I can do to avoid it getting where it shouldn’t I try to do.
I also need to figure out the plumbing but that’ll be for a later post I think.
Replies
Why arent the pictures showing up?
They showed up in the box when I was writing this?
I just cut and pasted the html code from my wifes house blog which has always worked in the past?
Sorry Guys?
Hey Mad
you might want to figure out how to post those pictures-I am seening nothing but the box and an X in it.
Could I be missing something?
Ya I don't know whats going on...
The pictures show up in the edit pane but not on the post? But on the post I can click on the picture icon and it pops the picture up big as life?
I tried right clicking...............
but as you say, they do open when just clicking on that X.
Wow, you've got some work to do
What country not in the third world would have all those main drains on the outside of the house?
Boy, for all the picayune crap they make California out to be-it's no wonder you got laws on laws................
after that, I've been drinking
and whacking the golf ball,
so, no help here..
Well Its an old house
So the indoor plumbing came after the house. They just ran a main sewer line along that side of the house and dropped branches down into it.
Its sorta the 'wet wall' of the house. Its on a side of the house thats all but invisible from the street and the backyard so I don't mind the fuglyness....old houses just look that way around here...
Wow, the new, new, new breaktime!
Don't love the fact that I don't appear to be able to cut and paste html code..
What's with all the 37 million different categories on the left!?!?!?
You can remove the siding (if it's standard wood lap) with a shingle thief and an assortment of pry bars. You will damage some pieces, though. And if it's got to be stripped it may be better/cheaper to install new fiber-cement or composite siding.
Hi Dan
Its old very dry redwood siding thats 12" lap nailed thru the tounges with square but nails....so I don't know if thats standard or not? But its certianly standard around here.
I'm thinking about if I can tap them slightly loose from the inside and then slide a long sawzall blade up behind it to cut the nails I might be able to save more than most?
Someone else also mentioned about the dryness of the wood being a major problem...I wonder if its possible to spray the backsides of the boards with a penetrating oil like Tung or something and let that really soak in before I try this? If I could get my garden sprayer to spray the oil that wouldn't be to big of a pita.
Well, you'll have more luck with redwood than you would with cedar, but that's not saying much.
About all you can do is try it, using a variety of techniques, but you have to assume that you will lose at least 20% of the siding (if you're lucky -- could be 80%), so you need a backup plan to replace the missing pieces.
As of this writing, no pics, or X boxes, for me.
When I had the walls off my bedroom and bath, I put shearwalls up on the inside instead of the outside. Nice thing is, you never have to worry about missing a stud when you put up drywall or a rod!
Ya putting the shear on the inside woudl be easier
of course but then I couldn't waterproof the wall and new window opening without any sheathing.
Plus having the sheathing on the outside will make running wires and plumbing a lot easier no?
That and there is already sheathing on the part of this wall on the outside.
FORGET THE SAWZALL!!! Try pounding the nails through the siding with a punch. If that won't work get a really sharp japanese style nail puller and dig them out. Not the dead-on one, it won't work. Or pry the siding out enough to get a compact hacksaw blade holder under there and saw them off. Splits can be glued back with gel epoxy or titebond iii, dug out spots can be filled with epoxy or bondo etc.
Use maze splitless nails to replace the siding, they are amazingly better than anything I have used on cedar or redwood.
I'm glad you are preserving the redwood siding, it's a national treasure.
They are the old original
square cut nails which seem pretty soft for the pounding it through the wood idea...
I'll have to check but I'm pretty sure the boards are just nailed up through the tounge parts which is covered by the board above it.
wouldn't a really long sawzall demo blade on a vari speed sawzall be just the same as the hack saw?
Yes you seem to understand that the point is to save the siding eventhough it is more work but this stuff can not be replaced for any amount of money...
Sawzalls get out of control too easy. I wouldn't try one. If the nails are soft you may be able to cut them with a small sharp cold chisel or thin bar. There probably is some rust on them so they may snap off fairly easy.
The shingle thief is the thing to use to cut them, if you don't use some sort of saw.