Another bathroom remodel

skinja

Hello all looking for your assistance in resolving some of my silly questions
while I rebuild this mess. As you may notice I am just getting started on the demo and two questions have already come up.
The first is in regards to the lack of vapor barrier in the out side wall. seems I should have vapor barrier on all three walls. Is this correct? does it need to go all the way to the floor? or will top of the tub be ok?




The second question is around the top of the tub I think its called the nailer ring. some of what I read suggest to fir the wall out accordingly to the same face as the tub about a 1/16" or so. Material recommendations for this?



If I were a betting man I would say this maybe the right time to replace any plumbing pieces. Should I replace the mixer also?

Ok I know that I have already asked more the a few questions but I'm on a roll so please bare with me. Were on to a small floor issue oh yea and I have pictures.



The decking is 5/4 T&G car decking with you guessed it.....rote, Not terrible but never good.



I started scraping the real punky material away with some yet to go. I would say this area is the worst I have found so far and it leads under the tub, I think that better then half the board is still good. I was thinking of using some epoxy rot repair and filler to bring it flush and then using the hardie backer on all walls and floor repair. Does this seem logical?

Please let me know if you think I'm heading the wrong direction, or If I should do more or less, Its been a long time since I have been into a job this deep and I don't want to end up doing it again in a couple of years.

Looking forward to your tips and tricks, and thanks for taking the time to respond.

John

MacRoadie

I would probably start by pulling the rest of that sheet rock off (visible in pics 3 and 4) and pulling the tub. You're already 75% there, and that subfloor is shot and needs to be replaced. The sole plate on that wall next to the tub in the bottom picture looks a bit questionable too, but a good scrubbing and then an encapsulant might serve to stop further rot.

Termite

Also, it would definately be a good time to replace everything in the wall. All the plumbing pipes and valves should be replaced when you have the opportunity with the wall finishes torn down.

Hobb3s

As far as I understand it, you should have a vapour barrier on any exterior wall. I would go all the way to the floor with it if you can. I'm going to guess that you have what we had, which is old insulation with the paper on one side (the inside). That paper actually is the old vapour barrier (if you had it.)

skinja

Thanks all for reply's.

I agree and will change all the copper pipe, fixtures and valves.

I was not planning on stripping all the sheet rock out of the bathroom which is the only way I know of to get the tub out. I was hopeing to just lift the tub up to determine how much water damage I have below the tub and repair accordingly, as the picture shows damage to the decking, the worst is clean to stable material and appears minimal, the sole plate is stable and does not flake with a razor knife, from the reply's so far it may be best to replace that portion of decking but I was really hoping to stabilize with epoxy and filler.

As far as the vapor barrier goes 6 mil black plastic on the out side wall, ceilling to floor and none on the interior walls correct?

This is not a very big bathroom would it be worth while to just use HardieBacker throughout including the floor? 60% of the bathroom walls will be textured and painted.

More questions to come.

Thanks for your help!

John

MacRoadie

The GWB from the tub lip down to the floor is shot and needs to come out anyway. If the wall is intact above the tub, you can simply remove the lower portion and slide the tub out without stripping the entire wall. I'm guessing the other end of the tub is in a similar condition and likely needs at least the lower 24" of GWB removed and replaced as well. At the end of the day, you're talking about $10.00 worth of drywall in exchange for the security of knowing that subfloor is competent.

It certainly is labor-intensive, but by the time you remove even enough material to peek under that tub, you've pretty much removed enough to slide it out completely.

skinja

This may take a couple of weeks to finish, my normal shift is 6 am to 6 pm Monday threw Thursday, sometimes with a Friday Saturday and Sunday thrown in for good measures, so three hours a night to trudge threw trash and create more do demo. Then come on line to ask silly question all takes time.

Recommended tub inclosures?

James Heartie backer good to use as sub floor as well as around the shower?

Old copper pipe out new pvc in? or stay with copper?

Recommended tub fixtures?

Thanks for your help.

John

Termite

There are three basic systems for supply plumbing these days...

1) Copper. No matter what, you're going to have to sweat connections to your valve. Might as well develop that skill if you haven't yet.

2) PEX. Plexible polyethelyne tubing. Great product but requires special tools that are not cheap, but can be rented.

3) CPVC. The brand I'm familiar with is Flowguard Gold. These pieces glue together like PVC pipe.

My vote goes to copper for DIY work. There's nothing hard about sweating copper, and it is a great skill to possess next time you get a leaky pipe or need a new water heater installed. Get the thick wall stuff (costs a few bucks more per stick) if you can.

1/2" Hardiebacker is used for bath floors beneath tile. It requires special backerboard screws. I prefer durarock/wonderboard personally. The Hardie product is just too hard to work with I think.

white29

Rip and tear baby, you wont regret it. You will regret it if you band-aid it and have to tear it apart in a few years.Take it from someone who knows! My vote is for copper,forget that plastic c$#@ for supply piping(drains ok), and PEX is new(who knows what problems could arise in a few years?) and,as mentioned,expensive. Good luck.

Termite

That's one strange opinion you have there.

PEX is not new by any means. It has been in use in the USA since 1984. If you've priced copper recently, you'll find that PEX is an incredibly economical option. The pipe itself is much, much lower in price than copper. The fittings cost a couple bucks each, but the flexibility of the pipe allows for less fittings to be used in many installations. I rarely inspect a house anymore that doesn't have PEX in it.

Additionally, CPVC is not at all the same as the PVC that is used for drains. Not at all...It is a totally different animal. It is perfectly fine for supply systems and is widely used with great success. The earliest CPVC systems had some trouble, but that was 15 or 20 years ago.

I agree that for a DIY-er, copper is great. CPVC is the easier installation however, but transitioning to it will likely require the ability to sweat copper anyhow.