Bathroom project - slow progress, but progress

[Gliderman8]

well we dodged a bathroom reno bullet this week. Had the coldest weather in a few years of decembers and the pipe froze to the upstairs bathroom (175 years old) - managed to get it thawed today and it doesn't appear to have fractured the pipe (phew) - just some time with the heat gun in the crawlspace.

How about wrapping the pipe with thermostatic controlled heat tape. Wrap the pipe, plug it in and when it's cold enough the heat tape will prevent it from freezing. I did this to my son's place in Boston.

 

[Gliderman8]

JP - was the frozen pipe metal or plastic?

Based on the age of the house, I'm guessing it was metal.... just a guess.

 

[JPSmit]

Based on the age of the house, I'm guessing it was metal.... just a guess.

Indeed. actually the copper plumbing is much much more recent - maybe as new as three years old. Unfortuately it runs through an exterior wall. Hence the issue with wrapping the pipe [ it's behind a wall. It goes through an unheated crawlspace to get to said wall but the crawlspace perimeter is well insulated so the crawlspace itself is well above freezing - and those pipes have insulation. Assuming the pipe didn't rupture (I will crawl in later to confirm) we will just run a trickle on cold nights until such time as we are doing some renos (the kitchen is right below) at which point I will likely move the line and probably change to pex.

 

[Basil]

Indeed. actually the copper plumbing is much much more recent - maybe as new as three years old. Unfortuately it runs through an exterior wall. Hence the issue with wrapping the pipe [ it's behind a wall. It goes through an unheated crawlspace to get to said wall but the crawlspace perimeter is well insulated so the crawlspace itself is well above freezing - and those pipes have insulation. Assuming the pipe didn't rupture (I will crawl in later to confirm) we will just run a trickle on cold nights until such time as we are doing some renos (the kitchen is right below) at which point I will likely move the line and probably change to pex.

Back in February of 2021 we had a very bad freeze (well below zero) and ended up bursting pipes out in the garage. We had originally turned on the kitchen sink to dribble a little water and prevent pipes from freezing, but somehow the sink got shut off.

There were two sections of exposed pipe, each about 8 feet long, with several 90° and 45° bends that had several pin-holes in them from being frozen. I spent two or three days sweating 3/4" copper pipe and numerous fittings to repair the damage. I ended up cutting out the entire bad sections, then basically duplicating the sections with new pipe, then sweating in the new sections with straight copper couplers. I thought I had it all done to perfection, when later that night we heard a hissing from behind the wall near the water heater. I could see the drywall bubbling and, upon touching the area, it was clear there was a leak (pin hole) in the hot water pipe behind the wall. I ended up cutting our a large section od dry way to effect repairs. Needless to say, we now pay much more attention to making sure there is water running a little but when we are expecting very cold conditions. Thank goodness I learned to sweat copper as it would have cost over $1000 to have a plumber come out and fix it. They would not have been able to come out for a few days just due to the number of people who suffered similar pipe bursting that night.

 

[JPSmit]

Very grateful that I can do my own plumbing (mostly). I am aware that I left a lot of my pieces of copper pipe when we moved so will have to start rebuilding a stash. All is well - I went back in the crawl space (it is truly a space I acn only crawl through - dirt floor and piles of dirt all around.

Everything was dry as a bone - so, very relieved. The one thing that has been troubling me is why it happened at all. Last year we had colder weather than this and all was fine. I suddenly realized that last year there were cedar trees on that corner of the house - which we had cut down in the spring as they were overgrown.

before:

After:

so maybe I'll glue the tree back in place in the spring

 

[Gliderman8]

I'll be happy to help again. Just plant one of these trees to keep the pipes warm.

Hot Wings® Tatarian maple: a tree for all seasons | Plant Select

HOT WINGS Tatarian Maple is a superior small ornamental tree that was discovered right in our home state of Colorado, destined for distribution throughout the country. The natural range of Tatarian maple is from Southeastern Europe into Western Asia. It likely arrived in North America in the...

plantselect.org

 

[John Turney]

 

[NutmegCT]

Sorry your bathroom work is going so slow.

Tried ExLax?

 

[Basil]

So the new Shower valve I installed is the Delta Universal Mixing Valve, model R10000-UNBX. Even though I'm still working on the bathroom floor (fixing cracks and leveling soon, then tiling) I am still using the shower since it is all finished.

The new shower has been working fine up until yesterday. I had taken a shower and everything was fine, or so it seemed. The shower shut off just as it always has. But then, about 10 minutes later, for no apparent reason, the tub faucet started running full blast. The valve was in the off position and no amount of turning the valve on and back to off would stop the flow. I had no choice but to turn off the water to the house (valve in the garage) and take the Delta shower/tub valve apart to see if I could find any problems. This valve uses a "valve cartridge" that fits into the brass valve housing. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, but I blew air into the two holes at the back of the cartridge just in case something internal was stuck (the cartridge can't be disassembled). I put the cartridge back in and reassembled the valve, after which the valve seemed to be working fine again.
I called Delta and explained the problem and they concluded I probably have a defective cartridge and have sent out a new cartridge at no cost. Obviously (I think) some internal mechanism just got stuck and caused the valve to turn on. Anyway, hopefully the replacement will solve the problem.

 

[John Turney]

 

[Basil]

While getting the floor ready for leveling, I needed to get the toilet out of the way. Didn't really have any good place to put it. The garage was a possibility but was kind of full with other stuff. Then I had a flash and invented the "toileshower" in the process! Not only does it get the toilet off the floor, but it allows you to take a shower while you're doing other "business."

 

[YakkoWarner]

While getting the floor ready for leveling, I needed to get the toilet out of the way. Didn't really have any good place to put it. The garage was a possibility but was kind of full with other stuff. Then I had a flash and invented the "toileshower" in the process! Not only does it get the toilet off the floor, but it allows you to take a shower while you're doing other "business."
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You may laugh but the first time I went on a cruise it was a renovated 1950's steam liner and the bathroom was like your photo! The entire (very small) room was the shower stall and the commode was just in one corner.....still was one of the best showers I ever experienced though....unlimited hot water!!!

 

[Basil]

You may laugh but the first time I went on a cruise it was a renovated 1950's steam liner and the bathroom was like your photo! The entire (very small) room was the shower stall and the commode was just in one corner.....still was one of the best showers I ever experienced though....unlimited hot water!!!

Well, now that I think about it, many campers that we rent from the local AF base to go camping have what they call a "wet shower" with a shower and a toilet in the same phone-booth sized space.

 

[Basil]

unlimited hot water!!!

I could make a very bad joke, but I won't!

 

[Bayless]

That's pretty common in heads (bathroom for landlubbers) on sailboats.

 

[Basil]

I've decided to install a bidet as long as I'm doing a remodel.

 

[JPSmit]

I've decided to install a bidet as long as I'm doing a remodel.

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with that kind of pressure you ought to be able to gargle at the same time.

 

[Basil]

I've been held up due to cold weather. One of the long-pole-in-the-tent items I had to accomplish was to pour Ardex 1400 leveling compound on the floor to level it out. Since I had to mix the stuff out on the back porch, I needed the temperature to be relatively warm. Finally, a couple days ago, we had a day that the temps got up to 66F. I had my son come out to help me mix and pour the leveling compound. I used a special tool called a gauge rake to spread the stuff on the floor at an even depth (1/4"). I was pretty happy with the end result. When it dried and had leveled out, the floor was (is) nearly perfectly level.

The next step was to cut the Ardex Flexbone decoupling mat and fit in to the floor., which I completed yesterday. The decoupling mat is probably overkill, but in the event the concrete slab were to crack due to changes in temp, shifting foundation, etc., the decoupling mat serves to isolate the slab from the porcelain tiles, thus (in theory) preventing any cracks from transferring to the tiles. Like I said, probably overkill for this job, but I just felt it was good insurance against future issues.

Today I have rented a heavy roller from Home Depot and will be gluing the flexbone to the newly leveled concrete slab using Ardex 77 thinset. I'll be using a 1/16th inch v-notch trowel to adhere the flexbone mat to the slap, then rolling over it with that heavy roller. Hope to get that finished today.

Next step (finally) is to actually lay the tiles!

The gauge rake spreads material at a consistent thickness (adjustable).

Flexbone decoupling mat ready to be glued to the newly leveled floor.

 

[Popeye]

Progress!

And "overkill" is often cheap insurance against future headaches - even if they never manifest themselves.

 

[Basil]

Finally I have started laying the tile! I foolishly thought I could finish in one day, but this is as far as I got until the old body ran out of gas. The tile saw is expensive to rent, so I plan to finish laying as many tiles as possible that don't require any cutting, then rent the saw one more time to finish up the edges and other areas requiring the tiles to be cut. I estimate I can lay down about 80-85% of the tiles before I need to start cutting to finish the project. (Those little orange wedges are leveling clips and spacers to keep adjacent tiles level with each other and prevent "lippage" and also ensure the grout lines are a uniform wide of 1/8th inch)