Posted: 2/24/2007 10:22:44 PM EDT
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Well I was supposed to start this project 2-3 weeks ago but I had other things come up and it got put on hold. I finally started on it so I thought I would contribute again to this forum. Please be patient because I work full time, about 50 hours / week and I have a 3 year old and a 6 month old, so projects are not necessarily quick around here. I just finished my garage bathroom project and this is another bathroom project. I have 2 bathrooms down and 2 more to go including this one. It is a guest bathroom and I am going for a Victorian design that is similar to the guest bedroom. I am also making it ADA compliant. The shower will be a roll in/out shower with a seat and a second shower valve and a hand held shower head near the shower seat. The door and shower opening are both 36". I do not have a current need to meet ADA stuff but I figured I might as well plan ahead for the future. This first picture is a rendition of the general floor plan / layout of the bathroom. The ceiling goes from 9' and pitches to about 13' which should give it a dramatic look.  Here are a few renditions to show the direction that I am heading. Tile colors / sizes are different but a general idea. I will make them links so as not to take up too much space. Rendition 01 Rendition 02 Rendition 03 The materials for the outer bath are Travertine floors with tumble marble noce on the walls and chair rail. Outer bath tiles The shower will get 2"x2" travertine mosaics for the floor with cut down sizes of travertine's and 4"x4" tumbled marble etc for the shower walls. Shower tiles I had thought about doing a Kerdi waterproof membrane shower but decided against it as I needed to remove the CBU panels to do some plumbing and do a niche so I figured I might as well put in a PVC liner and mud pan. Here is the bath at the start. The shower area is recessed 1.5" and the drain is just to the left of the paper not quite centered.     I removed the CBU, plumbed in a new valve, formed out the niche, added backers for grab bars and framed out the pony wall and partial curb. I hung the plastic but did not tack the bottoms yet so I can do the pan / liner and put in some copper pipe straps. I also installed the crown.      Because the shower will be roll in/out and I am not going to have a high curb, I am still considering going back to doing a Kerdi shower instead of doing a mud floor with a PVC liner. I am not sure if I can do a pre-slope and a final pan in the amount of space I am looking at. So I decided to work on the vanity surround while I checked on materials / prices for the shower. I also want to raise the floor height by 1" so that it transitions level onto my hardwood floors that are 3/4" solid hardwood nailed onto 3/4" plywood. I built the upper header for the vanity surround today. I put in 3, 6" recessed lights and I will also install a rope light on the top inside the crown moulding that will turn on with the vanity lights to give a glow onto the ceilings. The header will be about 8' and the ceiling is another 4' or so given the ceiling pitch. I will eventually paint it off white and use an aging paint technique. I will build a linen armoire and a vanity on legs to keep the underneath open for possible wheel chair access. All the pieces will match, I hope.     Hopefully tomorrow, if I get the time, I will build the pilasters and maybe install the entire vanity surround. I will try to update this as I progress. Feel free to ask any questions or to offer any advice.  |
| If you need old style fixtures:www.vintagetub.com/asp/contact_us.asp |
Thanks for the tip, but can't quite get the url to work? |
Ok, I resolved the shower floor height issue, drain issue and the crack in the floor issue. And the floor height ouside of the shower issue will be handled with deck mud to compensate for the 1" build up.  Stripped out the green board and installed CBU for the tumbled marble, noce, wall tiles.  Wired the 6" recessed lights into the bottom and rope lights on the top of the vanity surround header.  A couple of pictures of it installed. I like the dim glow of the rope lights from the top onto the ceiling. ;)   |
I am an old school mud shower guy but I am not a full time tradesman and I don't do this work everyday. This will be my first Kerdi shower / bath. I will also be using the Ditra over the floor. I will say however that there are many full timers and old schoolers who are now firm believers in Kerdi. There are even many old time mud men that now prefer Kerdi over a standard mud shower. Go figure. I will definately post up some detailed updates. I just spent the last couple of days putting down some wood floors and doing some electrical work, but tomorrow the bathroom project continues. ;) |
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Today, I busted out the old drain in preparation for the Kerdi drain. I also took off the plastic and framed out the seat. I decided to go ahead and use the CBU as I already had the panels cut. I replaced the CBU's and still need to do the niche and partial curb. Todays progress...    The Kerdi is comming soon.
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A couple new pics just to bump this. Not too much done lately, been pretty busy at my real job. I finished off the shampoo niche  I decided to lower the height of the seat. So I took it apart and lowered it about 3".  I also tore out the 2x4 wood partial curb and replaced it with cement bricks.  Hopefully this weekend I can find some time to get the Kerdi up. 
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My wife and I are planning on this being our final home and it is our dream home. I am an owner builder and am doing most all of the work on the home myself so I am saving quite a bit of money that way. In essence materials costs is not a big factor as the labor is free. Also it is a great investment as the home will someday be passed on to my children and the current appraised value is almost 3X what I have invested so far.  This is the bathroom for the guest bedroom and I still have a 300sqft master bath left to do. This is a 4 bath home and I keep one upping myself with each bathroom project. The problem is I am going to really have to out-do myself with the master bathroom, after this one is finished. No problem with posting it. As long as someone gets something out of it, that is good enough for me.
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I always wondered about the "seat" in a shower, never having had one. Will it be tiled? If so, it's got to be damn chilly! How about running a loop from the hot water line and make a coil under the seat to warm it? Heat expansion be a problem? I'd think not, but I'm no expert. |
Eh ive done the seat in the shower thing, its getting popular in larger homes, especially with the new "steam" showers or whatever they are called? Works great if you wanna have a seat, turn up the hot and relax in the shower steam. But! if your having "company" in the shower it works great also! |
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Yes many homes are having larger walk-in showers and seats are becomming more common. This particular bathroom is focusing on ADA compatability so the seat serves a practical purpose with an additional lowered hand held shower head next to the seat. Now my master bath will also have a seat in the separate walk-in shower and it will have numerous body jets particularily behind the seat area to hit different parts of the back. The shower will also have a steamer unit and be a steam shower. Now the seat in the master bathroom will be a multi-purpose seat!
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no man, thats considered a "tacticool" seat. |
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Hey thanks for checking in. Haven't done too much on the bathroom as this has been a very busy month at work. Plus a couple of other projects got moved up on my list. Been laying some wood flooring and doing some counter top work. The only thing that I have been able to do on the bathroom is move a light outlet, mount the pillasters and start on the vanity. The pillasters still need trim work and the vanity will have a marble vessel sink and is wide and high enough for a wheel chair to roll under. It will be tiled on the top and is obviously far from finished. 
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