Bathtub Surround Backing

Q: I am in process of replacing my fixtures for my bathtub with shower. My house was built in the mid 70's. When we pulled the laminate sheet to get to the pipes the only thing we found behind it was drywall. I found some tiles that will be a nice for the walls as a new surround. I've gone to home depot to be told that I need to take out the drywall down to the studs and install another type of board. Can't remember the name of material. Is it necessary to remove the drywall? The old surround did not go all the way to the ceiling and if hasn't seemed to bother the dry wall that is there. A friend who does tiles seemed to think that I could just get the board and put it over it. I'm confused. Are there other methods can this be placed over the drywall that is already there.

A: "CONDENSATION" - The moisture that forms on your mirror when you take a hot shower, is also forming on the walls! As there is a small air gap, in places, between the panel and the wall that it is glued to (unless you got 100% coverage of a waterproof adhesive), you have condensation forming between the shower panel and the drywall, which will eventually cause mold, mildew and rot.

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Bathroom Leak‏

Q: We had the master bathroom remodeled. This included a new toilet, raising the vanity, putting in a tile walk-in shower, and a new tile floor. After they were done and we started using everything we noticed water drops on the dining room table in the dining room on the 1st floor under the master bathroom. The contractor came back and said that there were some cracks in the grout on the floor of the shower and he would caulk them and let it dry for 2 days and everything would be OK. I am waiting for it to dry. After the ceiling has become saturated, will it stay up and is there any question of mold?

A: First, there should not have been any water leakage even if there was no grout in the floor tiles. The floor tiles are basically for decorative purpose, not to stop water from going to the floor below. By code there must be some sort of pan installed on any shower floor. This could be a rubber membrane or a fiberglass base, and it is installed to ensure that no water goes through the floor. So I would ask; Did your contractor have a building permit?

I think you are going to have to have a long talk with the contractor, there must be a water proof membrane on the floor, or you are going to have leaks forever, grout will continue to crack as temperature changes and people walk in and out of the shower. The ceiling needs to be repaired properly, by removing the damaged section of drywall and replacing it. You will have mold growth if you leave it as is.

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Doing a bathroom remodel....slowly?

Q. After the holidays, we'd like to remodel our 2nd floor bathroom. It's quite small, so this shouldn't be TOO terribly expensive.

However, all of our previous "big changes" have been handled by contractors. We're looking at doing this one ourselves, mostly because the "big money" has run out and now we'll just be able to budget a few hundred dollars per month, at best, towards home projects.

We don't need to make any "big changes" that would involve plumbing moves. The toilet, tub, and the sink won't be moving anywhere.

So, I was thinking I could do this "one piece at a time" replace the toilet one month, maybe alter the location / wiring of the light fixture above the sink the next month, redo the flooring another month, etc.

The tub will NOT be replaced. It's a claw-foot tub, but somewhere along the line, some crazy person decided to "box it in" with plywood and then put these teeny-tiny tiles all over the wood.

I was just wondering what would be the most logical order to do this stuff in? (Or if it even matters?)

I suspect that I may find a surprise or two under the flooring, as there is some sort of detectable "hole" or depression in at least one spot. They've got vinyl placed over that. But none of the fixtures seems to have unstable flooring underneath it, so I'm thinking there might be a bit of subflooring work that needs to be done, but hopefully nothing too scary.

I thought I'd start with the flooring, but then the thought crossed my mind that maybe a "top down" approach would be better (start with the high work and work my way down to the low stuff). Not sure. I'm very inexperienced in this sort of thing. I would obviously be hiring an electrician for the electrical move. But I'm thinking I can probably replace the toilet, the sink, and the cabinets all myself (given time and patience).

A. It is difficult to do a bathroom remodel in bits and pieces primarily because things inter-relate to one another.

You really can't do the floor while the vanity and toilet are in place. You can't do the vanity, if the floor needs work. You can't tile walls unless you are not planning on replacing the faucets, if you are, the faucets have to come first, that means removing the wall. You can't change the sink, until you take care of the vanity.

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Plumbing Vents

Q. I'm doing the rough in for my bathroom and have a question on venting.

Here is the layout: It is a two story building and the residence is at 2nd floor. The main vent extends from the roof straight down to the building's sewer. There is a horizontal T off of that 4 inch schedule 40 which connects the residence to the sewer. I've T'd the horizontal pipe to extend to the new bathroom, first bathtub, then toilet, then shower.

From the main vent the bathtub is 12 feet the toilet is 20 feet and the shower is 25 feet away.

The pipes from the main vent are 4" to the 2" connecting the tube, a 4" to the toilet and 2" connecting to the shower.

Is that too far from the main vent?

A. Yes! Anytime you are 6' or more from the vent stack you must re-vent back to the vent stack. Failure to either re-vent or mechanical vent will result in the fixture's trap to be sucked dry and of course that leads to sewer gases entering your home.

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