How to Update Your Bathroom and Modify Plumbing to Install Modern Fixtures
This brief article isn't really about redoing bathrooms. Our bathroom was already done. The problem was that it was done in the 70's and it looked it. From the linoleum countertops, the mosaic floor tile, the two handled bathtub faucets to the striped wallpaper, this bathroom was showing its age. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Demolition: the first step was removing everything that was undesirable. Since a lot of the stuff was heavy and awkward, taking things apart is helpful.
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The door was taken off the hinges to enable us to carry things out (or eventually, back in) more easily. We took apart the old toilet into seat and bowl and removed it, in two pieces, from the bathroom. The wax ring stayed (mostly) with the floor but a putty knife pried it up in chunks.
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The sink hot and cold and drain valves were disconnected from the sources under the cabinet, and the linoleum countertop was pried off the vanity. Then that was taken of, and the vanity was unscrewed (and then pried) away form the wall. The multi-piece disassembly kept the weights lighter.
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The wallpaper was peeled off, piece by piece, by soaking it with a sponge and then peeling it off in large strips using a scraper. When the strips were removed, the remaining wallpaper glue was soaked off with a sponge. We took our time about this - it was too tiresome to do in one day, but over the course of a week, we managed to scrape the wall bare.
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When the wallpaper was completely removed and the floor was bare, we put in a new floor. We picked out a Desert Gold granite vanity top and found some gold and cream-white 13" square porcelain tile that was a good match to it. The large tiles really made the floor look clean and uncluttered and made the room feel much bigger. The tile had a directional wavy pattern - we were careful to keep the waves in the tile going the same direction.
Since the old tile seemed solid and the floor level, we put the tile right on top of the existing tile. Laying tile was fairly simple, though it took a lot longer and was a lot messier than one would expect. Instead of buying a tile saw, we marked cuts on the existing tile and brought them back to the tile store to be cut. The cuts were professional and fit neatly around the corners and edges of our (nonothogonal) walls.
The tile was installed by mixing Latex thinset with water, putting it on the floor, and then notching it with a trowel and laying the tile on top of it. Special tile spacers are available to space the tile evenly.
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After doing the floor, we painted the walls. First, we removed all the legacy blue accessories (soap dish, toilet paper and towel rod holder, and the like) and patched the remaining holes in the wall with spackle and mesh tape. Some of the spackling came out very well, but some was still looked noticeably patched. Best results were achieved with several light coats of spackle over tape.
Then, we sanded the wall, and made one final check to remove all the fragments of wallpaper glue. We then primed the wall and used two coats of paint.
At the bottom of the wall, we used pre-painted mildew resistant moulding. Any pieces that are near a shower or bath should be caulked at the top and the bottom to keep the wall dry.
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New Toilet: After doing the floors, we put back in a new toilet. This toilet was the American Standard Cadet III, which used less than 1 1/2 gallons per flush.
To install a toilet, a wax ring is placed between the toilet and the toilet flange, and Johnny bolts screw the toilet to the toilet flange. Here we encountered our first complication - the toilet flange was set just a bit below the surface of the old floor, so, with a new tile floor on top of it, the flange was significantly below the floor surface.
When we placed the new toilet, the gap was so large that the wax ring was not compressed by the toilet. This would mean there was no seal between the drain, and, well, whatever was in the toilet. That would certain soil the new floor. We solved that problem by stacking two wax rings which compressed nicely (we heard afterwards that extra thick wax rings are also available.) Though it was difficult to accurately place the toilet on the bolts, the toilet then fit well and we tightened it down and squared it to the wall. Even though we used a two piece toilet, the bowl part was still very heavy. A one piece toilet would have been even heavier, and, therefore, more difficult to set properly in place.
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Next the faucet in the shower was updated. This proved to be the most challenging part because the current style is a single handle faucet, we had a two handle faucet and we decided not to redo the entire tub. Though we were planning to hire someone to do this part, no one really wanted to do this project. As this step is extremely complicated, it will become an ehow article on its own.
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After finishing the plumbing for the bathtub, we moved on to installing the vanity. We went to a local high-end kitchen store and ordered a 36" vanity. There were a dizzying array of choices of woods, finishes and door styles and suprising variations in cost between them. You can save money on the vanity by choosing a lower cost wood and simple, but elegant door style.
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Installation had a few complications. The area where the prior vanity had been had not been tiled, so we had not tiled it either, so the whole back corner of the bathroom was over the subfloor. We nailed down a few boards of precisely the right thicknesses to level the new vanity, adjusting them with shims placed under the boards until the level was precisely right.
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We then cut holes in the back of the vanity with a Dremel tool where the water supply lines, and the drain connection went, and slid the vanity back against the wall with the supply lines and drain feeding in underneath. With a stud finder, we located two studs in the wall behind the vanity, and screwed it firmly in place with two long wood screws after first drilling pilot holes.
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The granite counter top was then set on top of the vanity and level checked again. We then removed it and put a bead of silicon caulk all around the vanity, and set the heavy top back in place. While the caulk is not that adhesive, a combination of that and the shear weight of the countertop should hold the arrangement together.
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Sink Plumbing: We then bought two supply lines and the (mostly plastic) hardware for a trap for the drain. Two complications: when we connected the supply lines and opened the valves, the valves started to drip. It is likely that the valves hadn't been closed in many, many years since before this project, and so some rubber seat inside had deteriorate. We ended up replacing those valves.
The second thing was that the plastic tubing now mostly used for drains did not mate well with the metal, threaded, pipe coming out of the wall. Plumbing stores would have undoubtedly had the correct connectors, but we used a rubber connector with hose clamps to connect the metal portion of the drain with the plastic. After tightening, it worked fine.
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Decorations and Accessories: We then added a few more things to make the bathroom complete. A whole family of accessories in venetian bronze (towel rods, shower curtain rods, and toilet paper holders) which matched our faucets were screwed to the walls. The original tile accessories were easily pried off the wall.
We found a fairly nice dark brown matching medicine cabinet which was screwed to the wall. We replaced the plastic square, utilitarian looking light/fan with a more decorative glass bowl with bronze holder that was screwed to the ceiling.
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Tips & Warnings
We found other resources (books and online information) useful for giving more detailed information about things such as where the vanity is nailed to the wall and how to remove the old toilet.
If you remove a toilet, you might as well replace the wax ring. It is inexpensive and a new wax ring will ensure a good seal between the toilet and the floor.
Don't forget to take into account the locations of the studs when mounting the mirror or medicine chest.
