Month: October 2011

Wow! I can’t believe it’s been a week since I’ve updated shower remod progess. I’ve been neglecting my blogging duties. Anyway, here’s a summary:

• Wednesday, Oct. 5 – reinforced the framing and started green board installation
• Thursday, Oct. 6  – finished the green board installation and floated the corner seams and niche pan
• Friday, Oct. 7 – installed the dry pack sub-pan
• Saturday, Oct. 8 – 1st coat of Hydroban sealer on the sub-pan
• Sunday, Oct. 9 – 2nd coat of Hyrdorban
• Monday, Oct. 10 – installed the dry pack shower floor
• Tuesday, Oct. 11 – wall tile installation began
• Wednesday, Oct. 12 – wall tile installation completed

On Tuesday, I had a bit of a panic attack. Somehow, I’d mis-counted the number of sheets of accent tile we had on hand. I had it down as 5; we had 4, which left us about 3″ short of completing the band. Luckily, Ceramic Tile Plus had it in stock, so after quick Maui Bus trip to town, my pulse and respiration rates returned to normal.

The other challenge showed up on the inside of the door openings. Two columns of 2″x6″ bullnose tile was just a bit narrow to cover the area. Steve ended up cutting some very narrow, like 1/3 inch, field tile pieces to fill the gap. Fortunately, most of this area is covered by the door frame, so he only tiled the exposed areas. Behind the door frame, there’ll be a wide grout joint. Because Paul won’t have to drill through tile to install the door, it should expedite that process.

Found out yesterday that our door is in. We’re pretty much on schedule, but it’s going to take me days to get all of the dust out of here.

Great Five-O last night involving soldiers on R&R leave. The episode contained a fairly heavy dose of anti-Vietnam war sentiment. Leonard Freeman was such a Lefty.

 

The worker bees are a bit upset because the elevator’s been out of service all week and they have to lug stuff up and down the stairs.

The plumber was here on Tuesday to set the valve. The decision was made to leave the old P-trap in place and just replace the flange and upper drain parts. First attempt to remove the old flange didn’t work, so Paul loaded it up with penetrating oil.

With the walls open, I did spot an area where a cold water pipe came in contact with a metal stud—most improper construction. There was a bit of discoloration on both the pipe and stud, but no obvious pitting.  According to the plumber, any corrosion should be visible on the outside, so if it looked OK, just wrap it with electrical tape. I’m not 100 percent sure I’m buying that, but that’s where we are.

Yesterday, the plumber was able to unscrew the flange and after much hammering, he was able to remove the three mounting bolts. He’s supposedly procuring replacement parts that will fit. If he can’t find the proper parts, the cement around the old P-trap will have to be jack hammered out and the trap replaced. Until the drain issue is resolved, Paul can’t do anything with construction of the shower pan. We certainly don’t want to jack out freshly-installed dry-pack and sealer. Around the plumbing work, Paul was able to do his framing reinforcement and get most of the backer board up.

I have an issue with the placement of the valve with respect to the surface of the finished wall. I expressed my concerns to Paul and plumber dude, but the plumber says were fine and Paul wants to grant him his technical due. Now that the backer board is up, I’m not feeling a whole lot more confident, but we’ll see. I HATE re-dos.

No Hawaii Five-O ‘cause KHWE is selling Jesus annuities. Bummer.

More pictures.

Day one of the hall bath tile project has come and gone and I’m always glad to get past the noise and dust of the demolition and relieved that nothing got broken in the process. Removing the old tile did reveal some minimal signs of leakage through the backer board and there was a bit of mold.  It also revealed the shitty 1×2 steel framing that was used in that area of the condo. Structural beefing up will be in order. As I suspected, the pan threshold under the shower door was poured concrete, which means Paul will be using a paint-on pan seal as opposed to a mat.  The plumber was in and roughed in the valve. The wall with the shower head and valve also contains the plumbing for the washing machine and is a real rat’s nest of pipes. I was a little concerned about the offsets he used when installing the valve and how it would impact the ability to set the valve at the correct depth vis-à-vis the finished wall, but Paul seems to think it’s OK. I shouldn’t sweat this merde, but I hate re-dos and I’ve done enough of these projects to be a bit gun-shy. The drain has not been touched. The plumber’s plan was to see if he could unscrew the existing floor drain head and just replace the screen with a new, shiny one. The drain doesn’t seem to be moving, and I’m not real happy with that idea, so I think we’ll insist digging out the old p-trap and riser and start clean—a lot more work, but not my problem.

Playing General Contractor sure has a way to eat up the day. I seem to be getting little else done and it’s probably time to hit the task list, but first I think I’ll go read the paper.  Remod on Hawaiian time.