Can O' Worms Project for Gram

 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Sun. Nov. 06, 2016 5:50 am

As some of you know my Grandmother is a pretty old, 98 going on 99 in April. For 98 she is still in pretty good shape in particular her mind. She owns a double block and I stay next door to give her a hand cooking and keep an eye on her. She fell in early September and fractured her arm but she's doing really well now.

While she was in rehab I decided to take the opportunity to fix her bathroom for her. I knew I was opening a can of a worms but damn...... The original part of this house may be 150 years and was originally a barn, it has been added to numerous times. In some cases the material used for additions were whatever was laying around. This bathroom is in the backroom and shared by both sides of the house, it's only about a 7*7 room so there isn't a whole lot of space to work with. It's even difficult to get pictures with good perspective.

The floor is dirt underneath and there is small access in the basement to get into it, It's difficult to tell from the picture but there is enough room you can almost stand up if you are in the middle. The original joists were a grand total of three 2*6's on about 24 inch centers and one was even notched out halfway, I put in all new 2*8's on 16 centers.

Can't see it well but on the right wall the sill plate was rotted, one bonus at least there was no concerns about removing it and the wall collapsing. That was good day shot fixing that.
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The ceiling was same as floor, 3 rafters but in this case they were only 2*4' and they weren't really doing anything anyway because there was no tension on them and it was drop ceiling. It's a very short space so I figured new 2*4's would be more than sufficient. I also scabbed on some 2*4's to the existing ones for the roof, one of them was broke.
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I screwed some furring strips to each joist 2 inches down and then placed 2 inch rigid insulation, have to keep Gram's feet warm.
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Ceiling was insulated and I added vent/light fixture in the center. If you look at the back those are true 2*4's on 14 centers, there was also 2*4's finished 1/4 and 1/2 inch short. The original insulation was only like r-5 and not installed very well, this room was renovated in the 70's.
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Now this is where it gets interesting, the other two walls have studs wrong direction with no rhyme or reason for centers and they are extremely crooked in both directions. There was full 1 1/1 inch difference for level between the floor and ceiling.
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One mistake I made is this build was trying to fix existing structure, I figured just use the furring strips to give me a little more room for insulation and fix the crooked wall. If I ever get involved with project like this again I'm going to frame the whole thing out with new studs either scabbed on or standalone. One of the big issues was all the cutting involved and that applied to everything like the insulation, nothing fit out of the box. In any event wall is now thicker to accommodate more insulation and as level as it's going to get.
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This is the one three foot space I have for putting plumbing in the walls for the shower, all the other walls are exterior. What a nice surprise here, solid tongue and groove planking which required a false wall to be built. These suckers were about 2 inches thick and 16 inches wide. The plywood is so I can attach hand rails and seat directly to the wall.
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Reframed the window and added R-19 all the way around..... well it was R-19. I pulled some layers off on the bottom for the left and right walls because the wall space is not deep enough.
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I know this is not supposed to go onto the vinyl flooring but I couldn't find any reason why it would be major issue. Set the shower base in , perfectly level. :) This is something else I wish I had to do over again, the shower floor is about 1 1/2 deep but the shower base is about 3 inches high. I could of notched out the joists to lower it. That would have been a lot of work especially with the round design of the shower but worth it in the end.
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Tabbit and Sons which is metal recycling/junkyard is about 1 mile from here and he has a mountain of cast iron radiators. They charge by the pound, currently about 32 cents. This one was about 80 pounds and $25. They guarantee them so there is no risk accept your time. This was the only one I found that was small enough and it was just about perfect, it was about 2 feet high, 1 1/2 foot wide and about 3 inches depth. It's really small. Unfortunately it was cracked.<sigh>
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I ended up buying some cheap baseboard covers and utilized the old finned radiation. 4 foot should be enough but again there is 3 exposed walls here. I put in 7 foot which is about half of what is in there before but with the insulation I'm figuring it should be more than warm enough. The smaller 3 foot section is behind the toilet and ends near the shower. I didn't want to put it there but I really didn't have anywhere else to put it.

I have one solder joint in the basement that has a very minor leak, it's one of those leaks that may even fix itself. I'm going to wait and see what happens, if the room is not warm enough I'm going to drop some of the rigid insulation to create a cavity and put some finned tubing in it for in-floor heating. I have to cut the pipe to fix the leak and may just do that anyway.
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More pictures soon....


 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Sun. Nov. 06, 2016 6:25 am

Nice job. Renovation work like this is slow going, and not for everyone. The interior walls in my house also have 2x4 studs running lengthways, have to use shallow electrical boxes.

A few more thoughts. Fix that leaking solder joint now, they never fix themselves. Put the bathroom on its own zone/thermostat if possible.

 
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Post by unhippy » Sun. Nov. 06, 2016 6:28 am

you been a busy lad......i know what you mean about old buildings....nothing still square, level or straight...if it even ever started out that way :roll:

 
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Post by waldo lemieux » Sun. Nov. 06, 2016 8:24 am

Richard,
If I was to bid some work down your way would you be willing to subcontract?? ;) Nice looking work :) Gram is a lucky gal!

 
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Post by freetown fred » Sun. Nov. 06, 2016 8:37 am

Nice Scott. Ya done real good. :)

 
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Post by CoalHeat » Sun. Nov. 06, 2016 9:43 am

Nice work, Richard. Looking forward to more photos.

 
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SWPaDon
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Post by SWPaDon » Sun. Nov. 06, 2016 1:08 pm

Looks good, Richard. I know what you mean about square. I just put a new back door on my place and found what you did. 1 1/4 inch off from top to bottom. LOL


 
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Post by tsb » Sun. Nov. 06, 2016 1:39 pm

I worked on our bathroom this summer. It took all summer and Bath Fitters installed the shower. Nothing is easy in and old house.

 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Sun. Nov. 06, 2016 5:38 pm

Rob R. wrote:
A few more thoughts. Fix that leaking solder joint now, they never fix themselves. Put the bathroom on its own zone/thermostat if possible.
It's extremely slow leak, I didn't find it after an hour when I checked with my fingers. It's not even enough to form a drip, It's evaporating before that happens. I only spotted it because I glimpsed a glisten out the corner of my eye when working on something else.

It will get fixed, I'm waiting for some cold weather to find what the situation is in that room to make a decision before cutting the pipe. Where I have to cut the pipe is exactly where I would have to cut it for the in floor radiation. The fitting is in valley between the two radiators with no way to get the water out, it's already dangerous area to be working in with propane let alone something hotter.

I considered a separate zone but the problem here is putting money into this house is not worth it unless it's really needed. She could leave here tomorrow or who knows how many years from now, it all depends on how healthy she stays. I already have the finned tubing and other material I would need for the in floor heating. The other thing is it's getting cold out and there really isn't an easy way to add another zone. Plus there is other projects I'm considering more important, she's half in a wheelchair now which is something new and can't get around on the carpet easy. there is also one section of the house that prevents her from getting to the bathroom easily because it's a little lower.

 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Sun. Nov. 06, 2016 5:40 pm

waldo lemieux wrote:Richard,
If I was to bid some work down your way would you be willing to subcontract?? ;) Nice looking work :) Gram is a lucky gal!
I'm to slow, really.... I trade experience for time and don't rush things unless I have too.

 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Sun. Nov. 06, 2016 5:52 pm

tsb wrote:I worked on our bathroom this summer. It took all summer and Bath Fitters installed the shower. Nothing is easy in and old house.
The shower was actually the easy part, getting to that point was the difficult part. I think the shower base and the surround was something like $250 or $300 altogether. There is separate glass enclosure for it but we are going with shower curtain so it's easy for someone to help her if necessary. If you look to the left that white board is PVC, it's not part of the shower kit. I put it there because I figured that is the way the shower head would be pointing and it should deflect any water getting past the shower curtain. I painted it beforehand with rustoleum for plastic.

 
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Post by Richard S. » Tue. Dec. 20, 2016 11:18 pm

Gram is officially locked and loaded. :D

The rails are low, Gram is a short women. I can't even touch them when standing.

Can't think of everything but the sink placement was a mistake and the toilet should of been there. she could of easily grabbed both both rails when getting out her chair. The sink itself should of been wall mounted with no base so she could pull up to it.
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Not happy with the height she has to step over for the shower and wish I had taken the time to lower that part of the floor. The other issue is I should of just got a plain wall shower wall without anything in the corner. Otherwise it came out great. The seat had to be made, it's aluminum u channel on the edge of 4 inch wide 3/4 PVC hanging from a piece of angle.... aluminum???? :P
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Impossible to find a shower curtain rod for this set up. They have a glass enclosure which would of been for regular person. I ended up finding this bendable track on ebay. I swear the cardboard tube they sent it in must of been more than the track.
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Post by SWPaDon » Tue. Dec. 20, 2016 11:30 pm

Your project turned out real nice.

 
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Post by freetown fred » Wed. Dec. 21, 2016 5:37 am

Yep, real nice Job! :)

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Wed. Dec. 21, 2016 5:58 am

Very nice job, Richard.

Went through similar getting the house and bathroom ready for when Melissa came home to recover from extensive hip surgery.

It's not easy trying to figure out where is best to put grab rails and such for someone of a very different height, plus not knowing what physical limitations they will have. If I had it to do over again, I'd first try using a walker set low, or being in a wheel chair, to see what's needed.

Just getting in and out of bed can be a challenge. And simple things we take for granted, like a thin door sill can be hazardous.

Paul


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