DIY Bathroom Renovation for Dummies
June 15, 2015 5:10 PM Subscribe
Mrs. Karaage and I consider ourselves a low-intermediate home DIYers and are considering trying to renovate our basement bathroom ourselves, (while being willing to contract out plumbing and electrical). I’d like to hear from mefites who have done this before on their own and can share experiences and specific links/books/resources they’ve used to educate themselves for the project.
What we mean by “low-intermediate”: We can paint! We can sand! I’ve built furniture from lumber! I’ve installed shelves and fixtures! We can spot repair drywall and plaster!
We have a guest bathroom down in the basement that isn’t quite usable. We’d like to expand the bathroom to expand into the neighboring tool closet, add in a shower, and retile it all.
A full plan, including before and after plans, are viewable at this link.
We recently received two bids from contractors based on this layout – 14k and 18k, which is out of our budget range for this job. I’m not necessarily saying that the bids are crazy for the DC area, but they’re certainly out of the range of what we were ready for. Now we’re talking about trying to do it ourselves.
What does someone who wants to take on a bathroom project like this do, having little experience doing any of it? I think we can figure out most things, but I would love specific recommended books and links that mefites have used to embark on their own renovations. I’m comfortable with power tools and I think I can figure out most construction concepts after reading about it with lots of illustrations and specific recommendations for materials - It’s just that I’ve never done most of the stuff that will be necessary here – framing, drywalling, tiling?
Tips and descriptions of your experiences (would you do it again? How much did you know starting out? Tips to make our lives easier? (i.e. premounted tile)) would also be helpful for us to gauge whether this is something we want to embark on. I’m also willing to hire out for some of the non-general contracting stuff like electrical and plumbing. Another alternative is also suggesting generally easy things that we can undertake ourselves (i.e. demo) to cut costs on the contractor's end.
Happy to do this on the weekends, even if it takes six months for us to finish.
Tools I already own and I think we’ll probably use in this context:
• Rotary Hammer with Demolition Chisel
• Reciprocating Saw
• Miter Saw
• Circular Saw
• Drills
Any thoughts and comments on the plan are welcome! Also feel free to tell me I am insane for thinking we can do this and have it come out looking nice.
What we mean by “low-intermediate”: We can paint! We can sand! I’ve built furniture from lumber! I’ve installed shelves and fixtures! We can spot repair drywall and plaster!
We have a guest bathroom down in the basement that isn’t quite usable. We’d like to expand the bathroom to expand into the neighboring tool closet, add in a shower, and retile it all.
A full plan, including before and after plans, are viewable at this link.
We recently received two bids from contractors based on this layout – 14k and 18k, which is out of our budget range for this job. I’m not necessarily saying that the bids are crazy for the DC area, but they’re certainly out of the range of what we were ready for. Now we’re talking about trying to do it ourselves.
What does someone who wants to take on a bathroom project like this do, having little experience doing any of it? I think we can figure out most things, but I would love specific recommended books and links that mefites have used to embark on their own renovations. I’m comfortable with power tools and I think I can figure out most construction concepts after reading about it with lots of illustrations and specific recommendations for materials - It’s just that I’ve never done most of the stuff that will be necessary here – framing, drywalling, tiling?
Tips and descriptions of your experiences (would you do it again? How much did you know starting out? Tips to make our lives easier? (i.e. premounted tile)) would also be helpful for us to gauge whether this is something we want to embark on. I’m also willing to hire out for some of the non-general contracting stuff like electrical and plumbing. Another alternative is also suggesting generally easy things that we can undertake ourselves (i.e. demo) to cut costs on the contractor's end.
Happy to do this on the weekends, even if it takes six months for us to finish.
Tools I already own and I think we’ll probably use in this context:
• Rotary Hammer with Demolition Chisel
• Reciprocating Saw
• Miter Saw
• Circular Saw
• Drills
Any thoughts and comments on the plan are welcome! Also feel free to tell me I am insane for thinking we can do this and have it come out looking nice.
Response by poster: 14k and 18k for only labor and construction materials too! We thought we would try to save money by buying the design materials ourselves to come under budget and both bids still blew the budget to crazy town.
posted by Karaage at 5:28 PM on June 15, 2015
posted by Karaage at 5:28 PM on June 15, 2015
You can do a lot of that yourself, for sure. I personally would hire someone for the plumbing - that is hard to do yourself with no experience, and you really don't want to mess it up (and you want to limit the amount of time you have to spend with the water to your house turned off). And even by itself it won't be super cheap -- even just moving the toilet over a foot could cost you $500ish, depending on various things.
You also want to consider if you want to do it unpermitted or if you want to pull permits. I don't know what permits will cost where you live, but that will be another set of money. And some licensed workers won't work with you if you don't pull them. And you should research the other downsides of not doing that in your area.
But demo, drywall, tiling, finish plumbing (i.e., installing the fixtures at the end) - all that you can do yourself. You'll need to figure out how to rent specialized equipment for some things (can you join a tool lending library in your area?)
posted by brainmouse at 5:32 PM on June 15, 2015
You also want to consider if you want to do it unpermitted or if you want to pull permits. I don't know what permits will cost where you live, but that will be another set of money. And some licensed workers won't work with you if you don't pull them. And you should research the other downsides of not doing that in your area.
But demo, drywall, tiling, finish plumbing (i.e., installing the fixtures at the end) - all that you can do yourself. You'll need to figure out how to rent specialized equipment for some things (can you join a tool lending library in your area?)
posted by brainmouse at 5:32 PM on June 15, 2015
Bathrooms and Kitchen remodels are always a royal pain and end up being way more expensive and time consuming that you ever could imagine...
posted by Mac-Expert at 5:33 PM on June 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Mac-Expert at 5:33 PM on June 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
If you do any tiling, rent a tile saw. Watch plenty of how-to-do videos from a variety of sources.
The video clips we watched for the stuff we did in our first house were all produced by the big box stores, and all were shot in some magical land far away where walls are always square and floors are always level. Nowadays I think there's lots more out there. Skip any that make whatever it is they're doing look totally effortless.
posted by jquinby at 5:38 PM on June 15, 2015
The video clips we watched for the stuff we did in our first house were all produced by the big box stores, and all were shot in some magical land far away where walls are always square and floors are always level. Nowadays I think there's lots more out there. Skip any that make whatever it is they're doing look totally effortless.
posted by jquinby at 5:38 PM on June 15, 2015
Best answer: My perspective is a little skewed lately, but I would have guessed around $10k, so 14-18k doesn't sound crazy out of line, especially since you're moving all of your existing plumbing fixtures, and adding a new shower drain, and doing a bunch of electrical work.
Can you get a quote from a plumber and an electrician for how much they'd charge to do the rough-ins at the new locations?
I also wouldn't do the drywalling myself; personally I find it a total pain, and think that contractors who are good at doing drywall can get it done really fast and well.
Other than that, demo, framing, taping/mudding, painting, tiling, finish plumbing, installing the electrical fixtures, installing your pocket door, etc -- I feel like are all a doable DIY project, especially if you don't have a strict time limit. I really like this book as a general reference; also, I find YouTube to be an excellent source of DIY help.
posted by suedehead at 7:10 PM on June 15, 2015
Can you get a quote from a plumber and an electrician for how much they'd charge to do the rough-ins at the new locations?
I also wouldn't do the drywalling myself; personally I find it a total pain, and think that contractors who are good at doing drywall can get it done really fast and well.
Other than that, demo, framing, taping/mudding, painting, tiling, finish plumbing, installing the electrical fixtures, installing your pocket door, etc -- I feel like are all a doable DIY project, especially if you don't have a strict time limit. I really like this book as a general reference; also, I find YouTube to be an excellent source of DIY help.
posted by suedehead at 7:10 PM on June 15, 2015
Best answer: Basement... meaning a concrete subfloor? That's going to make the plumbing tricky!
First, yes, pull permits. You want this bathroom to add value to your home, and claiming renovations that weren't permitted in your sales pitch without disclosing the lack of permits (and thus that the city could make a future owner pull out the work) is a good way to create problems for yourself.
I can speak to the tiling piece. If you can make furniture, you can learn to tile. I taught myself via Facebook videos, the John Bridge forum archives, and especially the downloadable tutorials by a guy who calls himself the Tile Elf (which are so worth the few bucks he charges -- I say, as someone who read a bunch of library books and wached a bunch of free videos). The tl;dr to know right now is that anything you can standardize will save you tons of time. Shop for standard size sliding glass shower doors and floor pans up front. if you aren't attached to tile and could use a standard shower surround, you'll save yourself so much time. Even if you can't, the floor pan part seems uniquely complicated (I mean, is it really that hard?? I don't know. But nothing could be easier than using a pre-made shower pan.) Good luck. I'm happy to share anything I can, as someone else who taught myself the narrow set of things I need to know to tile a bathtub surround and floor.
posted by slidell at 7:41 PM on June 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
First, yes, pull permits. You want this bathroom to add value to your home, and claiming renovations that weren't permitted in your sales pitch without disclosing the lack of permits (and thus that the city could make a future owner pull out the work) is a good way to create problems for yourself.
I can speak to the tiling piece. If you can make furniture, you can learn to tile. I taught myself via Facebook videos, the John Bridge forum archives, and especially the downloadable tutorials by a guy who calls himself the Tile Elf (which are so worth the few bucks he charges -- I say, as someone who read a bunch of library books and wached a bunch of free videos). The tl;dr to know right now is that anything you can standardize will save you tons of time. Shop for standard size sliding glass shower doors and floor pans up front. if you aren't attached to tile and could use a standard shower surround, you'll save yourself so much time. Even if you can't, the floor pan part seems uniquely complicated (I mean, is it really that hard?? I don't know. But nothing could be easier than using a pre-made shower pan.) Good luck. I'm happy to share anything I can, as someone else who taught myself the narrow set of things I need to know to tile a bathtub surround and floor.
posted by slidell at 7:41 PM on June 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: For plumbing, go for pex. It is super easy to work with, no noxious fumes, and you can't accidentally set your house on fire while soldering a joint next to a joist. For DIY, the stainless clamps are easier than the copper compression rings, and probably cheaper (the copper rings are cheaper but the tools are more expensive, so they work out for pros but not DIY)
The drainage is going to be more complex because you are going to be putting everything into the slab and you may have to interact with the cast iron part of the system for the shower drain. You will also have to do concrete work to close things up. All doable, just more complex. Buy a really good charcoal mask for doing the PVC connections, and figure out a way to real ventilate the heck out of the basement when you are doing it. If there is one part I would contract out, it would be the stuff under the slab.
Speaking of ventilation, make sure you have a really good vent fan for the shower with a straight shot outside so that you don't end up with mildew city.
Finally, expect everything to take a long time and for the people that put the bathroom in in the first place to have made a stunning number of terrible decisions that you will now have to fix.
posted by rockindata at 7:50 PM on June 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
The drainage is going to be more complex because you are going to be putting everything into the slab and you may have to interact with the cast iron part of the system for the shower drain. You will also have to do concrete work to close things up. All doable, just more complex. Buy a really good charcoal mask for doing the PVC connections, and figure out a way to real ventilate the heck out of the basement when you are doing it. If there is one part I would contract out, it would be the stuff under the slab.
Speaking of ventilation, make sure you have a really good vent fan for the shower with a straight shot outside so that you don't end up with mildew city.
Finally, expect everything to take a long time and for the people that put the bathroom in in the first place to have made a stunning number of terrible decisions that you will now have to fix.
posted by rockindata at 7:50 PM on June 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Tile is not rocket science. It is some pretty hard labor, but it's not something with a huge learning curve. Depending on what you want for tile, you might want to go look at local tile stores vs. big boxes, because they'll have a better selection and they may have closeouts that can save you a chunk of money. As for a tile saw, you can rent one, but if you're not cutting anything insane like marble, we bought one of the $100 tile saws (the wet saw with the 4" blade) and we've done three rooms with that. Having your own means not having to rush.
Framing isn't hard to learn, as long as you measure correctly and take the time to get things squared up right. (A $5 speed square, the triangle looking ones, are a godsend for this. ) I find framing kind of fun, actually, and it amazes me how fast I can put four walls up just by myself.
Finally, expect everything to take a long time and for the people that put the bathroom in in the first place to have made a stunning number of terrible decisions that you will now have to fix.
Oh, man, ain't that the truth. You may have never met whoever worked on it before, but you'll probably come to loathe them.
posted by azpenguin at 8:30 PM on June 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Framing isn't hard to learn, as long as you measure correctly and take the time to get things squared up right. (A $5 speed square, the triangle looking ones, are a godsend for this. ) I find framing kind of fun, actually, and it amazes me how fast I can put four walls up just by myself.
Finally, expect everything to take a long time and for the people that put the bathroom in in the first place to have made a stunning number of terrible decisions that you will now have to fix.
Oh, man, ain't that the truth. You may have never met whoever worked on it before, but you'll probably come to loathe them.
posted by azpenguin at 8:30 PM on June 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I already loathe the previous owners! A large amount of renovation has gone purely towards fixing problems they created, including pulling off glued on tile to get to the original floors, scraping off horrible wall texture, And best of all, removing a bathroom with a direct view from the dining room.
posted by Karaage at 9:24 PM on June 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Karaage at 9:24 PM on June 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
Did you talk to the contractor about you all doing some of the work? Some contractors are flexible about this.
posted by bluedaisy at 9:49 PM on June 15, 2015
posted by bluedaisy at 9:49 PM on June 15, 2015
Karaage - are those 9"x9" vinyl tiles?
If so, not to freak you out, but you might want to take a moment to see how old they might have been, because older (50s-90s ish) tiles and mastic can sometimes contain asbestos.
Supposedly it's only an issue when the tiles are friable (crumbling) and get into the air. There are common ways to deal with it -- one of them including encapsulation, in which you simply seal over the whole ordeal with another building material.
Professional asbestos abatement can be a pretty pricey ordeal, but you may want to get a consultation for peace of mind.
posted by suedehead at 9:50 PM on June 15, 2015
If so, not to freak you out, but you might want to take a moment to see how old they might have been, because older (50s-90s ish) tiles and mastic can sometimes contain asbestos.
Supposedly it's only an issue when the tiles are friable (crumbling) and get into the air. There are common ways to deal with it -- one of them including encapsulation, in which you simply seal over the whole ordeal with another building material.
Professional asbestos abatement can be a pretty pricey ordeal, but you may want to get a consultation for peace of mind.
posted by suedehead at 9:50 PM on June 15, 2015
Response by poster: Yes, we had them tested for asbestos, they're clear. We had similar concerns but lucked out in this instance.
posted by Karaage at 4:54 AM on June 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Karaage at 4:54 AM on June 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I'm mid-way through a bathroom renovation that we started last Thanksgiving (bathroom is fully functional, but I'm carving trim and detail work on the vanity, and are learning how to etch glass for the shower doors... yeah, it's pretty intense).
I can't speak to price, largely because I'm a "do everything yourself" sort of person... except: I let other people run drain lines for me. Drain lines are hard.
For feed lines, we use the Upinor ProPex system. The joiner tool for it costs $400, and the supply house vendors aren't always friendly to DIY folks, but running new plumbing is easy. Admittedly, our house is pretty small, one bath, kitchen, etc, but using PEX I re-plumbed the house in a weekend. There are Pex systems with cheaper joint technologies, too.
azpenguin noted "If you're not doing anything insane like marble". We did 18" marble set diagonally. Don't do that. Big tiles are hard to place, they slide down and crush the little spacers, they require an insanely flat wall. I strongly recommend something smaller and glazed. But the borrowed Ridgid 8" wet saw did that fairly easily, even managed the 18" diagonal cuts with a little care. The only down-side is that only Home Depot carries those blades, so we had to go out of town for that.
As others have noted, moving the walls is pretty easy. I don't at all mind running my own wallboard. The fiber cement board for the shower backing is a pain in the tuchus to cut. They claim you can score and snap, but we ended up in respirators with a diamond blade, and went through at least one and a half of those.
Everything takes longer to dry/cure than you think. The coating over the fiber cement board (we used Red Guard), the mortar, the grout. Everything. And we did epoxy grout. It's probably easier on glazed tile than on marble, but that stuff is such a royal pain to work with. If you do go that way, even if you can get the big contractor packs, go with the smallest sizes you can get, and be patient about set-up times.
Remember to start in the middle and work out with your tiling patterns, so that you get the thin strips on both sides, not just on one.
Pull permits. The worst part about permits is having to wait for and be around for the inspections, but it's the cheapest extra set of eyes on the work you'll get.
posted by straw at 5:39 AM on June 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
I can't speak to price, largely because I'm a "do everything yourself" sort of person... except: I let other people run drain lines for me. Drain lines are hard.
For feed lines, we use the Upinor ProPex system. The joiner tool for it costs $400, and the supply house vendors aren't always friendly to DIY folks, but running new plumbing is easy. Admittedly, our house is pretty small, one bath, kitchen, etc, but using PEX I re-plumbed the house in a weekend. There are Pex systems with cheaper joint technologies, too.
azpenguin noted "If you're not doing anything insane like marble". We did 18" marble set diagonally. Don't do that. Big tiles are hard to place, they slide down and crush the little spacers, they require an insanely flat wall. I strongly recommend something smaller and glazed. But the borrowed Ridgid 8" wet saw did that fairly easily, even managed the 18" diagonal cuts with a little care. The only down-side is that only Home Depot carries those blades, so we had to go out of town for that.
As others have noted, moving the walls is pretty easy. I don't at all mind running my own wallboard. The fiber cement board for the shower backing is a pain in the tuchus to cut. They claim you can score and snap, but we ended up in respirators with a diamond blade, and went through at least one and a half of those.
Everything takes longer to dry/cure than you think. The coating over the fiber cement board (we used Red Guard), the mortar, the grout. Everything. And we did epoxy grout. It's probably easier on glazed tile than on marble, but that stuff is such a royal pain to work with. If you do go that way, even if you can get the big contractor packs, go with the smallest sizes you can get, and be patient about set-up times.
Remember to start in the middle and work out with your tiling patterns, so that you get the thin strips on both sides, not just on one.
Pull permits. The worst part about permits is having to wait for and be around for the inspections, but it's the cheapest extra set of eyes on the work you'll get.
posted by straw at 5:39 AM on June 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
I know this isn't what you asked, but go for the heated floor if you can afford it. I've got a DC rowhouse basement bathroom, and the heated tile floor is the best extra money we spent from the whole renovation. That concrete foundation is cold.
posted by jindc at 8:40 AM on June 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by jindc at 8:40 AM on June 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
Oh, and what I meant to say up there about PEX systems...
PEX joiners are a trade-off between cost of the tool vs cost of the junction, and so far as I can tell, ease of use. There are:
Aaaaaand...
If the quotes from contractors have softened you up enough for the "we're going to save sooo much money by doing it ourselves" approach, I would seriously consider some of the big solid surface materials. You'll have to pay an installer and fabricator, but there are some huge ceramics out there now that are expensive, but could be both the scratch-proofness of tile with very limited grout lines. We found them after we'd bought the marble, but if I were doing it again from scratch I'd investigate those.
posted by straw at 9:28 AM on June 16, 2015 [2 favorites]
PEX joiners are a trade-off between cost of the tool vs cost of the junction, and so far as I can tell, ease of use. There are:
- SharkBite junctions, expensive per junction, but require no tools
- crimp-on connections, cheaper, require a tool, and require a bit of care making the joint and gauging the crimp connector afterwards to make sure you got it on
- the Upinor system, expensive tool, super cheap junctions, and so far as I can tell pretty hard to screw up.
Aaaaaand...
If the quotes from contractors have softened you up enough for the "we're going to save sooo much money by doing it ourselves" approach, I would seriously consider some of the big solid surface materials. You'll have to pay an installer and fabricator, but there are some huge ceramics out there now that are expensive, but could be both the scratch-proofness of tile with very limited grout lines. We found them after we'd bought the marble, but if I were doing it again from scratch I'd investigate those.
posted by straw at 9:28 AM on June 16, 2015 [2 favorites]
I already loathe the previous owners! A large amount of renovation has gone purely towards fixing problems they created, including pulling off glued on tile to get to the original floors
It wasn't pulling up the linoleum in the kitchen that was rage inducing... it was the fact that there was three layers of it and the glue was still tacky.
posted by azpenguin at 8:52 PM on June 16, 2015
It wasn't pulling up the linoleum in the kitchen that was rage inducing... it was the fact that there was three layers of it and the glue was still tacky.
posted by azpenguin at 8:52 PM on June 16, 2015
We did a similar "hybrid" approach for upgrading our main floor bathroom. The biggest downside was simply how much of our spare time it took. We had the pros fix/install the walls, electrical plumbing, and we tiled around the tub/shower, installed a new toilet, vanity, light fixture, etc., saving over 50% of the cost for a contractor-only install.
There are just a few items I wish I had known when renovating our bathroom.
- If you install tiles, buy spares. You are going to lose more than a pro when learning to cut them. If they are expensive tiles, buy inexpensive ones in the same type of material to practice cutting the tiles on.
- Do not skimp on the materials and careful installation of the moisture barrier, insulation, drainage, wallboard and flooring for the shower. Moisture accumulates behind showers no matter how "waterproof" the enclosure it (such as condensation on the wall-side of the shower enclosure when there are contrasting temps.) There is nothing more painful than having a beautiful tile job ruined by mildew and mold growing behind the scenes.
- For the exhaust fan, select one that runs for X number of minutes after you leave the bathroom to ensure the bathroom has a chance to dry out. Well worth it for a DC-area basement bathroom.
- If it will be hard to replace the fixtures in the shower without opening a wall, be sure to buy durable quality fixtures that will last a long time.
Best of luck!
posted by apennington at 9:44 PM on June 16, 2015 [2 favorites]
There are just a few items I wish I had known when renovating our bathroom.
- If you install tiles, buy spares. You are going to lose more than a pro when learning to cut them. If they are expensive tiles, buy inexpensive ones in the same type of material to practice cutting the tiles on.
- Do not skimp on the materials and careful installation of the moisture barrier, insulation, drainage, wallboard and flooring for the shower. Moisture accumulates behind showers no matter how "waterproof" the enclosure it (such as condensation on the wall-side of the shower enclosure when there are contrasting temps.) There is nothing more painful than having a beautiful tile job ruined by mildew and mold growing behind the scenes.
- For the exhaust fan, select one that runs for X number of minutes after you leave the bathroom to ensure the bathroom has a chance to dry out. Well worth it for a DC-area basement bathroom.
- If it will be hard to replace the fixtures in the shower without opening a wall, be sure to buy durable quality fixtures that will last a long time.
Best of luck!
posted by apennington at 9:44 PM on June 16, 2015 [2 favorites]
I'm about two months behind on my master bath remodel. I'm just kicking into high gear to finish my tiling. I'm doing a shower with a walk in hand mortared pan and installing a free standing tub on the other side of the room. I tiled the wall behind the tub with 18" ceramics. Today I laid out the floor tile for under the tub. For this I used 2" squares on the netting bought from a place called "Restore". Restore is a thrift store run by Habitat for Humanity. I bought my tub, those tiles and a free standing faucet as well as sinks from there. Hundreds of dollars in savings. The tub and floor faucet were brand new. They do have sink vanities, light fixtures, toilets and more. Check them out if you have one in the DC area.
If you are demoing things and when you cut the cement board for your shower I recommend closing doors to other rooms and covering things with sheeting. You can generate a lot of dust. I highly recommend the use of a pre-made pan for the shower. Making your own pan is intense. I did not use red guard for the shower walls nor the roofing paper recommended by someone else. I went with contractor grade trash bags cut open. They fit well and are essentially waterproof plastic. Inexpensive and effective. Overlapped and stapled to the stubs before the cement board natch.
If you are cutting tiles with only straight cuts you can do a fantastic job with a commercial tile cutter from HD or Lowes for Less than $40.00 dollars. You can buy a diamond blade for a circular saw. If you have to make L cuts or cutouts or 45 degree cuts on bullnose with a rounded edge these hand cutters can be a nightmare. I think it is Ryobi that makes a 4 1/2" wet circular tile saw. If you have a steady hand a good work bench and make good markings you can do great things. I watched a Youtube demo of a diamond saw in a grinder cutting out a hole in tile for a toilet drain.
Yes, I think the suggestion of a heated floor is a perfect upgrade if you are doing the whole floor.
posted by Jim_Jam at 8:34 PM on June 18, 2015
If you are demoing things and when you cut the cement board for your shower I recommend closing doors to other rooms and covering things with sheeting. You can generate a lot of dust. I highly recommend the use of a pre-made pan for the shower. Making your own pan is intense. I did not use red guard for the shower walls nor the roofing paper recommended by someone else. I went with contractor grade trash bags cut open. They fit well and are essentially waterproof plastic. Inexpensive and effective. Overlapped and stapled to the stubs before the cement board natch.
If you are cutting tiles with only straight cuts you can do a fantastic job with a commercial tile cutter from HD or Lowes for Less than $40.00 dollars. You can buy a diamond blade for a circular saw. If you have to make L cuts or cutouts or 45 degree cuts on bullnose with a rounded edge these hand cutters can be a nightmare. I think it is Ryobi that makes a 4 1/2" wet circular tile saw. If you have a steady hand a good work bench and make good markings you can do great things. I watched a Youtube demo of a diamond saw in a grinder cutting out a hole in tile for a toilet drain.
Yes, I think the suggestion of a heated floor is a perfect upgrade if you are doing the whole floor.
posted by Jim_Jam at 8:34 PM on June 18, 2015
On cutting tile dry, this was done with a diamond blade in an angle grinder, another view, and with a little bit of work by hand and with the random orbital sander, that front edge polished up to this.
In practicing, I've also used a diamond tipped jigsaw blade to cut curves, and polished with the sander.
So, yes, it's doable, but if you're cutting a whole wall's worth of soldier strips to get the right width for a corner, a water cooled saw is really nice.
posted by straw at 9:37 AM on June 19, 2015
In practicing, I've also used a diamond tipped jigsaw blade to cut curves, and polished with the sander.
So, yes, it's doable, but if you're cutting a whole wall's worth of soldier strips to get the right width for a corner, a water cooled saw is really nice.
posted by straw at 9:37 AM on June 19, 2015
You might want to go for the heated floor if you can afford it.
posted by Amber Best at 4:52 PM on August 15, 2015
posted by Amber Best at 4:52 PM on August 15, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by beagle at 5:21 PM on June 15, 2015 [1 favorite]