For all of us at Bath Pros, June has turned out to be a month of larger bathroom remodel projects. This original bath had an aging vinyl floor installed on top of an even older linoleum installation. While the vanity itself was in decent shape, the plastic feeling vanity top had seen better days. The homeowner complained about how the 90’s era fiberglass shower enclosure felt too small at 36″x48″. On top of all this, due to the house settling over the last couple decades. the room itself was over 2″ out of level from one end to the other, and it had become very noticeable.
First, our team demoed everything from the room. The flooring, toilet, vanity, medicine cabinet, and old shower were all removed. A hole was cut below the shower to move the plumbing and fixtures from the right wall to the left wall, which made more sense to the homeowner. The right wall of the shower was removed and relocated a foot further into the adjacent closet to accommodate a larger 36″x60″ stone composite shower pan. Mold resistant green/purple board was applied over the new studs. The wet space itself was completed with a floor to ceiling 1/4″ cultured stone slab in glossy “Carrara”. Finish work included matching stone inside corner molding & two matching stone shelves, all-metallic American Standard Townsend ceramic valve fixtures (drip free) in matte black, and a matching bypass door with 3/8″ thick glass. Now we had the rest of the bathroom to do.
At homeowner request, self leveling compound was poured in small increments every night before our installer left to level the floor out. Over the course of 3 or 4 days, the floor itself was level. LVP flooring in “Eclectic Oak” was laid over that, followed by the existing vanity base and toilet. Homeowner provided base molding and we installed a new matching carrara vanity top and American Standard sink fixture in matching trim. Bonus upgrades included a new toilet paper roll holder and towel hanger. Finally, metal transition strips were installed at the doors to bridge the change from LVP to carpet. On the last day, our drywaller came in and ensured everything was ready for paint. In the end, the job took a total of 8 days, but that included giving our installer the weekend off for Father’s Day, so under normal circumstances ~6 days.
As with all construction, there were a few small issues that presented with this project. First, while we normally remove the vanity and change the shut off valves at same time, our team waited on this to pour self-leveler underneath the vanity. Murphy’s Law ensued: Resultingly, the old shut off valve blew out and leaked overnight. Homeowner caught it before it caused any real damage. New SOP: Shut off valves are always replaced immediately when we pull vanity. We cannot trust old shut offs that we have not installed ourselves. Second, as a result of some unforeseen plumbing issues (HVAC water lines running in wall, which we did rectify free of charge), the job ran late by a day. Sometimes it takes time to do good work. In the end, the homeowner was satisfied with quality of work and scope of job. He even indicated that he would be calling within the next few months for us to work on his second bathroom.