civilized ku # 156 ~ doing our part to rebuild America
Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 06:45PM 
Our own little stimulus infrastructure spending package • click to embiggenRemember the purple toilet picture of a week or so ago? As I mentioned, its days were numbered and, with a houseful of guests expected this weekend, the time just seemed right to do the deed.
Replacing a toilet is about as simple as DIY home repairs get - turn off and disconnect the water, unscrew the floor bolts, remove the toilet, remove and replace the wax ring, place new toilet, bolt to floor, hook up the water, and, voila, there you have it. Even for the proverbial 5-thumbed amongst us, it ain't rocket science, right?
Wrong.
To be more accurate, none of what is going on in our bathroom right now involves rocket science. However, it is an abject lesson in the truth and consequences of the fable regarding pulling on the wrong thread and the entire garment unravelling. Believe me when I tell you, our bathroom has unravelled.
A long-ago improperly installed toilet has over the intervening years slowly wicked a lot of moisture into the subflooring - in fact, 3 layers of subflooring (that's a whole other story) were a soggy mess. What's amazing is that no one has landed, toilet and all, in our living room that is beneath the bathroom.
So, it's up the with mess and, oh, by the way, as long the floor is ripped up, there's all those old galvanized pipes that really should be replaced while you have the chance, right? You don't want to have to do this all over again, right? And, what about the sink? As long as you're replacing the galvanized, might as well get a new sink, right?
And now that all those built-up layers of subflooring are gone, the radiator will have to be lowered to the new floor height. And, by the by, how are you going to finish the floor? Would you like to pave it with gold?
Notice the blue bucket. At least, at this point, we do have a pot to piss in.
Reader Comments (6)
You've opened the proverbial "can of worms." Every remodelling project is subject to such hidden charms. Ah the joys of old houses! They keep some us employed, at least intermitently. Glad you didn't open this one up last summer when we were visiting!
Get rid of the radiator - takes up too much room. Put in sub floor heat (makes walking barefoot to and from the shower a pleasure). Tile the floor. Use plastic piping rather than metal - last just a long and is easier to install.
Yikes. This scares me. We are about to embark on a bathroom flooring replacement project which will involve the toilet lifting, wax ring replacement thing. All because of a suspicious black stain in the current vinyl that might be due to mold. Which means there is probably water under there. Which might mean the subflooring is wet. Which could explain the water stain on the kitchen ceiling directly under the bathroom.... Oh lord!
At least you'll be helping to save the economy cause this rehab won't be free. Headline: "Mark Hobson single-handedly stops depression in it's tracks". Best of luck. I anticipate doing something similar this summer. A plus for me: the bathroom is over the basement so I can see everything.
Here's a good story... After a year in my new house I had to replace the plumbing that had clogged/burst/etc... in my upstairs bathroom. Plumbers came by with new pipes and I left for work, leaving them to do their job.
Less than a half hour later I get a call from them notifying me that there is a problem. They will need to jackhammer through the ceiling in the room below the bathroom to access the pipes. Jackhammer? really I asked?
Apparently the plumbers that set the pipes for the house, for reasons unknown, entombed the entire sub floor of the bathroom, pipes and all, with 5" of cement. Perhaps they thought the pipes would last forever that way?
Not sure? But one thing I am sure of is the cement tomb really freaking makes the bathroom floor cold in the winter months!
Not to mention that nothing is square to adjacent surfaces, meaning that EVERYTHING is a custom fit! Measure three times, cut twice, then run out to the store for the new stuff you need that you didn't know you needed the last time you ran out for more stuff....