Bathroom Remodel
We just completed a brand new bathroom remodel. This job entailed replacing the shower & installing a completely new tile floor. Let’s roll up those sleeves and see how we made it happen!
Job Overview: What All Did We Renovate?
We love Renovation Jobs. They give us an opportunity to take something that was once seen as old and less valuable and turn it into something new and beautiful. It’s about restoring life and functionality to your home and enjoying those indoor and outdoor spaces.
This Bathroom Remodel provided us a great opportunity to show off some renovation & design skill for our Advocate Construction team. Starting out, this bathroom had both a walk in shower and bathtub. Secondly, the traditional tile floor (very common for turn-of-the-century homes) needed to be replaced with a new modern tile finish. From start to finish, we met with our client in their home for a free in-home consultation. Lastly, provided them with material options and gave them many choices in color and finishes, to make their new bathroom their own.
After listening to our client and gathering a strong understanding of what they wanted, we put together our quote and gave them an accurate estimate for the project. Upon their approval, our teams went to work and we turned this bathroom completely around.
The Remodel Process
After we received the approval from our client, our Advocate Construction team went to work. Like all home remodels, bathroom remodels require ample planning and detailed execution. We carefully evaluate each aspect of the bathroom before we begin tearing out old material. It’s crucially important to check for moisture, damaged pipes, electrical standards and anything else that could cause future problems.
Demolition
That being said, our first step in any bathroom remodel is Demolition. This stage involves removing old finishing material all the way down to the bare bones. Depending on the level of remodel, we can preserve Underlayment and trim (as long as it has structural integrity). For the purpose of this remodel, we removed our tile flooring down to the concrete slab. Secondly, we removed both the shower and bathtub down to the studs and drainage pipes.
This provided us a clear work area for our crews to operate. You can always tell the skill set of the remodeling crew based upon the tidiness of their demolition job. In our instance, you can see that we carefully removed materials and created a clean work space for our crews to build our new bathroom upon.
This is a beautiful picture of our demolition work. Here you can see the old shower has been ripped out down to the studs and concrete slab. We’ve removed any insulation and exposed all interior pipes and hardware. This gives our crews an excellent tapestry to build our new shower inside of this clean work space. The key here is cleanliness!
Checking for Problems
After we’ve demolished the old bathroom and ripped out our old materials, it’s time for some spot checks! Throughout our entire renovation process, we are constantly examining the layers of construction materials beneath our original tile floors and bathroom walls. We inspect each aspect to determine its viability and whether or not it should be retained or replaced.
The keyword through any bathroom remodel is moisture removal. Although we are redesigning this living space to make it more beautiful and updated, we are also laying the ground work for the future health of this home. Any signs of moisture or leaking must be addressed after we’ve completed our demolition phase. This is likely the only time that this bathroom will be back down to the bones, ever again, and therefore now’s the time to fix any lingering issues.
Our teams carefully check all aspects of this bathroom for water damage, moisture, mold, dry rot and plumbing links. Quick fact, not many people are familiar with the term dry rot. For those that are unfamiliar, dry rot can best be defined as:
Dry rot is wood decay caused by certain species of fungi that digest parts of the wood which give the wood strength and stiffness. – Wikipedia
Here is a great snap shot of our renovated bathroom floor. Here you can see our gorgeous gray hardwood looking tile. Tile is great due to its waterproofing features!
Installing Our New Shower & Floor
Now that we’ve completed our Demolition & Problem Checking phase, it’s time to move onto phase # 3 of our renovation job: The Construction Phase. Now we can implement and install all of the beautiful materials that our customers custom select during our design phase. Often, this is the fastest phase of the entire renovation project. It’s not uncommon for our customers to leave for work on the day of construction and return home to find the job near completion.
Our focus in this stage of the process is quality installation using materials that provide long lasting benefits to our clients. For example, we constructed our shower using Cement Boards rather than drywall or plywood.
Cement board is now commonly called a cement backer unit (CBU). CBUs are 100% inorganic, meaning that, unlike wood-based materials such as drywall, green board, or plywood, there is no organic matter that will promote mold, rot, shrinkage, or decomposition. – The Spruce
Using quality materials such as Cement Board, provides our clients with a quality product that is sure to last for years to come. It’s clearly understood that we are not present everyday that our products are in use. Therefore, it’s our job to provide our clients with the highest quality products on the market; products that work for them and keep their investments safe and functioning properly.
Advocate Construction – We Can Fix & Replace Anything!
As with all of our jobs, we take the highest level of care and consideration for our clients in all that we do. If you’ve got a home renovation project on your to-do list and are looking for a company you can trust, give us a call! We work with clients of all budget levels to create a renovation plan that fits both their budget and dreams for their living spaces. As always, we are here to answer any questions you might have and would love to provide you with a free in-home estimate!