Bathroom is Demolished!

Usually the contractors work on Saturdays. We don't want to get in their way, so we have not been limited to Sundays to get anything done in the basement. This Saturday they weren't working, so we took the opportunity to finish up the bathroom demo.

What the bathroom looked like after last weekend-

ceiling, floor and sink in place, some framing on walls.

Removing the sink and light fixtures was quick. Then we took down some of the framing, which was barely attached, not remotely square, and rotten from water damage in some places. The walls were covered in wood slats, on top of sheetrock, on top of old bead board-- which must have been charming when it was new, but was no longer in nice shape.

The floor was a thick vinyl, with really thick adhesive to stick to a sweet little yellow and white mosaic tile floor. The adhesive was so thick, that pulling up the vinyl pulled the tiles up too in most places. I imagine the original bathroom, with this mosaic tile floor and bead board walls must have been really cute. It was kind of sad that nothing could be salvaged.

Then we started to remove the ceiling. [sigh]. The ceiling was constructed with metal wire, covered in several inches of plaster/cement. It was extremely heavy and strong, and could have functioned as a tornado shelter. Because it was a ceiling- inherently dust and junk kept falling in our eyes, making for an extra pleasant experience. The joists of the floor above had suffered some serious water damage and termite destruction, turning into squishy, soft sawdust, and leaving nothing for leverage to pry against. After several hours of us both slowly hacking away at it, we finally removed the whole thing. Then the rest of the framing on the walls came out easily.

R chips away at the ceiling- smiling through his dust mask

 

view from the old shower towards the sink

 

view from the old sink towards the shower-- nothing but pipes remain.

 

Fully demolished, only a lonely toilet remains.

a celebratory/exhausted beer at the end of the day...

 

...is less pleasant when this is your view.

Several discoveries:

1. The ceiling joists definitely have some termite damage and may need to be repaired.
2. When the previous owner renovated this bathroom, they added new pipes and left the old ones in the wall. So there are a bunch of old, unnecessary pipes just hanging out.
3. The ceiling and the walls were so thick, that we gained several inches in every dimension by removing it all. We can totally fit a bigger sink and shower now.
4. The entire basement was built like this- so we have new respect for our contractors who removed all the rest of it.

Next Steps:
We will talk to the contractors about the termite damage and maybe removing the extra pipes. Then we reframe everything and start prepping for new stuff to go in. Yay!