Fifth Avenue Forum

My first house I decided to completely redo my bathroom (i.e. stripped down to the studs), and it looked almost exactly like your old setup skullman. Except, envision brown tile and a yellow tub. The biggest PITA was fitting in the shower surround. I was never 100% pleased with the results, as the glue didn't adhere in certain spots in the middle of the surround. It never leaked, just bubbled out. Did your guy just glue the surround on top of the old tile?

Replacing the fixtures were also troublesome. Sweating in a new water manifold took quite some time to get leak-free.

It was a good experience for a first time homeowner on a house I really didn't care too much about. No way would I go through something like that again, though.

My first house I decided to completely redo my bathroom (i.e. stripped down to the studs), and it looked almost exactly like your old setup skullman. Except, envision brown tile and a yellow tub. The biggest PITA was fitting in the shower surround. I was never 100% pleased with the results, as the glue didn't adhere in certain spots in the middle of the surround. It never leaked, just bubbled out. Did your guy just glue the surround on top of the old tile?

Replacing the fixtures were also troublesome. Sweating in a new water manifold took quite some time to get leak-free.

It was a good experience for a first time homeowner on a house I really didn't care too much about. No way would I go through something like that again, though.

As far as I know yeah he just put it over the old tile. Nothing got taken out per say, just everything laid over top. They came and took measurements about a month or so before the install. So I'm assuming everything they did was cut precisely. He did do some cutting in the garage yesterday, but I'm assuming most of it was down prior to him showing up based on the measurements they took a month or so ago. Dude seemed to know what he was doing, everything is guaranteed for life etc. It's not a project I would have felt comfortable doing myself that's for sure. Wife is happy... so all is good haha.

Wife is happy... so all is good haha.

The best way to tackle that, IMO, is to remove the grout and re-grout/re-seal.

My first house I decided to completely redo my bathroom (i.e. stripped down to the studs), and it looked almost exactly like your old setup skullman. Except, envision brown tile and a yellow tub. The biggest PITA was fitting in the shower surround. I was never 100% pleased with the results, as the glue didn't adhere in certain spots in the middle of the surround. It never leaked, just bubbled out. Did your guy just glue the surround on top of the old tile?

Replacing the fixtures were also troublesome. Sweating in a new water manifold took quite some time to get leak-free.

It was a good experience for a first time homeowner on a house I really didn't care too much about. No way would I go through something like that again, though.

As far as I know yeah he just put it over the old tile. Nothing got taken out per say, just everything laid over top. They came and took measurements about a month or so before the install. So I'm assuming everything they did was cut precisely. He did do some cutting in the garage yesterday, but I'm assuming most of it was down prior to him showing up based on the measurements they took a month or so ago. Dude seemed to know what he was doing, everything is guaranteed for life etc. It's not a project I would have felt comfortable doing myself that's for sure. Wife is happy... so all is good haha.

my first project was this as well. It turned out well enough until I dropped a hammer in the tub and put a big black chip mark in it. It was after the tile was already laid so that sucked. 8 years later and I have some mildew in the corners of the grout that I can't seem to get out. ANyone have any suggestions?

Nice work. Our window issue is a little different in that the window is on the wall next to the tub and the tub wall needs to be trimmed out to accommodate it. We're also moving the faucet and showerhead to the other side of the tub so as to minimize the amount of moisture on the window and its wood frame.

My first house I decided to completely redo my bathroom (i.e. stripped down to the studs)

I still remember sawzalling my master shower's fiberglass enclosure years ago in order to go with tile. I had to cut that damn thing into 100 pieces to fit into the trash can, and my lawn around the cans was covered in blue particles for weeks. It looked like I murered a family of Smurfs.

I also got lucky when I befriended my neighbor across the street and he said he'd take my old cast iron tub and scrap it. Thing must have weighed 400-500 lbs.

My first house I decided to completely redo my bathroom (i.e. stripped down to the studs)

This will most likely be my winter project this year. The old plaster behind the tile in the shower area is disintegrating, and on the opposite wall (dry area, but tile covered) at least a 4 sq ft area is bowed out to a good 4 inches from flush.

Think we're going to go with that wood-look porcelain tile for the floor and natural stone, maybe slate, for the shower surround and wainscoting.

Are you going to replaster, or go with drywall? I went with drywall, which was very challenging. Since the plaster transitioned right into the ceiling and I didn't want to tear down the ceiling, I left about 4" of plaster around the upper perimeter. But the plaster was 2-3 inches thick, so I had to put spacers on the studs to align the drywall with the plaster. Didn't come out perfect, but for my first reno it wasn't too bad.

That does look great. Thanks so much for sharing. I've been debating whether it was something I wanted to tackle myself but this looks terrific and makes me think I should just pay to have it done.

I'm not a good plumber, but I'm going to try and replace my shower cartridge tonight. Here's to hoping all goes well