Master Bath Remodel

The Master Bath Remodel

For years, our master bath suffered from dated design and builder-grade materials.  The built-in tub was functional but uncomfortable. The vanity endured a failing finish, and the 6-ft tall shower enclosure looked strangely out of place below 9-ft ceilings.

The school bus yellow paint I had chosen a decade earlier has not aged well, and we needed to change... well, everything.

Shortly after moving in, I had painted the vanity and built a false-wall to add a pocket door to partition the bathroom from the bedroom, but that was the only upgrade for many years.

After completing the renovation of the two other indoor bathrooms, we finally decided to tackle the master bath.

First to come out was the tub, pulling out the unit itself and breaking down its cultured marble enclosure and supporting structure.

It came out without much difficulty, but the placement of the vent piping meant that we'd need to build a short false wall to house both it and the new plumbing for the tub.  It would provide an extra shelf for bath supplies too, so it would be a win-win.

The original builders had conveniently left a hole in the floor exposing the supply lines, so it only needed to be expanded a bit to give a little extra working room for rerouting the pipes and placing the drain for a new freestanding tub.

To work on the piping, I had been watching the price of knockoff Pro-Press tools steadily come down for awhile, and now was an excuse to get one.  I got one for 120 bucks, a fraction of the price for the real deal.  

Unlike some of the others, the one I got is narrow enough to crimp the sides of a T fitting, so I highly recommend it.  I could now make quick copper connections without the hassle or risk of sweating them in close quarters or resorting to insecure shark-bite slip-on fittings.

Laying the new lines to the new in-wall faucet was easy with the new crimper, routing them through a new wall built from repurposed scraps from the old tub surround.

Also repurposed was drywall cut from the old shower. the color of which was not important since the plan was to cover it later with wainscoting.

A slip-fit drain unit was added for the new freestanding tub, fastened beneath Hardipanel that matched the underlayment of the existing tile floor.

For the shower, the old shower panels were removed, revealing the bare studs, allowing the supply lines to be easily moved for a new tower shower unit.

We chose a premade TileRedi shower pan to simplify the process and guarantee a watertight install.

While the generic instructions suggest a simple mud bed mix, multiple online references suggest using Versabond modified thinset instead to provide a better bond to the floor underneath.

I hung and taped a vapor barrier on the walls, and attached aluminum z-flashing to direct any water droplets it may catch down into the pan.

We decided to put in a lot of shower niches, also from Tile Redi.  Two large ones for shampoos, conditioners and other products, two for soap, and one as a shaving foothold.

Learning from a previous shower, I tiled the interiors of each niche before installation with each niche lying flat.  This made it much easier to place the mosaic tiles just right without having to fight gravity.

Cement backer board was then mounted, taped, and sealed between each board and around each niche.

For extra waterproofing, I applied three coats of Redgard, readying the surface for tile.

We used 12x24 tiles applied in a vertical pattern, working from the center outwards of each wall to maintain a symmetric layout.

Tiling the shower pan was a bit tricky, as the pan is pre-sloped, but really best designed for small tiles.

Again also learning from experience, I supported larger titles by doing a full dry layout, stacking self-adhesive plastic spacers at the corner of every tile, building out supports from the center out so that every tile would have a predetermined slope towards the drain when it came time to adhere them down.  These "support towers" worked really well and took the guesswork out of getting just the right slope in the final product.

For the flooring, I broke out all the old tile with a hammer and chipped the pieces out, replacing them with faux-wood tile planks.

These planks have a fine wood grain texture on them that we previously found difficult to grout because the stuff would get trapped in all the grooves.  As we were using epoxy grout throughout the bathroom -- raising the stakes even higher -- we took the time to mask off every seam with tape before grouting to keep everything clean.

For finishing touches before the tub and shower walls were installed, we installed wainscoting, baseboards, chair rail, window sill and shelving -- all in PVC -- caulking and painting it all afterwards.

We ordered a semi-frameless glass shower enclosure from framelessshowerdoors.com, customized to our exact dimensions.  The glass panes were terrifyingly heavy to carry upstairs and install, but the instructions were clear and they were straightforward to attach once it was in place.

With the slip-on drain unit,  the tub easily dropped down right into place. 

The powder room wasn't left out.  In addition to the new flooring and baseboards, it got a new Toto toilet.

And new vanities, lights, mirrors, and medicine cabinets (with internal hidden outlets) completed the remodel.  Total cost: about $12k in materials and numerous long weekends.