Bath & Faucets

[George_HD_CHI]

Hi there community!

Let’s talk about that room in your house that you feel like it’s always missing something, let’s talk about the room you feel like you should do something with to make it more pleasant and up to date, let’s talk about the bathroom today.

What is that we can do with the bathrooms in our homes to make them pop out but at the same time not the brake the bank?

I’m one of those guys who are addicted to home improvement, I’m one of those guys who always works around the house on the weekends and it can’t stay still. Being this cold this year I was forced to stay still inside the house…not a good thing my wife says .

There is this one bathroom in my house that I really need to do something with.

This one bathroom with pink tiles from 80’s, pink toilet and a vanity with a pink under mount bowl!

Wait that’s not it, there is more…White semi gloss walls, silver shower door and a crown jewel-yellow vertical blinds.

My goal is to improve this bathroom and stay on the budget. I don’t want this to be my major investment being that I still have more projects to work on.

First I’m going to remove all of the pink tiles. I’m going to this slowly with flat chisel and 5lb sledge hammer. Objective is to minimize the damage to the walls so I don’t have to replace tile underlayment outside the shower walls.

My plan is to save money  by buying a large 16x16 floor tiles. I like the color it’s like beige brown looking tile and I like the price per SF. Being that I’m not paying for labor and I have nice tile saw  I’m going to cut big tiles to 4”x16” strips. I’ve done this before and it looks great, especially when randomly staggered on the walls.

Once I’m done it pattern should look like picture on the right;

 On the floor I’m going to use full tiles and pattern on the left for cleaner look and to minimize grout lines for easier cleaning.

Vanity that I have right now I’m going to paint white and upgrade with new mosaic counter top and top mount bowl to ease out mosaic tile installation. Further I’m going to replace ugly pink toilet and vertical blindes.With a new fresh of  coat paint it should look ten times better.

What do you guys think?

If you could change one thing about your bathroom, what would it be?

[dana]

if i could change anything about my bathroom, it would be the color. 

[floorman]

Well if i had to do my bathroom over again,1st thing i wouldn't do on the floor is to put ceramic.Thats me now.The ceramic would keep the floor cold. If there's kid's they may drop say a glass or something and it would break.The ceramic on the walls is good,however getting that old tile off is gonna be rough. The old tile cent will be like cement and scraping will be tough.My bathroom i would buy the greenboard and just replace the 3-5 sheets.My bathtub i would ceramic in the 3 walls of the tub from the tub up until you had like 16-20 inches from the ceiling and finish the top edge with 2 or 4 inch finish tiles.I would for my bathtub area either paint a nice soft color from the ceiling down to the 16-20 inch  or a nice wallpaper and or paint the top and lace the whole bath with a 5 or 6 inch wallpaper border around the whole bathroom.I would get a remnant of a nice piece of vinal or lino for the floor and it would be much warmer and the floor would be one solid piece.If the floor is cement after scraping my tiles off my floor i would see if it were a smooth floor..If not i would level the floor myself or if it were bad i would buy this liquid floor cement.Some comes mixed and all i do is pour where the floor looks off and this liquid cement levels just almost by itself.They also have a powder that i could mix alone with this other milky substance and mix and i would pour it and maybe use a trowel if i needed one..You could do over your sink cabinet yourself or dependinding on my funds, maybe buy a small new one thats finished or 1 that i could paint.When or if i put ceramic on the floor, cutting like you mentioned you would have a rough edge and to shave all those tiles on that one edge will be tough..Butting tiles up tight isn't a very good idea.That's why they sell spacers so the tiles and grout would be even. Houses also breath in the summer and in the winter..I would grout mine. This is just my way only.Ihave done tile and floors for over 30 yrs..Now my poor bones..I am sure you will do a great job. Have fun.

Bob

[Travis_HD_ATL]

The bathroom project currently on my honey-do list is to install a shower head in our garden tub. The tub is non jetted, so it is almost never used. It’s about  30 square feet of unused  floor space. It is surrounded by walls on three sides with no window to consider, so the tile ideas that SteelToes  offered will be utilized.

We want to install a curved shower curtain to highlight the oval shape of the tub and add space inside the shower.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=...

The shower head will be supplied by the current water supply to the tub, using sharkbite fittings that my Home Depot offers in plumbing.

Hmmm…      A video might be in the making!

I’ll keep you posted.

LawnRanger

[jessrae1]

I would change the tub and shower that I have.  I want a huge tub and make it so that I have to step down into it.  Then for the shower I want a stand alone shower that is done all in tile (would like glass tile but I haven't seen any colors that I like yet).  I also want to redo my sink and counters.  I would keep them the same size but have a glass counter top and the bowl shaped sinks.

[MBT1001]

I'm getting ready to change out both of my bathrooms...Completely! Floors, (from lino to tile, setting on cement slab), then the toilets and vanities; followed by having someone come in to re-surface by fiber-glass tub & shower enclosures. Finally, fresh paint on the walls. We're getting the house ready to put on the market, and though we don't expect a return on any of our raw materials investment, we do hope the new feel adds to the desire for the potential buyer to make the decision to purchase. (I've heard kitchens and baths are the primary deal-breakers when determining whether or not to buy...I guess we'll find out real soon. I've done flooring before, but have never properly identified the method for determining starting points for tile. I've heard of a 3,4,5 rule, but don't understand it's meaning and how to apply it. These are small bathrooms; approx. 60" x 40" and I'm using 11 11/16" x 11 11/16" tiles. My question is how do I properly center (position) my tiles to create the most accurate layout with the least amount of tile-cutting? And, (speaking of tile-cutting), where should my "cuts" go. (I'm thinking towards the rear wall where the most of them are to be hidden by the toilet(s) and Vanity(s), but I could be wrong. Any experts out there with a thought on this? 

[Angelo_HD_CHI]

I would love to have only one handle or knob to control the water in the shower, with a anti-scald feature. 

I recently tried to replace through the access panel on the other side of the wall, but the original plumbing was done in such a way that I couldn't get to the piping easily without removing several tiles in the shower area first.

So it turned out to be a Cubs Project, "wait till next year!"

[George_HD_CHI]

Hello MBT1001 and welcome to the community!

First, I wish you all the luck with your upcoming home listing.

Nicely upgraded bathrooms and listed pictures of the same will definitely attract more potential buyers.

And more traffic you get more chances you will have running in to somebody who its ready to put an offer on.

Something else that will make your bathrooms more esthetically pleasing is the size and color of the tile you are going to use. Trick in making small bathrooms look good is to make them look larger and there are few things that you can do to make small bathrooms look larger.

Go with the light colors when it comes to tile and paint.

Also if possible change your vanity to the pedestal sink; this will create an illusion of larger space.

Keep it simple and place a mirror across the window if you have one; this will reflect natural light and make it look brighter.

If you have low ceilings and decent budget for the tile go with the tile all the way to the ceiling; this will create an illusion of the taller walls.

Otherwise you can always paint some vertical stripes.

Go with a wall mount toilet, you will achieve desired height and again it will make floor plan look more open.

As far as the rule 3, 4, 5 goes it is actually very simple.

Let’s use one of your bathrooms for example, you said that your bathrooms are 60" x40" so let’s call 40" side A, 60" side C and corner where those two sides meet B.

First measure on the side A"(40") 3' foot mark.

Second measure on the side C" 4' mark

If you bathroom it’s in  square measurement in between mark A and Mark C should be 5' feet

Something else you can do being that this is such a small bathroom you can "dry" set the tiles to determine which pattern would look the best and where to place cuts.

I'm recommending this because you have a small bathroom and you may not need to start from the center of the room like it's usually done.

Usually rule for laying tile on the floor is to determine center of the room first and start from that point.

To determine center of the room measure from one end of the room to the other  split the distance on the half and mark the center line on the floor, repeat this process three more times on the surrounding walls and mark all four center lines.

Next snap a chalk line from one side of the room to the other over the center line marks.

Then take the chalk line and snap it in the other direction , now if done right you will have a center line and a guide for laying tiles.

Hope that helps and keep us updated.

[BlakeTheDiyGuy]

I would love to change my framed neo-angle shower door to a custom frameless model. Going from 15 caulk lines to 3 would be so great! 

But I think a new toilet is on the list before that. The flushing performance on some of the new high effeciency toilets with 3"+ flush valves is just awesome; a world without plungers? Sign me up! 

-Blake

[slavy77]

I would build...I have an unfinished basement that will have a bathroom. I'd love to build it. I even have a urinal. My wife said I could keep it, but I have to clean it. Not a bad trade off...at least that's what I'm thinking now.