So, the three day weekend for me this week was anything but relaxing. Let me share with you the story of how the somewhat simple task of changing a toilet seal blossomed into a nearly complete bathroom remodel.
The wife and I have been in our house for just under 7 years, and the house is approaching it's 60th birthday. I'm sure it was state of the art back in '56 when it was built, but just like people - if it isn't maintained, it sags in places it shouldn't, and can just look a bit worn. We've been talking off and on for the last couple of years about what we'd like to change in the house, and looking at each room and getting into the cycle of "we really need to do this. But we can't do that until we do this. Well we can't do that, until this over here is handled, etc....". Sometimes it just takes one thing to break through the mental quagmire to actually cause action to begin. For us, it took a toilet seal leaking.
So, the wife last Wednesday decided that she's had enough of the slight odor that comes up whenever we flush the toilet, and that my Dad and I could get together Friday afternoon and redo the wax seal. Timetables were set, schedules were synchronized, and on Friday about 4 pm - we set to the task. Issue #1. We discovered that the screws that held the unit to the bottom flange had rusted nearly completely through. Hint: never use galvanized nails/screws/pipes in a wet environment if you want them to last more than 10 years. Once we took off the bowl and took a look at the floor, the wood under the linoleum was soaking wet. I'd noticed a drip in the basement for a little while, but I thought I'd fixed it when I had to replace the galvanized pipe (notice a trend here) that was in the bathroom since that had corroded completely through. Looks like there was a bit more to the water leaks than one point of failure. So the thought process went - how long has it been leaking and potentially being soaked up by the wood subfloor? It wouldn't do a bit of good to put a new wax seal over bad, smelly wood - which means we're pulling up the linoleum to see how far the damage/soaking went.
Turns out that the previous owners of the house periodically decided to change the look of the floor in the bathroom. However, when they got tired of the vinyl tile or linoleum, they didn't rip it up - they simply put down new on top of the old. So with hammers, chisels, and scrapers - we started taking up four layers of flooring interwoven with quarter inch plywood before getting down to the subfloor. Then we could accurately make a determination about how far the wood was wet and damaged. Needless to say, starting so late, there was no way to finish that night, so halfway through the flooring removal we had to stop for the evening.
Day two: The next morning, we started up again with the floor. A couple of hours later, we finally finished separating the flooring from the subflooring, and could accurately gather info about how far the water penetration had gone. Unfortunately, the toilet sits right beside the bathroom vanity, and to make sure 1. the subfloor under the vanity wasn't damaged and 2. if the vanity was sitting on top of one or more of those layers of linoleum - we also had to take out the vanity. Now, this apparently was the original vanity in the bathroom, because it was built into place, and built to last. In taking out the vanity, we left some nasty gashes and holes in the wall because there was no true back to the vanity. So by a little after lunch time, we had the bathroom down to the subfloor everywhere and could start replacing the rotten wood (which thankfully wasn't much).
Then it was time to start putting everything back together. Didn't seem like a good idea in a potentially (hah) wet environment to go with just plywood as the next level of floor, so two pieces of concrete board got cut and placed down to provide a waterproof barrier. We also picked up a new plastic ring that fits inside the waste pipe to ensure that all waste gets focused down the pipe instead of hoping for a gentle meeting of the flat ring and the pipe. Also done was the replacing of all galvanized fittings in that bathroom, and looking in each of those pipes - I'm quite surprised that we were getting any water into the sink and/or toilet. After getting those things taken care of, it was time for food and aspirin. The hard part was behind us (we thought), so day 3 should be easy - just putting down the new linoleum.
Day 3. When the former owners of the house put down linoleum in the kitchen - they had some extra that they just rolled up and stuck in the basement. Since the bathroom isn't huge, and the pattern is white and boring - seems a shame to not put it to good use. Got it cut to the approximate rough size, then moved it to the waiting bathroom for final cuts and fittings. Now, this flooring material had been rolled up and stood in a corner for at least 7 years, and potentially longer. It did not relax easily, nor did it set new marks for flexibility. Add to that that there are several odd corners and shapes in the bathroom, and you can imagine that the final cutting and fitting took over an hour to do. But we got it accomplished, and started gluing it down in stages. Apparently when professional installers put down flooring, they have a large weighted roller that they use to smooth down the finished flooring to ensure that it has near perfect adhesion to the actual floor. I had an oversized plastic tub that I filled with two unopened bags of playground sand and eight 15 pound bowling balls. I think it worked pretty well, and also provided a use for several cracked bowling balls that I had been loathe about getting rid of. So at the end of yesterday, the floor was down and weighted down to make sure that the roll memory had been defeated, and the hardware to reattach the bowl to the floor was in place. Since the corners are the main spots I was concerned about the linoleum curling up, I left the weights on there overnight - so the bowl is not yet back on.
Of course, since we're doing all this work, my wife interjects that it's a perfect time to repaint the bathroom to hide the floral pattern that someone had painted on before. So while the floor was being 'pressed', I also primed all the walls for painting, as well as cleaned the ceiling - but I didn't prime it yet. Two reasons for that - 1. since the walls were wet, I couldn't cover light fixtures adequately to protect them from paint splatters, and 2. only some of the bowling balls used for extra weight were cracked - others were part of my collection and are in perfectly good shape, and didn't need to be painted. So by 10 last night, I was sore, tired, smelly, paint and glue spattered, and quite ready to go back to work so I could sit down and rest my feet. Tonight I'll go home and cover the light fixtures so I can prime the ceiling, and hopefully my wife will have picked out the color she want's in the bathroom (otherwise it's gonna be a dazzling white bathroom) so I can start painting. If not, then I'll just install the toilet after priming and call it a night. I have some friends of mine going to an auction tomorrow to see if they can pick up a vanity/sink combo for a good price - and once that comes in - I can install that and the bathroom renovation will be essentially done except for final painting (which can wait till next weekend).
All this, because the wax ring on the toilet started to leak.
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