How to remodel a bathroom?

Sources

How to Plan a Bathroom Remodel - The Spruce

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Answer

Here is a concise overview of how to remodel a bathroom:

Planning and Preparation

• Establish a realistic budget and timeline for your bathroom remodel12
• Decide on the scope of your project - a surface-level remodel, gut and replace, or changing the layout2
• Develop a floor plan and apply for any necessary building permits12
• Gather essential tools and supplies like safety gear, a tile saw, and a wet/dry shop vacuum3

Demolition

• Remove the toilet, vanity, sink, flooring, and drywall23
• Carefully remove tiles by breaking loose ones first with a chisel or drill4
• Shut off water supply and disconnect plumbing before removing fixtures4

Plumbing and Electrical

• Hire a plumber and electrician to update the bathroom's plumbing and wiring12
• Relocate or install new water supply lines, drain pipes, and electrical wiring as needed24

Walls and Flooring

• Install cement board and vapor barrier in wet areas1
• Hang new drywall and paint walls with a moisture-resistant semi-gloss paint12
• Lay new moisture-resistant flooring like tile, luxury vinyl, or sheet vinyl23

Fixtures and Finishes

• Install the new shower or tub23
• Add cabinets, vanity, sink, and toilet13
• Configure electrical and install new lighting3
• Tile the shower walls and tub enclosure13
• Add trim, caulk corners, and decorate with accessories3

The key is to plan thoroughly, work in the right order, and hire professionals for technical work. With some DIY know-how, you can remodel your bathroom to suit your needs and style123.

Video Full Text

• 00:00 So in this video, I want to go over the 99 consecutive steps that I've come up with to remodel a bathroom from start to finish. So I've been a contractor for the last 20 years and in the last seven years I've really honed a pattern of how to go about remodeling a bathroom. So I want to share you with you. This process, as you can see, this is a fairly outdated bathroom. This is a 1972 home that had wallpaper, linoleum flooring and a lot of undesirable old features. So we're going to transform this into a beautiful, new, clean and serene bathroom all tile. And just using products that are going to last a really long time and really easy and efficient to install. So I'm really excited to show you this. Be sure to check out the links in the description of this video because I have a lot of great links. I have a checklist that will help you keep you organized with going about this, and along with a course that you can purchase that will get into a lot more detail of how to go about this. But just to show you real quickly what this might save you. So this is a contract that I gave to a client last year, and as I said, this is a five foot by eight foot bathroom, pretty standard, standard tub, toilet vanity. And I what I highlight basically all the steps of going about doing this, but really, I wanted to just show you what you might be saving by doing this yourself. So if you've gotten quotes from other contractors, you know this is a fairly expensive purchase to have done so, you will save a bunch by doing a lot of this yourself. But typically, a bathroom this size in this day of 2022 would be roughly between twelve and 15,000, depending on the actual materials that you choose. So keep that in mind when you're looking at this video, because I think that helps give you a little bit of motivation, but definitely check out my course. I really have a really well outlined thing. A lot of people have been using this and been successful with remodeling your bathroom, so I'm really excited to share this with you. But basically, the curriculum is step by step, day by day, and each one of these you can just jump in and be able to learn a little bit more details about the how to go about it and keep you organized. So I'm really excited to show you. So let's get right into it. OK, so day one, this is probably what most of you you're looking forward to, and that is getting rid of all those old fixtures, getting rid of that wallpaper, getting rid of those ugly light fixtures that you had there and starting from there. So my biggest word of advice here, right at the beginning, though, is shut off that water at the main supply of your home. This is really important because most of the time the old valves that are connected to your toilet or vanity are not in good condition, and they can leak as soon as you try to turn them off. I always like to start out with removing the toilet in the vanity, so I have a little bit more room in the bathroom. But be sure you have some caps available so that you can cap off your plumbing and get water back into the home efficiently. So you want to get rid of that tub and shower faucet while the water shut off. Get rid of, you know, remove that trim and remove the drain assembly if you can, because you don't want to get any debris down into your existing waistlines. Sometimes it can be very stubborn and difficult to remove. But in my course, I gave you a little bit more detail about how to go about that, but basically you just saw all of that trap warm off of your existing tub. Next step after you can basically get the water back on in the home at this point. If you have your caps supplies on there, but you want to remove that tub surround, though this is going to vary from bathroom to bathroom. It might be a lot more difficult if you have cement board or hardy backer, but in this particular situation, it was just a towel directly over drywall. So removing that tub? And what I really do recommend is most of the time, if this is like if you have a home that's, you know, 50 years old or the bathroom hasn't been done. In 50 years, it's really helpful to just remove all of the drywall and get everything down to the studs because this is going to allow you to address any electrical issues. Inspect that plumbing because you just don't want to be installing thousands of dollars of new material over an old, crappy foundation. You want to pay attention to what your electrical looks like, what your plumbing looks like and address any issues. And of course, and it really is just going to make it a lot easier as far as installing the rest of the materials in the bathrooms or even removing that ceiling is going to help you. It's going to make it easier to put in a new vent fan. This is day one again. I like to have all the demo done, and I'm putting in my vent fan so I can put drywall up on that first day. I really find it easiest. If you can try to get drywall up on that ceiling on day one, it just gives you a little bit peace of mind and easier to work on to the next day. Now this is consecutive in seven days, so I don't expect everyone to be able to do it this quickly. But this is an outline of going about how to do it so and ending the day with removing existing flooring again. It can barely vary depending on how difficult your flooring is existing.

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• 04:44 So they too, we're going to get into the plumbing. So you want to address this now? This is a very, you know, it's very difficult to tell exactly what kind of situation. You have until you remove that existing tub. So you have to give yourself a little bit of extra time and allowance to be able to. Change things, but if you you know, in this situation, I had copper, so I'm adapting it using a firm code to adapt to my new trap. I always do recommend installing a new pet trap for your tubs surround because it's going to make it a lot easier to install the tub, put in your drain assembly on your tub before setting it in place, especially if you're working by yourself really going to make it much, much easier. And I highlight this and much more detail into my course, but being able to put that drain assembly together when the tub is standing up much easier to install and then you can basically put down in place. Now, this is where removing all of the walls in the bathroom makes this much easier because most of the time when you're installing a tub, you're needing to drivers multiple times to make sure everything fits right. So if you have a tub that you know you need to install a ledger board, you're going to have to drive it this many times. And you also want to make sure that the plumbing is in the proper position for you to melt it. So in this situation, I put the trap arm in place. Set the tub and then I put the trap together on it. So that's why it's easier to put a new trap in on any whatever type of fixture you have. You can just slide it on to existing drain assembly. Next step is to move right in to getting a new tub and shower faucet. I demonstrate one of the easiest systems that I like to use, and that's using pecs, so converting the pegs now. In my course, I have a lot of better details on how to go about this. You can buy shower bells that really would eliminate having the sword or anything and basically get this done equipment efficiently. So this is a delta shower faucet now installed. I really like them and are really easy to install, but I go into a lot more detail into the course of how to do that. Always fill your top and make sure that that overflow is not leaking as well. The situation here I had to remove. I wanted to address this plumbing here because my existing adapter was kind of sorted. And so it it was going to be easier to move my drain up and put new PVC in again, removing all of the walls. And it allows you to do this very easily. And if you want to address things with your electrical like adding a GFI, you want to make that dedicate today. Three.

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• 07:12 So day two was basically getting that tub in, putting that tub and shower flossing, and day three is getting into the waterproofing around the tubs around and addressing all of your framing. This is really going to be. If you take the extra time to do this correctly, it's going to make everything else easier because if you have a nice flat wall, it makes it easier for tiling and everything else. So in this situation, I was putting ferring strips up around the wall so that I can allow my wallboard to overhang the tub. I'm also putting blocking in for my accessories. So if you know where you want the tile bars really helpful to put walking behind those towel bars and be able to easily accurately put those estuaries together, hanging drywall on the third day is really important because it's a timing issue you need to put. You need to be finishing that properly so that there's time for the mud, the dry. It usually takes about three to four coats of mud to address the drywall. Now, don't be fearful of doing drywall work. This is why I say removing everything in the bathroom really helps out a lot. Drywall finishing is not that difficult. If you screw up, you can always go over it and make it smooth and get to that nice, proper finish. But I give it a lot of great tips in my course of how to go about doing that. You also want to go over to clay at this point if you're going to put a custom recessed niche. This is important to know exactly where your location of your niche is going to be so that your tile layout can work and not have any slivers around that. So I go in a lot of great detail about how to do that, but one of my most important parts is to do a waterproof tub surround. The tiling process is literally just a decorative part of the process. Everything behind the tile should be waterproof so that you have a long lasting bathroom. And in this situation, I use John's Mansfield's Go Board. So this is a foam board really easy to install. Really no dust involved. You can just cut it with a utility knife and really a pretty affordable. It was roughly around ¤300 to waterproof this tub around, so that's really a decent price point for this type of situation. But I do a lot of great detail on how to make sure you're installing this properly and making sure that you have a nice waterproof tossed around. Though this is one area where if you didn't have the time before this took you all week to get to this point, you could technically start using your bathroom again at this point, because now that the waterproofing board will be in, you can just install your shower faucet and put a temporary shower curtain up, and then you can wait until you have more time. So there are exit strategies here, so don't be afraid that you have to get this done in seven days. If you get the waterproofing up and you have your plumbing intact, you should be able to get back into working order here.

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• 10:00 But I really go in a lot of details about the recess snitches, these is a great additional feature for a bathroom. I really love these corner niches. They're really useful and they look great at the end. So you know, again, be sure to check out that course links in the description below. But this go board system really easy. Really DIY friendly. And the sealing application really makes it kind of foolproof, all they do is go over all your screws and seams and then you have a nice waterproof system. And then going around that tub, Australia's port and making sure that you have waterproofing alongside your tub is going to make a long lasting tub surround a lot of times if you run drywall straight to your tub side. That's where a lot of areas with damage. So I really go into a lot of detail about the waterproofing system and making sure that, you know, common areas that you might have problems using valve seals, using a valve port around your pipe, seal for your tub spell. That'll really eliminate any future issues because most of the time tub spells or tub spells that they do not have any way of sealing to, it's a day for. This is where we're going to get into the tiling process that should be the fun part of the project. But we put down that feature mat. This is a system for waterproofing your floor and also having a basically an isolation membrane for your tile. So this is really nice. Rather than using cement board or hardy backer, Schluter Diedre is really a nice, user friendly way to go. Plus, it's waterproof, so that's really, really helpful. You just always want to double check that you're doing things properly. So I go through the guidance of what Schluter, how Schluter once you do install this, but I go a couple of extra steps by even waterproofing around the perimeter of the bathroom as well. This is really nice because, you know, it really encapsulates a waterproof bathroom floor so that if there's any accidents, any problems, you know that it's not going to leak down to the room below. But getting into the tiling process, this is where I really have a lot of great tips. This should be the fun part of the project. Going over a towel layout is really important, and I got a lot of important details in that that will help you determine your layout. But using a good, thin set is really going to make it nice and easy. A lot of times people have trouble with the thin set mixture, and it just makes the whole process for installing tile pretty difficult. But I go over a lot of the methods that the TNA recommends. I'm a certified tile installer, so I do give a lot of great advice on how to go about installing tile and in a lot of the the tools and even spacers that make this easier. Using those horseshoe shims are really helpful, makes it a lot easier than using those rubber spacers. But in this bathroom, we're just doing six by six tile, so it's a fairly straightforward, easy installation using a laser level to make sure that every steam thing stays nice and level is helpful in making sure that you have your tile lay off. To work out with that niche really helps out as well. All these little small things add up and make it make your job a lot easier and more fun to do. I go into installing the shelving for your recessed niche and how to make sure that you know you have a pitch there. But if you're going to put doing a border of any sort, it's really helpful to be able to set that mosaic on the night before over 30 minute. We'll get that in a little bit here, but day four is really getting into the fun part of the project. Start and feel like you're getting the project together here.

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• 13:40 As you can tell, I have waterproofing out. Extending out past that waterproofing will address that on day five. But yeah, you always want to put that second coat of mud on there as well. Again, this is a timing issue. Everything the sequence of the order of this is just so that you can effectively get this done in seven days. But, you know, making sure that you get that second coat of drywall mud on is really important so they can dry properly. And I always go with my talent. Sometimes it's nice to be able to day four to be able to actually set your table on the floor, but you know, time, you know, it's tough to come by when you're trying to get things done quickly, but at least if you have your tile layout set so that the next day that you can tell that floor as well and get and move on to, you know, getting your vanity and toilet in. But I have a lot of great tips here, but again, this is where it's really helpful depending on the mosaic board that you have. Setting this on a Schluter membrane the night before is going to make the installation of this much easier on day five. And a lot of these mosaics are getting really thin now, so it's really difficult to even place them without having a lot of thin set oozing out between them. So putting them on a kurdy membrane like this really, really makes it easy to install. And we'll show you that here shortly how that's installed. Day five, moving on with the rest of the tiles, so we're just basically picking up where we left off using that laser to keep everything nice and level. And then we're going to be going around that recess niche. Now this is going to take a little bit of time. Having good tools to be able to accomplish this really is helpful. You know, a good grinder with a good grinder blade will make it a lot easier to cut things around your your valve trim and around your niche. So I have a lot of really detailed information in the course about this as well. But yeah, you're always just making sure that you're kind of eliminating those slivers and you're making sure that you have good coverage on the tile installation that you're using. And so this is where we're going to get into the set in that border, so as you can tell, it just goes up like all like one piece of tile really easy because you're not allowing all that thin set that ooze out between the joints. And it just makes it a lot quicker so you can complete the tops around pretty easily when you have that mosaic put on that membrane like that. And yeah, this is really where you start to feel like things are coming together. I always like to have that bull nose or the edging of my towel go down alongside the tub because again, that's an area where there's a lot of water damage over time, water spilling out of the tub. If you just had drywall straight to the tub, you can have problems getting that third coat of mud on very important. On day five, because day six, you want to get into the painting. So it's really important to get that third coat of mud on and address any of those issues now that waterproofing that was overhanging the tubs around. That's where you can just simply mud over it and finished out nicely. This is actually works out really well because a lot of times the thin set layer underneath. The tile pumps out the tile a little bit. So actually modding over that scene makes a lot of sense. Putting your tile floor down. So this is a pretty straightforward installation depends on the type of tile that you're using and the pattern that you're going. But the twelve by 20 fours and a five by eight bathroom, fairly straightforward, simple installation. And I have a lot of tips on there as well and methods about as surge. You can see I'm using leveling clips for this. This helps keep the slippage from going under. And you always want to be cutting your door jam so that your towel slides under it and get a, you know, a professional installation. Now that wraps it up for day five is basically getting that tile floor down because you need to allow that to set before you can do anything else for the rest of the the bathroom. Using a Schluter edge is really helpful for up against tile layout covering that edge of that tile. And. Or. Even if you have hardwood, that's a great way to go. OK, so day six, this is really when you start. Wrapping things up, but the first thing you want to do is address that drywall, get any touch ups that you need to make. And I like to use a fast setting drywall, mud, five minute mud. This allows me to do any touch ups that I need to do and be able to paint in the same day. It's really important to paint before you go installing vanities and putting any of those accessories in. If you took a weekend off and you had some hard and thin said, I gave you some advice on how to clean up that thin set in between your grout lines so you want to get things cleaned up and get ready for grouting. I go into my favorite grout for white grout, for tub surrounds, and that's using epoxy. And this is really a timing mechanism as far as setting the epoxy and making this easy on yourself. So I have a lot of great tips that are going to be really helpful for you if you decide to use epoxy. I really do think it's the best type of grout for white grout because it's going to be long lasting. This is what commercial kitchens, commercial applications use for it, so it's definitely going to stay nice and easy maintenance free. I should say that for that matter, because there's no ceiling involved, it's going to last a really long time. But there's a lot of important tips and details that you need to follow to be able to do this effectively and efficiently. And I make sure that I go through all that. But really, the hardest part about epoxy in my mind is just actually setting it.

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• 19:08 It has a little bit of a thick, sticky consistency to it, so it just takes some time to pack it, but it does give you plenty of time to be able to remove it . And I'll explain later on on why it is almost easier to use. But, you know, again, addressing those walls. While you're waiting for things to set up, you always want to just keep moving if you're trying to do this in a in an efficient manner. But wiping down all your walls, but using a scrubbing pad for the epoxy is really important. This will make it easy to remove it. And as you can tell, you can see how much water that I'm actually using to remove it. That's unlike any other grout out there because water usually damages the joints. But with epoxy, you can use as much as you want and be able to scrub that excess off. Using microfiber cloth will really make sure that any of the haze is not left over and makes it easy, so go into a lot of detail in my course about this process. Recess inches are always something that takes a little bit more effort to do, but you want to make sure you're cleaning up that tub, getting right into the painting, so priming all your your walls is important. This is going to kind of highlight any additional areas that you need to do now. Going up against your tile to ceiling transition and along the edges of your surround, you really want to use a silicone sized latex caulk. This is going to make sure that that lasts a long time. I use a quick, dry type of sealant for that because I want to be able to paint everything on this day as well. Getting your shower faucet simply put together again to tilt the shower faucets. Really easy to install. I'll give you some tips on how to go about installing that, but really, Delta is one of the easiest shower systems to install. Always checking that temperature, you want to be sure that you're under 120 degrees. You don't want to be scolding anyone. So this is, you know, an important tip to keep in mind. And I just go over the scenario of installing the shower port or the the the showerhead as well. And yeah, you're basically getting really into a functional bathroom, doing your final coat of paint. Now you're always using two coats. There really isn't anything out there that you can do anything of one coat. So again, really a timing issue, you really want to do this process so that you can get it all done on day six. Caulking the tops around. I go over a lot of great tips on doing that. This is the final step of that tub surround. And you know, a lot of times there's, you know, this can be, you know, if you do the caulking. Badly, you can make the whole tile Adobe look bad. So I give you a lot of great tips on how to go about that. Do not efficiently. One of them is making sure you fill that tub with water before you do this, because this is going to make sure that caulking joint last as long as you can get more detail into that in the courses. OK, and then the floor I this is another type of pre-mixed grout that's really easy to use as a spectral lock one. So at the end of day six is basically grouting out floor and then we'll wrap it up on day seven. But grouting at the end of the day is usually best because then you're not going to harm those joints. But one nice thing about the premises like this is that you can always touch something up. If you mess something up or if you add too much water. In a joint or something, you can always go back with the premix. But this is a very easy group to use and its maintenance free. There's no ceiling. There's no additional work after you set it. It's good, and it should stay looking like that for a long time. But getting into day seven, this is basically wrapping up all the other issues that you need to wrap things up . So putting new light switches in if you want to, and I go highlight a lot of the information of how to do that in the courses as well.

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• 23:03 Putting a new GFI in now, this is, you know, a lot of older bathrooms. They don't have this done properly. A lot of times they don't have a dedicated circuit to a GFI. This is where it's important to run that wire and do all that stuff, you know, on day two or day three. And then I go into even adding a breaker and adding that dedicated circuit. So this is something that if you're not comfortable with, definitely hire an electrician to do. But it is actually a pretty easy installation getting into the plumbing. So putting in your vanity and I give you some quick tips on how to go about installing that and then connecting all your plumbing. So there's you know, this is this this thing that takes, you know, experience to be able to learn. But you know, a lot of times, you know, you have to kind of address things the way they are. If you have to shave down the bottom of your vanity to get fit nicely and not have any gaps, that's what you have to do. So this is cutting that vanity type into place and making sure everything looks well. But, you know, a new installation being able to put that show at the sink faucet together prior to actually setting the top really makes it easy. And then again, you want to be just kind of consecutively doing this in steps of putting your base trim in caulking. That trim and then painting that trim is really important, too. You don't want to be just caulking something and not painting it because it'll get dirty and look pretty bad really quickly. So you always want to paint that caulking. And it's easier to do prior to installing your toilet or other fixtures. Go into putting in that light fixture and put mounting that box. Now all of this is kind of prepared prior to it. So I have a lot of tips, you know, prior to even hanging that tribal that you want to pay attention to hanging your mirror. I know when it comes to actually installing toilets, I really can't. You really can't beat. These American standard. Toilets are really easy to install. It just depends on where you're flanges relative your floor. So that's where I get into installing extension rings to make sure that that installation is done professionally. Now, as far as your accessories go, if you put that blocking in prior, it really makes this a breeze and makes it really, well, secure. Mounting all of your accessories, I get into drilling holes in your tile if you're going to be putting a shower rod in. As you can tell, I'm putting out directly in the center of my border, so planning ahead on your tile layout really makes a difference and makes really professional looking results. When you're planning ahead and in the final step 99 step, they're the 99 step is just basically if you have carpet talking that in the place and finishing that transition. So this is really a consecutive pattern of how to go about doing this. It doesn't have to be done in seven days, but I really, you know, I did this in real time and showing this. So hopefully this helps you out. So thanks so much for watching, and I hope this demonstration has helped you out and gave you some indication of how to go through the process of installing or remodeling a bathroom from start to finish. So be sure to again to check out those links below. I think they'll really help you out. There's a free checklist that will go through each step that I just highlighted here, and then I really think that the course will really help you out if you're going to be serious about doing a bathroom remodel because there's a lot of detailed information in there and highlights of things that you don't want to miss when you're actually doing this process, so.

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• 26:20 Thanks so much. If this has helped you out, please give me a like on this video. Subscribe to my channel. You have haven't. I always have live streams to be able to help answer and, you know, communicate with everybody here on this platform. So. Thanks so much, and I'll see you in the next video.

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