Adding Some Steps Into the Den

In conjunction with raising the floor to add the bathroom to this home, I would need to build some new steps at the end of the hall leading down into the den. For stairs, this is about as basic as you get. Walls on both sides with no turns or obstacles to consider.

With any stairway, I need to spend some time doing math before I start cutting any lumber. There are some basic guidelines to building steps and I covered them more thoroughly in this post.

The height of the new floor dictated that I would need 4 steps, each one with 6 1/2" rise. This is comfortable height so that works great. I would make each of the treads 11" deep.

I cut three stringers out of treated 2x12 boards. I fit them in place to test the fit before I nailed anything. Using a level, I could tell that the concrete floor wasn't quite level making one of my stringers higher than the others. To fix this, I shave a little extra off the bottom of the stringer and added shims where needed. In order to have level steps I have to have level stringers!

After the stringers were in place, I added some cross supports to add more strength under the treads that would be plywood and possibly covered with carpet later. I also applied a bead of Liquid Nails Adhesive before nailing the treads down. All of this helps to prevent squeaks later and give the homeowner a solid set of stairs.

Next we'll work on a set of winder stairs... stay tuned!

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Out With the Old, In With the New Floor

The room where we're adding a bathroom to this home was at one time a garage. It was converted a few years ago, but is still a couple feet lower than the rest of the home. The first phase of this project was to remove the closet and surrounding drywall that would be in the way of the new framing.

OUT WITH THE OLD

The closet was completely not load bearing and had been constructed with minimal framing, basically just enough to hold the drywall up. It came out fairly easily. When doing this kind of demolition work I always take it apart the way it was put together. First, I carefully remove the trim and doors and set them aside to be reused.

After the trim is out of the way, I do my best to remove the drywall in large pieces. Then I can bag the pieces and dispose of them. While I'm at it I like to go ahead and clean off all the studs by removing the nails or screws that had been holding the drywall. My goal is to reuse as many of these building materials as I can, but many of these studs aren't straight enough to make for good framing.

The closet had a lowered ceiling that I wanted to remove as well. Before taking off this drywall, I bagged all of the loose-fill insulation that was in the attic above. A dustpan actually makes a great tool for scooping this up and bagging it. I'll reuse the insulation later and save myself a huge 'blizzard' of pink insulation when I bring down the ceiling drywall.

FRAME A NEW FLOOR

Removing the walls reveals the floor framing for the adjacent kitchen that rests on the cinder block wall that runs around the perimeter of this former garage. I would be building the bathroom floor on this wall as well. Thankfully, the wall was nearly perfectly level, which is often not the case in old garages.

I will be framing the floor as one large platform first, and then add the bathroom walls that will rest on top of the floor. I'll also be adding two small stairways that will lead down to the old garage going into the den or at the backdoor.

I put a lot of thought into how the framing would work and where the walls would go before I got started. There are lot of factors in this particular project to consider such as the dimensions of the stairs and where the plumbing would go.

The floor joists would be 2x8 stock to match the size of the rest of the house, and provide plenty of strength to support the slate tile that the homeowner is considering for the bathroom floor.

TIP: Wondering if your floor will support tile or natural stone? Check out the calculator at the John Bridge forums here to calculate your floors deflection and see if it makes the cut.

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Add a Bathroom to Your Home

I'm embarking on a new project for a homeowner in the Donelson area. He just bought this home from the 1940's. Much of it was updated after a fire a few years ago, but it still had only one bathroom. It's time for that to change.

On one end of the home is a room that obviously started out as a garage, but was later transformed into a den with a large closet that probably held the laundry at one time. The idea for this project is to completely remove the closet, raise the floor to match the rest of the home and then add a 2nd bathroom.

This is a difficult one to explain, even if you're looking at my rough sketch (pictured below).

There are a couple tricky parts to this project. First, is the prospect of raising the floor. This room's floor is around 28" lower than the rest of the house. Thankfully, that's enough space for me to frame a new floor and still have an 18" crawlspace to access underneath.

Raising the floor will require adding two sets of stairs. One, at the end of the hall that will descend into the den. The other will actually be inside the bathroom. To make all of this work, the new bathroom will enclose the back door and have three 'winder' steps leading down to it.

It will be an interesting project with some very interesting parts that will have to come together to be a bathroom that is not only functional, but also up to code and built to last.

I like a challenge!

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

One Fix For A Leaky Outdoor Faucet

One of the most annoying things is a leaky faucet. I find it especially annoying to turn on an outdoor faucet and have water dripping everywhere. The most common problem, if you're using a garden hose, is that the small gasket is missing that goes between the hose connector and the valve.

But what if the water is dripping out of the valve instead of the hose?

Let's look at this example... The other day I was using a client's outdoor hose to mix mortar to lay tile. It was a townhome and the water valve was actually located in the garage. It dripped badly. Soon it was running through the garage and pooling just outside the garage door.

For a while, I didn't bother with it. After all, I was there to tile, not to fix the plumbing, right?

Then, I couldn't take it anymore.

The fix for a leaky valve is usually so easy it seems silly. Get out a wrench and tighten the nut holding the handle on. You can see how I did it in the picture below. If that nut gets just a little bit too loose, the valve will not operate correctly and water will drip (or spray) out of the handle.

Don't overdo it, but just a little pressure with a wrench and the dripping should stop. If it doesn't, it's probably too worn out and needs replacement. Usually, they are just loose and need to be tightened up.

At least you can give this a try before you call the plumber and spend the big bucks.

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Upgrade to a Double Sink Vanity

My most recent project was to help a family with some work around their beautiful older home near Sevier park in Nashville. The home was renovated a few years ago to include many modern upgrades including a small upstairs bathroom.

The bathroom was nice before, but it services three upstairs bedrooms and the homeowner wanted more capacity to keep up with their growing family.

When I started it had a pedestal sink and a small mirror that was hung to low to see your face without bending over. It was also quite dark and needed more light. On top of these things, they needed an exhaust fan to get more of the humid air out.

The solution for this homeowner was to add a double vanity. (And a bath fan, three lights and two bigger mirrors... :)

Adding a double vanity is a little more complicated than just replacing a sink. Often, each sink needs a separate drain pipe and supply lines instead of just one set for a pedestal sink. Thankfully, there is a small attic access panel in the closet that lets me get behind the wall with all the plumbing in it.

In addition to adapting the plumbing, I moved the wiring and added a couple more lights on either sides of where the mirrors would be located as well as adding a high powered, yet quiet, exhaust fan that will help get the moisture outside through a vent in the roof.

After a few days of work, this smaller bathroom was bright and ready to handle more customers. Of course, at this point, most of them are still under the age of two...

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

New Tile for Two Bathrooms- Before and After

At the beginning of the week I started a new project replacing the flooring in two bathrooms with tile. When I started, there was some 4" white tile in the wet areas around the shower and toilets. The rest of the rooms was carpet. The homeowner wanted it all replaced with new tile and I was happy to help her out with that.

After removing the old flooring I installed 1/2" Hardibacker throughout each room over a layer of modified thinset. This gives us a good foundation for the tile to rest on. I also removed all the baseboard and shoe moulding which would be replaced later as well.

I installed 13" tiles in the larger master bath. They are 'glazed porcelain' tiles which is a type of ceramic that has a glazing that makes it repel stains very well. As you can see in the picture there are quite a few angles and cabinets in the master bath to work around. Around cabinets I try to cut the tile so that I leave a margin between the cabinet and tile that's approximately the same width as the grout lines. Then, I grout this to match the rest.

With all those different items to tile around, I spent some time upfront to consider the layout so that I would minimize the small pieces around the perimeter. I always try to stay away from having pieces smaller than half a tile if I can help it. This layout worked out great with the only small pieces being behind the toilet where they won't be seen much anyway.

I also re-tiled the guest bathroom down the hall. It was much smaller so I used a 6 1/2" tile that matched the tile in the master. I think the smaller tiles feel more appropriate for a smaller room like this, but I guess it's just a personal preference.

It was fun to see the transformation in these rooms. I was quite happy with the result.

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Repair a Broken Toilet Flange

Toilets are not especially fun to deal with. This week I've been tiling a couple bathroom floors for one of my favorite clients and was ready to reinstall the toilet. Everything was moving smoothly until I noticed that the PVC toilet flange was cracked and broken.

Not cool.

This is a problem because the flange holds the bolts that, in turn, hold the toilet down. If I were to ignore the crack in the flange the bolt would not tighten down enough resulting in a toilet that will likely rock back-and-forth and possibly leak wastewater...

So, how to fix it?!

You don't have to replace the entire flange. Instead, head to the home store and get a repair flange. You'll probably find it next to where the normal toilet flanges are sold, somewhere on a top shelf where it's hard to locate. It's a fairly simple metal disc that is the size of the flange. It slips right over the old broken flange. You screw it down to the subfloor and it's ready to go.

By the way, make sure you use some kind of moisture resistant screws that won't rust and eventually break. (No drywall screws allowed here. :)

It's not a difficult fix, but can be frustrating if you're unsure what to do about it. So, be frustrated no longer...

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Prepare the Door Jambs for Tile

One of the marks of a professional tile job is how the door jambs look when you're done. The idea is to not leave any raw edges of tile showing. These should be covered with trim of some kind, unless it's up against a threshold or cabinet. Let's talk about how I handle the tile around the door, which can be a tricky spot.

To make the cuts to the door jamb or casing, I use one of my new favorite tools, a Rockwell Sonicrafter. It has a small blade that oscillates back-and-forth allowing you to make plunge cuts into wood that would be otherwise impossible, or at least, barely possible.

I used to attempt these cuts with a reciprocal saw which is crazy at best. It's hard to control and I would normally end up replacing all the casing after the damage I made...

The Sonicrafter comes to the rescue. It's nearly identical to the Fein Multimaster, but costs much less. I considered the Fein, but for the amount of use that I give it, I think the Rockwell tool will suit me fine. So far I'm thrilled with it and I'm sure I'll think of many more uses for it as time goes on.

Anyway, for this project, I laid the blade over a scrap of the 1/2" Hardibacker and a piece of tile and used this height to guide my cut. Adding to this the width of the blade, this will usually be exactly the right height to allow me to slide the tile in underneath later.

This picture shows how it looks after I've laid the tile. The marble threshold butts up to the inside of the door jamb, while the tile slides under the casing back to the wall. Any exposed edges will get covered up by the baseboard and shoe moulding.

For most bathrooms, I like to use a marble threshold (also called a sanitary sill) at the doorway. This should be placed directly under the door, but it's typically wider than the door. I prefer to notch the door jambs and slide it forward until it's flush with the door jamb on the inside.

If you don't do this, you'll have a small place in the corner that won't get covered by the door casing where you'll have a tricky cut or a very small piece of tile to deal with as you can see in this picture.

Grouting the tile and caulking around the threshold complete the job and hopefully leave the homeowner with a top-notch finished product.

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Tile Upgrade for Two Bathrooms

For most people I know, carpet in a bathroom is not preferred and that's putting it lightly. I'm not sure that carpet in any wet area is a good idea. My current project involves removing a small amount of tile and carpet from two upstairs bathrooms and replacing the entire floor with new tile.

The master bath is large and has a separate shower and tub with lots of interesting angles. You can see in the pictures that when the house was built they just tiled directly in front of the shower and around the toilet and bath. The center area is just carpet. I'm not sure if they were trying to save money or if they really liked it, but the homeowner is tired of the carpet and ready for a tile makeover.

The first day of the project started with cleaning out all the old flooring. I always try to dismantle things in the reverse order that they were installed. In this case, I started by ripping out the carpet and then went after the tile, which cooperated fairly well.

I removed all the staples and nails and tried to scrape off all the old thinset mortar that was under the tile backer board. Then it was time to start over.

The old subfloor was meant for carpet and consisted of only 3/4" plywood. It's best to have at least 1 1/4" of subflooring beneath the tile, so I installed 1/2" Hardibacker cement board throughout over a thin layer of modified thinset mortar. I'm a fan of Hardibacker because it's designed to be impervious to water. This means that it won't absorb moisture the way that wood does. It's also very flat and smooth, giving me a great surface to tile over.

I would normally secure the Hardibacker with galvanized roofing nails but my air compressor died and my new one hasn't arrived yet. I wasn't about to hammer all those nails the old fashioned way so I instead used screws designed to be used with the cementboard. It was a little slower to install than using the roofing nailer.

With all the angles in this room you can see that I had some interesting cuts to make. I mainly use the score-and-snap method of cutting the stuff, occasionally using my jigsaw equipped with a carbide tipped blade for cutting holes and notches. Read more about cutting Hardibacker here.

In addition to the master bathroom, I'm also re-tiling a smaller guest bath down the hall. There's only around 25 square feet of flooring in there so we're planning to use a smaller size tile to help the room feel a little larger.

Tile coming soon!

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Install a Roof Vent for Your Bath Exhaust Fan

Unless they've been remodeled along the way, most older homes don't have a nifty exhaust fan in the bathroom. Sometimes it can be a chore to add one, but they come in handy when you want to clear the air... :)

Adding a bath fan takes two major steps. First, is installing the fan and a switch to control it. The next step is venting it outside. You don't want it to vent into an attic space because the moisture in the air can cause mold or rot or numerous other problems. Don't worry, it's a fairly basic process, assuming you don't mind getting on the roof!

1. First, I like to go into the attic above the roof vent and locate a good spot for the roof vent from the inside. Steer clear of rafters and other items that would interfere. Usually, I can find a spot directly above the fan. I like to drill a hole through the roof at the center of the spot I've picked out.

2. Drilling a hole through the roof helps me locate the exact spot from the top side. I head outside, taking all the safety precautions so I live to write about it... I can find the hole I drilled and the use a jig saw to cut out a 5" hole centered on the spot.

3. Test fit the vent and cut the shingles so that the upper courses will over lap the flange and surround the vent like the picture. Once it will fit, you can put in in place and put a few galvanized roofing nails around the edges. Remember the upper nails will be under the shingles, while the bottom corners are nailed from the top.

4. Seal the vent with roofing cement around the edges, under the overlapping shingles, and on any exposed nail heads. Grab your tools and head back to the attic.

5. Now it's just a matter of hooking up both ends of the hose that came with the roof vent kit. I secured both ends with the included plastic straps and then covered each with aluminum foil tape to prevent any leakage. (sort of like duct tape, except it's really meant for sealing ducts and it seals much better)

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com