Involuntary bathroom remodeling
Yes, I said involuntary bathroom remodeling. A few days ago, the bathroom sink in our front bathroom started dripping worse than it had been, so my husband went into the cabinet under the sink to turn off the tap. He found that the wall was wet, so we firmed up plans to rip out the vanity that had been in there since at least the Nixon administration. We had noticed a long time ago that there was a problem with water behind the toilet next to said vanity, but had thought that it was the toilet's fault, and that it would be fixed when we replaced the toilet, which we did about 6 weeks ago.
So, this morning, we got up and I made pancakes and then we started cleaning out that vanity cabinet and prying off the toe-boards and breaking the ????caulk??? seal that some dingus had put all around the toe-boards and trim. I was kind of getting in to it, and we were commenting on the water-damage pattern. So, we pulled out the vanity, and could see that the water damage was significant, and in a weird pattern. We figured that at least, we'd have to rip out that one piece of sheetrock and fix whatever was leaking and replace it. So, we did what any good homeowner would do in this situation - we went to lunch.
After lunch, I bought a respirator-style dust and mold mask and some cheap latex gloves. Nate and Adam did work in the yard, and I went into the bathroom with a hammer, a couple of crowbars, some garbage bags, and my new purchases, and set to work. I started with the black, mouldy sheetrock and bashed it a bit with the hammer to tear out chunks.
When I bashed around the drainpipe for the sink, the U joint, which was still in place, fell over. Hmm, thought I. Not normal behaviour for a U-joint. So I bashed some more sheetrock, and discovered that said pipe was completely disconnected from the main drain. Adam came in to check on me to see if I'd found the problem yet, so I showed him. We determined that the pipe finished disconnecting probably at the removal of the vanity this morning, but had started at least several months ago. This also goes a very long way toward explaining our long-time drain-vent problems (the other half of which gunky slimy problem was also worked on this morning by means of a drain-snake and both roof-climbing and under-house crawling by my fabulous husband). So, I worked for another hour ripping sheetrock and removing screws and scraping away truly disgusting black slime from all around the drain-and-vent area.
Now I'm taking a break, writing and uploading pictures. We've shut that bathroom off for the time being, and we need to figure out what to do about the other side of the wall, which also has water-damage (but has pink tile on the outside). It looks like only one of the uprights needs to be partially replaced (and they are REAL 2x4s), and a few of the cross-pieces. We're not sure about the floor yet, but Adam says there is no damage on the underside of the sub-floor, so that's a relief.
So, pictures.
So, this morning, we got up and I made pancakes and then we started cleaning out that vanity cabinet and prying off the toe-boards and breaking the ????caulk??? seal that some dingus had put all around the toe-boards and trim. I was kind of getting in to it, and we were commenting on the water-damage pattern. So, we pulled out the vanity, and could see that the water damage was significant, and in a weird pattern. We figured that at least, we'd have to rip out that one piece of sheetrock and fix whatever was leaking and replace it. So, we did what any good homeowner would do in this situation - we went to lunch.
After lunch, I bought a respirator-style dust and mold mask and some cheap latex gloves. Nate and Adam did work in the yard, and I went into the bathroom with a hammer, a couple of crowbars, some garbage bags, and my new purchases, and set to work. I started with the black, mouldy sheetrock and bashed it a bit with the hammer to tear out chunks.
When I bashed around the drainpipe for the sink, the U joint, which was still in place, fell over. Hmm, thought I. Not normal behaviour for a U-joint. So I bashed some more sheetrock, and discovered that said pipe was completely disconnected from the main drain. Adam came in to check on me to see if I'd found the problem yet, so I showed him. We determined that the pipe finished disconnecting probably at the removal of the vanity this morning, but had started at least several months ago. This also goes a very long way toward explaining our long-time drain-vent problems (the other half of which gunky slimy problem was also worked on this morning by means of a drain-snake and both roof-climbing and under-house crawling by my fabulous husband). So, I worked for another hour ripping sheetrock and removing screws and scraping away truly disgusting black slime from all around the drain-and-vent area.
Now I'm taking a break, writing and uploading pictures. We've shut that bathroom off for the time being, and we need to figure out what to do about the other side of the wall, which also has water-damage (but has pink tile on the outside). It looks like only one of the uprights needs to be partially replaced (and they are REAL 2x4s), and a few of the cross-pieces. We're not sure about the floor yet, but Adam says there is no damage on the underside of the sub-floor, so that's a relief.
So, pictures.