Demolition - Master Bathroom Renovation Project

Master Bathroom Renovation Project - Demolition

DAY 1:

After the removal of the shower door, I just started break the tiles from the corner.  Then it decided to go wild to tear the whole walls down.  I tried to keep the site clean at the end of the day so I can start working the next day easily.

Fig 3. Shower booth after removing the shower door.

Fig 4. Beginning of the demolition.

Fig 5. Demolition of the back wall of the shower where water was leaking down to the kitchen downstairs.

At the end of the first day, I removed the whole back wall where the water leak was happening.  Right behind the wall was very clean - no sign of water damage.  But the right corner where the shower door was in showed a little bit of water damage. The only tools I used were a hammer and a pry bar.

DAY 2:

On the second day, I removed both the front and the side walls of the shower.  It was fairly easy once I got the access in the corner.  The builder did not use the cement backer board.  It was just the water resistant drywall.  In the front wall,  the water resistant drywall was installed on top of the regular drywall.  So the thickness of the front wall was 1-inch!  I don’t have no idea why they did that.  Maybe they had to fit the shower booth size to the plastic shower pan.

Fig 6. End of day 2.  Two walls are "gone".

DAY 3:

I removed the shower pan.  It was so heavy and it took me long time to figure out how to disassemble the drain from the pan. After removing the nails around the pan, I tried to pull up the pan but the drain was stuck on it so I had to find a way to remove the connection. I drilled around the rubber seal so I was able to grab the rubber and pull it out.  

Bingo! Underneath the corner of the shower pan, I found a water damaged subfloor which seemed to be very old leak.  The water damaged the subfloor about 12x10 inch area, and the middle had rotten down to almost punctuate the floor.  Then I started to break the floor tile.  The tiles were right on top of the plywood and the mortar sticked very hard.  I used a hammer and a chisel and it was really tough.  It was physically challenging.  So I decided to buy the first tool for the project: Air Hammer!

Fig 7. Subfloor water damage underneath the shower pan.

Fig 8. Air hammer that I bought (Husky medium stroke air hammer.
I paid $19.98 at the HomeDepot.

I bought the least expensive model from Home Depot (less than $20) and a set of chisels for the hammer.

It made loud noise on top of the noise from the compressor but it reduced the amount of labor big time.  The mortar was sticking the tile to the bottom very firmly so the tiles wouldn't come out in big pieces.  Also I had to be very careful not to damage the plywood, because I will put Detra underlayment on top of the plywood.

DAY 4 - 11 (7 days):

Fig 9. Almost done!

I had to remove just the floor tile for entire 7 days.  The progress was so slow and I had to wear safety glasses and mask all the time.  I was only allowed to work at evening times (2-3 hours per day) except for one day.  On Saturday, I have worked 8 hours and I was totally exhausted.  Felt like the dust was sitting on my mouth and the sinus was filled with the pack of dust.  

I sealed the box with full of tile debris, and as soon as one got filled up, I delivered the box down to garage in order to keep the work site clean.  Every weekend, I packed up the trashes in the minivan and delivered to the solid waste trash center in the county.

DAY 12:

I started to remove the short walls around the tub.  Cement boards were used at the flat areas around the tub, which created lots of cement dust and debris.  Now I can access the Whirlpool faucet valves.  

Fig 10. Tile and wall removal around the tub.

DAY 13:

I decided to remove the whole shower front panel so I can have access to the shower head elbow. I’ll tile the whole front wall wall up to the joint with the ceiling.

Demolition took way more than I have planned. Firstly due to the unexpectedly difficult floor tile removal and secondly, the loudness of the air-hammer. I had to keep the noise down at night. 

To be continued...