Bathroom Tile Project: Day 1 "DEMO TIME!"

    On Thursday, my pops arrived in Chicago and we got right down to business tearing up tile.  Here is the before view of the bathroom so we can all remember where we were starting.

    Ugh.  This tile has been the eye sore of our place since day 1.  I have invested far too much time trying different cleaning products in the hope that it will make the tile white and beautiful.  I have scrubbed on my hands and knees with a grout brush, bleach, cleanser, tile products, you name it.  I shudder just looking at this picture.

After the jump you can see the whole demolition process and all of the unexpected things that we found under that nasty tile.

    The first thing that we had to do was prep for all of the mess that we were going to make.  We got contractor garbage bags (3 mil. strength from Lowe's) and put down a long train of paper from the bathroom to the back porch.  With all of the mess going on, the grittiness of the debris can ruin the finish on a floor.  This was critical.

    The first thing we did in the bathroom was take off the radiator.  It was easier than I was expecting.   We made sure the radiator valve was turned all the way off.  With a wrench, we loosened the nut until it released from the  floor.  The radiator was pretty heavy, so we were careful when we moved it.  We put it out in the dining room where it was out of the way.   We shoved a piece of paper towel in the radiator hole so it didn't leak water on the floor.  I changed the paper towel once and then it was done.

     

Surprise!  This is the color of the bathroom when we moved in.

   
    Next, we removed the wooden trim.  With a prybar, I hit straight down on it with a hammer until the wood pulled away from the wall.  Then I pried it from the wall.

     In some places, it was pulling up the drywall a little bit, we fixed that problem by scoring it with a razor blade.   We just ran the blade along the top of the trim and then kept prying it away.  We made sure to keep track of all of the nails and dispose of them safely.  Also, the dogs were away in our bedroom.

 Tah-dah!

    Then with a small chisel and hammer, I started chipping out the tiles.

This quickly turned into a very big project!

    Directly under the disgusting tile (without any extra subfloor or material) is the original tile.  Can you see what kind of tile it is? HEXAGON TILE! Grrr!  Why did they cover up this floor.

 
    This project needed some power tool help.  You can kind of see what we used in this picture.  It's an impact hammer.  This project has required lots of tools and gadgets.  If you are interested in doing a budget bathroom renovation, you will need a friend or relative that has either done it before or owns lots of great stuff.  If we had needed to buy all the things we used, it would have quickly turned into a very expensive project.

    While using this tool, you definitely need safety goggles and mask.  It gets very dusty.  Also, be sure to have knee pads.  We were pretty much on our hands and knees for this entire project.

    We cleared out the whole room, but left the toilet for Day 2.  Unfortunately for the wall and my dad's hand, the sink fell out of the wall.  So my dad cut out a piece of drywall and looked at options for how to make the sink mount into the wall more safely.  When it fell out it was just attached with two molly-bolts to the drywall.

   
    We found out lots of "fun" things about how our bathroom was remodeled.   The building was built in 1908 and then remodeled in the mid 1990's.  Some bozo pound concrete over our pipes.  Let's hope we don't have a serious plumbing or pipe problem ever!

    So, this is where we ended Day 1.  The radiator and sink (unintentionally) were removed.  The ugly tile, original hexagon tile, and a crumbly layer of concrete were removed.  Our plan for day two was removed the toilet and chip away the last bit of floor, get concrete board to adhere over the exposed concrete, and lay the tile.

   Unfortunately, our Day 2 didn't go quite as we planned.  Check back later to hear all about it!