Square Peg, Round Hole: Adventures In Bathroom Remodeling

[Askel]

Not really any direct questions, but maybe something for the more experienced to have a good laugh about. Feel free to offer advice.   

Backstory: The weird house (it's round!) we bought had a pretty small main bathroom that housed a toilet that had been leaking at the base for years, rotting out the subfloor.  We shoveled out the floor and bumped the wall over some so the bathroom now gets a bigger piece of the house pie. Replaced the tiny gun port of a window that was in there before last fall

Almost got all the framing done for the 72x42 tub and 48x36 shower pan done this week. 

Upcoming tasks:
-complete the drain lines for the shower and the laundry room next door. Waiting on some 11.25 degree PVC fittings (an absolute godsend to round house owners)
-run water lines for shower, tub, toilet and vanity. PEX is also a godsend to round house owners. 
-install fixtures for tub and shower
-run all new electrical circuit for everything
-Say a tiny prayer, greenboard it all up.
-Bust up concrete floor to run drain line for vanity
-Install a new subfloor and flooring.
-Say a big prayer, tile over a bunch of stuff. 
-relax in tub with a beer looking out over creek into the woods.

[sonofsven]

My work partner built two round houses (octagons, I believe, not really "round") when he was a young hippy carpenter. We worked on one of them a bit. Interesting design. He remarked that you could hear everything, everywhere,so privacy was tough.
Also, the greenboard-don't put it behind any tile. I don't see the point of greenboard anywhere, actually. It's really no different than drywall.
For tile I use Wedi (or one of their competitors, Durock I think?) panels if it's a wet wall, and less expensive concrete backer board on the rest of the walls. The Wedi panels are basically foam with a tough outer shell that you caulk together with their caulk. Pretty good system, but $$. In the old days I used concrete backer board with 15# felt (tar paper) tacked to the studs first.
Also if you're going to tile the floor I always recommend the electric in floor heat; everyone who gets it loves it, and it's an easy DIY. But you'll need to wire it first. We'll put plastic conduit straight down from the thermostat box and chip away the bottom plate so it opens right to the floor. Then after drywall when you're ready to tile you just run the wire up the conduit to the box.
Another thing we add to all our new construction bathrooms is an outlet by the toilet for a bidet toilet seat. Another thing you never needed until you get one.

[Askel]

Thanks, we've been looking at the Wedi stuff but haven't really decided on anything yet- it's pretty $$$ and only one local dealer. 

Also considered the in floor heat, but a heating contractor we had over to bid on another project remarked that if the slab isn't insulated- you're basically just heating up the dirt underneath.  Considering it was a big $$$ upgrade, I'd take that as a pretty solid recommendation not to do it. 

And yes- "interesting" about describes it. This place was built by a local character with no real construction experience. Fun to see how he decided to make things work when he built it in the 70s with no google to turn to for info.   

[geekette]

We used Kerdi to waterproof our shower.  I don't recall if it was expensive, but it's well regarded and has held up well (over 15 years  with no problems).

Same company has a product for under floor tile (Ditra) that I wish we'd used to keep the grout from cracking, because it sure has in one spot. 

Underfloor heat -  DH loves and I'm kinda "meh" about it.  It's over heated space, but I think running it is still more expensive than it's worth.  Then again, he's always cold and I'm not!

[sonofsven]

Thanks, we've been looking at the Wedi stuff but haven't really decided on anything yet- it's pretty $$$ and only one local dealer. 

Also considered the in floor heat, but a heating contractor we had over to bid on another project remarked that if the slab isn't insulated- you're basically just heating up the dirt underneath.  Considering it was a big $$$ upgrade, I'd take that as a pretty solid recommendation not to do it. 

And yes- "interesting" about describes it. This place was built by a local character with no real construction experience. Fun to see how he decided to make things work when he built it in the 70s with no google to turn to for info.

I don't know about the HVAC slab comment. The slab is 3.5" thick or so, generally. Whereas the tile on top of the wire is 1/2" thick. I think the majority of the heat is going up to that tile, not "heating the dirt".
But $$$ it shouldn't be, you can buy the wire and t stat for around $500 online.
That being said I've only installed them on standard joist floors with batt insulation under, so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

[big_owl]

Thanks, we've been looking at the Wedi stuff but haven't really decided on anything yet- it's pretty $$$ and only one local dealer. 

Also considered the in floor heat, but a heating contractor we had over to bid on another project remarked that if the slab isn't insulated- you're basically just heating up the dirt underneath.  Considering it was a big $$$ upgrade, I'd take that as a pretty solid recommendation not to do it. 

And yes- "interesting" about describes it. This place was built by a local character with no real construction experience. Fun to see how he decided to make things work when he built it in the 70s with no google to turn to for info.

Assuming you're putting tile in the bathroom...kerdi makes a system that runs a heating element through the ditra tile underlayment that is psuedo-insulated from the slab.  We used it in our recent master bath upgrade under a reclaimed brick floor.  Pretty cheap, really easy to install and total game changer on winter mornings. 

[lthenderson]

We did one of those in floor heat kits one can find on Amazon or big box stores. Super easy and at the time around $300 though I think these days $500 is the new norm. Like mentioned above, it will heat your tile more than the rest of the concrete.

Also mentioned above, we have at least one bidet toilet installed in each house. Came in handy during the early days of the pandemic and toilet paper was impossible to find for awhile.

The other thing that once you live with one it is hard to go back is to install an inline exhaust fan versus the typical ones that get installed in bathrooms with the squirrel cage fan blades. Not only are the totally silent, but they work ten times better at clearing the moisture from a shower out.