Home Remodeling,  Indoor

Let’s Tile the Bathroom Floor!

Master Bath Remodel Part 4 – Floor

Welcome to Part 4 of the Master Bath Renovation! This part of the remodel was not planned. Once the shower was finished and we began using it, we found that the floor by the shower opening was getting really wet, especially when hubby showered. We started using a towel by the opening to soak up any water and that seemed to work well….until….it didn’t!

Below is the remodel progress made so far. If you haven’t had a chance to read Part 1, Part 2 or Part 3, you might want to head on over there and see how we got to this part of the project.

Master Bath Remodel Part 1 – Demo

  • Demo’ing the surround bathtub
  • Removing the tile & hardibacker that was above the bathtub
  • Removing drywall from the buffer wall at the end of the tub
  • Cleaning all debris and taking a load to the dump
master bath remodel

Master Bath Remodel Part 2 – Rebuild

  • Building the shower wall
  • Updating the plumbing
  • Installing a window
  • Building two niches
  • Installing greenboard
  • Setting shower pan
  • Prepping shower for tile with waterproofing
subway tile, master bath

Master Bath Remodel Part 3 – Tile

  • Tiling the new shower space
  • Buying tile at Habitat, Overstock Builders, Home Depot
  • Buying thinset, mastic, grout
  • Applying waterproofing on greenboard
  • Borrowing James wet saw
  • Installing tile
  • Grouting
  • Sealing tile
What we will see in Part 4
  • Removing & replacing the damaged sub floor – James
  • Removing & replacing toilet – James
  • Buying tile & grout at Overstock Builders
  • Tiling the 3 ft section of the bathroom floor closest to the shower
  • Grouting
  • Sealing grout
  • Replacing vinyl floor planks
  • Bonus material – addressing another leak

Let’s Tile the Bathroom Floor!

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, tiling the bathroom floor was not part of the original Master Bath Remodel plan. The flooring we had was perfectly fine as I had installed it just a few years ago. However, when the old bathtub was replaced by the shower pan, which was a tad narrower than the tub, a small 2″ section of the floor didn’t have any flooring. Once the new walk-in shower was installed and the tile was finished, I added a strip of vinyl to that section of floor closest to the shower. At the time, I applied silicone between the new vinyl strip and the shower pan and by the bench. What I didn’t do was apply silicone between the vinyl planks I replaced and the existing floor. That decision would result in the need to rip out the entire floor & subfloor and then replace it all! Ugh!

Floor after shower install

About 8 months after the Master Bath Remodel was complete and we had been enjoying the new shower, I came home from a trip to visit the grandbabes to see this water stain on the laundry room ceiling!!! I had gotten into the habit of looking at that ceiling almost daily due to a previous water leak (more info below). Although this was not the first time the ceiling had water stains, I was shocked to see this!

The first time I noticed a water stain on the laundry room ceiling was about six weeks after we started using the new shower. I’m not certain why I decided to look at the ceiling but I did and this is what I saw. Gasp!! What the heck??!! I called James who came over to check it out and said he had wondered if we might end up with a leak. Wait, What?!!!

He then told me that when he installed the new plumbing connector, he wasn’t confident that the seal would hold the way it was supposed to but figured it was going to be fine. Well, now he said it looked like it wasn’t fine. In order to verify it was the issue he suspected and not something more involved, James had to cut a hole in the ceiling of the laundry room. Was I thrilled about that? No….but, my thought at the time was Thank God he didn’t need to cut into the tile in the shower! The new view to the inner workings of my shower can be seen in the pictures below.

Once the hole was cut, it was easy for James to determine that it was, indeed, what he suspected. He said it would be a quick fix – yea! He tightened the connection and suggested we leave the pipe exposed for a while to make sure it would not leak again. We did that for a couple of weeks and there were no new leaks so I was ready to cover that hole. After the repair, James had said that it would be a good idea to put an access panel over that hole in case we had any plumbing issues in the future. We have a couple of those access panels in the house so I knew what he was referring to. I thought about installing one or having him do it but wondered how we would know if we had a leak until it was too late? If we did have a leak, it would have to be enough water to seep into the drywall around the panel.

I began thinking about what other options there might be for covering that hole. I wanted something that would allow me peace of mind should a leak start. Looking around the house for something to frame the hole, I found a couple of old wooden picture frames in my stash of supplies! If I added chicken wire to them and installed the frame around the hole, we would still be able to see the plumbing and any water would drip right through the chicken wire. The large frame was too big and I could still see the ragged edges of the drywall; the small one was too small to cover the hole. So, I glued the smaller frame into the larger one (genius!), painted them and then stapled some leftover chicken wire from another project to the back side of the new frame. After the custom access panel was completed, I used two screws to install the frame to the drywall. I actually like the look! What I love is that I have the ability to check out the pipe whenever I want — which I did for months after the leak just to make sure it was dry!

Now back to the NEW leak…..

After I saw what looked like another water leak, I went upstairs to the bathroom and removed the baseboard along that wall. Sure enough, it was wet. I then removed the vinyl planks closest to the shower pan and was horrified to see the wet, moldy subfloor!!!! I called James in a panic and he came to view the floor. Obviously, the use of a towel while showering was not enough to prevent water from seeping through the vinyl. We decided we would have to remove then entire bathroom floor, then treat the mold before removing & replacing the subfloor.

To prevent this same issue happening again, we discussed installing tile in the area between the vanity and the shower. I decided that would be a good option so James planned to use Hardibacker for the new subfloor.

The first step in this ad-on project was to remove the rest of the baseboards followed by removing the vinyl flooring. This vinyl flooring has a strip of adhesive and the planks interlock that way. I carefully peeled the pieces as I removed the planks because I planned to reuse as much of the original floor as possible. When I installed the vinyl flooring, I simply laid it over the original vinyl. Now that I needed to expose the subfloor to view the extent of the mold, I had to remove a portion of the original vinyl – that was not easy! We were not happy to see all the mold but we were happy that the water damage was contained to the area around the shower and toilet.

With the flooring removed, I treated the area with an anti-mold product that I bought at our local Ace Hardware. I followed the instructions and let it do its work. We used the downstairs shower during this time and walked on towels for using the toilet. After the mold was treated, James came back and cut a small hole in the drywall at the foot of the shower and also behind the toilet closest to the shower to see if there was any water damage in the drywall – there wasn’t!!! Another win!

James removed the toilet and placed it in the dining room where it sat until the project was finished – lovely, huh?He then removed the subfloor and replaced it with Hardibacker. He also patched the two holes in the drywall.

While the old subfloor was being treated, I started thinking about what tile to use for the area. I thought white tile might be good and set a few pieces of the leftover bullnose in the area. Not sure that was really the look I wanted, I headed over to Overstock Builders Supply to see what they had. I found the PERFECT tile! It was a nice, heavy purple tile that would coordinate beautifully with the purple accent in the shower. However, I couldn’t find more than 4 pieces. I looked and looked – as you can see, the warehouse is huge and there are stacks of tile everywhere! I asked the owner if he had any more pieces of this simply perfect tile and he said he didn’t think so. Rats! Disappointed, I started looking for another tile. Lo and behold….beneath a stack yellow tile in the same style, I found my PURPLE!!!! After doing a little happy dance, I loaded it in my cart. I then found a nice, charcoal grout and practically ran to the checkout!

Before laying the new tile, James painted the new subfloor with Kilz – it’s brown because that’s what he had from another project. Now that I had my tile, it was time to get this project done! James, once again, loaned his wet saw to me. Laying the floor tile was a quick job compared to the shower. There were a few reasons for this, the area was small, the tile was larger than the subway and I spread the thinset on the floor as opposed to buttering each piece of tile. Since I was only tiling the space between the vanity and the shower, 16 pieces of tile were enough to do the job. I only needed to make 6 cuts and the circle around the toilet drain. I used the same purple trim that we have in the shower between the tile & the vinyl planks. It makes a nice visual and adds some pizzaz!

Luckily, I was able to use the vinyl I had removed from the floor and it went down without any issues. The weights at the doorway are holding down the replaced floor to help seal the adhesive.

Although this was an unexpected step in the Master Bath Remodel, we really like the look and feel of the tile by the shower and under the toilet. Now that it’s complete, it looks like we had always planned to do this.

Progress Pictures
What’s up next – Part 5 Finishing touches
  • Remove & replace ceiling moulding
  • Remove & replace trim around door
  • Remove & replace baseboards
  • Sand & cut, paint ceiling trim
  • Stain & seal baseboards
  • Strip sealer from vanity
  • Stain & seal wood on vanity
  • Paint vanity with fresh coat of white paint
  • Trim out new wall
  • Fill holes; sand rough areas
  • Paint new wall and trim

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4 Comments

  • Michelle

    Oh my goodness this is totally something that would happen to us! I can definitely see my husband saying the exact same thing about the seal – haha! It looks wonderful – I love the half and half look!

    • Jeanne

      Yes! Sadly, I think this happens during home improvement projects more than others want to admit 🙂
      Thanks! We like the new look too, thankfully!

  • Diann

    I love the access panel idea. How did you attached the piece of drywall removed, to the picture frames? Then how is that held into the ceiling/wall?

    • Jeanne

      Hi Di! Thanks! I didn’t attach the drywall that was removed to the frame but put two pieces of 1″ x 2″ board in the hole and screwed the frame into those. The frame is fairly light weight so it didn’t need much to hold it up.

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