Thread: Bathroom renovation, full strip out and retile

day one today, started stripping it out, tiles will be getting removed tomorrow, the whole 2 layers of them.
found that it appeared to be last renovated in 2003 according to the dates on the vanity labels at the back.

what an absolute prick of a job. 2 layers of tiles on 20mm render from late 70's. no waterproofing in that bathroom at all. floor had around 50mm screed on it that crumbled up as tiles removed, the bare concrete underneath not even flat, looked like it had been jackhammered into a slope 40+ years ago. the second lot of floor tiles look like they were glued down with epoxy not tile glue.
need to redo the whole floor screed and coat of render on the walls in the shower to flatten them off for waterproofing.

not a lot today done, thinking how the hell i'm going to get the walls done ready for water proofing. the flick mixer was installed today. i still cant fill in the gaps with mortar, never works well for me.
before you ask what the crutch is for, its holding the mixer against the wall so i can cement it into place as it cant be fastened to the wall any other way as wall too thin.

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heres what i got done today, only had 3 hours this afternoon to do it so not completed, just did the screeding around the edges to get the levels correct and will complete tomorrow and fix up the wall where the mixer got put better.

finally finished the screeding, glad i dont do this everyday. got nice falls to the drains from each corner
just got some loose crap on top of the screed that i will sweep up in a few days when i waterproof.

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started the niche this afternoon, had to think about this one for a day or two, then it just came to me and decided to build one out of cement fibre and cement and silicone and screw it to the sides. i measured out the hole nicely and made the rear sides and top nice and square and flat with the bottom of course a bit a slope towards the front.
rear will be cut out nicely and fit in there, i should have done this first now that i think about it but too late now.

plumbed in the new shower drain, finished off the niche today, its as strong as all sh*t so don't worry about that as it wont move, framed up the concealed toilet cistern, that will be plumbed in tomorrow all going well, cleaned up the place and primed the floor. will finish up the small little things and waterproof Tuesday.

another day another bit of work done. left a plastic sheet over a section, came out dry in morning.
tested with moisture meter and got the readings below, higher reading was from in shower recess as that part of slab was soaked initially.
but since last time i have put in cistern, plastering the walls to make them flat and more modern and thats about it. maybe start waterproofing tomorrow afternoon with first coat.

finished plastering the wall yesterday and primed today with dulux sealer binder, pretty happy with the way it turned out even though it took a while to do it. plastering aint easy even though people make it look easy.
also got onto ardex tech support to ask what to do with that shower wall as im not happy waterproofing that in the condition it was in and they recommended a skim coat ardex A45 to take up the holes and undulations in the block work to give it a smooth finish, been procrastinating on that for a while. so will wait for that to dry and give it a rub over with diamond wheel, prime and waterproof probably tomorrow.

waterproofing day finally arrived. first coating of waterproofing all done.

Did the tiling of floor here. it has a nice fall to the drains according to my level and should work fine. them levellers are brilliant, couldnt have done it without them.

grouted the floor and gave it a nice polish off with 4 rags to make sure the grout haze had been removed fully. then started on the walls.
the walls are a lot easier than the floor as they are straight and not a cup shape and tiles are twice the size and was far easier to lay ensuring glue coverage and no lippage.
the other pictures are from the ceiling cavity in the unit below, the walls and slab are drying out nicely since the shower is not being used, proved the leak was from the shower itself and not a water pipe, and also the new drain is in.

Originally Posted by wozzzzza

what an absolute prick of a job. 2 layers of tiles on 20mm render from late 70's. no waterproofing in that bathroom at all. floor had around 50mm screed on it that crumbled up as tiles removed, the bare concrete underneath not even flat, looked like it had been jackhammered into a slope 40+ years ago. the second lot of floor tiles look like they were glued down with epoxy not tile glue.

I agree the strip out is a mongrel. We renovated our 25 year old pocket handkerchief bathroom in 2021 and got itemised quotes from several renovators. When I saw they were quoting between $800 and $1000 to do the strip out I decided to do that part myself. I also saved a heap doing all "after stuff", eg towel rails, toilet roll holder, various shelves, and wall hanging vanity cupboard.

With respect to the strip out, after it was all done I said to myself never again especially with my crap knees, so when I got quotes for the kitchen reno a couple of months back and saw they wanted $1200 for the strip out I simply said go ahead.

My recently deceased wife was the style agent and the I think the bathroom turned out real nice.
Little did she know she would die from a brain aneurism on those tiles about 12 months later.
I made that wire basket out of SS mesh and it's on small castors for spare toilet paper and it rolls under the shelving unit at the end of the bath.
Bath1.jpg Bath2.jpg Bath3.jpg Bathendcup.JPG basket1.JPG

did a bit more wall tiling today and installed the vanity. hopefully finish tiling tomorrow.

still tiling these f*!&ng walls.
finished niche, that was fun, should have taken picture of the setup i did for this to keep the top files from falling. 2 cabinetry adjustable legs with a couple of blocks of timber to give them height and a straight bit of timber to put on top to sit the tiles on.
10 tiles left to go and i ran out of glue. will be FINALLY finished tiling tomorrow.
but i am happy with the alignment of the hole i cut in the tile for the flick mixer though, that was perfect.

nearly done, grouting all finished today, just need a good clean up tomorrow and start putting the stuff back in like dunny and shower screen etc...