Bathroom Remodeling

[Apgarconstruction]

gary,

what do you do if it's say new construction and the floor joists are say 2x10 for the bathroom floor with 3/4 ply subfloor. and there isn't sufficient clearance to add two layers of 3/4 ply in the bathroom without raising it much higher than the rest of the floors in the house? can you put that membrane over single layer of 3/4 if you know the joists are up to code. and my biggest question is how does the membrane isolate cracks and hardie doesn't if they are both applied over thinset? i would say most of the time in an older house. there isn't enough room to put two layers of 3/4 unless you can reframe the floor but most of the time they are already undersized floor joists. no one wants a lip to step up onto when they walk into the bathroom. that's usually the dilemma we run into with bathroom remodels.

[Gary]

Dan,

If the one layer of 3/4" sub-floor meets the deflection criteria of l/360 for ceramic tile I believe you can apply Ditra XL and meet the adjacent hardwood floors flush. Most projects are remodels and lot's already have a natural stone saddle bridging the threshold between the two floors. But even if they don't I will always make it very clear that floors will not be at the same elevation and there will be a natural stone saddle. It's really a very little difference and never poses a problem. However, if the client wants the tile floor to be perfectly flush then I will have to re-engineer the remodeled floor to meet their request and meet my floor standards.

Hardie back is not a crack isolation layer. The membrane is pliable, meaning it is actually a shear layer, an uncoupling layer. This actually isolates the tile from the sub-floor unlike a CBU which is physically connected to the sub-floor and tile as one monolithic slab.

[Apgarconstruction]

and you thinset the tile right to the membrane? i guess i'm just not getting how it isolates it if there is thinset adhereing the membrane to the subfloor and then tile being thinsetted to the membrane, would that make it all one unit? i will try to do some reading on their site. don't mean to ask too many questions. i'd love to learn more about it so i can use it on my next bathroom remodel. the biggest problem today is that people are shopping prices so much most don't want to pay to have it done the right way. do you get that feeling lately?

[Gary]

Dan,

Go download all the installation information of Nobel products and also Schulter. You will have a better understanding of it.

I understand your questioning about the membrane being all part of the same, but understand that the membrane is pliable. It's not like the hardie backer board that is stiff as a "board" and very ridged. Look at it this way. Think of a sandwich and the top bread layer is the tile and the bottom bread layer the plywood. The center is a slice of baloney (the membrane) which is rubbery acting as a cushion between the two layers of bread.

Ah! Doing it right and pricing it right. That's the problem in this business. So many shop for price and those I eliminate with the first phone conversation. I probably get one, maybe two jobs out of ten. I could get more if I lower my price, I could get them all if I really lower my price, but then I am doing sub-standard work that I can not live with. I just lost three bathroom remodels do to my price. Two in one home and another in another home. If I am going to work for a salary I may as well sell everything and work for the remodeling company down the block and not have all the additional work that goes along with owning a business.

I have a very good referral base of quality oriented clients so It keeps me comfortably busy with good profitable projects. We do most every type of residential remodel work, so when we start one project we usually have a client for life for all future projects.

[Patton]

Gary,

So in other words the tile will come up easily the next remodel years down the road.

[Apgarconstruction]

gary,

i'm very much like you then, i never advertise and i have a good customer base and the new one that high us, stay very loyal for the most part and rehire for many future products. i have customers that i still do work for and i worked for them 12 years ago.

but with people shopping so much. i'm not sure what to do this year. i'm hearing about commercial jobs having 50 plus bids for larger projects like firehouses etc. it's just crazy. i bid a small porch remodel with azek trim and there were 6-7 contractors all bidding for this small roof job. i'm used to bidding against maybe one or two people max, if any. many jobs i know i have the job and i keep the price good enough for me to make money but also good enough for the repeat customer to stay happy.

[Gary]

Matt, I don't know since I never had the opportunity to rip up tile installed on a membrane. I don't think it would be fun though.

[maurisgreen]

Wow this is very nice post. I like it, I am about to renovate my bathroom, these tips really gonna help me lot. Thanks.

[Southern Builder]

Ah! Doing it right and pricing it right. That's the problem in this business. So many shop for price and those I eliminate with the first phone conversation. I probably get one, maybe two jobs out of ten. I could get more if I lower my price, I could get them all if I really lower my price, but then I am doing sub-standard work that I can not live with. I just lost three bathroom remodels do to my price. Two in one home and another in another home. If I am going to work for a salary I may as well sell everything and work for the remodeling company down the block and not have all the additional work that goes along with owning a business.

I have a very good referral base of quality oriented clients so It keeps me comfortably busy with good profitable projects. We do most every type of residential remodel work, so when we start one project we usually have a client for life for all future projects.

HEARD DAT! you gotta do good work no matter what! It took me about a year before i really started getting work. But that whole first year i didn't once lower my price so i could win a bid. I want to win my bids on quality not price. If the client is worried about price i don't want to work for them!

[Gary]

Just a few pics of another bathroom remodel. As usual every bath I do are complete rip outs and usually in older homes. This bathroom was over 50 years old and the guys where not happy about ripping out all the mud and wire.





We needed to run all new electrical, plumbing and rebuild the floor framing. The original framing was damaged from past termites and there was a floor joist literally hanging in air right at the point it intersected the closet bend. Seems it was too much trouble to install a header and that's why there was a crack in the floor that occurred probably soon after the original floor was installed.

They don't make them like this anymore


I need to finish up this week and then I'll post some finished pictures. Here's one of the guys grouting around the soap shelves.