Bathroom repair by own hands

Repair of the bathroom with your own hands allows you to save considerable expenses for repair work, because the services of the masters are no less than 50% of the price of used materials. However, it is necessary to proceed with the process with great responsibility: renovating a bathroom will require not only fundamental knowledge in construction, but also decent enough skill. For this reason, first of all, it is necessary to calculate all the costs for bringing the bathroom to the normative state, then carefully study the recommendations of specialists. Only after this, you can start acquiring materials and actually to carry out the work.

Sequence of works

Suppose you made a decision, then you can fully repair yourself. In this case it is necessary to understand that such activity, according to the rules of the bathroom repair, is conducted in a specific order:

• Selection of quantity and nomenclature of sanitary devices.
• Creation of design and selection of its color palette.
• Quantity calculation and purchase of facing materials.
• Preliminary preparation of premises.
• Check of a floor and its condition with selection of a method of its repair work.
• Purchase of necessary materials for floor repair work.
• Floor restoration: waterproofing, screed change, insulation.
• Pipeline laying.
• Routing the wiring.
• Wall and ceiling lining.
• Floor construction.
• Treatment of walls: coating, mashing joints, insulation of corners.
• Organization of ventilation.
• Selection and installation of plumbing.

This order does not fully comply with the traditional one, therefore it needs some explanations, but first we need to note some significant factors:

• Hot wet bathroom is a suitable sphere for active bacterial propagation. For this reason, the finishing methods associated with the use of plasterboard on the lath are in no way appropriate: every free space inside the wall will someday become a serious hotbed of infection.
• The bathroom is considered dangerous in terms of electric shock: significant moisture, high temperature, conductive due to humidity of the floor. Hence, installing sockets and switches in the bathroom is fraught with risk to life and health.
• The presence of wood in the bathroom is also unacceptable, as well as fasteners of metals prone to corrosion, water-absorbing materials.
• In apartments with a small area it will be much more appropriate to install a shower instead of a bath. This will allow you to place there also a washing machine.

These are the general principles of repair in the bathroom, which one way or another should be adhered to.

Beginning of repair work

Where do you start to restore the normative state of the bathroom with your own hands? From pondering its design, with the selection of plumbing fixtures? Both are important. After all, for example, a sink-tulip greatly simplifies the laying of pipes, however it will require a high gloss from the tile, otherwise all dirt will drain under the stand. A faucet installed above the bathroom makes it easier to use, but it creates the need to install one more over the sink. The design of the entire interior must be unified. That is, the plumbing fixtures must completely blend in with the surrounding decor of the walls, floor and ceiling.

How to choose pipes, fittings and fittings

So far nothing is better than polypropylene pipes for a bathroom. After all, a more expensive and aesthetic metal plastic is more suitable for wiring in an apartment. Gaskets in its fittings can eventually leak out and flow, while polypropylene has sealed welds. This circumstance allows you not to worry about the integrity of the connections, so you can hide such pipes without fear in the walls. As for pipes made of PVC or polyethylene, they can be used for country houses and other non-capital buildings, but not for permanent use. Steel pipes, although they are the cheapest, but are heavily rusted from the inside, it is too difficult to work with them, so it is not so profitable in an apartment or a private house.

The fittings intended for propylene are worthy of special mention. In the bathroom, where access to any connections is difficult, the fittings should only be used of solid plastic. Metal adapters are only permissible when connected to some consumers, such as a boiler. These plastic parts allow you to weld a single water pipe and hide it away from the eyes. To do this, you need to get a special soldering iron, which can be rented.

Selection of floor and wall cover

Today, there are many options for finishing the walls in the bathroom, but the optimum is still ceramic tiles. For sex - this is practically the only possible option. At the same time, it is better to cover the floor with ceramic granite, although it is more expensive than tile, but the difference in price on a small area is practically not noticeable. As a result, you will get absolutely non-slippery durable coating, which will protect against craniocerebral injuries and fractures of limbs when falling on the wet floor.

When buying, check the conformity of the dimensions and the condition of the top surface of the tiles:

• We ask the seller several items from different packages. In case of refusal, we go to another.
• We put the tiles on the priest on a perfectly flat surface next to each other in pairs and turn by 90 degrees, while peering at the top edge. If 3-4 pairs have a difference in size not more than 1 mm, then the purchase is permissible after checking the quality of the glaze.
• We also apply pairs of tiles to each other face-to-face. Visible to the eye of the exaltation, deepening or "propeller" should not be.
• After this, take the tile, bring it to your eyes and look along its main surface against the rays of light. Tiles with any defects need to be rejected.

Such overestimated requirements for bathroom tiles are due not so much to aesthetics as to the hygienic side of the issue: any minor contamination will become the focus of a dangerous contagion.

Selection of glue and tools

Adhesive for tiles is best suited for slow drying( 12-24 hours).In the case of self-packing, you can work without haste and eliminate flaws, without resorting to deterioration in the quality of the coating. In the first place again there must be hygiene: the tile can very firmly hold, but even in the microscopic pothole under it, microbes will love themselves a cozy and inaccessible dwelling.

A putty knife for glue application should be chosen as shown on the glue pack. In their absence, it is best to use with teeth - from 3 to 6 mm. Immediately need to look and tiles with the ability to drill holes with a crown diamond drill for pipes. Templates for laying tiles in the bathroom are ordinary plastic crosses. As a smoothing trowel for seams, you can use a cable cut in a diameter of 5 - 6 mm in vinyl insulation. Be sure to stock up on flannel rags or better with microfiber napkins for cleaning glasses.

Preliminary preparation of the room

First of all, it is necessary to decide on the fate of the old bath. If it is cast iron, then it can be left, making a small repair using an epoxy or acrylic compound. If the bath is made of tin, but still quite decent, then it is possible to insert an acrylic insert. If it is already no good, then it is better to turn it into scrap metal and buy a new acrylic. It is several times lighter than cast iron, but not inferior to it in terms of consumer properties.

Next, you need to turn off the water and think through the temporary water supply to the kitchen, so as not to stay completely without water for a few days. To do this, you can use an ordinary garden hose. The main thing is not to forget to shut off the tap when there is a long absence in the apartment.

Then the bathroom is completely emptied to the bare walls, without touching the drain. Heating nipples that approach the towel are damped with threaded plugs. Electricity is completely disconnected in the junction box itself. Light can be done with an extension cord and a table lamp.

Now proceed to sweep all surfaces, starting from the ceiling. Thus it is necessary to put on dense clothes, glasses and a respirator, as there will be a considerable quantity of a dust. However, in the beginning it is necessary to tap everything and try to drill the walls with a drill. It may be that under the outer coating hidden cover of gipsovolokna. It must be removed, so inside it you will see a real hotbed of infection. Tiles from the floor and ceiling must be carefully beaten by a chisel or a perforator. If it was glued to cement, then you'll have to tinker a lot, but you need to remove every crumb.

We remove the paint and the upper plaster layer with a drill equipped with a round metal brush 80-100 mm. There will be a lot of dust, so it's better if no one is in the house. Doors are better to close or hang an opening with a film, if you do not want to listen to unflattering reviews in your address from home. If the old plaster is not strong, then it is best to beat it to the very concrete. Eventually, we remove all wires and use a vacuum cleaner.

Floor construction

After removing the tiles, a small revision of the screed needs to be carried out. If it is reliable, and you are sure of it, it can be cleaned with a Bulgarian with a diamond cup, wiped with a damp cloth and examined. If it has cracks, then ruthlessly delete or use a self-leveling fill. This is much preferable, but only if you do not plan to install a cast-iron bath, the weight of which exceeds the allowable for this type of screed. The filler floor can be poured even on top of the old tile, if the level allows and if it is not planned to build a floor heating system.

In all cases, you can not do without a new waterproofing, which can not be used as a simple film. Best suited is something like aqua-isol and similar materials. Joints of waterproofing can be glued with a special mastic, or welded with an industrial hair dryer. The insulation should be installed on the walls at least 25 cm. After laying the waterproofing, you can start to flood the floor or arrange a new screed.

For warming the floor in the bathroom, glass-magnesite slabs are best suited, the cost of which is close to the cost of drywall. The strength of LSU makes it possible to immediately lay the armature on them and put beacons. We prepare the mortar for the screed in the following proportions: one part of the cement is not less than 400 and 4 parts of quartz sifted sand. Add 10% of PVA glue to the water, which acts as a plasticizer. Screed make for beacons thickness of 40 - 50 mm. The surface is wiped to a perfectly smooth condition and aged for at least 40 days.

Tiles on the floor should be laid on the glue, but without seams. Adhesive flows should be cleaned immediately. The adhesive is applied by means of a spatula with longitudinal smooth smears of about 0.25-0.35 kg / m 2.Laying is carried out from the entrance door, so that the trimmed tiles lie under the bath. The last row is laid only after the full hardening of the previous, so as not to damage the entire coating. Each new tile is taped with a rubber hammer from the previous one. This should reveal the presence of voids that need to be eliminated. To form a small amount, you need to spread the rust of glue in parallel, not very widely and deeply.

Wall and ceiling finish

If the plaster has been removed completely, then it needs to be done again. This is not required in the case of wall cladding with plastic panels, which are sufficiently hygienic and cheap.

Under the tiles, it is necessary to produce high-quality plastering of walls on the exposed beacons. Minor irregularities are excluded. Cladding of walls with tile is made with cutting of seams. Do this with the help of special crosses, which are inserted at the corners of each tile. The technology of laying does not differ from the one described above for the floor. Holes for wires and other communications must be drilled with a drill. All corners must be sealed with silicone. Grout grout is made by special composition. To push it into the joints, you can use a piece of an electric cable of suitable diameter. The ceiling is best to be finished with plastic panels or laminate with their label on the surface, or with the device of the crate, inside which you can conduct wiring for lighting.

This article describes the main points for repairing the bathroom, which will help to conduct it yourself.