4 Important Steps To Make Sure Your Bathroom Remodel Lasts
When you do a large project for your home, like a bathroom remodel, you expect it to last for decades. You don’t want to end up with a shower stall that leaks, pipes that easily freeze, tile that falls off the walls, or sinks that don’t drain properly.
However, not all bathroom remodelers build things to last. Some take shortcuts that mean your bathroom doesn’t last as long or work as well. At Houston, we aim to do every home renovation project right, especially bathroom renovations. This means we take steps to ensure that the project gets done right and is built to last.
- Proper Preparation for Tiles
Whether they’re floor or wall tiles, there’s a lot of prep work involved. This prep work is often invisible in the finished product, but it’s critical if you want to ensure that your bathroom is waterproof and built to last.
For the walls, we use a cement backer board that is helpful for tile installation. It protects the tile and wall cavities from moisture penetration.
For the floor, we use a kit that helps with properly setting the tile. This includes making sure the slope is set correctly and it also adds a curb in the shower, which needs to be at least a couple of inches above the drain.
If everything is not set up right, there could be leaks. You could see leaks from your shower door and shower floor. Or the tile can fall apart.
- Drains the Drain Properly
Your drains are a critical component to your bathroom renovation project. The water needs to drain and flush and go down the right pipes. At Houston, we check that the pipes are properly set up.
A clogged or slow drain, or even odd smells, can be caused by badly designed drain pipes in your bathroom.
- Water Lines the Don’t Freeze
The location of and material used on the water lines is also important to make sure they aren’t subject to freezing come wintertime when the temperatures dip. Because of this, we recommend NOT running water lines on outside walls. This can be a big problem come wintertime when the temperatures dip.
If you need to run pipes along those areas, we recommend a few things like extra insulation and using nylon pipes and fittings instead of copper. While nylon isn’t freeze-proof, there is a lot more give than you would get with traditional copper pipes.
- Proper Ventilation
It used to be that ventilation for bathrooms would go into the attic. But now we know that isn’t a good idea. One study found that 8% of respondents said they remodeled their bathroom because their old bathroom lacked sufficient ventilation.
The reason you don’t want ventilation to go into the attic is that can cause moisture problems. If you’re seeing water spots around your fan, that may mean your ventilation wasn’t properly set up.
Badly run ventilation can also serve as an entrance to your home for rodents and other pests.
In Nebraska, residential code requires that exhaust air from bathrooms not be recirculated within the residence. The code says that exhaust air shall NOT discharge into an attic, crawl space, or other areas inside the building. Instead, that air must be directed outside.
Contact Us to Help with your Bathroom Remodeling Project
If you’re ready to make changes to your bathroom this year and you want a remodeling project that’s built to last, then contact Houston Remodel Service to get started on a bathroom renovation estimate.