Bathroom Remodeling For Dummies

Gene Hamilton, Katie Hamilton

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780764525520
• eBook ISBN: 9781118053140
• Edition: 1

We're a nation of countless bathrooms that are on the brink of being torn apart, redesigned, and remodeled. Bathrooms are big! They've gone from being a convenience to a luxury. Welcome to Bathroom Remodeling For Dummies, where you'll discover how to transform your bathroom from blah to beautiful and inefficient to well-designed.

Remodeling a bathroom is a challenge–it's action-oriented and requires extra energy and stamina. But you, undoubtedly, realize it's a challenge you want to take on. This guide can help if you

• Want to make your home more livable and enjoyable by updating, expanding, or improving the bathroom
• Want to find out how to begin the process of appraising your present bathroom so you can improve it
• Don't want to be pressured into selecting materials and fixtures because you want to see everything that's available and know all your options
• Want to know what's involved in demolishing the walls and removing the fixtures and cabinets, and how to install new ones
• Want to decide if you should hire help or do the work yourself

Bathroom Remodeling For Dummies is organized to provide lots of useful information that is easily accessible. You'll uncover tips about:

• Making the most of space in your bathroom
• Taking control and planning the project
• Finding fabulous fixtures, vanities, and faucets
• Decorating the walls, windows, and more
• Creating storage space

You maybe be asking yourself, "Can I remodel my bathroom without spending every penny I have, destroying the harmony of my house, and breaking the spirit of everyone involved?" The answer is yes. Bathroom Remodeling For Dummies can help.

Part I

Bathroom Spaces: Ahhh, the Possibilities

In this part . . .

Remodeling a bathroom can be daunting and demanding, but the end game is a well-designed room that’s comfortable and convenient to use. In this part, we tell you how to be in the driver’s seat from day one and plan and design a bathroom that suits your needs and your budget. You can find out what features and fixtures to look for to make your dream bathroom come true. We discuss the types of bathrooms to consider so you approach the project with an overview and then bring it closer to home (yours) with details and design concepts.

You find out how to come up with a new floor plan and what to expect during the remodeling process. You also get a list of tools you’ll need to make the work go smoother. Finally, we tell you about the floor and wall materials that you can choose from.

Chapter 1

Reinventing Your Bathroom with a Splash

In This Chapter

Discovering the popularity of bathroom remodeling

Quantifying the financial payback of a new and improved bathroom

Developing a plan for your bathroom makeover

Taking your time to make it perfect

On emotional, practical, spiritual, and financial levels, a remodeled bathroom can be a very good thing. Maybe you’re thinking that colorful new wall tiles will lift your spirits when you walk in there each morning or after a hard day at the office. Perhaps that shiny, new shower will recharge you, or a relaxing whirlpool bath in the new tub will wash away the day’s problems. And the improvements are sure to enhance the value of your house. You’ll probably appreciate your brand-new bathroom for years to come. You have to spend time there anyway, so you may as well surround yourself in beauty and luxury.

If that idea appeals to you, welcome to the world of bathroom remodeling. We hold your hand, nudge you along, and help you make good choices as you rethink and design your new bathroom. At first, you spend a lot of time just noodling, or thinking about how to reinvent an old bathroom to create a new and improved one. But all that brainpower won’t go to waste. You’ll receive an immediate payback every time you use the new accoutrements in your bathroom and a long-term payback when you sell your house. You can’t ask for more than that.

Everybody’s Doing It in the Bathroom

Everybody’s doing it. Remodeling their bathroom, that is. Really, there’s never been a hotter market for the bathroom remodeling industry. Empty nesters are gutting their kid’s bedroom to create their ultimate bathroom spa, and parents in need of pampering are remaking their master bath as an in-house oasis, strictly off limits to the kids. The family bathroom is being redesigned and updated with functional shared spaces for kids of all ages. Even the powder room is getting a makeover with showoff fixtures and fittings.

Homeowners of all ages want to make their bathroom more user-friendly and accessible. In years past, universal design concepts that encouraged wider door openings and low thresholds for a wheelchair were a tough sell. Today, however, with aging baby boomers and transgenerational households on the rise, high-style fixtures and fittings that are easy and convenient to operate have universal appeal. People of all ages are realizing that wider doorways and continuous floor surfaces make spaces feel larger and more open, and they’re using universal design concepts to create functional and aesthetically pleasing bathrooms.

Whatever you have in mind for your bathroom, — a simple spruce up or a total redesign — you’re not alone. The 2003 Kitchen and Bathroom Industry trade show attracted record-breaking numbers of exhibitors and attendance. Bathrooms are hot. Just look in any magazine or watch any home improvement show. Bathrooms are being face-lifted, made over, and completely rebuilt from the bottom up.

And because of the interest in bathrooms, remodeling has never been easier. If you’re ready to attack your bathroom, you have an army of services and suppliers at your disposal. And if you want to do it yourself, you have an array of products and materials designed for you to install.

Receiving Your Just Reward

While you will most definitely enjoy using your new bathroom, you’ll also reap a financial reward. If you’re looking for a way to rationalize the investment, consider this: Real estate professionals predict you will earn back almost 100 percent of your investment.

Every year, Remodeling Online does a cost versus value report that compares the estimated cost of professionally installed renovations with the value it is likely to add to the home a year later. The value numbers are based on the opinions of 200-plus real estate agents and appraisers located in the 35 metro markets.

The 2002 report says that adding a bathroom costing $15,058 to a house with one or one and a half baths recoups 94 percent of that investment. This particular project is an addition of a full 6-by-8-foot bath within the existing footprint of the home near the bedrooms.

To update an existing bathroom with new fixtures, flooring, and everything else at a cost of $9,720 recoups 88 percent of the investment. Not a bad return on your money either.

If you’re still having a hard time rationalizing the initial expense, turn to Chapter 6 to find out how to estimate your budget and find the money you need for your project. You’ll also get advice about financing the project with everything from traditional home equity loans and lines of credit to the latest trend of using a credit card with reward points. It’s a new twist on double dipping.

Planning the Perfect Bathroom

Everyone knows that you need a game plan to take a remodeling project from wish list to completion, but not everyone gives homage to the organizational skills required. In Chapter 2, you can use a handy checklist to rate your present bathroom. It’s an easy way to start you thinking about what you like and don’t like about it and can help you fine-tune your list of gotta-have features in your next bathroom.

The length of time it takes to remodel your bathroom depends on the scope of the project, but the pleasantness of the process is all in the planning. Whether you envision a magical makeover with new wallpaper and floor or a complete rehab, you can make your bathroom go from bad to beautiful with a plan of attack and strategy to keep the work progress on track.

Obsessing over bathrooms

Bathroom remodeling starts with simple steps — deciding how much you’re ready to do and what shape those plans will take — and it quickly moves to near obsession with everything from tile to toilet paper holders.

Start by thinking of your bathroom as a shell of a room with floors, walls, ceiling, and windows. Then focus on the fixtures and fittings. By going from the broad to the specific, you’ll define the space and the functions it needs to perform. You may find that you need to take space from an adjacent room to make a new larger bathroom. Losing a hall bedroom closet that backs up to a bathroom is a tactic that remodelers often use.

After you get started, it’s hard not to fixate on your bathroom. Go into a friend’s home and you’re immediately drawn to their bathroom. You begin snooping around under their vanity, wondering how it’s attached to the wall. For the first time in your life, you become enchanted with towel bars and tissue holders. You begin spouting the recommended CFM (cubic feet per minute of air) requirements for bathroom ventilation at chic cocktail parties, and you know that you’re ready to begin planning your bathroom. You are armed with information and ready to go forth and fix.

Remodeling: It’s all in the plan, Stan

The actual remodeling process uses your plan as a starting point and proceeds through a series of grunts and moans and oh-my-goshes. And of course, there’s always the case of the best laid plan that ran amuck when a hidden copper water pipe in a wall gets severed by a saw and springs a leak.

The journey can be a smooth one with careful planning, which we discuss in Chapter 3. From start (tearing the old stuff out) to finish (getting approval from the local building department), the whole process is laid out for your remodeling enjoyment.

No matter whether you hire a contractor or do it yourself, someone has to manage the project and make sure that the flow of work continues in order and on schedule. If the drywall contractor hangs the wallboard before the building inspector looks at the electrical wiring and plumbing work, there’s trouble. The wallboard has to come down so the inspector can do his job. One person — a contractor, designer, or homeowner — needs to wear the manager hat to keep tabs of tradespeople showing up, doing their work, doing it correctly, and coordinating all the jobs.

Getting the right person for the job

We’re big fans of doing it yourself if you have the time, the talent, and the temperament, but not everyone does. In Chapter 7, we share what we’ve learned about making the decision. Sometimes a work plan is devised to combine both, which is ideal if you enjoy working with your hands and want to take part in the process. For those projects you know are beyond your capabilities (or patience), we guarantee that someone somewhere has the know-how to get the job done. (See Chapter 7 for a list of specialty contractors.) You just have to know where to look.

Who would have guessed that the Internet would become a good place to find a contractor to remodel your bathroom? Not us, that’s for sure. But there are also plenty of traditional sources to find a contractor, designer, or tradesperson. When you make contact, be able to explain your plans for your bathroom, have pictures from magazines or books to illustrate what you want, and know much money you have budgeted for the project.

Most contractors and the growing number of specialty tradespeople work in specific areas or counties and are familiar with the local bu...

Table of contents

• Title
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part I : Bathroom Spaces: Ahhh, the Possibilities
• Chapter 1: Reinventing Your Bathroom with a Splash
• Chapter 2: Designing the Bathroom That’s Right for You
• Chapter 3: Warning: Bathroom Work Zone Ahead
• Chapter 4: Tooling Around
• Chapter 5: Selecting Surface Materials 101
• Part II : Take Control: Planning the Project
• Chapter 6: Establishing a Budget, Finding the $
• Chapter 7: Doing It Yourself or Hiring a Pro
• Chapter 8: Behind the Scenes of Your Bathroom
• Part III : Fabulous Fixtures, Vanities, and Faucets
• Chapter 9: Go Flush! Selecting and Installing a Toilet
• Chapter 10: Rub a Dub Dub! All About Tubs
• Chapter 11: Showered with Possibilities
• Chapter 12: Bowled Over: Basins, Cabinets, Countertops, and Faucets
• Part IV : Winning Ways with Walls, Windows, and More
• Chapter 13: Walls and Ceilings Finished to Perfection
• Chapter 14: Floored by the Choices
• Chapter 15: Getting Creative with Doors and Windows
• Chapter 16: Let There Be Light!
• Part V : The Part of Tens
• Chapter 17: Ten Ways to Increase Storage Space in a Bathroom
• Chapter 18: Ten Easy Bathroom Decorating Ideas
• Chapter 19: Ten Great Remodeling Web Sites
• : Color Insert