Another Bathroom Reno

Last August, I went through a bathroom reno to the upstairs unit at my house in Guelph

You can see the before and after pictures of that reno HERE

I swore this would be my last bathroom reno for a long time!  Things seemed to take much longer than expected and It was a very stressful time trying to do it while I had tenants upstairs.

Well fast forward about 6 months….I spoke too soon!

It was mid-March and I was having a bit of trouble re-renting my downstairs unit for the September semester.   I know, I was a bit early, but I wanted to make sure I was planning well in advance…something I would recommend for everyone.

During the showings, I could tell that no one was particularly fond of the bathroom.  It was dated, needed paint and trim, had a pretty scuzzy vanity and smelled a bit “musty”.

The initial plan was to slap on a fresh coat of paint and change the baseboards.  After I popped off the baseboards, I realized I had a small problem.  There was some mould on the drywall behind the baseboard heater and a little bit more near the shower.

No big deal I thought.  It was likely original materials and when you have hot (baseboard heater) meeting cold (drywall) this is usually a recipe for mould.  I wasn’t worried about the mould by the shower either as it was likely just water that had splashed behind the baseboards over several years.

My plan was to cut out the bottom 2 feet of drywall in the area and replace it with mould-resistant “blue board” drywall.  Easy fix right?........

About half way through the project I decided that the caulking around the shower would have to be replaced as it was old and discoloured.  As I ripped up the caulking around the edges, I began to smell the familiar musty aroma…of mould. 

My heart sank as I put my screwdriver in the crack around the shower, which had been previously caulked…..the board that the shower had been sitting on, was completely rotten.  Water must have been leaking around the shower for years!!

I felt a little bit of panic coming over me and decided I needed some advice.  I called a friend in the area who is a contractor and asked his opinion.  He suspected what I did…that the base plywood was rotten.

After taking most of the next day to rip out the shower, our suspicions were confirmed and we would need to replace the entire shower and baseplate.  Doing this would be no easy task as the floor would also need to be ripped up, which was ceramic tile.

I decided that this bathroom needed an overhaul anyway and I decided to replace the vanity as well. 

Luckily I had tiles left over from the previous bathroom reno and Home Depot was having a huge sale on shower stalls and bathroom vanities!!!

I will save you the details of the reno this time, but 5 days later, I had a completely new bathroom just in time for another showing to a prospective tenant.

Funny enough, the first group that saw the place with the new bathroom ended up taking it for September!  Maybe in the long run it was worth it?

Take a look at the pics below!  Comments welcome!