Need some advice/input for bathroom remodel Warning icky photo.

[Skittlez]

I have the ickiest bathroom in the world and after dealing with it for 8 years I would like to fix it. I have a few questions for all you remodeling gurus.

I would like to remove the window and replace with glass block. That way I don't have to find siding to match on the outside. Will glass block be waterproof enough? I am tired of replacing the wood around the window. I even lacquered the wood. about 10 coats, but after 3 yrs, it is all gross again.

I am replacing the vanity with a pedestal sink which will cost me what little storage I have. Behind the bathroom wall is the stairs that go up to the upper level, but also the stairs that go down to the basement. Do you think I could put in a recessed cabinet above the stool?

I do not want to use shower board again. Already replaced it once, 5 yrs. ago. I am thinking tile around the tub. Should I tile 1/2 way to the ceiling or all the way? My ceiling is 9-10 foot up. Or is there a waterproof material I can use around the tub other than the shower board? I also want to put green board on the ceiling. Should I remove the plaster first or can I go over the top? Will the green board be too heavy? I do have an exhaust vent, but who ever put it in did not vent it to the outside, it vents directly in between the ceiling and the upstairs floor. I know not good, but how to I change it?

I want to have the tub refinished, but have been told I have to do the remodel first. The problem with that is, the tub is actually wider than the room and the walls sit on the tub. I am thinking this was once a closet, there is hardwood floor that runs under the tub. The bathroom is 3x7 and is our MAIN bath. I just want to be able to use it and clean it without getting sick to my stomach. I cannot change anything structurally, so am I stuck with this nightmare, or is there hope for improvement?

Here is a pic, please try to be somewhat kind

I didn't build the bath, but I just can't live with it anymore.

 

[bockbock2008]

Since its not a conventional size tub, I would go with ceramic tile. All the way up. My tub/shower has a little short wall maybe about 18" that comes down from the cieling at the front of the tub. When we remodeled, we put in a one piece fiberglass unit but since my husband is so tall and he put the shower heads up higher than normal, I used ceramic tile from the top of the shower stall all the way up and even on the cieling. I look at houses for a living and have seen the drywall at the top get wet and start to deteriorate. Any WHY people put windows in shower still baffles me. The glass blocks would work nicely, IMO.

 

[Skittlez]

Since its not a conventional size tub, I would go with ceramic tile. All the way up. My tub/shower has a little short wall maybe about 18" that comes down from the cieling at the front of the tub. When we remodeled, we put in a one piece fiberglass unit but since my husband is so tall and he put the shower heads up higher than normal, I used ceramic tile from the top of the shower stall all the way up and even on the cieling. I look at houses for a living and have seen the drywall at the top get wet and start to deteriorate. Any WHY people put windows in shower still baffles me. The glass blocks would work nicely, IMO.

I thought about a one piece shower, but I am trying to avoid the whole matching of the siding. It is aluminum and I don't want to patch the out side wall. I agree about the window. We only use the back door and it is right next to the window. Thankfully I don't get many unexpected visitors, if they looked up, they would get a very sorry sight

. Thank you for your input.​

 

[catwalk]

I agree that you need to go all the way up to the ceiling with tile or whatever you choose. Mold will form above the tile and get behind it.

If you can't change the exhaust, can you add another one, that's done right? Or can you get into the ceiling in order to vent it correctly? If you change the ceiling material, you could get a better look at what you're dealing with, and you may have mold issues up there to deal with.

This may be out of line and ridiculous, but it popped into my head. Can you cover the window on the inside, with shower board, wraparound, etc., and just leave the window where it is? Every contractor and handyman is either rolling his eyes or wretching at reading this, but it would at least go on my list of last ditch possibilities.

Do you have an attic above your garage? There may be leftover building materials stored there, and you might find matching siding. I'm looking foreward to reading about what you come up with, good luck!

 

[WingingIt]

My Dad has the blocks instead of a window in his bathroom (which used to be a laundry room) and it's worked fine for him for the last few years.

What's on each side of the bathroom? If there's a closet on either side you could maybe (if it's not a load bearing wall) steal a little space from them and build into the closet a shelf, so the back juts out into the closet a bit and on the bathroom side you have open recessed shelving. That's what I did with our teeny bathroom that was next to our closet.

Yes you can put green board up on a ceiling because we did it in ours, but we didn't put it over the top of anything else as we had to completely gut ours, so I'm not sure about that part.

Our bathroom also had a vent that didn't go outside, it went into the attic, but that was an easy fix for us to cut a hole and vent it out and up since we don't have another floor above it. Could you maybe move the wiring closer to the wall during construction and mount it on the wall so it could vent out of the same window area that the blocks will go in? Not ideal, I know, but better than nothing.

I agree that if you do tiles, run them all the way up.

I'll think about it some more and see if I can come up with better ideas.

 

[EweSheep]

Had that same set up when we lived on the farm. Had to use marine outdoor paint for our window. Sometimes a house didn't have a bathroom to begin with and found a small room to install an indoor bathroom.

Tile would be your BEST bet. Wished I had done that with my bathroom. Right now I'm dealing with some funky brown mold (or it could be somehting else) up above the ceiling of our shower. We dont have a vent nor could install one, so we deal with it by cracking the bathroom door when we take our hot showers and ope it up when we are finished.

As for covering up the window with shower stall. Yep you can do it! We did it for our kitchen which I wanted a gallery type and one window HAD to be done. Since it was a brick house, I had to put white foam board behind that window, caulk it inside the window and outside of the window, and dry walled it up. In order not to make it look crudy, I put a frosted glass storm windows on it. It was lovely! You can even make shutters to cover up the flaw and a flower box underneath the window! Never had a leak or water seepage coming in at all from that window. So this is what it is layered from outside to inside....frosted glass storm windows, original window panes and set up (tear NOTHING out!), white foamboard, about 4 to 5 inches thick for the entire window opening, put insulations in the cracks or on the outside of the window frame, plastic wrap and then drywall it up.

This is our bathroom.

this is our kitchen. The window we covered up, is directly above the sink and as tall as the cabinets.

 

[foxinachickenhouse]

That looks just like our bathroom before we remodeled last winter. We replaced the regular window with the glass blocks and put a tip out window at the top for ventilation. It was the perfect solution. Tiled to a height of about 7ft. which works great and moisture has not been a problem on the drywall above. We installed a wall mount sink and it made the bathroom seem so much larger. We also replaced the toilet with a low profile tank and round bowl toilet. Storage was of course an issue. We got a large but shallow medicine cabinet and put that above the toilet. Some well placed towel racks and hooks helped. I like the ones that hold 3 towels on bars that fold out from the wall. And then a size appropriate basket of rolled clean towels that fits under the sink. Extra TP ended up in a holder that hangs on the toilet tank itself. In the hall leading to the bath we have extra shelves that helped contain overflow towels and extra "stuff". Everyone comments about how the bath seems so much bigger now. You'll be so glad you did the project. Good luck!

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Looks similar to my bathroom. There is a window inside my tub as well.

This is what it looked like when I started-

After I pulled the tile board off the walls-

At the end of the remodel-

I had the tub enclosure retiled and the tub re-porcelained. I pulled off the old tile board and put up beadboard and molding. I replaced the medicine cabinet and the lights over the sink. The whole deal got painted (with semigloss on the bottom to make it easier to clean). The toilet and sink came with the house. The space is really small. The pedestal sink makes it feel bigger.

To deal with the window I went and found a pretty vinyl shower curtain. I put a rod up at the ceiling and hug the shower curtain over the window. It keeps the water off the wood and blocks the view of the neighbors. I did paint the window frame with a couple of coats of semi-gloss paint as well. At some point I will have all the windows replaced. For now this system works great.

Good luck. Bathroom remodels are great once they are done.

 

[EweSheep]

Beautiful!

I had that icky sea green plastic tile and black trim all over the bathroom...it was awful! And the tasteless wall paper! It looks like a kaliscope going on in that bathroom LOL! Oh the plastic tile, it was awful..the smell! Someone did a good job but tasteless LOL!

It took us a month and half to two months to finish our bathroom. It may need to be repainted with better paint that can repel water and mold.

 

[RaZ]

Your major problem is the lack of ventilation. Until that is corrected you will keep having the problem.
The venting you describe is not only affecting the bathroom but it is likely causing other damage to your house. That moist air has to get outside or you are going to get mold and rot to surface and structure. I think you are looking at a major repair that guts the entire room down to the studs and an assessment of hidden damage.

Sorry to tell you that. I went through a similar process a few years ago.