Master Bath - Part 10

After the screed cured for the weekend, Nate installed the uncoupling membrane.  It isolates the tile from the underlying floor, letting them move independently and minimizing cracks.

It's installed using thinset and once it dries, another coat of thinset can go on top.

And after that dries, then the tile can be installed.

And grouted.

A little bit of touch up here and there, plus the soap dish, and it's all done.

The Looming Deadline

In an earlier post I mentioned a looming deadline; it is The Cass Gilbert Experience.

Well, we're not going to be done in time.

Nate is doing a great job progressing on the tile.

But some of the other stuff won't be done.  We've ordered the cabinets and plumbing fixtures, but they won't arrive until after the event.

And we had a little surprise this morning.  A local TV station came to film the house for a piece on the event.  If you want to see it, watch TPT's Almanac on Friday July 24 at 7pm.

Master Bath - Part 9

Earlier in the week I pressure tested the radiant tubing. Fortunately there were no leaks.  The biggest worry are the tubing joints and the danger of puncture when you're fastening the tubing.  This system doesn't require stapling the tubing, so that risk is a non-issue.

I couldn't get a true pre-assembled manifold to fit in the available space, so I had to build my own (seen in the first picture). I have only two loops, so the manifold is only a "tee", thus limiting the number of joints.  I reality, I don't have more joints than I'd have had with a manifold.

Nate installed the screed on Friday.  Many buckets of mortar screed got carried up the stairs.

Reports are that he liked it a lot.  According to the manufacturer the foam panels result in a 15-20% weight savings in mortar.

Now it cures for the weekend and floor tile can be installed next week.

Master Bath - Part 8

Nate finished tiling the interior of the shower on Friday.  So I got the weekend to install the hydronic in-floor heat.

I didn't quite make it.

I'd previously forgotten to install the thermostat for this zone.  That meant drilling some more holes and fishing the control wire down to the basement.

Then I could start on the underlayment for the screed.  It's the Bekotec system from a company called Schluter.  These 2x4 interlocking foam panels are cut to fit and laid out on the floor.

Once they were all in place, I installed the hydronic tubing.  The "studs" on the panels hold the tubing in place for the most part.  The only place it didn't really work perfectly is where I made 180-degree turns.  The tubing has a tendency to lift the edge of the foam panel a little or not lay perfectly flat.

The tubing manufacturer (Nibco) has a design service that I took advantage of to get a material list.  They recommended routing the tubing on 8-inch centers.  The studs on the foam panels ended up pushing it out to 9-inch, which is close enough.

The black wire is the floor sensor for the thermostat.  It shuts the system down if the floor gets too hot.

You can also see that I've run two loops of tubing to ensure that the heat is even across the whole room.

Also, I didn't run tubing close to the right-hand wall in the second photo because the cabinetry will be directly above; there's no sense in heating the floor under the cabinets.

I was only able to get the first loop done over the weekend; the second loop I finished tonight.

Now I'm ready for Nate to comeback and do the screed.  That will probably be later in the week after he finishes another job.

Master Bath - Part 7

Nate has been making good progress with the shower tile this week.

We'd originally planned to use a basket-weave pattern much like in the kids' bath, but it's out of stock for the foreseeable future.  Nate found this pinwheel pattern as an alternative and it works really well.  The basket weave was a bit bigger scale than the kids' bath and this tile is a bit smaller scale.  It will actually work out better because, like a siped tire, there are more edges and it will be less slippery when it gets wet.

After the floor, he started on the walls.  It is a creamy-colored, large-scale subway tile.  The shower is fairly large and this is a decent sized room, so it can handle the larger scale.

The niche back is covered in a small-scale running bond mosaic.  You'll see more of that in a moment.

The benches are made from the same material as the backer board and are going to get covered with the tile that's going on the floor in the rest of the room.

Today, he finished all the subway inside the shower.  The "panel" surrounding the shower heads and valves is the same mosaic as in the niche.  It has a matching "pencil" that separates it from the subway tile.

Tomorrow subway tile will get installed on the exterior and top of the shower wall.

It's looking fabulous so far!

Scavenger Hunt

The girls were gone over the weekend, so there was discussion on social media whether the boys would get anything done or goof off.

Well...

Stuff got done.

Friday evening was spent paining the master bath ceiling.

A while back I'd installed an inexpensive washtub and faucet in the basement so I had a place to clean out paint brushes, etc.

Well, it turns out the faucet was not only inexpensive; it was cheap.  It started leaking all over the place so I had to get a new one.  Replacing it was the Saturday morning project.

The kitchen faucet in the carriage house hasn't been working well for a while.  A new one got installed.  Removing the old one was a pain in the neck.  Both literally and figuratively.  And that was the Saturday afternoon project.

In the evening I went on a scavenger hunt to find the door casing for the master bath.  It's all around here somewhere, but it took a while to find all the right pieces.  Then I scraped and sanded to get them ready for a new coat of paint.  And installed them so the tile guys had a reference point.

And now I know where most of the window casing is for this room.

Blood - The Real Story

We were out to dinner with parts of the extended family earlier in the week and my brother-in-law wanted to know more about the Blood Story.

So here it is...

Look at the picture in the aforementioned  post.  I cut the hole in the wall to trace some wires, as well as fish new ones.

Note also my drill in the lower left corner of the picture.  What you cannot see is that the chuck contains one of those four foot long flexible drill bits with the self-starting point.

That last phrase is important...

So, I used the hole in the wall and the long flexible bit to drill through the plate into the basement.

The drill bit has a small hole in it that's used to attach wires so you can pull them back through, thus doubling as a fish-tape.

So, I left the bit hanging down into the basement, resting the drill on the edge of the hole.  Apparently with the trigger on the lip...

And went down to the basement to see where it came out and attach the new wiring.  I'd already mapped it out, so wasn't overly worried about hitting anything.

As I walked past the drill bit, I must have bumped it with my forearm.

Just enough to apply enough pressure so that the drill's trigger was depressed and the drill started.

And the self-starting point started in my arm...

I didn't even look down, just grabbed the bit with my other hand and pushed it up enough to stop the drill.  And went about fishing the wire back up.

I didn't notice until later that I was bleeding.  And later still that had a hole in my arm.  And even later still that I connected the dots of how it got there.

Tunnel vision, I guess.

Master Bath - Part 6

While Nate was working on the tile, I've been chipping away nights and weekends on other stuff.

He needed extra light, so I wired up the switch for the shower lights and exhaust fan.

I also finally finished sanding the drywall and primed the walls and ceiling.

And today I applied a coat of ceiling white and gathered supplies for the next set of tasks.

The Shower Pan

Earlier in the week, Nate was here to start on the tile in the master bath.  In particular, the tile in the shower.

When we first met him, we talked about various options for the backer and pan.  I'd heard from some other old house owners (shout out to folks at wavyglass.org) about a couple of different systems: Schluter and Wedi.  I'd done a little more research on the Schluter system and Nate was more familiar with the Wedi one.

After some thought about doing a traditional mortar pan, Nate decided to try the Wedi system and he got the regional rep to come help on the installation day.

The first two photos show the parts of the system.  The large horizontal gray sheets are the backer for the shower walls.  The upright black piece on the right is the curb.  All are extremely lightweight. especially compared to cement board or drywall.

The box in the second photo contains the shower pan.  It's the same material as the backer sheets.

The third photo shows the installed pan and backer on some of the half-walls.  I was here to watch, but I think the pan is adhered to the sub-floor using thinset.

The panels are attached to the walls with screws and washers, similar to how you'd fasten drywall to the studs.

Then the curb is set and all the seams and penetrations are waterproofed.