In order to not have to recap a story about flooding my own house and having to replace my wife’s ruined furniture due to a caved in ceiling (read Fly’s madcap adventures with do-it-yourself plumbing), I decided to take some of my holiday break from work to replace a cracking fiberglass shower insert.
Everything was going smoothly, until I discovered the dumb-ass plumber who put the original shower in ran the water pipes in the wrong place. You’ll notice in the picture below that the lines come out of the floor, and not from up between the studs. Since I will be tiling the stall, this small oversight is totally going to screw me up. Instead of banking coin with some trading tomorrow, I will instead be trying to move the water lines to the correct spot.
Anyway, if my blogging and charting is light over the next few days, it should be apparent that I’m not having a lazy spell…I just need to get this project finished quickly.
are u done yet? I’ll be glad to give you some advice based on the photos. No doubt many others would also like to help with plumbing help. 1st of all, you should move those copper pipes. Then, instead of some cheap fiberglass surround, get some greenboard or other backerboard and put in some proper modern tiles, Bauhaus style I would think. etc.
Bylo, I have tiled over half the shower, and the drain pan is installed. The project should be finished Monday.
Moved the water lines Friday. Spent an inordinate amount of time messing with the shower drain, and eventually had to build the floor up 3/4 inch to make it work.
I installed Hardibacker boards over the studs.
My wife of course picked out a very nice porcelain Italian tile and a nice border. Luckily, Lowes gave us no payments, no interest, for 12 months. I’ve got $440.00 in the project. Once I buy a shower door, the total project will probably run me $600.00. That is likely 1/3 of what it would have cost had I had it done “professionally.”
This comes at a bad time as my wife was given notice Thursday that her employment will be terminated by end of February (company was bought by Carlyle). Although when your fiberglass shower insert cracks, there is only one thing you can do, and that it take it out, quickly.
yes, I can see where you don’t want to pay interest on $440 to Lowe’s. To economize further, instead of a glass door, ask your wife to pick-out a nice plastic shower curtain – they usually come in white or grey, for $2.99. If you let her go to $7.99. the curtain could have a nice flower or mosaic pattern. Otherwise you’re on the right path. I am very sorry to hear about your wife being unemployed soon. I think we need to have a special post whereby you ask fellow bloggers not to send well-wishes, just send money. That’s what I do at the several church, school and community organizations I belong to.