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Lightyear Sunken Bath Episode 11 Water Heater and Tub Installation

Tuesday and Wednesday had me taping up a storm to get ready for the installation on Friday. Thursday had me taping and painting the closet for Friday. I wanted to get the closet done so that I could paint before installing the water heater. Because I am basically lazy I don’t want to try to paint around 500 pounds of water heater.
So here we are Friday morning.

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I mentioned previously that the floor sloped. I also built a platform for the water heater to get it off the ground and level. Here that is.

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This is basically 26” square. The back to front drop from level is almost an inch. The side drop is a little less than a 1/4 inch. I bevel cut 2×4’s, screwed them together, and used simpson anchors and blue screws to attach it to the floor. The top is a plywood deck with a piece of 1/8” hardboard masonite material and ‘power grab’ glued it to the plywood.

I hope nobody tried to pick this up before I am dead or read this post, because it is one of those deals that will make them swear and go crazy trying to pry it up.

Chris and Vern from Exclusively Plumbing showed up and the installation proceeded.
First up was dry fitting the tub. Slid right in and surprised Chris. He mentioned and I know from bitter experience that this is not usually the case. Vern and I discussed the details and double checked everything while he was doing the rough in.

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Some tubs come with a drain kit. This one did not. So while Chris went for parts, Vern installed the water heater and capped off the manifold that had been feeding this end of the house. Joe the electrician installed the wiring and we fired it up. One of the nice details was applying trims to the penetrations on the water lines.

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Here is the light installed. It is a lot brighter than this photo.

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Chris installing the drain kit for the tub.

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This is why we built a form to keep this area clear of concrete.

We also installed an inline water heater for the Jacuzzi.

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This was a weird deal as the cover had to be removed in order to get the nuts back far enough to slip into position. The plus to this unit is that it has a flow control switch, which means that if the water is not flowing, it is not on.

We have Bubbles!!!

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Next thursday or friday the solid surface lads will be here to install their stuff. Meanwhile I will be taping and skim coating the walls, installing doors and trims and painting.

Todays brain fart… I can’t count the number of Jacuzzi style tubs and hot tubs I have installed, but I have never actually used one. Maybe when I win the Powerball, I will get me one.

June 20th, 2009 | Category: Bathrooms, Drywall, Lightyear Sunken Bath Project, Plumbing, Taping Drywall | Comments are closed

Lightyear Sunken Bath Episode 10 – Water Heater and Tub Prep 2

Having gotten the drywall hung it was time to tape. I always tape coat my flats and corners before installing corner bead.
It works out better for me. I have a tutorial with the long explanation
here. I am using 45 minute ‘hot mud’ ‘speed set’ for this as there is a lot to do and little time to do it in. Speed set is also moisture resistant and is preferred to tape tub and shower walls. The plumber and electrician are coming Friday. The closet needs to be painted by then and the tub area needs to be sealed for the solid surface guys who will be coming out to measure as soon as the tub is in.

Here is the ceiling in the water heater closet. The ceiling edge is covered with a 1/2” piece of ‘L’ bead to provide a clean line. This area was originally a privacy area with a block wall and a sloping sidewalk. It got some stub walls and a roof, which was attached to the original roof eave which led to ‘interesting’ details (the first photo shows you the ceiling line) to work around to make this come out.

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Notice that I have bagged the sub panel and covered the outlet. As you can see, just in time by the glob of mud on the electric panel. Filling the electric panel with drywall mud or touching live wires with a metal bladed taping knife will piss off your electrician and generally ruin your day.

The tub area gets some corner bead on the outside corners, as well as coating. The small windows are finished as much as they will get as the solid surface will be wrapping the exposed areas.

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The large block window gets corner bead to square it, and will be filled and finished coated to make it flat for the solid surface application. Here I have also bagged the window. 6a00d8345237e469e201157042de41970c-800wi

The inside corners of the tub area are sealed and will be primed but no further mudding will be done here. It is not necessary.

June 20th, 2009 | Category: Bathrooms, Drywall, Lightyear Sunken Bath Project, Taping Drywall | Comments are closed

Lightyear Sunken Bath Episode 9 – Water Heater and Tub Prep 1

In our last episode I discussed blocking prior to drywalling. Since we are installing a water heater  to provide water for the Jacuzzi, and fixtures on this side of the house, which included tying in the hall bathroom (an in progress change that made sense and did not add significantly to the cost), next is getting ready for installing the water heater and setting the tub.

Coordination is important for running these projects especially when acting as your own contractor in terms of getting the professionals like the plumber and electrician to work with you. For example on this project we have an electric water heater and an electric bathtub (i.e. Jacuzzi) I choose to have both on site during this phase as if there is a problem it can be solved without everybody having to make extra trips. When the electrician installed the panel and was testing it, he discovered that one of the new breakers was bad.(It happens)

We had already partitioned the space outside of the bathroom proper to provide a space for the heater and some storage.
By Monday I had the door between the bathroom and the new water heater and storage area removed and relocated in its new location, and had three of the walls drywalled and first tape coat on.

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Over the weekend I tracked down a light fixture for this area as well as some other materials. Monday I framed out the opening into the storage area, drywalled the ceiling and archway, as well as the tub area.

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The tub area was drywalled with M/R waterboard(green board) and screwed off. The majority of the new construction is steel stud which can’t be nailed. The f;at seams are covered with mesh tape, the inside corners are paper tape and the outside corners are covered with metal corner bead.

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This is the long wall with our glass blocks in place, and the soffit in the foreground at the top of the photo. These openings will be wrapped with solid surface. What you can’t see in this photo is the plastic wrap that I covered the face of the blocks with. This is to make clean up easier after the soldi surface is done.

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Here is the back tub wall drywalled. Notice the archway for the pocket door has some narrow drywall at the top and along the right side. Because this is getting a bifold door, the rough opening dimensions are narrower that a standard framed door opening.

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On the left side of the new archway are two electical boxes. We are
installing a Jeeves Heated Towel Bar. The bottom box is the power for
the towel bar, the upper is for the timer. They are sold separately, but if you go this route it is a good idea as it takes time to warm up and you don’t want it running all the time.

One last detail is the width of the soffit. It is 36” finished. This will provide a straight vertical line for the solid surface between the ceiling and edge of the tub when it is installed. The soffit was originally designed to carry the electricity and water lines for the tub. In discussing this with the plumber we eliminated the waterlines, which saved time and money. The electric lines are up there as it was shorter than alternatives.

June 20th, 2009 | Category: Bathrooms, Drywall, Lightyear Sunken Bath Project, Painting, Planning, Plumbing | Comments are closed