Bathroom Remodeling in Sherman Oaks, CA
Bathroom remodeling for older Sherman Oaks houses: the floor checked under the old tile, new drains and supply lines, and the original trim kept.
"Will the floor be flat once the old tile is gone?" On a first visit to a Sherman Oaks bathroom, our answer waits until a corner of tile near the toilet comes up. A thick mortar bed can hide joists that sag or plywood gone soft from a slow leak at the wax ring. What turns up there decides the floor work, while the door, window casing and any recessed cabinet that suit the house are marked to stay.
Reading the floor
If the house sits on a raised floor, a look from the crawl space shows whether the joists under the toilet were notched for an old drain or darkened by water. A weak joist gets a new one fastened alongside it, and solid blocking between joists stiffens the area where the tub and toilet bear down. Large format tile asks for a flatter floor than small mosaic does, so the tile choice and the floor prep get settled together. On a slab, the old bed is broken out and low spots are filled with a patching compound before underlayment goes down.
What stays and what goes
Because Sherman Oaks falls within the City of Los Angeles, a permit from LADBS covers moved drains, replaced supply lines or a new circuit. Its inspector sees the rough plumbing while the walls are still open. A recessed medicine cabinet, a wood door with its original hardware and the casing around a window can be covered and kept through demolition. Old wall tile seldom comes off in one piece, so a close match in size and color is ordered when a wall has to be rebuilt. The scope lists each kept part by name.
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Often a mortar bed reinforced with wire mesh, laid over tar paper on the subfloor. Under that bed there may be galvanized supply lines narrowed by rust, a cast iron drain and a lead bend under the toilet. Where water crept past the grout over a long stretch, the framing can be dark and soft, and that wood is cut out and replaced.
A cast iron tub with sound enamel can stay. It is heavy, so it is often left where it sits and padded while the walls go up around it. A new drain and overflow assembly and a new mixing valve are fitted, and chips or dull enamel can be refinished by a specialist. A thin steel tub that flexes underfoot is a weaker candidate.
The shower floor gets a slope to the drain first. On a traditional pan, a liner covers that sloped base, turns up the walls past the curb and clamps into a drain with weep holes, and a mortar bed goes over it. The other route bonds a membrane to the sloped base and the walls. Either way, the pan is flood tested before tile.
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