The Home Improvement Thread

[Oswego]

and one of the most important parts.... when the guy is measuring the job make sure he doens't put any of the hinges near your tile seams. You have no idea how many tiles my guys used to crack back in the day when I would just put the hinges 12" up from bottom and 12" down from the top. Some of the screw holes would land 3/8" in from the edge of the tile and my guys would get real pissed off at me.

Also let me know your general area and maybe I can recommend a good company. Chances are I won't be able to recommend anyone because we sell commercial and most shower guys are residential, but all of us put the scum bags on our blacklist so at the worst if your guys a bum I can tell you.

 

[yotarob]

@yotarob bathroom looks great!

With the brick, make sure that contractor is using brick ties every x amount of foot (secures the brick to the house). Lazy fuckers...

Thanks,

I had a conversation with the brick contractor when the old brick was being removed and he commented on how they original builder did not use enough brick ties. He said that going back he would run three rows vertically and have a tie every 3 feet at minimum. That will be about double the ties it had before.

Sorry for the late response. I'm tech tarted and haven't learned how to use the "@" type stuff yet.

I get these questions all the time and for anyone else reading this do not skip step one.

#1) Come to me prior to tile. I would of advised to add kitchen metal or wood blocking in the locations that are to receive the hinge hardware. If the wall is completed prior to installing structural blocking you will be relying on the backer board and tile to hold your door up. Ive seen a few fall down over the years when the only thing holding them is tile/screw plug/drywall. Good news is you have hardboard that's much better than blue drywall.

#2) Thickness of glass. Without dimensions I'd guess your door is about 28-30 x 72-80. If it's within that range 3/8" clear tempered will be fine. If it is taller - let me know and I can run some deflection design load reports.

#3) Glass. Stay away from any film or liquid applied "water spot" coatings that minimize spots or mineral deposits. They are all a sham IMO. I can get you the same crap for $10 a bottle - it's basically just high quality Rain-X. If you truly want lifetime protection from those deposits (recommended if you have hard water - waste of money if you don't have hard water and don't mind spots) you want ONLY Guardian ShowerGuard Shower Glass for Enclosures & Modern Bathrooms - ShowerGuard

It will add a few $$ per sqft, but nothing crazy. It's the only stuff that actually works and will not rub off over time. It also protects from scratches better, but who the heck has something in their shower thats going to scratch glass anyway.

If you don't care about water spots just have them buy you 3/8" clear tempered glass. You can add Rain-X yourself or if you want commercial type stuff we use grab some of this TPC16 - CRL TPC Surface Protector - 16 Ounces. I use it on all my glass (car windows/house windows/showers/etc.).

4) Intent and use. What is your intention for this? Use it until the day you die? Make it look good to sell the house in a year? How long do you plan on being there? Do you have kids that will be using it? Will your wife need to use it to bath your kids? As much info as you can give me the better so my recommendations are more suited to your specific needs.

#5) Design: I do not see a vent fan within the shower stall. If this is true in no way can you block off the entire opening. It will become a moldy nightmare. You must allow the moisture to get sucked out by the fan. For this I advise keeping the door short of the ceiling by 6-12".

I could go on and on so to avoid that - get me some dimensions, let me know where the fan is located, let me know if you plan on having a "steam shower", and then Ill take all that and recommend to you something I feel would be best for the application then draw up a design and spec some hardware for you. Should help you get "apple to apple" bids from subs that you can actually compare because they won;t all being doing whatever they want and will have to follow our lead.

Ill PM you my cell #. Feel free to call me anytime to go over any of it.

Thank you Boyd, I really appreciate the detailed response. I'll answer these the best I can for now and come back and edit my post with exact dimensions later if I need to. Also I don't know how the "@" things work either

#1) I thought about asking you before . Good news is that I did tie into the framing and add 2x4's to brace up the transition between the sheet rock and hardy backer. I toe nailed them vertically between the header and footer with the 3-1/2" side facing out so that I could screw both the sheet rock and hardy backer at least an inch from the edge. Sooo... the good news is that there is something behind the tile / backer board to tie the door hinges and hardware too. Also the top of the pony wall, under the granite is a treated 2x4.

#2) Yes we should be right in that range. The width before hardy backer and tile was 60" and I made the pony extend to center after tile. I think that the door is going to be right at 29-3/8". It's an 8 ft ceiling and the curb in 4" tall so if I want to stay off the ceiling by a foot then we will be right at 80" tall.

#3) I believe that ShowerGuard is what he said but I'll double check on that. He did mention that it would not come off over time like other products would, I also know that he said it would be treated, not applied. We do not have particularly hard water but I am a neat freak and don't want spots. I originally asked about frosting the outside just the center of the glass, basically from my knees to my shoulder in height and was told that it would be a pretty expensive add on to have then mask and bead blast a clear piece of glass. Being as it is mainly just my wife and I, we decided we could live with out the frosted section, we have actually seen each other naked once or twice so no big deal.

#4) The intended use is mainly for my wife and I to shower in. This is the master bedroom but I do have 8 & 10 year old that may need to shower in it from time to time. We will definitely not be bathing the dog and anything like that. I wouldn't say use it till the day I die but I do no plan on moving until my kids are out of school, so at least 10 years. I spent a lot of extra time and money making sure that everything we are doing to this house was done right and would last so the glass needs to last too.

#5) There is not a fan dedicated to the shower but there is one in the ceiling approximately 2-3 feet away. I am planning on leaving 12" from the top of the glass to the ceiling and replacing the existing fan with one rated for a larger room / more CFM.

Another point that may be note worth pricing wise is that all of the hardware will be Venetian bronze in color.

Also my wife has mentioned that she would like to have a towel bar mounted to the door to serve double duty as a handle to open the door and well, a towel bar. I told her that mounting one to the wall outside of the shower was not going to happen because the door would swing into it and break. My line of thinking is that having one on the door is not really any better, what do you think?

 

[yotarob]

and one of the most important parts.... when the guy is measuring the job make sure he doens't put any of the hinges near your tile seams. You have no idea how many tiles my guys used to crack back in the day when I would just put the hinges 12" up from bottom and 12" down from the top. Some of the screw holes would land 3/8" in from the edge of the tile and my guys would get real pissed off at me.

Also let me know your general area and maybe I can recommend a good company. Chances are I won't be able to recommend anyone because we sell commercial and most shower guys are residential, but all of us put the scum bags on our blacklist so at the worst if your guys a bum I can tell you.

The big tiles are 18" x 18" so hopefully the grout lines won't be an issue, but I will bring it up.

I am in the College Station / Bryan area. We are pretty much located centrally between Houston, Austin & Dallas It is roughly 2 hours from all of the major Texas cities.

 

[Oswego]

The big tiles are 18" x 18" so hopefully the grout lines won't be an issue, but I will bring it up.

I am in the College Station / Bryan area. We are pretty much located centrally between Houston, Austin & Dallas It is roughly 2 hours from all of the major Texas cities.

Ill reach out to our Texas Rep. and see if he has anyone good in your area.

 

[Anathollo]

Made me chuckle when I got out of my truck

 

[Anathollo]

Finally got my upper cabinets hung in my garage. I'm still working on the lower cabinets (the damn floor is sloped 3" ). Also picked up all the electrical wiring and plugs I'll need to add circuits to the garage.

 

[Oswego]

3" !?! Sounds like a pretty bad settling problem or a pretty drunk foundation guy way back when.

 

[Silverback]

Nice cabinets!!

 

[Anathollo]

3" !?! Sounds like a pretty bad settling problem or a pretty drunk foundation guy way back when.

Pretty sure that was the problem

 

[Anathollo]

Nice cabinets!!

Thanks! Can't wait to get the under counter lighting in and the outlets. I've got a staron top ready to go as well.

 

[Oswego]

Pretty sure that was the problem

Better then settling all funky.

You buy those cabinets new or reusing them? Seem snazzy for garage life.

 

[Anathollo]

Better then settling all funky.

You buy those cabinets new or reusing them? Seem snazzy for garage life.

I got em used from a lab at work (they've been decontaminated). 99% of the upper cabinets we make don't have glass in them, so when I saw these were getting demoed, I snatched em up.

And snazzy? Have you seen @Silverback garage?

 

[Oswego]

I got em used from a lab at work (they've been decontaminated). 99% of the upper cabinets we make don't have glass in them, so when I saw these were getting demoed, I snatched em up.

And snazzy? Have you seen @Silverback garage?

You mean my soon to be bedroom?

 

[Anathollo]

You mean my soon to be bedroom?

 

[Taco Loco]

Finally got my upper cabinets hung in my garage. I'm still working on the lower cabinets (the damn floor is sloped 3" ). Also picked up all the electrical wiring and plugs I'll need to add circuits to the garage.

View attachment 4563

My 3 car garage has 4in slope on purpose to drain towards the garage door openings, you know for all that 30in of rain year that SA usually gets.

If I convert this garage to 1bedroom 1bath and work area, do you know what would be best to level that floor out?

 

[Oswego]

In my business Ardex is king of the hill (large commercial settings).

 

[Anathollo]

In my business Ardex is king of the hill (large commercial settings).

x2. Use a self leveling floor float. If this was my forever house, I'd level the garage floor but since it's not, some scrap 3/4" plywood and some 2"x4" shims will suffice for now.

 

[Taco Loco]

In my business Ardex is king of the hill (large commercial settings).

Pour up to 4in thick over existing concrete?

 

[Taco Loco]

$40+ per 50lb bag, that's a shit load of money to level 900sq ft

 

[Oswego]

Pour up to 4in thick over existing concrete?

Yep. See it all the time over here in the old buildings. Their slabs sag in the middle so near the columns it's typically inches higher than the main floors areas. I don't do it so no idea what prep/labor/bs is involved. What I do know is the stuffs not cheap to do. Guy I'm working with now just had me re-quote his whole job with out of square glass. GC said they didn't want to spend the 60k leveling the floor. I gave him an 80k add....the floor is being leveled .