Day 10: Shower/Tub Plumbing, Toilet Flange, Tub Drain, Underlayment
Wow, what a crazy day yesterday was! Amazingly enough, I finished all of the tasks I'd hoped to. The only thing I wasn't able to do was install the overflow stopper for the tub - that's the knob you turn to make the stopper go up and down. The inspector said that everyone struggles with it, though, and it didn't need to be done for today.
I finally gave up on a perfect tub. I did get some improvement, (with some help from my neighbor, Todd) but it still makes a little noise. The problem is that the studs and floor-boards at the drain end are just a little soft, so no matter how level you make it, the tub will move just a few millimeters - enough to make that subtle creak - when you step on that end.
<<<< WARNING: THIS PORTION IS VERY BORING >>>>
A couple notes on the tub: we accidentally purchased the American Standard - Standard edition tub, which is acrylic. We wanted to get a steel one, so I returned that one and purchased the AS Princeton tub, which is made out of a steel product called Americast. It actually looks to me like 3 products - this "Americast", which is enameled and then supported underneath by plastic. I think it'll be fine, but I'm not completely satisfied.
The tub is installed by attaching a 2x4 support "stringer" along the wall which the edge of the tub sits on. The other side just rests on the floor. Of course, if your floor isn't level, the tub will shift when you put weight in it. What I ended up doing - at Todd's suggestion - was cutting the world's longest shim (~4') to slip under the outer rim to level it.
The installation instructions show the tub being attached to the wall (see the drawing below), but there's an entirely different problem with this. The tub was a lip, which is about 1/8" thick, so you actually have to put shims on the wall to fill that extra 1/8", and then screw into those to attach the tubs. I ended up going with 3" drywall screws and some large 3/16" washers to cover the edge of the tub.
Anyway, I probably spent 6 hours trying to make this tub sit quietly. It's definitely the one thing that I'm most frustrated with to this point. (Besides not wearing a good enough mask and getting sick... still!)
<<<< END VERY BORING PART >>>>
On to the pictures!
This is the new toilet riser and flange. I talked in this post about that project. Once the new floor and plywood underlayment were installed (next picture), I just bonded the new flange to the 3" riser and tightened the hose clamps on the coupling.
Here we can see all of the underlayment installed. I forgot to buy a sheet of plywood when I had the truck rented, so I had to buy a bunch of small 2'x4' pieces so they'd fit in the car - hence the many screws. You can also see the tub in this picture, but I have it covered with a dropcloth to avoid damaging the enamel.
This is the shower and tub plumbing. I actually did most of it outside and then brought the whole shower "tree" in. I had to redo a couple of joints - the depth was the hardest part here. I'm still a little nervous! See, the valve in the middle and the bottom piece coming out (which will be the tub spout) have to be at a certain depth so everything fits well with the finished wall. There's some leeway, but I'm still pretty nervous about that, because we won't know for sure until the wall goes up and we try to attach all the fixtures!
This is the new tub drain. Inside those brass pieces is the system which is designed to raise and lower the plug. Hopefully I'll be able to figure that out before we need to use it!
And finally, here's Persey doing her part protecting the pedestal sink stand. Unfortunately, she doesn't know that I've already put it together and the box is empty. I don't have the courage to tell her. She'd be so embarrassed!
Well, that's it for today. If you've actually read all of this... why???
I finally gave up on a perfect tub. I did get some improvement, (with some help from my neighbor, Todd) but it still makes a little noise. The problem is that the studs and floor-boards at the drain end are just a little soft, so no matter how level you make it, the tub will move just a few millimeters - enough to make that subtle creak - when you step on that end.
A couple notes on the tub: we accidentally purchased the American Standard - Standard edition tub, which is acrylic. We wanted to get a steel one, so I returned that one and purchased the AS Princeton tub, which is made out of a steel product called Americast. It actually looks to me like 3 products - this "Americast", which is enameled and then supported underneath by plastic. I think it'll be fine, but I'm not completely satisfied.
The tub is installed by attaching a 2x4 support "stringer" along the wall which the edge of the tub sits on. The other side just rests on the floor. Of course, if your floor isn't level, the tub will shift when you put weight in it. What I ended up doing - at Todd's suggestion - was cutting the world's longest shim (~4') to slip under the outer rim to level it.
The installation instructions show the tub being attached to the wall (see the drawing below), but there's an entirely different problem with this. The tub was a lip, which is about 1/8" thick, so you actually have to put shims on the wall to fill that extra 1/8", and then screw into those to attach the tubs. I ended up going with 3" drywall screws and some large 3/16" washers to cover the edge of the tub.
Anyway, I probably spent 6 hours trying to make this tub sit quietly. It's definitely the one thing that I'm most frustrated with to this point. (Besides not wearing a good enough mask and getting sick... still!)
On to the pictures!
This is the new toilet riser and flange. I talked in this post about that project. Once the new floor and plywood underlayment were installed (next picture), I just bonded the new flange to the 3" riser and tightened the hose clamps on the coupling.
Here we can see all of the underlayment installed. I forgot to buy a sheet of plywood when I had the truck rented, so I had to buy a bunch of small 2'x4' pieces so they'd fit in the car - hence the many screws. You can also see the tub in this picture, but I have it covered with a dropcloth to avoid damaging the enamel.
This is the shower and tub plumbing. I actually did most of it outside and then brought the whole shower "tree" in. I had to redo a couple of joints - the depth was the hardest part here. I'm still a little nervous! See, the valve in the middle and the bottom piece coming out (which will be the tub spout) have to be at a certain depth so everything fits well with the finished wall. There's some leeway, but I'm still pretty nervous about that, because we won't know for sure until the wall goes up and we try to attach all the fixtures!
This is the new tub drain. Inside those brass pieces is the system which is designed to raise and lower the plug. Hopefully I'll be able to figure that out before we need to use it!
And finally, here's Persey doing her part protecting the pedestal sink stand. Unfortunately, she doesn't know that I've already put it together and the box is empty. I don't have the courage to tell her. She'd be so embarrassed!
Well, that's it for today. If you've actually read all of this... why???
posted by dan at 3:49 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home