Home improvement projects

[JenSw]

Next spring/summer I want to put my house on the market but before I do I need to make some upgrades. The main bathroom is horribly outdated with ugly blue tile in the shower and the floor could use a re-do. Also needs some minor drywall repair and a paint job.

The kitchen counter top has porous tile and grout that has been impossible to keep from staining. It is also really outdated.

Problem is budget.

I’m thinking of becoming a tiling and painting fiend this winter. I think the tiling overall is doable but the bathroom will be very time consuming because of the amount of tile I need to do. I’m a little worried about dealing with the tiling surface since I should use backerboard for both surfaces because of the water. That could be rough since I’m doing this by myself.

Basically I’m looking for some encouragement. I’m hoping to be inspired. I figured there are a lot of you out there who have taken on similar projects.

Show me your successful, and not so successful, home improvement projects. If I take this on I’ll do a full before and after thread.

[BCtriguy1]

You’ll do just fine! The difference between a successful and disastrous home improvement project is preparation and education. I’m a journeyman carpenter and have had the pleasure of stepping in to redo people’s projects gone wrong, but on the flip side one of the most beautiful bathroom renos I’ve seen was done by an accountant with no previous training at all. He did the demo, tiling, electrical, plumbing, even built the cabinetry all by himself, so it can be done. IMO trades are about Skill and Knowledge, and you don’t want to be learning both at the same time so take some time before getting started and be meticulous in your readings! Luckily painting and tiling are on the easier end of the skills spectrum, require little in the ways of tools and equipment and mistakes generally aren’t too costly (chipped tiles etc… providing you don’t dump a gallon of paint all over your kitchen cabinets or something ). Subscribe to Fine Homebuilding online, and pick up some books on tiling from Home Depot. Those are good places for DIY’ers to start and not be completely overwhelmed with information.

Good Luck, and take before and after pics to impress all of your ST friends :).

[jriosa]

Just finished tiling my kitchen floor - flood took out the cork flooring we had in there- sorry no pics. Anyhow - tiling is pretty simple as long as you do some decent prep work up front. Measure, plan you layout, mark you initial lines if required before you ever get going on it.

For the bathtub, given all the issues around backerboard, demo, and then re-tiling (depending on the tile going vertical can be more difficult to look neat than doing a floor) - get a pricing on a tub insert - they can mold right over the tile, give a bisc clean look and you save yourself a ton of work. Price is higher than tiling yourself, but it may save a lot in aggravation. Think about it.

For the countertops - you can get a dremel with a grout removing bit to clean the old grout out. If the tiles are not in bad shape, you can just re-grout. SpectralLok is a good epoxy based grout that will not stain - huge range of colours. Pricey but worth it.Given you sound cash short and are selling, I would do as little as possible - if you don’t have to replace tile - don’t. Unlikely you will recover much cost unless you went fairly upscale, and that may break your cash flow.

I would definitely do something like your floors or counters before tackling anything vertical - get used to miking your thinset and grout, getting things level, learning working times. Vertical adds the issue of gravity and tiles sagging, so have some practice where gravity is a friend and not an enemy. Also, you could make your life a bit easier on the vertical if you get some type of tile laid on mesh sheets. Easier to put up and keep aligned than doing something like subway tile for a first timer.

Also consider a few extra costs - how are you going to cut tile? If everything is right angle and no notching is required you can get a 20$ tile cutter that will work fine. If you need to do notching you are into a wet saw. You can rent these, BUT, if you only have a couple of pieces, most big box stores will cut about 10 tiles per day for free. Just have them marked out and save yourself some other costs.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[patf]

You might want to find a realator who is familar with “fix it uppers” Maybe they could give an idea of where to spend your time/money. I think you said you are underwater for the house. You need to determine which improvements would help you get the most back on the house. I’t possible they would suggest minor changes only?

[JenSw]

I have an appraiser coming next week. There are some obvious areas that need work though and that’s what I’d be taking on. Retiling a shower isn’t a huge expense and with the aqua blue tile that is there now, and a few are cracked, it would probably make a huge difference. I was at Home Depot today and I think I can do everything in that bathroom for less than $1000 which includes tiling floor, shower and sink area. New toilet and paint. Not going for the high end, just want to make it look like it is from this decade.

My biggest concern is there is enough wrong that people will walk away. I’d rather someone walk in and say “I don’t like the colors but I can live with it” vs. “Geez, I’d have to redo the entire bathroom.”

So, bathroom and kitchen. That will be my focus. Tile and paint. New hardware for the cabinets. Don’t need new sinks or fixtures.

This will give me something to do during the dreary winter here. Keep me from going bonkers.

Home Depot has a ceramic tiling seminar next weekend. I’ll be there for sure.

Plus it never hurts to learn this stuff.

[patf]

Hey, you fixed your toliet, I bet you can do anything. An Home Depot does have those classes which will help. Ask a lot of questions like should you use green board or concrete backer board for shower… I would think they can help you out.

[hammond]

The problem with old bathrooms is that often when you take out the old tile you will find rotten wood behind it that needs fixed.

Look carefully for water damage in the shower or around the toilet before starting

[tkeru408]

Next spring/summer I want to put my house on the market but before I do I need to make some upgrades. The main bathroom is horribly outdated with ugly blue tile in the shower and the floor could use a re-do. Also needs some minor drywall repair and a paint job.

The kitchen counter top has porous tile and grout that has been impossible to keep from staining. It is also really outdated.

Problem is budget.

I’m thinking of becoming a tiling and painting fiend this winter. I think the tiling overall is doable but the bathroom will be very time consuming because of the amount of tile I need to do. I’m a little worried about dealing with the tiling surface since I should use backerboard for both surfaces because of the water. That could be rough since I’m doing this by myself.

Basically I’m looking for some encouragement. I’m hoping to be inspired. I figured there are a lot of you out there who have taken on similar projects.

Show me your successful, and not so successful, home improvement projects. If I take this on I’ll do a full before and after thread.

Here’s some encouragement for you…I also wanted to sell a house and knew I needed to do some upgrades to get people interested in buying it. The first project was a reface of the main level bathroom which was an ugly pink. I had the bathtub resurfaced to a bright white. I ripped out the old toilet, vanity, and linoleum floor (which turned out to be four layers of old linoleum floors). I then put in new tile, set a new toilet, and put in a new vanity and mirror. We also put in new lighting. The next project was a major remodel of our finished basement. This included ripping out the carpet in the family room and completely gutting the bathroom down to the concrete walls (that’s right, we even ripped the studs out). We broke up the concrete floor in the bathroom and rerouted the plumbing for a new layout and then started by putting in the new studs and running all the plumbing and electrical and setting in the new tub. I then tiled around the bathtub and put in a continuous tile floor throughout the entire bathroom/family room area–about 400 square feet total. I finished off the bathroom by putting in the new drywall, toilet, double vanity and mirrors, lighting, and painting the walls. All of this took a serious amount of time and effort, but it paid off in the end.

I wish I could show you some pics of the finished product, but unfortunately I can’t take any pictures of the work. In a sh*tty, down economy where homes are sitting on the market for an average of 11 months in our area, we sold our home on August 31st for full asking price…six days after we put it on the market.

I’ve read some of your previous posts detailing how you ended up in this situation and my heart goes out to you. I hope my renovation story encourages you to put in the time and effort necessary to get done what needs to get done so you can get away from your house in the best financial position possible. Good luck.

[klehner]

I redid my powder room this summer, and I need to warn you that there will be “oh, s***” moments that will cause the project to take longer and cost more than you plan on. For instance:

1. toilet shut-off valve didn’t shut off, so I had to re-install the toilet, buy new shut-off valve and cut the old one off and install new.
2. both vanity shut-off valves wouldn’t budge, so back for two more. This time, there was little pipe left to re-attach, but just enough.
3. as predicted, the sub-floor under the oak floor was rotted, so that had to be ripped out and re-installed before I could put in the backer board and tile
4. unless you are really knowledgeable or you are replacing like with like, the final height of the floor might not be known until you are finished, then you have to transition to the rest of the floor.

Be warned.

[JenSw]

Thanks. Life has been pretty chaotic. I think me taking this stuff on is a thinly veiled attempt to have control over some small bit of it.

I fully expect to find weird stuff. Thankfully the house was built in 1989 so I’m not dealing with a really old one. Still have to be prepared for anything.

Hearing success stories makes me feel better. I think starting with the horizontal surfaces is a good idea. I’ll then work on the vertical.

[madcap95]

Jen,

Having gone from no tiling experience to someone who’s retiled 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, hallway and mud room, I remember these butterflies well. Tiling is a job that’s 75% preparation, 25% execution. Lay out lots of reference lines, measure, and remeasure. For the floor tile, do a dry layout until you get comfortable with it, and then I’d still do a dry layout of any tricky areas.

Also, in your budget have you earmarked $'s for some of the specialty tools you’ll need? There are options when it comes to the tile saw, but you’ll need a notch trowel for laying the thinset, decent drill and special mixing bit for mixing thinset, a couple of 5 gal buckets, grout float for smoothing the grout and possibly a sidecut saw for notching any door drim you may come across… I found a rubber mallet was nice for leveling off floor tiles too.

Feel free to PM me with any questions…

[Justicebeaver]

Before tiling anything in my own house I helped an acquaintance with his house. It let me go through the first part of the learning curve on someone else’s house instead of mine. Really worth the day off.

[baxnelly]

As someone with years of experience in the building trades/construction I am lucky enough to be able to do 99% of my own work on my house. Recently just moved, and re-did the bathroom in my new house right away (along with some other stuff). I love to tile, and if you take your time and do a little reasearch it really is not that hard and you can save a ton of $$. For instance just for shits and giggles I looked at that Rebath outfit that will come in and reline your tub/surround etc… for my job and it was going to be about $3,500 or more. I bought a new vanity top ($600), shower door ($250) and the tile (~$300 worth). Add in new faucets, a new medicine cabinet and towel bars and I’m just over $1,300 I think.

For some incentive here’s the before with the ugly greenish yellow tile, outdated curtain/door, old formica vanity top and ugly pinkish fiberglass surround…
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s39/kkocan/IMG_5481.jpg

And here’s the after. Notice that when I tore the old shower surround off I found an old wooden window right in the shower that had been covered over with drywall. I removed the window, built a wood frame to fit in the window and bought a pre-made glass block window to fit in the new wood frame the trimmed it off from the outside so the storm window still covers it and it looks just like any other window at a glance from the outside of the hosue. But what a world of difference with all new floor and wall tile, new door, new top etc…
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s39/kkocan/IMG_5722.jpg

[jkca1]

I retiled the bathroom floor in my previous house and the job went quite well. Education is the key. I went to the hardware store numerous times to ask questions and to make sure I really really really
understood what I needed to do. Between YouTube and the net you will be fine. However, once you rip up your existing tile there is no guarantee what you will find underneath so don’t be shocked
if your job gets bigger, just be prepared. And of course we all want picture before and after.

[STP]

**You might want to find a realator **

x2 You may not guess right on what’s going to affect a buyer’s decision in your market. If you guess wrong, you are throwing money away. This stuff can be very market specific so the general “how to get your house ready to sell” articles are not help.

FWIW - I tiled my kitchen floor and it was not super technical but it was hard work. It is all about laying it out right. With tile, once the first one goes down, you’re pretty much set, for good or bad. I spend 1/2 the total job time figuring out where to put the first tile!

[JenSw]

Your air fesheners were too high. (Couldn’t help myself)

Huge difference, looks great. Love the accent tiles. I’m thinking about doing that in my shower. Those buggers are pricy though!

I think my first project, after the appraiser comes by next week and if she agrees, will be my kitchen counter. It is almost all right angles and not a lot of surface area (53 sq feet). I can spend a lot of time laying out tiles and re-arranging because it won’t have a big impact on my day to day living while it is in process. I can order pizza I also found some great linoleum tiles that can go right over the ugly linoleum that is currently on my floor. The only challenge will be moving the appliances on my own but I’m sure I can manage. The fridge will be the bugger. Paint the cabinets, new hardware and voila, new kitchen.

And yes, lots of pictures. If I pull this off I’ll be feeling pretty proud of myself. I’ve already conquored a leaking toilet and patching my ceiling. Who needs a man around the house?

Thanks everyone!

[baxnelly]

Yes, the kitchen is the other part where I spent most of my time/effort, although it was a lot less time than the bathroom. This is my 3rd house and I’ve found/been told that kitchen and bathrooms are where you get most return on your investment (if you do it right) and where you can really up the value of your home. I’ve always used ceramic tile to upgrade them as often in realty ads they specifically state ‘tile floors’.

Here’s the before in the kitchen.
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s39/kkocan/IMG_5478.jpg

Here’s the after. I removed the old countertop, removed the cheap white plastic backsplash and replaced it with a tile splash. Added under cabinet lighting all wired to a new switch and put in my newer appliances from my last house. The only thing I did not do in my house is the kithen countertop, as it is a solid surface top and you have to be certified to install it and Lowes would not let me just buy it.
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s39/kkocan/IMG_5716.jpg

As for putting linoleum over old lineoluem, be careful that the old is adhered down very good. At my last house I had old linoleum and I put a ‘floating floor’ of faux ceramic over it. Got it at home depot, came in 12"x4’ pieces. No glue, you just left a space of about a 1/4" around the edges and the pieces locked together. When it was done it looked like 12x12 ceramic to anyone that just walked in, was much nicer than linoleum and a friend of mine and I started it on a Saturday morning and by that evening it was 100% done and useable. Little pricier than linoleum, but worth it by far in the long run.

[klehner]

Be careful about installing a tile countertop, as that may not be something that many people want in their kitchen. I can’t speak for your neck of the woods.

[xraycharlie]

Finally have my photos uploaded to the web, so here are some pics of the new bathroom I built in the rental house. (You know, back when I was belaying bathtubs down flights of stairs.)

Before:

During:

After:

For what it’s worth, I’m completely self-taught, and have learned everything I know about bathroom remodeling from books and the internet. I did have the advantage of having done one previous total remodeling job. That one came out okay, but this one came out better.

[Alibabwa]

Are you in Vancouver? (I know you’re somewhere in the PNW, but can’t remember where.)

If so, the Vancouver Tool Library (http://vancouvertoollibrary.com/) might be worth checking out. I’m not sure of the condition of the tools but it’s likely cheaper than renting.