Dag-NABBIT! [unexpected complete bathroom remodel underway]

[Sea Six]

I'm having to completely remodel my master bathroom. Timing sucks, but what are you gonna do?

A galvanized pipe broke inside a wall. Water to both bathrooms is shut off. Having to rip everything out all the way down to the studs to replace all the pipes.

Fortunately, this will be end of the very last of the galvanized pipes in this house (built in 1960).

I plan to do a thoroughly modern bathroom design. Some elements I've been thinking about:

Marble tile
Modern shower control (no tub in the master bath)
Glass shower door
Waterfall shower head and a small handheld wand
River rock shower floor
Shower mirror for shavin' whatever needs shavin'
Heated tile floor
Not sure about floating cabinets - all the ones I see online are floating
Quartz countertop
Elongated toilet with Japanese Toto bidet attachment ... remote control, ass warmer, ass dryer, ass washer functions
Extra electrical outlets w/ USB jacks (this house didn't have any outlets in the bathrooms)
Above-counter mounted bowl sinks


Any other features I should know about?

[Cybercowboy]

We did a full-on master bath remodel a few years ago. Here are my suggestions.

Heated tile floor? Now would be the time to do it. Marble tile? Absolutely, we even did our shower in all marble. I love it but you have to squeegee it down after every shower or it will water spot. You cannot use your normal tile cleaning products on marble. It's not a major deal, but I have to order the stuff from Amazon and mix it up in a spray bottle. And it's super mild. With regular tile you can just go full Clorox on it. So consider that. Also if you do marble floors, don't do grout. Just have them butt them right up to each other. Wish we had done that.

Rock shower floor. Eh, no. Don't do that. Just tile. JMHO. Subway tile or whatever you like. Marble or granite countertops are about the exact same price as quartz and look great, just sayin'. Also you don't necessarily even need or want a shower door. It's just something that gets dirty. Ours just has an opening. Maybe two drops of water escapes during a long shower. This depends on how big of a shower unit you are building of course.

You don't want a marble floor that is just all one solid color of tile, you want to have some accent pieces mixed in. Our accent tile is slate and it looks great. Same in the shower, you want to break up the tile work with some other kind of tile, if you check out nice tile showers you'll see what I mean.

Floating cabinets are fine, makes cleaning under them easier. Ours have feet and you can easily clean under them.

Consider getting a wall-mounted fan, there are some neat retro looking ones. It's so nice to turn a large fan on after a shower in the summer, dries you off, cools you off, and dries the bathroom out. You'll still need an exhaust fan in the ceiling, but just a regular wall-mounted fan to stir the air around while on is great.

I think I've used the new tub in our bathroom once.

[DAB]

did our master about 3 years ago.

don't do marble tile: too slippery.

designed and built the vanity from scratch.

shower was taken back to the studs. did all that too.

[Cybercowboy]

Never had a problem with the tile being too slippery.

[Sea Six]

Originally Posted by DAB

did our master about 3 years ago.

don't do marble tile: too slippery.

designed and built the vanity from scratch.

shower was taken back to the studs. did all that too.

Wow, that looks great, Doug!






What is that shower controller and what are all the functions? Looks like it has a built in TV.

[DAB]

Originally Posted by Sea Six

Wow, that looks great, Doug!






What is that shower controller and what are all the functions? Looks like it has a built in TV.

those are old pics. let me see if i can get some better ones.

[DAB]

better shots.

the shower controller was found on amazon.

tub fill, hand wand, shower head, body spray. also has a temp read out and mirror (but it fogs, so i don't use it to shave). about $200. easy to connect, but you have to plan the plumbing for this.

also built a storage cabinet, you can never have too much storage in a bathroom. holds spare toilet paper, kleenex, towels, sheets, soap.

[Sea Six]

Thanks for the additional pics. Looks really nice.

How hard is it to keep the glass door clean?

[DAB]

Originally Posted by Sea Six

Thanks for the additional pics. Looks really nice.

How hard is it to keep the glass door clean?

after every shower, i use a squeegee to wipe down the walls and door, then use a microfiber cloth to wipe off the door and the shiny parts of the controller. spotless still. plus we have very soft water.

[markids77]

Marble is porous; it can stain and hard water is unkind to the surface. There are porcelain tiles that look exactly like marble because the surface is a picture of an actual slab. Granite counters require zero maintenance as they are not porous. Heated floors rock out loud. Our new shower will be tiled in 47 inch long by 8 inch wide tiles that look just like tree bark... again because the textured surface is a photo transfer of an actual tree. There are tons and tons of exotic looking tiles out there now... if you have a Floor and Decor showroom nearby go and browse!

[DAB]

i chose the 2x2 tiles for the floor in shower so there would be lots of grout lines, and lots of traction.

[MrPeabody]

Condom dispenser. Relaxes the ladies a bit.

[Sea Six]

Originally Posted by Cybercowboy

Consider getting a wall-mounted fan, there are some neat retro looking ones. It's so nice to turn a large fan on after a shower in the summer, dries you off, cools you off, and dries the bathroom out. You'll still need an exhaust fan in the ceiling, but just a regular wall-mounted fan to stir the air around while on is great.

Does the fan blow air outside? Seems like that's the only way it would dry the bathroom out.

[Cybercowboy]

Originally Posted by Sea Six

Does the fan blow air outside? Seems like that's the only way it would dry the bathroom out.

We have a ceiling mounted exhaust fan that does that, also one by the toilet (fart fan) but the fan I'm talking about is a wall-mounted fan, like a large desk fan in a cage, that circulates air inside the bathroom. Steamed up mirrors? Gone in 5 seconds. A little damp after toweling off? You're not now. I leave it on for about 5-15 minutes after showering, it circulates air and keeps your towels and everything fresh longer, plus the shower enclosure itself will dry out a lot faster. Basically it causes the concentrated humidity in that part of the house to get circulated a lot faster instead of sticking around in one area.

Ours is different than this one but it gives you an idea of what I'm talking about. You can wire them into a wall switch if you want.

[99 pewtercoupe]

If you are starting from scratch I would recommend adding a steam unit to the shower. We redid our bathrooms this year and we put a steam shower in the guest bathroom. I also had a controller very similar to the one in DABs pictures. The shower head also has a waterfall setting that is very nice. There is also a bench built in so you can sit for a longer steam.

[69camfrk]

I thought you lived in a van, under a bridge down by the river...

[mrvette]

I don't choose to live in the bathroom, SSS and I'm gawn.....I use the master bath, it's a simple 4x8' 32x48 shower, then toilet, then sink/cab/mirror, simple and basic....12x12 tiles over the small crap, concrete slab house...redid all the plumbing myself some 20 years ago....so all the galv/slab crap is toast...my pipes are all up/over plastic now...bathroom faucets are both/all new....old bathroom window became an open shelf, block walls so plenty of depth, built a wood box trimmed in REAL wood flooring material, all cut/finished to size....rood addition on what was the outside of that window....

P/Owner redid the kitchen plumbing in plastic, and did the nasty in moving it into the old OEM dining room, and so we redid the entire mess when wife came on board....we redid the hall bath completely, total cost for house replumb when pipes went was 350 bux.....obviously I did my own work....
neighbors redoing their paid 3500 bux or better.....house came with plastic DWV......house is only 1600' WAS 1200'.....but the important parts are the 2 car garage, and the workshop/shed on the side, that I blew out a window to make a framed passage from garage....so this old fart hangs out at the computer or the garage.....wife don't have far to look.....

[Stevedore]

We recently had our master bath rehabbed. Thought about heated floor, extra jets in the shower, etc., but the cost was already getting a bit high for us, so we didn't go for any "extras".

The shower floor is river stone, but each piece is ground flat; seemed like it would be easier on our feet. There's a rainhead & handheld on the left, and a 2nd handheld on the right, over a built-in bench. The rainhead is nice, but I'm going to look into a longer arm for it, as it's a little close to the wall the way it is. The shower is 5' by 6', so no water splashes out, & no door or glass is needed.

We won't use the tub very often, although if I'm sick or generally not feeleing well, I do enjoy a hot soak.

[carlton_fritz]

Had a custom design done. How does it look?

[Sea Six]

Originally Posted by carlton_fritz

Had a custom design done. How does it look?

Looks like the bathroom at CBGB's.