Friday, September 28, 2007

Remodeling Your Bathroom

Remodeling your bathroom after some water damage can be quite a hassle, but knowing that the new renovations will stand the test of time and add a good amount of value to your home can make the whole project worth it.

One thing that you will need to do, especially in bathrooms where carpet was installed, is make sure that the floor boards and support beams are not water damaged to the point that they are rotten. Replacing floor boards can be expensive, but if you are remodeling, you do not want to have a good looking job on top of an unstable foundation. Knowing that the floor is not going to collapse underneath you brings a lot of peace of mind to you and the rest of your family. Spare no expense on the floor to make sure that it is structurally sound.

Installing tile is not the hardest thing to do in the bathroom, but you really need to make sure that it is done correctly. If it is done badly, water will get right back underneath the tiles and will begin damaging the floor underneath immediately. Having a properly sealed floor in the bathroom is essential if you want to make sure that the floor boards do not become water damaged again any time soon.

The most important areas of the bathroom floor that need to be sealed are around the bath tub and the toilet. These items are more likely to overflow from time to time than the bathroom sink and the areas around them need to be very water tight.

Make sure that the plumbing that you have installed is made completely water tight. You really do not want to have leaks inside the walls where they are obviously difficult to get to. You will have to take out drywall or even possibly tile to get to leaks in the wall sometimes, so make sure whoever you hire to do it does the job correctly.

Every bathroom needs to have an exhaust fan in the ceiling or on the upper portion of a wall so the steam produced by showers and baths does not collect on the ceiling. Not only can this collecting discolor the ceiling over time, but it can also allow mold to start growing in a relatively short period of time.

If you are going to have a shower stall that is enclosed around the ceiling, it will need to have its own exhaust vent and light, since steam will not be allowed to escape the shower stall very easily.


Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
water damage restoration companies and
Dallas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors.