Episode 1370
Our Top 10 Bathroom Remodeling Secrets to save you time and money
Bathroom remodeling can be overwhelming. Here are our top 10 bathroom remodeling tips you should know before you take on that DIY project OR hire it done. These tips can create a healthier home, save you money, and have a project that will last decades without having major issues. Water and power is always dangerous in the same space so check out these hot tips! All this and MORE on this hour of the Around the House Show!
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Mentioned in this episode:
Baldwin Hardware
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Transcript
[00:00:11] Intro: Make sure you got the right incoming air for that ventilation fan, which is the door gap. Think about it, the gap under the door into the bathroom.
[:[00:00:29] Caroline Blazovsky: Think about it. What goes out comes in. So that space is always trying. Make up air and pull it from different places. So if you put that Ben vent fan on, it's gotta pull from somewhere and you need a gap under your door to let new air in. So it
Intro: can replace that air when it comes to remodeling and renovating your home.There is a lot to know the, we got you. This is around the house.
[:[00:01:05] Caroline Blazovsky: Hello everybody. Welcome. Welcome.
[:[00:01:11] Eric Goranson: Mm-hmm we've got some great top remodeling tips for you if you're gonna do that bathroom remodel, but I do have an update on the whole contractor destroying the bathroom Amber's bathroom in Colorado. You remember that?
[:[00:01:34] Caroline Blazovsky: Just a quick recap.
[:[00:02:05] Eric Goranson: Him and his wife went over to the house, got the key, got inside the house with the homeowner, not being home neighbor, followed him in the house. What are you doing over here? Not supposed to be in here, took a sledgehammer to the bathroom and repossessed it. And I'm using air quotes.
[:[00:02:24] Eric Goranson: finished set.
[:[00:02:55] Eric Goranson: And for the industry made it right for Amber. [00:03:00] Amazing. So update Colorado Springs took a while to do this. Couple months later, they filed charges. And, you know, for breaking and entering that kind of stuff. So I have an update from Amber here. And so this happened here a week or two ago. So Jordan took her plea deal and pled guilty to a class six felony criminal mischief.
[:[00:03:41] Intro: this was his wife.
[:[00:03:46] Eric Goranson: she was there.
[:[00:03:50] Caroline Blazovsky: Gotcha. Okay. So she was part
[:[00:04:05] Eric Goranson: Okay. Uh, fortunately for her, if she completes her probation successfully or guilty plea will be withdrawn and her case dismissed. So mm-hmm, got a chance to learn from that. Now, Terry, the contractor also accepted his plea deal and pled guilty to a class six felony criminal mischief. By taking this plea, the felony burglary charge was dropped mm-hmm his plead deal.
[:[00:04:50] Caroline Blazovsky: He's had enough chances what that's yeah, come
[:[00:04:54] Eric Goranson: So there's other, from what it's being reported to me and I don't know their names. And so I'm just hearing this from [00:05:00] Amber, that there are two other victims of this contractor since her bathroom.
[:[00:05:10] Intro: That's
[:[00:05:20] Caroline Blazovsky: And why we constantly hit on that, about hiring a contractor, making sure you're making the right decision. It's something we may over reiterate, but there's a reason for it. Look at this instance. Yeah. Talking crime.
[:[00:05:40] Eric Goranson: It was crazy co yep. So anyway, there's our update on the Amber trucky situation. So that's cool. And I hope Amber's doing well. She's yes, she is. I, I was chatting with her online. She's been on the show. You can go back and listen to the podcast that, uh, we did while they were working [00:06:00] out in the house with the whole crew.
[:[00:06:17] Eric Goranson: Upgrade ventilation.
[:[00:06:21] Caroline Blazovsky: that poop. Don't wanna have that moisture. Don't have that
[:[00:06:40] Eric Goranson: So they wouldn't fog up,
[:[00:06:43] Eric Goranson: heated glass. So they wouldn't fog up. Now we have proper ventilation, so they never fog up. I have a steam shower, my glass never fogs. That's the key. And
[:[00:07:04] Caroline Blazovsky: Mm-hmm so it's Ashray 62.2 says you need 50 CFM mm-hmm . Is that pretty consistent across the country?
[:[00:07:26] Caroline Blazovsky: I don't even go by that.
[:[00:07:28] Eric Goranson: Yeah. So if you're remodeling your bathroom, there needs to be a vent fan. It needs to vent all the way outside of the residence, not into the attic space, not up to a ceiling vent in the, up there and screw to the inside of the roof vent. It needs to go out completely. And they
[:[00:07:55] Caroline Blazovsky: If you need 80, you could have 80. If you need a hundred, you could have a hundred all on one fan, which makes it [00:08:00] better for contractors. Because if the contractor accidentally installs the wrong fan, you can with a flip of the switch, get the velocity you need, which is nice. Yeah.
[:[00:08:15] Eric Goranson: Yep. So been able to sit there and, and adjust that, you know, so you can go, Hey, this is a big bathroom, high ceilings, crank it up little tiny bathroom. Well maybe we only need 70 CFM or whatever. Mm-hmm so that's a huge one. Always replace it, put the new one in, uh, especially if you've got that builder grade stuff, get it outta.
[:[00:08:41] Caroline Blazovsky: now, though, I would assume they're putting in better
[:[00:08:53] Eric Goranson: They're noisy. You can put a nice one in that works better and you could have more features like lights, sound, [00:09:00] heat, whatever. Yeah. So good to know. That's a good way to. All right. Before we go out to break, let's get into the next one here. This is the time to do some replumbing replace any and all galvanized pipe or CPVC pipe in that bathroom out out, and you have stuff in there.
[:[00:09:25] Caroline Blazovsky: silver looking. If you look at it, guys, it looks like a silverish type of. Versus copper, which is red-ish
[:[00:09:37] Eric Goranson: We got a bunch more to talk about. Let's do that just as soon as around the house returns
[:[00:09:55] Intro: So many people.
[:[00:10:05] Intro: home. I hit your line. You got me thinking about the day we move. You have me
[:[00:10:20] Eric Goranson: I am that's deep.
[:[00:10:24] Eric Goranson: geez. Gotta watch out what's going on? Hey, well,
[:[00:10:33] Intro: No,
[:[00:10:53] Eric Goranson: Uh, sorry. But what I believe is what I believe always use current waterproofing methods in [00:11:00] that shower or bathtub. Yes. I love it. Use the Sluder the weedy, the R. I wanna see a current waterproofing method and I'm not talking using hot tar. I'm not talking using a Hardy board Hardy board. I'm not talking about using you.
[:[00:11:29] Caroline Blazovsky: Period guys, go on Instagram. I say guys, girls. Yep. Anyone go on Instagram and view how they are doing showers today and bathroom areas because it is vastly different than what you saw years ago.
[:[00:12:00] Caroline Blazovsky: Especially if this bathroom's up on a second floor, you need to have these new technologies in place. I
[:[00:12:31] Eric Goranson: Mm. So it had this other moldy mess. Doesn't matter where you are. Doesn't matter. There are no shortcuts and showers because when it comes down to it, the tile and grout is not water. So what's important is the stuff behind it, even more so than the pretty stuff on the outside and
[:[00:12:58] Caroline Blazovsky: And a lot of these things that were heavy, if people [00:13:00] remember when you're bringing in that backer board, it was quite substantially heavy. Oh yeah. And you can see there's great. Like the tile chick and a lot of girls out there doing tiling women. Um, they can pick this stuff up now, cause it's just like phone board and it's very lightweight.
[:[00:13:15] Eric Goranson: works really well. Works really well. So make sure that you're doing that. Avoid those kind of more home center options and especially the, the mud pans. I, I disagree with using those these days. There's better technology. You might as well just do it the right way with the newer product.
[:[00:13:43] Caroline Blazovsky: These bathrooms are hugely expensive now. I mean, what are you thinking? Average bathroom
[:[00:13:48] Eric Goranson: Geez. You know, a whole bathroom. If you're just doing cheap, low quality stuff, like with a fiberglass, tub, shower, that kind of stuff. You're spending 30 to $40,000 on that. [00:14:00] Yep. For basic materials off the shelf kind of stuff. You're spending 60. If you're putting nice stuff in there, you think about it. I mean, you can spend on a shower, a custom glass shower door, a steamer shower door.
[:[00:14:32] Eric Goranson: We
[:[00:14:35] Intro: have them. Yeah.
[:[00:14:38] Caroline Blazovsky: That's a good point. We've never talked about that. Yeah. Making sure people get these kind of glass areas of the bathroom, go to a specified. Con building contractor that knows how to do that or sends you to the right location.
[:[00:14:52] Eric Goranson: not like, I mean, I, I installed my last shower door and I swore I will never do one again. It was just a horrible [00:15:00] experience and, and I'm DIY friendly, you know what I mean? And I'm like never doing this thing again. I sweated that, cuz all it takes is a little bump. It's a frame of shower door.
[:[00:15:24] Caroline Blazovsky: Dry up all that moisture that you drip, when you come out of the shower or the bath, and you've got all this water that hits that tile and that's not sealed underneath.
[:[00:15:35] Eric Goranson: it's not, even if you're bringing a contract in it's, I'm gonna use a round number. It could be more than this, but it's like a thousand dollars option. If you're spending $30,000, spend $31,000 and get a heated tile floor. Now here's another trick. You can run that heated tile floor into the shower and into the bench on the shower.
[:[00:16:00] Caroline Blazovsky: how about don't forget our friends at
[:[00:16:19] Eric Goranson: I hit the timer. Boom. And I had to do that because when you do a, a, a steam shower, it's a sealed system in there, right? The door's meant to close up to keep the steam in. And so I'm like, man, that is gonna be an unhealthy moldy mildewy mess there. I am trapping all that in there and there's no way to do it.
[:[00:16:53] Caroline Blazovsky: and they have options. So you can do nine nozzles, 12 nozzles. You can shoot it at areas in the shower that need it more than
[:[00:16:59] Eric Goranson: So they [00:17:00] decided it for you. They'll help you get the right plan. It's really cool. They're a great company to work with. That's another one of those things. That will treat that. And we'll talk a little bit more about this later, but it makes it so you don't have to squeegy everything and it makes it so you don't have to clean that shower like a 10th of the time.
[:[00:17:28] Caroline Blazovsky: But only do that. Guys only wrench your walls like that. If you have the vapor system behind it. Yep. If you do not spray your walls down, if you have Hardy backer board or even waterproof.
[:[00:17:42] Eric Goranson: there. Yeah. Don't do that. My shower system has the vapor 85 weedy behind it. So it's vapor proof, not only waterproof it's vapor proof, then I have a slab portion and wall. So my only joints are in the corner. See, so it, that is, is waterproof. That's gonna be, [00:18:00] don't have to clean it that way works out really well.
[:[00:18:24] Eric Goranson: I think those are all keys right there we come back. We'll talk about that just as soon as around the house returns.
[:[00:18:57] Eric Goranson: the house with Eric G and Caroline B [00:19:00] Zeke sky. And I'm gonna show you how to shred it out
[:[00:19:02] Eric Goranson: building
[:[00:19:08] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the, around the house. Show your home improvement source every week. Thanks for joining us. We've been talking about our. Bathroom remodeling tips. This doesn't matter if you're doing it as a DIY project, or if you've got the best high end contractor or the best low end contractor trying to SP things up.
[:[00:19:34] Caroline Blazovsky: You wanna recap? You know, one of them
[:[00:19:42] Eric Goranson: Upgrade ventilation, make sure that that is the right vent fan. That's going outside. Mm-hmm even if you've got that five year old spec house, it's probably got a really cheapy fan in there. Put something good. Panasonic, bro. New tone. One of those that can really move some. [00:20:00] Replace all the galvanized old pipe.
[:[00:20:14] Intro: get it out. Next one,
[:[00:20:35] Eric Goranson: Uh, the last one we talked about here spring for the heated tile floors
[:[00:20:44] Eric Goranson: Yep. Ando and, and, or a drying system. Mm-hmm I, I have a combination of both works really well, no mildew issues in the shower that. So the next one here is a simple one, run electrical [00:21:00] for a powered toilet seat.
[:[00:21:07] Intro: I like just run the
[:[00:21:15] Eric Goranson: gross. You're showering and then they have lights. You get, you get like the Kohler one, it has lights.
[:[00:21:32] Caroline Blazovsky: shut.
[:[00:21:34] Eric Goranson: you sees you get close.
[:[00:21:38] Intro: cool.
[:[00:22:04] Eric Goranson: Think about it, the gap under the door into the bathroom.
[:[00:22:23] Caroline Blazovsky: So if you put that Ben vent fan. It's gotta pull from somewhere and you need a gap under your door to let new air in, so it can replace that air. Yep.
[:[00:22:44] Eric Goranson: Right? Mm-hmm that? To picture that amount of air here comes to basketballs. That's cubic feet per minute. The basket's a hundred basketballs hundred basketballs of air. [00:23:00] So that's coming underneath that door. So if you've got that quarter inch door under the door, not enough air, you wanna make sure you've got enough surface area.
[:[00:23:16] Caroline Blazovsky: good idea, actually. Here's why we've never talked about this. We talked about this before the show, and this is a, yeah, I think this is
[:[00:23:24] Eric Goranson: So I have a problem. I have the right door gap under my door, but because I've heated towel floors and the fan is running.
[:[00:23:57] Eric Goranson: So it seems cooler. Okay. [00:24:00] So you don't have that warmth there. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna create up above higher, up on the wall, a secondary intake port. That's gonna look just like an. Return air grill mm-hmm inside and outside of the bathroom, out into the hallway so that now air can transfer in between the rooms there and not have it all coming underneath the door.
[:[00:24:23] Caroline Blazovsky: wanted to make it, you know, hidden, you know, it's kind of how we talk about drains and showers. You know how we have like the invisible drain. Wouldn't it be cool if we had like invisible vents like that, like above the door where you couldn't even see it and it's just allowing the air flow.
[:[00:24:37] Eric Goranson: It'd be really cool. It'd be really cool. I'd love to see like a more linear vent. Yes. You know what I mean? Yes. That's what I'm
[:[00:24:43] Caroline Blazovsky: the wine. Just like the infinity drain. That'd be cool. Mm-hmm mm-hmm see. We're giving people ideas, guys. I know we want percentages
[:[00:24:51] Eric Goranson: besides our idea, the big vent yeah, I like it.
[:[00:25:06] Caroline Blazovsky: Yep, but you need the air guys, so don't close off. Mm-hmm don't put the doors too close to the floor, make sure everything's got some breathability
[:[00:25:17] Eric Goranson: So another one that's not on the list. I'm gonna hit this one right here. When you're gonna design that bathroom, hire a kitchen and bath designer to help you.
[:[00:25:28] Eric Goranson: it will save you money. I wouldn't do
[:[00:25:31] Intro: it.
[:[00:25:38] Eric Goranson: When you get that, they know what the current styles are, what the current products are. They're gonna help you with lead times. They're gonna help you with tracking down the right materials and making it all work together. Yes. And they can probably come up with a better plan for your space and what was already there.
[:[00:26:08] Caroline Blazovsky: Eric brought, Eric's gonna help me fix it. I, you need to have a really good ledge on your sink. So what does that mean? Mm-hmm, that your sink isn't taking up the whole entire space of your countertop that when water splash is over, it ends up going down the front of the cabinets and down to the floor.
[:[00:26:30] Eric Goranson: Well, that was, that was hip. When you did it, the vessel sink on the countertop thing was big. And the problem is, is some of those vessel sinks are only an inch or too tall, right? Yeah. They're not very deep.
[:[00:26:42] Caroline Blazovsky: They're these thin sinks that just sort of sit on top of your, you know, whatever you're using, whether you're Corion or quarts or granite.
[:[00:26:55] Caroline Blazovsky: And I have it dripping down the front. When I get my water pick going, it's like a [00:27:00] waterfall cascading down the front and it's getting into the cabinet and now it's taking off the finish.
[:[00:27:04] Intro: a mess.
[:[00:27:25] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Especially a hall bath where you have kids. Yep. I thought I could get away it. I like under Mount sinks because I had new kids. I like under sinks where you've got the slab with the sink coming up underneath it. That is deep. Yes. And maybe not a perfectly square bottom cuz a square bottom tends to splash more.
[:[00:27:47] Caroline Blazovsky: Interesting. See things you learn. So go with a curve sink. No flat sinks. Mine's flat.
[:[00:28:06] Eric Goranson: Because you don't have that inch and a half of countertop over the top of it. Oh yeah. So you tend to wear more, you wear the, the dishes you wear the water more.
[:[00:28:17] Caroline Blazovsky: a problem with that. So
[:[00:28:19] Caroline Blazovsky: the, that's a key. I, when I use things in the kitchen and bathroom, it seems I'm I'm water works.
[:[00:28:26] Eric Goranson: Exactly. All right. When you come back, we'll wrap this one up. We got a few more for you. We'll do that just as soon as around the house returns
[:[00:29:08] Intro: Hi, everybody. I'm Ariman
[:[00:29:15] Intro: the house with Eric G and the beautiful Caroline.
[:[00:29:22] Eric Goranson: back to the round, the house show. Now, if you're just joining us, we've been talking about our top. What about 11 remodeling bathroom tips that you should pay attention to? Doesn't matter if you're doing this as a DIY project. Or if you're paying for that contractor to come in and do it, these are our tips for you.
[:[00:29:54] Eric Goranson: We good reviews though. Oh,
[:[00:29:57] Eric Goranson: We don't want any nasty comments. Well, heck we'll help you if [00:30:00] they're nasty. So we'll, we'll, we'll we'll hammer on you there just because we like to have fun. So anyway, Caroline, should we jump into the next one? Lucky 11. We're go making our way there. Yep. Let's go into the next one here.
[:[00:30:41] Eric Goranson: Everything's crusty from mineral buildup and they don't treat the water and they come back and put the stuff in. And in six months it's gonna look exactly the same as what you just threw
[:[00:31:01] Caroline Blazovsky: Like you don't wanna just go and treat, do not do that. You need to test and well, no, no, no.
[:[00:31:14] Caroline Blazovsky: going to be, and that's gonna determine, right. Don't don't just put a softener on there guys, cuz it can create other problems.
[:[00:31:26] Eric Goranson: Yeah. You don't even know what that crustiness is. It could be a bunch of different things.
[:[00:31:35] Eric Goranson: take a look at it.
[:[00:31:56] Eric Goranson: You're, you're, you're helping other rooms in the house
[:[00:32:09] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Get rid of some PFAS when you're at P.
[:[00:32:39] Eric Goranson: Here's the cool thing with this. Yes, you can have a window in the bathtub without having to go out and change the siding. Change the, the, you know, maybe put in a taller window, you can do that without having to change the exterior of the house, but here's the secret. You have [00:33:00] to deal with it. With that shower system that's there.
[:[00:33:34] Eric Goranson: That way, if you trip and fall, you're not gonna be cut up. You're not gonna get looking like you were in a Stephen King novel.
[:[00:33:50] Eric Goranson: Yeah.
[:[00:33:57] Caroline Blazovsky: that those are nice in the shower, but I can't imagine I've seen them where they're actually like [00:34:00] in the shower.
[:[00:34:08] Eric Goranson: That's so weird, you know and yeah, that's a huge problem. And when you open that up for the remodel, expect mold, mildew, rot, bugs, Ugh, black studs. That's gonna be ugly, cuz it's never, it's not been waterproof its whole life. I promise you that little shower curtain you cut up and put in there did not fix it.
[:[00:34:59] Caroline Blazovsky: guys.[00:35:00]
[:[00:35:04] Eric Goranson: that is against building code period, explanation point. You know why? Cuz if you're standing in the bathtub getting in and you go to slip. You can't reach up and grab an electrical device it's plugged in. So you can't do that. And I know you will have a hundred pictures from Pinterest that shows them in there.
[:[00:35:38] Eric Goranson: own. no kidding. You can't do that guys. So just, you know, And yes, I have had contractors put in rough in a light, put the cover over it. They get done, they go away and the homeowner goes in and puts it up there because they wanted to have it up there.
[:[00:36:13] Caroline Blazovsky: Any water source though, Eric, right?
[:[00:36:25] Eric Goranson: Yeah. You just wanna be able to not be able to touch water and something electrical and have it in your hand at the same time, a fixture mm-hmm bad idea.
[:[00:37:24] Eric Goranson: Well, now that I have that. I had stuff I had to do up there for the bathroom. Mm-hmm so make sure when walls are opened up now, another, another great tip. Get outside our 11. Now I throw in that bathroom. If I'm tearing it down to the studs, I put rock wall safe and sound insulation around the whole thing.
[:[00:37:56] Caroline Blazovsky: stuff. You know me, I like to have a lot bathroom fan, cuz I [00:38:00] don't like people to hear me doing my business in the, you know yeah.
[:[00:38:07] Eric Goranson: Is that like with a steam shower I needed to, because in theory, if I have humid air inside that wall cavity mm-hmm and I have a hot surface in there. I can get condensation. Yeah. You can on the backside of the wall, which causes mold. Yep. So make sure you think these things through and in today's age where people in bedrooms might be having a zoom meeting or kids do in school insulating those spaces between rooms can really make a difference on keeping things quiet and.
[:[00:38:49] Intro: did justice.
[:[00:39:02] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. And if you have other tips that you've found out, make sure and send us a message over it, around the house, online.com.
[:[00:39:18] Caroline Blazovsky: Yeah. Check us out on social media. It's time to go.
[:[00:39:28] Intro: the house.
