Rental property nightmare!!
Hello BP!
Just finished a bathroom remodel that took waaaay tooo long, but I thought I'd share my experience.
So I am house hacking a rental i inherited and one day noticed a puddle in the hallway carpet. I examined the area and with the help of one of my tenants i discovered that there was a large crack on the bottom of the tub but it had gone unnoticed because there is usually a non slip mat over it in the tub. Turns out it has been leaking for quite some time and a lot of the subfloor under the tub had been soaked.
Instead of hiring someone I took it upon myself to do the majority of the work since I have a background in construction. The tub was the type that also had the side walls as one entire piece so along with the tub that was cut out was the walls as well.
I contacted the home insurance and was later told that they were unable to cover any costs associated with the replacement because it was considered "over a period of time damage" and not sudden.
I was well aware of how to demo all of the old tub and to clear out the area but after that my youtube education began. After asking for advice from some family that has done this type of work in the past and learning several different methods online i was ready to tackle the what seemed impossible tub remodel.
I'm not going to bore you with all the little things that i learned that need to be done but i ended up going with the cement backerboard method. I wanted to also challenge myself so I also ended up installing a niche on the back wall so the tenants could place their shampoo bottles inside. After installing the cement boards and taping them and all that jazz I ended up using a waterproofing membrane which was considered optional.
Anyways enough of that, I have to say for never have done any tiling I am very proud of how it came out. I am a big believer that one should do the work at least once so they are aware of the type of work that is needed in order to complete a certain task so I am very pleased that I took up this task full speed ahead. I should also add that during the time of the construction I have a full time job, I was a full time student, and was also managing my house hack.
if you have any questions on any part of the construction or anything at all please do not hesitate to reach out to me. Lets use this amazing platform for what its worth.
Thanks for reading
Michael Arreola
The finished product. If I can do this then you can do it!