DIY bathroom renovation.

I would like to share my bathroom renovation experience. We bought an apartment in an old house. Money for repairs, as usual, after the purchase is almost gone. They made cosmetic repairs in the rooms, but the condition of the bathroom was such that cosmetics could not be dispensed with: tiles only on the floor, and the old, Soviet one, the walls – once painted, looked like after shelling, there was no need to talk about irregularities. I bought a bath and, of course, immediately replaced the plumbing with a new one, but it was impossible to leave the room in this state.

The coven masters I invited answered that it was necessary to knock down the plaster, re-plaster, make a new screed on the floor, then lay new ceramic tiles, then level the ceiling, putty, paint, etc. d. In general, they named the amount needed to repair a bathroom of 6 square meters, which I decided to do myself.

I didn’t have any special skills in construction work (although during my student years I worked part-time at the Sabbath). I don’t really know how to plaster and putty, but I can lay tiles on a flat surface.

Having climbed the jungle of the Internet in search of the optimal solution, I, at my own peril and risk, decided to level the walls with drywall and lay tiles on it.

First of all, I beat off all the old plaster to the brick. The laying was quite even. I walked the walls twice with a deep penetration primer. Instead of drywall, I took gypsum-fiber moisture-resistant sheets. They turned out to be much more expensive, but in this case, the guarantee of resistance to moisture was more important for me. Next, GVL sheets, having previously treated them with a primer, I pasted drywall glue on the wall surface (I found some inexpensive brand). True, there was not enough glue for one sheet, and I had to glue it on a rough (starting) putty.

The walls finished with GVL came out even, the vertical difference is no more than 2 mm. I let them stand for a day, then I started laying ceramic tiles. I laid out the tile on ordinary tile glue, although I heard that it is better to glue tiles on drywall on liquid glass-based mastic (I had to save on everything). The glue was applied with a spatula-comb both on the wall (horizontally) and on the tile (vertically). Laid tiles using 1 mm crosses. It was easy to lay tiles on even walls. But still, I decided to lay out only five rows of tiles at a time, starting from the floor, then I let it stand for 12 hours (from evening to morning). The next day I put the rest of the tiles up to the ceiling. In three days I finished the walls completely, including the laying of scraps! True, I had to suffer, drilling holes for pipe outlets, but managed to “5”: I broke only two tiles!

Закончив со стенами, я приступил к полу. Тут дело было сложнее. Сначала сбил старую советскую плитку. На что ее клали, я не знаю, но совдеповский цемент держал что надо! Простучав стяжку, понял, что она держится очень крепко, но кривая. Не желая переливать стяжку, я установил на пол под уровень на черновую шпаклевку штукатурные маячки с Т-образным профилем (выбирал самые мелкие, но нашел только 3 мм.). Маячки укладывал диагонально по отношению к будущему ряду плитки. Расстояние между ними выбирал такое, чтобы каждая плитка опиралась на два маяка. Когда шпаклевка под маяками высохла, у меня получился почти идеальный уровень.

Клей для плитки я наносил на пол также гребенкой, немного выше уровня маяков. Плитку смачивал водой и укладывал на клей, прижимая до тех пор, пока она не ляжет на гребни двух маяков. The result was a flat floor, however, with some glue overspending (in some places the glue layer reached 3 cm.!), but it was still much cheaper and took much less time than preparing a new screed.

Next, I just had to wipe the seams between the tiles with a fugue – and the tile is ready!

With the ceiling, I acted radically – I made it suspended from a plastic lining. I filled the seams and junctions with the walls with silicone (so as not to let moisture through). But that’s a completely different story.

As a result, having lost only a week of vacation and spending some effort, I got a good repair in the bathroom, saving more than half of the amount that the coven masters called me. Tiles hold up great, no problems with the ceiling. So, with a certain skill and a great desire, repairs in the bathroom can be done with your own hands. It’s not saints who make pots!

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