Basement Renos

Before we even bought our house, I had thoughts in my head of adding a second bath in the basement stealing space from our laundry room. So after we had our realtor do a walk through of the house she said it would be a good investment to add the second bath. So there was no time to lose since I start my new job on Tuesday. Unfortunately I don't have a before picture but I have during and at monumental marks during construction.

After clearing out the laundry room and removing one wall, I set up some plastic in preparation to keep dust to a minimum. Last Monday I rented a jack hammer and went to town. Here are some pictures of the progression.

DAY 1 - Jackhammer 101

Here is a picture of me in full force removing most of what used to be laundry room floor. Notice I'm wearing ear protection. I hauled over 40 - 5 gallon pails of debris out of the basement.

Here's an after picture of my head. I was sure I didn't have any grey hair. You can see where my ear protection was.

DAY 2 - Clean up

I got the area all cleaned up and ready for the new plumbing. I planned on puting the new plumbing in but had to wait till day three to pick the stuff up.

DAY 3 - Out with the Old in with the New


Here's a picture of the old cast iron. It only took 1 hour and two reciprocating saw blades to cut through the cast iron. I replaced over half of the main line with new ABS pipe.

Can you see the bathroom yet?? Plumbing is all in and ready and waiting for Concrete. I ran rough-ins for a sink, toilet, laundry sink, and clothes washer - no more CENTRAL VAC pipe for clothes washer drain pipe. It kind of reminds me of an octopus.

DAY 4 - Concrete

I think I was a little ambitious doing the concrete myself. I planned on making it to a funeral at 4:00. Unfortunately I didn't pick up the concrete till 2:00. Marsha was a great help, hauling many buckets down the stairs and helping smooth the concrete. Her cake decorating and great spacial awareness skills was a great help. We finished the concrete at 4:00 but I still had to return the trailer and clean up so, needless to say I didn't make the funeral. I think next time, I'll leave concrete to the pros.
Of course we had to leave our initials. I conveniently placed them where a wall would be.

DAY 5 & 6- Framing

I started framing Friday and finished it last night. Now can you see the bathroom? A spacious 3'3" X 7'5". It's nice to see it take shape, after many hours planning and dreaming in my haed.

So this is all for now. I still have to run the rest of the plumbing, finish some wiring and hang some drywall. Am I being too ambitious, maybe a little.