Bathroom remodel
I am planning to do a bathroom remodel and was wondering what is involved in moving fixtures such as toilet and shower and how this may impact the so far well running radiant heat system. I live up in the San Mateo Highlands and am wondering if anyone has a recommendation on a good contractor who can do this type of work.
If you don't receive specific replies in the next couple of days, I suggest you look back over prior postings in this and the Grab Bag bulletins; there is also a posting from Cathye in the Frank Talk bulletin. The subject of bathroom remodeling comes up from time-to-time and I'm guessing some of the veterans may not want to repeat what has already been written, so your own research of this site should be your next action.
After that, you can post specific questions.
My sense of this topic during the past 2 months is that some people have had no problems with moving fixtures; others had issues, for example, additional cost for figuring out where the radiant heat pipes are to avoid damaging them when digging into the slab. I may be regarded as a pariah for saying this, but there doesn't seem anything typical of Eichlers compared to "normal" houses. This is to say that Eichlers have the same problems as other types of construction, but Eichlers seem to require special handling or unconventional remedies.
Your question on contractor is important. Again, after your search of this site, you may want to reach out to specific individuals for off-line recommendations. I also received a recommendation for a competent & fair contractor, but now he's so busy doing bathroom remodels, he won't take on our fence project or any around-the-house fix-ups.
You can easily add $5000 to a project by messing around with the drain lines so make sure its something you want to do, especially where a slab is concerned.
When I was doing res. architecture we would exhaust all possible options before moving a drain line.
The process can be rather involved sincenot only will you move the drain but you very well may have to alter the drain exhaust that runs up your wall through the roof, but that will depend on local codes.
Its a mess to do but it just needs to be balanced against the alternatives and take into consideration the scope of your remodel.
we were able to make our bathroom bigger and not move drainlines or any other in-slab changes by carefully planning. The only change to the slab was to make the shower pan hole 1 foot wider (and luckily no pipes were hit when i cut it out). Here's a couple of before shots:
and a couple of after shots:
:wink: Bryan and Pete: Thanks for your feedback. Found the information very helpful. Great looking bathroom Bryan!
