_{This is now a renovation blog, get with the program.}

Hello next victim!

For months now, every time I’d go take a shower downstairs, I looked at these few tiles and thought I need to fix them before they fall out on their own. You can’t see it here but it’s not just dried out grout but you could feel the tiles be completely loose when you push them.

I finally took to the tast thinking it’s just a quick thing to pop out the loose ones, chisel away some of the old mortar and slab them back on with new goo. You can already guess that it didn’t go like planned… and I swear to all the pagan gods I had zero intent nor interest to do anything else than re-attach a few tiles!

Turns out, almost all the tiles are only attached with the grout, and not with the mortar. One by one as I scraped off the grout, the tiles came off too. Who ever did this tiling job sucked at it.

At this point it wasn’t yet a total catastophy but I knew the whole drywall would have to come out and be replaced before tiling again. Fine, we’ll deal with it.

Then I dug through the drywall and what do I find? There is water damage in the wall because the wood bottom plate is at the same level as the floor, missing a properly constructed base made out of concrete or cement blocks. There is also fiberglass insulation to make sure what ever water gets in will never dry out because the fiberglass holds onto it and there is no space for air to move. This wall is between the sauna and the shower and it supports the sauna benches so it’s quite important to make sure the studs don’t rot through. So worse case, we have to take down the whole wall and rebuild. Don’t worry, it’s only downhill from here…

As I kept ripping down the wall, near the shower, I found a fun little hidey hole behind the sauna. And here’s a prime exsample of why fiberglass insulation is the devil and empty space is a way better option: the water damage is worse where the insulation is packed tightly and air circulation is obscured. You’d think the damage would be the worst next to the shower but nope, the hidey hole helped to dry it, even though there was fiberglass too.

I also discovered the original tiles that are left underneith the current ones on the outside walls. Interesting. At this point I don’t yet know this project is going to escalade dramatically.

Once I had ripped off the tiles and drywall from that one wall I continued to a corner next to the door where the tiles were clearly about to pop out also. Here’s where I discovered that there is a much bigger problem than that one inside wall.

As I took off two layers of tiles and the drywall, I first smelled the problem and then saw it. In came a very damp earthy smell and when I took out the fiberglass, it was evident that it’s way too moist in there and it had already started to do damage. Let me tell you the man was not happy when I reported this to him.

What you need to know is that this bathroom is in the basement, underground with concrete walls that support the whole house. So what do you think will happen if you decide to attach wood studs right next to concrete (that will always be somewhat moist), then tightly pack on fiberglass, and seal it all under drywall, water sealant goo and two layers of tiles!? Water damage, mold, bad smell, hell to pay.

Someone who knows chemistry can explain this better but the white nasty looking stuff on the surface of the concrete is not mold or fungus (yet) but it comes from excess moisture that pushes the salts from inside concrete to the surface. Slowly that process will start to erode the concrete and it was very clearly visible here, layers and layers of concrete just scrapes off really easily. Luckily at this point it’s an easy fix, little cleanup, air and warmth and the nasties go away.

You are not even supposed to build rooms in the basement if you don’t first dig out some 2 meters of ground around the whole house and put in some dam panel thingy (I don’t know what that would be in English) to prevent the water coming in through the concrete. That project is crazy expensive though highly encouraged. But since we do not have those, it would be very important to leave room between the concrete and wall panels. When we bough this house the inspector told us to remove the fiberglass behind the panels in the fireplace room and to remove all the plastic paint from the exposed concrete walls elsewhere in the basement, but there was no mention of fiberglass around the bathroom. I don’t think he even thought anyone could have been stupid enough to put that in there and of course you can’t see that when it’s under two layers of tiles.

Now seeing (and smelling) the damage, you can’t really look away and leave it to do more harm, I have to rip down all the bathroom walls that are attached to the concrete frame and rebuild from scratch. _{Anyone have spare 10 000€…?}

Peek-a-boo!

I know I sounded very negative up to this point but honestly I am not that mad. I never liked this bathroom, it’s not hideous but just incredibly bland and I’m looking forward to making it into something way more beautiful.

Here’s where I started today:

And this is where I’m ending the night at:

I’m not mad at the layer(s) of bricks I uncovered, I might even try and figure out if I can leave some exposed. I have zero experience with anything like this but no matter what I do, I can’t fuck up as bad as who ever made and renovated this bathroom originally. I honestly don’t know where this all will lead to but I am doing research and toying with some beautiful ideas, like tadelakt and making my lifelong dream of having a bathtub come true. Universe, you better be listening!