Do-it-yourself ideas, bargains and resources for all around your home.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Good grief.

Okay, the tile guy was not really a tile guy (he's a grout guy) but he was fantastic about answering my million questions and offering advice. Here's a freebie for you: when you take a shower, wipe down your tiled walls with a towel. If they stay dry, your grout will last a lot longer and you won't have to bleach any mildew stains. Because if you use a lot of bleach on the grout it dries it out and will have to be replaced sooner. Dry your tile and use vinegar and water to clean and disinfect.

Now back to my bathroom. It does not seem reasonable to me to pull out all the tile. It's in good condition, it's quite common in this area for this age house, and according to the guy above (who lives in the neighborhood with a house about the same age), there is probably a concrete wall behind the tile. It would also be a pain to pull out just the yellow tiles at the top and bottom of the walls. Too many problems trying to match sizes, especially at the bottom of the wall.

He did recommend glazing the tub and the one person he said to use is the guy I've already called. He also said I could probably pull out the fixtures (soap dish, toilet paper holder) and replace those fairly easily. But now I think if I replaced them with white ones it would look rather glaring. Finally, he said that barring any structural problems, we could put down a new tile floor right over the old one.

--brief aside: What was it with people in the 50s? Was it really all black & white like on tv? Is that why none of the yellows in my bathroom match? Or was everyone just colorblind? --

So I'm down to thinking that a new floor, a tub reglaze and some color on the walls is the way to go. I showed John the wallpaper last night and he doesn't like any of them. Sigh. I am so over this bathroom.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yea, just work around the tile. Paint the walls, put in a new floor and reglaze the tub. Unless it is your forver house, you don't want to go overboard and spend too much money on your bathroom and not get it back when you sell. We also tiled over both old floors in our bathrooms and it turned out great. So it sound like you have a good plan.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't do the floor if you're planning on selling soon. You'll probably have to modify the closet flange (the thing the toilet sits on) to accommodate the higher floor. You'll also have to deal with the wall transitions. What's there now, baseboard or tile transition pieces? Either way, it complicates the job.

Plus, odds are that whoever buys your house will want to redo the bathroom anyway. You won't get the money you put into this bathroom back in the sales price. Don't waste your time or money. Clean it, paint it, and be done with it.