Honestly, when I had the upstairs bathroom re-done, they didn’t even tell me they were replacing the material until it was done. I was SO pissed at how noisy it was. That plumber won’t work with cast iron at all, so getting cast iron would have been very hard. Possibly, it couldn’t have been done without tearing down all the interior walls, which probably wouldn’t have been worth it. But it was an extremely unpleasant surprise to hear every faucet in the house from the kitchen table.
But you can hear the laundry room water from the laundry room anyway, and the water goes from there to underground. So there’s really no downside to the PVC for the new work.
That does suck. I’m not sure you can remedy it much at this point. It’s possible you could tear out drywall and add a sound absorbing membrane. But it may be a 3” drain in a 4” wall which leaves little room.
So I told my electrician when he wired the bathroom that I wanted every inch of wire pulled new from the panel. I’m paying hourly so he had no reason to not do that.
Instead, he used some existing Romex. And that wire was fed by old, ungrounded wires. The inspector noticed this when the GFCI wouldn’t trip. It’s right there in the name: GROUND fault.
I should have paid more attention when the electrician was working, I suppose, but this is 95% not my fault. He should have 100% tested everything before he left the job.
Whatever. I called a different company, who came out today and made it right. Thankfully it wasn’t a big deal, it could have been since the sheet rock is up.
Home ‘renos’ today, just installed security cameras outside. I didn’t want to, but we had someone checking out our house at 3am a month ago or so. Got the cables run and cameras bolted on outside (I went wired, not wireless because otherwise they’re not security cameras, they’re a toy).
Some nice weekend I have to actually connect the wiring to the cameras and to my panel, and install the monitoring software. But til then I’m 90% of the way there because there’s visible cameras that you can’t tell if they’re operational or not.
This remodel nearly killed me and I’m trying to not get worked up as much. I debated calling the first guy and ultimately decided I wanted a second opinion.
Having inspected the panel, the bath, and the wires in the attic, I’m convinced this is all done properly now. When the first crew was wiring it I had about 40 things I was trying to work on or monitor and didn’t think they might pull a stunt like this.
Final inspection is tomorrow, and then this bathroom isn’t getting touched for 40 years.
Disappointing that the first electrician wasn’t 100%. It does make you question the work. In that case it is good to have a second person come in to check. Not getting worked up about it is the most important part. One thing you might do (if it doesn’t get you too riled up) is email or text the original electrician letting them know there was a problem. If there was a second person on the job, trainee perhaps, then they should know.
I did pay them. And, oddly enough, it passed the electrical rough inspection. The inspector didn’t trace all of the wires back to the panel or do things like checking the ground.
So I’m annoyed, and out a hundred bucks or so, in the grand scheme of this remodel it’s not a huge deal.
The general contractor didn’t write down the grout choices i gave him, and he showed up today with samples from a different brand. He’s going to ask the tile guy which he prefers.
The utility room in the basement, with the boiler and hot water heater. I was going to do just the big beige tile, but the increased cost for making it prettier isn’t very much. And why the hell not enjoy the floor?
Light grout will be more difficult to keep clean, but your dark grout may be dark to the point where it is also going to need to be cleaned to keep the area looking somewhat uniform.
If you still have the tile samples, can you put some dark paper or something under the tiles to get a better idea what the dark grout would look like through the entire pattern? I think you will get a different perception from that based on the colors and pattern you have.
The soapstone is in the laundry room, a completely different part of the basement.
The motive for tiling the utility room is that i want to cover/encase the existing tiles, which are probably asbestos tiles, and are starting to decay. So “just leave it alone” wasn’t an option. Honestly, it if were a concrete slab, I doubt I’d be doing anything.
But, while i would like to enjoy it, i have no plans to keep things spotless. I fully expect drips and stains, and I’m fine with that.
Covering all of the exposed basement tile was the number one goal of this project. Well, that and improving the lighting around the house.
Yeah, most of it will be covered with engineered wood. It’s just the utility room that’s getting tile. And the additional cost of tiling compared to other options is small.
