Are you ready for another bathroom update? Last week we watched as Matt fixed some pipe and added concrete board to the shower enclosure. Today, we add shower walls.  When we were planning this bathroom remodel, one of the biggest decisions we had to make was shower wall material. Matt really wasn’t digging the idea of putting tile on the walls, so we set our sights on a shower insert. But, after checking out a few samples at Lowe’s, we weren’t too impressed with the hollowness of insert walls. So, after reviewing the non-insert, non-tile options, we landed on Swanstone panels from Home Depot.  These panels are made from some composite material and are 1/4″ thick. They get attached to the concrete board with silicone caulk and are supposed to fit right into your shower enclosure. Easy, peasy.

So, naturally, ours didn’t fit exactly. Apparently our slab slopes downward a bit which means that the tub slopes a bit meaning that the Swanstone piece going along the back wall of the shower had to be trimmed at the exact angle of the downward slope.

Once the big piece was happily in place, Matt moved on to the first stressful bit of this process, cutting holes in our new, expensive shower walls for the faucet and valve.

Making multiple templates with cardboard is the way to go.

And then hold your breath when you make the cut into the actual shower piece.

Whew!  With that out of the way, he quickly cut down the third piece to fit and moved on to stressful bit number 2. Gluing the panels to the walls. The manufacturer recommended using silicone caulk, which is nice because it is not super fast drying. If a mistake was made, there would be time to adjust. The downside of the slower drying silicone caulk is getting enough pressure on each panel while the glue dries, ensuring a successful, gap free bond.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have any volunteers to stand and push against the panels for hours, so Matt had to create a brace.

Every few minutes of this process, parts of the brace would tumble. It was incredibly frustrating and very much like building a card tower out of 2×4′s. It really felt like you needed 10 arms to get it to stay put, but between the two of us, we finally managed to make it work.

And the next day, the braces were removed and the gluing process was deemed a success. Now, in the picture above, do you see that gap in the corner of the shower where the seams meet? Luckily, the manufacturer understands that no one can get those panels to line up perfectly, so they provide corner pieces to glue in the seams.

Matt also added some little shelves in one of the corners and taped everything up while the silicone caulk dried.

After one last round of caulking the seams, the shower enclosure was complete!

It’s so clean, bright, and smooth! We love the way it turned out, a great improvement on the grey mismatched tile that was there before. And getting the shower done makes the bathroom seem so much closer to being complete! Overall, the experience of the Swanstone was a bit tedious, but mostly just took some patience. It definitely feels solid, sturdy, and easy to clean!

Next up, tile!

Last week I left you with this bit of trouble:

The plumbing not matching the tub. Yikes. The old plumbing that was too short was poured into the slab which meant that Matt had to chisel out the old PVC pile and lay some new pipe. So, Matt pulled the tub back out and got to work.

Other than the fact that Matt had to visit a specialty PVC store for 22.5 degree elbows and a scare with some too fast drying concrete the process went swimmingly. Actually, Matt said it was very tedious and stressful because he had one shot to get everything right.

Once the concrete was dry, Matt applied a layer of thin set in the tub space and then we sorta dropped the tub into place.

With the tub in its final resting place, Matt was able to finish installing the concrete board.

And patching up the seams.

Next, he applied some drywall mud to the tops of the concrete board, which will be exposed above the shower walls and will be painted.

And on another thrilling not, Matt added an exhaust fan to keep those mirrors unsteamed.

And he painted the ceiling and walls! We can’t figure out if the old ceiling paint was beige or dirty.

Either way, clean white is the way to go! The new wall color is a light grey. I don’t have a good shot of the new wall paint, but you’ll see some of that in the next few posts. This bathroom is shaping up, slowly but surely!

Next up, adding shower walls!

Hello! I’m back to chat about our bathroom remodel. Last time we checked in, Matt had removed the vanity and half wall and pulled up all the tile. Next up is fixing some drywall. Matt had to fix up the spot where the half wall was along with a few other various spots.

Drywall is hard stuff to make look right. I think after all these projects, Matt is going to be a drywall pro!

He also replaced the nasty insulation in the shower. New is always so nice and clean!

Since we dealt with some water damage this time, we definitely did what we could to make this shower water-proof. That process started with adding tar paper over the the studs and insulation.

The tar paper was followed by cement board.

But before Matt could add the bottom later of cement board, he was faced with changing out the valve body for the new shower valve.

After considering (for about 2 minutes) doing this bit of plumbing himself, we decided to call in the professionals.  So, 1 plumber and about an hour later, we had a new valve body installed.

Then came the really fun part, placing the tub in place to see if all the old plumbing matched the new, pretty tub.

And guess what??

The old plumbing didn’t match the new tub. Bummer. We’ll be back next week with how Matt fixed this problem!