Renovating any room in your house by yourself can be difficult and time consuming. The bathroom, however, can be especially rough due to so many elements—plumbing, electricity, ventilation, limited spatial features, etc. Any DIY project comes with its advantages and disadvantages, yet the bathroom is a task that most people leave to the professionals.
If you are tackling your throne room by yourself, there are a few guidelines that may help you along the way to keep you safe and avoid some of the disasters that you could encounter. Whether you are replacing a toilet or changing out the cupboard, the key to success is knowing what to be prepared for and what you can do to fix it. If, by chance, something does go horribly wrong, call an emergency plumber before the disaster gets worse.
Buffer Your Budget
When it comes to do it yourself projects, especially with the bathroom, most people don’t budget properly. The bathroom is one of the costliest rooms to renovate in a home, coming in second behind the kitchen. The problem occurs with unexpected renovations regarding water that infiltrated behind the walls of the shower or tub. After years of buildup, there is more damage then realized. This can play havoc on your wallet and your time. As such, always be sure that you have a generous budget just in case you have to take care of any emergency expenses.
Plan and Prepare
Because the bathroom is so functional on a day-to-day basis, there are crucial things that need to be thought out and devised.
Safety and Access
When renovating your bathroom for anyone with a mobility issues, it is important to recognize any possible problems ahead of time.
A taller or higher vanity and a toilet that is at a comfortable height will require less bending. This is easier on the knees and hips for an elderly person or someone with health issues. Slip resistant floors will lessen any risks for someone falling on puddles of water. Laying down textured floors is great for traction for any age and reduces the amount of slipping on linoleum. A zero or no-threshold shower is much easier to get in and out of for anyone in the household. It’s especially true for an older person.
Thinking about these eventualities means you can head off these problems before they have an opportunity to bother you.
Space
Be careful of the appliances or woodwork that you want to position in the bathroom. If you’ve always wanted a double sink in the master bathroom, be sure that there is enough room to accommodate it. Make sure to take the correct measurements for all the spaces needed, as well as how much space there is to move around. That sink might fit, but do you have enough room to get into the tub if it’s installed.
If you have a small bathroom, it may be beneficial to install a wall hung shower. Just make sure that the plumbing is correctly attached and does not leak. Check out sites on the internet that can help assess your situation. Although space may be an issue for moving around, there are ways to accommodate that fault. Measure precisely for the best results.
Maintaining
While planning your DIY renovations, pay attention to what materials are needed and how they work. For instance, with white grout around the tub stains are extremely visible, while a medium grey grout may prove easier to maintain. A marble counter may be beautiful in the guest bathroom, but it is so soft that it can show up all the knicks and dings. A better choice might something that requires less sealing or staining.
Installation
Sometimes during a renovation there are things that are installed that don’t exactly fit together. When changing out a toilet, you must make sure that it is secured properly on its wax ring so that it doesn’t leak. A shower must be installed correctly with the drain pan pitched on the floor for there to be no problems. Sink drains should be oriented accurately, and water volume needs to deliver a greater supply if you have multiple shower heads.
Décor
Bathroom remodeling is not just about making a space look bigger. It’s also a matter of updating the fixtures that are already in the bathroom. Many times, the older fixtures are no longer available and therefore need to be replaced. Before purchasing newer models, ensure that they can be matched to the older models. Take a picture of any discriminating parts you need to replace. This will help you to guarantee a better fit with anything else in your bathroom. This one step can keep you from returning unwanted parts and pieces to the hardware store.
Conclusion
For many people, bathroom renovations can mean a lot of things. For a DIY project like a bathroom renovation, there are many things that can go wrong with disastrous results. However, with a bit of research, and a lot of planning, those problems can be eliminated giving you the success of a newly refurbished bathroom you accomplished with your own hands.
