Wednesday - September 08, 2010

Another day of the project

So the first pour of self-leveling concrete was given enough time to set good and hard. Then the rest of the floor was given a coat of latex concrete primer. Then I took off the toilet and had to figure out what to do with that board. Yes, an 17” long 2x10 had been cut into the concrete and nailed down under the toilet. As one commenter said, it was probably to allow access to the stack (the sewer pipe). But when I got the toilet off, and tore out the rotting slab of wood, I found that there was plywood underneath. And that the hole in it for the stack was only slightly bigger than the pipe itself.

So go figure. The wood was rotted. The nails that hadn’t rusted through were rusted down to little needles. The block of wood was rank, and split apart with a screwdriver. So it had to come out. I sprayed the heck out of the underlayment with a really strong solution of that D-128 hospital disinfectant, let it dry, and then latex primed the plywood while I figured out the proper approach. I could go buy a 2x10, cut a 4 1/4” circle in it, split it in half and put a new bit of wood back in. Which meant another trip to the hardware store, and the cost of buying a pretty large chunk of board. Or I could fill the hole in in a similar way, using 9 1/2” lengths of 2x4, and just cut the circle out of the middle two. That wouldn’t cost me anything, since I’ve got a bunch of them in the garage. But the more I thought about it, the less I liked the idea of any wood there at all. Eventually it will dry out and shrink, and thus not support the tiles or the toilet. And if any moisture gets down there again, I’ll have another wet rot and mildew situation on my hands.

So I did the only proper thing. I covered up the flange with duct tape on both sides, used some more duct tape to fill the gaps in between the side of the stack pipe and the opening in the plywood, and then I just filled it all with concrete. And now the hole is gone.

120 pounds of self-leveling cement made the second pour, and now I have a level floor. It’s feathered out on the tub side and the back side behind the sink and toilet, and I managed to cover 99% of the exposed floor. Phah. The little bits left can be handled with a bit of extra tile adhesive. Good enough, and then some.

This might take as much as 2 days to fully dry, so we’ll be without a toilet for that long. In case of minor emergencies, the Wal-Mart around the corner is open till 11pm every night. In case of major emergencies, I have a doubled 2x4 long enough to act as a gangplank up to the tub. Eww, but that wasn’t my idea. I’ve got an empty Snapple bottle I can use. She’s got ... nothing. Somehow my idea of a bucket didn’t go over too well. Women. What can I tell ya?

When the concrete is dry we’ll map out the floor and lay down a grid square to the hall wall and the hall doorway. And I’ll start laying tiles. And the first tiles to be laid, the first tiles to dry, the first tiles to be mortared and then put in use ... will be the ones under the toilet. 

Posted by Drew458     on 09/08/2010 at 07:03 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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