Our French Budget Bathroom Renovation got off to a very slow and loud start. The floor needed removal as the previous owner had laid 6 inches of concrete down. The walls were also covered and needed to be knocked down too.
Before we started renovating the bathroom, it hadn’t been touched in over 30 years. The window was broken and the bath was full of mold. There were dodgy electrics hanging from the wall and the tiles were cemented to the walls. The wallpaper had already started to peel itself from the wall it was so ugly.
Cast Iron Bath
The cast iron bath’s feet were pressed down into the concrete. As too were some it’s plumbing. There seemed to be absolutely zero logic as to why anyone would cover the floor of what seemed to be a once good Oak floor in 6 inches of solid concrete. To then press the bath and it’s plumbing into it; well that defied all logic. We did find a plastic coin from 1947, so it had survived a long time without being ripped up, so who are we to question?
Concrete Removal
Peace and quiet has now returned to southern France and everyone can now return to their peaceful, tranquil lives they so enjoyed.
For those of you still wearing ear plugs – SORRY! REMOVE YOUR HARD HAT AND COME OUT OF HIDING
Mandy has laid down her hammer and chisel!
The bathroom wall and concrete floor have been removed.
We have found, time and time again on this house, that power tools aren’t always the answer. They are too aggressive. The hammer action chisel, simply caused too much vibration and made the whole house vibrate. Dust and plaster was coming from everywhere. The floorboards in every room were drumming. So Mandy chiseled all the concrete out of the bathroom by hand.
As you can imagine, without power tools, removing that took Herculean effort.
With the concrete and walls gone, we can now see that the joists and walls are in surprisingly good condition. There is only one patch of rot on the end of one floor-board; probably from a leaky bath overflow pipe.
What still baffles us, is why anyone would lay so much concrete in a bathroom, it makes little sense. It’s one of life’s mysteries.
Knocking Down Walls
I left Mandy alone for 10 minutes and she started knocking down walls. The bathroom was too small; it needed to be bigger.
The whole house is of Oak beam construction with brick in-fill. We will move the partition wall approximately 1 meter to the side. This will gain around 3.5 square meters in the bathroom, enough for a decent sized shower and a toilet.
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