Any construction experts in here?

[Sum1]

My wife and I are wanting to do some renovating in the bathroom. We're having the tile and tub reglazed and putting in a new tile floor. That much we've got figured out...

But the one thing we want to do but don't really feel confident in doing ourselves and not sure where to turn for a reasonable price is moving the lights and pulling the medicine cabinet out.

The walls are plaster and the lights are currently in a vanity style on either side of the medicine cabinet, we'd like to make it one fixture and move it to the ceiling...and we'd like to get remove the medicine cabinet and cover up that part of the wall with just a bigger basic mirror.

I'm concerned on how to do all of this without damaging the plaster walls/ceiling. Any advice on who I should be contacting?

I'm in South St. Louis if anyone has any specific companies in mind.

 

[RhodyRams]

a good plasterer should be able to fix the holes seamlessly. If you find one, keep his number and share it, for it is a dying trade to say the least. I have a guy here in RI, (His name is Guy also lol) who was taught by his father, who was taught by his father. Expensive but his work is excellent.

If you are moving the electrical yourself, you might as well run all new wiring because chance are the feed from the breaker box stops at one light and branches over to the other light, and won't have enough excess to run up to the new ceiling fixture. Building codes say you can't splice a wire inside a wall without a junction box, and you cant bury a junction box in the wall. Another way to solve this would be to install a GFCI plug where one of the lights are, and then you can have a feed running to the ceiling light. But the plug would probably be too high on the wall and unsightly also.


And if the lights are controlled by a turn switch right on the fixture itself, then you are going to want to install a switch somewhere.


Good luck

 

[Sum1]

Thanks for the info!

 

[IowaRam]

Go look on YouTube , there's probably a thousand video's that will show you how to do it

 

[Selassie I]

A friendly word of warning...

My wife wanted to do some minor changes to our master bath such as the ones you list here. This was about a year and a half ago.

Long story short... the minor changes turned into the entire bathroom being gutted and completely redone. In fact, the initial re-tile of the shower had to be torn out and replaced.

Thousands

Well, today we have a completely new bathroom but the work is still not finished all the way. The fucking medicine cabinet needs to be installed into the wall instead of just hanging on it. Hopefully we can get our guy to finish that shit in the next few weeks.

Just be prepared. It will take longer than you want to complete it and my guess would be that you've just scratched the surface on what you'll end up doing in there.

 

[IowaRam]

A friendly word of warning...

My wife wanted to do some minor changes to our master bath such as the ones you list here. This was about a year and a half ago.

Long story short... the minor changes turned into the entire bathroom being gutted and completely redone. In fact, the initial re-tile of the shower had to be torn out and replaced.

Thousands

Well, today we have a completely new bathroom but the work is still not finished all the way. The freaking medicine cabinet needs to be installed into the wall instead of just hanging on it. Hopefully we can get our guy to finish that crap in the next few weeks.

Just be prepared. It will take longer than you want to complete it and my guess would be that you've just scratched the surface on what you'll end up doing in there.

We did a total bathroom remodel a couple years ago as well , but we knew it was going to be a total nightmare , so we took a very deep breath before we started, we replaced the old tub , but to do so , we had to tear out the back wall of one of the bedroom closet , we replaced everything back there , the shower faucet , all the water lines , new floor tile , new ceiling lights and exhaust fan , , we tiled the walls , luckily , my wife is pretty handy

We didn't have to do a whole lot of electrical work , just mostly replacing the existing wiring and outlets

but yea , we went into the project knowing it was going to be a huge undertaking , and we weren't wrong

 

[RamFan503]

I rebuilt my downstairs bathroom a couple years ago - granite shower, marble counters, cabinets, etc...(pretty small - so it's not as impressive as it may sound) and am working on the rest of the downstairs now. My problem is that I also work too many damn hours so these projects tend to drag on for EVER. Also, our house was built in '28 so everything is a replacement no matter what as far as I'm concerned.

What Rhody said is pretty true anytime you are working with plaster. If you are leaving the wall intact and will be leaving holes, you need someone really good with plaster. Either that or make a good smooth patch and figure on texturing the wall or adding on a skim coat later after it is completely set. I tend to rip out the wall and put in new studs and drywall so I can also reconfigure the electrical and plumbing, the way I want it. I've often found that actually takes me less time than trying to cut and patch and I can more easily add features like cubbies and such if I want to.

Hey - just a thought. In my bathroom I laid down some heat mat and then poured a self leveling compound over it before tiling. Pretty nice having a tile floor that warms your toes.

 

[Sum1]

I was thinking about the heat mat.

I may have decided to adjust the lighting project. Might just move it above the new mirror instead of to the ceiling.

 

[Selassie I]

I was thinking about the heat mat.

I may have decided to adjust the lighting project. Might just move it above the new mirror instead of to the ceiling.

And this is how it begins to grow. AND GROW.

 

[Sum1]

And this is how it begins to grow. AND GROW.

Haha...no, no...we've got only one bathroom and it's very small. There is really nothing that can be done to it other than what we are planning.

 

[Selassie I]

Haha...no, no...we've got only one bathroom and it's very small. There is really nothing that can be done to it other than what we are planning.

Just trying to look out for you Brudda. Hahahahaha

 

[Yamahopper]

Moving wires and lights is no big deal. It's easy enough to fish wires and terminate old connections. It might require some plaster work to patch some old holes. Thats really nothing. Tho, sometimes its cheaper to just lose the old sheetrock in that area and put up and refinish the new with the wiring done.

 

[cracengl]

My wife and I are wanting to do some renovating in the bathroom. We're having the tile and tub reglazed and putting in a new tile floor. That much we've got figured out...

But the one thing we want to do but don't really feel confident in doing ourselves and not sure where to turn for a reasonable price is moving the lights and pulling the medicine cabinet out.

The walls are plaster and the lights are currently in a vanity style on either side of the medicine cabinet, we'd like to make it one fixture and move it to the ceiling...and we'd like to get remove the medicine cabinet and cover up that part of the wall with just a bigger basic mirror.

I'm concerned on how to do all of this without damaging the plaster walls/ceiling. Any advice on who I should be contacting?

I'm in South St. Louis if anyone has any specific companies in mind.

It seems to me like you ought to just be able to tear out the plaster around the lights and the medicine cabinets until you reach a stud on both sides. I'd probably just go to half way on the thickness of the stud (3/4") so the remaining plaster is not loose. I guess the only problem here is the differences in thickness. I'm not sure if just taking out the plaster, leaving the wood slats and putting drywall over that would work, or if you'd need to take the slats out. But they do have 1/2" and 5/8" drywall. The 5/8" is usually only used for firewalls because it takes longer to burn through, but whatever.

On the electrical, I'd probably cut the wires near where they turn down to run down the studs and add a covered junction box to then run to the ceiling. In the ceiling, just buy you one of the boxes that is for old work, rather than new construction--this just means it attaches differently. For code purposes, you are supposed to have a wire staple on your romex within 12" of the box and then something like every 2 or 3 feet I think to keep it in the center of your stud. (not as technically worded, but you get the gist).

For who to call, can't help you. But I've found a lot of good people just by asking people I work with or family members. For an electrician, this wouldn't be that big of a job and I think the average rate is around $75 an hour labor, unless they just quote you a price for everything.

Also, when I built my house, we found bathroom mirrors at Hobby Lobby. They aren't technically bath mirrors, but they look nice and they were something like 40% off and way cheaper than anything you'd buy at a big box store. I'd also recommend looking online for your new fixture. Places like www.lighting.com com and so forth you can find really good prices on things. If you are just looking for a pot light, you can buy the insulation rated cans pretty cheap at Home Depot and instead of using traditional bulbs, I would totally recommend an LED. I think the light they put off is excellent and although pricey, they don't get nearly as hot and you'll probably never have to replace it. You can buy LED specific housings, but the traditional ones with an LED bulb in the same base is cheaper as the traditional can is cheaper.