The Bathman Chronicles

It's been a while since I posted any news. The reason for my absence is due to the final efforts that were needed to complete my 2 year long project called, "The Bathman Chronicles". This is a nearly two hundred page Ebook That contains over 3 hours of professionally edited video footage. The video is of me and my tech performing a complete Bathroom renovation in a seventy year old home. The footage is edited in to twelve parts. The introduction is meant for a meet and greet. Then at the end of each chapter there will be a private link to view the main renovation content. The book finishes up with an interview of the homeowners telling you an honest account of their experience through the process as well as what to expect with costs and surprises.

The Renvation Reality Series

The Ebook itself went through many hours of editing and graphic user upgrades. I was also very fortunate to hook up with artist Boris Hiestand to allow me to use his graphic image and creation that is The Bathman. Please visit him at www.borishiestand.com. The Ebook not only went through hours of transformation but when you include the months of video footage, became an experience that would prove to be very positive for the reader. The video content was not an original part of the concept, it was going to be separated for it's own plan. The video's are called, "The Renovation Reality Series".

IT'S FREE ?

This product has been developed at great costs to me and my company and I"ve had hours of discussion with the people that have had a hand in this endeavor. I didn't want to present this to you as part of a profit making venture. Something else that has happened in a timely manor is the 20 year celebration of my companies success. It was because of this that I had decided it was the time to give.

Thank You

I want to thank my past and future clients for the making of, "The Bathman Chronicles". Please feel free to download the ebook right to your desktop, sit back and let me do all of the work. Here's to the next 20 years !


Thanks again, The Bathman

PS. Download at www.bathresource.com

Thermostatic valve w/Integral stops

Hey Mary,

There are 2 types of tub/shower valves that are most common in the U.S. The first is pressure Balance, which is it's own on/off and the second is thermostatic which usually requires a separate shut off. Thermostatic valves are temperature control only and require an additional control valve to divert and/or stop the flow of water (shut off). There is a company that makes a thermostatic valve that also shuts itself off and that is Grohe. There may be others but I don't typically use Thermostatic valves in my remodeling because it drives up costs. The particular part of your question about integral stops refers to the little screw shut-offs that are mounted on either side of the valve. It allows you to shut the water off to the valve only, in order to service the valve IE. Replace cartridge. So you don't have to shut the water off to the house. Most valves come with integral stops but you can get them both ways, with or without.

Hope that helps. Let me know if I gave you the answer you need.

Thank you for asking, The Bathman

Can you Paint your Ceramic Tile?

You can only do so much to dress up a room with outdated tile in reference to the color and texture. You remember the 70's when colors like Harvest Gold and Avocado Green were being mass produced on every surface for the home and now your so desperate remove these colors you're ready to tear the tile off the walls. Before you get involved in a project that's going to create lots of mess not to mention the expense let's talk about the option of painting the tile.

First, paint does not like to stick to tile but don't let that discourage you, all that means is you're going to do a bang up job in surface preparation. You need to get rid of the slippery surface by starting out with a commercial tile cleaner, a mild abrasive pad and some elbow grease. This will begin to break down the glossy surface as well as any build up from the past years.

The next step is to get a bit more aggressive with the tile surface by sanding it with a 120 grit sandpaper. You can experiment with the grit but it would go easier if you had a Palm sander, if not just do it by hand until your arms feel like they're going to fall off then you'll know you did a good job. Do not skip this step, the better the sanding the better your paint job will bond to the tile. You do not want your paint to peel and if you sacrifice prep work it will fail.

Now that your tile surface is prepped for a nice paint bond you must do one more thing before applying the Primer and that is clean with a cloth and mineral spirits. Think of preparing a car to paint, you need to be as dust free as possible or the paint will only adhere to the dust. Don't drive yourself in to the loony bin about this just do the best you can.

It's time for Primer, it's best to use all oil base paints for adhesion. I know the clean up is a bear but let's do this job once the right way. Cut the corners in with a brush and roll the field in with a tight nap roller, Remember you are glazing the surface you are not slopping paint on walls. You are going to apply two coats of primer allowing each coat to thoroughly dry.

One step I would like you to add after priming is to take a fine grit sandpaper like 220 or higher and lightly sand the surface to knock off the dust burrs. Then clean it up because you're ready for paint.

The only thing you need to know when applying the paint is to apply a few thin coats to build a good bond, WE DO NOT WANT PEELING. Thin tight coats will serve you much better for durability especially in humid conditions like a bathroom. Keep a bottle of thinner by you for clean up, drink plenty of fluids and down lots of carbs for energy you're going to need it.

There may be another answer for you if you want to bypass the labor and that is to hire an expert that knows how to coat surfaces with apoxy paint. They are experienced with resurfacing appliances, bath fixtures and tile. They use a very durable paint mixture and spray it on while you sit in front of the TV, I actually endorse this method.

I hope this helps, please feel free to post a comment

PS. watch for my upcoming EBook, The Chronicles of Bathman

Bathroom renovation-hot water now

I have been getting some questions about the wait time from the moment you turn on your shower to the time it takes to get a good hot water flow. For many of my clients it's a problem because it's not only a time waster but a water waster as well.

The answer to that is usually solved with a recirculating pump that mounts close to the hot water heater and provides a constant flow of hot water to all of your plumbing fixtures. This is not new technology and the old way of installation was labor intensive and fairly expensive to achieve what you might expect your home to provide you naturally.

THE NEW WAY

There is a cool product that is very user friendly and takes me about two hours to install and does a superb job of delivering hot water to your fixtures any time you turn then on, right now! The Product is made by a company called Grundfos and it's their comfort system that includes a pump with a timer to control water flow and a bypass valve that installs under the bathroom sink at the supply lines. It's a very straight forward design and install, I've been installing them for my bathroom remodeling clients that need a quicker hot water delivery and it works right now. The timer allows you to adjust usage so the pump doesn't continuously run when your sleeping or working.

The pump makes me look like a hero specially when I have just completed their new Master Bathroom and they step in to it for the first time but it also delivers instant hot water to all of your fixtures. Visit http://www.grundfos.com

I hope this helps, if you have any questions just post them

The Bathman

Tankless hotwater heaters

I have had many inquiries from clients who are very interested in changing their original hot water system to a tankless unit and I wanted to clarify the good and the bad so you can make a more qualified decision for your home.

The Good

You will save money on gas because there is no water reservoir to keep heated day and night. Another plus is water quality, many people including myself cannot drink super cold water out of the tap so we mix it with hot water to get the desired drinking water temperature, with a tankless system the water tastes a lot better because it hasn't been cooked in a tank all night. Space saving is another good deal with this system, many homes can benefit from the extra space when eliminating a 50 gallon tank if it's in your laundry room or in a space that can be better used. Also, the tankless unit is built to last longer than a conventional water heater because it only starts to work when water is flowing through it in other words it sits sleeping until you wake it up which preserves the internal parts for longer life. Last but most important is the green factor can you imagine if everyone in the world heated their water this way - at the very least it would help!

The curve

Most people are wondering if this relatively small unit can give them what they have been used to getting in terms of hot water to multiple places all at once in other words can my family get up in the morning and take showers at the same time and run the kitchen sink faucet? The short answer is no. You will never, ever, ever run out of hot water but the tankless system has a hard time keeping up with major water draws. You can take one shower and run the kitchen sink but you may have to adjust the valve to a hotter setting. The best way to use a tankless system is to slow down the water at the valve leading to the tank by turning the valve toward the close position. This will drop the pressure a little and buy time for the water to heat, this is how I teach my clients to use the system and there is still more to tweak while operating your shower.

The reason why I know the nuances is because I installed one in my home about 5 years ago and I have seven people living in my home and in 5 years I know they made some improvements to the output. All in all this is a product you should definitely purchase and get used to using.

If you have any questions concerning your installation post the question and I will answer or you can email me at scott@askbathman.com

PS. If you like taking long hot showers this is absolutely for you because the hot water is endless!




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What The TV Pros Don't Tell You About Bath Renovation

I was watching a, "Home Improvement Show" and this project was about improving the homes layout concerning the kitchens view of the laundry room. This was a bad first floor plan to begin with. It was an open floor plan that encompassed the kitchen,laundry room and open hallway to the rest of the home. The hotwater heater was also in the mix.

The idea of this remodeling segment was to address this particular layout and improve the look and feel of these areas. Get this, the budget was $2000.00, as if, and the purpose of doing this was to make the house more appealing to buyers. Yep, they were doing all of this work in order to sell their home.

No big deal, a project is a project. This one is hardly show worthy. This project was a funny one because as I watched it unfold on tv before my very eyes, they were doing adaptations that took hours of professional labor and at the end of the program they displayed on the tv screen what they had spent on the total project. Much to my surprise it was exactly $2000.00 That was amazing! Like a magician pulling a rabbit out of his @#%*&^.

what was even less impressive was all of the parts you didn't see a charge for, like a new tankless hotwater heater. I have one in my house, so I know how much that cost. If you get one big enough to supply the whole house your cost will be around the $700.00 mark. Now, this is something I would not recommend a homeowner to install. I'm a professional and it took me several hour to disconnect and drain the old heater and install the new tankless complete and I didn't stop for lunch. At the very least this little swap out starts at $1500.00. You know they didn't do the rest of this renovation for $500.00

You really should understand that remodeling TV is not a good indicator for you to gauge your bathroom or any renovation project with. You would have to buy all low end at a big box store,on sale and do every ounce of labor yourself to even get close. I can appreciate a budget, but WOW!

All professionals know that when you start a project and your in the demolition phase you will quite often come across a scenario that changes the initial flow of the way you thought the project would go. Remodeling TV never tells you how much It cost them in labor or material to do the job with a different adaptation then originally thought.

I price jobs for a living, you don't. There is a learning curve for every new thing you do. You can't remodel a bathroom faster or cheaper than I can, so what! Make a plan, make a budget and get your hands dirty. you'll probably take more time and spend more money than you thought but at the end of the job, when your 100% done you will have achieved and learned so much more.

That's all for now, if you have any questions about your project post them and I will answer as soon as I can.

Thanks again, Scott -The Bathman

Bathman Says,"Let's Get Started."

One of the reasons why bathroom renovation comes easy for me is because I see the project completed in my head before we lift a finger to do the work. Installers and people that work with their hands in general, relate to pictures rather than words or instructions on paper.

My cousin is a medical doctor. He bought a game for my son that had many many parts to it. As I was walking in through my front door I saw my cousin on the floor with this game that he had purchased trying to get all of these little pieces together by reading these very tiny instructions that were written by some engineer in Munich Germany. He gave up after a while and told me if I want to just throw it out! I asked my cousin to show me the instructions and put this game together,in front of him, in about 15 minutes. He asked how I could make that look so easy, the reason is because when I look at the instructions I look at the pictures and the images not the words. The picture on the front of the box almost tells the whole story to a mechanic. Then it's just a matter of finding the part.

So, The first thing you will do is a very simple drawing with a pencil,paper,ruler and tape measure. Don't be too concerned with measurement accuracy at this point, within the inch will be fine for now. The drawing needs to be a Birdseye view of your bath as it looks now, with measurements of your walls,tub/shower, vanity,toilet space and any other space that needs to be measured like closet and floor space.

The next thing you want to do is look at pictures of bathrooms that are professionally published in books or magazines that you can find at your local bookstore. The last time I looked for these types of publications I found no shortage of this material. There is plenty of image resources out there. Also, an image in a book is better than an image on the Internet. I just noticed it to be more vivid and alive.

After you have studied these pictures for a while you will start to get a sense of what your style is. You will probably see more than one bathroom picture that will motivate you to start using your minds eye to visualize your bathroom the same way. This will help you to define your look and taste so you can start the product selection process.

Now you need to start looking at the products that suit your style. There are many places to shop so I'm not going to get into that but, in order to make the selection process go easy you need to make a list of the products you are replacing. I don't mean a list of glue,screws and nails. I want you to make a list of finish products and fixtures. From your tile to your shower door, you want to list the item name, the item price and the item size or quantity. It is required at my shop to do that with every client. It is the only way to stay organized. I built a form using a program called formtool that does this for us. I will try and post it on my website as a pdf. for you to download and use. My website is http://www.bathresource.com/ I will post it as soon as I can.

The last thing I want to say about this is, don't start the labor part of your bath renovation project until you have nearly all of your material in your garage. If anything has been special ordered,unless it goes on last like a towel bar, be patient and wait to get your fixtures on the job site.

If you have any detailed questions concerning your bath renovation project,post them and I'll try to answer them as soon as possible.

That's all for now, Scott Laing - The Bathman