The risky bathroom

Buildings and water don’t mix well. That fact was impossible to ignore when I had the old bathroom joists exposed. Those joists had been subjects to small water leaks through the old bathroom floor for years.

 

The more one can keep water away from and out of a building, the less can go wrong and the more built-in durability the building has. Yet, no one I know would like a building without a bathroom. So we are doing that risky thing: bringing water into the building.

Because we like the convenience of a bathroom (or two, or three) in our building, the exercise becomes one of risk management and reduction. There is plenty of building science, expertise, and strategies one can draw from. And there are time tested materials that help in the endeavour of bathroom risk management. (I should trademark this term!)

I wrote about the 1st floor bathroom layout, but I will leave this subject alone as the 2nd floor bathroom will be a mirror image. But I also documented our strategies and materials used during the basement and 1st floor bathroom installation. Because this is such a critical and potentially impactful subject, and because corners are still cut too many times, I will walk you step by step through the installation of our 2nd floor bathroom.

Hopefully I can fill in some knowledge gaps that I missed in the past. Stay tuned and enjoy the read!

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About Marcus de la fleur

Marcus is a Registered Landscape Architect with a horticultural degree from the School of Horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and a Masters in Landscape Architecture from the University of Sheffield, UK. He developed a landscape based sustainable pilot project at 168 Elm Ave. in 2002, and has expanded his skill set to building science. Starting in 2009, Marcus applied the newly acquired expertise to the deep energy retrofit of his 100+ year old home in Chicago.

One thought on “The risky bathroom

  1. Looking forward to your series on the BRRM ™! I am looking to add a bathroom on my 2nd floor, so this will be helpful. Curious to know if you will be adding a floor drain like you did on the 1st floor.

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