Hello all - It's time (actually well past time) to renovate our small en suite bathroom (sink, toilet, and shower).
I'll reuse the toilet - it's a Caroma which has been good since I installed it in 2009.
I'll replace the cabinet, countertop, and sink/faucet. The sink is an old steel American Standard. After 31 years, the enamel coating is dull and starting to wear off. It and the shower base are bone-coloured anyway, which we wouldn't have chosen. The great humourist Dave Barry said something like "Had it ever occurred to the founding fathers that anyone would think to make bathroom fixtures in any colour other than white, they would have written something into the constitution prohibiting it."
The cabinet would be OK to reuse, but the new ones have drawers with U-shaped cutaways to accommodate the undersink plumbing, which will offer way more practical storage space.
I'll replace the linoleum roll flooring too - it's pretty beat up, and curling up at the edges. May go with LVT there, which I installed in the entranceway. Good product so far.
I may open up all the drywall to ensure there's no water damage, and may remove the fiberglass batts and spray foam the cavities. Replacement drywall would be the water-resistant stuff.
The shower is the biggie. It's a corner shower with a bone-coloured base, and instead of tiles or plastic panels, cultured-marble slabs were installed against the room's walls. The cultured marble is also bone-coloured with a swirly pattern of varicose veins. There's a fine mold collection in all of the nooks and crannies. It's time. I'd replace the glass panels and door at the same time.
So, time to select a new shower ... the prices at a dedicated plumbing store are really high compared to Home Depot, etc. A corner shower at Home Depot is about C$700. A similar (in appearance) unit at a local plumbing store would be about C$2500.
A salesperson at the plumbing store said that the difference in part was that the high-end products were made of acrylic, whereas the building-centre ones were made of fiberglass.
The MAAX units as sold at HD did not get many good reviews - 3/5 average, with lots of negative reviews regarding warping, cracking, and the general flimsiness of the product.
I haven't read any reviews on the higher-end MAAX products.
Thoughts from the BITOG community on replacement bathroom fixtures? Thanks!
I'll reuse the toilet - it's a Caroma which has been good since I installed it in 2009.
I'll replace the cabinet, countertop, and sink/faucet. The sink is an old steel American Standard. After 31 years, the enamel coating is dull and starting to wear off. It and the shower base are bone-coloured anyway, which we wouldn't have chosen. The great humourist Dave Barry said something like "Had it ever occurred to the founding fathers that anyone would think to make bathroom fixtures in any colour other than white, they would have written something into the constitution prohibiting it."
The cabinet would be OK to reuse, but the new ones have drawers with U-shaped cutaways to accommodate the undersink plumbing, which will offer way more practical storage space.
I'll replace the linoleum roll flooring too - it's pretty beat up, and curling up at the edges. May go with LVT there, which I installed in the entranceway. Good product so far.
I may open up all the drywall to ensure there's no water damage, and may remove the fiberglass batts and spray foam the cavities. Replacement drywall would be the water-resistant stuff.
The shower is the biggie. It's a corner shower with a bone-coloured base, and instead of tiles or plastic panels, cultured-marble slabs were installed against the room's walls. The cultured marble is also bone-coloured with a swirly pattern of varicose veins. There's a fine mold collection in all of the nooks and crannies. It's time. I'd replace the glass panels and door at the same time.
So, time to select a new shower ... the prices at a dedicated plumbing store are really high compared to Home Depot, etc. A corner shower at Home Depot is about C$700. A similar (in appearance) unit at a local plumbing store would be about C$2500.
A salesperson at the plumbing store said that the difference in part was that the high-end products were made of acrylic, whereas the building-centre ones were made of fiberglass.
The MAAX units as sold at HD did not get many good reviews - 3/5 average, with lots of negative reviews regarding warping, cracking, and the general flimsiness of the product.
I haven't read any reviews on the higher-end MAAX products.
Thoughts from the BITOG community on replacement bathroom fixtures? Thanks!
