Browse Forums Bathrooms and Laundry 1 Mar 11, 2009 6:15 pm Hi All,
I'm a new guy on the forum as well as I'm a new guy to the whole renovation thing. I work in IT and recently bought a villa in sans souci, sydney. Kitchen and the rooms were kind-off renovated by the previous owners, but the bathrooms were original. So we decided to give it a go and start renovation from the ensuite. Following is the pic of what it used to look like Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ On the day one we removed all vanities, tabs, shower screens etc. Also removed wall tiles as well, so it started to look more like this: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ On the second day we went to a local tools-hire shop and got ourselves a jack-hummer to remove floors. That was fun. First of all, all articles I read about bathroom renovations had wooden floors under concrete, so my original plan was to remove everything above the wood. Now I was quite surprised to see that there was no wooden floor it was all concrete. Unfortunately I realised it too late after I made a nice hole in it Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I guess it's not really that bad, and I should be able to fill the hole up with some cement or mortar. I was pretty surprised though to see absolutely no signs of waterproofing on the floor(I guess may be it wasn't required for concrete floors back then), as well as seeing wall tiles going below floors was a bit disappointing. Anyway that's where I got to so far Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Next week I'm planning to remove the walls. Now I have a few questions. 1) where can I dump all the waste? Currently I have what used to be wall tiles, floor etc sitting on by backyard, but I'm planning to get a ute and bring it to someone who will accept it. They also need to accept asbestos, cause I assume that's what my walls are made off. Anyone got a number? I'd like to find out how should I seal asbestos walls for them to accept(black builders plastic or something) and how much it will cost me. 2) What can I use to fix that hole I made. So far my plan is to use same mortar that will go on the top of water-proofing membrane, but I'm not sure if it's strong enough, I guess alternativelly I can buy a small bag of concrete... 3) What can I use as a waterfroofing membrane for the sower walls. As I understand it's supposed to be some kind of film that goes under cemento-boards. On the same topic, is it true that I need to use differnt types of the wall-boards for the shower and the rest of the bathroom? I was reading that I need to use cemento-boards with waterproofing under them for the shower itself and green willi-boards for the rest of the room? In advance thanks for the response, I'll keep this thread updated. Re: Noob renovating bathroom 2Mar 11, 2009 7:11 pm If your villa was built after 1984 it won't contain asbestos. If it does you need a licenced asbestos remover.
You probably should have got yourself a lot more knowledgable before starting in my opinion Re: Noob renovating bathroom 3Mar 11, 2009 9:12 pm Hehe
Well Unfortunately I don't really know how to get knowledgeable without getting some practice... I'm reading quite a lot of material about it, but different articles use different approaches as well as some of them are american and it looks like they call some materials differently. I mean I can always call a pro in, but I'd rather try it myself first; especially since I have another bathroom to use and I'm not in a hurry. Speaking of asbestos removal, I'm not sure if it's true but a colleague at work said they removed their asbestos walls themselves, obviously they used proper masks, plastic costumes and wrapped the waste in builders plastic, then just brought it to a garbage disposal center that accepts asbestos. But that's all I could find out, that's why I posted here Re: Noob renovating bathroom 4Mar 11, 2009 9:46 pm You'll have to check the guidelines as they have changed recently regarding asbestos removal. - you will need a skip bin lined with plastic regardless.
Your nearest landfill will accept building waste, or you can get a skip bin. You can fill the hole with the same sand/cement screed you will need to lay down before tiling the floor. Gripset make an easy to use waterproofing product which involves laying a mat down in between wet coats to give a watertight seal http://www.gripset.com/construction/product.php?productid=6 Line all the walls with villaboard - its easier than using a mix of villaboard and wet-area gyprock as some do and costs the same. Nail sheets of villaboard if tiling on them or glue with stud adhesive as per gyprock fixing if painting them Re: Noob renovating bathroom 5Mar 12, 2009 4:22 am "and wrapped the waste in builders plastic, then just brought it to a garbage disposal center that accepts asbestos."
I'd check with your council about this as it may be possible, we removed some sheets of asbestos fencing and took it to our council recycling centre at the tip. It had to be wrapped in builders plastic and taped up so it was sealed, and they did have a limit on how much asbestos material you could take in per visit. Re: Noob renovating bathroom 6Mar 12, 2009 11:07 am Good effort so far!
Re: asbestos. Ring the local tip and ask them where you can dump the asbestos and how to wrap it etc. Waterproofing is an incredibly important step. DO SOME PROPER RESEARCH or get it done professionally! If you get it wrong you will regret it... Check out this forum and do a search. Huge amounts of info for you.... It sounds like you need it. http://www.*.com/index.php Re: Noob renovating bathroom 7Mar 12, 2009 12:12 pm You can only legally remove 10sqm of asbestos yourself. I would be careful because if you have already removed it and it's sitting in your yard you can get into a whole lot of trouble. it is supposed to be removed and sealed immediatly. but that's after informing all your neighbours that you are planning on removing asbestos. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no use being a damn fool about it. W.C. Fields Brought Established. Re: Noob renovating bathroom 8Mar 12, 2009 1:20 pm No I haven't removed the walls yet...
Just spoke to someone from wsn.com.au and they said that it just has to be wrapped/sealed in 200micron builders plastic. As it also has been suggested I had a look at council guidelines, that didn't really mention anything about asbestos being removed by licensed builder(I guess it could be written in full rules somewhere rather than guidelines), but it did say about 5 days council and neighbours notification. I don't really have a lot of it. As you can see the whole bathroom is just about 3sqm Also I'm not sure how much 10sqm of asbestos really is. I mean I would assume it would have to be either cubic meters or some weight limit. Anyway I don't think I will have that much, but thanks for letting me know, I'll do some more research on it for sure. Re: Noob renovating bathroom 9Mar 12, 2009 3:27 pm I dumped a fair bit of asbestos once in trailer loads. The lady operating the weighbridge at the tip pulled me up on the first load saying it was too heavy and if I brought another load that weight would refuse me. Apparently there is a weight limit per load... Re: Noob renovating bathroom 10Mar 12, 2009 11:24 pm kostjazz Also I'm not sure how much 10sqm of asbestos really is. I mean I would assume it would have to be either cubic meters or some weight limit. Its very easy to work out. 10 square metres of board laid flat. ie. if a sheet of asbestos you remove is 2.4m x 1m then that is 2.4 sqm's. If you have 4 of these sheets then you have 9.6 sqm's. Re: Noob renovating bathroom 11Mar 13, 2009 2:16 am Im not sure if you saw this but the wsn site has a page on asbestos dumping and what you need to follow to get rid of it through them.
http://wsn.com.au/dir138/wsn.nsf/Content/Household+Items_Asbestos I also found a NSW dept of environment brochure for you on how to handle the waste while you are removing it so have a read through here before you get started - this one is a pdf that will open up http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/waste/asbestos/asbestosweb.pdf ah, here it is: limit on asbestos removal was changed about a year ago in nsw by the look of it http://www.nsw.gov.au/fibro/ that last one also has some guides on removing asbestos safely so have a look at those too. Re: Noob renovating bathroom 12Mar 13, 2009 9:46 am Thanks piscean,
I've seen the first two links, but didn't see the last one. To me, limit by squire meters sounds a bit strange and hard to check. I mean my bathroom would have about 10sqm of the walls but once I stuck the sheets one on another and wrap them in builders plastic it will be impossible to check how much is actually inside. Anyway, I think I have a fairly good idea on what to do with the walls now. Also, do you guys recon I can leave the ceiling and just repaint it? The reason I ask is that first I was thinking to leave it and just refresh the paint coat, but then I realised that I will have to sand it back prior painting and that's definitely something I wouldn't want to do over asbestos material. I'm not sure if it contains it, but I would assume it was made of the same or similar stuff as the walls. Re: Noob renovating bathroom 13Mar 13, 2009 10:16 am Hi Kostjazz
Just wondering why you are removing walls?? Are you enlarging the room? If you are leaving it the same I would just tile over the existing wall cladding.... Re: Noob renovating bathroom 14Mar 13, 2009 1:31 pm Renosmakemeweary Hi Kostjazz Just wondering why you are removing walls?? Are you enlarging the room? If you are leaving it the same I would just tile over the existing wall cladding.... Very good point. First I wanted just to cut about 20-30 centimeters from the bottom to do proper waterproofing. Then I thought that they were made of asbestos and decided of change them. Another reason for changing them was that I wanted to repaint and re-tile them, but to repaint them properly I need to sand-paper them first, and I thought it wasn't a good idea to do it with asbestos. Let me know if I'm missing something in idea of repainting, but as I understand sanding old paint is essential. Re: Noob renovating bathroom 15Mar 13, 2009 2:46 pm "I mean my bathroom would have about 10sqm of the walls but once I stuck the sheets one on another and wrap them in builders plastic it will be impossible to check how much is actually inside."
with sheets you'd just work out the wall space and ignore the thickness. When you take it for disposal they'll be able to tell just by looking at or weighing it if it fits in to the 10m2 limit. Re: Noob renovating bathroom 16Mar 13, 2009 6:02 pm How do you know its asbestos fibre cement and not cellulose fibre cement as used since 1983ish?? Do you know the physical difference between the 2??
Re-lining the walls is the only way to go - its near impossible to remove old tile adhesive without ruining the face of the wall itself. Its also not that exspensive to re-line a wall in Villaboard considering the time you would save too. Re: Noob renovating bathroom 17Mar 13, 2009 6:25 pm If you need a skip in sydney, try Metro Skips. I use them all the time and find them much cheaper than most others, although the receptionist can be quite short and rude. 9833 2330
And as the guy before me wrote, are you sure its asbestos? Asbestos was used until the mid eighties and then cellulose fibre was used. Asbtos is quite brittle, whereas cellulose is soft and crumbly and when wet breaks down into a pulp like substance. Re: Noob renovating bathroom 19Mar 14, 2009 6:45 pm They look pretty much the same, as said its the 'crumble' test to tell the difference Re: Noob renovating bathroom 20Mar 16, 2009 12:46 pm UPDATE:
I couldn't spend too much time working on the bathroom last weekend, but still did a bit of progress. 1) Got it inspected by a builder who confirmed that the walls are not the asbestos ones. So that was a good news. 2) Since the walls were safe, I decided just to remove 20cm from the bottom, so I can see what's happening there and do proper waterproofing. What I saw there was a very good illustration why waterproofing is important. I guess if I didn't have concrete floor, I wouldn't have floor at all by now... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Basically all the studs in one was were gone... Other walls seemed fine, so I removed lower wall sheet to see how bad the damage was Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The rest of the day I spent in bunnings buying treated wood for new studs and cutting dead wood of the old studs. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Plans for this week: Finish the studs, fix up the hole I made in the floor, waterproof the floor in the shower area. What you are looking at is fibrous plaster, true gypsum, it is cast on horizontal beds with fibers included to give strength. I has no Asbestos in it. Houses before 1985… 2 7113 Render your bathroom walls, two opinions versus the one, makes you wonder. 3 6023 Hi Geoff Install Puddle Flange prior to any screed. Puddle flange needs to be flush with the surface so you may need to grind away the surface to achieve this. Also as… 2 8322 |