One of our most recent projects came after fixing a leak in our roof...oh the joys of home ownership.
Once upon a time...
we bought a house with a brand new roof. About 4 months after we moved in, that brand new roof started leaking, what a joy. Our fault I suppose, we chose to buy a house with a flat roof so it's almost like we were asking for it. The only luck we got with this was that the leak was right over the bathroom sink, so no damage other than the ceiling. I tried multiple times to get the roofers to come out and fix it (I could write a whole other post on what a hassle that was) and they told me multiple times they would, but never did. I called the city to get any sort of information on when the roof was completed with no luck. Overall, it was a complete pain in the ass trying to figure out what to do and the repair was not enough to make it worth filing a claim with insurance. After a bit of convincing Jesse that we could dig into it ourselves (how most of our projects start) to at lease see what we were dealing with, we tore out the drywall and found our leak. It was a drainage pipe that flows through the attic space to the outside gutter. Jesse sealed it back up, inside and out and we were left with a giant hole in our bathroom ceiling.
Time for a project!
Why put it back the way it was when you can make it even better?
Jesse and I are too creative to have just put up another white drywall ceiling so, we went in a different direction. Also, please note, Jesse HATES installing drywall (See Exhibit A of drywall chucked over the balcony). Our solution? Wood!
For consistency, we did replace the drywall we had taken down (didn't mud/texture) and it was during this process I could see why he hates it. Once you hear Jesse say, "Is this a f****** joke?", you know things didn't go quite as planned. The important thing, was that after cutting a new piece of drywall (or 2...or 3), the hole was gone!
Next was deciding on what type of wood to use, planks, shiplap, bead board etc. It probably would've been a easier decision to make had I not had another idea and decided that we should also make a wood shower floor to match! I bet you can just see the smile on Jesse's face at this point. And let's get real, we already started, so why not make a barn door, install glass shower doors and paint while we're at it! No big deal!
However, first things first....
I wanted the ceiling and shower to be the same type of wood and had settled on shiplap for the ceiling. I was tasked with finding wood that could withstand the water from the shower that also had the dimensions we wanted/needed to get the look we were going for. We settled on Cedar since it does better with water over pine, and would look good in the shower and on the ceiling. To make it even better, this was all going on during COVID-19. Shopping was tricky and supplies were limited. We (with our handy dandy masks) headed to Home Depot to see what they had and of course, the selection was terrible. Off to another Home Depot where we found 1x8 8ft. cedar shiplap but no wood for the floor. Off to another Home Depot.....and another, where we finally found the planks we needed, 1x3 12ft. cedar planks. Side note, we may or may not have mathed wrong and had to go back the next day for an additional board. Whoops.
The process...
For those that are Pretty Woman fans, our bathroom is not bigger then The Blue Banana. It is small, measuring about 7.5 ft. by 5.5 ft. We decided to lay the shiplap with the long length of the room so visually, it felt bigger.
I started by sanding with my hand sander, using 80 (on the larger imperfections only), 100, 120 & 200 grit paper, wiping them down in-between each change in grit. Once sanding was complete, the boards were then wiped clean a final time and were ready for stain. I tested a couple of Varathane stains, "Kona" and "Red Oak". I chose the Red Oak because despite the name, it had no red tones on the cedar and wasn't too dark. I wanted a darker stain for the richness but had we gone too dark, our tiny bathroom would look even smaller. Staining was quick and easy...I brushed each board and then wiped it with a cotton towel. The boards sat overnight to dry (I'm impatient so this was hard for me to wait) and the next day got 2 coats of Varathane Polyurethane in a satin finish as we didn't want them to have a high shine. Polyurethane is not my favorite product but, after the leak in the roof, I didn't want to take any chances with moisture and knew it would do the trick.
The shiplap turned out beautifully!!!
Finally....time to put the boards up! To prepare for this we found and marked, using a chalk line (my favorite tool of all time), all of the ceiling joists. This helped us later on so we knew where to nail.
As we all know, walls (especially in an older house) and wood boards are not always perfectly straight so we measured the width of the room where each board would lie and cut them one by one. We also wanted to have a similar gap between each board which meant trying out how they would fit next to each other to get our order of placement prior to cutting. Although time consuming, this gave us clean edges since we hadn't yet decided if we would want to put trim up around the edge of the room once finished. For the most part, the actual shape of the ceiling was pretty easy to work with, we only had a two boards that needed a cutout. Jesse cut all ends and cutouts with a skill saw (I know, I know...not ideal but we work with what we have sometimes), and knocked it out of the park. We ran a line of liquid nails on each board before placing and (reluctantly) nailing. I will say, Jesse's sawing skills are much better than his glue application skills.
I was reluctant on putting nails right through my beautifully finished shiplap because I didn't want to see the nail holes as I believed they would be a huge eyesore. After it was explained to me, by the one who can see the reality of what should be done in order to be correct, I will say, I was wrong. It was the easiest and most secure way of doing it. Of course, if I go look for nail holes I see them, but they are not noticeable with a glance. I have also come to terms with the fact that the very few other people that go in our bathroom, are probably not going in there to look for nail holes.
And that was the end of it. There is no longer a hole in my ceiling and it looks beautiful! It gives a rich, warm feeling to the room. A good start to the other transformations to come which include the shower floor, barn door and a frameless glass shower door...I will not miss having a shower curtain.
Check Jesse Notes if you want to see the details of what we used and a better description of the work that actually went into it.
2022 Update: We have since had a roofer install Scupper Boxes around the perimeter of the roof. This replaced all of the old drains on the roof that had to flow through the attic and then back out to the gutter, limiting the possibility of future leaks. We have not had a single issue since it was done!
Commentaires