Sunday, March 2, 2014

Big Bad Water Heater Replacement & Laundry Room Renovation

Once in a while, a project comes along...

I have allergies. I mean, BAD allergies which keep me in a state of perpetual sickness at certain times of year, sinus clogging, sneezing, itching...

I blame it on the dog fur, the dusty bookshelves, the pollen in the air, the dry heat of the wood stove... I clean and vacuum constantly, but it never seems to make a difference in my health level, but recently we discovered a more sinister culprit - MOLD.

That's right, a silent stealthy sickener which was breeding in my windowsills, bathrooms, and more importantly IN THE FLOOR & WALLS surrounding my old, leaky water heater which was seriously about to rust right through. And where, you ask, is that moldy mess located in my house? You guessed it, about 4 feet from the air intake of my electric heating system! So the moldy air was getting pumped through my home every time the heat kicked on. No wonder I was getting sick.

Cue MAJOR RENOVATION!


Step 1 - Remove the build-out surrounding the leaky water heater, and all damaged drywall with visible mold in the area. Look inside the walls! Remove all mold.

Yes, I noticed my laundry room is a truly heinous yellow. Yes, I painted it that unacceptable color. It was a $5 bargain "oops" paint from Home Depot, and I can see why they returned it. Somehow I thought it was better than the dingy white I had when we moved in. Don't worry, I used this opportunity to upgrade to some MOLD RESISTANT PAINT in a lovely lavender.

Drywall removal is hard, dusty work that made my arm hurt. We covered everything in the room (shelves, laundry machines) with plastic to help with the drywall dust, and wore masks with ventilators. I still felt like I had a dry cough for a few hours after working on it. Serious stuff... be careful! Pieces of drywall were flying everywhere. Use eye protection.


Step 2 - Remove the old water heater & open up the floor to remove mold.

Yes, that leaky old rust pile had been slowly seeping onto our floor for years, and the linoleum just didn't hold up or keep it from soaking the subfloor. So, there was mold there too. It was an old water heater, and we were naive about the lifespan of these things. It probably should have been replaced years ago, but who knew? Whoops! LOL

We used a combination of circular and reciprocating saws (Skil saw and Sawzall for you laymen) to make the cuts in our studs and flooring. We were very careful to set the depth of the saw for the flooring so we didn't accidentally cut wiring or pipes. To cut the drywall, a box knife is useful. As you can see, we had to cut out some of the stud bottoms on the back of the wall to remove some serious black mold.

Ventilation was important with all this mold and dusty construction. We kept the door open as much as possible and used an air purifier when not working to detox the room.


Step 3 - Plumbing the new water heater and cleaning all moldy areas while the floor and walls were open.

Because of the overwhelming costs related to hiring a plumber (they need special permits and homeowners don't) we decided to plumb this ourselves using a modern product called Pex piping, and Shark Bite connectors. There are countless videos on the internet about how to use these two products and replace your own plumbing. So we learned something new on this project which may help a lot in the future when we have to re-plumb the whole house!

Cleaning the mold was a multi-step process. We sprayed with special mold sprays which are supposed to attack the roots of the mold and prevent re-growth. Then we sprayed a 50-50 mixture of water and bleach, and let me tell you it was AMAZING! Within an hour the black mold on my windowsills and above my shower had DISAPPEARED completely, where repeated scrubbings had failed with my other cleaning products in the past. If you are having mold problems, bleach is your friend. 


Step 4 - Repair the floor and walls!

Time to close the wound... so we cut new subfloor out of plywood, added new "sister" studs in the floor and walls to repair the damaged wood inside, cut new drywall, taped & mudded, sprayed texture, AND added new Allure flooring (which looks like wood laminate but is actually RUBBER - so simple to install with a box knife & straight edge). Did I mention that the walls behind the old water heater were completely unfinished? That probably allowed the mold to creep in even more easily. This step was more like an elaborate dance with many twists and turns, but as you can see we got it all done in time to (fanfare please) INSTALL the WATER HEATER!


Step 5 - Hook it all up and pray.

Well, it doesn't look great yet in this shot, but it's in and it works. Everybody got a nice hot shower to wash the drywall dust off, and 50 gallons gives much longer showers than our old rusted 40 gallon ever could. Having it out in the open may be unattractive, but we can keep a good eye on it this time and be aware of leaks. 

So, slap some paint on the wall and I'm good to go, right? WRONG!!! LOL


Step 6 - Finish the floor and walls.

Did I mention I had to move the washer & dryer in order to finish the floor? It definitely also helped with the painting. I chose to paint behind the units white because I had one gallon of the lavender paint. Good thing I did, because in the end I had just enough to lavender to cover the yellow on  the walls and ceiling. The room was looking great, water-proof floors in place. But as long as I had the machines moved out...


Step 7 - Build a platform for my front-loading laundry machines so I can quit hurting my back doing loads.

$35 of lumber and 2 hours later... I used a Skil saw to make the carefully measured cuts, nailed the frame together like a sturdy wall, and screwed the supports and the frame into studs all the way around. It took five 8 foot 2x6 boards. I had a piece of plywood pressboard lying around which fit the top perfectly.


I painted the shelf white, leaving most of the wood beneath unpainted so the green lumber can dry out properly. The guys lifted the washer and dryer back up for me and hooked them up to the power & water. Time to do some dusty, nasty workwear laundry!

Incidentally, the space under the machines is perfect for my laundry baskets. Other good uses: recycling bin storage, sports equipment baskets, dirty work & play shoes.


The finished room!

Well, I've added shelving and cleaned off the top of the washer since this pic was taken, but you can see the finished paint job pretty well here. I love the lavender much more than the yellow, that's for sure! But mostly I love how NOT ONE DAY since the mold was removed have I been sick, even with all the dust of the renovation floating around, and the dog & wood stove in full effect. I feel great! 

The last little step was replacing the filter in our furnace intake. We didn't want to turn it back on and release old mold spores into the house. Now I am enjoying a crackling wood stove fire, good health, extra long showers and easy-to-reach laundry machines. What more could a soul want? LOL 







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