Yet more progress

Both Ms. K and I had today off. I took the opportunity to work on a few all-day projects that were part of the bathroom renovation. 

The old galvanized pipes had to go.  Slowly, over the course of the last few weeks, I installed a manifold and ran PEX lines to the existing plumbing in the house. Over the weekend, I cut the plumbing over to the new supply lines.  Pretty uneventful, except for the one fitting I failed to clamp. That was only a little messy and there was only a little water in the basement. The good news: we're on the new plumbing now, complete with 100% filtered water throughout the whole house.

I spent the quiet hours of the mornings to work on plumbing concepts for drain and vent lines. After a third attempt, I think I have a code-compliant solution thanks to the help of some online plumbing forums. My next step is to send the sketches over to the building inspector for his buy-off before I pick out fittings and start putting pipe in place.

Over the weekend, I looked into how to make space for the tub drain. The drain outlet lined up almost perfectly with one of the floor joists. After careful consideration, I chose to install double headers and "box out" the area where the tub drain is to be installed.

I also made a list of things to pick up at Menards. One interesting finding after we pulled the tub out of the room was that the builder shaved (or should I say, hacked away) the studs on the wall formerly adjacent to the tub.

I picked up enough 10' 2x4s to sister each of the studs on the east wall. I also picked up two sheets of CDX plywood to reinforce the floor joists under the bathroom. After activating Truck Mode on the Sportwagen, I was in good shape.  The guard at the yard gate at Menards was a little skeptical when he saw me roll up with plywood and 2x4s strapped to the roof of a station wagon, but I did make it home without any issues. The load did not shift.

This morning, I stripped the remnants of the old floor from the room. Yes, that's the basement...

It's cold here, so instead of using my battery-powered circular saw, I reverted to the good ol' corded version to cut up the lumber for today's work. The Shop Dogs and cutting table came in super handy again. I ripped the 2x10s to 9" to match the dimension of the existing conditions. I also cut up the 4x8 sheets of plywood into 8" strips to be used for reinforcement.

The moment of truth finally arrived. After making a trip to Home Depot to pick up additional joist hangers, construction screws, and nails, it was time. I brought the trusty old corded Makita circular saw back inside to cut the joists after bracing the long end with a 2x4 in the basement. Here goes nothing...

The good news is that nothing moved. I added double headers on either side of the cut joist and attached with joist hangers.

Then, I added the plywood reinforcement strips with construction adhesive and #10 construction screws.

All in a day's work. I have two or three more plywood reinforcements to install, then I am ready to put the subfloor in place. 

Once the next spool of PEX tubing arrives this week, I can finish up the supply lines and hopefully move towards rough plumbing inspection.