Most people who purchase older homes complain about the expense involved with renovating the home to make it comfortable. Now I can see why! My older home was made with real tile in the bathroom. I love the real tile because it feels authentic and rich, but it is terribly dirty. The older grout is very tough to clean as well, so no matter how hard I try, the bathroom always tends to look insanely dirty.
Morning after morning while I was taking my shower, I couldn’t help but just feel gross – like something needed to be done about the space to make a real change. I contacted the tile specialty store nearby and told them about my problem. They suggested sandblasting the tile, but I had already tried that. Finally, the suggested just installing a new shower with a plastic finish on top of the existing tile.
I checked out the price and styles of the new showers at the local hardware store. The showers were not very expensive and really seemed to be worth the price. After all, who really can put a price on cleanliness and daily piece of mind?
The new shower was also incredibly easy to install. I called up the plumber that had done work changing out my existing pipes and I told him about my problems. He gave me some suggestions for new showerhead types that would go well with the water pressure in my house.
I purchased the new shower and had them deliver it. The shower can complete with the sides and a beautiful glass door that opened and shut using a magnetic strip. It looks very modern.
Once the new shower was at my home, I began removing the old shower with my brother. The old shower was installed with heavy cement that had been dripped between steel grids. It was heavy and a pain in the butt to remove. We had to work quickly though because I only had one shower in my house and I really wanted to get everything done by the next day so that I wouldn’t have to worry about finding another place to shower before work on Monday.
We hacked at the cement and used a drill in places where it was particularly hard. We loaded up my brother’s truck and had to drive the cement to the dump because our city’s garbage men would not take it away on their own. There’s some sort of weight limit for garbage.
When we were all cleaned out, the plumber came in to install the showerhead and new piping to fit the dimensions of the new shower. It literally took only a few minutes for him to do his job.
Next, we placed the new shower into the cleaned-out space and glued it in using the special glue kit that comes in the same isle in the hardware store. We caulked around the border of the shower so that the water would not drip into the cracks and then we were done.
The whole process was labor intensive, but relatively easy. I would recommend it for anyone that has an older tile bathroom. The newer showers are so clean and just make you feel so much better about owning an older house.