Two bathrooms for Susan and Colin in Vanier

Ottawa renovation contractor paul gratton susan and colin bathroom vanier day 1 demolition (1)

Day 1: Basement bathroom ‘before’.

During the next month we’re renovating two bathrooms in Susan and Colin’s Vanier (Ottawa) home. Thank you to Sue Fay of Soul Matters Mobile Spa for recommending us.

The basement bathroom is first. The basement bathroom is a full bath. It was ready for and update and more storage. Plus, the fan is on the wall and we’ll move it to the ceiling.

The new fixtures (tub, sink, toilet) will be located in the same place as the old ones — a good way to keep renovation costs down.

Ottawa renovation contractor paul gratton susan and colin bathroom vanier day 1 demolition window in shower

Day 1: Surprise window behind
the shower surround.

Basement bathroom day 1: Demolition Day, as we call it. Everything was standard until we found a window behind the shower surround. The window was sealed up properly from the outside, but not from the inside. It wasn’t insulated or properly finished to be inside a shower.

Basement bathroom day 2: Andrew from Penta Plumbing came this morning to re-working plumbing for the new tub and fixtures.

Ottawa renovation contractor paul gratton susan and colin bathroom vanier day 2 new plumbing

Basement bathroom day 3: plumbing complete and wall
insulated.

Basement bathroom day 3: The shower wall (where the window is) has been re-framed and re-insulated. The shiny membrane acts as both insulation and vapour barrier.

We also drywalled the entire bathroom (walls and ceiling) today with Humitek, special mold-resistant drywall for damp environments.

Ottawa renovation contractor paul gratton susan and colin bathroom vanier day 3 drywall complete

Basement bathroom day 3: Drywall installed.

Ottawa renovation contractor paul gratton susan and colin bathroom vanier day 7 after 2

Basement bathroom day 7: Basement bathroom is complete.
Tip: We filled the tub when caulking to anticipate
any shifting.

Basement bathroom day 7: the bathroom is complete. It’s painted, caulked, all fixtures installed — including a much larger medicine cabinet and moving the fan from the wall to the ceiling.

Ottawa renovation contractor paul gratton susan and colin upstairs bathroom vanier day 1 demolition skylight

Upstairs bathroom day 1: Before
picture. Water damage around
the skylight.

Phase Two: Upstairs Bathroom
With the basement bathroom complete we’re starting work today on the upstairs bathroom.

Main bathroom day 1: The bathroom is in need of a style update plus the skylight leaks badly. You never know what’s behind the walls, so demolition day can be full of surprises. We weren’t let down. On one wall, drywall was attached to a bookshelf. On another wall there was a hidden junction box — a code violation and safety hazard.

A few words from Colin
“We were very satisfied with the excellent work done by Paul and Don. They were easy to deal with and came up with helpful suggestions to problems that came up. They cleaned up after the work each day so that you almost didn’t know that they’d been there, and didn’t let the job drag on forever. We’ve seen that movie with other contractors before. They also managed to befriend our dogs.”