10 March 2008 - Day 2
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Day two repairing the damaged wood and removing the concrete.

A note from Day 7: Lessons learned as I went through this project. I was expecting the backer board to be a multiple of 16 inches so that they would land on normally spaced studs. But the backer board came in at 3x5 foot. Luckily the prior enclosure was 3x3 so I had nailers at three feet and I put studs on 12" centers on the back wall. The depth of the shower just happened to be a little less than five feet. So, all-in-all, I was VERY lucky. Hopefully you will not need the luck and will plan ahead.

US Gypsum suggests putting green board down first, but I cold find no one else that suggested it, many said it was a waste. But if your studs are on 16" centers, you are either going to do a lot of cutting and throwing away or use green board to support the seams.

I have cut out all the rotten stuff and ready to put it all back together.

I left a space heater blowing on this while we left to get lighting fixtures and a new exhaust fan. That dried out the mess quite well. Of course, removing the old plumbing (first thing in the morning) made things a little wetter.

Starting the Jack hammer work.

I was just starting the section with the tile. I had to stop every 15 minutes so that I could remove the broken up concrete... one five gallon bucket at a time. A good work out.

It may look like a hazy picture, but the this was from all the concrete dust in the air.

After cleaning up for the day you can see the spot I am going to relocate the drain. I want a 1/4" per foot slope to the drain but since the shower is not square I may only do that on the short side. That means from the edges I will have a 3/8" drop from the tile to the drain. That will only be a 3/25" per foot drop on the long side. I think that will be ok.

Close up of the same thing.

Here you can see the replacement wood on the inside of the shower. There is still stained wood (some from the tar on the insulation and some from water), but it is all solid wood. I added an extra stud for the backer board and added all the nailers I need. The nailers are all tight fitting lending even more support. The wall is VERY secure. After all the extra wood the studs are on about 12" centers. Many of those are doubled up.