Sep 07
9
Unexpected Home Repairs
Posted by Stephen9
Tags: accident, learning
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One of the boys yanked on the bathtub soap tray during their bath tonight, and the whole thing pulled right out of the wall. So OK, they’re having fun in the bath, but maybe getting a little carried away, yes? It was kind of cracked and weak anyway, so I’d been expecting something like this.
Fixing the hole is not too difficult. Just cut some backing to size and glue new tiles over the top. No, I’m not replacing the soap tray. We’ve never actually used it for soap, and replacing it would just tempt the kids to see how good Dad’s repairs were. A few experimental tugs might liberate it from the wall again. So I’ll tile it over. After a while we’ll forget there was ever anything there.
The big hassle is not being able to use our only bath / shower for a couple of days while the new grout sets. So I’m taking advantage of the situation to simultaneously fix a bigger problem.
A few months ago a crack developed in the wall about nose-height, and water got in. The plaster swelled and the wall bulged. To fix it I have to cut out a whole section of wall, put in a new water-proof concrete replacement, seal all the edges, finish the surface, and repaint. As you can see, I’ve completed the first step. Behind the plaster there’s some token insulation with tar paper backing.
That means an even longer time with no shower. We’ll be pretty smelly by next weekend. Just kidding. We have a bucket. I guesstimate we’ll be back in business by Friday evening. We’ll see. Of course, the real problem here is that I’m an utter amateur at home repair. Thus it is a venture into the great unknown. Having no shower provides additional time pressure to get the job done. Check back for daily progress reports.
