DIY bath repair

2024 Author: Arianna Cook | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:23

Over time, any structure, depending on the degree of its wear and tear, needs to be updated in appearance or replace entire structures, the bath is no exception. The sequence and technology of its repair will be discussed in this article. Content:

1. Revision of structures in the bath

2. Repair of basic structures

   • Foundation
   • Floor
   • Walls
   • Ceiling
   • Roof
3. Useful Tips

If the roof is leaking in the old bath building, the floors are rotten, and the heated rooms do not retain their warmth, this suggests one thing - it's time to make repairs. At the same time, it is not at all necessary to hire a sophisticated team of specialists; it is quite possible to repair the bath with your own hands. It should start with an analysis of structural defects, and then proceed to eliminate them.

Revision of structures in the bath

The purpose of this event in the repair of wooden baths is to detect construction defects, determine ways to correct them and a set of necessary works.

The audit is performed in this way:

1. Inspection of external walls is in progress. The condition of their insulation is checked, the presence or absence of cracks, cracks, the safety of corners and other wall elements.
2. The foundation is being inspected. If there is a subsidence and large cracks in it, repairing the foundation may not help, and the structure will have to be demolished or disassembled.
3. The condition of the ceiling, roof, chimney and sauna stove is examined. The ceiling and roof should not have cracks and insulation defects, the sauna stove and chimney should not have cracks and destruction.
4. When inspecting the condition of windows and doors, their tightness, the absence of distortions and other types of deformations are checked.
5. The floors of the bath and its internal walls are inspected for the absence of fungus, the safety of the wood of the floor boards and the frame of the partitions.
6. The condition of the drainage system from the bath, shelves and bath furniture is checked.

After identifying areas of the building requiring repair and assessing the scale of the tragedy, it is necessary to draw up an expense estimate for the necessary materials and start work.

Repair of the main structures of the bath

The basic structures of the bath include: foundation, walls, roof, floor and ceiling. Let's take a look at how they are being repaired.

Bath foundation repair

In the old bath, the repair of the foundation is necessary in the presence of such signs: a noticeable tilt of the flooring, the beginning of the destruction of the walls, cracks in the base of the bath. If there are any, the first thing to do is to divert groundwater from the walls of the bath using a drainage system, storm sewer and a reliable blind area.

Having eliminated the cause of subsidence or destruction, you can start repairing the bath foundation. It is done like this:

1. Preparing the bath for moving. To do this, it is necessary to free its internal space as much as possible from furniture, appliances, interior items and even a stove.
2. To raise a small wooden bath, you will need several jacks and beams to fix the building in a new position. This process takes place gradually and slowly in order to avoid disturbing the geometric proportions of the walls. Otherwise, it will be problematic to return them to their original position. The bathhouse is raised in parts with the help of jacks: first, one corner of it rises to a small height, then the opposite corner moves the same distance. All new positions of the structure are fixed by placing a bar. The actions are repeated until the bath is raised to the desired height.
3. After the completion of this stage of work under the building, the territory is cleared for the construction of a new foundation.
4. Then the formwork is installed, reinforcing cages are made.
5. After that, the concrete mixture is poured into the formwork. To save it, stones can be applied to the formwork.
6. After the concrete hardens, the new foundation must be covered with a coating and roll waterproofing made on the basis of bituminous materials.
7. After three weeks, the bath can be lowered onto the concrete foundation that has gained strength, having previously removed the formwork. As well as raising the bath, its transportation to a new place is carried out alternately along the sides - carefully and slowly.

Bath floor repair

When diagnosing the floor, its front finish, the condition of the embedded beam, the log and the lower crown of the log house are checked. A sign of floor rotting is the appearance of an unpleasant smell from the underground space. It is visually difficult to identify spoiled material - outwardly its wood looks healthy. To check its condition, you can use a regular awl. Rotten wood is pierced with little or no effort.

The lags of the floor begin to collapse from their end part. In the absence of waterproofing, destruction is many times faster. Rotting of the plank floor is especially dangerous for frame baths and log cabins, as this process can spread to their walls. When repairing the floors of a bathhouse, pieces of unusable wood are cut out from their upper part, and new boards are inserted into the vacant space and nailed to the logs. Then they are aligned with a plane. When the floor decays, beams, logs, rough and finish coatings, and often the mortgage crowns, must be urgently changed. In this case, the entire floor is raised with a jack, the lower part of the log house is removed in parts and the old embedded beams are replaced with new beams. Floor joists are attached to the new embedded elements, and on them - a new boardwalk. In addition, the floor must be insulated. For the washing compartment, you can use foam plastic with a thickness of 15 cm sheets, and for the dressing room - foam of the same thickness.

Advice! To determine the beginning of the process of damage to wood, you need to hit the floorboards with a hammer. The muffled sound of the impact indicates the beginning of the destruction of the boards. To determine the state of the lag, you need to hit the nails that attach the flooring to them. A dull sound is given by a rotten tree.

Bath wall repair

If, during the audit, a leak of heat from the bath through its walls is detected, they are re-insulated. It runs like this:

• Old materials are removed from the walls, and bars are packed on the log walls to obtain a flat surface. They are placed on logs in an upright position.
• Then a vapor barrier membrane is fixed on the bars with a stapler.
• Between the cells of the lathing, a slab insulation made of basalt wool is laid.
• The insulation is covered from the outside with a waterproofing film and external cladding.

With external insulation, hinged ventilated panels can be used as external cladding, while coniferous lining can be used for the internal one. Often the repair of walls in a bathhouse is limited to simple caulking of horizontal joints of logs.

Bath ceiling repair

Often the ceiling is repaired due to the furnace repair. To repair the ceiling of the bath, the old coating is first removed. For this, all insulation is removed from the attic. In old baths, moss, sand, sawdust, expanded clay, slag, etc. served as a heat insulator. In order not to raise a lot of dust during cleaning, the material needs to be slightly moistened.

Then the first board is removed. All subsequent materials are filmed from inside the room. After disassembling the attic floor, it is necessary to inspect the beams. Rotten lumber needs to be replaced.

If the attic flooring does not need to be replaced, the repair of the ceiling is limited to its insulation. It is done with foam or mineral wool. From the side of the attic, the insulation is laid on the vapor barrier between the floor beams. From above, the material is covered with waterproofing and a plank flooring of the attic, which is nailed to the beams.

Repair of the roof over the bathhouse

Depending on the type of materials used, the roof of the bath is repaired in the following way:

1. Slate … Cracks in the slate sheet are sealed with a mixture of cement, fluffed asbestos and PVA glue. The ratio of cement and asbestos is 1: 3, diluted with water 1: 1 PVA glue is introduced into their dry mixture until it reaches the consistency of sour cream. After cleaning the surface, it is primed with a solution of PVA glue, and then the cracks are coated with prepared mastic. It is applied in layers until a coating thickness of 2 mm is achieved. Each layer must dry.
2. Metal roof … Metal roof fistulas are sealed with tow dipped in hot bitumen and filled with a top layer of bitumen mastic. More significant damage is repaired with patches. The metal around the defective spot is treated with hot bitumen. Then a couple of layers of roofing material are laid on top, which are lubricated with mastic.
3. Soft roof … When repairing a soft roof, carefully remove the damaged fragment. They clean the surface, remove the nails. Then they grease a new tile with glue, install it, putting it under the bottom of the top sheet. Then it is fixed with roofing nails, and the joints are coated with sealant.

Useful tips when repairing a bath

We examined the renovation of the bath for its main structures. Now let's talk about the small details:

1. It will not be superfluous to completely replace the electrical wiring in the bath rooms. Old aluminum wires must be replaced with copper conductors. When using electric heaters, the cross-sectional area of the wire is chosen equal to 4 mm², 2.5 mm will be enough to power the light bulbs².
2. Old doors or windows are often the cause of drafts in the bath. It is better to replace them with new ones with careful insulation. Slopes are insulated with foam, large gaps between door, window frames and the wall are filled with foam.
3. Bath furniture, which has become unusable from long use in humid conditions, must be replaced. When making new benches, tables and shelves, their wooden surfaces must be impregnated with an antiseptic to protect them from decay.
4. Particular attention should be paid to the repair of the wastewater disposal system. If the floor in the steam room or washroom does not slope towards the drain, it must be completed with a new cement screed. Cleaning the drain pipelines is also part of the bath repair measures. If pipes are often clogged, they must be replaced with products of a larger diameter.
5. Bath repairs sometimes include replacing the stove. It is convenient to carry out this work simultaneously with the repair of the ceiling and roof, since the passage to the outside of the chimney must be linked to these structures.

How to make repairs in the bath - watch the video:

In general, repairs in the bath are easy to do. Much depends on the degree of "neglect" of the structure, the scale and purpose of the repair. It is useful to remember that patching old holes in a building is less effective than performing new insulation. Good luck!