Now for the exciting part! With everything in place behind the walls, it was time to install the drywall, finish installing the subfloor and putting up Kerdi Board where the tile would be.
Before I even finished framing, I installed all of the ceiling drywall. I wanted to get the messiest task out of the way and get the fan installed and tested before closing up other parts of the room in case there was an issue.
When I built the basement bathroom, I used cement board for the walls and waterproofed with Kerdi membrane sheets. It was a relatively easy process, but the cement board was quite annoying to work with. This time, I used Kerdi board, which is basically waterproofed foam board that’s easy to cut and easy to lift and installed it using special fasteners (all part of the Schluter family of products).
I used a pre-made shower niche for the back wall of the shower, but decided to make a custom niche for the front wall of the shower that would line up with a feature in my wood shelf on the adjacent wall.
All of the drywall and Kerdi board was well insulated using Rockwool for sound (on the interior walls) and with a high R-value on the exterior wall. For the drywall, I taped and mudded the wall, but for the Kerdi board I had to close every seam and screw hole using Kerdi band and thinset.
In our old bathroom we had a towel warmer that connected to our boiler. While good in theory, a towel warmer isn’t as awesome as you’d think. When you’re having a warm shower or a bath, hot water is diverted to the shower so the towel warmer doesn’t actually stay warm during your shower. It’s only when you’re NOT showering does the towel get really hot. Given it’s low performance as a towel warmer and the fact that our bathroom isn’t that big to begin with, we decided to move our heat to the floor and get rid of the towel warmer.
My dad and I installed in-floor heating that we connected to the old towel warmer pipes. Luckily I had just enough height to allow it in the floor, since I wanted my tile to be flush with our hallway wood flooring. It took one evening to install all the pipes and subfloor around them. I then spent another day drypacking around the pipes and wood floor where there were gaps so I’d have a solid floor on which to install my tile.
Once the floor was dry, I installed a thin decoupling membrane on top.
With the walls and floor in place, it was time to start tiling!