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Basement bathroom redo

4K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  huge1s 
#1 · (Edited)
When I moved into this place the basement bathroom was a shitbox. Really junky. It had an el cheapo vanity, a toilet, and a very plain mirror. There was no shut off valve at the toilet, or under the sink. There was a piece of carpet roughly cut to size and tossed on top of the concrete base. There was no electrical outlet.

When my basement flooded a while back and I redid it, I ripped out a sink that was roughly put in for a wet bar on the outside of the bathroom wall. We saw that it had been installed from the same lines as the sink in the bathroom, and also noticed that the plumbing for the whole thing was done with flex line copper tubing, which I was told is actually not to code. So I ripped the flex line out and the bathroom became completely non functional.

It sat that way for a while, until I finally a few months ago got a friend of mine to help and we redid the whole thing.

Here's the sink being torn out



Here's the layout - I hated it because the toilet rough in put the thing way too close to the wall. You'd have your thigh basically against the wall whille taking a dump. I thought maybe about extending the wall out, but that would not work as the utility area of the basement, and the water heater and furnace, sump pump well thing, they're right on the other side and there's no room to expand it. So we turned the whole bathroom - and the toilet is still close, but not as bad as it was. It also made the redo of the plumbling lines MUCH easier, as they basically needed to go to the utility area right on the other side of the wall.



Put up some wainscot, cleaned up the drywall, and painted it up.



Old bathroom had a drop ceiling, with a light and fan that were on a single switch. We tore out the drop ceiling, drywalled it in, and put in a new light, with an integrated fan. Crown molding around the top. We separated the light and fan at the switch plate so you can turn them on individually.

Installed a new vanity light too - so this small space has three switches on the wall now. Top light, vanity light, fan.

An electrical outlet was added near where the sink would be.



New toilet, new pedestal sink, faucet, tile, etc. Not shown, we added white quarter round along the baseboard.



I had to figure out what to do for a mirror. I went looking for a mirror with a nice white frame trim around it but couldn't find much I liked that wasn't way expensive. I was trying to do this on as limited a budget as possible. I found this tip on diynet - and using the old mirror which I had saved just in case, we framed it up and painted it just as they showed in the video.



Mirror finished



If I did it again, I'd probably use a nice vanity with a cabinet as I think it would look better in this space, and I would have used black grout. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with it. I just need to put a picture up or something on the wall which is pretty bare.
 
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#6 ·
Nice work! I have a rough in for a full basement bathroom, and I'm debating about whether to splurge, and do a full bath/shower combo with sink and toilet, do a shower with sink and toilet, or just make it a "half bath" for now. There is going to be a bedroom down there (eventually, as it will be a playroom for now) for guests, but not sure how much an actual bathtub would get used. When the extra room is a playroom, and not a guest room, we still have a pullout couch in the basement which will serve as our temporary "guest quarters"... Love the reno of the bathroom! Any tips/advice you guys could give would be appreciated! Also to note, I have to do a 180 degree turn to get downstairs to the basement (could potentially make transporting a tub down there difficult)...
 
#8 ·
It does have a basement sized window (with a window well outside the house dug into the ground), but I'm not necessarily looking to have it be a legal "bedroom" for re-sale/whatever purposes.

It will be a playroom to start for my child(ren), with space for crafts, and likely a smaller TV (and DVD player, etc.) and then eventually when she/they are older, we'll likely put an extra bed in there so that guests have somewhere to sleep that is better than the pullout couch which will remain in the main space/cave...

The main purpose of the bathroom will be to service the man-cave, to prevent occupants from having to return to the main floor to use the bathroom. The space will also likely be a home theatre type of space for the whole family along with the cave...

It will serve as a guest bathroom once we have a second child (thus filling our upstairs bedrooms) as our occasional guests will get demoted to basement accomodations...
 
#11 ·
It is tough to give advice on the bathroom without more info. If you skip the tub for a shower, can you reclaim the space or will it just be a "roomier" bathroom? You opposed to moving plumbing?

Personally, I would make the extra bedroom an actual legal bedroom. Never know when you will want/need to sell. My house has a workout room that is a legal bedroom (we will never use it as a bedroom) and my office can legally be counted as a bedroom as well (although it looks more like an office). I am sure a potential buyer would see that they could stick one of their 6 kids in those rooms or use them the way we used them. Can't hurt.
 
#9 ·
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