The bricklayer and his crew started work about two weeks ago. All in all, it took them about 3 days to lay all the brick veneer (over 2100 bricks in all). They started out by laying everything out and getting their equipment ready.
The first couples courses were the most time consuming, but once they got going, it went pretty fast.
With two guys working, they went through nearly a whole pallet the first day. They came back two days later armed with three more pallets of brick and a crew of 5 guys.
We matched the brick (Old Phoenix) and they did the best they could to match the mortar color which was died a darker shade of gray than normal. I had them tooth in the new veneer to the old which makes the transition invisible from the street and barely noticeable close up. Below, you can see where they removed half bricks from the old/existing veneer. They then replaced the voids will full bricks as they went along creating a seamless transition.
They flew through the work the second day and came back Friday to finish up. The finished product looks absolutely great and like its been there all along. I'll follow up on the old veneer to scrub down the green brick which will make everything match perfectly. I have never liked the green ones anyway!
One small project before we move on to the next big one. In anticipation of the drywallers, I set about forming the pre-pitch on the shower pan and putting in the pan liner. I used a coping saw with the handle removed to cut the shower drain pipe below grade at just the right level and then backfilled the hole with concrete. After allowing the concrete to cure for 24 hours, Jason and I starting laying out the pre-pitch guides. These nifty, long plastic pieces have a built in slope to them so that an amateur (me) can lay out a custom mortar bed with the correct/required pitch.
All showers will leak at some point. Mortar is not water proof and even if you seal it, hairline cracks will eventually develop which will allow water to seep past the tile/mortar and then down through the mortar bed to the waterproof membrane. If you don't have a pre-pitched slope underneath the membrane, you end up with small amounts (or in some cases, large amounts) of standing water. This water then rapidly aids in the development of mold and mildew which will ruin the shower in short order. The pre-pitch creates a slope that leads to the drain. The water that makes it through the tile and mortar bed and onto the membrane now has a sloped path to drain away. This is critical to shower construction and a step often neglected by homeowners and unscrupulous builders. For our bathroom, we wanted to do it the right way the first time!
We mixed the deck mud just a bit wetter than a pro would, which helps in the troweling required to use the plastic pitch product. A pro would normally use a much dryer mix, but he also wouldn't use the plastic pitch guide since he's done 100's or 1000's of shower pans. The end result:
Over the top of that, we carefully placed a 6 foot by 8 foot sheet of pvc shower pan liner (the membrane) and stapled it to the studs about 8 inches above the ground level. Where the liner met the drain we used a heavy bead of 100% silicone caulk and bolted the flange down over the membrane to the receiver we glued in the night before. I'll take a picture when I do the final mortar bed this weekend.
On to drywall!!! The drywallers were scheduled to show up at 8am last Saturday. We both spent the night before (Friday) feverishly finishing little things that needed to be done prior to drywall. It was a rude awakening to be sure when we woke to the sounds of the dog barking and a fist pounding on our front door at....6:45am... Over an hour early. No problem, we made due but I did find their attitude a bit annoying. They seemed kind of pissy that we didn't answer the door right away (remember we were dead asleep and had to throw on some clothes, etc., plus the doorbell is broken right now so they may have been "ringing" for a while). At any rate, we brushed it off and they got to work. They had everything hung, taped and mudded the first day.
In the bathroom, we used greenboard, which is a slightly more moisture resistant drywall that also has some mold resistance. For the shower, they used a fiberglass impregnated board called "DensShield" which handles a lot like drywall, but is used for tile backing. (We'll go over this will a few coats of redguard to water seal evertything prior to tiling over it.) Ceilings got no sag drywall and the closet got standard drywall. I pray to god they didn't hit any pipes or wires. Even though everything was "protected" by metal plates, you just never know...They missed a number of studs with their screw guns and I've heard of guys running screws/nails right through the 16ga. protective plates. We'll find out I guess....hope everything is ok!!!
We decided on a 90/10 sante fe finish which is basically a 90% smooth surface with 10% rough patches randomly spread on the wall. It hides small imperfections in the wall and was drastically cheaper than a completely smooth finish. The weather was more humid than usual, so the guys had to wait 36 hours before they could come back to apply the 2nd coat of mud and texture. They arrived Monday morning and were done in about three hours. They were back the following day to sand and clean up. The end result looks pretty awesome!
Its amazing to walk into the bathroom and see the structure finally coming together. All those months of framing and plumbing and electric and everything else...Its all hidden now. If all goes well, the only people who will look at any of that in the next 40+ years will be those who see the pictures on my blog.
We've already started priming the walls and this weekend we'll move on to paint and getting the mortar bed for the shower done and the tub placed. Then its on to tile, which I ordered today. Good god, tile is expensive. I won't say what I spent, but I ordered 342 square feet of 12x24 tile in a really nice gray color along with 29 square feet of a beautiful linear mosaic comprised of glass, marble and travertine strips. I also ordered enough bullnose (I hope) for the project and about 114 square feet of high quality, birch wood flooring for the closet. I'm told everything should be in by late next week. I'll have to pick it up in chunks because I understand the tile alone will weigh well over 1000 pounds. Now to see if our neighbor will loan us his commercial grade tile saw... O.O
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