Because it’s made of dead plants and decaying rocks, my house, which was built over 100 years ago, is falling apart. I have been teaching myself how to do small home repairs and recently went to change the “wax ring” around the base of my toilet. My toilet was kind of loose and when I googled why that might be, I discovered that there is this wax ring that is crushed in between every toilet and floor that needs replacing every decade or so. I watched this youtube video on how to perform this feat. It took me about two hours and when I was finished, the toilet still wobbled. As I was wiggling it around and cursing the plumbing gods I pulled the toilet straight out of the ground, along with some tile and flooring. Here is a sad picture of me after I realized I was in far deeper than I had anticipated. That hole is where I used to have a toilet.

My floor was destroyed from dry rot and water damage and it looked like I needed to replace it in order to have a bathroom again. I found this guy’s youtube channel about remodeling a bathroom which I found fascinating and very helpful. He also has a lot of other videos about hunting which I don’t enjoy but you take the good with the bad.

He started by  removing everything that was rotten or damaged, so, that’s what I did.

After removing the entire floor, I realized that a lot of the studs and drywall were rotten as well. The photo below is essentially everything I tore out before beginning to rebuild.

I removed everything that was rotten including the vanity. What’s left is the tub and a dirt floor. Those support beams that run across the floor have been there for a very long time and even though they were sitting in dirt, they had not been damaged by rot or termites, so I left them. The floor was very damp which was concerning but I figured I’d leave it for a few days to see if it would dry out by itself. After a few days of a floor like this, the ground was still wet and muddy. I couldn’t understand why until I dug around those pipes that are sitting in the ground. After digging a foot into the ground I slid my hand along the bottom of the pipe and discovered that there were holes in the pipes that I could put my fingers through. Yes, that is correct, those waste pipes are over 100 years old and made of iron. They had corroded years ago and were now brittle and broken all along the bottom, leaching waste water under my house for god knows how long. Below is a photo of one of the sections of pipe I cut out. It is now clear why everything was so water damaged and musty. 

This required me to replace all the plumbing which you can see in the photo below. I almost replaced it with the wrong type of pipe which would have been terrible but a helpful Home Depot employee named Joel, happen to ask me what I was doing and stopped from buying the wrong materials before it was too late. I guarantee he regrets doing that because now, whenever I go to Home Depot, I find him to make sure what I’m about to do won’t burn my house down or flood my kitchen. I actually have his work schedule memorized and only go during the hours he is working.

Below you can see the new black ABS pipe that replaced the broken iron pipes. I dug out all the muddy dirt too and dumped it in my backyard. For some reason, and I can’t really explain why, I bought a bunch of gravel and filled in the empty space left by the ground that I dug out. I didn’t see anyone do this anywhere and I didn’t ask Joel (huge mistake on my part) but it just seemed like a good idea. Hopefully it was.

Last weekend, with my dad, I framed the new floor and put down 3/4 inch plywood. Nothing interesting here except that I have never really done this and I was pretty proud of my handy work. Not to toot my own horn but… toot toot!

So there ya have it. I do other things than just sitting in front of my computer all day. (Pats self on back)