In which I do the math

On July 9, 2014July 9, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Geek1 Comment

$keep-calm-and-do-the-math-25$ Okay. That’s a 3.5 gallon tub of RedGard. Per Google, 3.5 gallons is 808 cubic inches. Let’s assume that between the rollers, the paintbrushes, the paint tray, the sides of the container, etcetera that a full third of the RedGard has ended up wasted in some way or another.

Therefore there are 808 x .66 = 533.28 cubic inches of RedGard on the walls.

The two side walls are roughly 32 inches wide by 80 high; the back wall is 58 inches long by 80 high. That’s 32 x 80 x 2 = 5120 square inches on the sides and 58 x 80 = 4640 square inches on the back for a total of 9760 square inches.

Divide the RedGard’s volume by the wall’s area to determine the thickness: 533.28/9760 = .0546 inches thick.

One mil is 1/1000 of an inch, therefore the coating of RedGard is 54.6 mils thick.

The coating is supposed to be 30 mils thick.

We good.

Terrible Decisions: Redrum edition

On July 7, 2014July 7, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy, Photography4 Comments

…and here’s what’s happening today. This is after one coat of RedGard; there will be at least one more today and quite possibly two, depending on how well the second coat covers. You’re not supposed to be able to see the letters on the cement board anymore and obviously the first coat didn’t manage that.

(The pictures are really blurry. Don’t know why.)

It was determined that this was to be my wife’s job, as I have never been good at painting in any context, and painting with something that had been described as “runny mayonnaise” did not seem like optimal conditions. (For whatever it’s worth, the texture is more like pudding– less gloppy than mayo– and Bek says it’s been applying just like paint, only heavier. She’s not been having any problems.)

Next step is tile, although technically once the RedGard is on the shower is fully usable. God please don’t let me fuck up the tile. That should be next weekend.

Terrible Decisions: the repurchasing

On January 19, 2014January 19, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy7 Comments

Here’s what you’re looking at:

Six pieces of 5′ x 3′ Durock cement board;
3 1/2 gallons of Redgard;
Our new showerhead/faucet combo;
A six foot metal ruler that I plan to use as a straightedge (and, dammit, is too wide for the back of the shower, but it’ll still help to trim the Durock)
Three clean 5-gallon buckets;
A variety of painting implements and sponges and grouting tools and a notched trowel and an X-Acto knife and a few other things inside the buckets

Off-camera:

A hundred goddamn pounds, which seems crazily excessive now that I think about it but the guy insisted was the right amount for our square footage, of dry mortar;
25 pounds of grout;
An 8-foot wall stud that I need to cut to a three-foot length to give me something to attach the cement board to in a weird part of the wall;
20 feet of J-channel to set the cement board into on the tub;
Dual-sided sixteenth-inch tape to attach the J-channel to the tub;
Several hundred screws;
Several hundred spacers;
Mesh tape for the cement board;
Respirator masks, because I hear Redgard is nasty-smelling shit;
A caulk tube

Shit we forgot to buy:

A handful of wood screws to attach the aforementioned 2 x 4; we probably have some suitable ones in a drawer in the garage somewhere, though;
A caulk gun;
Some regular blue painter’s tape to tape tiles to each other while they’re setting;
Some other damn thing I can’t remember right now but hopefully either I or the wife will by the early-morning Lowe’s run tomorrow morning.

And we didn’t buy this today but:

You can see the side of our new vanity, which we had to take out of the box because we used the box for broken drywall and tile when we did the demolition;
Our new toilet (still in the box)
And a bunch of other shit that has nothing to do with the bathroom reno but is still piled up in that corner.

We’re out, like, $525 or something. And I am so gonna completely fuck up putting the walls up tomorrow. Be prepared for me to burn the house down and blame it on a spider or something.