With the
roof done, the
scaffolding down, the
balcony cleared and the
downspout finished, it's finally time start focusing on the inside of the flat!
The first line of business will be to build our shower - but of course there is lot to be done before starting work on the actual shower. When we were
leveling the floors back in January and February, we left out a few areas and never finished the sub-floor in the bathroom. So the first task will be to build and level the sub-floor - once that's done, the wall framing can go up and the initial plumbing (called roughing) can go in, followed by the waterproofing and tiles...
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| August 11th -montage of the bathroom before starting work |
As noted in our
posts about leveling floors, the first task here is to set up level string lines and then cut leveling strips from wood that matched the level line. Once those strips are cut, they are screwed into the wood joists. After they are all leveled, the plywood sub-floor is measured and cut into place. So far so good. Once the plywood goes on it needs to be screwed into place - and that's where the drama started...
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| The area that needs to be leveled - the previously completed areas are to the right and left |
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| August 12th - the leveling strips over the joists and plumbing |
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| August 12th - the plywood subfloor cut and positioned in place |
So before telling you what happened, let me just explain that driving a screw into plumbing is apparently a very common DIY mistake - even professional builders do it. It's so common that a few days later, our building control inspector sheepishly admitted that he'd done it a few times himself! So if you're guessing that I drove screw into a pipe while fastening the sub-floor....you're right...I was working my way through the sheet, when i suddenly heard a sickening hiss...not too loud, but definitely there. It stopped me in my tracks, and it was only about 30 seconds later, when the water started shooting everywhere, that I realized what I had just done!
So I quickly removed the plywood, saw the hole, ran to the kitchen and shut off the main water valve for the flat. Surveying the mess, I realized it was not too bad and quickly soaked up all the water with paper towels and rags. Our
trusty fan-heater was positioned to help dry everything, and within 30 mins there was no sign of the leak. In the meantime I had called our local handyman Alan - who again (!) saved the day by repairing the hole in about 20 minutes - so we managed to get it done before "Aglaya" came home to a soaking situation...
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| The "hole"- just to the right of my thumb... |
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| The patched pipe - gotta be more careful from now on |
So after all the excitement and stress I decided to take the rest of the weekend off, and resumed work on Monday. To prevent another incident like this, I carefully located and measured out the locations of all pipes and then drew their positions onto the plywood. To be extra safe, I also marked the joists, and then heavily marked the areas to avoid. I think this will be a new practice moving forward...
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| August 14th - the danger areas drawn on the plywood |
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| The finished sub-floor - approx location of shower wall shown by the 2x3 on the floor |
