Half baths, otherwise known as powder rooms, are typical on the first degree of a house with a living room and kitchen but no bedrooms, while the rooms previously have their own full bath and frequently an accompanying master bath. Remodeling a basic powder room is something which any DIYer with some spare time and basic knowledge can achieve, letting you spend your spare time adding a little extra value and aesthetic beauty to your powder room.
Size Limitations
Keep in mind that the frequent powder bath is not big enough to accommodate a bathtub of any sort. A normal powder room is about 4 feet by 10 feet with a bathroom in the back corner and a cupboard and sink laid out across the length of the room. This means you are limited to remodeling inside the limits of that space, so something similar to a shower enclosure won’t function unless it fits within the dimensions of the limited space and also leaves room for the sink and toilet. Help with limited space by making sacrifices elsewhere, like using a pedestal sink rather than a cabinet foundation to include extra space. Also keep the limited space in mind when designing handicap-accessible powder rooms, as wheelchairs require at least 60 inches of clearance in all directions for turning.
Floors
The simple floor for a powder room is ceramic, porcelain or natural stone tile due to the simple fact that a powder room remains a semi-wet place even if it’s only a sink and a bathroom. Insert a shower to the mix and you absolutely need to use tile or natural stone on the floor. This means a minimum of 2 sheets of 5/8-inch plywood over the subfloor for routine tile, and 2 layers of 3/4-inch material for natural stone tiles. On top of this, you will need a 1/4-inch layer of concrete board, mortared and ripped down. From that point, put in a heat mat should you want (be sure the electrical connections have been inspected by an electrician prior to covering with tile) under the tile, or put in the tile directly in addition to the cement board.
Sinks and Cabinets
Although a lot of powder rooms have a full-sized cabinet having an embossed sink basin, there is the option to use a pedestal sink. Pedestal sinks allow you to help add extra space to your powder room for a shower inclusion, or whether you are limited by space and require clearance for a wheelchair. The bulky box of a cabinet foundation is only required if you require storage and you are not limited by space. For optimum results, you always need to mount the sink or the cupboard base as soon as you have installed the tile floor; this way, if you decide to remodel at a later date, when you move the box/pedestal, you have a finished floor which never needs to be replaced.
Wainscots
Walls can be completed in a variety of ways, which range from wallpaper to paint to stucco. However, you are not limited by completing the whole wall in a single finish material. Wainscots are a frequent way of splitting up the monotony of a room and also help to keep the eye focused on design components rather than the smaller magnitude of a powder room. Wainscots can be from any material you select, like tile, hardwood, old sheet metal, brick veneers, stone veneers, vinyl paneling, cultured marble and beyond. The basic concept of a wainscot is that it’s any kind of wall material which covers the bottom half of a wall, while the upper part is a different finish material.