After watching the Giants lose another game and consuming a few adult beverages, I took my frustration out by ripping out the tile in preparation for our combined laundry room and powder room remodel. My house was built in the 60’s and the room looked very original. This was my first ever renovating a room, installing tile, replacing subfloors, replacing a toilet and sink, etc. With enough research and planning you can achieve this perfect your first time too!

Take a look at how much better the room looks with bright white bevelled subway tile and a bold splash of color.

Before Photos

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After Photos

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Our Combined Laundry and Powder Room Necessities

Aside from the obvious fixtures, these are things to keep in mind when designing a combined laundry room and powder room:

• A vanity sink big enough to soak clothes
• Laundry room cabinets to store toiletries and laundry supplies

The Beginning – Dryer Duct and Demo

A few months before I went Chip Gaines on our Laundry Room, we had our dryer duct relocated. It originally went down into the basement then out of the house under my deck. Unfortunately, mice found their way in so I had to re-route the dryer duct up the wall and along the ceiling. Don’t forget to get a guard when venting outdoors to block those mice from getting in.

Demo was pretty straight forward, except for the floor. The previous owners had 2 layers of linoleum installed on 1/4″ plywood, which was tough to remove. For the walls, I had to remove the lower half of the drywall where the old tiles were glued on.

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The Rebuild – Subfloor and Insulation

The old subfloor had severe rot around the toilet and was thinner than today’s standards. I replaced it with 7/8″ plywood.

WEEKEND WARRIOR TIP: When laying subfloor that you plan to tile over, the rough side should face up. The rough side will allow for better adhesion with tile.

One of the walls in the Laundry Room is an exterior wall, so I replaced the 60 year old insulation. Since my space was not standard size bays for insulation, I bought a roll to custom cut.

The Rebuild – Drywall and Duct Box Out

I obviously had to replace the drywall. My old walls consisted of gypsum board and plaster. The plaster was not consistent thickness, so matching the existing thickness was tough. I had to shim each stud individually, some shims were 1/8″ thick and some were 1/4″ thick. My local Home Depot sells different thickness lath for shims.

Next up was to box out the ugly dryer duct. This was challenging since I needed to screw a 2×4 to the ceiling in parallel to the joints, meaning I had nothing to screw into. I came up with what I think is a genius idea, 4″ long Toggle Bolts aka Molly bolts. I marked the ceiling 8″ of the ceiling and snapped a chalk line. My dad held up the 2×4 along the chalk line and I drilled the appropriate hole for the toggle bolts. After tighten up the bolts this 2×4 was as tight as if I was able to strew into a joist.

WEEKEND WARRIOR TIP: When sizing Toggle Bolts, remember to add room for the wings to pass through. Example, 1.5″ through 2×4 + 3/4″ ceiling drywall + 1″ long wing = 4″ long toggle bolt.

I completed building the box around the duct and installed drywall.

The Rebuild – Flooring

I installed Ditra uncoupling membrane on the subfloor. This easy to install and will provide a waterproof base for your tile.

WEEKEND WARRIOR TIP: After installing the Ditra, skim coat the Ditra and let dry. This will provide a flat surface to layout and mark out the tile.

I bought 12″ x 24″ porcelain tiles and used the QEP Lash tile leveling system to ensure they were perfectly flat and level when I was done. My tile guy always sells the best products and highly recommends Mapei Thinset mortar for porcelain tile. I have used in 5 times and have never had a problem. I highly recommend back buttering the tiles along with spreading thinset on the floor. Remember to always check if the tiles are being set properly by trying to lift them up. If there is enough thinset, the tile will not easily pry up due to suction principles.

The Rebuild – Tiling the Walls

I installed the molding around the door frame in preparation for the next step, which was to tile the walls. My wife chose 4″ x 12″ Laguna Blanco beveled white ceramic subway tile. I tried to use a tile cutter, but found that using a wet saw gave me cleaner cuts. Since the ceramic tile is very light and this is not a wet room, I used tile adhesive. The adhesive is so sticky, you don’t need to use spacers if you have a good eye. My wife also chose the chair rail that came with the tile, which gave the bathroom such a blast of class.

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As you can see from the photos above, the walls were already painted. I chose to paint before tiling because I thought it would easier to do touch-up around the chair rail than to completely paint the walls.

What Combined Laundry and Powder Room Remodel would be complete without cabinets to store laundry and and bathroom supplies? We chose these beautiful Bodbyn Ikea Cabinets. The cabinets look great and were easy to put together and install. They have a shiny face, so it is obvious they aren’t wood, but will be easy to clean and perfect for the Laundry Room.

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We chose to leave the gap between the cabinets and I built a shelf to fit between them. The shelf eventually was painted white and screwed into the cabinets from the inside of the cabinets. Don’t forget to drill a pilot hole!

The Finishes

After the subway tile was completed, I re-installed the washer and dryer. I then installed the toilet. My existing waste line is a lead line, so I had to purchase an adjustable Oatey Closet flange. This was easy to use, push into the lead line and turn the screws to force the belly to expand and close any gaps. We chose the Kohler Memoirs toilet. The new Kohler toilets are great, powerful flushing and they use less water.

Find a vanity was extremely difficult. We only had room for a 24″ wide vanity since the dryer door opens up to the vanity. Since this is a combination powder room and laundry room, we wanted a large sink to soak dirty clothes and to act like a utility sink. After hours of research, I finally found one from Empire Industries called Arch 24″ vanity. The sink is massive, the biggest sink they could make with a 24″ vanity.

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That’s it for our combined laundry and powder room remodel. Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Stats

This remodel came in just under $4,400 with all high end finishes. It took me 6 weeks, but there was a 2 week delay due to trying to find the wall tile. Below is a more detailed breakdown of pricing:

Ceramic tile wall – Laguna Blaco 4″ x 12″ beveled subway tile $4.99 SF, Chair Rail $6.80/piece Total $1,104.56

Vanity and sink – Empire Arch 24″ – $869

Cabinets – Ikea Grey Bodbyn $400 (cabinets were 12×40″, price includes hinges, shelves, hardware, mounting bracket)

Vanity Light – Hinkley Meridian 21″ 3 light in Chrome $250

Porcelain Tile floor (Colorker Livis Argento) $6.75/SF Needed 43 SF, total $311

Toilet – Kohler Memoirs $297

Faucet – Delta Cassidy Chrome $187

Miscellaneous plumbing accessories – $120

Tile underlayment Ditra – $84

Medicine Cabinet – Kohler $82

Molding from local lumber yard – $70 (includes new door frame and window casing)

Glass shelf over toilet – Delta Cassidy 18″ $46

Tile adhesive – Acrylpro $37

Threshold – $36 Oak form local lumber yard, polyurethaned by me.

Toilet paper holder – Delta Cassidy Chrome $26

Thinset – Mapei $23

Paint – Benjamin Moore “Exotic Purple”