A Basement Bathroom

Check out how we add a basement bathroom to our home gym, right next to the existing sauna.

As many of you may have previously read several years ago we created a luxury in home spa space with a home dry sauna and gym space. We added a full bathroom to complete this area with a walk in Rain Tree shower, sink, toilet and linen closet. Since this space was a blank canvas in an unfinished basement of home, it very easy to design it anyway we wanted, meaning no existing plumbing to deal with, you can just run it however you wish. Making a ceiling mount Rain Tree Shower very easy to do verses an after market re plumbed shower which can be costly to move all the pipes to the ceiling verses the wall.It also allowed me to add in a built in linen closet into the space as well adding additional storage with lighting inside as well. Another line item that is always overlooked when buying a stock home or basic builder home verses a custom home. These are the things they may not seem like much but will separate your home on the resell market. Why you might ask? Well because most buyers want it already done for them and see the value in it already being done. Move in ready can mean a lot of things, just think about it.These are just the extra perks,that I always think about when doing a project. So where did this entire project start? Well we installed all the dry wall and tile ourselves. That is correct we are not semi professional tilers and dry wall installers, just let that be known LOL! I would never do this kind of work for anyone else but ourselves, as it is truly a labor of love. First step in the project, I found the tile below and I fell in love with it, then I devised a plan on the pattern and installation for the entire space, as you do.

After installing the shower base pan we decided to start with floor and work our way up. Whether this is right or wrong way to do this project, I guess it water under the bridge but this is how it started. We added a layer of thin set to the concrete floor and leveled it out, then laid the planks with the spacers you see here below. The floor went down pretty quick so not many in between pictures to show, plus it was a tight space to work in, so once I was inside the room I was locked in not a lot of moving about to go get the camera for photos, it more of whew I am done here lets take a picture. A day or two after the tile had set up it was time to grout it. I went with a dark gray charcoal which is beautiful, and will hide all the dirt and grim which could potentially live in the grout of a basement. Yes I absolutely thought this one through when deciding on the floor grout this time. While I love the light gray in my bathrooms upstairs they still show more dirt than I like, so darker for a basement seemed like the way to go. After all this is where Ron will shower after mowing the yard, gardening, or any messy DIY project like this one. FYI- Ron was my tile cutter and made every cut for all the pieces floor and wall tiles. We found that purchasing a tile saw was the way to go, and it has paid for itself with all the numerous fireplaces and the stone work we have done, and now add in the new tile bathroom. You can see those projects here :

DIY a Sleeping Porch Fireplace

Installing A Recessed Custom Build Fireplace with Stone Harth

Building A Stone Fireplace Hearth

ORC: Adding Stone Tile to a Fireplace

Next we hung up all the mold resistant sheet rock, which is why it is green in color. By code it is required for all wet areas like bathrooms and basements to prevent mold growth, so our entire basement is done with this stuff. Honestly, I wish the entire house was done with it due to the humidity in Georgia. After we had the sheet rock up and the Durock tile board it was time to start on the shower stall. I wanted to do a vertical accent boarder and matching backsplash behind the sink. To get the stripe centered this is where I started, centered the tile in the space and set the line first. Next was adding the classic white hexagon tile for the remaining shower stall which was relatively easy. The tile sheets made quick work or laying the tie on to the wall in the thin set.

We only had a couple of cut outs around the thee plumbing fixtures which we pretty easy cuts for Ron to do with the tile saw. Punching out the tiles for the shower spray handle, and filling back in the the cut tiles to meet up to vertical stripe. Adding the spacers back into to make sure thee spacing was correct for the grout later.

Then just make sure that the cut out for the soap niche was done properly so the shelves for fit after the tile was set. Again since we designed this entire space it was very easy to add in a built large built in niche with shelves upon framing the space. The same way wee added a water proof exhaust fan with a light inside the end of the shower stall so it would not be crazy dark and the room would not fill with steam. Work smarter not harder.

The shower walls once set in few days were grout with Arctic White grout to keep a nice white wall and for easy bleach cleaning. We want it to look oh so clean inside. This is a look a the grout prior to the final cleaning it off the tiles. Just a tip, we used a drill with a scrubber brush to buff off the extra unwanted grout and leave the tiles super clean since there were so many to polish. It was fast and quick.

I love the end result of our new bathroom, and while it might have taken a hot minute to finish since we did do all the work ourselves the quality and outcome it more than I could have ever hoped for, plus we saved a bunch of money by doing DIY projects.

I scored the sink & cabinet combo on a HD closeout for $89.00. The accent tiles which were a really expensive tile at $5.00 each originally were a leftover closeout box @Floor & Decor for .50/per tile; which is why they had to be a accent tiles only, limited amount. Then I snagged that tile flooring for $4.99 a box on sale too, so the floor was less than $75. (Just wait until you see the $20.00 tile cat pet room floor I am doing LOL with tile that was $2.00 a box) I found the door at Rafe’s Rurpose & Salvage in a set of 2 for $300 the other door is located in my office (it has super cool original water glass with a 1960’s GMAC sticker still on the door.)

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