remodeling 50's tile bathroom


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Old 11-20-07, 02:15 PM
S
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remodeling 50's tile bathroom

I am working to renovate the original bathroom in my home, built in early 50's. I decided to do so because there was a large crack in the floor and the tile was quite uneven.

I began by taking out the tiles on the floor, then removing the cracked morter bed (around 2 inches thick). I am now to what may be the joists with another layer of some sort of cement between them. Some of the joists(?) are rotten and need to be replaced or at least reinforced. Do I need to remove the rest of the morter/cement type material between these or leave it in place?
In addition, I need to take out the walls so that I can re-tile. The walls are a gypsum drywall with plaster over on the top half and then some type of tile backerboard over metal over paper on the bottom and tub surround. I removed the bulk of the upper walls last night, however in corners and edges there is the metal lathe. How do I remove this to create a seamless new wall (I do not want to remove ceiling)?
I tried to remove the lower layer (first using just a hammer, then a sledgehammer) and it is not budging or cracking. . . nothing. I decided to try to just take the tile off of it and leave this backerboard (since it seems so sturdy) to tile over, however the tiles are not coming off easily (spent over 2 hours chiseling and got only about 2 square feet).
How do I go about getting the tile out or removing this part of the wall? I am not doing any work on the other side of the wall (bedroom) and want to leave it in tact. Am I in over my head? I have done many home projects including building an addition with bathroom, removing a doorway, installing new wood flooring, etc. This just seems way different than anything I've ever seen!

Thanks for any advice!
 
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Old 11-20-07, 03:32 PM
J
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What you have is old craftsman mud floors/walls. Be prepared for a lot of work. I did a bathroom last year, late 40's custom house, all mud walls, shower to the ceiling, over metal lath, floor was 5" thick in spots and wrapped around the pipes. Took out 5800# of tile/concrete, from a 7x9 bathroom.
 
 

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