Ensuite Japanese-style bathroom, over garage

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bluphysted@hotmail.com - 31 May 2005 04:29 GMT

Mates,

I've just purchased my first home and have some wild plans of
installing a 'Japanese-Style' bathroom.

I have a few family members who are carpenters, and overall handy guys,
but I thought I'd thought Id give a shout out to see if anyone here
could offer any suggestion, books, warnings, etc on the topic.

Currently, the home has a garage that extends from the front of first
floor of the two storey home. The master bedroom looks down onto the
garage roof. My hopes were to bash a hole in my bedroom wall, tear off
the roof of the garage, replace the current ceiling joists of the
garage with some beefy floor joists, and basically build a second level
onto the garage with an entrance from the master bedroom.

A Japanese bathroom is constructed so that everything is meat to be
wet. You wash yourself while standing, or sitting on a small stool,
using a handheld shower head, and/or a spout in the wall, before
splashing into the over-sized tub (the tub isnt meant for washing).
With all this wet in mind, I'll have to do some extensive
waterproofing. I imagine more so than the average western bathroom.

My immediate concerns is how to qualify the garage to support the load
of a large tub of water. On top of the weight of a large tub of water,
I'll probably use some rather heavy tiles on the floors and walls. The
garage is brick, but Im not entirely sure these things are built with
the structure of possibly having a second storey one day.

Anyways, obviously this may be a rather grand do-it-yourself task for
someone who's never had the chance to do something like this before...
but if anyone could suggest any material that would be helpful for me,
I'd greatly appreciate the advice.

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tbasc@bellsouth.net - 31 May 2005 12:02 GMT

"How do I know the garage walls will support the loads I intend to
impose?"ight
Right?
One can start from either end of the problem, but in the end, the loads
must be calculated and the soil bearing capacity, foundation, and wall
must be examined.
A structural engineer would be a good investment, once you know what
and where you want to add to the second floor. The engineer would be a
help in designing the second floor frame and in designing connections
to the existing home. I see it as a few hundreds to avoid damages of a
few thousand and the resustant time and misery.

I looked at a case simiilar to the one you describe. A large whirl pool
tub for two, large shower, multi bowl lavatory counter, toilet, and
bidet = all using stone flooring, counters, tub platform and tile walls
had been added to the second floor an existing house. The owner wanted
to know why the corner of his house sagged and bowed out.

TB

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bluphysted@hotmail.com - 31 May 2005 12:17 GMT

> "How do I know the garage walls will support the loads I intend to
> impose?"ight
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>
> TB

Thanks, I had this idea in mind (the engineer), although I was (and
still am) a little uncertain as to the cost of such a service.

I appreciate the advice. I guess I'll have a stroll through the yellow
pages. I reckon there would be some 'freelance' structural engineers
for hire kicking around? Not that I particularily wish to cut corners,
but keeping the cost as low as possible is a good thing (although
keeping my garage intact, and the tub off the roof of my car would
probably take precedence ;)

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Homeowner Forum / Construction / May 2005

Ensuite Japanese-style bathroom, over garage