Tips to getting through a primary bath remodel

[Anonymous]

Demo starts next week on a complete remodel and the reality of the upcoming inconvenience is starting to set in

We're a family of 4 with 1 other full bath plus a powder room, both located on the first floor of our 1500 sqft home. Primary bath (2nd floor) is ensuite so workers will be trudging through my bedroom 6 days a week.

Please give me your best tips or tricks to making these next 4-6 weeks as painless as possible. Kids will be out of the house most days but DH and I WFH. Is is appropriate for me to briefly access my bedroom while work is being done? Do I need any additional protective measures (beyond what the contractor is doing) to protect my home, minimize dust, etc? We have no option other than to sleep in our bedroom each night and, with space already tight, I'm starting to panic.

[Anonymous]

Keep all closets and nearby doors closed. Cover your bed with plastic during the day. Access your bedroom whenever you like. Make sure there’s floor covering on the floor for the workmen to walk on. If you have an area rug in your bedroom, roll it up and move it elsewhere if possible.

[Anonymous]

If at all possible, you should plan to move out of your room entirely even if that means sleeping on a pull-out couch. Unless your bathroom is humongous, your bedroom is going to be storing all of the materials throughout the project and just by virtue of constant traffic in and out will be covered in dust. We live in a similarly small house and slept in our basement for a month when we did ours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If at all possible, you should plan to move out of your room entirely even if that means sleeping on a pull-out couch. Unless your bathroom is humongous, your bedroom is going to be storing all of the materials throughout the project and just by virtue of constant traffic in and out will be covered in dust. We live in a similarly small house and slept in our basement for a month when we did ours.

+1. We completed a primary bath remodel a few months ago and slept in another room. With all the materials and dust it would not have been possible to sleep in our bedroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If at all possible, you should plan to move out of your room entirely even if that means sleeping on a pull-out couch. Unless your bathroom is humongous, your bedroom is going to be storing all of the materials throughout the project and just by virtue of constant traffic in and out will be covered in dust. We live in a similarly small house and slept in our basement for a month when we did ours.

PP here. You should empty your closet too. When construction is complete you are going to want the room as empty as possible for cleanup. Buy Nothing is a good place to get hanger boxes. You said you WFH; try to get a look at the bathroom twice each day, once at lunch and once at the end of the day. Things move quick with a small bathroom remodel, so you will need to stay close to catch mistakes fast enough to get them corrected. If you're going to do this, keep a designated pair of slip-on shoes outside the door that don't go anywhere else in the house to keep dust off your feet and other floors.

[Anonymous]

Ours was surprisingly non-intrusive. I slept in my bed every night. They set to a barrier when worked and put everything in the bathroom or the garage before they left for the day. I did take out my makeup and getting ready stuff so I could do that in another room or bathroom but if I had to go in my room, I could

[Anonymous]

OP i also advise you to sleep elsewhere and cover absolutely everything in plastic. The first phases of work are suuuper dusty. It is bad. You would not want to sleep in the same room.
My contractors cleaned up well every day but the dust is unbelievable. One good thing is, once all the drywall is up, you can move back in. Everything after that is pretty manageable. We did a remodel that involved moving walls and pipes and it took 5 weeks total with only one person working. It was a small space. The first three weeks were demo, plumbing and rough-in. The last two weeks (the less dusty ones) were tiling and installing vanity and fixtures.
We also WFH during the reno, fortunately we have separate work spaces. I checked in with the guy every morning and asked him what he's planning on doing that day and sussed out if anything would benefit from my input. If you don't ask they just install things wherever they feel like it and pretend it's unreversible. At night we would look over the space in detail and come up with any questions or changes needed. Take some pictures of the studs and guts of plumbing before the drywall is up in case you want to make any changes in the future or need to know where to hang stuff. Good luck! The final result is all worth it!

[Anonymous]

Welp, OP back and we really don't have anywhere else to sleep - no pull-out or basement. I guess I could buy a large air mattress and we could sleep on the living room floor, but that honestly sounds miserable as well.

[Anonymous]

Why don't you move your bed to the living room for 3 weeks? Real suggestion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why don't you move your bed to the living room for 3 weeks? Real suggestion.

+1 please OP! If your house is as cramped as you are making it sound, your bedroom will be a dusty hell.

[Anonymous]

Just did this. You will not be able to sleep in there. They will cover everything with plastic. Make alternate arrangements.

[Anonymous]

NP. With the PP who said once the drywall is up, you can sleep in the room fine?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Welp, OP back and we really don't have anywhere else to sleep - no pull-out or basement. I guess I could buy a large air mattress and we could sleep on the living room floor, but that honestly sounds miserable as well.

We moved our mattress to another room to sleep when we renovated our primary bath. Could you do that in the living room?

[Anonymous]

I would sleep in the kids' rooms or the living room or get a hotel room for the first couple nights after demo. If your house is old, you have to assume the dust contains lead and there will be enormous amounts of dust. If you have never renovated, you will not believe how dusty it is.

Get everything you can out of your bedroom (clothing, soft goods) because very fine dust gets on everything and you will have a hard time feeling like it's clean afterwards. Second the plastic on the bed during the day. But really--I would try to put your bedding in another room.

[Anonymous]

Living through a remodel is no joke, especially when the work is happening right next to the space where you’re supposed to relax and sleep. The best advice I can give is to treat it like temporary inconvenience with a payoff — set up a “retreat zone” somewhere else in the house where you can decompress, and don’t hesitate to step into your bedroom during work hours when you need something; most crews are used to that as long as you give a quick heads-up. In another thread someone shared https://www.airenergie.it/en/, and I ended up looking into it because it’s a company that installs and produces full bathrooms — everything from layout and fixtures to finishing details — and seeing how organized the process can be reminded me that the chaos is temporary and the result is what you’ll live with every day. If you can add extra dust barriers or runners for the floors beyond what the contractor provides, it really helps, and keeping one small area of the house clean and untouched makes a huge difference mentally. The next few weeks will feel long, but having a bathroom that’s actually designed the way you want is absolutely worth it once the crew is gone and the space is yours again.