When vacationing in Florida, my daughters family and mine rented a high-end beach home. Rarely do we do that- usually my choice is a simple no-frills condo close to the beach. But this time was different and I was introduced to the luxury of a rainfall shower head.
I decided I wanted one, and now is the time to fulfill that desire.
There are plenty of them available, but my experience with poorly working shower heads that get clogged or deliver a poor excuse of a stream has me “gun shy”.
What I like about the Moen S6320 Velocity rainshower:
Has both a high pressure and a gentle rainfall mode
Several color choices, and very highly rated by many sources
A lifetime guarantee
The drawback for me are that I might want a larger shower head surface, 8 inches is moderate for this type of design.
Also, since the one I experienced in Florida was mounted from the ceiling and this one is mounted on the wall ( which I am restricted to due to plumbing considerations), the other brands which feature an adjustable arm might be the better choice.
But the bottom line for a plumbing fixture like this is water delivery. I wouldn’t trade looks, adjustable arms or any other asset with good water delivery.
Other Contenders
Top contender right now ( I am seriously considering this one), is a new company product by Artbath.
Reasons to like it:
Great raters by buyers
Very stylish and comes with the arm
Good water delivery stream reported by users
Large 12″ head
Next in Line
I find that a handheld is necessary: reaching to clean and rinse the bath and filling mop buckets. some of the rain-style shower heads are sold with a partner handheld device.
After that, I’m considering the report on another brand, Hansgrohe Raindance; it claims to have the feel of a much more powerful flow due to air technology.
That is a feature that moves this choice to the forefront.
Now…. I just have to make my final choice and Handyman can install it for me.
Do you have preferences/ experience with this type of fixture?
Every home remodeler and renovator runs into it at some time, the dreaded mushrooming of a simple project into the monster money pit.
It is what you come to expect when working on an old house project.
This is not about fungus- at least not in that way. It is about DIY projects and how they magically grow, but not in a good way.
One of the most common complications of a do it yourself project, especially when remodeling an old house, is the Mushroom Factor. If you own an old house, or if you are considering buying one, even one that you think will only take a few simple projects. —Welcome to the Mushroom Factor Zone—
Even simple remodeling jobs on newer construction can find the job mushrooming right before their very eyes. Now of course, we are not talking about the cute as a button fungus that we see growing at the bottom of the garden, instead we are talking about something that grows like that: that mushrooms, the verb….
Old Houses Sprout the Mushroom Factor Most Readily
My husband and I have chosen to live in old houses. We bought a fixer upper more than twenty years ago and it never ceased from demanding that we “fix it”. That is OK, because I like the character and history of an old house, but my husband, resident handyman here, is a bit frustrated with the mushroom factor of it.
It is time to paint the house again, and that is normal maintenance for any homeowner, but what he found was that moisture has been doing damage to the wood siding of the house. It is most problematic under a couple windows. So in order to paint the house, should there be a temporary fix to the siding? Or should we just “bite the bullet” and replace the siding? And since it is an old house, that type of siding is no longer sold. So the whole side of the house might need replacement.
That, my friends, is how the mushroom factor works… no longer is there one simple job… it is multiple jobs springing from multiple sources….
What would you choose to do in this case? ( And saying “Move” is not an acceptable answer…. for now).
It Crops Up Unexpectedly
usually found in older homes
Now that you have some idea of what is entailed in the mushroom factor, it is time to delve into the nuts and bolts of the occurrence of it, the part and parcel, the name of the game, the meat and potatoes of this stew we might find ourselves in. When one starts a new construction, theoretically at least, the building can go along logically and in an orderly way…. following standard procedures with standard measurements. In other words, one knows what to expect of the work and estimates the outcome fairly accurately. Theoretically. However, the older the house is, or the more people have decided to “do things” to it, the more complicated a job can become. enter… the Mushroom Factor.
The variables are countless, in each case unique situations and needs for materials arises. There are possibilities that something has been done poorly, or has gotten rotten, and then several new jobs spring up before the intended job can be begun. It is that proliferation of new little jobs, or some rather large ones, that defines whether you are looking at the mushroom factor in action. It can involve new consultations, plans, experts, materials, any number of things…. and it extends the time and the efforts, not to mention the costs of what the job was originally figured to entail.
It seems to crop up in old houses and anything that was purchased with the moniker “Fixer-upper”. Just so you know. I am not trying to discourage anyone from getting the home of their dreams for a song and then fixing it up. I am just saying “forewarned is forearmed”, and telling you what the mysterious mushroom factor is in the meantime.
Thwart the Mushroom Factor – Be Prepared -for anything!
Get some good remodeling advice and keep your books handy. Get good quality tools, too, while you are at it.
Have you estimated the time and money that this project is going to cost? Add half again, or no…make that double just to be safe if you are new at this.
Do not underestimate how nuts the previous owner of the house may have been.
You are about to enter…. – The Mushroom Factor
mood music for the home remodeling Twilight Zone
Mushroom factor
A correlation of Murphy’s Law
The Mushroom Files – You Will Believe,Believe Me
my old house
My remodeling blog- I know whereof I speak
The Old House Journal
The old house renovation magazine where the term was made famous.
Day 181: The Mushroom Factor
Someone is coming to view the house on Saturday. (Don’t hold your breath – I’m not, haha.) Himself i…
Keeping Up With the Mushroom Factor
Volunteering has been a wonderful experience and I won’t ever stop, I’d miss the people too much. My gardens and home would like to have a robot come take up residence. The weeds think they’ve found heaven and the dust bunnies are multiplying almost
Expert Advice is Your Best Defense – a home remodeling book will help
Remember: If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy. -Red Green
The Mushroom Factor: Advice from The Experts
Controlling the Mushroom Factor, by Mark Clement – Old-House Journal
Controlling the Mushroom Factor by Mark Clement A behind-the-scenes look at the start of carpenter Mark Clement’s door rehanging project proves that the mushroom factor can be kept in line—if you prepare for it at the outset.
My Own Stories
Coming up next…. I have a lot of them ( most are borrowed from my husband – the Handyman). I publish them in this old house blog.
You should always put your writing on the wall right before you seal it up forever (or until the next remodeler comes along).
Anyway, I’d love to hear your stories of encountering the Mushroom Factor in your own remodeling ventures.
Now that the old ceiling has been totally removed and the old oak joists exposed, it was time to remove the old plaster & lath walls. In 2 previous rooms I had done, I left all 4 plastered walls intact and faced them with 1/4″ drywall. In this room I decided to remove the plaster and lath on the 2 exterior walls so I could remove the old blown-in insulation (to be replaced with R11 fiberglass insulation). With the 2 interior walls I left the old plaster in place and faced them with the 1/4″ drywall. This is a fairly simple way to obtain a new smooth surface. To make certain the 1/4″ drywall stayed in place I used heavy duty Liquid Nails adhesive and drywall screws.
I also removed the window and door casings and the baseboards. Next, on the exterior walls I adjusted the electrical outlets, and since I had those walls open, I decided to add another 2 outlets. Per NEC you are supposed to have an outlet within 6 feet (Thus, you could have them 12′ apart and be in the middle and therefore within 6 feet of an outlet). Being an old house, it is “grandfathered in”. But, given the opportunity to easily add an additional couple outlets, I did.
Since the old floor was still in place, we were able to sweep up and dispose of the plaster just as we had for the ceiling. We also used the same fan set-up to exhaust the dust.
OldConstruction Issues:
Now that I had the ceiling and 2 walls exposed down to the joists and studs, it was time to prepare to install the drywall. However, there was a problem that needed to be addressed first.
1. As I previously mentioned, the ceiling sagged (saucer like) to about a 4″ dip in the center of the room. A previous post explains why. In order to rectify this, I purchased 2x8x16′ boards to sister on to the old oak joists. The actual span was a little under 16′. Once I cut them to the proper length and mitered the top edges to follow the rafter line, I had my son lift them up to me through the 2nd floor bedroom window. We installed them one at a time lifting into place. We applied heavy duty Liquid Nails adhesive to the old oak joist, then manuevered the new joist onto the 2 end plates. Once in place, I used 3″ deck screws to sister the new joist onto the old.
2. Once we had all the new boards “sistered” to the old joists it was time to trim off the sagged part of the old oak joists that sagged below the new ones. The easiest way to do this was to just carefully run my circular saw along the bottom sagged edge of the old oak joist to make it level (even) with the new joists. Where I couldn’t quite get to the edges (by the wall) with the circular saw, I trimmed off the remaining 2-3″ with my reciprocating saw. By doing this, I now basically had double joisted the span. This had accomplished 2 things. First, I greatly strengthened/reinforced the span. Second, I now not only had a level ceiling, I had a level base for laying down subfloor T&G plywood in the attic above for storage space.
3. The walls presented another problem. The old oak studs were not on center and they were not plumb. They varied in thickness from 2″-2-1/4″. The main problem was that not only were they not plumb, but they varied in width from about 3-3/4″ to 4-1/4″. AND, there was sometimes that variation in the same stud from top to bottom.. How I handled that was to sister new studs onto the old ones plus add a few new ones. This still resulted in some of the old studs being wider than the new ones. What I did was use my DeWalt portable planer to plane/shave the old oak studs down to the same width as the new ones. Since I was going to install my drywall horizontally, it wasn’t as critical to have the studs perfectly plumb.
4. Now that the demolition and prep work was done, my next step was to install the ceiling drywall. I will discuss this in my next post.
