Bathroom remodel help?

[Wifezilla]

We need to redo our bathrooms. The problem is we have a severely autistic son who is 6'3" tall and 250 lbs. So basically he is a giant 2 year old even though he is 20.

He is a force of destruction like nothing you have ever seen. Not intentionally mind you...he is just the proverbial bull in a china shop.

So I need to make the bathroom BOMB PROOF and VERY easy to clean.

The back bathroom has a shower stall that is one of those prefab thingies and I HATE IT!!! I want tile...stone...heck...CEMENT. Anything that wont fall apart and wont dissolve if son decides to plug up the drain and play boats or leave open the shower door and splash water everywhere.

What do they make high school locker rooms out of???

Anyway, any material ideas, construction tips, etc... would be greatly appreciated. We are going to start on the little bathroom first because it is in the worst shape. We will buy materials as the budget allows. We may get help for the labor but might have to do that ourselves. I would rather spend more on materials that will last for a long time than just get crap from Home Depot and "get er done" like hubby wants to

 

[SKR8PN]

Ceramic tile is your friend. Run it all the way to the ceiling. SEAL the grout once a year. Use cement backer board behind the tile. Just make sure you get a tile that has some texture to it for the floor, otherwise it will be very slippery when wet. Take NO shortcuts when installing and it will last a lifetime.

http://www.showerbase.com/

This web site has a lot of neat stuff, but is kinda hard to navigate. This is where I bought the 5 ft shower base we are going to be installing in our remodel this spring.

 

[sylvie]

SKR8PN just described our state of the art high school locker room, FWIW.
Ok, I've only been in the girl's locker room, so the boy's could be an entirely different story, lol. How about prison locker room construction?

 

[Wifezilla]

LOL

I will have to see if I can find prison locker room construction specs

Recaulk EVERY YEAR? Hummm...not sure we would remember!

 

[big brown horse]

You know, every time I get behind the toilet to clean I wonder why the durn thing isn't designed so we can GET BEHIND IT AND CLEAN!! It is a dirty job to begin with, why must we be face to face with it just to clean it?! In a perfect world, with a big bathroom, why not put one in the middle of the bathroom so one can mop around it with ease!!!

WZ, your son sounds like my daughter. I tell people that she gets lost in there. If I don't knock first I never know what in the world I will open the door to find her up to. She has always been like that.

 

[Wildsky]

You know, every time I get behind the toilet to clean I wonder why the durn thing isn't designed so we can GET BEHIND IT AND CLEAN!! It is a dirty job to begin with, why must we be face to face with it just to clean it?! In a perfect world, with a big bathroom, why not put one in the middle of the bathroom so one can mop around it with ease!!!
.

Thats my pain!
Why not have the whole set up in a big cement block so no cleaning behind the stupid thing? had to be a real idiot that invented the shape of the toilet. Even a port-a-potty is smarter by design!

Good luck WZ, wish I was more help - but I agree on the tile to the ceiling, I really want to do that in our bathroom. and I don't think you have to re-grout every year, just re-seal the grout. You can set that to another aniversary, like a b'day or valentines day every year you know you have to re-seal the grout.

 

[freemotion]

Cement and cinder blocks!!

No, seriously. Cement, and paint it. Go to a stable and look at a wash stall. Or a car wash...cement floors, plastic pebbled-texture stuff on the walls. Ugly but functional and indestructible.

You could choose a nice paint color and do something creative with the paint....I'm thinking leaves painted in different shades to jazz it up and soften the look.

I saw a countertop at a very nice barn last fall that was made with cement and it was really cool. Looked great and will outlast the owners. The owners made it themselves, and it looks classy.

 

[MorelCabin]

Cement and cinder blocks!!

No, seriously. Cement, and paint it. Go to a stable and look at a wash stall. Or a car wash...cement floors, plastic pebbled-texture stuff on the walls. Ugly but functional and indestructible.

You could choose a nice paint color and do something creative with the paint....I'm thinking leaves painted in different shades to jazz it up and soften the look.

I saw a countertop at a very nice barn last fall that was made with cement and it was really cool. Looked great and will outlast the owners. The owners made it themselves, and it looks classy.

This is actually much better than ceramic tile...my basement bathroom was exactly this...cement and cinderblocks...and it was indestructable! If you do choose tile, don't go ceramic...they are all orange under the glazed top and as soon as you get a chip it looks awful! and any tile cracks if you drop something heavy enough on it or if it lands the right way. I personally HATE tile! In my new house I actually put vinyl in all the bathrooms...just to avoid tile! Cheaper to replace and warmer on the feet.
And grout! HA! Anyone who has boys who don't take thier shoes off ends up with grout that is sh*tty brown. Don't pick a nice colour for your grout...trust me on this one...it all ends up being sh8tty brown in the end anyway. Can you tell I hate tile??? LOL!

 

[Jamsoundsgood]

Whenever my husband talks about "designing" a bathroom he talks about putting a drain in the middle of the floor. That way you can just hose it down. Really it's so the kiddoes can splash away all they want in the tub and not do as much water damage. He used to do home inspections, and said that the houses with the drains in the bathroom floors usually didn't have water damage in the bathroom. Sounds good to me.

 

[Wifezilla]

I was thinking the same thing...LOL

How does quartzite or slate tile over cement sound?