The Water Closet
The water closet is an ancillary room off the kitchen. Together with the kitchen, scullery, and back hall, they form a logical servant's area of the house. The watercloset is the smallest room in the house measuring about 8x5 feet. It sits off the kitchen as seen in layout plan shown in the Kitchen page. It was my long-held belief that the water closet might have been a larder when the house was built in 1896, but evidence demonstrating this never materialized. My assumption was based on the size and location of the room -the northwest corner, and the predilection of Victorians for making this, the coolest room in a house save the basement, a larder, which is where food and vegetables were stored. I now believe that the room has always been a water closet, whose vestigal and equally important theoretical function would be a dedicated place for servants, because using the main family bathroom was proscribed by ettiquette of the Victorian age.
The image below shows the watercloset as it was when we walked into the house for the very first time.
You can see that the paint was peeling pretty bad. The walls had been covered with some sort of simulated vinyl tile wainscoting. You might also notice that the vertical case molding around the window had been removed at some point and replaced with flat boards. If you look closely at the picture, you can also see that the window stool and its apron molding had their ends sawed off too. In all, the room seemed ripe for restoration. In hindsight though, we didn't know the half of it. This page details the steps taken, the pain, frustration, and ultimate triumph regarding the Water Closet. We have a lot to cover here, so get comfy in your chair, grab some Cheez-its and a glass of milk now. Once we get started, we're not stopping until we have a Victorian water closet.
The first thing we did, before even considering anything else, was to remove the vinyl simulated bath tile wainscoting from the walls. This was held onto the lower half of the walls with some sort of adhesive. It was very difficult to remove, and in some places its removal took off the brown coat of the plaster walls underneath. We weren't too concerned here though, because I wanted to insulate the exterior walls, and the interior walls contained the aging plumbing, shared with the kitchen plumbing, which would need to be updated. I don't have very good images of the walls after removal of the vinyl, but this one, looking into the bathroom from the kitchen, shows the vinyl removed, the dark green paint underneath, and white spots where the brown coat came off with the vinyl.
I believe that the green paint is the original paint done when the house was built. I know from paint analysis (elaborated on the Kitchen page) that the trim in the water closet was originally shellacked. Like many other rooms in the house, including the kitchen, the water closet was originally finished with trim made of heart cypress. The casing is the same 5" profile used in all the house. The mop boards were also the house standard: originally 8" high with a 2" cap molding. Most of this trim and board were in poor shape. Several sections were missing and other sections had holes in them. They had a half dozen coats of paint over the years covering the beautiful shellacked cypress grain. With this knowledge, we visualized what the water closet could look like when restored. I drew the four walls in Visio to help us visualize. Here was the idea, this image shows the wall with the window:
As you can see, the beadboard is drawn high in this room. I wanted to give the room some unique charm, and distinguish it a bit visually from the adjoining kitchen, which was also slated for beadboard. I have seen images of Victorian servants' rooms with high beadboard, and always liked the look.
A bit about bead board:
Whenever a wall is divided horizontally by a chair rail, the portion of the wall below the chair rail and above the baseboard is known as the dado. This is an architectural term describing that specific space. The dado area can be left as plaster or composed/covered of wood. If composed of wood, the
location is still the dado, but the
wood itself is called wainscoting. Wainscoting can be roughly divided into two types, that intended for formal rooms, and that intended for functional areas. Formal rooms would be dining rooms, parlours, vestibules, and front stairwells. Functional areas would be kitchens, larders, sculleries, back halls and back stairs, and attic stairs. Wainscoting in formal rooms was usually implemented as framed panelwork, much like you'd see on a door; raised or sunken panels, rails, and styles. Wainscoting in functional areas was often implemented as bead board. Bead board was cheap and easier to install than panelwork, and since functional areas were not typically seen by guests, it made little sense to decorate the functional rooms with fancy panelwork. In our modern interpretation, bead board is usually considered to be a decorative device to add charm. In Victorian times, there was little incentive to invest in "charm" for charm's sake in functional areas of the house. Instead, beadboard was installed to help protect the lower walls from the occasional bumps and bangs from activity common in the functional part of Victorian homes. These activities would include such things as carrying buckets of coal, wood or ashes, slop buckets, laundry baskets, and the like. Bead board provided a more resilient lower wall than plaster alone would provide. Bead board was installed either vertically or horizontally, with vertical installation being more the norm in the northeastern USA, and horizontal installation being common in the south. The height of bead board in functional rooms had no fast rule; often it was dictated by the height of a chair, sometimes builder preference, or sometimes by whatever unique functions the room would host. On occasion, if wood was plentiful and cheap, the builder would case the entire room in bead board, even the ceiling. The historic images below show various vertical and horizontal bead board at various heights:
Bead board was usually made from whatever local common wood abounded, usually pine on the east coast. Even in houses where owners were affluent enough to have the formal rooms trimmed and wainscoted in expensive hardwoods, beadboard in functional rooms was still usually cheap "paint grade" pine (although it was often shellacked).
In our visualized watercloset, the beadboard would be too high to be capped by chair rail, so I drew in a small 2" band board separating the bead board from the wall above. Since this room would employ no chairs, and be prone to water splashing about, the higher beadboard would be quite appropriate. For the water closet I opted to set the band board at ½ ceiling height. This would divide the wall into two almost-perfect Golden Rectangles.
A Golden Rectangle is a rectangle whose side lengths adhere to the Golden Ratio. That is, length of long side divided by short side always equals 1.618. Classical architects often strove to incorporate this ratio into architecture -everything from the pyramids to classical Greek temples. It was a concept not lost on Victorians (although unlikely to be intentionally incorporated into a watercloset). The Golden Rectangle and it's more generalized concept, the
Golden Ratio, are, you guessed it, very aesthetically pleasing. There are those who claim that even our bodies are designed around the Golden Ratio and that the most beautiful faces
adhere to it. But I digress. Let's get back to the restoration of a water closet, and save the emobodiment of mathematical truths for another day.
We began to remove what remained of the plaster after removal of the vinyl. The image below shows the north wall bare to the studs. You can also see one of the knee braces at the far corner.
Knee braces are diagonal studs used at corners to give buildings more rigidity. Each corner here at OMH has two pair of these braces, one pair on the ground floor, and another pair on the second storey. The braces themselves were installed as continuous unbroken members; the studs are "interrupted" by the braces. It was at this time that I made an interesting discovery. Folded up inside the V formed by the brace shown, was a small piece of paper, scanned to the image below:
The note reads:
Frank, set the house back from street so as to get piaza and steps. I had the Danvers job come in last night to figure so can't come over this morning So will get you to lay the cellar out for me. CBB
"CBB" stands for Charles Bernard Balcomb, who was part of the family of carpenters involved in building this house. The note itself does not refer to this house; it refers to another house down the street. There will be detail about him and the note on the History page, when I write it.
Removing the plaster from the south wall exposed a host of problems. Old knob & tube wiring, lead pipes, and sub-code venting. The first images below shows the knob and tube exposed. The sconce still attached to the wall is a few decades old. You can see the gas line that would have sourced a combination gas/electric fixture many years ago. I wonder how many fixtures graced this location since the original was installed in 1896.
The image to the right above shows an interesting free-form lead vent. This serviced the original and all subsequent sinks throughout the life of the house. The loop of this vent was designed to rise slightly above the sink's rim so that if the sink's drain ever clogged, water would overflow the sink before it ever entered the vent. The original drain probably included some sort of ball-trap going straight down through the floor. Over the years, plumbers grandfathered in drum traps (installed below the floor) so that they wouldn't have to monkey with the lead vent. Another interesting vent pipe was also found, it was installed when the house was built and was used to service the orginal toilet. You can see it at the left side of the left image below. It was about 2½ inches in diameter and made of galvanized tin.
This toilet vent ran up the wall to the main bathroom above where it also vented a toilet there. From there the vent rose again to the attic, where it cut across the house to the kitchen chimney which had a small hole to accept it. The vent was apparently abandoned in antiquity. Here in the water closet, the unattached end was stuffed with a newspaper and covered over. I carefully exumed the newspaper, shown above. The paper was the Salem Evening Gazette, dated March 9 1920. I would guess that sometime around that date, the watercloset's original toilet was replaced with a newer model which didn't require a vent. The homeowner or a contractor, looking for something to seal off the vent, found the newspaper handy, and stuffed it in. The headline on the paper reads "$1,000,000 For The North End." The
North End is a famous neighborhood in Boston known for its Italian heritage ethnic cuisine, and open air produce markets.
The image above shows a pair of large knob & tube feeds in a stud bay on the north wall. This was exposed when the plaster was removed. The wires run from the second story roof to the basement. The tubes are very large to accomidate large gauge wires; this was the main feed for the house. A crude, abandoned fuse box resides in a closet on the floor above. This main feed is at the back of the house. Apparently, electric poles in this area ran through backyards rather than on the streets.
Since the watercloset is in the north west corner, the removal of the plaster exposed the method of framing used in constructing the house. The house was built using a method of construction called Braced Framing. This type of framing harkens back to the earliest days of house framing in New England. It was developed under the influence of a tradition of heavy, European half-timber construction. The corner posts and interties (girts) are thick beams, 4x6 and 4x4 inch. These are fastened together using mortice, tenons, and oak treenails. An image of the framing as exposed in the watercloset, as well as an overview of the framing, is seen in the images below:
I was very surprised to learn this; at a time when more cost effective methods of house framing were widely used, it was pleasing to see such a robust and historic technique employed in the construction of our house. The builders of our house immigrated from Nova Scotia bringing a long history of father-to-son carpentry. I suspect the apprenticeship of their progeny included a sense of pride in implementing the methods of their forefathers.
The image above shows the area above the watercloset ceiling in the corner of the house. You can easily see the tapered point of an oak treenail (peg) poking through the corner post. It is holding the corner post to the end intertie. A bit below, the sawed end of a treenail can be seen holding the corner post to the sunken girt. This sunken girt supports the floor joists, one of which you can see in the upper left corner of the image. Nailed to the joists is strapping, on which the white stains of plaster are visible. This strapping is a full 7/8" thick.
The image below shows two holes in the floor for closet flanges. One of the holes is obviously in use, and which I stoppered with a rag. The other we found when layers of flooring were removed. The hole closest to the wall offers about a 10" rough in. This meant either I'd need a special toilet made for a 10" rough, or I'd have to use the other hole. There is a joist running exactly between the two holes. The is also a strange rectangle of top-flooring worked into the floor. I believe this rectangle was somehow related to the original toilet used in the watercloset. It may have been a wooden box-like contrivance with a square wood lid, covering a primitive porcelain fixture.
With all these interesting discoveries (and problems) exposed, it was time to begin work. The image to the left below shows the sink area looking into the watercloset from the scullery. The studs form the dividing wall between the two rooms. The right image is the same area as seen from the entry to the watercloset.
A large section of the sub-floor has been exposed. The metal pipe poking up from between the studs is the vent shown in an image above -now with the lead pipe removed. The PVC pipe is the drain for the (removed) disco-vanity. Apparently, there had been a water issue at some point in the house's life. The wood around these pipes looks a little punky. It became apparent that I'd have to remove this section of the subfloor and replace it. The image below shows the area sub-floor removed.
With the subfloor and a stud removed, more problems were exposed. The vent pipe is seen to emerge from a double thick (4x9") joist. The top surface of the joist is punky and rotted from what must have been a prolonged leak. I found that the rot extended outward from the pipe only a few inches, and was comprised of about the top inch of the joist. Two of the sub-floor planks do not reach the joist; the ends hang un-supported. This may have been done long ago to access and repair the leak. You can see the knob & tube wires between two studs. These serviced the wall sconce. The small hole in the floor between the two wires was where the gas line emerged to service the same sconce. Here is the view of the vent/drain plumbing from below:
Notice the non-compliant drum trap and the large steel vent pipe with its T-union just under the double-wide joist (the vent services a basement sink as well. The new copper pipe will service the basement sink, its restoration to be described on another page.)
With more sub-flooring removed, it was time to repair the damage. Shown below, I have scraped the punky wood from the double-joist, and I infused it with an
epoxy consolidator. In addition, I added a nailers on either side of the joist. These are not "sisters". Even with the rotted section removed, the joist is strong enough. The nailers only provide a surface to ease the sub-floor over the scraped spot.
With the beam treated, I could replace the section of floor. I did so using pieces of original planks from the house. In addition, you can see I've added 2x4 blocking between the studs. These are for nailing and for aiding in keeping the studs stationary while they are nailed.
The image above left, shows the watercloset as looking in from the scullery. This image shows a few other details as well; you can see that I've stripped some paint off the cypress baseboard on the far wall. Later I would remove and store this baseboard. You can also see that I've begun insulating the far wall. Here are some shots of the insulation installed. The last image is the view from ceiling level, with the room vacummed out and the baseboards finally removed and stored:
Much of the trim in our house is heart cypress, which is very brittle. Instead of removing it, I strip it in situ whenever I can. Here is the doorway to the watercloset showing the case moldings and rosettes. All this molding is solid and immoveable in spite of the fact that I have removed the plaster from behind it. The nails through the molding go right into the studs behind. The watercloset's molding still sports its Pepto-pink, as I had yet to strip it. The other side of the doorway lies in the kitchen.
It was about this time that I scratched the following note inside the wall of the watercloset:
Little did I know at the time that it would be three more years before the watercloset would be finished. The watercloset project was stopped for a while so that we could focus on the
exterior.
We started work on the watercloset again, and it was time for plumbing. The two images below show rough plumbing in place. The left image shows the watercloset looking through the scullery wall.
You can see that the watercloset is filled with rolls of insulation, planks and other junk. The pedistal sink is sitting loosely in its designated spot. It will now be serviced by PVC pipe, which serves as both vent and drain. The upper portion of this pipe ties into the main stack, slightly out of frame. You might notice that the PCV pipe enters the floor where the steel vent loop originally did; the same hole was used. The supply lines for the sink are PEX. They snake through the center of the 4" studs like the PVC does. Using PEX in the walls allows supply lines without solder unions inside the walls. This eliminates the possibility of a solder joint leaking years down the road. You can also see that electric has been roughed in. The round junction box will service a sconce for the watercloset. The watercloset's window is seen with the case molding removed. This was not the original casing. The original casing had been removed at some time in the past. What was on there was simply flat boards. The window's stops are removed as well. The rectangular cut out in the window's jamb is for servicing the sash cord, which can be seen hanging free. Incidently, the house frame's knee brace can be seen clearly in this image, it is the diagonal stud peeking out from behind the kraft paper insulation of the far wall. Had it not been for the window, there would have been one on the adjoining wall as well. The image to the right above shows the same scene from within the watercloset itself. Here you can see that where the sink will mate with the wall, I have place an oak plank, let into the studs. This will act as a firm anchor for the sink. Its height was calculated to center it vertically for the sink's mounting holes. Below images show closer details of the supply lines and the PVC vent for the sink.
The underlying blocking for the bead board is the exact same I designed and implemented in the kitchen. It is elaborated extensively on the
kitchen page, so I won't detail its implementation here, but these three drawings show the stackup of the molding from the studs:
The next image shows a lot of changes; I have installed new baseboard. This I made from 8" wide poplar. The top half of the room has been drywalled. The lower half is left for the beadboard as envisioned at the beginning of this page. You can see that the window retains some original case molding as well as both its rosettes. The missing pieces of case molding had to be made to match. I brought a piece of the original case molding to our local sawmill; they were able to find a molding knife witch matched our particular profile exactly. The window sashes are removed for restoration. The window retains its stool and apron molding, but what might not be obvious is that and inch of the ends were cut off long ago when the vinyl wall covering was installed. These would have to be replaced as well, although these I'd create myself.
Above right, we see the window sashes have been re-installed. Both sashes were meticulously restored by a local contractor specializing in sash restoration (more about this further below). I have also installed the milled vertical case molding over the weight pockets, and a band casing horizontally over the backer which separates the drywall from the (future) beadboard. This band casing is wider than the concept drawings above; it was a last minute decision which would allow me to dress up the band a bit, as you'll see. The band casing is poplar and sports drying wood filler in the nail holes. and I have also removed the window's stool and apron moldings for replication. As a sneak-peek, you can just see the painted ceiling at the top of the image.
The following set of images shows details of the wall discussed above; containing the sink and toilet plumbing. Although only 8 feet long, internally, this is a very "busy" wall. I took these images for reference so that I would have a record of where wires and pipes are located. They show the plumbing, electric, and the oak backer board for the pedestal sink. Ignore the furing on the studs; it was an option for drywall. I removed it for beadboard installation. The little green nip (Midori) seen in the photos is a small token left for future remuddlers.
Here I'm installing the cap for the band casing. Again, it is poplar. Sanded smooth and nail holes filled after installation. The second image shows the small piece connecting the corner to the window casing. Here I overlap the window casing a bit with a rounded edge.
Up under the cap, I installed a small cavetto molding to ease the transition. The pieces with ends overlapping the window casing called for an interesting cut. One such piece is shown in the following images:
Here the band, cap, and cavetto are shown installed and abutting the window. In the second image, they are primed.
Meanwhile, paint somewhere always needs to be stripped. Here Colleen is removing some paint from the door casing.
This image shows the band assemblies meeting the window casings on both sides of the window. Everything is primed and ready for paint.
The first coats of paint are applied:
The color is called Garam Masala, and is part of the C2 collection. We applied the paint at this point because the wallpaper hanger was due to arrive soon to paper the top half of the room. In order to do this, the band must be complete so that we won't have to worry about masking off the wallpaper. Below, the paper is complete, and I have wasted no time in installing an antique wall fixture:
Finally, some more images of the paper and fixture:
Now I could install the beadboard...we see below, the first two pieces installed.
The ends are nailed to the supports described above. They are long enough that I felt they needed another nailing support in the middle, for which I installed traditional nailers consisting of 2x4s inserted horizontally. You might notice that this beadboard has three beads. I had noticed similar, authentic original bead board in the pantry of one of my neighbors. I thought it was a unique variation of the beadboard as it presented vertical bands of smoothness and texture. I carefully made note of it at the time. When it came time to do my watercloset, I wanted to do it in that beadboard style. With that desire, and the fact that my source of quality southern yellow pine bead board had dried up, I elected to make the beadboard myself.
I found a source of heavy, clear ¾" toungue and groove southern yellow pine, made for flooring. On each piece I milled the bead work. I accomplished this using a set of Craftsman reed molding cutter for my table saw.
TBD: insert paragraph/images on milling beads
Once the beadboard pieces are cut to length, they install rather quicky. I described on the Kitchen page how I use a plumb bob to constantly monitor vertical accuracy. I used the same technique here. Required adjustments were relatively few. In those cases where adjustment was warranted, a penny sufficed to serve as a shim to adjust to plumb.
In the above image, I have taken the beadboard almost all the way down the wall. I made allowances in the beadboard for the supply pipes and drain using a jig saw. This much beadboard would allow the plumber to install the sink and toilet. The plumber was expected soon, so I concentrated on painting this installed section before installing more beadboard. Below, the closet flange is dry fitted into the floor.
With the toilet and pedestal sink installed, I could resume installation of beadboard. The next image shows the first piece ready to be nailed. Notice that I have not yet installed the lower cavetto molding (below the band board). Also, I have not yet installed the baseboard's cap molding. The insulation is placed to help reduce sound transmission throughout the house. Although not shown in previous images, I install insulation in all interior wall stud bays for this purpose. I do not use a vapor barrier in interior walls.
A few more pieces and the wall is covered:
From here I elected to move to the opposite (north) wall, and then finish the window wall last. Here I've gotten a good start on the north wall. You can see the vapor barrier in place and the blocking behind it:
The small west wall would be the most difficult; it had the window and an electric outlet as obsticles to contend with. In the small space on either side of the window, I'd have to fit the beadboard and insert it behind the window's case moldings. This image shows the wall blocked, barriered, and ready:
Next, I have installed the first two pieces, and am in the midst of sliding a third piece under the case molding. The second piece required a cutout to facilitate the electrical box.
The image to the right above shows the three pieces nailed. The window's case molding is exactly ¾" away from the face of the studs (the thickness of the original plaster) therefore there is no gap between the beadboard and the back of the casing; the proper reveal is retained. The next image shows the beadboard completed:
Several coats of primer and paint later, I could finally install the last piece of cavetto, and the baseboard's top molding:
Next up would be the window's stool. As I mentioned above, the original had it's ends hacked off long ago. Using it as a template, and using other windows in the house as a guide for its length, I made a new one
The image to the left below shows the baseboard and top molding on the south wall ready for priming and painting. I had to remove the toilet to install the top molding. The top molding is an exact replica of the original. The baseboard is the exact height as the original.
The image to the right above shows the lower cavetto installed in the southeast corner, and some touch up work to the band board.
The left image below shows two small fragments of privacy glass I found in the dirt outside below the window. We reglazed the window with glass of the same pattern. Once the glazier's compound had set, we could paint to match the room's woodwork.
With final coats of paint, and an oak toilet seat, the room is coming together:
I have more to write, Stay tuned...
