Month: April 2021

With my contributions to the HVAC work out of the way, I finally got back to one of the smaller projects I need to wrap up. Rather than low voltage wire or sound insulation, I realized the higher priority was getting the shower base installed. I bought a pre-made linear drain shower kit, including the base and the two edges. A linear drain is where the shower drain is a long rectangle instead of a circle or square. I like how it looks and how much simpler it makes tiling.

Normally, the plumbers are supposed to install the shower drain plumbing beforehand, including the trap, and terminate the drain pipe just below the subfloor. Instead, my plumber asked me to install the shower base first, and then they’d know the drain was exactly in the right spot (even though we’d discussed exactly where it would go). Whatever; I’m past arguing about this stuff and I just want it done.

I cut down the base just slightly so that the shower will fit to the right of the window. I picked up a bag of modified thinset, but the supposedly included 3/4″ u-notch trowel was no where to be found, so I had to order that since no one carried it locally. With that finally to hand, I mixed up some of the thinset and dumped it onto the floor, realized there was a bunch of unmixed powder, put it back, added water, re-mixed, and spread it out. Of course there wasn’t enough, because I didn’t want to make too much, so I had to quickly mix up another batch before the first layer set up, got it all troweled into corn rows, and carefully set the base on top of it.

The next step was carefully walking around on the base to smoosh it down and then checking it for level. I scraped the thinset away from where the drain hole will go and used that glob to fill in under one of the corners where I was worried it was too flexible. With the base down, I texted the plumbers, letting them know that the shower base was installed, and also I found a small leak in one of the supply pipes (to the same shower), plus I realized they never installed the water line to the refrigerator. All of this needs to be done before drywall.

The plumbers came back and drilled the hole in the floor, then decided they wanted the drain pan installed as well. They glued a PVC fitting to the ABS of the pan (using glue I had thoughtfully purchased beforehand) to simplify the process, fixed the leak, and started running the line for the refrigerator. They also came into my bedroom while I was in the middle of a meeting for work to turn off the water main, then came back a bit later to turn it back on. Now I’m just bitching, sorry.

After re-watching the instructional video for maybe the third time, I busted out the tube of sealant included in the kit to attach the pan to the base and carefully squeezed out the bead along the inner flange, set the pan into the base, and then applied a second bead to the surface, which I spread out with a putty knife. The process went surprisingly smoothly and similar to the video, except for the part where squeezing my caulk gun is way harder than it should be for some reason. Maybe I need to poke more holes in the end of the tube or something. I texted the plumber again to let them know it’s done again, and hopefully they can finish up the rest of their work now.

There’s about eighteen more steps in the shower install and waterproofing process and I’m losing hope that any of it will be done by a contractor. The HVAC crew hasn’t been back this week; I think they’re waiting on a check from the bank. My back porch is suddenly twice as expensive as it was quoted six months ago, so we’re looking for another contractor for that. That’s inconvenient, since I told the HVAC guy they could probably wait to hang the condenser on the back of the house until the porch was up, since I was hoping that would be soon.

I also managed to run the thermostat wires. That was a really small project, but it had been hanging on my list for a while, so it was good to finally knock it out. There’s still some security system wiring to do and a whole bunch of sound proofing insulation yet, but we’re chipping away at it, as always.

One of the mini-splits is going in the basement, so to give the installers free reign to do that, we packed up and went to a rental house overnight and did our remote work and school there. Unfortunately, not everything went to plan in our absence, and the result was more extra projects to do, just when I thought I could get back to the remaining low voltage wiring and sound insulation.

First I got the call that the joist bay in the basement that we had measured and would fit the unit actually didn’t fit the unit. It was close, but not enough. They thought it could be planed or sanded to fit, but didn’t have any tools to hand to do so and my tools were in storage, so I asked them to finish running the lines and that I would take care of it. That way, while they’d still need to be in the basement again, at least it wouldn’t be very long.

Then I got a call later in the day that the room in the attic for the air handler that has access to the knee wall for the ducts isn’t big enough. The air handler will fit, but not with all the ducts. The wall that separates the air handler room from the adjacent closet needs to move a foot or so. Fortunately, it’s just a storage closet, so shrinking it isn’t that big a deal, and there isn’t any electrical conduit or other utilities running through the wall that would complicate things, but I really thought we were done with framing at this point.

We got home, I ran to storage and got my power planer, and got to work. I made a huge mess all over the family room, with wood shavings raining down on me, the floor, the table, and the couch. I forgot that it doesn’t just gently fall, it blows everywhere. I cut a piece of foam to the correct width and used that as a template to confirm the space was finally big enough and after going back over the same spot about eighteen times, it fit. Afterward I brought down the shop vac, and despite a solid twenty minutes of cleaning, areas that I thought were already clean continue to have bits of sawdust on them, most likely due to it still settling out of the air.

That seemed like enough for one evening, so the next day after work while Sarah continued work on sound insulation, I got ready to tackle the attic closet wall. That’s when I noticed that the drain line from the unit in the back of the first floor, which runs along the beam, plus the linesets from the basement that run over the beam will both require me to further pad out said beam in order for drywall to lay flat. So first I ran to the store and picked up twelve more 8′ 2x4s.

Back in the attic, I carefully disassembled the wall separating the storage closet from the HVAC closet, prying out the nails so I could try to re-use the lumber and have to re-frame as little as possible. It took long enough that I had only finished demo by the kids’ bedtime, and it occurred to me that it may be a good idea to wait to put the wall back until after they’re done and we’re sure it all fits, since I really don’t want to do this again.

The next evening I did the beam re-pad, simply screwing the 2x4s to the existing 1x4s I put up last year (sorry, I didn’t bother posting about that, it was in September). It went fairly quickly, maybe a couple hours to get everything screwed up. I had to chisel out a couple spots to avoid the bracket nuts, as well as cut and chisel out part of the top plate on the wall under the beam to allow the lineset to lay flat against the beam.

With this all done, and since I’m waiting for the air handler and duct install to be done before I put the attic wall back together, I think I can go back to working on the low voltage wiring, the insulation, and the master bath shower base. We’re under the gun to get this all done by the time the HVAC install is finished so that we’re not holding up drywall.

I unexpectedly had to switch gears to a different project, leaving the insulation and security system wiring as yet incomplete. As I mentioned, the HVAC installation has started, and one of the downside to having mini-splits is that each unit needs a drain line, as opposed to central air, where you only need one because you only have one evaporator. In discussing where to run the lines with the installer, he originally suggested along the beam in the first floor, which would involve padding it out further to allow the 3/4″ line to fit. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t work in the basement. While it could run along the beam, it couldn’t jog over to the mechanical room without dipping below the ceiling, since drains need to follow gravity.

I realized the simplest solution would be to run a drain line through the basement along the outside wall above the curb. When we eventually finish the outside walls, it will all be covered up, and it could pick up each of the units on the way, plus I wouldn’t have to pad out the beam, save one section in the back.

While I could have asked the installer to do this work, because it was in the basement doing so would mean more time we couldn’t be living and working here, and more stuff that I’d have to move, particularly in the kids bedroom where they have a lot of stuff, much of which is currently scattered across the floor. While cleaning their room is long overdue, moving shelving and dressers and more to give them access wasn’t appealing. Instead, I could just run this portion myself and they can connect the units.

With a plan in motion, I ran to Menards and picked up a bunch of 3/4″ PVC, 1-1/4″ PVC and a plethora of fittings. I told the installer on Friday that I could knock this out over the weekend so that it would be ready for them when they come back Monday. Saturday morning, I started in the mechanical room, and it took about ten minutes before I discovered I’d need more fittings. Now, if there’s one truism of DIY, it always takes more trips to the store, but I’ve learned an important tip: don’t go yet. If you go to the store every time you realize you need parts, it will take many trips. Instead, get as much done as you can with the materials you have, discover all the things you need along the way, then make one trip. At least, that’s the idea.

The next challenge is that the installer and I had discussed the drain line coming down the outside wall in the first floor between the two kitchen windows. I quickly realized that in the basement directly below that is… a window. One upside is that I realized that instead of having separate lines going up to three units (basement unit, first floor unit, and attic air handler), I could have them share a single line because they’re fairly closely spaced. The downside to that was I then wanted to use the larger 1-1/4″ pipe for the vertical run, since it was multiple units. Here again, I discovered the need for more/different fittings.

I figured out a narrow path that the drain pipe could take to come between the windows upstairs and then to one side of the window in the basement, but it was a really narrow space upstairs. Cutting out expensive spray foam to get this installed upstairs underscored that I really should have planned for this months ago. We can backfill with canned foam, but it’s not as good. Fortunately, these are all really small spaces.

After another trip to the store, I made some good progress getting the line installed. I added the boiler condensate line as well, since that had a hose that would often slip out of the drain and (since the basement floor isn’t sloped to the floor drain) lead to a puddle in the mechanical room.

It picked up a drain coming down the wet wall from the unit in the back of the first floor, then into the basement family room where it goes and picks up the aforementioned three units, running clear up to the attic. Lastly, I ran a 3/4″ line clear to the front of the house to pick up the unit in the front of the first floor. I got everything installed, sloped, anchored to the wall, backfilled the gaps with canned foam, and cleaned up the rather large mess I’d made cutting out channels in the spray foam. It was a busy weekend, but it’s done. Now I can switch back to the other projects that need to be done before drywall can go in.

One of the things I worked on with Dean the night before spray foam was the bath fan exhaust ducts. Historically, these are installed using regular 3-4″ metal ducting, but it can leak steamy air into the ceiling assembly. Because the metal conducts the heat and cold from outside, it can also condense on the outside of the duct if it’s not insulated. Both of these can cause mold within your walls or attic. While you can seal the duct joints and insulate it, a simpler and cheaper solution is to use PVC pipe and slope it to the outside. It won’t leak, and moisture will drain to the outside, and the plastic generally won’t condense water on it.

I used regular 4″ schedule 40 PVC to do the basement bathroom and found that the challenge was the connections on either end, both to the fan as well as the exterior vent cap. Because both are 4″ in diameter, neither fits inside the other easily. For a number of years I just had a drain cap on the end of it, but Dean has a metal crimper and helped me get a proper vent cap onto it.

For the rest of the house, I learned my lesson and switched to drain and sewer PVC. This thinner walled pipe is what we used for our drainage project, before which I wasn’t really familiar with it. Because the pipe is frequently used in long runs, each 10′ pipe has a flared end to allow connecting one to the next. It just so happens this flared end fits the vent caps perfectly, and the thin wall of the straight end fit to the bath fans just fine too. You can glue it up just like regular PVC and then seal the connections at each end with caulk.

Before the siding went on, Dean brought over his hole saw kit and helped me drill holes in the exterior wall as well as holes in some blocks of wood and rigid foam insulation to attach to the outside of the house so that the holes would be flush with the exterior foam. The powder room and main bath were simple straight runs, so installing the pipe and caulking the ends was a matter of twenty minutes on the ladder. The master bath, on the other hand, was a bit of a challenge. Like the others, I’d cut the exterior hole in the wall to be a straight shot from the fan, about five feet long.

Unfortunately, the electrician wanted to put the ceiling light in the center of the shower, which I agreed would look nice, which meant the fan exhaust would need to zig zag around the can light. Not the end of the world, but then the plumbers ran the overhead shower through that same space, after I asked them not to, and the run would have to jog up and then back down, which could lead to condensation pooling instead of draining. The next time they were out I asked them to move it, which (after some grumbling) they did, so I finally got this last run installed.

We’re working on batted insulation in interior walls and ceilings for sound and fire block, HVAC work has finally started, and I’m wrapping up the wiring for the security system, so I should have some additional posts soon.