Author: Matt

Soil Stack Replacement

October 9, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Since we bought the house, we’ve had a leak in the roof where the cast iron soil stack sticks out. This is due to a complete lack of any kind of flashing on the roof. The hole itself is at least two inches larger in diameter than the pipe itself and you can see the sky from inside the attic. To be honest, I should have fixed this a long time ago. Rain water runs down the pitch of the roof, into the hole, then runs down the pipe all the way into the basement. Along the way it makes a mess of the wet wall (it’s not supposed to be literally wet). In a hard rain we’d get a puddle in the basement mechanical room, because of course the floor doesn’t slope to the drain (grumble). At one point I tried to patch it with Great Stuff, but other than making a big mess that didn’t accomplish much.

Part of what had stopped me from fixing this sooner was my intention to run the new soil stack out of PVC, including all of the correctly-positioned fittings for all of the connections (drains for toilets, sinks, tubs, shower, and various venting). Mapping all of that before we have the second floor re-framed is tricky. Regardless, I spent a fair amount of time working that out and planning things, but ran into some complications. Among these were the current location of the washer and dryer, the need to run a drain line for the future location of the washer as well as the kitchen sink.

Cast iron pipe to roof
Removing one piece at a time
Removed
Heavy!

When the day came to tackle this project, Rob and Aaron showed up and lent a hand. There is a 2″ vent pipe and the 4″ soil stack running up in parallel until the 2″ vent connects near the top. The 2″ vent pipe came off pretty easily, but the joints in the cast iron proved to be really solid, and I wound up cutting the pipe into sections with an angle grinder. The larger section of cast iron is about ten feet long and with all the fittings probably weighs a couple hundred pounds. Removing all of the cast iron took longer than I’d anticipated, plus we started later than I’d intended. This all conspired to it being late afternoon with a giant hole in the roof and the toilet venting into the house. Considering the complications with running the line that I was also still ruminating about, we just ran a straight vent and soil stack up, using the same rubber Fernco adapters to attach the PVC so we could make modifications later.

PVC soil stack assembled without fittings

With PVC sticking out of the roof, the next step was  to get onto the roof and install the flashing. There are some rotting toe boards on the roof left by the previous owner, and one of them was conveniently located where I could use it to not die while installing the flashing. However, there isn’t a good way to get to the toe board. I wound up attaching a rope to a nail on the far pitch of the roof and then using that to slowly lower myself down to the toe board (have I mentioned how scary-steep my roof is?), while carrying the flashing and a hammer.

Installing flashing
Safety!

I got the flashing installed, probably badly, and neglected to take a photo of the finished product before carefully climbing back up the rope to the relative safety of the peak of the roof. From there it’s a simple (though not easy) matter of inching to the edge, lowering myself down the slope at the edge, using the old satellite dish as a foot hold, then lowering myself over the edge onto the bracket for the pump jack, which is screwed in near the top of the wall. The good news is I didn’t fall off the roof and the puddle in the basement is gone. Thanks to Rob and Aaron for their help with this project!

Siding Removal

October 5, 2018 / / 6 Comments

By far the most arduous, time consuming, and eventually expensive portion of our summer was spent removing siding. While the front of the house was already done, and the back of the house only had the gable left, the sides were mostly three full layers of siding. The South side of the house was a bit better because we had removed both the siding around the windows as well as the bump-out, though there was the added challenge of the electrical service pole. By contrast, the North side is against the property line, with the only access being the narrow sidewalk along our neighbors’ house, which in some parts is only about 20″ wide.

The North side of the house

The outer layer of siding is vinyl, and it’s by far the easiest to remove. The second layer, on the other hand, is cement siding with asbestos fibers. As asbestos goes, it’s not the worst kind, since it’s “non-friable”, meaning you can’t crush it into powder with your fingers, but “the best kind of asbestos” is still not the ideal situation to be in. The bottom layer of siding is the original cedar clapboard. Doing this removal from a ladder or even two ladders and a platform was a non starter. Because the area is only about three feet wide, the angle is so steep that the platforms wouldn’t sit flat. Scaffolding is also too wide, especially factoring in the gutters and other protrusions from the neighbor’s house. That left a pump jack, where you put up two poles anchored to the house and the ground with a platform that jacks up between them. I found an inexpensive pump jack on Craigslist, and got to work on the South side.

Vinyl siding
Asbestos over wood
Last layer

The original plan was to see how long it took to remove a section of siding and use that as a guide for doing the North side after a conversation with our neighbors. Unfortunately, just getting the pump jack assembled and in place took hours, and every time I went to work on the house it was full sun and over 90°. The first time I got it set up and jacked the thing up to the top of the wall, I didn’t set up a ladder. I discovered that the jack didn’t slide down the way it was supposed to. You’re supposed to be able to step on a release and turn a little handle, but it just spun around. On top of that, even though we were following proper procedure and wetting and bagging the asbestos siding, we didn’t want the kids at home when I was doing the work, which meant I was at home by myself, on the top of this platform with no way down. It took me about an hour to work out a way to use my pry bar to get the thing to slip down about one gut-wrenching foot at a time. One or the other handles would intermittently work to more gracefully lower the platform. After that, I used the ladder, though I also managed to smack my forehead into an aluminum rung of the ladder and cut myself badly enough I still have a scar a few months later.

Finishing asbestos layer
Working on clapboard
House wrap going on

Only working when the kids weren’t home limited the pace of progress, as did the normal summer events that tend to fill up weekends. I managed to get about a third of the South wall done in that first whole weekend while Sarah and the kids were at her sisters’, but it was slow going. After removing the three layers of siding from a section, the immediate next step was to add house wrap to keep the rain out. Between this project and the windows, I’ve developed a keen hatred of installing house wrap. It always winds up being windy, making it almost impossible to wrestle with one person, and it seems no matter what I do, it eventually rips and blows off the wall, usually when it’s about to rain. For most houses, where it’s only exposed for a short time before siding is installed, that may not be a big problem, but we’ve encountered it repeatedly.

Filling yet another dumpster
More fun with heights
House wrap going on
Section behind electrical service

We rented another dumpster (I’ve actually lost count at this point) to get rid of not just the siding but a burgeoning pile of debris in the second floor from the windows, the old roof of the bay, the hip roofs from the front and back, plus more that had accumulated over the months. For some unexplained reason they didn’t want to come pick up the dumpster, and we wound up having it for nearly a month, but that worked to our benefit because of how long it was taking to remove the siding.

Back of house

Sarah helped me with the next section, and I tackled the next major section in another weekend. By this point, we had realized that we needed to hire out the rest of it. To tackle the North side of the house, even if I took a week off of work to do it, was going to be incredibly difficult, and we didn’t feel right asking our neighbors to give up their sidewalk for a protracted period. We also had a whole bunch of bagged asbestos siding that we didn’t have a good way to dispose.

Tented for professional removal
Siding stripped, but trim left
Trim removed, ready for house wrap

After getting some quotes, we brought in some pros to finish up the job. They originally thought they could get it done in a day, but there was a misunderstanding about removing the bottom layer of siding and they wound up taking about two and a half days to get the remainder done, including the section behind the electrical service pole, the gable on the back, and the whole North side of the house. They left the trim for some reason, so I’ve been removing that so I can get house wrap on. I’m hoping to get that wrapped up (ha!) this coming weekend.

Porch Roof

October 2, 2018 / / 1 Comment

With the majority of framing work on the front of the house complete, we could finally clear off the plywood and temporary railings and get the roof on. I had decided along the way that I didn’t want a shed roof, I wanted the porch roof hipped to the corners. That meant not only were there complicated bird nose cuts, but there were complicated angled bird nose cuts. Once again, I enlisted the help of our our carpenter friend Mike S to do the heavy lifting of figuring all of that out for me.

Ledger and first rafters
Another angle
Installing rafters

I can’t speak to technique much here, folks. I was there, I was helping, but I was not in charge. Mike calculated out the lengths, the angles, the bird noses, all the complexity and I mostly carried boards and watched. The next step was to put on the sheathing. Here again, Mike cut out the angles and I handed things through the window. The next step was a bit more complicated, and by this time Mike had gone home and I was on my own. Along the edge where the roof meets the house, we had brought the start of the roof angle out 2″ to allow for the foam. I needed to put strips of sheathing along this so that I could have the ice and water shield tie into the house as a continuous sheet, without creating a trough. This should have been as simple as cutting a 2″ wide strip of sheathing for each plane, but between the angles around the bay and a variety of imperfections, it was noticeably more difficult.

Edging on left side
Edging on front of bay
Edging on right corner
Little corner piece
Porch roof sheathing

With that done, the last step was covering the whole thing in ice and water shield, just as we did the roof of the bay. We’ll circle back with shingles when we replace the roof. I just started at the bottom and rolled out the sheet, angling around the corners as best as I could. I wrapped it over the edge as well, because we don’t have gutters right now. When the porch gets clad in trim and we put the gutters on, we may just trim this back to tie it into the drip edge. For now it keeps everything water tight, and for the first time in quite a while we can walk out the front door when it’s raining and not get wet.

Starting the ice and water shield
Working on the corners
Making progress
All done!

Finishing this project makes a very noticeable difference in the appearance of the house, lets the neighbors know we are actually trying to get this crazy project done, and starts to make the house really look like what we’d envisioned when we embarked on this crazy project. It was exciting to get this done. Now all the porch needs to be finished is the new front sidewalk, permanent stairs, cladding, decking, railings, and beadboard.

Master Bath Windows

October 1, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Mostly because they were existing, our master bath will have two full size windows. We’ll probably put plantation shutters or something on them for privacy, but they should bring in a lot of light. Replacing these went very similarly to the previous windows, with the exception that I came up with a better way of doing the exterior rigid foam that I wish I’d done all along. Since we’re putting 2″ of foam on the outside of the house, in two 1″ layers, I’ve been cutting a total of 8 rectangles to put around the windows. With these last two windows, I realized I could cut out the four pieces for the first layer while getting the entire outside layer in one piece. Not only does this reduce seams, tape, and look cleaner, it helps hold everything together better.

Removing Siding
Siding and old window removed
House wrap up
Window installed

The back window was also an opportunity to finally get the rest of the peeling siding off the house and get it covered in house wrap. Another thing I did differently with this window (though I did it with the attic window as well) was I put the house wrap on first, before I built the jam extensions. Again, that worked better, and I wish I’d done that from the outset. The house wrap probably would have looked better.

House wrap but no framing
Framing but no sheathing
Sheathing but no jam extension

Another technique I continued with was putting the temporary tabs on the jam extension to hold the window in place, but still give me room to pull it a bit out of the wall so that I could attach the brackets. If I had all of the windows to do over again, it would be considerably easier, and a better job. That said, it would still be a complete pain, given all the reframing involved.

Attaching brackets and flashing tape to the window
Really high up

See how much better it looks than the one on the first floor? That’s the first window we did. Oh well, that’s how it goes.

Second Floor Bathroom Window

September 28, 2018 / / 0 Comments

I haven’t posted in forever, so let me start getting things caught up, starting with the wide window that will go over the bath tub in the main bathroom. It’s a 64″ x 16″ picture window situated above head height so it will have the necessary privacy while still bringing in natural light. The existing window was a square of glass block with a louvered glass vent in the center. That was put in place of an original window that was a portrait shape but smaller than the other windows in the house, so this is the third shape/style of window that’s going into this location.

Glass block window
Demo started
Window removed

As with all of the other windows, removing the existing window took about three minutes with a crowbar. The only difference is that this time I also needed to remove some plywood that had been used to fill the space of the original window. I used the laser level to cast the same top height as the other windows, then measured up for the header and down for the sill. I had to cut out a few studs for this window, given how much wider it is than its predecessors. First I framed in the new header and jack studs, added plywood sheathing to fill in the top and bottom where the old window was, then I used the reciprocating saw to cut back the sheathing in the resultant opening from the inside.

Header and jack studs
Sill
New sheathing
Opening cut back

The next step, which proved the most time-consuming part of the process, was removing all of the siding from this section. I had originally assumed this would be fairly easy, given it’s a fairly small window, but there was the added challenge of it being on the side of the house (on the second floor), with very little room to have a ladder at a safe angle. When I previously removed the bump-out, I put up house wrap up to cover the sheathing until we are ready to put up new siding. Since that was only a few feet from the edge of the window, it made sense to remove all the siding between the window and the section already covered in house wrap. I had to move the ladder around a lot to get all of the siding off, chucking the pieces into the hole and making a big messy pile inside.

Eventually I got it cleared down to the boards, got the nails pried out or banged back in, and got the house wrap over the whole area. Unrolling a section of house wrap while up on a ladder, where the house wrap actually has to go behind the ladder, and getting it stapled up evenly, is a bit tricky. Out of maybe a twenty times I’ve put sections of house wrap on this house, I think it’s been windy nineteen of them.

Only then did I realize I’d made a mistake. I’d measured exactly where the bottom sill board should go, then cut back the studs to that height and made the opening accordingly. The problem is, that line was actually supposed to the top of the sill, not the bottom. As a result, I had to remove the sill, re-cut the studs an inch-and-a-half shorter, put the sill back in, then re-cut back the sheathing. Fortunately I didn’t get even further along before realizing what I’d done.

Window installed

Once that was done, the rest of the window went down the same way as the previous ones. I put in the plywood jamb extensions, installed the two inches of rigid poly-iso foam to the outside, taped the drain pan and sides to the foam, then added the temporary wooden brackets to allow the window to be put in from the inside and protrude on the outside an inch or so, which gives me the room I need to clip on the window installation brackets from the outside. Finally, I screwed all the brackets in, securing the window, and taped the edges of the window to the foam. I’ll come back around and put spray foam around all the windows from the inside at the same time, since the cans (or at least the straws) are pretty much one-shot.

From the outside