Author: Matt

Heating Things Up

January 2, 2013 / Matt / 1 Comment

One of the major projects in our remodel is replacing the heating system, and I’ve been thinking more about it recently because our house is chilly. I sometimes feel like living in our old house is actually a trip back in time, where I need to wear a house robe and slippers over layers of clothes just to fend off the cold. Our efforts to weather seal are hindered by a complete absence of insulation in the walls or ceiling.

Currently we have an inefficient old boiler with steam radiators. There are three radiators on each floor with pipes running through the basement and up through the first floor to reach the second, plus a brick chimney in the center of the house that both the boiler and the water heater share.

The challenge is that we’re remodeling in phases (first floor then second) but we have one heating system. We’re planning to replace it with a new high efficiency boiler (which will direct vent rather than need a chimney) and radiant floor heating, in our case a system of panels that install on top of the subfloor and have pex tubing run through them. In order to finish the first floor, we need to remove the chimney, pipes, and radiators from it. That means that the old heating system will no longer work but the new system would only be installed on the first floor, leaving us without heat on the second floor.

Because of this I had originally been looking at a radiant heating system that installed under the floor, so we could heat the second floor from below before we remodeled it. There are a few problems with this approach: it’s not as efficient as the above subfloor system because it has to radiate through an extra inch of (non-conductive) wood, we’re planning to replace the plank subfloor with OSB and installing the pex tubing to it would prevent us from doing that, and finally the new system will be sized for the highly-insulated walls we’ll eventually have and most likely will not be powerful enough to heat the second floor until the insulation is installed.

So, how can we heat the second floor if we can’t use the radiators and don’t yet have radiant floors? One option is the forced air system we’re planning to install for air conditioning and ventilation. We could get a furnace rather than a simple air handler and install the ductwork sooner rather than later. Because the ducts will go through the attic and basement, they won’t require significant intrusion into the second floor, just a vertical trunk that would go through our bedroom. It would also give us a supplemental way to heat in the event we ever had a problem with the radiant system. However, we still have the problem that this system, even if we wanted to install it, would most likely be sized for the eventual high levels of insulation, not our current drafty state of affairs and might not be up to the task. It’s also a large up-front expense that we were planning to put off for some time.

That brings us to the other option: space heaters. I started looking at electric baseboard and oil-filled heaters. While not a very cost effective way to heat a home, neither are our steam radiators. It’s entirely possible that running electric heaters would cost less than running the boiler, considering Chicago’s electric rate just dropped to 5.424¢/kilowatt hour and the fact we’re only heating one floor. Next, I briefly explored the option of an electric heat pump, which is much more efficient and can cool as well as heat, but it also costs ten times as much to buy and for a temporary solution it just doesn’t make sense.

In addition to the operating costs, if we got electric heaters we’d also need to run new wiring to power them, plus we would need at least three of them given they’re limited to 1,500 watts each. Once I started thinking about running three new circuits, it occurred to me that for about the same amount of effort I could run one gas line and put in a vent-free natural gas heater. A gas heater would deliver several times the heat of an electric baseboard and cost much less to operate. Best of all, while not as cheap as baseboards, they’re fairly inexpensive.

As with everything, there is a trade off. Vent-free heaters cause increased moisture in the house and can adversely affect indoor air quality. Unfortunately, the direct vent alternatives that put out the same amount of heat cost several times as much and are less efficient. Despite the concerns, vent free is safe and with the house being as drafty as it is I’m not too concerned. They have built in oxygen depletion sensors and we have a carbon monoxide detector as well.

My plan is to get one, install it, and see if it keeps the house warm and if it’s cheaper to operate. If so, we can get rid of the boiler and radiators right away. If not, we can keep using the radiators for now and only switch to the heater for the second floor when we have to remove the chimney.

Permits!

December 31, 2012 / Matt / 2 Comments

Some good news to report. Finally past Zoning, our permit was approved by the remaining departments and our architect came by with the paper to put in the window. We are official, legal, and in a few weeks our stamped, approved plans will be delivered.

The process, from hiring the architect to receiving the piece of paper (not including time I spent designing the plans we gave to the architect), took approximately eight months. In yet another “best in show” accolade for our house to put with “worst cockroach infestation ever seen by our exterminator” we have added “longest permit approval ever seen by our architect” thanks in no small part to the two months of waiting around while the city decided whether we could have a green permit or not.

We gave up waiting for the permits back in August when we demoed the first floor, so at this point it doesn’t make a ton of difference, but it’s one more thing behind us and it clears the way for us to demo the foyer and front stairs and start making a proper mess of things without fear of some city official putting a stop work order on the front door and sticking us with a fine.

Looking forward, our immediate focus is still the beam project. Once we have our new beam, columns, and footings, we’ll get another dumpster to clean out the piles of scrap wood on the first floor and demo the foyer. Then we can start work on the LVL beam and columns in the first floor and the new first floor subfloor, followed (eventually) by new framing, windows, and the previously discussed first inch of spray foam. With Sarah going back to school in just a couple weeks, it’s hard to estimate how long any of this will take. I can’t plan anything past the structure work until I get a sense of our rate of progress.

New Electric Service

December 29, 2012 / Matt / 1 Comment

New Electric Panel

Let’s take a break from the beam project for a moment. I often post incremental progress on our many simultaneous undertakings, but I’d like to be able to have each post be about one topic. It was that line of thinking that had me holding off on posting about our upgraded electric service. See, it was supposed to be simple. For one, we hired someone to do it. To be more specific, we hired someone in July. I held off posting about it because I was waiting until it was finished, so I could have a start-to-finish post on one topic. I didn’t realize we were in store for an epic saga of electric company obstinacy. If I had, I’d have posted along the way. Instead, here in December, I’m going to give you one big post about how we got our electric service upgraded. Unfortunately, I don’t remember all of the dates.

The story starts with us selecting contractors. We had met Percy, our electrician, at an open house hosted by Marcus and Cathy. They had hired Percy to do their work and from what we could see of it, he’d be perfect for what we needed. At the time we were hoping it would be possible to get the radiant heat installed this fall, and so getting new electric service was a priority. Percy quoted us the new 200 amp service with a new breaker panel and whole-house surge suppressor and we hired him.

Right on time, Percy and his assistants arrived and spent a day and half installing the new equipment, moved all the breakers into the new panel, and put the service pipe on the side of the house for the new service to connect to. Everything was done very well. Lots of clamps securing everything, neat connections and professional work all around. We originally had two meters (for the two flats) on the side of back porch. Because we’re eventually removing and replacing the whole back porch, we wanted to put the meter on the house itself. After some discussion with Percy, he put the meter box about three feet from where the old one was.

Percy told us that ComEd (our power company) would be out in a couple of weeks to hook up the new line from the pole. Two weeks came and went but there had been some storms that had knocked out power for people so we waited a bit longer. Then, one Saturday morning I got a phone call that someone from ComEd would be there to perform an inspection in a few minutes. I met the inspector along the side of the house and he succinctly told me that the location of the meter wouldn’t work. It was too close to the neighbors house, too close to their meter, and it was too close to the property line. I should explain here that we have a sidewalk along each side of the house. One (on the South side) is our sidewalk and one (on the North) is our neighbors’. The meter box was along the neighbors’ sidewalk, and our house sits right on the property line. It never occurred to us this was a problem because the old meter was along that side as well.

The inspector left and we called Percy. He said he would call ComEd and get it straightened out. He explained that he could appeal but it might take several weeks. We told him that was fine and waited. Eventually, in late August or early September, he was told that it would in fact need to be moved more than three feet from the neighbors’ meter. That meant that Percy had to come back and spend a whole day moving the box and the pipe three feet over and re-run the cable.

A week or so later the inspector from ComEd came back and this time Percy met him there. He said that while it was now far enough from the other meter, and he could forgive the distance to the other house, once a meter was put into the box it would be over the property line (by approximately three inches), and he couldn’t pass it. The only place the meter could go was the other side of the house, along our sidewalk. With no recourse, Percy came back and spent another day and a half again moving the pipe and meter box, this time to the opposite side of the house, adding a cutoff switch in the basement because the meter box was now more than five feet from the breaker. Because the line from the alley was still connected on the other side, he had to run temporary wires around the back of the porch to connect to the new pole.

The inspector was due out, but we never saw any sign of him. Instead we got a letter from ComEd that because we no longer had a working meter (just the box for it) they were going to disconnect our electricity. Sarah called ComEd and we were told not to worry about that. They said the inspector had not approved it because the wire that would connect from the house to the alley would run past the window on the porch. She explained that the porch was going to be removed, but they said unless we could tear it down now, that didn’t matter. Finally, they agreed that if we boarded up the window it would be acceptable.

The inspector finally came back out and reluctantly, as if searching for any excuse to deny it, approved the work. We thought that now, finally, we were in the clear. By now it was October. The next visit from ComEd was supposed to install the new wire to the alley, but the guy that arrived looked at the house and told us they couldn’t do it because there wasn’t enough room to safely put a ladder against the side of the house, and then left. A few days later a man arrived from ComEd to install the new meter and told us he couldn’t because the wiring around the back of the porch wasn’t safe. We explained it was temporary, but he said he couldn’t install the meter and left.

A series of phone calls to ComEd got a visit from the foreman who reiterated that they couldn’t safely put a ladder against the house and the only way to do it would be to bring in a scissor lift. They measured the clearance and determined it wouldn’t fit through the back gate and wouldn’t fit between the house and the neighbors fence at the front.

We asked it it could be brought through the garage, since we have an overhead door that opens to the yard. He wasn’t sure how tall the lift was and said he’d let us know. Further phone calls revealed it was too tall. Finally, Sarah told them we would remove the section of the back fence adjacent to the gate so they could bring in the scissor lift.

Removing the back fence

All of this brings us to early December. I pried off the concrete along the edge of the sidewalk and dug out the post for the fence, which unlike much of our house was actually done well, with a concrete footing nearly three feet into the ground. I finally had to use a 2×4 to lever the thing out of the ground and a sledge hammer to break off the concrete. The next day, the crew from ComEd showed up and used a ladder. They were apologetic about the previous people that told us to dig up our fence, and even helped Sarah put it back in place so she could pour new concrete.

Re-poured fence footing

Finally, we have new 200-amp electric service. We didn’t wind up getting the radiant heat installed this fall because we didn’t have permits yet and we weren’t far enough along in the other work. Other than meeting code requirements, we probably don’t even need it. However, after countless phone calls and seemingly endless frustration it’s done. Percy, having spent quite a bit of his own time, money, and material dealing with their bureaucracy is considering legal action, but we just want to put it behind us and focus on the next piece of this massive puzzle.

Beam Project: Leveling with Jack Posts

December 28, 2012 / Matt / 4 Comments

Jack post

I bought a jack post. Then I bought two more. Then I bought a big adjustable wrench to have more leverage to crank them. The end result, after several attempts (other than a straining workout) is that in the single section I was trying to lift the beam, it has moved up approximately an eighth of an inch. Since I’m trying to raise it by over an inch, I decided to rethink my tactic.

Cut floor joists

Part of the problem is that several of the floor joists, which are 2x10s spanning the whole width of the house, were cut at some point to allow access to the basement from the front bedroom on the first floor. This was then closed up at a later date. When they cut the joists they were no longer supported by the outside wall on one side, resting entirely on the beam. Generally you would add a cross member (or a few) to tie the cut joists to the joists that were not cut. Instead, someone probably much later put in some 2x4s so they’d have something to hang drywall from. Not surprisingly this is now the lowest part of the beam, since it’s bearing considerably more weight than it was designed to. We’ll replace the cut joists when we rip up the first floor subfloor, but for now we need to work with what we’ve got.

Another problem is that the jack posts I bought ($45 a piece from Menards) are rated for between 9,100 and 18,000 lbs. That sounded like a lot, but recalling that we removed 9 tons during first floor demo alone, it’s very likely that the weight the beam is carrying is higher than that. The dome in the steel plate at the top of each jack post has buckled, which is probably a good sign they’re not up to the task.

Jack posts and rotted column

After some discussion and research, I arrived at plan B. The first step was to move the jack posts to either side of the rotted column a bit further down the beam and take any remaining load off of that section. Then I took out the column, which by this point was basically hanging from the beam.

Rotted column removed

The damp dirt beneath the column explains the rot, but it’s concerning since I don’t yet know where the moisture is coming from. That mystery will need to wait until we dig up the floor. With the column removed I can now cut off the rotted section and use it in conjunction with the 50 ton hydraulic bottle jacks I ordered, which will arrive in a few days. I’m pretty sure they’ll have the necessary strength to lift the other section of the beam up. I’ll cover that in more detail when they show up.

Beam Project: Measurements

December 5, 2012 / Matt / 1 Comment

The first step is to get all of the precise measurements and check how far off of level we are. I bought a laser distance measure and a self-leveling cross line laser level. These were each about $100 each and in addition to being incredibly helpful for this project will be useful for many of the projects going forward.

Checking beam level

I started by checking the beam for level. I drew a mark under each floor joist along the laser line and then measured from the joist down. I then marked which joists were lower or higher than average. The variance was about a half inch in either direction. Then I turned the level the other direction to check the floor joists. I found that the floor joists sagged by about an inch from the outside wall to the beam. Determining level without the laser would have been painstaking and not as accurate. I have a six foot level, but using it to find the level of the whole basement would have sucked. Since you can’t trust the beam, the joists, or the floor to be level, all you can do is find variance. This will be especially important when I dig the footings so I know how deep to make them.

Checking joist level

I also measured the length of the beam. It is pocketed into the brick wall at either end, so I slid a piece of metal in to determine how deep the pocket is and added that to the total, which is roughly 44′. There will be two columns, so we’ll split the beam into three sections. The challenge in positioning the columns is that the floor above will also have open spans, so those columns need to be directly above the columns in the basement. The spans should be as short as possible, because their load bearing capacity drops exponentially with length. I referred to the floor plans, but a couple of the dimensions were off, so I had to adjust to get the exact locations of the columns. I determined the longest span will be 16′. Conveniently you can multiply 16′ x 24 lbs and get the weight: 384 lbs. This job will require some help.

Marking the footings

Finally I marked out the location of the footings on the floor. Unfortunately, there are studs and a 4×4 in the way, so I need to build the temporary wall so I can remove it. That means it’s time to get some jack posts and crank up the house.

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