Category: Basement Remodel

Dig down the floor, redo the below-grade plumbing, Pour a new floor, and make the basement livable so we can demo the second floor.

Basement Permanent Wall Drywall Hanging

July 19, 2016 / / 0 Comments
Dean and Hector

Dean and Hector

Dean and his dad, Hector, came over on a Saturday to help me put up the drywall on the permanent walls in the basement. All of the permanent walls were also insulated with Roxul Safe’n Sound for sound proofing, as well as reducing both condensation on cold water pipes and heat loss on the hot water pipes. We’re using ⅝” moisture resistant (green board) drywall for all of the permanent walls in the basement. We’re still working on our water issues and I don’t want to replace anything we’re putting in because it got wet. Using ⅝” instead of ½” adds addition sound proofing and fire protection.

Insulating plumbing wall
Insulating between rooms
Drywall!

In the case of the bathroom, the first step (after putting up the ceiling) was to install the tile backer for the tub surround. We’d originally planned to install a fiberglass surround that fit the tub, but even though I ordered the correct piece I received the wrong one. We didn’t realize that until the plumbers tried to install it. When I went to get the right one I found they were out of stock across the city, so we just gave up and decided to tile it. It’s more work, but the cost is similar and it will look nicer, plus I’ve got a cool idea in mind that I’m going to try. I bought Hardibacker instead of regular cement board and screwed it to the studs with the appropriate special screws. After a variety of conflicting information and opinions from various sources, I elected to install the bottom edge of the backer board ¼” above the tub flange. In a couple of spots the gap was bigger than planned so I went behind and added some wood blocking between the wall studs.

Work in progress
Derek and Sarah checking out the progress
Carefully cut plumbing penetrations

It took most of the day, but we got all of the drywall hung. We have one section of exterior wall framed and drywalled right now because it has plumbing on it and we want to put cabinets on it. I got to use my collated screw gun (previously employed for screwing in the first floor subfloor) to rapidly put up screws with decent success not under or over-driving. My skill level is improving, but it does leave room for improvement. The rest of the exterior walls will be done when we refinish the basement into an entertaining space, and the temporary bedroom walls will be drywalled as soon as they’re framed. For the duration of us living in the basement we’ll have the exposed brick and rafters “loft” look, which is fashionable right now anyway. After hanging the drywall (and backer board) the next steps are mudding and taping the drywall and backer board seams.

As always, a big thanks go out to Dean and Hector. Once again they’ve been a huge help!

Basement Bathroom Ceiling

July 1, 2016 / / 0 Comments

We’ve been so busy that I’m falling behind on blogging! With the inspection behind us, the next order of business was to install the bathroom exhaust fan ventilation. I had done some reading and decided that the best way to do this was to use PVC pipe, as opposed to the galvanized metal ducting that is typically used. The ducting can leak if there’s a lot of moisture condensing unless the mastic and taping are perfect. Even if they are, if it isn’t perfectly wrapped in insulation water can condense on the outside of the duct. On top of that, all the moisture can mean that even the galvanized metal will start to corrode and rust over time. PVC pipe, however, is impervious to these problems. You slope the pipe to the outside, so that any condensing moisture drains out. Since this is in the basement ceiling, it’s a straight shot between two joists to the outside wall, at least until it gets to the rim joist.

Cutting through 8″ of solid wood
Silicone caulk is your friend
Connection to fan
Pipe installed and secured

In most houses, a rim joist is 2x dimensional lumber, the same size as the joists, running around the outside perimeter. Cutting a 4½” hole is just a matter of a hole saw. However we have a balloon-framed house where the rim “joist” is more of a rim “beam”: a 6″ high, 8″ thick wooden sill that sits on top of the brick foundation. The floor joists are notched into it and the wall studs sit on top of it. Getting through this was going to take more than a hole saw that would bottom out in less than 2″, and specialty bits were very expensive.

Instead I pulled out my cheap, trusty Harbor Freight reciprocating saw. Instead of a nice round hole, I cut out a 4½”-wide block, then cut a round hole through the sheathing and siding. It took a long time, and I actually took a few breaks to keep the saw from overheating. It would have gone faster but I only had one dull blade that was long enough. The rest was easy: I cut the pipe to length, used silicone caulk to seal it to the bathroom fan, and put a cap on the outside. We need to use some canned foam to seal around the hole in the wall.

Leveling with sistered 2x4s
Crazy leveling in corner
Bathroom ceiling leveling

Next up was leveling the ceiling. The floor joists were of various heights, partially because they’re old and partially because in this section I was still working out the best way to level the floor above. I screwed 2x4s to the sides of the joists at the lowest level. I wound u having to add blocking along the top of one wall, because the ceiling was now lower than the top plate. I ran into some further challenges on the other side, having to cut down 2x4s on the table saw so they’d fit in some confined spaces and adding some ½” plywood in another spot, but at the end I could put a level to it that didn’t wiggle, so I knew drywall would work.

One bay
Two bays
Three bays
Four bays full

After that was done I was on to insulation. We’re insulating between floors for a few reasons: sound proofing, fire resistance, and to keep the in-floor radiant heating in the floor above instead of in between the floors. I picked up a bunch of Roxul Safe’n Sound insulation and installed it in the area above the bathroom. For the time being we’re not installing it in the rest of the basement ceiling because we will still need to run plumbing and electrical up to the other floors, but the bathroom ceiling is getting drywalled, so this is the only opportunity. With that done, Sarah and I put up moisture-resistant fire-code drywall.

Bathroom ceiling drywall
Bulkhead drywall

Once the shower surround is in and the rest of the drywall is done we’ll start mudding and taping. We got some more water in the basement, so we also have some additional downspout modifications to perform along the side of the house. It feels good to be back at it and getting things done!

Basement Back Door Trim and Light

May 21, 2016 / / 0 Comments
Caulked back door

Caulked back door

I installed the basement back door in March. Once the floor was set up and the walls were framed Percy, our electrician, came out to finish the basement electrical. One of the items on the list was the back door light. In order to get the electrical run properly we decided to finish the trim on the back door. I started by caulking all of the seams around the framing to ensure a good air seal.

Back door trim

Back door trim in progress

I bought PVC trim, because I don’t want to have to do extra maintenance once the house is done. I debated scribing the edge against the brick, but ultimately I discovered I could use the angle grinder with the masonry disk to remove both excess brick and excess PVC. The door is recessed in the wall because the floor slab doesn’t come up to the front edge of the wall. Because of this, our rim joist (which is 6″ x 8″) was exposed, so I needed to trim that as well. The initial electrical was just a piece of conduit, but we wound up with a standard mud ring on a 4″ box. I used the sunken PVC screws with caps, but the color didn’t quite match. We’ll be painting over this anyway to prevent UV fading.

Trim installed

Trim installed

The biggest challenge was the light fixture. The first one we bought didn’t fit because the back box didn’t fit inside the recessed area of the trim. The second light I ordered wasn’t the same size as the specifications, so it hung down too far (the door swings out). We’ll save that one for the first floor. Finally, after a lot of searching for something that didn’t stick up, didn’t stick down, and had a small enough base plate, the third light I ordered fit (if just barely). It’s a barn style light that I put an outdoor-rated LED bulb into.

Light installed

Light installed

We’re pretty happy with the end result. Having an actual outdoor light that works on a light switch is a bit of a novelty for us. The last outdoor light we had was a flood on the back porch (on the second floor) that we didn’t use much. The three different shades of white are a bit irritating, but we’ll get to that eventually.

It works!

It works!

You can see a sneak peak of some of the plumbing and electrical work that’s been going on. In this photo I’d caulked the left side but not the right (it started raining). I’ve since finished it up, but we still haven’t painted. That will probably wait until I’ve trimmed the rest of the basement windows, and possibly until we’re siding the rest of the house.

Basement Interior Wall Framing

April 22, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Since we’re not framing the exterior walls of the basement yet, we went straight to the interior walls, specifically the permanent walls for the bathroom and mechanical room. After Mario put in the mesh for the concrete, I went around and carefully measured locations for the walls and placed J-bolts to secure the sill plates, so that once the slab was poured we wouldn’t have to drill into it. The main reason for this was the radiant tubing in the slab: if you drill into the concrete and hit a tube, that loop is basically useless, and our floor only has three loops. Unfortunately, Mario informed me the day of the pour that because of the way they were screeding and finishing the floor, the J-bolts sticking up all over would get knocked over and interfere, so he pulled almost all of them out.

First wall section

First wall section

I framed the wall in sections, pressure-treated sill plate and standard 2x4s, sill gasket under the pressure treated sill to prevent moisture wicking, coated screws for anything touching the pressure-treated lumber and regular screws and 8D nails for the rest. The uneven floor joists above required some shimming and I had to add blocking to a couple of sections where the wall was parallel to joists. I watched all my inside corners for drywall nailing edges and followed the tub instructions for framing around it. For the curb at the outside walls I built L-shaped pieces and attached them after the fact rather than try to build it with the section. I came back and installed an additional exterior half-wall for the utility sink and washing machine hookup, though in retrospect I might as well have just framed a full wall. I may reconfigure that, but I need to pick up some additional lumber since my original estimates proved low.

Bathroom framing

Bathroom framing

While the wall framing was pretty straightforward, we did run into some snags. For starters, the plumbers had put the toilet too close to the tub, something I could have had them fix if I’d noticed it before the floor was poured, say, back in October when they installed it. Because the toilet can’t move, I shifted the tub a few inches away, so the tub will have to use an offset drain and one of the few remaining J-bolts no longer aligned with the wall. They also managed to place a vent completely outside of the wall it was supposed to go through, but at least it’s inside the mechanical room where it won’t cause too much of an issue. I had to frame the wet wall of the bathroom with 2x6s because the plumbing alignment with the steel column wasn’t quite right, and I had to make some provisions for the steel beam that runs through the bathroom. In general, framing around all of the pipes sticking out of the floor was challenging.

Bathroom framing done

Bathroom framing done

With all the walls up and framed and a few J-bolts secured, I spent a lot of time poring over the photos I took of the floor after Lester installed the PEX tubing, determining where exactly I could drill the floor and secure the walls with Tapcon screws without hitting anything. After several nerve-wracking drills, including one gush of concrete dust that I was certain was air escaping from the pressurized tube, I had all the walls secure and the pressure gauge on the PEX lines holding near 70psi assured me I hadn’t hit any. Whew.

Framing a door opening
Section installed
Mechanical room

Now the plumbers and electrician are working on their respective pieces. Once they’re done and we’ve passed inspection we’ll get to insulation, drywall and putting up the temporary walls. I’ve got a list of smaller items as well, like hooking back up the water filter, moving the water heater, running venting for the bathroom exhaust fan, and ordering the other fixtures: vanity, toilet, faucets, and utility sink.

Basement Floor Acid Staining

April 16, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Our basement floor is radiant heated and the ceiling isn’t all that high, which meant we wanted a flooring surface that didn’t interfere with the heat and didn’t consume any height. Staining and sealing the concrete slab was the perfect solution, and not terribly expensive to boot. There’s a number of tints, color seals, paints, and other options for finishing concrete, but we liked the texture and look of acid staining. After some browsing, research, and shopping, I ordered four gallons of acid stain and two gallons of lithium silicate densifier/hardener.

Washing the floor

Washing the floor

The first step was to wash the floor, and we made it a family affair with Sarah and I and the kids mopping and scrubbing. We’d been careful to keep the floor clean after the pour, and done things like painting before hand, but cleaning was still a necessary step. With that done we let it dry overnight, though the first step in staining was re-moistening the floor. I used a pump sprayer for most of the process, and the only issue we ran into was a couple of spots where water pooled and the stain didn’t take. I’d recommend mopping up any puddles first so you don’t have to reapply stain like we did. We let the stain set for about four hours; the longer you leave it the darker the color. Then we neutralized the acid by spraying an ammonia/water mixture and mopping and washing again. We weren’t quite satisfied with the color, so at that point we did another four hour stain on the lighter spots before neutralizing and washing again. One source said to wash until the water runs clear or the sealer wouldn’t take, but after several washes the water was still brown. Another site said we’d wind up taking the stain off if we over washed, so we finally called it “good enough”.

Applying stain
Stain applied
Stain after an hour

I came back the following day and applied the sealer. I was originally going to put down two coats of sealer, but it went on fairly thick, to the point that we’ll have to go back over it with a broom and then mop off the yellowed excess. As a result we still have a gallon of the sealer to use later, maybe when we finish the basement into an entertaining space in a couple years. When the other basement work is done I’ll come back and wax the floor to give it a bit of gloss, but we’re happy with the result.

Washing the floor
Sealer applied
Sealer set
All done