Category: Bump-Out Removal

With the walls gone, the only thing left of the bump-out was the floor. That’s not to say that was the only thing left to do for this project, because there were also large holes in the side of the house and exposed plywood. One of the last things we did when removing the walls was to put the upper corner piece of sheathing on. That hole had served as the primary means of getting in and out of the bump-out. Unfortunately, I realized I’d missed a step, so we wound up taking it back off.

Bottom sheathing temporarily attached

The missed step was to cut the pieces of sheathing that would cover the bottom of the wall and the exposed ends of the floor joists. These pieces couldn’t be fit until the floor was gone, but from the outset I knew I didn’t want to haul them up a ladder. Instead, I cut them and Sarah helped hand them through the re-opened hole so I could screw them to the wall just above where they would fit. That way, once the floor was gone I could simply take out the two screws and lower them into place. I measured the size of the opening at both corners and made sure to leave about a quarter inch extra.

Upper house wrap installed, starting removal of joists

The next step was to put on the house wrap on the upper portion of the wall while I still had a nice platform to put a ladder on. Normally, house wrap is put on bottom-up, because it’s ship-lapped with each layer overlapping the one below. I put on the middle piece first, leaving the bottom foot or so unstapled, then put on the top piece normally. Then I taped the seams, which honestly makes me question why it’s ship-lapped at all, but whatever. The bottom house wrap would have to wait until the bottom sheathing was in place.

My trusty cheap Harbor Freight reciprocating saw

I was concerned that cutting off the joists nice and straight at the right spot was going to be tricky, but a new blade on the reciprocating saw is a marvelous thing. It was easier than expected, and soon I was ready to fit the first of the two pieces of sheathing on. Of course, it didn’t fit. I must not be a very good carpenter, or at measuring, or something, because I swear it never fits. I use a clamped guide when I cut, I measure multiple times in multiple places, but it still never fits. Some of this I attribute to the old wonky house, where nothing is straight, but this seemed pretty consistent when I measured.

Right side joists removed

In any case I then had to maneuver the piece of sheathing onto the remaining joists so I could trim a quarter inch off of it, at which point it did fit correctly. I got that screwed in and then proceeded to cut off the remaining joists. A smarter plan would have been to preemptively cut the other piece of sheathing while I still had a platform to set it on, since I cut them the same size. Instead, I cut off all the remaining joists and tried to fit it, only to discover that it, too, was about a quarter inch too big to fit.

Last joist

Now I could either take it down the ladder, cut it, and then haul it back up, or I could balance it on the ladder while Sarah held the top edge out far enough from the wall to fit the circular saw, going hand over hand between studs to get the saw down the length of the board, swapping positions halfway through. I think you know which option I picked. This (surprisingly) went to plan and I got it trimmed down. If anything I cut off too much, but given the sheathing throughout the house has gaps pretty much everywhere, I’m not especially concerned.

Sheathing and house wrap in place

Back on the ladder, I got the second piece of sheathing attached. The last step was to put the bottom section of house wrap on (under the edge of the course above), including taping it. Being that this was while on a ladder, it took a bit longer than it sounds. I had to move the ladder about four times to get everything tidy, but finally, the house doesn’t have a bump-out!

No more bump-out!

From the outset, the goal of the bump-out removal plan was to accomplish the removal with a minimum of time spent on extension ladders. That was largely intended to make the process safer, but honestly, the wall removal didn’t always feel completely safe. For this step of the project, Sarah’s dad, Mike, came and helped. I spent the most of the morning getting the remainder of the siding off, as well as the one small side wall. When that was finally done things got moving, since the sheathing was pretty quick. The tricky part was the framing. From all the rain, the already heavy rough-cut, full-dimensional lumber was even heavier. To keep weight under control, I cut bigger pieces down rather than pulling down larger boards whole.

Walls going

Unfortunately, the relatively tight quarters and limited means of access meant that Mike couldn’t actually get onto the bump-out with me, so I was on my own for some of the trickier bits of framing removal, then I could hand it to him through the open section. Once again, I’m kicking myself for the way I put the sheathing on the new wall section, since I could have made a convenient doorway that was far easier to use if I’d stopped and thought about it. As it was, I’d get a piece loose and then hand it through the opening to Mike, who was standing on the inside. Eventually we got the walls down, and fortunately no one was seriously injured.

From the outside

From the inside

The next step was to patch up the remaining bits of roof sheathing that had to wait until the side walls were gone. This we did the smarter way, by first putting in sheathing and tar paper, then shingles, rather than trying to fit already shingled sections into the roof. Mike was able to scavenge all the parts from the old roof and while it still looks terrible, it appears to be water tight. We plan to replace to whole roof in the not-too-distant future, so it doesn’t need to last all that long.

Walls gone (also Sarah)

Bump-out removal in progress

The plastic sheeting to keep the rain out proved a bad implementation. I attached it with about 50 staples, but we had some windy and rainy days and I didn’t cut off the extra at the bottom. Rather than drain out, the water pooled in the sheeting and then drained into the house. We had an exciting evening when water started dripping onto our couch in the basement because it happened to be underneath the puddle that was forming on the first floor. Later, the wind tore the whole thing off anyway, and we dealt with various sources of water infiltration for weeks.

Speaking of which, this period went on for longer than anticipated. The previous post took place around April 11th, but other than taking down the underside of the floor, I didn’t get much done until May 13th. Between busy weekends, rainy weather, and the inevitable periods of general disinterest in working on the house, this situation stretched on for a while. I did take down the underside of the floor, mostly as one more way to stop the water coming into the house. It helped, but also exposed more of the first floor to the elements. I did that from the top of a ladder on the sidewalk using a long crowbar. It was fairly easy, but it made a mess. The real lesson is don’t expose the inside of your house to the elements for protracted periods in a rainy Spring, which of course seems obvious in hindsight.

Worse than useless plastic sheeting

We used some of the reclaimed pieces of vinyl siding to form extra rain protection against the bottom of the new exterior wall, where I had left the sheathing off so I could put on a pieces that spanned across the ends of the second floor joists. Because the gutters on the sides of the bump-out were gone, water was pouring out of the open end of the gutter along the house and splashing into the open holes. More siding and even some shingles were put into play to stop that, but honestly nothing worked very well. One of the things that slowed us down was carefully removing the layers of siding and sheathing from the outside of the walls while standing inside or even on the window sills. The middle layer was particularly crumbly and terrible and we were trying not to make a mess of it, since the wall of the bump-out is roughly 4″ from the gutters of the neighbors’ house and we were being mindful not to drop stuff onto her roof, or break her window (or ours) below. Sarah actually went out one evening and worked on it in the rain, just to get progress going again.

Finally a couple Saturdays freed up, we got our acts together, and we made some better progress. Next time!