Category: First Floor Demo

Gutting the first floor to make way for a new floor plan

Porch Stair Removal

September 9, 2014 / / 0 Comments

When I originally started building instead of demoing, I was really looking forward to it. Building gives you a sense of progress that demo does not. After demoing you have a sense of accomplishment, but you can’t really say that things are “better” when you’re done. However, after months of construction, going back to destruction felt really good. While it’s really hard to build right, it’s hard to demo wrong.

Existing porch stairs
First run removed
Landing floor removed
No more stairs

So, what are we doing? The porch stairs are in the way of the new sliding door that we’re putting at the back of the house. I already moved the electrical, and I got the old radiators that had been sitting on the second floor porch down during the week, so taking out the stairs is the next task. They consist of two runs separated by a landing. The landing also needs to come out, and I need to make railings so that everything is safe for our son Derek.

Upper railing

Upper railing

The process went fairly quickly. I started with the upper railing, taking it off the stairs and re-purposing it to the second floor porch. Then with a bit of sledge hammering and prybarring, I took the treads and risers off, top to bottom. Then I pulled out the stringers, using my reciprocating saw to make short work of it. Next was the floor on the landing, followed by the railing, treads and risers on the lower stairs. Then I took down the structure of the landing and the stringer for the lower run. I left the stringer on the outside wall, since the porch isn’t built very well and I didn’t want to loosen anything (such as siding) by prying against the wall. I did cut the stringer back to make room for the lower railing. This one was a bit more involved, since it was an ‘L’ shape, it wasn’t braced on both sides, and the bottom didn’t rest on framing, so I had to add some reinforcement.

Lower railing

Lower railing

With that all done I started cleaning. I wound up filling two toters with the scraps. There wasn’t much that was worth saving, since it was coated in several coats of unknown paints. So far Derek and Emily have tested for low levels of lead and we want to keep it that way. I have a bit more scrap to cut down so that it will fit in the garbage, but otherwise it’s done. I started planning out the sliding door installation, so that’s the next undertaking. Back to construction!

First Floor Cleanup

March 28, 2013 / / 2 Comments

Following the demolition and the unexpected plumbing, I got to work cleaning up the first floor in preparation the first floor framing activities, including replacing the load bearing wall, closing up the remaining window on the North wall, and adding fire blocking to close up the balloon construction walls.

The new dumpster arrived a couple of weeks ago, since the first one had been filled to the brim. I got one twice as large as the first and I’m glad I did. While it wasn’t filled to the top, it was definitely more than would fit in the smaller size.

Second dumpster

Second dumpster

Dean had some stuff he needed to throw out, so he came over during the first weekend and helped me clear most of the leftover debris from demolition. I got the rest of it cleared out over the next couple of days, leaving the first floor clear for the first time.

Empty first floor

Empty first floor

There was still quite a bit more cleanup to do, though. First I pitched the majority of the lumber that had originally framed the basement. Most of it was rotten and rat-eaten, and all of it was too short to be good for much. I had already sorted out the decent boards for use in the basement temporary wall, which I held onto for future use. Next I broke down the cast iron tub and move the other bits of scrap metal down to the pile in the basement.

I also took up the rest of the plywood subfloor in the kitchen and the old furring it was attached to and cleaned up the dirt underneath it. I’m still amazed by how much dirt, dust, and generic crud was buried under the floors along with the old felt paper. Another reason I’m really glad we took up the floors is so that stuff isn’t still hidden in there somewhere.

Wall cavities

Wall cavities

The final cleanup activity was to clean out the walls. The house foundation is brick, and there is a wood sill plate that sits on top of it that the wall studs are attached to. The floor joists are pocketed into the brick and there is an additional course on the inside of the foundation wall, creating a pocket between the studs and joists that goes under the floors. The pockets filled with plaster during demolition, but a lot of them were also literal rats nests, with shredded plastic bags, chicken bones, rat turds, and the occasional rat carcass. I got proficient at emptying these with the shop vac. The biggest challenge was keeping the hose of the shop vac clear. I wound up using a length of pipe to clear out blocks. The other important thing was regularly cleaning the filter so that suction stayed strong.

Cleaned wall

Cleaned wall

While time consuming, this will make running electrical, ducting, and plumbing much easier, allow us to better insulate when we spray foam, and eliminates a source of foul odors. After this was done I spent some time moving the boxes and bins of lath we saved for burning in the fire pit down to the basement. I still need to organize my tools, but the first floor looks amazing in comparison. It’s exciting because it really feels like we can start building instead of tearing out. I’m looking forward to being past the “shovel stage” of this project.

Clean first floor

Clean first floor

Stairs Demolition

March 12, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Saturday we had our second “Demo Party”, where we invite friends and family to come demolish our house in exchange for food and drink, and it was a big success. We took down all of the plaster and lath in the foyer, including the stairwell, as well as the office on the second floor. Then we took out the remaining partition wall on the first floor and removed the stairs themselves.

Aaron and David get walled up

Aaron and David get walled up

Sarah and I had gotten the office empty Friday night. My sister Jessica came up and watched Derek while we continued the furniture rearranging and packing away of our stuff that we’d started Wednesday. Saturday morning two of her nephews, Aaron and David, armed with sledgehammers and masks volunteered to be the “trapped princesses” and went into the office while I built a wall where the door was. Once they were completely walled up, rather than wait to be rescued they simply hammered their way through the wall adjacent to the stairwell.

Breaking free

Breaking free

Sarah K, Dani, Matt B, and Eriq hauled the massive pile of lath was out to the dumpster along with the scrap wood pile. Unfortunately even before we got all of the lath into the dumpster we realized we had a problem: the dumpster wasn’t big enough. I had gotten a smaller dumpster than last time, foolishly believing that since we were demoing less we wouldn’t need as much room. I forgot to consider that the lath and scrap wood pile were leftovers from the last demo. Now I have to get another dumpster, which costs quite a bit more than if I had just gotten the big one in the first place. Oh well, I’ll know for next time.

Demo in progress

Demo in progress

The house didn’t originally have electricity, just gas lighting, and I spent a few minutes on Saturday taking out the piping that was still in the walls. It was retrofitted with BX armored cable with cloth-wrapped wiring, which  was run through the load bearing wall by threading it under door thresholds in the second floor and then down between studs in the wall. I disconnected all of this wiring a while back, but a lot of it was stuck, hanging from the ceiling.

Removing BX wiring
Removing BX wiring

Eriq, Will, and I took on the task of removing it. This involved literally climbing up the wall and alternately pushing and pulling the metal-armored cable through one segment at a time. I can’t imagine how this was put in while the walls were still plastered considering how hard it was to remove. We did manage to get all of it out and the only thing left to be removed from the bearing wall is a gas pipe that goes up to the attic for distributing the gas lighting.

Dean clearing lath

Dean clearing lath

Dean was able to get all of the ceiling in the office and stairwell down from above by getting into the attic. This also meant he didn’t get rained on with plaster dust and rat feces. I shoveled the plaster from the floor of the office down the stairs while Siobhan, Sarah K, Dani, and Matt B filled buckets and carried it to the dumpster. I filled and carried out buckets while Dean took the exciting job of getting on the ladder over the stairwell –sixteen feet up– to remove all of the plaster and lath from the walls.

Dani and Matt B on plaster removal

Dani and Matt B on plaster removal

The old lath pile was replaced by a new pile as the foyer demo was wrapped up and we got to work taking out the stairs. This took alternately a reciprocating saw and a sledgehammer to pry each tread loose, working our way down. When it was all said and done, the difference was incredible.

Before
After

Sarah and her mom baked up lasagnas so we could wash up, eat, drink, and finally relax. This week the new dumpster will be swapped in and I can get the rest of the piles cleared out of the house, along with the plywood subfloor in the kitchen and a couple layers of flooring in the foyer.

A big thanks go out to everyone who gave up their Saturday to help us! Aaron, David, Eriq, Matt B, Sarah K, Dani, Dean, Siobhan, Will, Mike, and Lee, we couldn’t have done it without you!

Goodbye Original Floors

March 11, 2013 / / 0 Comments

The first floor originally had wood floors throughout, as was typical of the time it was built. These were floated on furring strips running across the subfloor. The bedrooms had a 4 1/2″ wide plank and the rest was 3 1/2″ wide, each different types of wood, 3/4″ thick. On top of this flooring someone had installed (nailed) a second layer of wood flooring, much thinner or possibly just refinished many times. On top of that was a variety of multiple layers of linoleum and vinyl adhesive tiles and in a few places carpeting.

Back in August we removed all of the flooring down to the original wood floors before our demo party and the debris was put into the dumpster. The dumpster was completely full so we wound up stacking the original floor in a big pile in the kitchen, with a big pile of the furring boards next to it. It sat there gathering dust for the next six months.

Original floor

Original floor plus dust

We took up the original floors for a number of reasons. First, it was in terrible shape. While an indefinite number of layers of tile can be removed and sanded down, the wood floor nailed down on top of the original floor had done a lot of damage. Second, we’re putting in radiant floor heating, and a floated hardwood floor does not work well with that. That leads to the third reason: since we’re opening up the floor plan and the flooring is different woods, sizes, and styles, refinishing it as a single floor wouldn’t look very good. Finally, there wasn’t near enough of it. In addition to the various walls we’re removing that would call for new flooring to fill in gaps, the entire kitchen floor had been removed at some point and replaced with a plywood subfloor. 

So, getting back to the pile, Sarah had looked into selling the floors or getting someone to take it away but they wanted us to de-nail it first. While it may have ended up being a profitable venture, it represented a lot of time that neither of us had to spend. Finally, I put an ad on Craigslist.

I specified in the ad that there was a large pile of perhaps 500 square feet in mostly twelve foot lengths of various usable and unusable quality, that it would require a large truck or multiple trips, and that it was take all of it or none of it, for free, first come, first to get it. I got a bunch of responses right away, and I went with the first one. This proved to be a poor choice.

Two guys showed up a few hours later in a Hyundai SUV. It had no hope of carrying all of the flooring, and he seemed rather surprised when the pile was larger in person, despite the above picture being attached to the ad. They started loading it on to the roof of their car and I helped by bringing it out to the easement. Then they started bringing it out to the easement instead of putting it on the car. After loading about half what the car could probably carry, they said their storage unit closed at eleven and they wouldn’t be able to get the rest until tomorrow. They helped me move the remaining pile from the easement to the yard, and Sarah covered it with a tarp.

The next day I got an email from the guy saying they didn’t have any more room in their storage unit and couldn’t take the rest. Rather than dwell on my irritation, I quickly emailed the other respondents and let them know some of it was still available. Only one replied, but said that he’d be happy to come out and get it. However, when he arrived he took a look at the pile and said there was no longer enough salvageable floor to complete his project and left without taking any.

No, that's not all flooring

No, that’s not all flooring

This past Thursday, Sarah hauled the ignominious pile from our front yard into the street to reserve a spot for the dumpster, since the city hadn’t gotten around to putting up no parking signs. The dumpster arrived on Friday and the flooring went into it. It seems a waste, but I really can’t stress enough what bad shape it was in. As for everything else that went into the dumpster, I’ll be posting about the demo party we had on Saturday soon.

More First Floor Cleanup

September 12, 2012 / / 3 Comments

This is going to be a picture-heavy post. To start with, I got the partition walls on the first floor down. That really opened things up (and made the house sway a bit in heavy winds, which is concerning). I removed the pocket door mechanism whole by taking down the long board the four pieces are mounted on. We’re going to try selling it to a restoration shop, since we don’t have a place to put it.

Walls removed

You can see our massive lath collection on the left. Progress continues removing the plaster from the wall cavities. It’s time consuming but it’s getting done bit by bit. It’s still a big dusty mess, and I come up from working on it looking like a coal miner.

Bedroom floor cleanup

Here’s a view looking toward the front in the bedrooms. Again, the partition walls separating the bedrooms and closet have been removed (except for the room full of lath that you can see at the end). With help from Matt and Will I pulled up the floor in the back bedroom. Tonight I pulled up the remaining bedroom floor. You can see the subfloor planks in the foreground and the hardwood in the back.

Debris

We carefully separated and de-nailed all of the old wall studs and put them in the basement for later use. The rest is thin pieces that were used to edge the doors and cap the wall studs, which unfortunately has a tendency to crack and split when we pull out the nails. I’m not sure it’s worth saving.

Filthy

I don’t think I can understate what a mess it is. The original floors were installed over felt paper and cross boards to float them so they wouldn’t pop with the temperature swings. This created a cavity under the floors that is basically full, both with the plaster dust from demo as well as a hundred years of regular day to day living. I’m fairly sure we’re going to need another dumpster,  albeit a smaller one than before. I’m looking forward to a step in this process that doesn’t involve a shovel.