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Mechanical Room Panel

August 22, 2013 / Matt / 0 Comments

We finished the first half of the mechanical room panel last weekend, which includes the water filter and heater and a space the future boiler will occupy. The second half of the panel will hold the manifold, pump, and expansion tank for the radiant heating system. I couldn’t build it until the old water heaters were out which, predictably, required the new water heater.

Before

Tuesday morning, Sarah’s dad Mike and I got the two old water heaters disconnected and moved over to the scrap pile. Then we marked out the location of the studs to attach to the wall. After the door delivery, he and Dean ground the brick wall smooth with angle grinders while I cut the lumber to size. I finished grinding down the wall Wednesday and put up the framing. I put sill gasket behind each stud to prevent moisture from seeping into the wood and attached them with Tapcon screws. I found that in several cases the screws wouldn’t go all the way in, despite using an air compressor and vacuum to remove dust and re-drilling the hole several times.

After

I discovered the best solution was to drill the holes as I had been with the rotary hammer, then come back and re-drill the holes with the drill bit that came with the screws. Even though they were both 5/32″, something about the included bit worked better. With everything in place, I came back down after dinner and filled the cavities with spray foam. I just need to cut back any places the foam expanded past the front of the framing and it will be ready for Lester to install the manifold panel.

Spray foamed panel

The only remaining item on my mechanical room preparations (aside from cleaning up the huge mess I’ve made) is to run a short length of EMT conduit from the junction box over to the panel and fish a 15 amp circuit for the radiant system.

Door Delivery

August 21, 2013 / Matt / 0 Comments

We got word that our Iron front door was finally on its way. It was manufactured in China, so getting here was a bit of a process. The delivery company confirmed my fears though: they only deliver during the day on weekdays, and it weighs 930 lbs! Worst of all there was very little notice as to what day it would be. They called on Friday and it was delivered on Tuesday. Dean offered to take the afternoon off work and Sarah put out the call on Facebook for help, and Laurie, Jade, and Cody came to rescue, along with both of Sarah’s parents. On top of the door delivery, Sarah had a huge final paper due Tuesday that she was scrambling to finish.

Curbside delivery

The delivery window was noon to two, and at five to noon the truck showed up. It wouldn’t fit on a pallet jack, so we manhandled it onto the lift gate and got it down to the street. Once we had it slid to the side of the street the truck was gone and we were left to deal with how to get it into the house.

Door inside

The door itself was wrapped separately from the frame with sidelights, so first we got that into the house. It was heavy, but not terrifically so, and it went relatively smoothly. We figured this process wasn’t going to be so bad after all. I called Dean and told him not to worry about leaving work. Then I went to move the frame… it weighs everything.

I called Dean to ask if he could come after all. While we waited for him to get there we ate lunch and we debated the best method to move it. I broke out the furniture-mover robots (the plastic things that slide easily) and Mike employed some leverage with 2x4s to get the frame up on the curb. We decided to move it to the stairs still on the steel pallet, since the door has brackets that stick out.

Dean arrived and with much heaving, shoving, pulling, and shouting, the door frame slowly worked its way to the porch, up the stairs, and into the house. Once again, friends and family came through!

Frame inside

We thanked everyone profusely, and Dean and Mike even stayed to work on grinding down the wall in the basement for the second half of the mechanical room panel. Also, Sarah got her paper turned in on time.

Mike and Dean grinding

We can’t wait to get it installed, but there are a few things we need to do before then. At this point, just turning the frame upright seems like a serious challenge, let alone putting it into the wall. We’ll get there eventually. Our goal is to get the door and windows installed before the weather gets too cold.

Mechanical Room Plumbing

August 19, 2013 / Matt / 4 Comments

For the last couple of months, with the exception of renting a trailer and picking up the windows when they came in, we’ve been working on the mechanical room in the basement. The first step was running new gas line, then we ordered the water heater and whole-house water filter, prepped and framed the first wall panel section, spray foamed it, and covered it with plywood. We also ran a new electrical conduit from the circuit panel to the mechanical room and installed a light and gfci outlets.

Panel framing and spray foam

Once we had the panel and parts ready, the next step was to start assembly. The water filter consists of a pre-filter, main filter, and post filter, that are all connected in series, with a bypass around the whole thing. There is a valve before, after, and in the bypass to allow for filter changes without leaving the water shutoff. The challenge was fitting this long chain onto the half of the panel, since the other half is reserved for the boiler. The plumber initially had a setup where half the filter was sticking off one side, but I was really hoping to put a wall there so that I had room for a little workshop in the basement. I also wasn’t thrilled with how it was all mounted. I decided to redo it, even though it was already soldered together.

Initial filter install

This past Saturday, with help from my brother-in-law, Rob, and my father-in-law, Mike, we got the water filter re-configured with the valves vertical rather than inline with the filter. We also got the venting installed for the water heater and the water heater connected to the filter. Sunday, with Dean’s help, we connected the panel to the existing water supply and plumbing, replacing the incoming water line, the spigot and starting the new runs up to the second floor. After checking all the solder joints for leaks and adding more nylon tape the pre- and post-filter housings, we turned on the water heater. I took a shower in hot, clean water and we drank several glasses of the best tasting tap water I’ve ever had.

Revised filter plumbing

Like all projects, it wasn’t without its share of frustrations. Just for the plumbing install (not counting the panel build) there were nine trips to the hardware store. In the future I’m going to stock up on ¾” 45° elbows since they seemed to be in perpetual short supply. Drilling through the wall to install the vents was a challenge. I had expected the plumber to bring his hole saw, but when he forgot it I wound up buying bits and even a new drill, since my rotary hammer is SDS-plus and the local stores don’t sell hole bits or a chuck for it.

New water heater

As is often the case, I’m grateful to the friends and family that made the project possible. A big thanks to Mike, Rob, and Dean for all their help! With the new water heater installed I can finally get the old one out of the way and put in the second panel section. That will make way for the boiler installation so we can have heat this winter.

Window Installation Planning

July 24, 2013 / Matt / 0 Comments

A couple months ago we ordered our new windows for the first floor. Since then I’ve been mulling over how we’ll install them. One of the challenges of our house remodel is the order we chose to do it. Rather than do it the “right” way, we complicated things in two ways. First, we’re living in the house while we’re rehabbing, which complicates things like our plumbing and HVAC. Second, we’re doing the inside first, the outside second, and the basement last, which complicates things like our mechanical room in the basement and the windows.

Existing window framing

When our house was built, they put up the stud walls, put on the sheathing, then came back and cut holes in the wall and put windows into them. This is a strange way to go about things. It means that there is no structural support that carries the load around the windows. In order to put in new windows we have to re-build the opening with proper modern framing. That means a header, king studs, jack studs, the whole works.

Window framing (new framing in white)

In addition, we’re planning to put two inches of rigid foam insulation on the outside of the house, which means we’re building out plywood window boxes to align with that future edge. In order to install the window properly and make it weather-tight, we need to flash it properly by adding a sill pan and taping it to the foam (that isn’t there yet) then installing the window and taping that to the foam. In short, there needs to be foam.

This means in addition to removing and re-framing the window opening, we need to remove six inches to a foot of siding around the windows, add house wrap and two inches of foam, then install the sill pan and window and flash it all properly. In a few years when we re-side the outside, we’ll tape the house wrap and foam around the windows to the rest as we go.

Rigid insulation and house wrap around window opening (existing siding not shown)

We’ll be picking up the windows this Saturday, along with some of the materials we need. We’ll probably be sitting on them for a little bit while we work on the mechanical room, but we do want to get them in while the weather is still nice.

Mechanical Room Preparation

July 10, 2013 / Matt / 0 Comments

With the hot water heater question sorted, I need to get the area of the basement that the water heater and boiler are going into ready. Eventually this will be the mechanical room… when we frame out the basement, after we lower the basement floor, after we finish the rest of the house. We already ran gas line, but there are still a few things to be done.

Mechanical room wall

The boiler will be hung on the wall, and since the basement isn’t framed out that means it’s going on an outside wall. We don’t want to mount it directly on the brick because we want our house insulated and air sealed. That means we need to frame the outside wall where the boiler and panel will go. However, because we’re going to eventually lower the basement floor, we can’t just put a sill plate of the wall on the floor, we need to attach the studs to the brick wall. To ensure air and moisture management, we’ll use sill gasket behind the studs and fill the holes with caulk. The area between the studs we’ll fill with closed-cell spray foam.

Before any of that can happen, I need to prepare the wall. As is typical of our house, years ago someone saw a problem and went out about fixing it the wrong way. In this case, moisture problems with the brick foundation wall were not corrected by fixing gutters, redirecting storm water, or repointing the brick, they were “fixed” by slathering (parging) mortar or cement all over the brick wall on both sides in an effort to water seal it. This is generally a terrible idea because it traps water in the brick, rotting it from within. The ineffectiveness of this strategy is revealed by the coat of paint they put over the finished product which is now bubbled up and crumbling off.

So I’ve been removing the parging with my rotary hammer in chisel mode and a pry bar. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but the wall does need to be plumb. While the brick itself is pretty straight, the parging is thick enough in places to make for a wonky wall. Removing it is tricky because the parging doesn’t want to come off and it’s easy to damage the brick itself.

I also need to run electrical from the panel to the mechanical room. Chicago code requires EMT conduit, and in this case it’ll be ¾” because I need to run several circuits (lighting, hot water heater, boiler and pump, smoke detector, and eventually the air handler and HRV). I’m hoping to get both the wall prep and the electrical done by this Monday. With that out of the way we can get the hot water heater installed and focus on the remaining tasks for the boiler prep.

Two Flat: Remade

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