Tag: basement

Basement Floor Pour

March 25, 2016 / Matt / 2 Comments

Concrete truck arrives

Pouring

Starting work

We have a basement floor! Mario and his crew came out early yesterday morning and by 8:30 the concrete truck had arrived. In no time they’d poured the entire pad and screeded (leveled it out).At that point the rest of Mario’s crew left, but he stayed for the rest of the day carefully hand troweling the surface to a burnished finish. The pressure gauge on the radiant PEX tubing never wavered, so we’re confident that nothing was damaged during the pour.

Initial screed

There was one minor issue, in that Mario didn’t want to leave the J bolts I’d carefully positioned during the pour because he couldn’t smooth the finish with them in the way. I explained that I didn’t want to drill or nail into the finished concrete for fear of hitting the PEX tubing. Ultimately we left some of the J bolts in position and pulled some of the others. I took a bunch of measurements and photos to help me position new anchor bolts in the finished slab, but I’m not thrilled about the nerve-wracking possibility of hitting a tube and losing a whole loop of the radiant heat.

Finished floor

This weekend I plan to install the last of the basement windows and the back door. I’ve installed the window buck this past weekend to ensure I wasn’t going to be making any more dust. The next project is to stain and seal the concrete once it’s cured. I’ve been doing research on the specific products and techniques we’ll be using for that. I think with the finish that Mario put on the floor, it’s going to look really nice with the stain and seal.

Troweled finish

This feels like a really important milestone. We started breaking up the concrete of the old floor over a year ago and never imagined it would take so long to get one back. We’ve gained close to a foot of headroom in the basement, a critical difference that makes it a much more usable space. In addition we’ve got the rough drainage in place for our basement bathroom and utility sink, our new water main and sewer, and an interior weeping system that at this point really needs to be hooked up, since the sump basin has almost completely filled with water! With the new windows, the new back steps, the painted ceiling and beam, the tuckpointed brick walls and the all new electrical outlets and lights, it’s a night and day difference from where it was. While I really expected to be at this point in October, I’m happy that we’re finally here now and looking forward to the steps ahead.

Basement Floor Prep – Plastic, Mesh, and PEX

March 22, 2016 / Matt / 0 Comments

As planned, Mario (our concrete mason) came out on Monday of last week and put in the plastic vapor barrier and the wire mesh on top of the foam insulation. Over the weekend I installed “J” bolts (they’re shaped like J’s) where our interior walls will go, so we don’t have to drill or nail the new concrete slab. I cut short pieces of steel rod and stuck them into the foam and then wire-tied the J bolts to them to keep them positioned and upright.

Basement PEX tubing

Today Lester, our radiant heating contractor, came out and installed the PEX tubing that will eventually allow hot water from the boiler to keep our concrete slab nice and warm and heat the whole basement. Once the tubing loops were run and zip tied to the mesh, he pumped compressed air in to 70 psi as a pressure test to ensure the loops are air (and water) tight. They’ll stay pressurized during the concrete pour and cure to make sure they don’t get squeezed anywhere. He gave me a list of warnings to pass on to Mario and his guys when they’re pouring the concrete: when they’re using a concrete spreader, don’t hit the tubing! When they tip up a wheel barrow, don’t hit the tubing! When they’re running wheel barrows back and forth, lay down some half-inch plywood so they don’t hit the tubing! I sensed a trend.

Also basement PEX tubing

Mario is planning to pour the floor on Thursday, and I’ll be there making sure that Lester’s instructions are followed. If anything happens to the tubing during the pour and it leaks, our whole radiant-heating plans will crumble. The only choice would be to tear up the whole brand new concrete slab and start over, or switch to hot water forced air in the basement, and with the lack of head room I don’t want to run ducting!

Basement Ceiling Painting

March 17, 2016 / Matt / 0 Comments

We’re planning to live in the basement while we finish the other two main floors of the house at the same time. Eventually we plan to put insulation between the joists and install a drop ceiling in the basement. We also plan to insulate and drywall the exterior walls. However, because we know there will be ongoing work to run electrical, plumbing, and HVAC to the other floors, plus we’re putting in a couple of temporary walls for bedrooms, we can’t really put that in yet. At the same time, we don’t want to have the dark exposed joists and subfloor for a ceiling while we’re living in the basement. The solution is to paint the joists and the underside of the subfloor. There are other reasons to do this as well. We used a sealing primer that is mold and mildew resistant, and we used a flame retardant additive that gives it a Class A fire rating. If the paint is exposed to fire, it will char and create a protective barrier that prevents the wood from catching on fire.

Sarah painting

Because we’re planning to stain and seal the concrete, we wanted to do the painting before the floor was poured. The paint sprayer has a way of coating everything in a mist of paint that wouldn’t be fun to remove and it’s a large space to put down drop cloths. It was a good thing we did because the flame retardant makes the paint thinner than usual, and when we started spraying the paint dripped off the rough sawn lumber rather than soaking in. We discovered that a roller works a lot better than the sprayer to get the paint worked into the wood, but even so it was going to take more than one coat and the roller was way too slow.

Slow progress

First coat with sprayer

In Progress

Second sprayer coat

We went back to using the paint sprayer, but in light passes. Even so, it went through five gallon buckets of paint fast. It took three coats to get to an acceptable level, and we went through fifteen gallons of paint in the process. After all of that, there are still places where the dark wood peeks through and other spots where the wood stained the paint yellow. Ultimately, it’s a basement. Nearly all of this will be covered up by the drop ceiling when we eventually finish it, and it’s a big improvement over how it looked before.

Basement Floor Prep – Stone and Insulation

March 14, 2016 / Matt / 0 Comments

Before stone

During stone

After stone

Mario, our concrete mason, came out on Saturday and put down the stone that makes up the bottom layer of our new basement floor. I had hoped that he would also install the layer of rigid foam insulation that makes up the next layer, but apparently that’s not in his menu of services, so I was on the hook to do it myself. More than that, he wanted to come back on Monday to put down the plastic and the mesh, so I needed to get it all installed on Sunday. My friend Dean and his dad, Hector, once again offered to help.

Insulation delivery

The first challenge was getting the insulation. We’re using 4′ x 8′ panels of 2″ thick XPS (extruded polystyrene) foam, which are commonly sold in different densities. The higher density foam is better for under concrete because it doesn’t compress as much. Unfortunately it’s not stocked in as many places and I was buying 30 panels. I placed an order Saturday morning at a Home Depot that had “99+” in stock. By late Saturday afternoon the order still wasn’t ready, so I called them. After being on hold for 15 minutes I was told they “couldn’t find it” and apparently had zero in stock. There was only one other Home Depot near me that had enough in stock, so I switched the order to them. They had it ready by 6:30. Unfortunately they didn’t have a truck available, so I wound up renting a truck from a Menards that was nearby (they didn’t carry the foam). I went to Menards and got the truck, drove to Home Depot, manhandled the five-foot-tall stack of foam onto the truck, drove the truck home and dropped off the foam in the back yard, drove back to Menards to return the truck, and finally drove back home.

Foam insulation

Working around plumbing

Almost done

Sunday morning came earlier than expected (due to the Daylight Savings time change) and Dean and Hector showed up. We started at the front of the basement and worked toward the back, using the hand tamper and a rake to even out the stone base in places. The concrete curb around the footing and the column footings have rough edges that we couldn’t get the foam completely flush with, but we worked around them as well as we could. The bigger challenge was the plumbing. Because the plumbing in the basement drains to an ejector pit, the pipes aren’t particularly deep. That meant in addition to cutting holes for the pipes themselves, we had to allow for horizontal pipes and fittings as well, not to mention the sump basin and ejector pit. Overall the process went smoothly and after several hours we had everything installed. I did some foam sculpting to cover up the bathroom plumbing group and I’m pretty pleased with the end result. We were frugal enough with the foam panels that I have seven left over to return. Since they cost me $32.50 each, I’m happy about that.

Insulation installed

Mario is back today to put down the plastic and mesh, and then Lester (our radiant contractor) will be out next week to attach the PEX tubing. Mario should be able to pour shortly thereafter. We’re still working on the painting and prep for the front window and back door. I hope to have posts about those projects shortly. A big thanks go out to Dean and Hector for all their help!

New Water Service

December 16, 2015 / Matt / 3 Comments

Service lines marked

The day finally arrived! Wednesday, the plumbers showed up with trucks, trailers, an excavator , and a generator to start the water service line replacement. The water main is on the far side of the street, so they had a lot of work to do. The first step was to cut and dig a hole in the street where the existing ¾” lead service line connects to the water main. The old line runs directly on top of the sewer pipe, and the new service needs to be located ten feet away, which means the next step was to cut and excavate a second hole in the street. Unfortunately at that point the saw blade on their giant concrete saw broke and they had to give up for the day.

Work underway

Thursday they excavated for the new buffalo box in the front easement. Hopefully the process didn’t damage our maple tree, since it provides a lot of afternoon shade, and none of our close neighbors on this side of the street have a mature tree out front. They got the second hole cut, along with a trench across the street from the buffalo box to the second hole, but at that point didn’t excavate the concrete. In the mean time they dug out a hole inside the basement at the front corner.

Marking the trench

Cutting the trench

Excavating the trench

Friday they did the horizontal bore, where they basically drilled a 2″ hole through the dirt from the buffalo box all the way to the basement, maybe twenty-five feet. Unfortunately I wasn’t home to take pictures of the process, but I could see the hole in the basement when they were done. They originally had planned to switch service on Monday, but instead they did the actual excavation of the trench and second hole in the street and ran the copper tubing into the basement from the buffalo box, plus most of the interior copper pipe which runs overhead from the front of the basement back along the beam to the mechanical room.

Hole in basement

Horizontal bore hole

Copper line coming in

New service installed

Finally on Tuesday they cut over service. The old line was disconnected from the main and cut, the new line was connected and tied in, and our new meter was in place. The plumber said he flushed water through to get the solder out of the line, but it still tastes foul. It will probably take a few days to fully clear out. There’s a leak in the valve just past the meter, so they’re coming back out today to correct that, and they still need to patch the trench in the street, which we’re reminded of every time a car drives over the steel plates, but it’s in! My next step is to put heating cable and insulation on the new line in the basement so it doesn’t freeze before we get our heated floor poured. Temperatures have been thankfully warm, but still trending lower and it’s getting below freezing at night. I also need to go clean up the weeping trench. They put the drain tile back in place, but it’s not trenched the way I had it before.

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