Tag: insulation

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 Floor Prep – Stone and Insulation

March 14, 2016 / / 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

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

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!

Bay Leveling

February 27, 2014 / / 3 Comments
Removing floor boards

Removing floor boards

The pre-subfloor leveling isn’t quite done yet, and the bay window on the front of the house brought its own set of challenges. For starters, the joist running across the very front of the house (and across the widest part of the bay) is embedded in brick, meaning I couldn’t jack it up the way I did most of the others. There’s also a gap of nearly two feet between that joist and the joist in the center of the bay, which is considerably wider than the 16″ that most of the joists are spaced. Finally, the old floorboards rested directly on top of the brick foundation and extended under the bay walls, whereas in most of the balloon-framed house, it only reaches the edge of the wall.

Level? ish?

Level? ish?

When we rebuilt the bay windows, I noticed the floorboard situation and debated replacing it then, but between doing only one window at a time and the corner studs not being replaced, I decided against it. That meant the first step was to use an oscillating multi tool to cut the floorboards back at the wall edge. Then I glued shims to the top of the existing joists and added some blocking joists to better support the gap between joists.

Shimmed, Reinforced, Re-mortared

Shimmed, Reinforced, Re-mortared

Questions sprang to mind of how to control air and vapor infiltration through the foundation and through the gaps in the wood, and how to insulate the bay properly. We’ll be spray-foaming the cavities in the wall, and on the sides of the house we’ll spray foam the top of the foundation wall to air seal it to the wood, but here that isn’t an option because the brick comes all the way up to the underside of the floor. The exterior rigid insulation doesn’t help either because it doesn’t extend over the brick.

Front shim and spray foam

Front shim and spray foam

I decided to attach an inch-thick shim to the inside edge of the brick wall (on top of sill gasket) that will support the subfloor. In front of the shim, and along the top of the brick on the sides of the bay, we’ll fill with spray foam. I’ll also glue the outside edges of the subfloor to the framing to further seal everything. Hopefully that will be sufficient, since it will be damn difficult to do anything about it with the subfloor in place.

When I initially test fit the shim I realized that the brick was —perhaps unsurprisingly— uneven. In order to properly support the shim I had to mix up some mortar and straighten out the top of the foundation. That meant waiting a couple of days for the mortar to set up, but then I was able to drill some holes into the brick and secure the shim with Tapcon screws.

First piece of OSB

First piece of OSB

I went through a few cans of “big gap” Great Stuff, since the real spray foam won’t be for a bit. Fortunately it’s so cold that it cures slowly, giving me ample time to even it out. I got the first of three pieces of OSB down that go into the bay. I took my time and worked out the dimensions exactly, accounting for all of the unevenness of the studs. There’s still a small gap along the edge of the angle, but I’ll fill that with caulk. The important part is it’s secure, level, and insulated. I’m considering whether I should exchange the one piece of blocking in the center with two, since that would be a more proper 16″ spacing, plus there’s a good chance I’ll wind up putting an electrical outlet in the floor there. One of the reasons to use screws instead of nails is you can change your mind without too much hassle.

Unexpected Insulation

December 9, 2013 / / 0 Comments

It’s a very cold December now, and we still don’t have heat. We’re subsisting on electric radiators, both oil-filled and baseboard. However, it dipped down to 10° over the weekend, and they just weren’t cutting it. When I got up Saturday morning, the thermostat in the living room said it was 53°. Sarah decided that we needed to insulate the attic. She said she would do it, but I’ve heard that song before and I know how it goes. With no insulation to speak of, the little heat we did have was going right out the roof. We don’t plan to remodel the second floor for another year or so, so even once we have real heat we’d still be losing a ton of it.

Not insulated

Not insulated

We debated buying the mineral wool batts we plan to eventually put between each floor, but they’re pretty pricey, and we weren’t sure how well taking them out and putting them back in later would work. Ultimately, we went with blown in cellulose because it was drastically cheaper, plus we had some Menards rebates from buying the subfloor that made it even more affordable. Including the machine rental we were out of pocket about $65, so it won’t take much heat savings to recoup. Sarah and I spent the rest of the morning pulling all of the random boards out of the attic (it’s been weeks since we had a scrap wood pile!). Her parents and nephew Aaron showed up in the early afternoon. There were some unexpected delays in getting everything, though, and we didn’t wind up getting the machine set up at the house until 7 pm. It was crunch time, but fortunately the machine was quick: we blew through 20 bags in 30 minutes. Each bag covers 40 square feet with 6″, rated at R-19.

Insulated

Insulated

We discovered that in our rush to take out the boards, we had knocked out the kitchen electric circuit, so I had a follow up job of fixing that. I wound up having to replace a length of BX cable over cloth-wrapped wires with one of our newer cable segments from the massive pile in the basement. Unfortunately that necessitated taking down the ceiling fan in the kitchen to get everything re-wired, but that’s all done now. The house is still cold, 64° as of this writing, but it’s not as bad as it was, and hopefully soon we’ll have real heat. The radiators were delivered earlier today, so now it’s all up to Lester (our radiant heating installer). He’s in the basement right now, hooking stuff up.

Window Installation Planning

July 24, 2013 / / 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.

Window removed

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)

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 around window opening

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.