Tag: rotary hammer

Basement Floor Removal – Part 2

March 4, 2015 / / 0 Comments
Clearing out debris

Rob clearing out debris

We kept up work on the basement floor, but the more I used the concrete saw, the more I used the sledgehammer and rotary hammer. The saw was simply too slow and produced too much dust, even using water. I worked out a technique with the sledge where I could get a single crack running the length of the concrete, maybe a foot from the edge, then use the rotary hammer to split off chunks. It wasn’t perfect, but it made shorter work of the floor than the saw.

Quality floor

Quality floor

The concerns I had with using the sledge, namely the ceramic tiles and the clay sewer line, were misplaced. With some safety goggles and a few thwacks, the sledge makes quick work of the tile. The sewer line is buried deep enough that I’m not worried about cracking it, especially since a fair portion of the floor wound up being suspended a few inches over the dirt, leaving cavities beneath it (including an old rat nest and a whole section of bricks).

Breaking up the floor

Collin breaking up the floor

We got the dumpster delivered last Thursday morning, and Sunday Sarah’s parents, sister and brother-in-law, as well as her nephew Collin and two of his friends came out to help load all of the concrete into the dumpster. It was a long day and at one point we started getting concerned it wasn’t all going to fit in the dumpster, but ultimately we got everything we had broken up loaded. There’s just a section at the front left to finish that we’ve been working on this week and hope to wrap up this weekend.

Back of basement

Back of basement (also bricks from under the concrete floor)

We left a small section of floor at the back of the basement that has the washer, dryer, chest freezer, and hot water heater for the time being. We’ll have to remove that later, when we temporarily move out and the sewer and water main are replaced. In the mean time we’ll start excavating the plumbing and get some quotes on that work, and I can finish the masonry and lintels around the front bay windows and start installing the new windows.

A big thanks to Mike, Lee, Nicole, Rob, Collin, Dylan, and Dustin for all their help!

Basement Floor Removal – Part 1

February 24, 2015 / / 1 Comment
LED lights

LED lights

We’ve been hard at work in the basement. Since getting the new electrical installed and putting in the LED bulbs, we’ve pulled up all of the linoleum tile to make way for concrete floor removal. I bought an electric concrete saw from Amazon, but it uses a 20-amp plug. As it happens, we now have two 20-amp outlets, thanks to the new electrical, but we don’t have a 20-amp extension cord. Home Depot didn’t even carry one, aside from a 9-foot “appliance cord” that wasn’t going to reach very far in the basement. I ordered the extension cord from Amazon as well, but I didn’t want to sit idle over the weekend. That meant it was time to break out the sledge hammer and do things the old fashioned way.

 

Using a combination of sledge, pry bar, and my rotary hammer in chisel mode, Sarah and I managed to break up all the concrete on the North side of the basement. We spent a fair number of hours on it Saturday, Sunday, and last night. The other half of the basement (technically sixty percent) we’ll use the saw, since it’s covered in ceramic tile and we don’t want to crack the sewer pipes running somewhere underneath it by swinging the sledgehammer too much. My hands are pretty sore from the sledging we did so far, so switching to the saw sounds like a big improvement. The problem with the saw is dust. For that I’m hoping the shop vac attachment will make a difference, since we can’t use water with the electric saw.

Sarah ordered a dumpster for Thursday, and we’ll have it for two weeks. We need to have the whole thing broken up and hauled out by then, aside from the back corner where the water heater and laundry are. Those can wait a little while longer.

Mechanical Room Panel

August 22, 2013 / / 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

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

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

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.