Starting the Demo
Taking out the first panel
It's a Friday, so only about 2 hours of work got done before it was beer time. Managed to get about 75% of the long exterior wall removed, and the ceiling tile under one of the bulkheads. Lesley was fairly put out by the mouse poo that rained down from the ceiling. Ew. I had to shut off the power (obviously), so it was really quite dark down there. Those tiny windows don't offer much light. We're going to need floodlights to get this job done.
The first pile of debris
Some discoveries: the wall is covered with puffy lime deposits, and quite possibly some mold. Double ew. Also, there is an electrical outlet encased in concrete (seriously!), and electrical cord sheathing that was completely rotten thanks to a rusty tack. The baseboard heaters were not wired properly either. I shudder to think what might have happened down there had we left it for 20 years (*shudder*).
The first bit comes down
I'm also going to have to figure out how to fasten the top plate of the new stud wall for the wall in these pictures. A peculiar thing about the construction of this house: the floor joists are embedded in the foundation wall rather than sitting on top. This means that the floor boards run right over the foundation wall (the concrete goes right up to the floorboards). The nearest joist to the foundation wall is 11" away, and since toenailing nailers to the concrete seems like a bad idea, I don't know what I'm going to nail the top plate to. So far, my best idea is to extend the wall right to the floorboards and nail the top plate into them, then install cross-pieces where the ceiling drywall meets the wall drywall for added strength. Any suggestions here would be appreciated.
Some good news: it looks as though the bulkheads are very well constructed, and I will be able to drywall over them without having to rebuild them. That's going to save me hours of work, and some money on strapping.
Tomorrow we'll be making the project's first trip to Home Depot. Items on the list are a Shop-vac and floodlights. With luck, we'll be able to get the rest of the panelling and the ceiling tiles down before the day is done.
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4 comments:
Brian Bauemler and I think that attaching a 2X4 across the floor joists to act as a top plate, then shooting nails into it from your top wall plate might work. The white efflorescence from the concrete is normal. Mould would be black. If you have that, you gotta deal with it. Ew is right.
Mom
xox
The problem I'm having is that there is no floor joist at the foundation wall - it's just concrete. Should I just nail the 2x4 to the concrete? It is above grade, but still seemed like a bad idea to me.
I think we should invite Brian over.
If Brian will wor for free, he's welcome any time...
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