The Wood Arrives!

We got our wood today. It was dropped off while we were at work.

The first shipment

Because it wasn't delivered wrapped up as expected, I spent a couple of hours after work taking it out of our driveway and putting it away. The insulation batts got put in the garage, and the wood made it's way under the tarp in the backyard.

Stack o' Batts

Gift wrapped wood pile

No actual work got done today. After moving our building supplies and fending off crowds at the grocery store in advance of Canada Day, it was just too late to do anything but unwind and prepare for tomorrow.

Jimmy Rig

Solved a minor problem today that had been slowing things down. Whenever Lesley was otherwise indisposed, I couldn't use the chop saw, because there was nobody to hold the end of the wood. It sounds like a silly problem, but it was really debilitating. So, I fashioned a "holder" of sorts from scraps. After rummaging through the accumulated off-cuts, I managed to find a combination of materials that stack up to the perfect height.

Soon to be wood holder

Four screws later, and I had a handy-dandy jimmy rigged wood holder.

Jimmy rigged

My new wood-holder enabled me to cut the final stud for the hell-wall, which promptly got installed.

Fully studded

Guarded relief

The satisfaction of putting in the last stud was short-lived however, as the planned-for 1.5" gap between the studs and the stair stringers that was going to perfectly fit a 2x4 for support has wound up being a 1" gap. Argh. I'm pretty sure that 1" dimensional lumber doesn't exist, and I own neither a planer nor a table saw, so this ought to be fun figuring out how to fill the gap.

Time to hang up the toolbelt for the evening, and ruminate on my most recently encountered issue.

Beer time

Day 32

Only a couple of hours work got done today as Lesley's cousin Charlotte was in town from Vancouver, so we spent the afternoon visiting at Kent & Susan's place. Today's task was to install the top plate for that nasty wall. Job one was getting the necessary notches cut out of the board to accommodate the remaining hangers. I used the jigsaw to accomplish the notching, which is not ideal since we're dealing with 2x4s. I actually decided to make a quick run to Canadian tire to get a new blade for thicker wood. Waste of time. The first blade bent and snapped before I got 2 inches cut. Useless piece of crap. So I used the now-dull blade I already had, and drilled holes to facilitate turning the corners, which worked well enough. A little bit of trial and error later, including some deft handiwork with a chisel, and the top plate was installed.

Attaching the top plate

Attached

Once the top plate was on, Lesley's temporary brace could be removed. There are still two more studs to set, which should be easy now that there is a top plate, and this nightmare wall will be more-or-less complete. The next step will be to frame around the main drain stack, and construct the bulkheads that will go around all of the plumbing

Back to Work

The renovation got back into full swing today after the hiatus and the subsequent lack of will to renovate. It would seem as though renovations have their own momentum - once you stop it's very difficult to get going again, but when you're rolling along, it's easy to want to get back to it.

We spent the morning emptying our bank accounts with a couple of major purchases. First, we managed to find stock windows that will fit our rough openings at a Rona in the east end of the city. They cost nearly double what we'd budgeted, but we were happy to find them, and Lesley, being the wise one, suggested we just bite the bullet and get them and be done with it, so we did. The nicest windows in our whole house will now be in the basement (the rest of our windows date to 1948).

New windows

We also managed to locate a Lowe's within driving distance (Orleans, Ontario), and went there to order our lumber. The original plan was to go to a locally owned lumber yard, which we actually did first thing this morning, but were informed upon our arrival that they no longer carry any lumber outside of fencing kits because the big box stores were killing their business. Would've been nice if their website had mentioned something to this effect so we didn't waste our time going down there, but we're beginning to see how these guys were going out of business... At any rate, Lowe's had what we needed, so we put in our order, and should receive our framing lumber and insulation early next week. The delivery charge was reasonable, and they will take back unusably warped lumber, so we were quite happy to get our supplies there, despite the long drive. Their prices were also very good, and everything came in well under budget, helping to even out the budget-beating from the windows.

It was after noon by the time we finally made it home from our successful shopping trip, so we didn't get too much work done, but did manage to set a few more studs. This particular wall has been a large challenge to complete. We had great deal of difficulty trying to figure out how to set studs sans top-plate. The top plate can't be installed until the studs are up because it won't be fastened to anything until after it's been installed, and you can't exactly set studs properly by fastening them only to the bottom plate. Paradox. This is one of those areas where our inexperience is a killer. Lesley came up with the idea to use a 2x4 as a brace across the front of the studs until the top plate could be installed. Of course, this only works if you have a reasonably straight piece of would to use as a brace, which we did not. In the end, we found a board that was straight enough for a long enough span to work in a pinch, and we managed to set enough studs today to enable the installation of the top plate, which should get done tomorrow.

"Progress"

Four hours of work, four studs installed. Not exactly the progress we were hoping for, but that's what we're going to get with this wall, I'm afraid. Tomorrow's another day.

Calling it a day

Quake Proof

Back in Ottawa today after a brief hiatus in beautiful Halifax, and wouldn't you know, an earthquake strikes. What?! Yes, an earthquake, which many of you will have experienced yourselves to varying degrees. Pretty wild. I was in my office at the time, which is on the ninth floor of an office building, and I could actually feel the building sway as the quake was quaking. Not cool. No harm done though, and I got sent home a couple of hours early, so it wasn't all bad.

The really good news is that the formerly improperly supported stairs leading to the basement did not collapse, which can only mean that they are now earthquake-proof thanks to my support design... Well, that may be a bit of a stretch, but I'm no longer concerned that they'll fall over if a magnitude 5.0 earthquake wasn't enough to topple them.

Tomorrow, Lesley and I will get back to work framing up the partition walls with existing lumber. Won't be long before we'll be making the big trip down to the lumber yard. Oh, expensive day.

Hiatus

The reno is getting put on hold for a few days as Lesley and I go to Halifax where Lesley's dad, Harry, is receiving a stem cell transplant. Lesley left yesterday, and I'll be off tomorrow.

We're into mostly two-man job territory now, so there's not been much work getting done with Lesley being away. I did manage to take advantage of the down time to get in my first workout since the reno started, though. I was even able to hook up the cable to the tv and watch the ballgame while doing it. Bonus.

Until next week.

On the Level

Spent the evening sorting out the framing dilemma. Trying to work around existing structure that's nowhere near plumb, or level, or square, or even straight is quite the challenge. I'm making extensive use of my shiny new four-foot level and carpenter's square to try and figure out just what I should be doing. I'm also using screws to fasten everything, which has already allowed me to undo several attempts at setting studs. This job would be impossible without that level - it's as important to framing as a pry bar and a good deal of anger is to demolition. The anger is somewhat less useful to framing... I've used it to find square, plumb studs, check for lowest points, raise sagging woodwork, and make sure the wall is straight. Brilliant.

I've finally settled upon a design, which is modified only slightly from the last one.

The main difference is that one of the 2x4 supports will extend all the way up to the top plate of the wall. The exception to this is the support on the far left, which will actually be behind the stud wall running perpendicular to the wall in the diagram, so these won't have drywall hanging from them. I've also decided against mechanical anchors to secure the sole plate to the floor, and will instead use 3.5" concrete nails every two feet. The studs on the far right of the wall will actually sit exactly 1.5" away from the stair stringers - just enough space to put another stud in behind, perpendicular to the wall studs, which will be used to support the wall along the stairs, and the stringers themselves.

Way too much thinking for a Monday night.

Amateurs

It was a beautiful summer day in the Nation's Capital today. Or, if you were renovating, it was a sticky hot friggin' day today. Nonetheless, we soldiered on, and managed to complete the floor today. It went pretty quickly until the last row, where every single tile needed to be cut to fit.

Tapping in tiles

We actually have about a dozen or so leftover - hopefully enough to finish tiling the storage space.

We also got started framing the supports for the stairs / partition wall. It was the end of the day though, and we immediately ran into a measuring issue. This particular bit of framing is going to take meticulous care in getting it right, and our minds were more focused on Corona's on the deck given what a beautiful day it was, so we called it a day upon running into the problem. This is the thing about DIY: not only does everything take five times longer than a professional would take, but you have no experience upon which to draw when you encounter difficulties and complications. I'm confident that we'll get this end of the basement framed, but it's going to take us some time, and some serious brain power (good thing I've got Lesley!).

Speaking of brain power, I managed to strike myself in the noggin with the cordless screwdriver today. That was fun. I was at a very awkward angle as I tried to fasten a temporary support, and the driver slipped and got me right in my ample forehead. Geez. I've got a nice mark to go along with a goose egg on my head for my trouble, but it's nothing a Corona won't fix...

Window Shopping

Did a little shopping this morning since Saturday is the only day we can get to the Restore while it's open. Unfortunately, they had no windows that will fit our rough opening, so we'll make another trip another day to the other Restore in Ottawa's east end to see if we can find something that will work. I'd hate to have to shell out for custom windows.

We also took a trip to Home Depot while we were out to get framing screws, framing nails, concrete nails, and a framing hammer. They had the framing screws and nails, but no concrete nails, and no suitable framing hammer. In fact, their hammer selection was surprisingly pitiful. I did take the opportunity to peruse the duct work though, and think I may be able to come up with a solution for my ducting dilemma. Home Depot had a much better selection of duct work. But, since their hammer selection sucked, it was off to Rona, where we did find a suitable hammer, and the concrete nails we needed.

DIY loot

With all the shopping this morning, we got a bit of a late start on demolishing the third and final stud wall. We did manage to take it down though, after a few hours of labour, and it yielded a tidy pile of lumber to re-use on the new partition walls.

More demo

Demolition complete!

Hauling lumber

Now we prep the concrete floor to be covered in DRIcore. Tomorrow's goal is to finish laying the floor, and get the support for the stairs in place. I think that if we can accomplish that, we'll be in good shape.

Getting the floor ready

A bit of bad news. The experiment to allow the cat back into the basement has failed, and so Neuman has found himself re-banned for good this time. Back to sharing a bathroom with a cat. *sigh* He's currently felinus non gratis. In the doghouse for cats, as it were.

TGIF

Today's Friday, so not too much going on before we sit down to relax. I've been thinking a lot about the stairs in recent days, and am getting anxious to implement the plan, which I've modified a bit. I've decided to sit the support on top of the DRICore, which can support 2 tons per square foot. That will allow the DRICore to extend into the storage area, making for a more effective vapour barrier as well as getting all of those cardboard boxes off of the concrete floor. The support will also be a part of the partition wall, which will gain us about 12" of floor space versus my original plan. It will mean having to construct some new bulkheads around plumbing, but the extra space will be worth it.

Today, we moved the stuff under the stairs over to accommodate the impending construction, and cut and installed temporary supports so that the existing wall can be removed.

Temporary Support #1

Temporary support #2

Tomorrow, we'll begin by tearing down the existing stud wall. Once that's done, we'll finish laying the floor, and finally, we'll install the support for the stairs. With luck, the support wall will be complete before the weekend is done.

It's beer o'clock. Until tomorrow...

Day 15

No renovation today. Instead, we took a trip to Rona for the screws I need to build the stairs support, and also browsed ducting and stock windows.

Box o' screws

I'm planning on running heating ducts into the newly finished part of the basement in order to take some heating pressure off of the baseboard heaters. In order to do this, I'll need to modify the existing duct-work, which is all rectangular. That would not be so much of a problem, except that it would appear as though rectangular duct-work is hard to come by at your local home improvement centre. The search is on for a solution.

We're also going to replace the two wood-framed, and likely original windows in the basement. They're mostly rotten around the frame, which is not surprising as the wood is mortared to the rough opening. We're planning on replacing these with stock pvc windows that will fit a 38.75"x24.25" rough opening. The plan is to get them at the re-store, which closes early, so we'll have to wait until the weekend.

High-inefficiency window

Looking forward to an early night tonight. Between the renovation and Stanley Cup Playoffs, sleep has been scarcer than I like it. The cup presentation last night was great, marred only by having to look at Bettman's ugly mug. Glad the Hawks won it though. They really deserved it.

Support Design

After thinking about it, I've come up with a design for supporting the stairs that will provide both load support and lateral support.

Basically, I'm going to create 4x4 posts by gluing and screwing two 2x4s togegher. One 2x4 will sit directly underneath each beam, and the other will extend up beside it, and will then be attached to the beam with 4 screws in a box pattern. There will be blocks between the posts to add strength. These posts will carry down to a toe-plate that will have a plastic gasket on its underside to separate it from the concrete to prevent moisture absorption. The toe plate will subsequently be anchored to the floor with mechanical anchor bolts.

I have all of about 15 2.5" screws left, so it's off to Home Depot yet again for fasteners.

Head Scratcher

Not much accomplished today, reno-wise. Managed to prep the last stud wall to come down by removing the electrical, but that's the extent of it.

Stud wall #3

Instead, it was time to ruminate on a structural problem: the landing for the stairs leading to the basement (directly behind the stud wall in the picture above) is supported by being hung from the floor joists above. A 2x4 "hanger" is nailed into the floor joist, and then into a beam supporting the landing. There are three such beams, one acting as a ledger board against the foundation wall. The problem is, in order to gain themselves that all-important inch of floor space, the geniuses that finished this basement decided they would cut into these supports to make room for the non-load bearing stud wall.

Seriously?!

What used to be a hanger

To compensate for their destruction of what's holding up our stairs, they have nailed the beam from which the stairs are hanging to a stud in their improperly-built-for-a-support-wall wall. It really makes me cringe when I see this. Good thing Mike Holmes isn't here, or he'd be removing the whole staircase, the kitchen, the plumbing, and probably most of the landscaping, so he could rebuild it and "make it right". In fairness to Mike, he would make the back of our house nigh unto indestructible, and it would likely still be standing centuries after the apocalypse.

But I digress...

To remediate the remedial basement finisher's boneheadedness, I will be constructing a new support for the stairs, that will augment what's left of the original supports by carrying the load down to the floor. I can't remove the existing stud wall until the new supports are in place without risking collapse of the stairs, so that's the next step.

This is the third, and hopefully final wtf moment of the reno. Geez.

The Old Man is Snoring

It was pouring rain all day today in the nation's capital. Having been defeated once by inclement weather, I was determined to press on today despite the rain. So, a trip to Canadian Tire was in order to get clamps so that I could cut tiles in the newly cleaned-out garage.

New clamps

I also picked up a new rubber mallet while I was there for tapping in the tiles, which are tongue-and-groove. 

I started out trying to cut the tiles with a circular saw, but that did not work out very well. I could keep a straight line for 10  or 12 inches, but then the saw started bind as it tried to veer right. Very frustrating. After ruining 2 floor tiles, I was just about to head out to Home Depot for a table saw, when I thought to try the jigsaw. It worked. In fact, it worked really well.

Cutting floor tiles

Once we were finally able to cut tiles to size, the floor went down very quickly - we achieved our revised goal of covering half the basement floor in only a couple of hours. Good thing too, as Lesley is off to Winnipeg this afternoon for a conference, so I'll be flying solo for a couple of days. Lesley is a measuring genius, and saves me from doing things the hard way when cutting tiles to go around objects. Her presence will be sorely missed, but I will truck along without her.

Pepsi break on the new floor

Now that we've covered half the floor with tiles, it's time to move the couch and tv and other stuff over to the covered side of the basement. Next step will be taking down stud wall #3 and supporting the stairs before continuing on with laying the subfloor.

 One side down...

One side to go

For those who may be wondering how the cat is getting along with the renovation, I think it's safe to say that it's providing him with some entertainment. He likes to check out the progress, but generally stays out of the way while we're working, so un-banning him from the basement has thus far worked out just fine.

Checking on the progress

Molasses in January

Progress has slowed to a crawl. It is becoming more and more evident that the subfloor will not complete by the end of the weekend. Such is life. Progress is still being made, at least.

Today, we got a late start as it was our neighbourhood's turn for a yard sale. We spent our morning peddling wares, and actually got rid of almost everything, despite the weather being less than cooperative. It also gave us a chance to socialise with our neighbours a little bit and raise some money for charity, so the lost production was well worth it.

Stud wall #2 has come down, and has given us a tidy pile of lumber to re-use. This will come in handy as I will have to build new supports for the stairs leading the the basement. More on that in another post.

And the wall comes down...

We also managed to finish the parging today, which means that we're finally ready to begin laying the subfloor. Exciting! Today marks a shift from destruction to construction, which is a nice change of pace. 

The first steps in laying floor tiles are cleaning the floors so the tiles will seat properly on the concrete, and cutting spacers to facilitate a consistent gap from the wall and other objects.

You could eat off this floor, but why would you want to?

Cutting spacers

The tiles will be laid 1.5" from the exterior concrete wall, and 0.25" from everything else to allow for expansion. Also, the stud walls will sit 1.5" off the exterior concrete, on top of the floor tiles in order to create an air gap that will allow for evaporation. We're using DRIcore floor tiles as our subfloor, which creates a vapour barrier for the floor while allowing moisture to pass through the concrete slab by creating an air gap between the barrier and the floor itself. The moisture then evaporates through the air gap that is left between the stud wall and the foundation wall, or it condenses on the bottom of the tiles, and drains through the floor drain (assuming the slab has the proper slope). It's fairly brilliant, and is way cheaper and less labour intensive than building a traditional subfloor on the slab. Plus, it will only consume 0.75" of height, which is at a premium.

Unfortunately, just as we began laying the tiles, the skies opened up, and it started pouring rain. Can't cut tiles in the rain, so we've called it a day. With luck, we'll be able to finish laying tile in half the basement tomorrow.

The first row of tiles complete...almost

Light Duty

Not much progress today. The next step in the reno is removal of stud wall #2, which will get accomplished first thing tomorrow.

Stud wall #2

Today, the wall was prepped to come down by removing all of the electrical wires and boxes in the wall, and by removing the shelving on the back of the wall. It actually took some time to remove the electrical since I plan on re-using as much of the existing wiring and hardware as possible. That meant that each box had to be de-wired and carefully removed from the studs instead of just clipping the wires and prying the box off with a crowbar.

The dumpster was also finally removed today, 2 days late. I almost didn't have to speak with an actual person for this little transaction, but I wound up having to call them yesterday to remind them to come and get their dumpster. The lady was real nice about it though, so all-in-all a good dumpster experience.

We've got our driveway back!

Now we rest and watch game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals, beer in hand, and get ready for tomorrow whilst I blog. Renovating takes a lot out of you, especially if you're a cat.

Neuman takes 5 while I blog

Day 8

Started taking down the stud walls today. This part is a little bit slower going since I'm trying to save the 2x4's, and so I have to be careful not to destroy everything in sight as I go. For those of you that know me, you can appreciate my difficulty. I did manage to get the first wall down in just a couple of hours nonetheless.

The first wall

Careful...careful...

We're actually going to change the configuration of this wall when the new framing goes up. Originally, it created a little nook to accommodate the exhaust pipe from the original furnace. When we moved in, this house still had an oil burning furnace that had been installed in 1968. Nineteen sixty-eight! Not exactly your high-efficiency model. It vented through the chimney, and its exhaust pipe had been built-around when this basement was first finished. Of course, one of our first orders of business when we bought the place was to replace that old clunker with a high-efficiency gas furnace, which vents through the wall due to condensation issues. So now there's just a gaping hole where the the exhaust pipe used to be.

Gaping hole

Since there's no longer an exhaust vent, the new wall will simply go straight across, which should create enough room at the bottom of the stairs to get large furniture (i.e., couches, etc.) in and out of the basement without first having to break them into tiny pieces. The really good news is that we may no longer have to work around a couch as we go, if we can now get it out as I suspect we can (this will be attempted later on).

  

The first wall comes down

Another bit of good news: the lost hammer has been found. It had simply been misplaced during the chaos of demolition. I found it when I started to move stuff out of the makeshift storage cabinet that had been built from scraps in the nook underneath where the old exhaust pipe had been.

Crappy cabinet

What once was lost is found

We're still on schedule to meet our goal of getting the subfloor laid by the end of the weekend. 2 more stud walls and a bit of parging to go.

Pulling nails

Today's task was to get the nails pulled out of the concrete, and fill in the divots.

Today's challenge

The Divot

Basically, nails pounded into concrete are a lot stronger than the wood they`re holding, so when you pull off the wood, the nails get left behind. Also, they`re quite rusty from sitting in concrete that's below grade, so they just really don`t want to come out. The result is that the concrete that the nail's sitting in gets pulled out with the nail. For contrast, check out an exterior wall after the nails were removed versus an interior concrete wall:

Exterior wall

Interior wall

Of course, there were a bunch of nails that simply had the head pop off, so I couldn't do much with them except pound them in. I'm not crazy about having rusty metal sitting inside concrete, but what can you do? At least the sparks from the odd hammer strike were cool. 

Lesley followed behind me as I pulled nails and cleaned the walls of  mould and efflorescence, and generally made them squeaky clean. Did you know that efflorescence turns blue when mixed with bleach? She also filled in the divots with parging mix.

Always replace your divots

Remember that outlet encased in concrete? I also tackled that little problem today. After an hour, a lot of pounding and concrete dust, and a litany of curses, the outlet finally came out.

WHY?!?

Victory!

The wires were actually green with oxidization. And don't forget - this outlet was live. I had a lamp plugged into it. *shudder*

Today was the last day for the dumpster as it gets picked up tomorrow. Feeling good about getting all that crap out of there, and will be happy to get our driveway back, and not have squeeze by an 18" gap on my rollerblades to get to and from work. We didn't quite fill the dumpster, but we came pretty close.

Bye bye dumpster

There's still a bit of parging left to do and the stud walls to take down before the weekend arrives. Feeling confident that we'll be able to get that done in the coming days.

Cleaning up for the day

Beer time.