Home Construction Discussion

[Blob Mckenzie]

Hey BlobbyCat. how is that reno to your Ted Kazsynski shack coming along?

It's to lockup right now. Too bad I won't be going up there again until next year . I have a couple buddies who have sent me some pics and it looks pretty cool. It sucks the square footage went from about 1300 down to about 1060, but them's the breaks I guess. Lots of work to do in regards to finishing it off next year but I am looking forward to it.

I still have to scratch a couple cheques to the electrician and the builder though. We've been fucking shitting money lately it seems. Just paid for a trip to Playa Del Carmen in November.

Ah come on, share the pics Blobber

I'll show you before and after pics spidey. I am a little tenative and don't want Pacific Blue to drag his tranny posse up there. VPete knows the area well.... all I need is he and the Dude to hook up and all hell breaks loose.

[Blob Mckenzie]

So back on May 23rd we had a pipe break. Fixed it. On the 25th it broke further back.

Fuck.

Insurance sends a company over. Walls are wet. Carpet is toast. Mold behind another wall. Other little issues. Plumber shows up to patch pipe so we have water in the house for the interim. While he is there another pipe joint goes in the basement ceiling. No I'm not joking, the plumber found it when he went to turn the water back off after finding the original leak. So he fixes that and the other one. This is the 6th pipe break/leak since December 2009 and the second time insurance has dealt with it. Everyone has been wondering why. First we thought pressure because there was no reducer on the house (go figure). That wasn't it because we put one on and still had problems.

After pulling back the drywall and seeing all the pipes we have our answer! The morons who plumbed the house used a smattering of different ages of pipe and used 3/8" instead of 1/2". There is corroded spots everywhere. Instead of one water line through the house branching out into the places needed there are 3 separate runs that parrallel one another all over the place. We found a hot water line capped off in the middle of our bedroom ceiling.....there's nothing above there, the bathroom is 15 feet away in the corner! A cold water pipe into that upstairs bathroom goes 4 feet out into the ceiling and then curves back and goes 6 feet back and the up to the bathroom. The pipes int he basement are showing multiple signs of being ready to break in places. There were junction boxes and pot light casings shoved up under the basement ceiling with live lines running into them. When we peeled back some of the ceiling to check for that leak the plumber found a piece of baseboard trim fell out of the ceiling. WTF!?! Insulation haphazardly shoved in the ceiling where there was no need for it. Just brutal. SELL! SELL! SELL! Right? Wrong.

My wife bought the house a year before I met her, she's locked into the mortgage until 2014. If we do nothing to the house we have to declare all these problems when we do sell because we are aware of them. That of course says nothing about the money we'll spend just fixing damaged shit over the course of that time. So our only option? Yeah, you guessed it, we are replacing all the plumbing in our house with the exception of the main bathroom. We also have some serious electrical work to do in the basement.

Now for the best part. The restoration company that was sent by insurance has taken 9 weeks to do a 10 day job. First it was waiting for full approval from Wawanessa. But we've been told they don't ask for a second quote unless a job is more than $10K. This was quoted at just over $7K. Just massive delays. Finally I take Rats advice (thanks Ratman) and become the squeaky wheel. Done and done. They come and do the job.....NOT! They show up to do the floor, and then leave after 3 hours without a word. Floor unfinished. Comes back and leave again 2 days later. Floor? Almost done. Forgot about the closet. The shoddiest work ever on the stairs. I raise Cain.

Guys come and do baseboards, I'm assured the stairs will be fixed. They finish painting. All but the baseboard by the stairs is on. I go check it out later taht day. Baseboards are smeared by the colour from the wall, and not just in one or two little places.....EVERYWHERE! The tape is peeling below where they cut for an electrical outlet. The paint is peeling back next to the other one and the drywall is damaged enough that it wouldn't be hidden by the outlet cover. On a bulkhead above the window there are places where the drywall hasn't been properly secured and the edge of the drywall is pushing a definitive line through the paint. We were able to move our bed back into our room today though, so at least we aren't sleeping in the TV room in the basement. Good thing too, because after we moved the bed, there was mold growing through the carpet where the bed has sat for 9 weeks while we waited for these morons to finish a 10 day job. I wonder what assurances I'll get tomorrow.....

We have, however decided to push through this and forge ahead with a few other fixes since things are so dusty and dirty already anyhow. Our entryway is losing a closet, hardwood is becoming a tile of some sort, the basement is losing a pair of small rooms, getting new floor, new plumbing, some wiring, and new look. Our backdoor is changing from sliding to double garden (this means the deck disappears next year and becomes a patio), and a new front door will be going on. Nothing set entirely in stone yet, but now that we know that the walls we want to remove and modify are most likely not load-bearing, well we hope to begin in two weeks and have the main floor stuff finished by mid September and the basement gutted shortly thereafter, if not before.

I hate construction and reno's.

Burn the fucking thing to the ground Meds

[Potatoe1]

Fuckin' drywall.

So apparently we should sub that out?

Ha,

If you ever saw my boys hang board, or set bead, or skim coat, or spray primer, or paint trim, you would never, ever, ever, waste your time and money trying to do it yourself.

That is of course unless you like doing this crap.

The only way you are saving money is if you make 10$ per hour at your real job.

If you want to do a reno on the cheap, focus on doing the things that require zero skill. Like demo, picking up materials, clean up etc.

Don't waste your time trying to do tile or drywall or painting when a proper trades person can do the same work 4 times as quickly as you can.

[RoyalDude]

Fuckin' drywall.

So apparently we should sub that out?

Ha,

If you ever saw my boys hang board, or set bead, or skim coat, or spray primer, or paint trim, you would never, ever, ever, waste your time and money trying to do it yourself.

That is of course unless you like doing this crap.

The only way you are saving money is if you make 10$ per hour at your real job.

If you want to do a reno on the cheap, focus on doing the things that require zero skill. Like demo, picking up materials, clean up etc.

Don't waste your time trying to do tile or drywall or painting when a proper trades person can do the same work 4 times as quickly as you can.

Amen Tater. I can hang a board or two here and there, mud and tape and sand when changes are put in place from homeowner on a very small patch up job scale but when it comes to getting a decent size drywall job done at a cost effective price, get the pro's, don't waste your time, it's harder than you think, it will save you the mental anguish from pure frustration. There is a reason why a mudder/taper/sander is completely covered head to toe in drywall dust with a proper dust mask on, holding up a light to an area with one hand while he has been sanding and sanding and sanding for long periods in one spot with the other. It's an art form. Improper mudding, taping and sanding comes through in the finished painting and can look horrible.

It's a sight to behold watching rookies board ceilings. Or watching a rookie try and properly finish an outside corner bead, never mind hanging it plumb. Sure we can all do it, but why not get the pro's to do it and put yourself busy in other areas that don't need years of experience to do it fast and good.

[RoyalDude]

I'll show you before and after pics spidey. I am a little tenative and don't want Pacific Blue to drag his tranny posse up there. VPete knows the area well.... all I need is he and the Dude to hook up and all hell breaks loose.[/quote]

Aw c'mon Blobby cat, I'm a fantastic summer retreat guest, just keep those triple shot gin and tonics coming in tall glasses with lots of ice and fresh limes and supply me with a cozy lawn chair on your brand new L-shaped deck and you won't regret my company.

[Blob Mckenzie]

Totally agree with the opinions above on drywalling. I fucking hate it!!! And I've done a bit of it but I still hate it. For the amount you have to pay for it to be done by a drywaller you are better off for it. I am avoiding drywalling in this cabin like the plague. For the entrance way I am going with the tongue and groove pine wall paneling with a clear stain. Yes it's about 4 X more expensive than drywall but it will look way better and it is half the work.

Tiling a floor I don't find to be too difficult but I have done a few tiling jobs and have a decent saw so tha's half the battle. Only problem is my back hurts like a sonofabitch when I lay floor so I have to mix in lots of painkillers and liquor. Find your centre, snap a chalk line and see how square your room is. If it's way out of wack your tiling job just got more fun. Thats what they have thick baseboards for.

[CFP!]

WAHOO!

My heat pump /ductless split is in! I set that puppy to 86 F and sat on my leather couch until I felt a bead of sweat roll off my brow. It didn't take long (10mins?).

I'm super stoked with this addition to the home. Not only do our rebates save us with the reno/addition; we will save money with super efficient HP/Air heads. All of it runs on a 20 A breaker if you can believe it. I installed a HP than can handle three heads but only installed two in case the next owner wants to go crazy.

For those who are not in my field....




Living room



Top of the stairs.

These puppies are rated at 12,000BTU each. Both A/C-Heat. Both draw less than 1Amp.

Hello Hydro!

[Aaronp18]

Totally agree with the opinions above on drywalling. I fucking hate it!!! And I've done a bit of it but I still hate it. For the amount you have to pay for it to be done by a drywaller you are better off for it. I am avoiding drywalling in this cabin like the plague. For the entrance way I am going with the tongue and groove pine wall paneling with a clear stain. Yes it's about 4 X more expensive than drywall but it will look way better and it is half the work.

Tiling a floor I don't find to be too difficult but I have done a few tiling jobs and have a decent saw so tha's half the battle. Only problem is my back hurts like a sonofabitch when I lay floor so I have to mix in lots of painkillers and liquor. Find your centre, snap a chalk line and see how square your room is. If it's way out of wack your tiling job just got more fun. Thats what they have thick baseboards for.

I would tend to agree on the drywalling, likely going to sub out for that.

We are finishing our basement, hopefully soon. Likely going to put in a mortgage helper as we don't use or require the space right now and why shouldn't someone pay half my mortgage!

We will bring in for electrical, plumbing, drywalling but do the majority of the grunt work ourself with the help of family and good friends. I know a great carpenter that will work for beer and a wicked deal on glass!!

We have the majority of the necessary tools as we did build a cabin ..... Errr house up at the lake basically from the ground up. Doing all the finishing work ourself. We put that tongue and groove pine on the vaulted ceiling that you are talking about Blob, looks awesome - that was a task in itself requiring scaffolding in an non-air conditioned shell of a house in the middle of a Shuswap summer!!

As with pretty much everything the right tools for the job make all the difference in the world.

[KeyserSoze]

We will bring in for electrical, plumbing, drywalling but do the majority of the grunt work ourself with the help of family and good friends. I know a gay carpenter that will work for beer and a wicked deal on glass!!

Cool, good luck with the basement Aaron!

[LotusBlossom]

I live in a penthouse, so all these fun renos I'd have to get approval from my strata. Luckily, the floors were already laminate when I moved in but we'd have to go through a big huge crappy approval if we wanted to change anything major (Kitchen reno etc.). It's a great layout but needs to be repainted soon, that's not a big issue.

I am looking to change my fixtures in my bathroom from the brass (ugh I know) to some brushed chrome. It's something that small and can be done w/o the strata getting on our case. I think I can still buy those w/o having to buy a sink right? I need to change the shower stall as well because that is also brass that holds the glass together.

We hired a designer to help us with our storage problem in our kitchen. She designed a built-in storage unit/sideboard for us, and said we could probably get it made at Home Depot or a kitchen cabinet place and then put together piece by piece here at home.

Small updates make the biggest difference, but I find it difficult when you always have to go through a strata for anything major.

[Cornuck]

Small updates make the biggest difference, but I find it difficult when you always have to go through a strata for anything major.

Ha - city life!

We don't need permits for anything here. "Just make it to code" we were told when we moved. The town doesn't have inspectors, so no permits. We've done a lot of work, but still have tons to do. It will never be finished. We added a few rooms and made the place very comfortable, but still have touched the 2nd floor or east wing.

The only ongoing problem is not being able to heat all of the structure, so we usually get a leak in the winter...

How's this for a renovation challenge:

[Cookie La Rue]

Ha, the perfect building to found a school of hockey. I would participate for some scoring lessons.

[dbr]

Disclaimer: I probably do not belong in this thread.

That being said, I saw CFP dropping knowledge about heating a ways back and bragging about his pumps a couple posts up.

We've just moved into a house with a heating oil furnace, we don't own but it's a family-owned house so we'll likely be here for several years - so I am trying to determine how quickly a move to natural gas (or some other alternative) might pay for itself.

Anyone have a good rule of thumb for determining heat load (ie. the energy required to heat a house for one season)?

The CMHC has an equation for determining cost for various fuels but I have no idea where to start for the amount of energy required and most of what I've found online seems to be for air conditioning purposes.

[Topper]

Heating the house will depend on how well insulated the place is and how hot you want it. Are you content in your wool sweater and fuzzy slippers or do you prefer to run about neked in the house?

Start with last years bills and see what the consumption was, better still go back further and run some averages. From that you should be able to calculate how many joules were needed. (My 1st year physics prof used the memorable line "Joules was big in heat").

Knowing the # of joules you can calculate the amount of other fuels needed for the same figure.

[dbr]

I wish that were an option Topper.

The place is often also heated by a fireplace with an insert and fan, which is nice but frankly not something I want to have to use going forward - of course that means that past expenditures to fill the oil tank would not tell the whole story (and of course the past residents didn't empty the tank and fill it all the way up either)..

The house is an old building so I would guess the insulation is generally poor, however at least the last of the single pane windows are out.

Anyway I figure if I can get a rough estimate, an underestimate will give me a conservative timeline for how quickly the upgrade would pay for itself.