Building

[time]

Although Ddrueding and others have offered insights into their dwelling construction escapades, I thought a thread might be interesting to swap stories. In particular, I'm intrigued by the different building methods and terminology between different countries.

My immediate inspiration is the >100% reconstruction of our bathroom, which involved stripping the room back to the studs (is that an American term?) and beyond.

1. Remove window blind (should never have been fitted IMO) and temporary shower curtain over bath
2. Remove glass shower screen (drill out rivets, cut silicone sealant, remove screws, etc)
3. Remove vanity unit (unscrew tap pipes and fit blank plugs into inlet connectors, remove P-trap, remove cabinet screws, apply sledgehammer and inadvertently break drain pipe)
4. Remove mirror (cut silicone sealant, remove screws)
5. Remove wall tiles (with brick bolster and heavy hammer, protective gloves and eye protection)
6. Remove shower hob (tiled block raised 6" around the shower to contain the water, sledgehammer again)
7. Jackhammer up floor tiles and tile bedding (big, dirty job)
8. Remove bath (demolish infill wall below bath, sheeting above bath, disconnect drain pipe, demolish bath hob)
9. Remove wall sheeting and ceiling cornices
10. Cut studs above termite and rot damage, cut bottom plates, unscrew masonry expansion bolts
11. Replace bottom plates and stud sections with H3 (timber guaranteed termite and fungus resistant for 25 years)
12. Add cleats either side to support repaired studs
13. Renail ply bracing to new frame (turns out this interior wall stops the house falling down)
14. Cut out window (aluminium frame with rotten timber jamb)
15. Support roof trusses (and therefore house) with steel props
16. Remove termite-ruined structural studs and window lintil
17. Replace with higher strength lintil and more H3 timber
18. Fabricate new timber jamb for window
19. Reinstall window (building is of brick-veneer construction)
20. Build new side wall and hob for bath
21. Pay plumber exorbitant fee to replumb for mixer taps and connect new bath
22. Cut and fit new wet area sheeting (water-resistant cement board, glued and nailed, with penetrations for taps, etc)
23. Cut and fit new architraves to window and door
24. Remove extractor fan and add ceiling joists ('noggins') to support plasterboard infill

There's a pause here while I select a tiler and waterproofer.

25. Grind down raised parts of floor near drains
26. Cap pipe floor penetrations with grout (after picking building rubbish out of the anti-termite granite chips surrounding the pipes)
27. Set aluminium angle water stops at doorway and around shower area (half-hexagon)
28. Apply primer and 2 coats of polyurethane sealant to all corners, floor, bath surrounds and shower walls
29. Plaster over old extractor fan hole
30. Treat ceiling for mold
31. Paint ceiling (with mold-resistant paint), window jamb and architraves

So far, we're up to step 29. Step 32 is laying a new floor tile bed and step 33 is laying floor tiles, Wednesday and Thursday if all goes to plan.

Despite the bathroom being very small, I've calculated that I'll be picking up more than 300kg of ceramic tiles tomorrow (2 trips so I don't break the floor in the car).

 

[time]

I missed quite a few steps, such as the rewiring to move a power point across to the other side of the room (the old one would have ended up half inside the new shower stall), and moving the light/fan switches into a tight spot between 2 studs (wiring drops down and then goes sideways through a stud).

And before anyone gets the wrong idea, I paid 2 carpenters for 2 days to do the construction work (I did the running around with materials etc), the electrical work was closely supervised by a licensed electrician, and the waterproofer was also licensed (too many leaky bathrooms here). Hands on, I haven't attempted anything like what Stereodude did with his home theater (BTW, how's that going?).

 

[Bozo]

When we built our present house, I stopped by just as two termites (carpenters) were starting to put up the walls.
Their conversation went like this:
Termite 1: What was that measurement?
Termite 2: 84 and three little black marks.
Termite 1: Is that long black marks or short black marks?
The project went down hill from there.

 

[Handruin]

I've also used the term stripping the room back to the studs. I live in an older house built somewhere around 1940. The house has gone through many changes over the years to improve it. The house is my fiance's that she purchased to flip it (repair, sell, and profit) about 5 years ago. This was before I had met her, so she has been doing reconstruction projects for some time now. We have rebuilt an entire room by gutting it back to the studs. The room was dark (wood paneling), grim, and poorly insulated. The walls were constructed with the older plaster and boarding unlike more modern Sheetrock walling products so this made for some heavy waste. The windows were original to the house, so we had those replaced with something more modern.

We also took on the challenge of extending the closet in the room to make it a larger opening. It was previously configured with an opening the size of a typical door. It was difficult to open and get items into the back corner because the closet space was wider than the door's opening. Since we extended the opening, we built a new header to support the opening. We then had to take it down because it wasn't properly spec'ed for the opening width. We used a sandwiched 2x4 but due to the width, we learned that it should be supported by a 2x6 sandwiched header, so we took it out and rebuilt it a second time. Since we extended the opening, this also meant the hard wood flooring now has a gap in it. We hired a flooring company to match and stagger new pieces of wood to try and match the original hard wood flooring. They also did the refinishing of the floors.

The room also did not have a door. We had to frame out the door opening and figure out how to install a door. We put in a glass-paned door to make it feel more open since the plan was to use it as my office. We added additional electrical outlets and I also added CAT6 to the room (along with most of the other rooms in the house). We then sealed all gaps/cracks/etc with canned spay foam prior to putting R15 fiberglass insulation into the walls. After the insulation was installed, we proceeded to put up the drywalling, mudding, sanding, painting, trimming, etc.

We've also done many other projects like the one mentioned above. We rebuilt the wall where our fireplace is. The original owners put fake bricks over top of the plaster and over top of the actual brick fireplace. Everything (except the fireplace) was ripped out and replaced with new drywall. We then tiled the fireplace and built a mantle (which didn't exist before).

We took many before/after pictures of the work to document it. I don't know if that's what you had in mind for this thread, but I'd be happy to share examples of the challenges we faced and how we solved them. Likewise it would be interesting to see your challenges and solutions.

 

[Mercutio]

Home improvement is my father's hobby.

I grew up in houses that were always at least half-torn apart. I spent a portion of my teenage years with no interior walls in my bedroom. Many of the projects my dad did carried on for YEARS.

The result of this is the firm belief that do it yourself home improvement is very nearly as enjoyable and rewarding as castration with a meat grinder.

 

[MaxBurn]

Yeah my fried is in the middle of several home improvements and is affirming my belief in my condo.

 

[time]

Mirrors

What ascetic preferences do people have WRT mirrors, specifically bathroom mirror edges?

Framed appears to consist of polished aluminum or occasionally wood framing. A 'Microframe' reveal only the edge of an aluminum angle.

Frameless appears to be either polished edge, bevelled (to various degrees) or etched glass.

And then there's the shape of the mirror, eg rectangle vs oval.

All opinions appreciated, thanks.

 

[ddrueding]

Big chunk of mirror, frameless, square. My wife occasionally insists on a beveled edge. I prefer it to be flat and extend from the countertop or floor all the way to the ceiling.

 

[LunarMist]

Home improvement is my father's hobby.

I grew up in houses that were always at least half-torn apart. I spent a portion of my teenage years with no interior walls in my bedroom. Many of the projects my dad did carried on for YEARS.

The result of this is the firm belief that do it yourself home improvement is very nearly as enjoyable and rewarding as castration with a meat grinder.

Is tat what they consider being from a "broken home?"

 

[LunarMist]

So what level of privacy did you have?

 

[Mercutio]

I like for a mirror to have a frame and to be located someplace where it will multiply natural light.

So what level of privacy did you have?

Not very much.

There was also a period when I was about six years old when my father's renovations required that the outer wall to the one bathroom in the house be removed for about five months. There was a semi-opaque plastic tarp between our toilet and nature.

His current project - because he has to have one - is extending the garage on his current home so that it occupies about 40 x 60 feet of space. He wants a workshop and carwash and also apparently to spite a neighbor who insists, despite all evidence to the contrary including county records and a recent survey, that he owns some of the land on which this extended garage will sit.

One of my father's long time employees, a man I know quite well, bought the property where I grew up, precisely because he knew that my father had worked on it. He's somewhat infamous for constructing a barn out of wood on that property that was so ridiculously well made that it was functionally airtight.

 

[Howell]

I think frames add a bit of class. I cut one to be mounted to the wall around my rectangular .5 bath mirror.

For ideas you could look through magazines. Especially helpful if you already know your taste. I suggest southern living and dwell to start.

 

[Mercutio]

d'ya think they let antipodeans such as time have copies of Southern Living?

Is it really Northern Living when they're down there or do you think they take their styles from the heart of the Antarctic?

 

[Howell]

Pedantic brain fart

 

[Mercutio]

I dunno. Antarctic Living seems it would have a small but very devoted readership.

 

[time]

Antarctic Decor

 

[LunarMist]

Antarctica is a nice place to visit, but after a couple of weeks I like to move on. I can't imagine living there permanently.

 

[Mercutio]

Antarctic Decor

I imagine a high-gloss mag with a monthly column devoted to Penguin taxidermy.

 

[LunarMist]

It is not allowed.

 

[Mercutio]

So I murdered all those penguins for nothing but their delicious drumsticks?

 

[Howell]

I dunno. Antarctic Living seems it would have a small but very devoted readership.

Small but devoted indeed.

Btw, my comment was meant for me not you. I errored.

 

[Howell]

So I murdered all those penguins for nothing but their delicious drumsticks?

I hope you did not waste their flippers.

 

[LunarMist]

They are not very tasty, except maybe to seals.

 

[time]

34. Fit wall tiles
35. Grout tiles
36. Silicone all corners and edges

Steps 30 and 31 (ceiling) are still pending fitment of new cornices. Can't remember what these are called in North America; they're plaster molds that cover the gaps between walls and ceiling. I've had to look for an actual plasterer to do this. Normally, the cornices are held in place with cornice cement, but the tiler got a bit carried away and covered the wall sheeting completely. So rather than the cornices being wedged between wall and ceiling, they will now have to just hang from the ceiling (most adhesives don't adhere well to glossy ceramic tiles, and/or can't be painted over when they ooze out). I spoke to 6 plasterers and got 6 different solutions.

A complication is that the job is too small to interest most plasterers, and they all seem to be too busy when it comes time to do the job. I've had 3 quotes of $350 and above.

The method looks like being cornice cement to attach the cornice to the ceiling, screws to pass through that to tie to the roof trusses, Liquid Nails to position the cornice against the tiles, and No-More-Gaps flexible sealant to finish off the bottom edge of the cornice. Phew!

 

[DrunkenBastard]

34. Fit wall tiles
35. Grout tiles
36. Silicone all corners and edges

Steps 30 and 31 (ceiling) are still pending fitment of new cornices. Can't remember what these are called in North America; they're plaster molds that cover the gaps between walls and ceiling. I've had to look for an actual plasterer to do this. Normally, the cornices are held in place with cornice cement, but the tiler got a bit carried away and covered the wall sheeting completely. So rather than the cornices being wedged between wall and ceiling, they will now have to just hang from the ceiling (most adhesives don't adhere well to glossy ceramic tiles, and/or can't be painted over when they ooze out). I spoke to 6 plasterers and got 6 different solutions.

A complication is that the job is too small to interest most plasterers, and they all seem to be too busy when it comes time to do the job. I've had 3 quotes of $350 and above.

The method looks like being cornice cement to attach the cornice to the ceiling, screws to pass through that to tie to the roof trusses, Liquid Nails to position the cornice against the tiles, and No-More-Gaps flexible sealant to finish off the bottom edge of the cornice. Phew!

They call that "crown moulding" over here.

 

[Handruin]

They call that "crown moulding" over here.

I almost replied earlier in the day with the same thing, but I didn't think crown molding was typically ceramic or used in this kind of application.

 

[time]

It's paper-covered plaster, not ceramic.

What do you use in your bathrooms instead of crown molding?

 

[LunarMist]

I have none.

 

[Handruin]

In one bathroom I have nothing. In the other, there is white decorative crown molding (which is painted wood).

 

[ddrueding]

Any advice on garage floor epoxy systems? Looking for something white-ish with the grey chips. There are some minor holes that will need to be filled, and I'll need to go around with a scraper as well to clean up the concrete.

 

[Howell]

I wish I could remember the name of the one I was familiar with.
Ive been laying tile in several rooms. Next comes the hardwood.