The "NOT HERS" HT/Basement Build - The Suffering Begins - Page 2

4/22/2008

So tonight after work I stopped off at Lowes and a few plumbing stores and found a 4" sewer cleanout setup. After I got home I cleaned off the rest of the remnants of the old cap that were still glued inside of the pipe.

Next I started grinding down the elevated concrete around the pipe with a wire wheel on a fast drill. It kicked up alot of dust so by then my neighbor Mark had come over to see what was up and had an idea to use water to keep down the dust, it worked like a champ, very slow, but still worked with very little dust at all.

We then used a cold chisel he had brought over and it worked very fast and did a good job of chipping the concrete down to elevation with 10x the results of the wire wheel.


Next we ground the rest of it smooth, and the end result looked like this: (Nice and level)


The next thing I wanted to do was to cut the pipe down below the concrete to avoid having to patch any concrete at all if possible. I marked the inside of the pipe by placing the new cap housing .25"+ in the pipe and used a small level to ensure the cut would be level. I nexed used a dremel with a cutoff blade to trace around the pipe. After removing the housing, I was then able to cut a nice level line all the way around the pipe and we pried up on the pipe as I went around a final time to cute the pipe completely.
Notice the nice clean line and the even depth!


Next I sanded the inside of the pipe to get rid of the old glue drips, primered both the new housing and the 4" pipe, then glued it together and tapped it down where it ended up flush with the concrete.


The end results!
Top View:


Side View:



Summary:
I am particularly happy with the results as this pipe has been bugging me for months, but once we got into it, Mark and I were able to get the end result in a little over an hour. The beauty of this fix is the cost of $4 and NO need for concrete patching as well as eliminated the need to consider an expensive Drycore or plywood floor to level out the floor!

(Told you I was cheap as hell )

Keep the pimp hand strong brother...

"Jay, why do you have FOUR TVs down here?!!"

Response: "BECAUSE I CAN, WOMAN.... because I can....."

4/24/2008

Tonight I decided to run a 1/2" conduit up to the livingroom for future TV and CAT6.

First I went upstairs and used blue painters tape and a studfinder to mark the studs, next I took the smallest drillbit I had and drilled down as close to the floor trim as possible, this let me know exactly where I needed to drill (offset 3" over). Drilled a 3/4" hole and shoved up the conduit to make sure there was nothing stopping the pipe from going a foot or more up the wall with no obstructions.


Once I knew I had the height in the wall, I went up and measured the existing electical outlet on the same wall, then cut the same sized opening for a remodel low voltage box that simply pinches between the drywall to hold it in place.

Since the remodel box did not have a cutout for the pipe (Lowes was out) I simply drilled 2 holes in the box with a small bit and used zip ties to hold in place. End rough installation below.


TIP use a small level if you have one!

4/26/2008

Over the last few days, it was quite busy with annoying steps... mainly do-overs

Oringinally the projector wall was framed with cutouts for the future in case I ever decided to expose the windows (Me being kind to the future owner). The problem is that it is very difficult to get everything flush.. I ended up regretting this as it was the screenwall and it would have taken me 6+ hours with a hand planer to get the now warped boards flat.

Here you can see the original wall: **No treated wood for the base and multiple sections tied in made it look like crap to me.


So I ripped it ALL out, went to Lowes and grabbed straight 2x4s and 12' treated and untreated 2x4's for the bottom and top plates.

I decided to put one last coat of DryLok sealant on it (paranoia in me) and while painting, I noticed a weird sound and found out that a small section of the concrete was seperated. It only went down 1/4" and was in a weird pattern. The only thing my neighbor and I could come up with due to the pattern was that it honestly looked like someone took a leak on the wall before it was fully setup during construction.

So I grabbed some hydrolic concrete mix and reapplied it to the area with my drywall knife and when it dried, it looked perfectly smooth.


I then finished sealing off the entire wall again with 2 coats of DryLok and let dry. Then I nailed the treated base plate in place and nailed to the concrete.


Next I took some insulation board, cut it to the size of the small windows I had glass blocked a few summers ago and spray painted the outside flat black, then installed them with the help of my neighbor Mark, so I would not need a ladder


Mark and I then used a 12' top and 2nd bottom plate for framing and made one long wall with super straight boards. It went up with ease and we attached after squaring up the sidewalls even more.

5/1/2008

After a short delay thanks to the release of Grand Theft Auto IV...


Wiring/Conduit continues...
So after framing the new front wall, I started running conduit for 2 sub locations (L/R), center channel, and L/R speakers. I ran extra pipe so I could wall mount speakers or have them sitting on the ground. I placed 2x6 backers between the studs to screw the speaker mounts to later.


Rather than buy $50+ in pipe clamps, I bought a 5$ 50' roll of pluming hanger tape, cut to length, wrapped around the pipes, I then screwed to the studs with 1.24" drywall screws. To prevent potential vibrations with all of those pipes, I used a bunch of zip ties to tighten everything up and it is solid as a rock.


Lil Tip
My daughter wanted me to give you a tip on using a big rolll of plumbing hanger tape... if you cut just a small notch in it and pull the tape from there, you avoid a big ball of mess and eliminate waste. I explained this to her as she measured the tape out and I cut it

5/2/2008

Conduit, conduit, and more conduit continues...
I am up to about 300' of total conduit ran so far including the conduit for the office area... I think I might have overdone it I had the last of a 200' chunck left, so I ran it all the way over to where all of the TV, electrical, and telco comes in from the garage area.


I have such a wad of pipe piling up by the server rack, I need to come up with how the heck I am going to manage all of it... until then, I think I will run some more conduit!


I also just noticed I screwed up framing my pocket door. Never doing one before, I screwed up framing by not leaving room for the trim. I misread the cartoon-like instructions, but it was an easy fix with thanks to my neighbor Mark assisting.


Before:



After:

5/3/2008

Conduit Wrap Up
Finally all of the conduit was ran!!! I spent some time running extras, strapped/ zip tied em all up nice and neat..


Next my neighbot Mark came up with a great idea to drill 3/4" holes in a 2x6" board to create a holding/sorting board that will allow me to keep everything organized and labeled and still allow me to pull out the server rack with minimal pain if I ever need to. Seriously the best neighbor I have ever had and contributes a ton... I might even have to buy him his own Berkiline for the theater

The conduit all comes down and in like the following:


Then from the front I pulled them all through and indicated which pipe went where. I will trim off the extra later after I silicone or glue them in place.

5/5/2008

Electrical
Today I bought a 25' roll of 12 guage Romex to use the spare 20 amp wire I found buried in the basement. I placed a 1 gang box to tie it in.


My neighbor Mark came over and helped splice them all together after I mounted the boxes. The picture below shows the final cut in of one 20 Amp home run, one 15 Amp home run, and one 15 Amp run that will power 2 subwoofers before terminating.


The last thing of the evening I wanted to tie in the spare conduit I ran into a low voltage box so I had to redrill the hole. I carefully drilled the hole until the last second and when I pushed through the last milimeter of wood, the ^%$&$ bit shot up and tore up my existing CableTV line that I had worked carefully around all year. I had even finished my garage FIRST before working on the basement so I could run all of these lines direct.

So after about another 30 second swear infested rampage and Mark wanting to laugh his ass off at me (I could tell) I went out and got all my cable splicing tools and fittings from the garage. Luckily I spent 10+ years in CableTV construction, so I have all of the quality fittings and tools to do it right. THANKFULLY I had about 2 inches to spare in order to put on a fitting or I would be tearing holes in my newly finished garage!

If you look just behind the orange box you can see the final repair:


Mark also helped me move around the old existing light that was hanging from the ceiling as well as relocate the old switch to a place we could extend the wiring, then ran it over to a new switch in the 4 gang box. THis will be the temp setup until drywall is done and a wall sconce is purchased for here and at the top of the stairs.

5/6/2008
I received my new shipment of an Insteon Starter Kit so since neither myself nor my neighbor Mark has ever messed with them before, we temporaried it up to test it out. It all seems to work, but I cannot yet figure out how to get the master switch to dim 3 other zones at once.. it appears to only turn them on or off with a press of a button.

Until I can call Smarthome support or instantly get smarter about this, this is how it will stay as we do not want to fry it


Lastly, we are going to try to figure out a way to recess this stupid vent pipe that jumps across a few joists before going upstairs.. If anyone has any ideas, let me know. My current plan is to go back to the local ductworks company (Triple J) and ask their advice or hire them to assist. This will prevent me from hopefully mounting back up the wood boxes I built as a shroud around them and will allow me to make the screen even bigger.


(FYI - 2 hours of thread updating sucks )

Re: Spray Foam

Gotcha boss, spending an entire day doing nothing but a can of foam inisulating every little sliver of space I can find around!

I have less than 2 inches of clearance behind it, so I am thinking I will have to do something horse shoe shaped and alot flatter than the round pipe.

Working on it today a bit to see what I can come up with!

I completed the pipe fix and workaround, so give me a day or so to button back up the framing and retape all the joints and I will post pics of what I did.

Fix only cost me around 50$ to totally redo the duct so it will be behind the drywall.

Ted, you rock, that was going to be my next research since I am so close to insulation!! Please check back and yell at me if I mess the insulation up! Question about that is I was thinking the paper covered insulation for the walls that are along the basement wall, even though I drylok sealed them? Or just go unfaced and put plastic over it? (Reply if you see this, if not I will just go with whatever and live with it).

TheMonk Waterford area, hollar if you are close and need anything!

willecummings I know nothing about sprayfoam other than the can stuff to seal around the edges. I was planning to go with normal insulation types... too bad I am so close to Owens Corning HQ and can't find a discount from my friends there!!

5/12/2008

Finally we figured how to get some wallspace back from a stupic air duct that spanned a few joists before going upstairs..


Before Front:



Before Side:



So thanks again to Triple J Ductwork in Waterford, the owner was cool enough to stop by my house on his way home to make sure the correct parts were ordered. The order was around 50$ or so for the parts.

I removed the existing pipe and cut down the 2x4 studs and braced them straight.


Next my neighbor Mark and I cut, twisted, screwed, and assembled the conversion parts in place.

After bracing up the wall extra strength overkill... the results are as follows:


After Front:



After Side:



I am extremely happy about the fix and this will allow me to have a full screen wall and the drywall will not touch the duct at all!

On a side note, when removing the wood shroud I had built before deciding to go this route... I found a "motivational" message written on the board from my friend Chris (See plumbers crack on page 1).



**If you cannot read what this peckerhead wrote, it says "FU Jay, your basement will never be done!"

Such a pal

5/16/2008

Today I rebuilt the air return for the 3rd time due to the popping sound when the metal return flexes.

Below is the original air return... well the 2nd attempt


Next I used a product called ThermoPan that was recommended to me by Triple J Ductwork in Waterford. ThermaPan looks like cardboard with a foil layer on both sides.


After removing the old metal air return, I folded the product and made 3 small cuts and screwed it in place with 8 screws. It took about 10 minutes from folding the cardboard until it was complete. One of the easiest micro projects of the build!


Now I can sneak into the kitchen for a midnight snack without my wife, Jenny Craig wannabe harping on me!

5/18/2008

Super Secret Project Begins...

So up until now I have been waiting to try something I haven't seen before, so I will describe it first before posting pictures.

The idea is to build a DVD/CD storage that is:
1. In wall
2. Hidden behind a movie poster
3. Automated
4. Something that makes people say "Wait, WTF... that is SO COOL!"

After months of my neighbor Mark and I brainstorming, we decided to just build a mock-up first since everything on paper just led to more questions and tangents.

Below is a picture of the mock-up using 1x6" crappy wood from Lowes... we mounted it to the wall real fast in order to experiment with sliding mechanisms. I am going with a heavy duty drawer slide that will allow me to attach directly to the 27x40 poster frame.


Also this weekend we went to a 2nd hand/junk store and bought an old VCR and tore the hell out of it. We were able to harvest three 12v DC motors from it as well as some worm gears.


Our initial thought was to use these motors/gears, then have it run along a strip of neoprene tape attached to the frame to slide it back and forth. The drawback to this is that I would have to either build a board that would give me an automatic stop as well as allow me to spin the motor each direction.... or just use a manual toggle switch to run the motor.

I came up with option 2 that I think we will go with, so I ordered a few of them today and when they arrive I will fill you in on what it is... until then I really don't want to say because it could fail and I know people like my friend Chris will never let me live it down!

Sorry about that, nodded off before I had a chance to add them

Questions I currently have - looking for answers.

1. If I have 2x8 ceiling joists.. I have r19 and r13 faced insulation purchased. I am assuming I want to totally fill the space, so do I need to remove the r13 kraft paper if I just want to put it in first to fill in behind the r19?

2. I was planning to put r13 on the walls in the basement that have concrete behind them.. is that overkill?