The "NOT HERS" HT/Basement Build - The Suffering Begins - Page 13

12/29/2008

Tonight after procrastinating on the forums... I went down to clean up the mess hole..


Next, because of all of the earlier trim questions, I figured I would paint all the trim I needed plus a spare for the office area... then I realized that last night during my "break" I went online and updated my thread... then fell asleep.

I forgot to wash out my 20$ Purdy paint brush!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After spazzing out for a second, I realized a trick my neighbor Mark's wife had taught me, saved me! She taught me that if you wrap a roller or brush up in plastic, it seals itself and the paint will not dry. Just out of habit I have done it like that ever since. I checked the brush and sure enough, it had sat out all night and was not one bit dry!

So major tip for those who care about your brushes


So after cleanup, I began painting and took the before and after pics (Some were a failed first coat attempt I sanded down for this repaint).

Before:


After:



In regards to the earlier questions, I tried and tried to take pictures of the small gaps that can occur between the drywall and trim, but the stupid camera wants to flash and will not show the shadow...

I did take a picture of the 45 degree splice for long walls. Ignore the chip on the top when I dropped it, it will be a quick 2 minute fix

Go to Lowes/HD and buy the contractor pack. It was less than 100$ for all my trim and I bought like 40% more than what I need due to it being cheaper that way.

Lowes search sucks, so these might not be the right SKUs, but the correct type I used:
Base Trim

Door Casing

The rest I am donating to the High School performing arts program for prop building.

I admire you for the stain route, my next house will be all real wood/stained, etc. I will jump over that hurdle when it comes..

Absolutely agree about the door comments. In fact I have learned through trial and error that ALL framing is essential to having a good solid outcome. But as this is my first attempt, I have learned a TON and saved 10's of thousands of dollars and from what I have seen in other local homes, the quality I somehow managed to churn out is easily on par with some, and above par compared to most.

So if you really care about quality, you shell out big bucks and be a total dictator if you happen to find a good contractor, or learn to do it yourself and buy extra material.

If all else fails, tell yourself it looks awesome when the lights are out!

Told you

Yes I used the spacer under the door casing as that is the way it is in the rest of my house and I figured the carpet needs to be tucked under it. They did the same thing for my hardwood floors as well. I see no way it hurts to do it this way as it will be unseen. On the flipside if you take the casing all the way to the door, it will be a pain later if the carpet guys tell you to cut it out. If in doubt, call the carpet installer.

Donate the leftover stuff, just cut it down so it fits in your car. Or put it on craigslist for free and throw it out at the curb and watch it disappear.

1. Paint all the wood you will need for doors plus a few extra. Use sawhorses to save your back.
2. Install the door casings, then paint baseboard trim.
3. Install baseboard trim.

Take pics along the way

See if you can cut 1/4 off the bottom - problem should be solved. If it affects the door, then 1/4" off on a tablesaw would not require you to do anything as the plugs in the end of the doors are over an inch tall...


Then of course a sawzall to the top board and move it up a tad would work too.

If you start another thread, include a pic, but don't sweat it, doors suck

Little over half an inch. You can always shave it down easily later. In the rest of the house, I had to do that to 2 doors after I got a thicker carpet installed..

Don't sweat it, I would rather have it too short now that have a 2 inch gap after you do carpet

It is just wood, plus the fact that no one will see whatever you do later to shave off the bottom of the door.

Call HD and bitch about the door, have them DELIVER a new one to you, do not puss out and drive back. They screwed up, and ask the manager to confirm the accident with the person who helped load it. If they are honest and admit it, ask them to drop off a new door and pick the otherone up and you will be a satisfied customer.

OH - and if you do not take pics, don't ask questions... TOO BORING!!!!!!!!! haha j/k

12/31/2008

Today's account of what Jay learned: Hacking up a hollow core door!

So after another week of analysis paralysis and investigating pocket door weight limits, hollow core vs solid core, craigslist scouring, incompetent home improvement supply information via the phone.... I said screw it and decided to go with hollow core and eliminate the risk of over-stressing the pocket door tracks. I had assistance from my neighbor Mark, and my other neighbor Brian, who had access to a table saw and has done this before.

I purchased two 32" wide hollow core door slabs from Lowes plus two of the following brushed handles for a total bill under $70.


The first step was to mark the doors to the proper desired length with a pencil and a carpenter's square.


Next we used a table saw to cut the doors off. This can turn out badly if you do not keep the door level and square when cutting, so definately use a helper to hold the door level while you cut! TIP: Place tape righ up to the cut line to prevent shreading the luan which is a splinter farm! The cut door will look like the following:


Now the next step in which you will plug the hole back up with wood, you have 2 options:

Option 1: Use the piece you cut off and strip off all the luan and glue off and use a sharp chisel to scrape it down to the desired thickness.


Option 2: Use a 2x4 and a tablesaw to cut it down to the desired thickness, which will be right around 1" - 1 1/8"


We chose option 2 as before I had one piece stripped of luan/glue, Brian showed off and ripped both new chunks of 2x4... so we went with that. Of course, me being stubborn, I finished cleaning off what I was doing and verified it would fit back in and could have been reused.

Next, Mark used wood glue on the inside of the door where the wood will go, flipped the door over and glued the other inner side. We did this to keep the mess down, plus it also lubes up the wood and allows it to slip into place easier with no mess.


Then using a hammer, we tapped the wood into place, it was nice and snug. We then used some scraps and 3 clamps to clamp everything down to let it dry for a day or so.


On to cutting out where the handles will go... based on instruction on the back of the boc, the hold were cut out with a jigsaw, also using tape along the cut lines to prevent splintering.


If you are making the door just a tad short, chances are if you cut the handle in at about 38" from the bottom of the door, you will cut through the center support and not need to brace the hole for the handle.

On the door I had to cut off 10 inches of, there was no support, so we used a scrap piece from the bottom plug and glued, slid in the wood, and clamped it.

That is all I know about cutting hollow core doors down, if other folks have any better tips, please share!

All the pro painters I have hired use a brush, so that is what I did. With a roller, I could not get it on thick enough to give it that nice glossy shine and looked bumpy like when you paint drywall.

I really like the Cashmere line form Sherwin Williams.. I believe for trim they recommend medium luster. Feel free to ask them when you are there as well, they are a great source of knowledge, if you get the right person.

One tip regarding painting trim that I didn't discover until I mounted it, is that when you are painting it, make your first application of paint on the top thin area of the trim. I missed a few spots that I will have to catch on my final painting after all the nailholes are caulked.

Just take 1 hand and tilt the trim up and you can paint about 3 feet of the top part at once... lay it back down, then paint the rest of it up to that paint, move your paint down and repeat until you are at the end of the trim.

Rince/repeat on the next one.. Since I worked on a set of saw horses, I kinda just stacked them up on 1 side, then as I painted them, I used the brush handle on the bottom to lift and slide the trim to the edge of the saw horses. When I painted the next one, I slid it over within 1/4" of the previously painted one. I did this because after the 2nd hour of painting my back was killing me, so this way I did not have to hunch over to work.

Oh and don't be a dumbass like me and paint the bottom of the trim, no one will see that

Cool, until tuesday and you are a satisfied customer, you buy everything at Lowes..... that is what I would have told them.

Yeah I inspected each piece and used a foam sanding block. Doesn't take much to get em somewhat smooth.

Suck it up, soldier

DAMNIT!!.. well mine were from Stanley and have no mention of weight. The 2 door shops around me that I asked about solid core doors both told me to go with hollow core. The Johnson ones I was looking at originally would hold 150, but I don't trust Stanley since they do not specify.

My next set of pocket doors for sure will be Johnson, this set I had to use to cut my teeth with, I was learning too many new construction concepts at once and even with the prefab door framing, I had to redo the dang things 3 times... I can only imagine how many times it would have taken me with the Johnson kit!

Well I guess if I don't like them, I can try and find solid core slabs later and replace em. Since they aren't in the theater, I could care less

Thanks for being only 2 hours away and not coming to the rescue... wanker

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mine didn't come with highlighted text.... SOB I look to my left at the paper sitting next to my PC and see it plain as day... I went into retardo mode and read everything EXCEPT the heading text..

Just shoot me

I come of from inhaling paint (primer) fumes to see this crap? Where is the love man? Where is the love? Damn, now I wonder what the heck I should do, I can't take cut/primered doors back