Harvest Ridge Theater (A CJ Project) - Page 2

Thanks, Dave. Congrats on the promotion, but a bummer that you'll not have much time to finish / enjoy the theater.

CJ

WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO! Welcome to Page 2!

I like the document that Fairfax County published to help DIY remodelers. There's some good tips there. My county has a short web page that tells us what we need to do to get permits. There are no details about what inspections are required in what sequence, code requirements, etc. My inspector told me to reference the Fairfax County documents...

For those of you that are interested, the Fairfax County [VA] Finished Basement Detail Guidelines are located here: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/p...ons/basements/

Here's copy of the document.

When they were building my neighborhood, the builder forgot to install egress windows in all of the basements. They spent the better part of the summer installing egress windows in all of the homes that required it (free of charge, of course). Apparently, the builder has a requirement that all homes come with a method of egress...


CJ

 

Fairfax County VA Finished Basement Details - details.pdf 181.654296875k . file

I've seen folks that have made removable plugs that are used to fill the window area when the theater is in use. One guy even covered his with the same fabric that was on his walls making it blend in very well.

CJ

After the framing was finished and the doors and windows added, I began to work on adding a few new HVAC registers. I have to say, this was the least fun portion of the work thus far. That darn stuff bites. There wasn't a finger or hand that I have that wasn't chewed up by that crap.

The hardest part was cutting holes in the top of the main trunk lines. I tried punching a starter hole with a screwdriver, then cutting them out with tin snips, tried a dremel, and even tried a metal cut off saw. In the end, I started the holse with the metal cutoff saw, then cut the circles for the boots with various tin snips. I purchased a set of 3 snips..one is made to cut to the right, one to the left, and one is meant to cut straight.

I added 7 new lines and 2 returns. Some of the lines have dampers installed so that I can forget to open them before I drywall and have dead spots.

There are three lines in the theater...one in the front and two to the rear. I install one return in there as well.

Unfortunately, no photos. The work took the better part of 2 weekends, and by the end I had a fair amount of blood on my hands and I was ready to give in.

I survived, but I now know what I DO NOT want to do for a living.

CJ

After HVAC work was complete, we called the framing inspector for a courtesy walk through. I was concerned about the RSIC clips and the space between the top plate and the joists. If I needed to make modifications, I wanted to do so before I was too far along...

The inspector came out and spent about 10 minutes looking over my work. He asked lots of questions about the sound clips and the sound attenuation techniques. He said that the framing looked better than a lot of contractors he'd seen.

While he was poking around, he noticed that I had what looked like new HVAC work. He asked about my permit. I went upstairs and gathered all of the documentation that I had received from the city, and couldn't find an HVAC permit. He called the inspector that handles HVAC and asked him to stop by later in the day. He told me the sequences of the next few inspections and went on his way with a "good job".

The HVAC inspector (actually...he was the "mechanical/plumbing inspector" stopped by and looked the work over. He said it looked good, but that I needed a permit. He said not to worry...I could go to the city office and pick up one. I resolved to go there that afternoon.

While he was there, I asked lots of plumbing questions and received some great advice:

1. He originally inspected my house when it was built 2.5 years ago. Apparently, even inspectors can miss drain vent lines (that were supposed to have been installed in the basement bath rough in).
2. CPVC is used for fresh wawter in my town. PVC for waste.
3. 1/2" CPVC can support 3 water devices (?)
4. 3/4" CPVC can support many more.
5. Autobalancing shower valves (also called anti scald valves) are required in my town.
6. Studdor valves are A-OK when inspectors miss vent pipes that should have been installed.

After he left, I was off to the city office for another permit (the third so far). When I obtained the permits originally, I explained what I needed...framing, plumbing, electrical and that I'm adding HVAC registers, but I didn't receive a HVAC/Mechanical permit. After another $65.00 (minimum in my town), I had that fancy permit.

I went home and spent the next two weekends plumbing for the bath and thinking about how I was going to lay out the bar...

Bath photos:

Started in the water heater closet (adjacent to the bathroom and stoars up). I added two valves here so that I could turn off the water to the bath and bar if necessary.


Interestingly enough, you can find 3/4" CPVC valves at Lowe's and HD with red handles, but they don't stock them with blue handles too (hot = red, blue = cold).








The Studdor valve needs to be accessible. I placed it in the wall, but it will be accessible from under the stairs. The other side of the stairs is the unfinished storage room. The studs holding the stairs looked too much like loadbearing members, so I decided to go around with the pipe...it'll be in a chase in the closet (I may make a built in shoe rack or something similar inside the closet).

The entire finished thing:


Our problem with this is that we are planning a 42" x 60" shower, and the drain (installed by the builder) is in the front corner. I'm debating whether we should break into the floor and try to center it either on the 42" leg or the center of the entire shower. I'm going to have to think about this one for a while.

We looked at premade shower pans of that size and all I can say is WOW, are they expensive. Over $900 at Lowe's (special order, but a stock size)

Maybe I'll just build my own shower pan. I saw it done once on TOH... I would really love to give a jack hammer a try too -

What did you do to move it? How hard was it? How did it go? Did you move it to a location that allows you to use a one piece shower pan?

Thanks for the info...

CJ

After many more hours of browsing this forum, we decided that we wanted to add a soda fountain bar to the basement. I've seen so many excellent ones including;

BigMouthInDC's http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=683853
BritInVa's http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=655800
Gonzo's http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=719146
StrangeBrew's http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=735097 as well as HeyNow^'s http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=640633
HawkEyeJosh http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=777621
..and ChinaDog's Excellent Bar http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...67#post5760667
(Craig, Bud, and HawkEyeJosh's bars really helped turn my idea into something I absolutely had to have)

I'm in awe of these bars...how refined and professional they look. This is really something that makes sense for the family in my ManCave!

The wife really liked the look of HawkEyeJosh's wrap around setup. I made a few modifications and set about planning.

We mocked up a bunch of different locations and designs, but in the end, the location of the waste water really dictated that the bar be placed outside of the theater. We mocked up a number of different designs. Here's the one we liked the most after Thanksgiving.



We decided that we needed to sleep on the design for a while.

I must say that blue tape really is a very useful tool. Easy to move about, cheap, and comes up easy!

More in the next post.

CJ

We slept on the possible designs for the bar and finally decided on the following design:



You'll notice that the plan shows only a sink floating in space. We decided that we wanted the angled bar, with a two level bar top similar to HawkEyeJosh (...ok...really similar to it).




These were our inspiration and I have to give all credit to Josh for the excellent design.

We started framing the knee wall and got it built and anchored to the floor with a little help from my oldest son. He's been helpful, but there's not really much that he can do that's significant.




In addition, we got the plumbing in for the fresh and waste water, and got the waste hooked up to the main drain pipe in the back corner of the theater. Again, we had to use a Studdor valve due to the lack of a vent pipe in the basement.




Here's a photo that shows the outlines of the cabinets.



Here's where we ended the day (only about 4 hours in).




The next day will find us working on the soffit for over the bar.

CJ

Darn HawkEyeJosh! His angled bar really was what we fell in love with, but oh the angles! We spent quite a bit of time figuring out the bar overhang, how large a soffit we wanted, and where the soffit should be located.

After an evening of staring at the ceiling and more than a few sketches, we decided on a 10" tall soffit that would mirror the top of the upper bar. Once this decision was made, we set about to build the soffit.




As the end of the first evening working on the soffits came to a close, I had only created the inside and outside edges of the soffit. In the photos, I have them on their respective sides of the bar to ensure that they mirror the angles of the bar exactly. Surprisingly, this was really hard to get correct.

The next evening, I hung the soffit in place. I originally used screws, but my wife wandered down and caught me nailing part of it up.





Here's how the soffit ended up.





I also have to say that the Irwin clamps are wonderful and that you can not have too many of them!

The next step is to install the plywood top and top supports.

CJ

We decided that it was time to wire the lights in for the main section of the basement. The job was made easier by the fact that the builder had installed a few bulb holders in the basement. We purchased a bunch of 6" recessed cans and went to town.

True to form though, I struggled to design a lighting plan that would work for how we intend to use the basement. I worked on the plan for a few days, but I really have trouble visualizing what a particular design will look like. Here's the plan we began with.



Some will look at the 24 cans and say WHOA! We thought about this quite a bit and decided that we liked the various lights and that their placement was right on.

The first day of wiring we got 14 cans up and running in the main area of the basement (including two by the new window where the kids desk / craft table will be).






We also change out the light at the foot of the stairs with a 4" recessed can.


The next few weekends will see the remainder of the wiring completed (hopefuly). We're marching towards getting all of the rough-in inspections complete this year (2007).

CJ

I've been horrible at keeping this thread up to date. I started it after the project got started and wanted have a sufficient buffer of progress before I comitted to posting for everyone.

What I didn't figure into my plans was the amount of time I'd spend in the basement and not in front of the computer.

For reference, I started the framing on Memorial Day weekend in 2007. We took 2 months off during the summer due to Cub and Boy Scout activities (1 son is a Cub Scout, the other is a Boy Scout), and my wife and I are both leaders. I'm a Cub AND Boy scout leader, so I'm pulled in 2 different directions! Nights were out during the framing stages because of the noise.

We hit it hard in late July and early August, but took September, October, and most of November off due to weekend camping and popcorn sales (scouts will know what I'm talking about).

The wiring was started in early December, and our goal was to get the rough-in inspections completed by the end of December 2007. We hit that goal, and are now working to hang drywall.

I'll work to get the thread up to date in the next week or so. I'm trying to get the drywall finished in the main part of the basement this weekend.

CJ

John Martin:

Thanks for the comments. I really liked the framing. There was something about the rough shape coming together that I really liked. You can keep the HVAC work. That stuff is dangerous! Plumbing was really easy, and electrical was OK, but a bit tedious. There are a lot to rules that need to be taken into account with electrical. Electrical also requires quite a bit of planning to make sure you don't overload your runs.

I'm now hanging sheetrock, and that's not too bad. It really makes the room take shape, but I'm looking at all of the seams wondering what I got myself into...

When you say "mud in" do you mean use the paper tape? I have used the self stick performated tape in the past and it seemed to work really well.


I was planning to use the metal corners with paper tape attached. I really stink at corner finishing.



Man, that dust control stuff is expensive. Is it really worth it?

Thank you for the tips. My basememt is about 1800 SF total. I'm finishing about 1500 SF, including about 450 SF of theater.

CJ

Thank you very much for the tips. I'll give the paper tape a try too. I've been a bit scared of it too. I pucked up my frst bucket of the dust control mud yesterday, and was planning to try some seams this weekend.

One question...solo plastic cups... do you know how large they were? About how many ounces of water did you end up adding to the mud? What consistency were you working towards?

Thank you again.

CJ

I haven't picked up that saw yet. Been thinking about it, but I'm gathering drywall tools so that I can begin the dreaded taping and mudding.

That drywall school site is great, no? Watched every one of those videos about hanging and finishing.

Thanks for the tips. I picked up my first bucket of mud yesterday.

Wish me luck.

CJ

Thanks Mark. Been really fun so far. I got my first full day in the basement in a long while today. I'm trying to finishi hanging drywall in the main part of the basement so I can start the theater. Got a full 10 hours in the basement today and I'm looking to get another full day in tomorrow.

BTW - Did you se W00lly's screen? It's rekindled my thoughts of a 2.35 setup. I love the side to side coverage. I'm going to have to visit someone who has 2.35 and see how it looks.

CJ

Michael:

..it's not a race...

Most days, I've got the wife right beside me. She's a big help. Occasionally, I get cross at her because I'm too stupid to remember to ask her to do something or I forget the name of some tool and get frustrated because she can't read my mind. Other than that , we're working together well and having a good time.

She's getting really good at helping hang drywall. It's a shame too, because we've only got the theater, equipment room and bathroom left. I hope her taping skills are scary mad too!

Today, we got almost 6 hours in. We finished the pile of drywall, both the 12' (28 sheets) and the 4' (10 sheets). We even made a dent in the 5/8" stuff we bought Friday night (7 sheets).



CJ

I have to say that I've been really impressed with the quality tools that I've been able to pick up along the way. Cheap tools are ALWAYS a disappointment, so don't skimp when tools are needed.

I also am quite thankful that I took the advice of someone on this board (who's name escapes me right now) that recommeded a drywall lift. I purchased one on EBAY last month and I've been using it to hang my drywall. I was able to use 12' sheets on the ceiling and walls due to this lift. I was even able to hang some one the ceiling SOLO!

For those looking for a quality lift in NoVA, I'll have one for sale in the next month or so!



CJ