Friday, November 21, 2008
Paint
One week later, Charlie sprayed the house with my paint color choice. Tom and I both really like the color - for me, it is especially good because of the way it changes in the sun. The house looks almost yellow in the full sun, but it's a solid green in the shade.
Window Wells
Design Idea
The secondary reason why enclosing the porch was a good move is because we live on the corner of NE 30th and Prescott. Prescott is sort-of busy. So sitting on the porch wasn't THAT enjoyable anyway...
Can you see that crown molding between my ceiling and wall? It was a major feat to keep that molding up throughout the process - almost every trade (framers, plumbers, electricians, etc) asked if they could remove it! I had no idea that simply keeping a piece of crown molding would require so much explanation! If you are a homeowner and you hire a general contractor to manage your project, my advise is to just give up on keeping existing molding. Have them install new stuff.
Concrete Control Joints
The concrete cutter guy cut the floor into sections about 8x10 in size, though some joints were closer together due to the 'look' I wanted. It was a lot of fun laying out where the cuts would go and then seeing it all cut into sections.
Concrete Floors
This is called 'skating the floor'. After pouring the concrete, the finishers first wait for it to dry a little... just enough to support their weight. Julie, in the video above, started skating the floor 30 minutes or more before the other finishers. Skating looks like a full body workout... hey... that might be the next exercise craze... I should talk with some people at Nike about it!
Here are some more photos of the finishers doing their work:
Radiant Floors
1. Excavate down far enough to allow for some compacted gravel (3-4" will do), 2" of extruded polystyrene insulation (R-10, this is a code requirement), another 1-2" of sand so that the concrete doesn't crack right away, and 4-5" of concrete. In our case, the concrete is our finish floor material, so from the top of the floor to the bottom of the existing ceiling joists, I maintained 7'-1" clear. Code calls for 7-ft. ceilings in livable spaces, and with 1/2" of sheetrock below the joists, I cleared it with 1/2" to spare!
2. Backfill the gravel and compact. Beware that the compactor machine will fill the whole house with gas vapors! Stinky! (and hazardous, potentially) Be careful around water pipes! You don't want to compact them and break them!
3. Lay a 6-mil. moisture barrier over the whole thing and duct tape the seams.
4. Lay your R-10 insulation boards and duct tape the seams. Part of all of this duct taping is to keep moisture out, but another part is to keep radon gas from penetrating the floor. In the Alameda neighborhood of Portland, many houses are exposed to radon. We tested our house in 2004 after we bought it, and found elevated levels. Long term exposure to radon can cause lung cancer, so it is smart to test for radon gas and mitigate for it if you find it.
5. Spread sand over the insulation board.
6. Install a rebar grid or some wire mesh over the sand, using something to prop the rebar up an inch or so. Small chunks of concrete work well, or rocks, and there are several products you can buy at concrete stores. I recommend Mason's Supply in Portland if you need concrete materials. Go to the one out by the airport - the guy working there is really nice and helpful.
7. Now you are ready to lay the PEX. PEX is actually short for 'cross linked polyethylene' and it was developed in the 1930's if you can believe that! It is now commonly used for water supply piping. But I digress! Laying the PEX is a little like herding cats. The stuff is packed in a nice loop, and it wants to stay that way! It takes a lot of coaxing, cursing, and patience to get the stuff to lay flat on your rebar.
8. Now your PEX has been installed, and you feel ready for concrete, right? Not yet. Go around and take lots of pictures and some measurements to make sure you know where those precious pipes are. After you frame up the walls, and when you get ready to anchor those walls to the concrete floor, you'll know why!
9. Put the PEX under pressure and call the inspector. You need to get the piping and rebar approved before pouring your slab.
10. Finally, if you intend to use an integral color like I did, go to Davis Colors and choose a color. Your contractor should be able to provide you with a printed brochure, but if not, you can call me and I will probably be nice enough to give you mine... I can always order another one.
Windows
The house seemed transformed again when the windows arrived! These are Marvin Integrity windows, which have a fiberglass exterior and a wood interior. For old Portland houses, these are a good fit because they offer no exterior upkeep, but they have that great wood look on the inside. One window came with a broken frame, and it was discouraging that it took the company 3 weeks to replace that broken unit. This happened at the Rice House this summer, too - several frames were delivered broken and the customer service was very poor. As an architect, this knowledge puts me in a difficult position. The final product is wonderful and reasonably priced (more than vinyl and less than wood), but if units regularly come broken and then it takes another 3 weeks to get it fixed, it holds up the construction schedule and therefore costs homeowners more.
New Views
If your roof happens to be as old as mine was, you might find that there is another layer (or more) of roofing underneath the top cover. You also might find skip sheathing, which was popular until plywood came into widespread use. I laid 1/2" OSB (like plywood, but it's called oriented strand board) over the skip sheathing, then laid my 30# felt on top of that. This is good for the house in at least two ways - first, it improves the lateral capacity of the house. That means that the house will perform better during an earthquake - the OSB ties it all together so it can move as one unit instead of breaking apart at all of the tiny joints. It also helps with insulating and moisture-proofing, though it's only a backup to the primary (and necessary!) methods of actually insulating the attic and using flashing, roofing felt, and roofing shingles to keep moisture out.
Concrete Retaining Walls
After pouring these new retaining walls, Ken Shannon of Cascade Concrete Cutting sawcut the new door opening into my basement.
Framing and Roofing
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Framing the Dormer
You can see that we had already enclosed the front porch and boarded up the new window opening. We remained boarded up for a few weeks because I ordered the windows late! Windows have a long lead-time, so if you are managing your own construction project, remember to order the windows the day you start demolition! Order your doors and door hardware right away, too!
A photo showing the new roof over the existing roof. We had some beautiful days in mid-August when the dormer was going up. But we also had a sudden downpour in August before the roof was on! That was a mess, and very stressful! But we were fortunate that our existing wood floors did not get warped or damaged. These are some of the risks that a general contractor (GC) would assume, and so as the homeowner/GC, I was counting my blessings.
Flush Beam, Stair Landing
In this photo, taken in September 2008, you can see the stair landing. We cut the concrete wall (well, Ken Shannon of Cascade Concrete Cutting actually did the cutting), poured new footings along the edges, and poured a new slab at the landing, too.
Foundation Repair
We took a risk by removing the floor, but we mitigated the risk a little by doing all of the work during the driest part of the summer. In addition, we went around the perimeter of the foundation wall in sections, and poured new footings to support the walls better.
Here you can see the first of the footings that we poured. Notice the black plastic behind the concrete - that is a 6-mil. moisture barrier, and besides being a code requirement it is important because it blocks moisture from coming into the house from the floor. In new basements, we use a special board that gets sprayed with a tar-like substance - here's a picture from a project that I designed in 2006.
Breaking Concrete
We knew we would replace the plumbing waste lines below the concrete, which were 84 years old and ready to give out at any moment! So, we started by breaking concrete right around those pipes. After a while, we noticed that the concrete was only 1-2-in. thick, so we decided to remove it all and pour a new 5-in. thick radiant slab with concrete with an integral color.
Here's how our basement floor looked in September 2008, when the new slab was poured:
Project Description
By October of 2008, our house looked like this. Our anticipated completion date is Dec. 19, 2008.