Year: 2007

Demo has revealed quite a bit and in any case, my project has increased in scope quite a bit. The general plan is the same but what is included is what has changed. I was unsure about the ceiling(gone), unsure about all the electrical (gone), unsure about the insulation (gone) unsure about plumbing (gone, everything except the stack and underground). The following are explanations.

A good reason why a lot of the switches don’t work is the wires either don’t go anywhere or go to J-boxes that are hidden and the connections inside are broken. What do I expect, the connections inside were taped together, not twisted, crimped or anything else. Found two more places where there had been a smoldering fire at some point around these hidden J boxes… holy cow.

Insulation: apart from the insulation in the accessible areas, which looked fine, everything else is done with 4 inch batt- Insulation value maybe R-5 or 6 since it’s old compacted and deteriorated.

The plumbing was a known issue, but how much was something else, I started to remove a branch waste line and everything attached to it fell apart. Also, I found out why the previous owner ran the water lines inside below the ceiling line. He had run the waterlines outside in the eaves and had covered them up with aluminum siding. The neighbor…other side neighbor told us that over the winter, the pipes had burst and sprayed water everywhere.

I’m on my 5th dumpster, this has been the regular site for the last while, I just wonder when I can say enough and end demo.

Cut the concrete for the new drain lines for the utility room and laundry room, Cut the concrete for the gas line to the range, cut the new window openings, the new door to the garage, the new door from the garage, the fireplace details, and for good measure the driveway.

Everything went pretty smoothly. The saw cut through the concrete well enough. The windows and doors were a pain because the saw was about 30 lbs, then add a hose attached with water spraying everywhere and the gyroscopic action from the blade spinning. I wet cut one side, then dry cut the other.

Removed the Asphalt, overexcavated the drive to accomodate the new thicker slab and laid down heat shield, HE-Pex, and welded wire mesh.

I added snow melt because of the north facing driveway and I just think it’s a plus for this climate.

After it cured a few problems came to light. One huge one, they didn’t follow what I had laid out with them. The slope was all wrong and we ended up with water running into the garage instead of out. We talked about alternatives, but most suggestions they had were rediculous.

What I ended up doing was Saw cutting out a shallow trench drain and drilled a drain tube to one of the planters. Thankfully I was able to not knick any of the tubes.

Plans are approved, Demo has begun.

Here are the official approved plans.

This is the the home in its current state

I got the permit. I also had EWS deliver conduit, a meter panel, a main lug panel, a few 90 degree conduit pieces, brackets, lugs, and a large beautiful J-Box that the city is requiring me to put in(it wasn’t cheap).

In the end, it all came together nicely. One thing that did take a bit of practice and patience was bending the PVC pipe. I used a blow torch and kept burning and kinking my practice piece. in order for a blow torch to work, you have to be super patient and never keep the torch in one place at all…ever. To get the PVC to temperature takes about 20-30 minutes. The PVC will get super hot, recommended, thick gloves and a damp rag. Then you can bend it how you like without kinking or burning.

Deciding whether to remodel and how much is never easy. Pictures don’t ever really convey how bad some of the things are. We bought this home because we liked the windows and kitchen. It has become more and more apparent that some major changes would be needed even for a minor remodel. Here’s the home as is.