Desert Airs

Year: 2011

Laundry Room… Take Two

by Paul

Last week, both my Asko w600 washer and t700 dryer failed badly. The washer had been leaking for a while, then the belt snapped on the dryer. When I took them out, the damage was worse than I had hoped. 
The worst of the damage was caused by the leaking washer because when I built the drain pan, I imagined catching a catastrophic leak, not a little dribble. It turns out the “bellows” on the washer got a tear and had been leaking for some time. This saturated the grout, then went under and saturated the underlayment of my hardwood floors The underlayment got so wet, it penetrated the “moisture barrier” and soaked the wood floors, causing discoloration and mold. 
I ordered the parts and then evaluated the damage in the laundry room.

Here I have both appliances taken apart. The dryer is on the left, and the washer is on the right. To pin point the leak on the washer, I had to power it up. Since it’s 220v, I used a regular 110v receptacle with the two hots of 220v hooked up to the regular hot and neutral and since the washer didn’t need a neutral, the ground stayed the same. I then used a regular extension cord with a few “go between” wires taped to the 220 head coming off the washer. A garden hose supplied the water, then the waste into a 5 gallon bucket.
This is the damage. You can see the discoloration of the wood. I might have been able to simply let the wood dry out, but the finish was cracking in several places, so it had to come out. The tile had given me problems for a while. I hadn’t provided good backing for the tile, and pieces would pop off in the corner. The water caused all the pieces on the wall to pop off as well.
removed the hardwood floor, which is easier than I thought it would be. Just set the circular saw to just short of the depth of the wood so you don’t end up cutting the underlayment and then cut outside of where the tongue and groove are located. It is now easy to chip the remainder out with a chisel or screw driver and leave a clean tongue or groove for the new flooring.
With the base cured, it’s time to put down the real barrier that’s going to keep everything dry. This is a PVC sheet that you can get cut to your needs from Lowes. You fit it around the pan area going up the sides and a around the lip, I then tucked the corners and stapled them. When you cut around the hole for the drain, if you’re doing a shower, you want to cement it to the drain, and then use the top screw in part of the drain to sandwich the pvc. I didn’t have a drain like that, so I ran a 2 inch bead of silicon caulk under the sheet and around the drain to get it nice and water tight. Let the caulk cure.
For this project I wanted some extra reinforcement for both the tile and concrete. I took some mesh that I also bought from Lowes, I think it was 1/2″x1/2″ and placed it over the PVC and stapled it in place as well. The mesh will provide strong backing for the morter to grab onto on the outside of the lip – no more tiles popping off. I then placed cement backer board over everything on the wall and secured with galvanized screws.
the top layer of concrete, again sloped towards the drain. Also, again I’d recommend mixing your own concrete with sand and cement. large aggregate makes this a pain unless you’re making the pan super thick. For this layer, I ran out of cement, so I used a bag a premix I had in my shed. It would have turned out better if I had just gone on bought more cement.
knew it would be a lot easier to put the wood flooring back in before the tile. So this is the new maple, it is a different color now but will yellow with time and match the existing. 


One thing I am still considering is running silicon caulk in the v-grooves around the laundry to help make it more water tight. I did this around the kitchen sink even though the glue I use is water tight- just for an extra layer of protection. You can get it so it’s not even noticeable and if water is a concern for you, I’d recommend it. You simply apply a thin bead, use your finger to push it into the groove, then wipe off with a damp sponge until all that’s left is what is in the groove.
I was able to use the same glass tile I used before since I had quite a bit left over in the box. This time was so much quicker. I didn’t want to borrow a tile saw so I thought I’d try my grinder out. Couldn’t have been easier. All I had to do to cut the tile was score the back of the tile with the grinder and I’d get a clean break. 


Usually for tile, you’d cut it all first and have it layed out before you mix your mortar, but for this project, the grinding method was so quick, it didn’t matter. All said from start to finish, it took three hours to get all the tile cut and mortared.
Then you grout… easy enough, Slop it on with a rubber trowel, sponge it off.
While the grout was setting, I decided to redo the paneling next to the door. One had fallen off, got soaked and was ruined. They also weren’t deep enough to be covered by our stacked washer/ dryer. I had orginally planned to buy a whirlpool duet which is significantly larger and would have completely covered the space. My mistake.
I had one 2×4 panel left and cut it into thirds, stained it up and then covered with varnish. The previous method I used for applying the panels was horrid. Previously I had asked some finish guys I know about the panels and they had told me they always use contact cement for bonding. They must have some freaking amazing contact cement, because my experience was not so great (corners came off, also as noted that one complete panel fell off).
This time around, I decided to use gorilla glue after having some great success with it on the car interior panels of our Benz (the plastic clips had broken away when I removed the door panel). Gorilla glue is great, super strong hold, only two hours to set… Earns my recommendation.You also may notice, that I use sanding polls to hold the panels in place.
Panel Two
Panel Three
Panel Four
After the grout was set I sealed the tile and then ran silicon caulk around all corners and edges.
The belt finally arrived by this time and I was able to replace both the bellows in the washer and the dryer belt.

This is the old bellows and you can clearly see the leak origin.
Here is the new bellows installed. A note to anybody doing this themselves, be careful with the clamps or buy some when you get the replacement bellows, they are narrow clamps that you can’t just run to your local hardware store for. I was careful on two and was able to reuse and was lucky the third was in a location I could use a larger clamp (it’s on the end next to the drain pump)
Here’s the replacement dryer belt installed.
Another problem that I had once was the drain trap dried up and we were getting some funky odors in the house… not cool. This time I took some irrigation hose, jammed it up the drain hose of the washer and zip tied it both to the hose and the floor drain as seen below, This way the trap gets a little water with each wash.
Here is the washer and dryer reinstalled. I had a little bit of trouble getting them level due to the location of the drain, I also realized the washer was leaking out the door gasket. To remedy this I removed the door of the washer and took it apart, rotated the gasket 180 degrees and reassembled.
Since I went through all this work, I thought I should take care of the cable problem in this corner as well. I have all the telephone, internet, distributed audio and video, surveillance, and control wires coming in here, and it was a mess with just a small table to hold everything. I bought a small used cabinet for $10 that was close to what I wanted, took it apart, cut it up, sanded and painted it, then reassembled. Now everything is contained nice and clean.
The drawer slides out for a desk for the kids to use.
Some people have wondered why go through all the effort for the paneling and such when it’s just a laundry room, but here’s the view from our back yard. In my opinion, it’s worth it.
Here is a reminder of what this space originally looked like.
is a reminder of what this space originally looked like.
My son, wasted no time, having fun at the new computer area.

Paradise

by Paul

The first time I watched the video I didn’t believe this was the actual legit video, even with Chris Martin taking off the costume top while on the unicycle. I think it’s an interesting kind of high-low production.

I like the part at the station where he’s holding cardboard signs with the lyrics.

Things I Wish I Had Done Different

by Paul

This is a list of things I wish I could go back and make sure to get right the first time.

The first one kills me, it bugs me nearly every week and is the only problem so unique that I likely will never ever run into it ever again. The air ducts in the home are out of concrete masonry under the floor. This one is so bad it would have pushed me into not buying the home or tearing it down. The problem is turbulence and cleanliness. Too much of the first, too little of the second. I was able to get a camera down there and it just gives me the ewehha!!!

INSULATION- I had the walls ready for insulation to be sprayed over the existing walls and I let the stupid insulation installer talk me out of it. General rule #1- If you’ve done your research and know what your talking about, don’t let some idiot talk you out of it. Hardly any more money and would have made the walls a lot more bearable. Give me the “stupid hat.”

Matte paint. This one is hard to admit, but if you want matte paint, you need to figure touch-up every year, not cool. I like the look, but I hate every freaking time anything rubs against it, a noticeable mark is created.

Conduit. This is another told-you-so moment. I thought I had figured out exactly how to future-proof my home when I was wiring, or at least future-proof it for the next ten years. I was wrong. Run conduit.

Prototype if you’re going to try something new. I wanted no baseboard or case in the home and to have the hall doors flush with the hall regardless of swing. I was so close to getting it all right. Mistakes with the baseboard- I still like the idea on the in-line base and case, but for the base, it needed to be cut with a recess for the tape and mud and also painted so the mud wouldn’t cause any expansion when applied. The case on the other hand needed to have a purely mechanical joint instead of trying to use mud at all- though juries out because I’d have to prototype. However, now a days, I wouldn’t try to make the base disappear, I’d throw stained and sprayed base inline still with a metal groove between it and the drywall – that looks sweet. I did protype a door in our home theater that I wanted to match the wall texture without the texture possibly breaking off and that turned out awesome!

Learn how to braze. I installed a line-set for the HVAC and from what I understood at the time, sweating the pipes was the way to go, but it just isn’t. The problem is, I’m locked into using R-22 (the old stuff) or have to redo the line-set. Nifty-spiffy. Although, I still like the look of sweated copper pipes over brazed for plumbing, I never would have liked the manifold if it were brazed so for plumbing I thinking brazing is a bit of overkill.

Lacquer- I’ll admit, for whatever reason lacquer intimated me. I thought I’d use it, but was kind of looking for reasons not to, I think I had bad memories from high-school shop or something. With all the maple in the home, I was terrified that if I sprayed lacquer, it would all turn a horrible shade of yellow eventually. A couple articles I read mentioned a water based acrylic as the answer. I used it everywhere, even sprayed it. Let me tell you, the maple is still yellowing and the finish just doesn’t look as good as if I had used a clear lacquer. I think the best advice is just to stay away from all clear finishes you can buy from HD or Lowes… They’re just crap.

If you’ve got a good thing going, keep going. I liked the way I did the closets in two of the rooms and inexplicably changed the closet in the other room… it just doesn’t work, and I feel like I’m eventually going to have to change it to match.

Buy an eight foot level and get the walls perfectly flat. It’s very easy to use cardboard strips to even out the hills and valleys before drywall, not so much with mud after. Also when mudding, I found the smoothest joints come from taping, then one heavy coat with something straight and inflexible and then one finish coat. Hey maybe I don’t have some magical drywall skill, but for me it works and is way faster than trying to fill the areas with regular trowels for everything.

Carpet is a dirty business. Talk to an interior designer, they can help you get the quality you want. It’s just one of those things, you screw up, you’re stuck with for a long time.