Sanitary Lines

I just got back from a work trip to Austin and checked out the work the plumber did while I was away. He did a great job and I wish I was here to help. Next step is to get the slab close in inspection so we can pour concrete this weekend. Hopefully I won't have to have a huge hole in my basement for much longer.

Old cast iron sanitary line that was cut out.

Slab demolition and the hole

Reality is really setting in now. I'm about to head to Austin, Texas for work and there is a huge hole in my basement. Jason Dorpinghaus who is a friend and jack of all trades has helped me with the slab demo. He did the work on this one while I was at work stressing about it. We had to cut the trenches to each of the new fixtures and then dig down to the existing sewer line. In the end the hole is about 4' in diameter and 4' - 6" deep. No turning back now!

Before Demo



During demo... a little dusty



A little muscle needed

Sewer line is about 3' - 6" down

Pouring the concrete to fill this in is going to be a little harder than I originally anticipated. I have three friends coming over to help with that next weekend. Hopefully the weather is OK so we can mix the concrete outside. I'm off to Austin first thing in the morning because my flight tonight was canceled. 

Permitgate

The person who "thoroughly" reviewed my permits two weeks ago and said everything was fine called me this morning. Good news... the code modification is approved. Bad news she just noticed a few problems on the drawings. They couldn't have told me two weeks ago so I had to rush to city hall in the snow to deal with it at the end of the day today.

They are a confederacy of dunces over there. If you ever have a lot of time to fill, you should go to city hall... because they can help you fill that void.

I now have permits, but still some problems that I will have to deal with soon. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Permits

The work has clearly begun without permits... I went to get permits two weeks ago. It is supposed to be an easy "walk through" process for a small residential project like this. I have to get a code wavier because the ceiling height is a few inches below the minimum. I should have not said anything and hoped the inspector didn't call me on it. These people are incredible.

Of course they have charged my credit card for the permits already.

I have to schedule an inspection before I can pour the new floor slab. If I don't have permits in the next 7 days I will have to delay the project.

8 phone calls, 2 emails later and still no permits...

They all point the finger at someone else. I think now they are just messing with me.

Demolition

Last weekend I had my friends Jared and Jen in town. They both quit thier jobs and are traveling around the country in an RV. Stop number two was DC. In exchange for my fantastic tour guide skills and hospitality they offered to help so I was not going to say no. The goal was to remove all the drywall in the front room. This will allow me to add insulation to the exterior wall and some sound attenuation.

Front room before the demo

Front room after the demo. How about those yellow walls?

Sanitary line work

This past saturday I had my new plumber Mike Rich with me to start the plumbing work. This was his first task on my project. He was great. I acted as his aprentice and he taught me some of the skills he has picked up in the 25 years of being a plumber.

We needed to move the existing horizontal sanitary line coming from the addition and also replace the 80 year old vertical sanitary stack and cleanout. I thought it would stink once we cut the lines... but apparantly my shit don't stink.

Sanitary stack and line before

New sanitary stack and line. This makes way for the future corridor. Right past where the laundry is now. Had to quickly move the hot and cold water lines feeding the laundry. I'm getting pretty nasty at soldering. Once again, thanks to Joe for lending me his kit.

Mike also showed me where the slab needs to get demolished for the below slab plumbing to be done next weekend.

Shady Sub Contractors

In the next few weeks I went through a lot of effort trying to find sub contractors to do some of the more complicated work. Finding someone to pay to do the work has been MUCH harder than I thought. If you didn't know already, sub contractors are shady folk. I have had 4 general contractors disappear, and probably 8 sub contractors in and out of my house. Some much shadier than others. I have finally found a fantastic HVAC sub, great plumber and the electrician is working out well... when he calls me back.

I have had sub contractors quote me incredibly different prices for the same work. Its hard to get a feel for who knows what they are talking about. So far I have been successful with the contractors I have chosen.

Here are some photos of work that has taken place up to last week by the sub contractors.

AC Replacement:

Old AC system

New AC system

HWH relocation:

Previous HWH location. This is where the new bathroom is going.

HWH moved to the back room of the house. It will be located in a future closet in the future media room.

New Electrical main panel and upgraded service:

Old main electrical panel

New main electrical panel. Its huge!





The Hole

My next task was to move some wires and cut a hole in my brick wall to allow for the new AC duct run. The previous owners added central air to the house in 1981. They ran the duct basically at eye level and through a window at the old exterior wall. I am going to replace the AC system and put this duct up between the joists to clear the head height.

First I had to move about 10 wires that cross the duct bay. This was pretty easy. The hard part was cutting a hole in the former exterior wall above the window. This is a bearing wall. It is 18" thick double wythe brick wall supporting the brick, floor and roof above. I was a little nervous cutting this hole and not providing reinforcing.

I used this hammer drill that Joe let me borrow and a sledge hammer. It took me about 5 hours to cut the hole. Holding a 35 pound drill over your head for 5 hours was exhausting.

It doesn't look like much... but it was a bitch! It got smaller as I went. Started out as 12" x 8" and ended up 8" diameter. That was the best I could get without the house falling down.

Add two more Home Depot trips to the total.

Day one of Construction

Construction started the day after Christmas. The first task was to relocate all of the main radiator pipes. These are 80 year old black steel pipes. When the house was first built they didn't care about the basement and the pipes are well below the bottom of the joists. I had to cut out all the old pipes, and install all new copper and tight to the joists. The goal was to do this all in one day so I wouldn't have to go without heat. I was sort of successful.

You can see the new copper pipes and the old gray wrapped pipes still in place.

This corner was a disaster. I did not realize there were two additional connections behind this wall. When  filled the system and turned it on, I thought I was done. Until I heard water pouring out of the ceiling. I had to quickly shut it down, break the wall open and fix the leak. This was my biggest mistake so far... It was only day two of consturction.

The boiler

Dielectric connections to join the new copper to the existing black steel. These connections are 80 years old and painted over. It took some serious effort to get them to unscrew.


After 6 trips to Home Depot / Lowes,  draining and filling the radiator system 6 times its all done! On to the next project.

Before Photos

Here are a few before photos of the basement. I had started some demo at this point. Its a mess.

I currently have a roommate. Its hard to do all this work and not piss him off too much. Plus the laundry is down here.

My house

This is a photo of my house from the front the day I purchased it. The main focus of this project is in the basement. Those two smaller windows at the bottom are into the future bedroom / office.

The Plans

Here is a look at the before and after plans for the project. The goal is to add a bathroom and completely finish the basement. For now I will finish the back room and turn it into a media room later on as part of a second phase for the project. The phase I part of the project is more than enough right now. I will add a bathroom, bedroom / office, laundry area, and replace the central AC.