|
|
|
|
PHASE #3
of Home Remodeling Project
"Destruction is easy (even fun) but clean up is a no picnic and can take a
infinitely longer!"
[On to Phase 4] [Seen Enough]
[Project Overview]
[Home Design Reference]
[Lien Waver Example]
[Buy
a House] [Heating & AC]
After
the thrill of all for one and one for all -- lets destroy this house! Every one left at
the end of the day. What I was left with was mounds upon mounds of STUFF! I'm talking
about huge piles of rubble from all corners of the upstairs of my house. The
clean up took me
-- yes ME (well thank God for my neighbor Peter) and my Dad who also pitched in, but a
majority of it was done by myself... It took for ever. In fact, I was so disgusted with my
progress on this that I failed to take much of any footage of it.
Tools Used:
 |
Shovel: Used for cleaning up
remains of destruction phase. Other yard tools are also helpful such as the rake,
pitchfork, spade, etc. |
 |
Shop-Vac:
Important to have one of these with 4-6HP motor and 10-15 gallon
capacity. Do not settle for smaller ones or you will be sorry. |
 |
Claw Hammer: Any old hammer
will not do. You might think that it takes more energy/effort to swing a heavier hammer.
However it does many times the amount of work as the smaller ones. More bang for your
buck. |
 |
Wonderbar: Called a
wonderbar, and it actually works as advertised. Its unique design gives you just the right
kind of leverage in the right situations. |
 |
Caulking Gun: Used to apply
liquid nail compound to floor joists before laying down sub-floor. This prevents the new
floor from creaking over time as the house settles. |
 |
Nail Set: You can't leave
nails sticking out of sub-floor so use these counter sink punches to push nails below floor
level. Nail sets allow you to strike a smaller area with your hammer. |
 |
Power/Air Nailer: Great tool
that speeds progress of overall project but comes at a steep price. |
 |
Sledge Hammer: Don't even
try to push sheets of sub-floor together without a serious sledge hammer - its not going to
happen. |
|
|
The Actual Work:
 Over 70
bags of insulation were filled to
expose the floor after a long day of distraction. Interesting fact that what 7 guys can do
in a day takes one guy several days to clean up. Filling these bags of insulation was one
thing. Carrying them to the window and throwing them into the dumpster was yet another
thing -- some were so full of insulation, plaster, and pieces of lath that they often
broke in route to the dumpster where by allowing me the opportunity to fill them twice
over. Recommendation -- contractor bags are worth the money (3 mil think bags at a
minimum).If you ever watch HomeTime or This Old House, this is the
stuff that no one (and I mean no-one) ever shows you because if you see it
it makes you wonder why the heck you ever thought you could do this yourself
or why the heck you should even do this. In the end one always looks back
and says, it was worth it. I'm hear to tell you that as great as it all
looked afterwards, it wasn't worth the pain, effort. That is why the likes
of HomeTime and This Old House doesn't show you these details. Because they
are so ugly they discourage home improvement. They are provided to you out
of concern for your well being!
While filling these bags, one had to sort
through the mounds of STUFF and weed out the pieces that where not going to go into a
garbage bag. These items included scraps of wood, long pieces of lath, large chunks of
plaster. When it was all done, large sections of the floor were once again exposed only
the rest was heaping with piles of sorted waste materials. After running out of dumpster
space, another was ordered and filled.In all the destruction and clean up used three
dumpsters.
2 x 30 cubic yard dumpsters, and 1 x 20 cubic yard dumpster.
Notice the floor -- spotless, well as close as
one can get without making some concessions!This also shows two of the present
elevation changes. One was from the old hallway that connected Abigail's old room to
bathroom and master bedroom (shown bottom center as a type of ramp). The other is a step
into the guest room (shown off to the right of center of the picture). In all there was
about 6-7 inches of elevation change from the highest point to the lowest point.
 New floor in Bryan's room -- old one was cut up
really bad.First the old floor was completed lifted, floor joists cleaned, and then
liquid nails was applied over the joists and then new floor material placed over them.
Ideally you should use tongue and grove 3/4" sheets. Note these sheets must be placed
a certain way (up/down -- each piece tells you which side goes down and parallel to
joists). You'll need a good sledge hammer to push the tongue into the grove. Once seated,
secure with ring-shank nails. Make sure the seams are staggered.
Powered nails can replace the hammer, countersink as they can automatically countersink
but there is a price for this convenience. [On to Phase 4] [Seen Enough]
[Project Overview]
[Home Design Reference]
[Lien Waver Example]
[Buy
a House] [Heating & AC]
Can Birds-Eye.Net help you or your Company?
Receive your Birds-Eye.Net articles and white
papers hot off
the presses by adding our RSS feed to your reader.
|
|
(C) Copyright Birds-Eye.Net, All rights reserved.
It is against the law to reproduce this content or any portion of it in any form without the explicit written permission of Birds-Eye Network Services, LLC. Federal copyright law (17 USC 504) makes it illegal, punishable with fines up to $100,000 per violation plus attorney's fees.
|