Home Improvement/Projects Thread

[Joe G]

Not sure if we have a thread for this kind of stuff, so here goes.

I posted a bit of my attic project in the 'most recent purchase thread' and it seems like a lot of you cheap DIY SOBs (like me) enjoy home improvement projects.

I live in an OLD house (completed in 1919). I have 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms an unfinished (and fairly unfinishable) basement and a walk up attic that was unfinished. So I decided to turn my unfinished attic into a fourth bedroom/office.


Before:


Note the floor sloping down -- the total drop was about 2” from the top of the stairs to the window.

Found after we pulled up the old floor. (Warning racist content - “yell #2”)









Went to Home Depot and bought:

- 6 - 4'x8' sheets of sub-floor
- 48 - 94" 2"x4"s
- 16 - 14' 2"x4"s

Borrowed a compressor and a framing gun and went to work.

During:


New sub-floor framing sister’d to the existing. Trusses raised to 7’. Did some more work last night, hoping to have the subfloor down by Friday (working solo after work every night).

Got the first sheet of sub-floor laid tonight (glued and nailed).




Regarding the pine planks, we kept all that we could salvage, same goes for the old 2x4s. Not sure what I’ll use them for yet.

Made a little more progress today. My goal is to have the floor completely down by the end of this week.



Only the two sheets agains the east (window) wall are glued and nailed. It’s amazing to have ~50sqft to stand and work on.

More to come.

[rturbo 930]

Lol, 1919 isn't that old. Still in the era of when homes were attractive and built decently though. The cutoff there seems to be 1930. I hope you plan to keep those old windows.

[M-technik-3]

Are the wall cavities hollow like balloon framing? If so you should block it off so fire is not able to run straight up. Are versed in your local codes?

[deutschman]

Very cool! I love working on old homes. The quality of the wood is crazy. Old lumber, a lot of the time its strait grain and 99% clear with no knots or anything.
Looking forward to seeing more.

We are hoping to get our first home next year here in WA. Ill be doing some DIY stuff eventually.

[Joe G]

Are the wall cavities hollow like balloon framing? If so you should block it off so fire is not able to run straight up. Are versed in your local codes?

I believe the wall cavities are indeed hollow, and I have been blocked everything along the walls.

The space will be up to code. My dad is an architect and former building inspector -- he helped me plan it all out.

[lambo]

Sure wish I could buy a house. Living in a rental is the worst... all I want to do is improve things but I don’t want to dump money into someone else’s house ��

[mrsleeve]

We are about to embark on a full kitchen remo, floors all the way though the house, 2 full baths and every window in the place in that order I think. As much as I hate paying people to do shit I can and like doing my self, I dont think I will have the time to do much if any of it my self this year, and the little woman is growing tired of the old shitty carpets and poorly laid out kitchen. I am wanting to put a good wood stove in while we are at it, and need to add a ton of lighting out in the shop. this is going to be an expensive year ughhh Once we get the flooring in, I will be be building some built ins for the closets

[mitchlikesbikes]

My house was built in the early 1890s. My dad and I remodeled basically the whole thing by ourselves over like 3 months of evenings and weekends. It's not a huge house but holy shit it was a ton of work. I should put some pics up on my Flickr so I can share. there are still small things I'd like to do so it's not "finished" but then before/after pictures are wild because the guy I bought the house from didn't give a fuck and let it get reallly dated and beat up inside.

Anyway, sub'd

[M-technik-3]

Very cool! I love working on old homes. The quality of the wood is crazy. Old lumber, a lot of the time its strait grain and 99% clear with no knots or anything.

That is because of population and demand for wood. Let the forrest grow and they would be straight grain again but we tend to harvest fast growing trees to keep up with demand.

I believe the wall cavities are indeed hollow, and I have been blocked everything along the walls.

The space will be up to code. My dad is an architect and former building inspector -- he helped me plan it all out.

Good to hear look forward to more updates, they do sell an expanding foam fire caulking.

[tim88325is]

What do you plan to do for insulation?

[Joe G]

What do you plan to do for insulation?

Right now the floor is insulated with 'air blown' insulation, so I'm just leaving that. It will be more of sound deadening too, since the kitchen/third bedroom are beneath the attic.

For the rest of the insulation, I'll be using the pink rolled kind once I have all of the framing complete.

[tim88325is]

Just curious, will you leave an air gap between the roof sheathing and the insulation?

[Joe G]

^I honestly had not considered that.

What are the pros/cons and/or added work if I was to do that?

[M-technik-3]

If you don't want your shingles to curl up keep an air gap so roof breathes might consider sistering up roof joists for 2x8 so you can have higher R factor up there.

What is your source of heat going to be?

[LateFan]

Yeah, a lot of (cold) places require R-30 or more for sloped roofs. That's a 2x12 rafter depth. The insulation sits flush at the bottom face of the rafter, leaving an air path above the insulation at the roof deck to vent (through the ridge) any condensation or vapor that builds up.

If you don't vent it, the moisture from people and living builds up, condenses against the cold roof deck, drips on the insulation and ruins it, and over time can rot the framing.

<EDIT> You can use high density batt insulation, or the best is spray polyurethane, which has huge R-value numbers and also seals up any air gaps in the building. Quite a bit more money, but it makes a nice roof. You hire a professional applicator to do that, it's not the spray can stuff.