Wrapping up the Week...

I puttered around the basement the last few days of our holiday, and finished up framing the walls and bulkheads. I am putting two pocket doors that will open between the rec room and the bedroom. We did this in our last house's basement, and really liked the flexibility it created in the space. The kids toys can be pushed through the doors into the bedroom, and the doors closed, creating a child-free entertaining space. Or, more likely, we can open the doors and the kids can colonize both spaces. We are putting in doors with opaque glass to let some of the light transfer from room to room, as well.

Last time I put pocket doors in, I bought the pre-made wooden frame from Home Depot. It was about $100 and came with crooked wood that split at the thought of accepting a screw (hmmmm...that doesn't sound right.). I had to buy upgraded tracks for the doors to hang from because the ones it came with weren't suitable for the weight of doors with glass. This time, I took the advice of a friend, and bought the Johnson Pocket Door Frame from Home Hardware. It is the one that all contractors use. The two kits (joined in the middle to make the 5' opening) were around $300. We will see how they fare over time with the weight of the doors on them.

The box, with the contents, and the world's dullest hacksaw, below.

The kit is nothing more than a header, four metal studs with wood in them, and brackets to secure the studs to the floor. I had to use a hacksaw to cut the metal rail to length. After trying to cut the aluminum with the equivalent of a dull table knife, I went and bought a new blade for my hacksaw. I splurged and spent $3.98 for two. Worth every penny.

The view from the far corner through the rec room, and into the bedroom on the right with closet (notice
the 10' opening to accommodate the pocket doors) and the hallway towards the left (under the bulkhead.)

Building the bulkhead was time consuming and not particularly fun. It must require a spatial intelligence I lack, because I had to build it piece by piece, running up to the garage multiple times to make the cuts for the next small section. I used lots of screws and construction adhesive, but it still doesn't feel particularly strong because it isn't tied into the ceiling directly due to the location of the float on the walls. If it seems too weak once I drywall, I will build out around it with the suspended ceiling materials. In hindsight, this might have been wise to do anyway, given the time/effort the bulkhead took. Though, installing ceiling tiles vertically sounds about as much fun.

After finishing the framing, I started on some plumbing. The basement bathroom was "roughed in" by the builder, which is great, because it meant that I didn't have to get a permit for the plumbing. It is less great, too, because the builder installed the shower drain in an uncommon spot (though they have lots of very expensive showers that will fit the location exactly) and because they didn't bother bringing out a drain line for the sink. I solved the first problem by ignoring the recommendation of a 38" neo-angle shower and instead built an alcove for a enclosed shower. Taking into account the discount that comes from having a Lowe's Commercial Account (which I signed up for somewhat shadily), I got the shower for $850 -- a full $500 less than a shower/door to fit the spot provided by the plumbing company. I used Bluwood for the enclosure, and for the bottom plates of the walls. I didn't use it everywhere because it is $4.00 a stud compared to $2.50, and because the exterior walls were already framed with regular lumber. If I ever do get a lot of water, a gutting will be in order. By doing the bottom plates in the treated wood, if I get any seepage through the slab, it shouldn't cause the wood to rot.

It is hard to see, but the blue framing is for the tub. I am not going to secure it to the
concrete until I have the tub/shower ready to install, to be sure it is in the exact right spot. After
removing our entire bathroom floor in the last house, I have little desire to smash any concrete on this one.

This completed, I took on the other issue. I had located the 2" drain/vent pipe for the vanity in the exterior framing when tying in the interior walls, and so knew where it was. My plan was simple -- slit open the vapour barrier, cut out a chunk of the 2" pipe, add a 1.5" Sanitary T, a foot of pipe, a cap, some Tuck Tape, and done! I hauled out my dad's reciprocating saw for cutting the pipe (this is an amazing tool if you have any demolition to do, any tree branches to cut, any ABS pipe to cut -- you get the picture.) A few saw blades later (I kept hitting the concrete wall behind the pipe and bending/breaking the blade) I had made one cut. I cut out another piece a few inches up, and tried to dry-fit the T (without the glue on it.). Try as I might, it turned out there was very little give in the concrete pad below my cut and the extensive drain system above my cut. Who knew? I wasn't able to get the T in. I cut a bit more away from the original pipe, and weaseled my T in, but then the opening was too big for the T to seat properly on the top and bottom pipes. I have no idea how real plumbers deal with this problem -- oh wait, they just add the T when they do the plumbing the first time! Erg. Anyway, I remembered using a Fernco in my last basement reno when attaching the new ABS to the copper drain stack. Because the fitting is essentially a piece of rubber hose with 2 clamps, It can be slid up/down the existing pipe, making a closer connection possible. I ran to Rona and bought a 2" Fernco and assembled everything. Not sure if this is actually allowed under plumbing code, but it worked and I couldn't think of another way to do it. I put the pipe back together with the T, and voila - I'm ready for the trap and drain down the road! I don't have any supply lines run yet -- that will come some other day.

The finished product!

I spent a  bit of time Friday doing some wiring. I had three changes to make to the existing wiring which I did today. I haven't run any of the new circuits yet. I had to move an existing plug, because with my framing it was located in the closet. I put in a junction box and ran the plug, as well as a light in the storage under the stairs. I also moved the light fixture at the bottom of the stairs 18" further into the basement so that it illuminates the small hallway as well. When at Home Depot buying some 14-3 wire for a 3-way switch to come in the bedroom, I picked up a light fixture that matches our upstairs fixtures, and installed it at the bottom of the stairs. This was a bit finicky because the light was located in the heating return. However, it was nothing a bit of foil tape didn't fix up after! Finally, our storage room was originally lit by two single-bulb fixtures with pull strings. After a bit of brain bending, I followed the plans in my wiring book and wired both lights to a switch. This required a bit of 3-wire and took longer than it should have -- as most things to when renovating!

The view from the landing into the bathroom with
the new light fixture installed. The storage room is on the right.

Re-wiring the pull switch light. Working with your hands above your head for any length of
time is no fun! Especially when cramming your hands between two heat runs.

Now that the weekend is here, the work (and blog posts) will slow down.

Move Water Lines

Another job to be completed before the basement could be braced involved moving some plumbing. The main water line that ran from the basement floor up and straight over to the wall needed to be moved. There was not the requisite 4" of space between the pipes and the wall. (That is how much space the I-Beam will occupy once the braces are in place.) Even if the lines were 4" away from the wall, I don't really like the idea of having water lines run in an exterior wall - especially in a province where -40 is a common winter temperature. I recall, not so fondly, spending a large part of my 2003 Christmas break repairing such a problem in our last house, where the pipes froze, burst, and flooded the basement. Or part of it anyway.

I lack in plumbing prowess, though I did pick up a few pointers watching our water softener being installed a few months ago. The main thing I learned -- use a lot of heat. A lot. More then you'd think. Seriously.

Though I knew my new "heat it hotter" method was bound to succeed, I still enlisted the help of two handier-then-usual friends. Luckily, three showed up, the third having total plumbing prowess, fresh off a multi-year renovation of an early 1900s house in Toronto.

Since we were moving the main line, I decided I would replace the 50 year old shutoff valve that could give up the ghost any time. I wasn't sure exactly how everything would come apart, so I decided to do a Canadian Tire run mid-repair. The City was scheduled to turn off the water at the street at 11:00am. Around 10:30 we turned off the main in the house, and began disassembling - the job involved moving the water heater as well.

Eleven o'clock came and went, as did 11:30, and I called the city, only to be reassured that the water would be shut off. Then a knock at the door. It was a friendly city-worker, asking me to check if the water was off. I checked, and told him "No." He shook his head, returned to the outside valve, and returned a few minutes later. "Now?" I checked again. "No." "Well, I can't turn it off. Someone will be out next week to fix it."

Pardon? Next week? What? But my protests were in vain -- apparently the shutoff was broken. Kind of begs the question - what would they have done if I had a pipe break and the only shutoff keeping thousands of litres of water out of my basement did not work? I guess I should consider myself lucky that they caught it when they did.

That said, catching it when they did was not helping my plumbing job. However, four heads being better then one, we made a plan, and decided to add another shutoff into the main line just after the old one. We couldn't wait until the city fixed their shutoff because the guy bracing the basement was coming the next day.

I won't lie to you -- it was not pretty. We heated it hotter, a lot, and ended up cleaning up a lot of burnt pipe. Funny how that never happened to the water softener installer...

While two of us worked on moving the main, the other two ran pipes to move the water softener. Since we couldn't cut the main pipe that comes up from the floor, we had to use a 45 degree elbow to change the direction the meter aimed. Here's a close up of the finicky messing around we had to do. Note the old shutoff, new shutoff, and lovely 45 degree elbow:



All in all, it was an ugly job, and it took us the better part of 3 hours. Brutal. Here is a picture of what remains in the basement: