This Old Crack House

Restoring our rear windows: rotted brick moldings

hammers&staplers — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 01:53:15 +0000

The wooden brick moldings around our windows are all decayed and rotted. Brick moldings are not a structural member, but a picture frame to finish off the exterior and to seal the window frame to the rough opening. So, if the molding is badly damaged, like in our case, it can easily be removed and replaced.

We used Fletcher Armour Wood for the moldings. It’s a pressure treated wood that is extremely stable, water resistant, and has a lifetime warranty against decay and termite damage. Johnny replicated the original by using a router for the details. We chose to paint the moldings black: the classic black from Fine Paints of Europe (Hollandac Brilliant).

Before installing the new moldings back, for added draft protection measure, Johnny sealed up any voids and gaps around the brick and window with a low pressure flexible polyurethane foam, called the Great Stuff. The can says it all.

Close up of existing brick molding condition

Existing conditions

Close up of existing sill condition

Armour wood

Routed detail of new brick molding

Angle cut for brick molding

Primer paint from Fine Paints of Europe

Before and after

View from the scaffolding

Coffee break

It's a long long way down

The newly installed and painted brick moldings

ELECTRIC BLUES

hammers&staplers — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:08:34 +0000

Time to hit the books. I found on our shelves the Tauton’s series for Pros by Pros, Wiring a House. After reading it, it is a good reference book, but you know what? It is what it says, FOR PROS. I felt lightheaded and confused trying to understand the how-tos. Still I would recommend to keep this book around – it is the classic reference book on home wiring, but it isn’t for beginners.

Browsing online, I was secretly hoping to find Home Wiring for Dummies or something like that, but I found something even better: Black & Decker The Complete Guide to Wiring and DeWalt Electrical Code Reference 2011.

Update: after reading and browsing through both and feeling a bit more familiar /semi-confident and at ease with this electrical DIY, I have to say I really like the Taunton series, despite my initial frustrations, as he often gives you beyond the code recommendations and really caters to the DIY enthusiasts. More electrical to come……

Sloping + Sagging Floors – inch by inch

hammers&staplers — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:45:31 +0000

Back in October, we continued leveling some of the floor joists at the top level of the house. We’ve debated to ignore the problem and pass it off as the character of the house just because it’s been such a tedious and involved operation: jacking up floor joists a 1/4″ at a time, installing supports, constant measuring and re-measuring and leveling. If you’re doing this yourself, plan on several weeks, just because you want to take your time and let the house settle a bit each time you jack the joists to avoid structural damage.

We agreed that the top floor needed it the most, so as not to compromise the installation of the bathroom tile floor and bedroom subfloors / wood floors, but we could live with the slopes on the parlor floor, since the slopes are minor and wouldn’t compromise the integrity of our home’s structure. The measured drop of the entire top floor was about a 2 inch difference.

Bottle jack and support

The HOT PINK level line

View below of support and of strike line

Joist braces

Close up of installed joist braces

The beginnings of subfloor

I WILL SURVIVE

hammers&staplers — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:12:11 +0000

Friends, I would be remiss to not mention the struggle I’m having with the renovation. Both Johnny and I go through phases of feeling overwhelmed and distressed – fortunately not at the same time AND fortunately the other reels the other in. I had hit a midsummer malaise. I don’t know if it was the dark days recently in the world news, but I seemed to take everything really hard and the weight of the renovation just felt like too much. There were many moments throughout this year where I had thoughts of wanting to give up, just sell this house and get rid of the complications, headaches and fighting. We knew the path we chosen when we bought this house would be a long struggle, but I didn’t plan on how at odds you can be with yourself and your spouse. Living under construction can cause even the most levelheaded person to completely lose their cool, but what can we do? Once you start, you can’t just stop midway through and decide to put everything back the way it was. I would like to believe I am made of tougher stuff than this.

One of our main fights has been about the timeline. Since mommy hood, I have to admit I have taken a back seat to the physical part of the renovation (other than doing demo and debris clean up) and it isn’t fair to have that all on Johnny’s shoulder. I’ve been comfortable with my role as the planner and architect, but it doesn’t contribute to the real nuts and bolts of how to get it DONE. So we made a deal that I would figure out the electrical. I’ll become the Master Electrician and Johnny will be my Foreman. Great. Stay tuned.

Our Second Floor has undergone a Detox

hammers&staplers — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 17:15:56 +0000

There is something really comforting about knowing that all the layers and layers of a hundred years of dust, debris and little mouse nests trapped and hidden in our home are finally all out of here. It took awhile – we re-started the upstairs demolition phase 2 back in February. Johnny and I removed, labelled all the baseboards, window and door trims and stored them in our basement. Early summer, Johnny and his friend Matt resumed with carefully pulling up the floor boards, but only got half way done.

We are saving all the floor boards. We plan to put in plywood subfloor and then re-lay the floors. This will not only help with the squeaks, but the overall structure of the house. One of the important parts of a building structure is its floor system. We want to make sure the floors will carry the weight of the interior walls, the roof, furniture, finish flooring, us and the 300 some pound cast iron tub.

Around midsummer, I handled the debris management between the floor joists. I’m actually pretty proud of how clean I got them. My legs ached for weeks, straddling over the joists and bending over to vacuum or sweep up, but that could just be a testament of how out of shape I’m in.

He's serious, very serious

behind the bad drywall work, we found a wall decorated by a child

close up of the pasted strange elephant like creatures

holy smoky! looks like they were trying to cover up some smoke damage

: Floor boards removed from Master Bedroom

hallway with bucket, catching drip from skylight

look - how clean it is between the joists!

a view from below to the Master Bedroom - CLEAN!

Kicking the start of summer with a cool roof

hammers&staplers — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:43:27 +0000

Over Memorial Day holiday, Johnny applied several coats of a white elastomeric coating over our roof and now our roof seems reborn! It is incredible the immediate difference we felt in the roof temperature. With the NY weather jumping straight to hot and sunny, the roof’s temperature before it was treated (an aluminum painted bitumen roof) was probably well over 100 degrees at 10 am. After the white coating, it was cool to the touch! Needless to say, it has substantially improved our existing roof’s reflectance. Even though we don’t have air conditioning yet, I’m looking forward that we will at least survive in this house with the great reduction in the summer heat load. There are a variety of elastomeric coatings out there – the main differences are whether the application is for a ponding or non-ponding roof. We went with 12 gallons of the Sta-Kool 770 Ultra White Elastomeric Roof Coating

The application of the coating is simple. Timing when to do it proved more difficult, since you need at least three days of dry weather – each weekend this spring, seemed to be a succession of rain here in Brooklyn. The first day was preparation of the roof: pressure washing the surface with our garden hose and letting it fully dry. Then, waiting a full day to make sure the surface is fully dry and free of dust, dirt, oil, and loose gravel. The second day was the application onto the roof. The coating has to be applied when surface and air temperatures are a minimum of 65 degrees, but not greater than 100 degrees. AND it must NOT be applied if rain is expected within 24-48 hours. Johnny started painting early in the morning with a 3/4″ nap exterior paint roller. First coat was cured for at least one hour, but it was recommended to allow at least 24 hours between coats. The third day, two full coats were applied. Voila! New White Cool Roof!

HIDDEN TREASURES – A Boy’s Life

hammers&staplers — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 01:37:34 +0000

One of our favorite aspects of this demolition is discovering objects buried in walls, floorboards and trim. Every time we open up a wall, we secretly hope to find a tin filled with Depression Era cash. And what would we do with that cash??? Put it right back into fixing up this house!

The discoveries haven’t always been so cool, sometimes they are odd, rather creepy or disgusting, but these recent finds have been exciting. Johnny discovered three different areas in the back two bedrooms that gave us clues about the past inhabitants. We’d love to hear from you if you know anything more about these items!

Here are some of the relics we’ve unearthed.

FIRST GROUP : found between the top part of the door casing and wall

SECOND GROUP : found between the base trim and wall

THIRD GROUP : found between the base trim and wall

Plastic Sheeting Containment

hammers&staplers — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:19:13 +0000

No doubt, renovation is a messy and disruptive process, especially if you are living in it. Lately it seems we spend a lot of our time preparing for protection. It feels like a painstaking process to put up something only to know that you will be taking it down. In preparation for the demolition for the top floor back two rooms and hallway, we put up plastic sheeting around the front room to minimize the dust infiltrating to the rest of the house. It took us longer than expected – over (2) nights, about an 1 -1/2 hour each night.

We used 2 Mil thick 20×100 plastic sheeting for the walls and 1 Mil thick to cover my temporary office. The 2 Mil plastic sheeting is a good weight, durable and multi-purpose. It’s great for covering and protecting, keeping the air from infiltrating. The 1 Mil is lightweight and does it’s job for my office

Demolition Continues!

hammers&staplers — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:53:24 +0000

Since December, we’ve been grabbing at time to continue with the demolition of the upper two floors. Each night after the baby is put to bed (or at least we try each night – depending on whether one of us is too exhausted or sick), we will work 1-2 hours on the house. Weekends – Johnny tries to manage this himself. It’s definitely been a challenge. Johnny started first by closing up the Parlor Level by building a temporary wall and door to enclose all the detritus and dust from infiltrating to the Garden Level, where we are living. Here are some shots so far:

PARLOR LEVEL

MASTER BEDROOM

Winterizing our windows

hammers&staplers — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:05:16 +0000

Above you can see our newly winterized windows. Our old windows leaked copious amounts of chilly air, and Johnny was determined to save us on our heating bill this year. Johnny spent this late fall mending the cracks around our windows and doors, and installed storm doors in the front and back entrances. You can also see below in the pictures that he reglazed around the panes with Dap33, a glazing compound.

We have gone back and forth and back and forth again on whether we should replace the windows or restore the windows. From what we’ve been reading, it sounds like the payback for new windows aren’t that great and aren’t anywhere near manufacturer’s claims: the payback of a typical unit could take as long as 100 years!

Also having had searched for historically accurate windows, it seems like it doesn’t matter how accurate they are, they never can reflect the nuances of the original. It just doesn’t seem worth it, especially since we have 18 windows to replace! Our windows possess an aesthetic and material attribute that simply can’t be replaced by modern replacement windows. So, our plan now is to repair them and save up for storm windows – another step forward in the realm of sustainability.

Some research brought us to Allied Window. They have an “invisible” line – Historic Lite – storm windows that have a very nice profile. Hoping we can save up to get some storm windows for next winter. We should then really start seeing significant reductions in our heating costs.