Page 1 of 1

They don't make them like they use to.

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 9:02 pm
by Eugene
Subtitled: If I had bid this job I would have lost my shirt.

Son decided to strip off the interior of two living room walls. About 14’ linear feet, 8 feet tall. General idea is to reinsulated the wall and add several electrical outlets.

House construction. Brick veneer on wood frame. Full dimension local oak framing and full dimension oak sheeting. Interior wall appeared to be dry wall.

About 16 man hours and we finally have the two interior walls removed along with the blown in insulation.

Interior wall. Exterior layer was ¾” drywall with thin plaster coat. Guessing they blew in the insulation through this layer. Next layer -inside the room.. ¾” of cement (Yup cement - like mortar mix) and then a skim coat of plaster. Joining surfaces of the cement layer were reinforced with a metal mesh similar to what you would use for an exterior stucco coating.

We had to hammer out the cement out of the metal mesh. Then take a grinder and cut the mesh so that it was flush with the ceiling and one interior wall. A hard wood floor had been installed over the original floor and then a carpet and pad. We had to chisel the cement from the edge of the floor to the studs.

We found the typical blow in insulation faults. Spaces missed and compacted insulation. Window weights not removed. Newer windows were not foam insulated when installed.

Some other anomalies” Original windows were nailed to the sheeting and not fastened to the studs. Cement was added under the original window and above a cross member to support the window.

Stairwell to the basement had been furred out to 6”.

Window trim appeared to be paint darkened pine. Turned out to be black walnut painted to look like pine.

Wire to one electrical outlet was exposed - and actually cover over with cement.

Re: They don't make them like they use to.

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 6:25 am
by Don McCombs
Mike Holmes would have loved that one.

Re: They don't make them like they use to.

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 8:48 am
by Ike
Eugene wrote: Original windows were nailed to the sheeting and not fastened to the studs.


Typical for old windows with weights. The ones that I have taken out usually don't have a header, either. Any stud in the way of the window was just cut off above and below the window opening.

Ike

Re: They don't make them like they use to.

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:09 pm
by Eugene
Ike wrote:Typical for old windows with weights. The ones that I have taken out usually don't have a header, either. Any stud in the way of the window was just cut off above and below the window opening.Ike
I've run into this a couple of times before. Always a surprise when you open up a wall expecting typical construction - only to find something different.

I use to buy fixer upper houses then turn them into rental units.

Paid $7000- for a fixer upper. Opened up the exterior and interior walls to find then filled with plaster. The floor joists had been filled with plaster.

An old farm house that I use to own had several additions over the years. Field stone foundation. Under one end of the house was a beam made from one tree, about 24 inches thick by 36 inches tall and about 30 plus feet long supporting that end of the house. It was the only beam in the house any where near that size.

Any way back to the project. Pulled the electrical wiring for the outlets today. Decided to replace the old wiring to one outlet. Found the old electrical outlet had been hot (shorted) at one time.

Re: They don't make them like they use to.

Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 8:35 pm
by Eugene
Son and I have between 10 and 12 man hours finding the source of stray 55 volts and correcting the problem. Son had previously complained that his flourescent light bulbs only lasted a few days.

Went to son's to install the mop boards, last task to finish the living room. Found that the living room ceiling fan had fallen, smashed up pretty good. Found the hot wire to the ceiling fan had a stray 55 volts with the switchs off.

Replaced the 3-way switches to the ceiling fan, pulled new 3/12 w/ground to switches. Found that we still had the stray 55 volts. When we operated the living room light switches, the dining room ceiling light flickered for a moment.

Tracing the wiring we found a junction box in the attic with a single wire leading down to the switches on the living room wall, purpose unknown. Also found a splice in the middle of the wire feeding the living room.

Ripped out the old wiring. Cut holes in the attic floor. Knocked a hole in an alcove wall. But we gotter done.

Re: They don't make them like they use to.

Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 9:07 pm
by Winfield Dave
:applause:
Great persistence !!