Home Improvement Today?

I got up this morning to even more paint ripples, so back up into the attic went. Turns out the framed in box that makes up the chimney had 2 leaks. The “uphill” one I identified yesterday and shoved a towel in there to wick away what I could. Welp the opposite end had a nice drip that was going straight down the wall and around the window below it.



Since I couldn’t get more than my arm into the chimney area I enlisted the help of a sawzall. The spot I needed to reach was directly behind the chimney “tube” (?) way out of reach.


Once I got that 2x out of the way I was able to squeeze my torso in for a better look. Claustrophobic need not apply for this part. Saw a random 2x nailed to the underlayment that was soaked through and completely rotted. About 1 drop per minute was coming off it.



With a 2x joist digging into my ribs I stretched and was able to push a couple small gauge nails into the rotted wood to hold up a shop rag. I put that rag into a bucket and now am hoping for the best I duct taped a hose inside the bucket & zip tied it to a few studs up there so I can siphon out the bucket as needed.

 

With all that moisture I'd be renting a dehumidifier and air scrubber from HD. HOA needs to hire a pest control company with all those cobwebs in the attic.

 

building paper directly to the framing with no sheeting ?

what could go wrong ?

 

So we've had some historic coastal storms recently. I've been curious as to the status/condition of those stairs I built right along the shoreline last fall.

Was back at the property today for other work and took a stroll down to the ocean. They're still standing!! I walked up and down and they still feel solid. Most of the crushed stone and rocks I placed around the base/footing are gone and a lot of the soil along the sides is also gone. Before I poured the footing, I drove 4 pieces of rebar down until I hit solid rock. Only about 2' down max. I guess that did the trick in keeping the footing in place. Some of the soil is missing from under the front edge. Not too bad considering some of the devastation along the coast.

Before:


After:

 

Sorry: work has been all I've had time to do these past few days. The books on there made it with the help of a Little Giant ladder (crazy heavy, but rock solid sturdy). The plan was to install one of those sliding library ladders, because it would be pretty funny to have that in a space that is only 4 feet wide. However, I'm worried about the wear of the ladder on the floor, so I'm thinking of having a ladder that hangs on the little wall opposite the brick, and a rail onto which the ladder would lean when in use. THEN! I was fantasizing about having an elevator to carry us downstairs to the basement, since we're getting old and soccer destroyed my body. I was thinking I could have the floor directly in front of the shelves be the base of an elevator, maybe with some safety rails and such. BUT THE GENIUS MOVE would be to have the elevator also go up, so as to reach the high shelves!!!! Now no other solution even comes close to that. I'm sure it would be insanely unsafe to have basically a scissor lift under that bit of floor, and it would look crappy in the basement, but how awesome would it be???

I over-built the thing so much, that you absolutely could. Each shelf is doubled up 3/4 ply. The whole thing is made up of 4 separate shelf carcasses, each with doubled up 3/4 ply for the sides, with the interior ply holding up the shelves (an assembled dado, basically). The double layers were glued and screwed. I wouldn't recommend climbing up that thing, but the only thing that would break is the poor soul that decided to try that stunt. My wife gets grumpy whenever she notices that I've over-built something, because she just wants the damned thing done. My response: "you're fired, leave the job site."

If you want to build some shelves, you'll find this resource invaluable: https://woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator/.

 

An even more lazy option would be to split the top and bottom pieces and motorize the top such that it moves outward and then down and in front of the lower section at the push of a button.

But if you do that then you definitely have to make it rotate as well, providing hidden access to your bat cave on the other side or perhaps to your firearm collection or bricks of $100’s / gold bullion.

On a more serious note, for that double gang power there, you might do one conventional receptacle and one pure usb outlet. Either 4x usb A or 2x usb A and 2x usb C. I had one at the old house where we’d plug in phones and it helps with the clutter of those bricks.

 

Need a bathroom shower remodel sanity check..

Almost a year ago (when our original scope was JUST floors throughout and primary bath), I tore out the old tub and surround, then hired a plumber to come out and rework the drain and valves and shower head. Since then the scope expanded to most of the house, and the shower has been on the back burner- BUT I am now getting around to it.

Original:

Post demo and plumber:


I have my head wrapped around most of the things except one burning question I keep coming back to:

In California, can I use the green "mold resistant" (I understand that's not entirely true) drywall behind a tile shower?

The current plan (as per my understanding and you tube research) is to install a vapor barrier (plastic) to the exposed studs. Then apply either the green drywall, or Hardie backer. Finish with Redguard as the final water proofing method. I don't want to go all in on the trendy kerdie/wedie stuff. I have to make my own pre slope anyway because the drain is not in the center, but that's a whole other thing.

My primary "issue" is that the bathroom currently has 5/8" green drywall throughout, and obviously Hardie does not come in 5/8". So my thought is, if green board flys, then that's the easiest route. If it doesn't, then I need to rip a 2x in to 1/8" strips and pad the hardie out where it's installed so the finish height matches the existing 5/8" drywall.

There is no room to build a niche in any of the existing framing due to the HVAC vents, so I have to frame out the back wall (left most wall in the original picture) to get towards what we want anyway..


Not necessarily the final design or colors, but something along these lines.

 

why does the hardie backer need to match the drywall depth? any of the hardi board is going to be covered with another 3/8-1/2" in water repellent, adhesive, and tile.

 

Fair point. The drywall is open beyond the extent of the tile work though. Roughly something like this (where the dashed line represents the edge of the open drywall, and the solid line would be hardie/tile):


If I were able to use the green board throughout, It would just be less work to patch everything together.

 

Kerdi is hardly trendy , unless you think not having a moulding , leaky shower is trendy lol

 

Definitely stick with cement board/hardie board. It's designed to get wet. No on the green drywall for showers.

edit: Make sure you coat the Hardie board with a water membrane too like Redguard.

If you don't have space for a niche just place a couple of corner shelves in. Double check height with whatever size shampoo bottles you use.

 

and your floor joist looks to be basically cut in half per typical plumber installation techniques

 

Yeah, I added another 2x4 to the backside of that cut joist that spans the width of the shower before closing the subfloor up.

 

alright, I am hearing ya. No green board.

Corner shelves not approved by the boss.

 

For our hall guest bath we just picked up a redi niche from the home improvement stores and supplemented with 2 small corner shelves. Custom framing is definitely an option, but a little more work.

 

This is our primary shower, in order to get the biggest niche we can fit, we're ok with custom.

 

You can actually use **gasp** regular drywall and kerdi , that waterproofs your walls , and do a custom mud pack tray with kerdi or ditra and a Schluter drain , we do it all the time , that actually the recommended substrate for Kerdi

 

gotcha- Kerdi membrane over drywall... rather than the kerdi board. Interesting. I wouldn't rule that out.. the kerdi membrane just goes on with thinset right?

 

yes

 

Fun little project today. A customer (same one I did the stairs for) had a small section/addition (8' x16') removed from the rear of their little "beach house". They have plans for improvements/renovations this spring/summer. I believe they're dealing with the town on shoreline zoning rules. They just wanted the area where the section was connected cleaned up a bit and temporarily protected until spring. Added some plywood, 2 layers of felt paper, flattened the old flashing and lots of clear roof sealant. Attached a scrap piece of 5/4 stock along bottom edge of plywood as a stiffener/nailer. Smeared sealant on all the roofing nail heads.