“Super Storm Sandy”

Rain was already starting to fall as we patched the last of the holes in the roof Sunday afternoon.  The day before, dad helped us to add the missing flashing (where we had removed the chimney), tar suspected leaks, and install the 3rd floor window.  All of this needed to get done, but we didn’t think we’d be doing it in preparation for a massive tropical storm.  The massive storm was Sandy and it was due to make landfall only 100 miles east of us on Monday.

Having done what we could to prepare, we spent the rest of the weekend with dad, who helped us to install aluminum heat reflector paper and insulation above the bathroom, finish up the bathroom vent and wiring, get the bathroom ceiling drywall up, and plane the 1″ floor boards down to match the missing floor board on the 3rd floor.  Around 9 I got a text saying work was closed Monday so at least I could be around to keep an eye on things.

When I arrived Monday, we already had an inch or two of water in the basement.  We don’t have a sump pump so we used the shop vac to bail out the water.  After taking a few bucket loads up the stairs, I decided it was time to finally hook up the drain on the utility tub.  Throughout the day we needed to vacuum up about 30 gallons of water every hour or so.

Between vacuuming we were able to get a wall of drywall up in the bathroom.  Siri worked on the thin-set and backer board on the other half of the room.  With no insulation on the roof, the sounds of blowing wind, banging flashing and hard rain seemed even worse.

Tuesday morning we were pretty nervous coming to the house.  The news had said that the worst winds would be in the middle of the night.  Luckily the tree had not blown down, we still had power and the basement was dry; winds had changed direction in the night and stopped forcing water in the back of the house.  I was able to finish up the drywall in the bathroom, cut the floorboards to size, do a little wiring, and help Siri get more backerboard up.  We got really lucky when we cut a section of floorboards out.  I had set the depth on the saw and cut the boards and then Siri reminded me that there was PEX under that board.  Upon inspection we had missed the pex by maybe a millimeter.  Close call!

In the end we were lucky all weekend.  We had power the whole time, no downed limbs, no excessive flooding, no massive leaks; Hurricane Sandy gave me two paid days off work and we used those every hour of them.

90psi and holding…

We got a whole floor done, just the two of us, this past weekend.  We learned a whole lot along the way too.  Little things like exactly where to drill the holes in the joists, how to alternate the hoses so they don’t cross over, how to work keep the spool from binding up…. and a few others.  It was a good education in handling PEX.

The PEX has a mind of its own.

We had to learn a new lesson every joist.  The widths varying between 12″ and 24″ had us changing strategies every few feet.  The first circuit, we drilled holes on top of each other at the end of the joists.  This was not the best way.  On the 2nd circuit, we drilled them as high up as we dared next to each other.  This allowed us to alternate inside and outside hoses so we would not have any cross overs.  This resulted in a flatter layout with more parallel hoses which allowed us to use more heat transfer plates. (We got 400 plates and have 14 gaps for 3 floors (42 gaps) so…. 9.5 plates / gap).

We’ll find a board to fill that last spot. I swear!

We’ve still got two floors to go.  By the time we get to the basement we should be pretty good at this.

The sky is the limit… Miata as a truck.

This week we had a few days of uncertainty with our transportation.  Its not much, but this old not-the-best-repainted-Miata, is all we’ve got.  I’ve long said that in a Miata you can carry as much as you like: the sky is the limit.  In this photo I’m carrying a 10′ long 4×6.  Siri has also used the car to carry 10′ lengths of black pipe, 2x6s and PVC pipe.

Last Thursday, on her way to pick up some supplies, Siri’s key broke off deep in the ignition.  She managed to get it towed home for free with an auto club membership, but they wouldn’t cover a lock smith.  We experimented with some Internet advice, but those techniques didn’t even begin to work.  The first lock smith we called out on Saturday, even after bringing in more help, gave up after 4 hours.  This is when we REALLY started to worry.  After a few days of doubt, today we called a second lock smith.  It only took him a few minutes.  Although it cost us over $100, it was quite a relief to get transportation back.

Sliding in a board to save the tongue and groove.

Decades ago, when the owners of the house retrofitted it with electric, rather than tear out the laths and plaster, they cut out the tongues of the floor boards and pulled them up.  FUCKERS!  Now we have to replace those boards, but with what?

A few weeks ago we replaced the bathroom floor with 3/4″ plywood.  We saved the boards we pulled up.  Most of them are in rough shape be it termites or water damage, but that’s all we had.

We started by replacing boards with matching width donors.  They went in easy enough, but seemed to have huge gaps.  It was really a let down as a first impression.  What do we do next?

Once we cleaned all the dirt, plaster and paint from all the other gaps in the floor, we realized that these 1/8″ gaps were pretty standard.  With the doubts behind us, we forged on.  We managed to replace all the boards we had matches for.

To get down to a few final boards our friend Ian was kind enough to lend us his table saw so we could cut down some boards and add a groove so they would fit better.  This gave us enough certainty that we could move along with installing the PEX under the floors.

We still have one more floor board to go.  We’ve scoured Second Chance, a local architectural salvage company, but found no 7/8″ pine wide enough.  Might need to make it from new wood.

Several weeks ago, after finishing the bathroom subfloor, we started working on repairing the bricks. Mom and dad came to help each weekend. They brought sand, extra bricks and the know-how to get us going. Little did we know that the process would take us all month.

Weekend 1:

First up was the back bathroom wall. We started by removing all the bricks we could lift out by hand. Trouble was, they just kept coming: past the floor, down below the first floor window all the way to our bathroom drain pipe next to the lintel. Here is a photo when we had all the loose bricks out:

Missing a Few Bricks

It took all day until we ran out of sand. I’ll round up a photo of the completed wall and post it here in a bit.

Next on the list was the top of the 3rd floor wall. The lintel above the window was a 2×6 and it was sagging from the 5 courses of bricks stacked on top of it. Because of the sagging, all of the mortar on these bricks was crumbling. The header board wasn’t faring much better either. Also a 2×6, it had been sitting on wet bricks rotting for years. Running across the back wall and over the 5 foot span over the stairs, this board was no longer up to the task of supporting the roof.

To do the work, we took the weight off the roof by wedging the walls I had built under the 2×4 rafters. Same as before we removed all of the bricks we could take out by hand. This got us down to the top of the window pretty quickly. We replaced the sagging 2×6 lintel with a treated 4×6 and built back the bricks from there. On top we placed another treated 4×6 to replace the header board. Since the ends of the rafters were rotted at the ends, we decided to cut off the ends and use hangers to support the 2x4s to the new header. The header over the stairs is now strong enough to support the roof without a post in the middle really opening up the space. This process took the rest of the weekend. The end result is quite an improvement though:

That’s Better!

Weekend 2:

Next on the brick repair list was the sides of the house just under the roof. The brick walls are 2 courses thick which support two main beams (2 1/2″ x 7″ rough cut) and two secondary beams which, best I can tell, carried no load at all. Above these pockets the bricks do not carry load, but do finish up the walls up to the roof decking. These bricks were mostly sitting up there, mortar long since turned to dust and blown away. Just mortar them in and we’re done.

Before

Not so fast. We’re not going to repair the bricks and leave the roof problems unsolved. We’ve decided to add several more beams to carry the load of the roof. One on the front wall, and two more between the existing two beams. This gives us a total of 5 beams spaced 4 feet apart. We can also add more 2x4s now that we can use the front beam to carry the load at the end rather than using the pockets in the front wall. And while we were at it, we decided to brick up two courses all the way up to the header we added. This should help in a few years when we decide to support a roof deck.

A repaired corner.

Just this past Tuesday, I finally had a chance to take down the chimney. We will not be using either of our chimneys as our water heater will be sending its exhaust gasses out the side of the house with PVC pipe. Having it above the roof is just a liability. Re-roofing, waterproofing and building the roof deck will all be easier with it gone.

Once the first brick came, the rest was simple. Strangely, this is how half of the chimneys on the block look in their normal state.

Down below the roof. Ready to cut off the tar, fix the bricks and patch the hole.

Special thanks to my mom and dad for helping for on these marathon weekends for the last month. Hopefully this upcoming weekend is the last of it.