baconbits

I've bent a couple intercooler fins after leaving a screwdriver up there... Wiper tray and the vents below the tray (like where the hood hinges are) become my hardware/tool holders. After remodeling my house a bit, my back pockets are increasingly becoming tool holders and the wiper tray is just for hardware.

THAT is neat. Mine'll be relatively neat but it's tough around the box. Props to that/those electricians.

No one wants to see pictures of me patching holes in drywall in a bubble gum pink room with brown shag carpet. I'm also cutting in holes for romex re-wire along with coax for TV and preparing for a future Cat6 run. I love old work, high/low voltage double gang boxes... I threw on a skim coat of drywall mud before leaving for work today. Should be able to sand one spot ready for paint but the other spot is going to need a couple more coats. Need to finish removing trim, sand as appropriate, then paint. Then pull up carpet. Then refinish hardwood. Then install trim.

I worked for a family friend's home remodeling company one summer while in college. His brother was a bit... out there... and pretty aloof most of the time. went to strip a 240v live wire and shorted it to ground. The arc worked like a plasma cutter and cut the jaws off his pliers. Most importantly, he was fine. Didn't get shocked but got a good scare out of it.

I only electrocuted myself once when re-wiring my basement after pulling out knob and tube. I want to re-wire the rest of the house as well but the knob and tube circuit layout is senseless. Front porch light, master bedroom outlets, kitchen light, hallway light, one living room outlet, and the basement steps light is one circuit for example. If anyone has a 1940s era brick house where the exterior walls are also brick framed, I'm going to need to pick your brain quite a bit. From outside to inside on my exterior walls: Brick veneer > 1" air gap > brick frame > 5/8" x 1" wide furring strips nailed to inner brick wall > 3/4" drywall The inner brick wall has holes cut in it to allow recessing of the outlet boxes. Rewiring is going to force me to run the wire between the furring strips I think which is going to require me trenching the walls to get the wire into the basement. Frustrating.

My girlfriend's dad is a realtor and knows a guy for everything so I probably got a good rate. Family owned mold abatement and home inspection company. I had him out and he went over everything... containment barriers with HEPA filtration.

Considering all they're doing, it's not as bad as I thought. Decontaminating a 24x14 room including exterior walls (2x14 and 1x24), demolishing the remaining framed 24' wall, decontaminating another 20 feet of wall in another part of the basement, demolishing (but leaving plumbing and fixtures) of a half bathroom with mold in the walls, and pulling up 400sqft of carpet (along with decontaminating the floor)... removal of debris, etc etc etc... all for about $2600. I have already fixed the source of the water - two glass block windows had the bottom layer of mortar either completely or partially crumble away. I've patched them and the basement has since gotten noticeably drier since, even with 3 feet of snow melt and nearly a week of rain. The carpet down there used to get squishy soggy during snow melts and heavy rains but I had no idea where the water came from.

I decided to call in a mold professional. I found roughly 40 feet of floor-to-ceiling mold (7.5 foot basement ceiling) among other mold-related things (musty carpet, etc)... WAY over my head in terms of work and time needed. He's coming in on the 10th and 11th of April and should be done in less than 2 full days. Now that the basement man cave project is on hold, I'm going to start painting the main floor, pulling up the 70's shag carpet, and refinishing the original 40's oak hardwood.

I lived in the house for a couple years before I bought it... he could've found the knob and tube under the drop ceiling but wouldn't have found the mold without pulling the wall out. It'd be nice for some stuff, I'll give you that. Live and learn, etc.

No inspection for me... house was sold privately between family members so the bank didn't require it. Some of the 10-3 I pulled down had burn marks on the outer insulation... glad I got that out of there.

Not to take over the thread, but I've been toiling away in the basement... one project spawns three, then those each spawn two more... the life of a homeowner, right? As soon as I started pulling down the 1/8" faux wood paneling, I was overcome with a smell of a garden or moist dirt... panel finally comes off the wall and what do I find? Mold. Lots. I pulled about linear feet of paneling off and each one had mold. Luckily, I found the source of the mold pretty easily - the bottom layer of mortar on one of my glass block windows was completely gone. I had dirt and even three leaf clovers in my basement. Cleaned that out as well as I could and while it was in the 50s here last week, packed that bish full of fresh mortar. Seems to be holding up... needs some touch up but all I was going for at this point was stopping the water. I'd post pictures but I'm horribly embarrassed by it. After that mold find stopped me, I started pulling down the ceiling. It was a wood... foam... almost. It was kind of like drop ceiling tiles but made of wood fiber instead. I was afraid it was asbestos at first but I'm fairly certain it's not. Finding the K+T and realizing half-modern electrical was run connected to the paneling (no idea what/where it's tied into a circuit) stopped me. Found knob and tube wiring above this ceiling. Pulled a drop ceiling down, more knob and tube. About half of my house is K+T and the rest is romex. The basement (three outlets, two light fixtures) and the kitchen fridge (1940s wiring brilliance) was on a single circuit, which then had 10-3 hacked into it to add more outlets and a couple light fixtures to a workshop area. Disconnected that garbage at the panel and set to tearing it out. $100 bucks later at Lowe's, I had a 250ft roll of 12-2 romex, a couple single gang and double gang steel junction boxes and cover plates, a couple new work plastic single and double gang boxes, connectors for romex going into metal boxes, a circuit tester, a proximity sensor (works like a stud finder somewhat... hold it close to a wire, it beeps if it's live), wire nuts, wire staples, and a 3/4" spade bit. Ran new wiring and intelligently laid it out (engineer in me). I'm about 90% done after working on it for 22 hours over the weekend. All I need to do is buy two new lights for the shop area (not reusing old ones), some more double gang covers for junction boxes, and connect it to the panel. Four florescent light fixtures (2 bulbs each, those 3-footers or whatever), a single 60w fixture for a half-bath, two outlets, and the fridge should be good on a 20A breaker... there was more connected to a 15A on the knob and tube. I realize it's not to code (outlets separate from lighting) but this is what was there before. When I overhaul the basement after I'm done with demo, I'll split everything up maybe. Pictures are all on my phone... I'll see if I can get some up here. Unfortunately, no pictures of the K+T mess aside from it sitting in separated piles - aluminum K+T wire in one, 10-3 and scrap 12-2 in another - along with all the old ceiling tiles and rails.

I work in the automotive aftermarket too and a lot of times, we don't have updates daily unless you're content with "We did some testing today" and nothing else.

Solidworks ftw That core is huuuuugggeee

Painted with about 30 layers.

Got a friend like that. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable burning a bunch of this stuff either. How to dispose of a drop ceiling?

They're kind of built into the wall... it's like a wall of cabinets. Not normal cabinets like in a kitchen.

The multiple bag idea is what I think I'm going with. A lot of what I'm pulling down is 1/8" paneling veneer stuff that is pretty much dry rotted, old carpet, and some cabinets. The cabinets might take a while but I can cut that up and put it in bags. Everything else could easily be broken up. Not much of value. Did a little looking around on the city website... we have those automated pickup garbage cans (just one for trash) so I thought we couldn't do bulk pickup with many bags. It seems as though I could put out 2-3 a week and get away with it just fine, in addition to the normal can.

Yeah... Home Depot by me sells those Bagster things. I was thinking about that for when I start doing framing and drywall and stuff... right now I need to get rid of some furniture the seller left behind. I checked with the city website and they'll take furniture (as long as it's not a FULL sectional couch or an assembled king bed) so I think I'm good for that stuff. I'll probably try and neatly pile the demo waste somewhere in the basement and then get a Bagster or something and take it all out at once. Problem with the Bagster is that it's $30 for the bag and then $130 for them to come pick it up.

Pictures inbound soon. Closed on the house on 12/27 and just now getting around to demo planning. How do you guys dispose of your construction waste? I can't put it in my normal garbage cans due to shear volume.

Oops... my b.

They've posted some updates on facebook. They have a prototype mounted on a test engine... looks mighty nice. Appears to be for WRX/LGT fitment and will allow stock turbo (flange) or STI style turbo use... it has a Y pipe on the underside like the STI guys.

Looks good... like the dark color.

That's a lot of sanding... how'd you do it?

My front yard is mounted like that, so that'll work. I think I'm going to put a patio in the back of the house (copy off the neighbors LOL) which will give me some time to check out any drainage issues.

I like how you use bricks for the edging. Might have to steal that idea.