Monday, April 03, 2006
Once more into the breach
All remodeling begins with a good foundation. Mine was no exception. Long before any of the glamorous work began I found myself in a dark and frightening place- the crawl space. Accessed by a tiny opening in the cellar the crawl space was a place of wonder, specifically me wondering how the hell I was supposed to crawl around in there. Back in the day when child labor was fashionable the space must have seemed ample. Its ok if the floor joist are just 3 inches off the dirt, a five year old could crawl between them, boxed in on both sides. Tie a rope to their feet and give a yank when they yell. While not a over-large man, their was no way I was going to make it to accomplish the list of tasks that needed to be done.
Task List:
-Plumbing, replace everything not copper
-Heating, heat ducts and vents
-wiring, anything still attached to a ceramic insulator has to go
-Leveling, did you know untreated wooden posts rot when you set them on dirt?
Not going to happen, I tried. I wedged my shoulders in nice and tight, and when I yelled something did yank on my foot, trouble is I was alone. Only one solution, I had to tunnel. I started by cutting a larger opening in the concrete of the cellar wall. I highly recommend those diamond blades for skill saws. Burned up 4 saws cutting through various barriers but the blade is going strong. Best $14 I ever spent. Long story short cutting began what would turn into weeks of digging after work each night, on my knees or belly filling five gallon buckets then hauling them out through the kitchen. I would try to do 14 a night, doesn't sound like much but on your knees with no leverage its a lot more than you think. As I got in farther output dropped as just getting them to the opening was hard work. At one point I even built a 20' section of hokey track to make it easier. Two buckets on a cart and give it s shove. Worked great. 100's of buckets later I had filled a section of my yard 6-8 inches deep and I could go where I needed to go under the house. Its not a freeway down there but I can get around dragging duct, pipe, wire whatever. Cool things found under the house: Bullets, ceramic marbles, eye glasses and a cat, well I think it was a cat. Hard to tell at this point if you know what I mean. Still down there, god protect his furry little soul.
Task List:
-Plumbing, replace everything not copper
-Heating, heat ducts and vents
-wiring, anything still attached to a ceramic insulator has to go
-Leveling, did you know untreated wooden posts rot when you set them on dirt?
Not going to happen, I tried. I wedged my shoulders in nice and tight, and when I yelled something did yank on my foot, trouble is I was alone. Only one solution, I had to tunnel. I started by cutting a larger opening in the concrete of the cellar wall. I highly recommend those diamond blades for skill saws. Burned up 4 saws cutting through various barriers but the blade is going strong. Best $14 I ever spent. Long story short cutting began what would turn into weeks of digging after work each night, on my knees or belly filling five gallon buckets then hauling them out through the kitchen. I would try to do 14 a night, doesn't sound like much but on your knees with no leverage its a lot more than you think. As I got in farther output dropped as just getting them to the opening was hard work. At one point I even built a 20' section of hokey track to make it easier. Two buckets on a cart and give it s shove. Worked great. 100's of buckets later I had filled a section of my yard 6-8 inches deep and I could go where I needed to go under the house. Its not a freeway down there but I can get around dragging duct, pipe, wire whatever. Cool things found under the house: Bullets, ceramic marbles, eye glasses and a cat, well I think it was a cat. Hard to tell at this point if you know what I mean. Still down there, god protect his furry little soul.
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Oh, yeah, we have an ex-something in our crawl space, too. Our space seems to have been widened when they did the additions, which was in the 70s sometime. We got lucky. Whee!
We used pex for our plumbing, because we had the old nasty stuff. It was AWESOME to work with. Don't know if you can get it anywhere over there, though...
I'll be linking to you this evening!
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We used pex for our plumbing, because we had the old nasty stuff. It was AWESOME to work with. Don't know if you can get it anywhere over there, though...
I'll be linking to you this evening!
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