Saturday's progress

I think I started on the most intricate wall first. A worked on this for another few hours and I was feeling pretty good about how things are going. I'm even using a toolbelt now.

One note... I had to remove the wire that runs to the range in the kitchen. It's a really thick wire and I could fit the studs in when it was stapled down. I will probably have to re-route this through either the studs or joists later.

Friday night is wall night

Success... almost. Here's my first wall up. Not bad for a couple of hours. A skilled carpenter probably would have done it in one quarter the time. But at least it's a start. While I was taking pictures I noticed that I forgot to put in the stud underneath the window.

My first problem

So Thursday night I started actual construction but didn't get too far. With Tracy's help I chalked out the wall locations on the floor. I then started to fasten the bottom plates to the concrete floor using 3 1/4" long Tapcons. That's when my frustration began.

So I place the pressure treated bottom plate on floor and line it up with the chalk. I then grabbed my brand new Black and Decker Hammer Drill equiped with the appropriate masonary bit (included in my box of 100 Tapcons). The hole wasn't that hard to drill but it was kind of loud and shook my hands pretty good. I even set the depth gauge to 3 1/2" (leaving 1/4" extra as noted in my materials). I then vacuumed out the dust from the hole and drove in my very first Tapcon using my Skil Cordless Drill. The first one went in no problem.

I then went to the other end of the plate to secure it so it would move. I drilled the hole, vacuumed it out, started screwing in the Tapcon... then suddenly at the bottom I heard a snap. Uh Oh. The Tapcon snapped off in the hole. I tried to imagine why this happened and quickly decided that I had a defective screw. So I tried again.

And again snap. So now I was baffled... there is no way I had defective screws in a row. I was also getting concerned that I would have all these broken screws in my floor. So I went online to find out the solution and I tried some of the solutions.

Solution #1... using the hammer drill to drive in the Tapcon. WRONG. When I did this it just stripped the screw.

Solution #2... changing the torque setting on my cordless drill. WRONG. When I did this the screw just wouldn't go in far enough.

Through trial and error and after wasting about five Tapcons, I figured out how I could make it work. I had to drill the hole 1/2" deeper than the Tapcon and I also had to drill out the dust many times before screwing in the Tapcon (the vacuum wasn't getting enough dust out). One other thing to note is that I did have to reduce the torque setting on my cordless drill. I had the torque set to the highest setting This would prevent the Tapcon from breaking when I drove it in.

Eventually I managed to get the bottom plates for the back wall secured.

Demo pics

Here are some pictures of what my basement looks like right now. I tore out the old insulation and vapour barrier where the new walls are going in. I also removed the wall and door coming into the basement. I stapled some old sheets to the wall to keep the cat out.

I finished cleaning up the mess and started to chalk out the walls. I'm also trying to put together the electrical layout and start to work on the electrical permit.







Tonight I hope to get my first wall up.

Building Codes

Last night I was reading through the building code looking for minimum lengths for the tapcons. Here are some of the pertinent codes to consider when finishing a basement in Ontario. See my personal notes in italics. I probably should have read through the code during the design phase but better late than never. I just wanted to review so I don't have to rip anything up afterwards.

Basement ceiling height

• 2 100 mm (6'11") over at least 75 per cent of the basement area except that under beams and ducts the clearance is permitted to be reduced to 1 950 mm (6'5")

My ceiling height will be 7'1" and the ducts will be around 6'7".

Door minimums for basement

• width 810 mm (32")height 1 980 (6'6")

Originally I had priced out a 30" door but after seeing the note on my building permit I quickly changed it to 32". It's important that I caught this early because the frame for a pocket door is twice the size as a regular door.

Windows

• By code aren't required in a basement with electric lighting

Smoke Alarms

• there is at least one smoke alarm on each floor level, including basements, that is 900 mm or more above or below an adjacent floor level

I already have two smoke alarms on the basement level.

Bottom plates

• wood framing members that are not pressure-treated with a wood preservative and that are supported on concrete in contact with the ground or fill shall be separated from the concrete by not less than 0.05 mm polyethylene film or Type S roll roofing.

It's was nice to actually read this in the code and it confirms that I have this covered... I will have both pressure-treated wood and 6mil polyethylene.

Nail lengths

• Floor joist to plate – toe nail Minimum Length of Nails, 82 mm (3 1/4") 2 nails
• Stud to wall plate (each end) toe nail Minimum Length of Nails, 62 mm (2 1/2") 4 nails or end nail Minimum Length of Nails, 82 mm (3 1/4") 2 nails
• Interior walls to framing or subflooring Minimum Length of Nails, 82 mm (3 1/4") Maximum Spacing of Nails, 600 mm (o.c.) (2')

I was originally looking for 3 1/2" nails for the framing and 4 1/4" tapcons for the bottom plates. I considered using 2 3/8" nails for the framing gun but in the end my choice of 3 1/4" was perfect. I had trouble finding 4 1/4" tapcons and decided on 3 1/4". Bottom line get at least 3 1/4" nails and screws. Not sure about drywall screws.

Bracing and Lateral Support

• Bracing is not required where the walls are clad with panel-type siding, diagonally sheathed with lumber, or sheathed with plywood, OSB, waferboard, gypsum or fibreboard sheathing.

I have seen a few Web sites that used bracing in the basement. I wasn't planning on bracing and now I glad I won't have to. That would have increased my lumber costs slightly.

Lighting for Recreation rooms

• Minimum Illumination, lx 100
• Minimum Lighting Power Density, W/M2 of floor area (incandescent lighting) 10

I will be calculating my light using W/M2 (watts per square meter).

1 meter = 3.280 feet

10 watts / 3.280 feet

I have roughly 280 square feet and that means that I will need about 860 total watts in the room. My light are 50W so that means I'll need 18 lights total. I have originally priced out or 12 light and I will need to add another pack of 6 thus increasing my costs by $87.50 plus tax.

I'm not sure this will impact how many new switches I need on my electrical board but I'll figure that out later.

Demolition

Last night I continued day two of the demolition. I tore down the one existing wall and door. It will probably take one more evening (tonight maybe) to finish cleaning up the mess. That means that my estimate for demo time of 3 days was very accurate.

As soon as the wall was down it changed the whole feeling in the basement. It opened it up but more important the flow was improved. I think Tracy and I are both looking forward to the end result now more than ever because we can feel the difference.

Ripping stuff down also revealed how poorly the house was built in the first place. Here's a short list:

• bottom plates aren't well fastened
• some top plates are split or weren't nailed properly
• drywall had nails in some spots and screws in other spots

I might have to redo some of the existing work particularly around the wall I removed. I might even have to redo some of the electrical work so it runs through the new walls. I guess the BI will let me know during the framing inspection.

I think that by the end of this week I will some some framed walls up. Although it supposed to be really nice weather for the next few days and I do have some other work I need to do outside (like raking up the leafs).

Time to get to work

Saturday morning at around 8am I got a call from The Home Depot delivery guy stating he would be by between 8:30 - 8:45am to deliver all my stuff minus the pressure treated bottom plates (8 @ 2 X 4 X 8). Apparently they are out of stock. It's not a big deal because I can pick up 8 myself.

He showed up exactly when he said he would and in a few minutes he had a skid of insulation placed in my garage and another skid of lumber and drywall in my driveway. I thought for a second he was going to try and put the lumber/drywall skid in my garage too but no so. He informed me that a standard garage opening is 7'10" and obviously my 8' long material wouldn't make it through. It didn't matter to me anyway because I was going to bring the lumber inside that day.

At 9am Tracy and I got started moving the building materials. By 10:30 we had moved 83 studs into the basement through the window, 9 bundles of insulation to the back of the garage and 19 sheets of drywall to the side of our garage. I also moved the pocked door frame and vapour barrier to the basement. I eyeballed every stud and made two piles... straight ones and wonky ones. I had to move all this stuff around because I want to park my car in the garage. It's getting closer to winter and I don't want to have to scrape my windows in the morning. Here's the pics:

Lumber, Pocket door, vapour barrier


Insulation


Drywall


My car just barely fits.

Later in the afternoon I picked up the remaining 8 pieces of pressure treated lumber and a box of Tapcons. FYI Tapcons are the special concrete screws that will be used to fasten the plates to the concrete slab. I bought a box of 100 screws and it comes with the drill bit to predrill the holes.

Side note on PT lumber
Apparently I don't necessarily need to use pressure treated (PT) lumber for the floor plates as long as I put some vapour barrier between regular lumber and concrete to protect the wood from moisture. The Home Depot guy also suggested these pink foam strips as an alternative. I thought about it but then realized that the cost of the pink stuff was a little higher than PT lumber. So my plan is to use vapour barrier underneath and PT lumber. It's a little more expensive but at least I know the bottom of our walls won't rot.


Sunday night after enjoying a relaxing day of watching football I started removing the old insulation. It was pretty easy and the bundles of remnant folded up nicely. I threw them in garbage bags in preparation for a curbside disposal. My plan is to put out an extra garbage can of home reno crap every week that way I wouldn't need to drive all the way out to the dump in Barrhaven.

I'm ready to demo the remaining wall and start layout out the plates. Now the real work begins, wish me luck.


FYI, I'm already late according to my own workplan... can you tell I work for the government. It's only one week and I should be able to make it up during the framing phase.