- Dan Schumacher
Go Wahoos!
Sweet sixteen bound. Louisville here we come. Besides watching a lot of basketball this week I was able to paint the trim around the windows, demolish the three top courses of the brick fireplace, and repair the crack in the wall near the fitness studio.
The trim that the window installers used only had a light coat of primer applied. I wanted to get a good coat of paint on the wood before the spring rain could do any damage. I was pleasantly surprised to find that none of the original wood showed any signs of rotting. I guess that is a testament to the quality of the wood that was used back in the 1950's. As you can see the windows are brown, the trim is a creamy white but we still have to pick a color for house. Maybe next week I will include a photograph of our top choices.
I have to construct a wall that can be insulated in front of all of the exterior walls in the basement so that we can achieve an insulation rating of R-21. This is per Washington's energy code. Since the top three courses of the brick stepped out in two directions on the fireplace I thought it would be easier to square off the brick rather than build the wall to tie into the existing conditions.
It was my first time ever using a pneumatic demolition hammer. I'm sure it was much more fun than using a hammer and cold chisel. It only took about an hour to remove all three rows of brick.
The weather finally cooperated and I was able to apply a layer of epoxy paste on the outside of the foundation of the last remaining crack. Additionally, the crack on the inside had finally dried. I think the drying out was expedited by the fact that I placed a five gallon bucket under the leak in the gutter and was able to prevent more water from seeping into the ground. I think I must of emptied that bucket at least 10 times throughout the week.
I think this crack definitely went all the way through the ten inch thick concrete wall. It took over an hour to inject a tube of polyurethane resin into the first two ports and the whole process used three tubes of resin. Glad I ordered another kit before I started.
The resin oozed out of the cracks in the wall above the last port. If you look closely you can see it made its way out from around the top plate. Thank goodness it is easy to cut away the excess that made it down to the floor.
We had to have the construction dumpster emptied a few weeks ago. Of course it was when we still had a significant amount of snow on the ground. The truck got stuck and it took the driver and I about 90 minutes to dig him out. There are three components to the cost of renting and using a construction dumpster. First is the monthly rental, second is a flat fee to pick it up and haul it to the landfill, and third a tonnage fee. Well, we just got the bill from the city of Spokane. Guess how many pounds of construction debris were in the dumpster. Less then 6,000? Between 6,000 and 8,000? Over 8,000? If you guessed over 8,000 pounds you were correct. 8,856 to be exact. Almost all of it was carried up the stairs in five gallon buckets, two at a time.
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. Until next time.
