Totally Tubular I

Viega Manabloc

This weekend I'm focusing on putting in the new Viega Manabloc water distribution manifold. Over the next week, I should be removing old galvanized trunk plumbing and installing home run PEX plumbing. The first part is getting the manifold mounted. 

Allow me to vent a little...

This started as a test picture, but I like it.

I added some roof vents, among other projects, over the weekend. On my two roofs, which previously had no real ventilation, I installed three inlet Pop Vents and three exhausting Aura Vents. Supposedly the louvers on the Aura Vents create an "accelerated exhaust" which sucks out more air through the Venturi effect with no moving parts. I first looked at them when investigating flat roofs for a previous house I was thinking of purchasing. My roof isn't quite flat, but fairly close. I would guess that it is 2-12 or 3-12. 


My goal was to provide adequate, long lasting ventilation without needing power. I looked at solar powered vent fans, but decided they were far too expensive for my budget. Using the FHA 1/300 rule, I calculated that I needed around 1.5 Aura Vents and 1.5 Pop Vents for the upper roof and 0.5 Aura Vents and 0.5 Pop Vents for the lower roof. I doubted they would have much functionality if I cut them in half, so I ordered 3 of each (2/2 up and 1/1 down) from Home Depot's website. 


The installation was fairly straightforward, though the packages from Home Depot weren't very helpful. I knew they were manufactured by Active Ventilation Products, so I used the instructions on their website. In summary:


1: Cut the holes. I started with a 3/8" drilled hole, marked a circle with a template I made and followed that with a reciprocating saw. The upper roof was a little bit of a gamble. The roof joists ran in such a way, since I can't get in the attic, that I couldn't measure their location. I knocked around and listened for hollow spots to guesstimate their location and cut. I shaved about 1/16" off of two of them. 

My roof has a pretty good view of the downtown skyline.

2: Lay a base layer of roofing cement 

Note: If you work like me, the trowel will probably be so caked that you'll want to toss it afterwards. I found  my pointing trowel good for scraping the sides of the can, but not so great for this job otherwise (and also ruined).

3: Position vent and fasten with nails or screws

4: Seal with roofing cement: After placing an initial layer of cement over the vent flashing, I added asphalt glass fabric mesh to make a better long-term seal over the screws and edges before putting on the rest of the cement. For 6 14" vents, I scraped the bottom of two gallon cans of roofing cement

It's a little ugly, but I think it will stay sealed. I'll check on it regularly to make sure, unless you can see  that I obviously have bad craftsmanship.

Everything took about 6-8 hours over two days. The first day had a record-breaking high temperature in the 90s, so I didn't get much done until later in the day. The second day topped out around 80, which was about perfect for what I was doing. Now I don't have to worry about my attic getting too moist or too hot just because it's unvented. I hope that the squirrels don't come back next year.

Repost: Young House Love's Cheap Blue Stools

These stools are awesome...especially for $39 each. Check them out and how they did it at Young House Love. I think I would have liked the seats to remain cork-looking, but they're still a great idea.

Joisting Match

That's what the last section of boards under my joists looked like. These are two of the chunks I cut out. They look heavily rotted and/or eaten. I think this was all past damage. I didn't see any evidence of bugs in the wood, so if they were there, they've probably been gassed. I also didn't find any water water. Even though it hasn't actually rained recently, I feel that the concrete cap that was at some point placed around the first couple of feet of the exterior walls should keep water out. I've also worked on the grading to make sure water isn't pooling around there.

Now I just need to put this exhaust flue back together and lay brick to fill in this hole. The floating joists are temporarily held up with a couple of jack posts, though I may make them more permanent once I have the new bricks in place. I almost feel like cutting out more of the boards that were rotted away, but it looks like the boards are healthy starting where I stopped cutting. Also, I don't need to spend all my time doing this brick by brick in one room.

Joist For Fun

It seems this can result with unnoticed water penetration. The leaks are long gone, but nobody fixed the results.

Today I worked on getting prepared for some brick work that needs to be done. This is in the East room that is currently torn apart. Obviously it has no floor. Right now the ceiling has been removed as well. While removing the wainscoting, this corner lost some bricks. This morning I removed the fallen bricks, then scraped mortar and vacuumed. 


After that, I could get a good look at the joists in that corner. The last three joists were considerably lower in that corner. I thought I would just sister them and build up the subfloor to flat above. However, after seeing what's in the picture below, I decided to jack them up and make sure they're sitting on a solid foundation. 

Results of former half-hearted repairs.

It might be hard to see in the picture above, but the joist on the left is sitting on two semi-rotten 2x4 boards stacked on top of each other. The middle joist is partially rotted on the very end so that it only has less than an inch on the foundation. The joist on the right was rotted back further so that it almost seemed like it was barely on the joist. 

Now that the joists are raised and sistered, these water pipes will make removing the rotten 2x4 boards quite fun. The pipes are likely to be removed soon for a re-plumbing project. 

Unfortunately, this last joist also has the house entry for the two gas lines drilled through the middle and, therefore, cannot be raised. Considering this, I decided to use raise the left two joists to rebuild the foundation underneath. Another trip to Home Depot and I came home with two new jack posts and three four-foot joist pieces to sister to the ends to make sure they don't slip off. After some post wrestling and cursing in the cellar, during which I had a scare when the right-most joist actually slipped off the foundation, I had two of three joists jacked to level. Next, I sistered the three of them and replaced the subfloor (still temporary). 

Jacked and sistered

Stacking Seats

Free Stacking Seats

I couldn't help myself. After my run the other day, I noticed that someone was throwing out a bunch of seats similar to the Eames stacking chair. After I got home and changed, I drove over and snagged them. There are probably around thirty seats in total with no bases. Most of them are the yellow and green you see here, plus a couple somewhere between yellow and tan. Some have a little damage, but they're mostly intact.

I don't really have a plan for them at the moment, but I felt that they would be wasted in the trash. I might make a couple of yard benches out of them. Perhaps I'll make them stacking chairs so I can have unique dining and overflow seating. I have a feeling that I'll give some of them away, but for now they'll probably be stored in the cellar. At the moment I don't really have time or space for projects such as this.

Canvas & Canvas @ designsponge

I would love to have a chair like this. It's from a designsponge post I just happened to see today. I don't think I could find a base like that and I don't currently have the skill-set to make one. Maybe I'll come up with something to turn one of those into this.

No Termites!

Beats turning the house into a circus tent.

I had found evidence of what I thought was termite frass in the upstairs apartment. After the tech from EnviroPest took a look,  he informed me that I didn't have termites. I didn't even have carpenter ants. It turns out it was just black carpet beetles, which eat keratin.