DIY Thread

Terry · Jun 19, 2006

The house is jacked up, and the top layer of stones are out. I now have to hand dig behind the other bottom stones so that we can push them back in place. We found the cause of the problem after we got into it. There was a large tree root growing right against the stones and pushed them inward.It is interesting work and amazing how they put them in there 200 years ago with only hand equipment! :beer:

Greg · Jun 19, 2006

Terry said:
The house is jacked up, and the top layer of stones are out. I now have to hand dig behind the other bottom stones so that we can push them back in place. We found the cause of the problem after we got into it. There was a large tree root growing right against the stones and pushed them inward.It is interesting work and amazing how they put them in there 200 years ago with only hand equipment! :beer:

Sounds cool. Glad you found what was causing the problem. What's the approach going to be for the root? Just cut it back and away from the foundation, or is that tree history?

Terry · Jun 19, 2006

Tree is history. Just sitting here sipping a beer and contomplating going down to dig. Was in the mid 90s and very humid today. SUCKS! I'd much rather have it 10 degrees and snowing!! :daffy:

:beer:

ctenidae · Jun 19, 2006

Terry said:
I'd much rather have it 10 degrees and snowing!! :beer:

May be the single most obvious thing anyone has said, ever.

ski_resort_observer · Jun 19, 2006

Greg....nice looking job! Is that cedar decking instead of plain old pressure treated pine? Did you consider the new synthetic stuff? Did you you use 5/4 boards or 1x, thicknesswise? Questions, questions, questions.

Greg · Jun 20, 2006

ski_resort_observer said:
Greg....nice looking job! Is that cedar decking instead of plain old pressure treated pine? Did you consider the new synthetic stuff? Did you you use 5/4 boards or 1x, thicknesswise? Questions, questions, questions.

Thanks! Yeah, I'm really happy with how it came out. Plain ole 5/4 pressure treated decking. I considered the Trex composite decking, but it would have added $1,600 to the price tag... :blink: It turned out to be about 43' x 14' off the house (16' off the garage section). I got away with building that deck for around $2,500. Not bad! Next is to rework the crappy railing the builder put on the upper deck and to add riser plates to the steps. I'm then going to add some surface mount lighting to some of the riser plates and on the joists on the lower deck where the 45's are.

Terry · Jun 25, 2006

We were at it again yesterday on the stone work. We worked the middle two stones so that they weren't bearing on the bottom stone. That was some risky business because if they tipped over you were screwed. They weigh probably at least a ton apiece. once we got them up and suppoted, we could then put a jack at an angle against the bottom stone and push it back upright. We got all three stones setting where we wanted them and braced by evening. That is where we stand now. Next sat we will dig under the bottom stone and put in big stones under it to support it from tipping over again. Then we will fill in all the voids with small stones and mortar them in place. Then we can start to back fill everything and set the house back down on it. It is very interesting work but a little nerve wracking teetering these big stones around with crow bars and jacks! :beer:

Greg · Jul 12, 2006

Terry said:
We were at it again yesterday on the stone work. We worked the middle two stones so that they weren't bearing on the bottom stone. That was some risky business because if they tipped over you were screwed. They weigh probably at least a ton apiece. once we got them up and suppoted, we could then put a jack at an angle against the bottom stone and push it back upright. We got all three stones setting where we wanted them and braced by evening. That is where we stand now. Next sat we will dig under the bottom stone and put in big stones under it to support it from tipping over again. Then we will fill in all the voids with small stones and mortar them in place. Then we can start to back fill everything and set the house back down on it. It is very interesting work but a little nerve wracking teetering these big stones around with crow bars and jacks! :beer:

Well...update?

Terry · Jul 12, 2006

We dug under the base stones and found that they weren't even close to being straight or square on the bottom so we had to devise a different plan. We put large stones under them and wedged them in tight in several spots and then dug back about 2 feet away and poured concrete up against them. That is where we left it 2 saturdays ago. Last sat I had to go to Somerville Mass to an aniversery party so no work was don that week. This sat the plan is to mortar in the joints between the stones, and also to build a pier for the ell corner to sit on. If all goes well, we should have the house back on the foundation by sat night! :beer:

hammer · Apr 12, 2007

*bump*

Can't go skiing anymore so it's time to think about projects around the house...

One thing that's been bothering me is the necessary but ugly 2' - 4' concrete retaining wall at the end of my driveway.

Aside from tearing it down, does anyone have any ideas on how to make it look better?

Greg · Apr 12, 2007

hammer said:
*bump*

Can't go skiing anymore so it's time to think about projects around the house...

One thing that's been bothering me is the necessary but ugly 2' - 4' concrete retaining wall at the end of my driveway.

Aside from tearing it down, does anyone have any ideas on how to make it look better?

Interesting that you're bumping this with such a question. I am going to be installing some retaining walls, steps and a walk in front of the house this spring. My plan is to use cinderblocks to build out the foundation and then use this product to face it:

http://www.connecticutstone.com/thinstone.asp

It's a stone veneer that's only 1.5" thick so it seems pretty easy to work with. Apply morter to the retaining wall and "stick" it on. I've seen some samples and to the untrained eye, it looks like professional stone masonry. I was considering then adding a coping of bluestone along the top of the walls and as steps, but I think I just might do that on the steps. Flat areas of the walkway will be blue stone. Perhaps this is an option for you.

I have 10 yards of top soil sitting in my front yard under a tarp right now. The plan is to use much of that to build slightly elevated beds in the front of the house. I scored all my landscaping plants from Costco of all places last weekend. I'd like to start getting that stuff in on Saturday...

hammer · Apr 12, 2007

Thanks, Greg. Doing a stone veneer sounds like a good idea, I'll look into it...

hammer · Jul 16, 2007

Bump...here's a question:

How can I remove anchor bolts like the one in the picture below? I have a bunch of these in a set of outside granite/brick steps that I have iron railings attached to, and I can't keep them from getting all rusted:

So far I've tried drilling through the top and have broken off some of it...

ctenidae · Jul 16, 2007

hammer said:
Bump...here's a question:

How can I remove anchor bolts like the one in the picture below? I have a bunch of these in a set of outside granite/brick steps that I have iron railings attached to, and I can't keep them from getting all rusted:

.

Dremmel.

My question: We're closing on a new apartment in a few weeks, and the ceiling is textured- not popcorn, but swirled and painted. Best idea I've heard so far is to skim coat it with mud to smooth it out. Any ideas?

hammer · Jul 16, 2007

ctenidae said:
Dremmel.

My question: We're closing on a new apartment in a few weeks, and the ceiling is textured- not popcorn, but swirled and painted. Best idea I've heard so far is to skim coat it with mud to smooth it out. Any ideas?

Doy you mean use the Dremmel instead of a standard drill? I need to get the portion inside the granite out...

What are you looking to do with the ceiling? I have a lot of swirled ceilings and I don't like them...they look fine at first but if any cracks appear they can be difficult to fix without looking like they are patched up.

Greg · Jul 16, 2007

Greg said:
Interesting that you're bumping this with such a question. I am going to be installing some retaining walls, steps and a walk in front of the house this spring. My plan is to use cinderblocks to build out the foundation and then use this product to face it:

http://www.connecticutstone.com/thinstone.asp

It's a stone veneer that's only 1.5" thick so it seems pretty easy to work with. Apply morter to the retaining wall and "stick" it on. I've seen some samples and to the untrained eye, it looks like professional stone masonry. I was considering then adding a coping of bluestone along the top of the walls and as steps, but I think I just might do that on the steps. Flat areas of the walkway will be blue stone. Perhaps this is an option for you.

I have 10 yards of top soil sitting in my front yard under a tarp right now. The plan is to use much of that to build slightly elevated beds in the front of the house. I scored all my landscaping plants from Costco of all places last weekend. I'd like to start getting that stuff in on Saturday...

hammer said:
Thanks, Greg. Doing a stone veneer sounds like a good idea, I'll look into it...

This project is still in process. The retaining walls are built and veneered. The walkway steps are built (concrete block) and are awaiting the veneer. I applied 160 lbs of mortar to the sides and risers of my cast concrete front steps this weekend in order to eliminate the overhand on the treads. I will start veneering the top steps this week. This ThinStone is a pretty time consuming process. With natural stone, it's like having a jigsaw puzzle with no guarantees the piece will fit. This weekend, I also installed a nice light post along the new steps. I wired it to a mechanical timer box which will turn it on/off each night.

hammer said:
Bump...here's a question:

How can I remove anchor bolts like the one in the picture below? I have a bunch of these in a set of outside granite/brick steps that I have iron railings attached to, and I can't keep them from getting all rusted:

So far I've tried drilling through the top and have broken off some of it...

I guess if you can get the ends of these removed down below the surface a bit, you can apply mortar or something over it? I doubt you'll be able to easy remove them. I used these on my deck to attach the ledger to the foundation and once you tighten them down they expand and fill the hole pretty securely. Aside from really digging them out, you'll have to work around them, I think.

ctenidae said:
Dremmel.

My question: We're closing on a new apartment in a few weeks, and the ceiling is textured- not popcorn, but swirled and painted. Best idea I've heard so far is to skim coat it with mud to smooth it out. Any ideas?

You got the right approach. The popcorn stuff is a mess, but the swirled patterns should take the compound pretty well. Sounds messy though...

ctenidae · Jul 16, 2007

hammer said:
Doy you mean use the Dremmel instead of a standard drill? I need to get the portion inside the granite out...

What are you looking to do with the ceiling? I have a lot of swirled ceilings and I don't like them...they look fine at first but if any cracks appear they can be difficult to fix without looking like they are patched up.

Yeah, like Greg said, dig it out and patch it over. Might be hard to match the concrete, though.

On the ceiling, we want it smooth. The ceiling's a little low- 8 feet +/-, so it's got to be really even. Any ideas on how much a pro would cost to come in? the apartment's about 920 sq ft, adn we'd like to get the walls done, too, but may pull out some of the drywall if the brick behind is decent.

Greg · Jul 16, 2007

ctenidae said:
Any ideas on how much a pro would cost to come in?

Boo... That's against the spirit of this thread!

hammer · Jul 16, 2007

Greg said:
I guess if you can get the ends of these removed down below the surface a bit, you can apply mortar or something over it? I doubt you'll be able to easy remove them. I used these on my deck to attach the ledger to the foundation and once you tighten them down they expand and fill the hole pretty securely. Aside from really digging them out, you'll have to work around them, I think.

Unfortunately, If I want to reattach the rails to the steps, I'll have to dig them out and replace the anchors. The anchors are in holes in the granite, so even if I just patched the holes and didn't bother with the rails I'd see the patches.

The lesson learned here is to spend the extra $$ and make sure that the new anchors are stainless steel...I think the current anchors are galvanized and the coating came off when I cleaned the rust off of the granite. :-?

Congrats on getting the retaining wall done. I'm a little leery of trying a natural stone veneer, but I guess you don't have to worry as much about the spaces being even...

Greg · Jul 16, 2007

hammer said:
Congrats on getting the retaining wall done. I'm a little leery of trying a natural stone veneer, but I guess you don't have to worry as much about the spaces being even...

Thanks. So far I think it looks okay. Not totally what I expected, but I've gotten a lot of compliments from neighbors so I guess it's coming out pretty good. I'll post pictures when I'm done. It's kind of like tiling a floor. Yeah, it looks okay after you lay the tiles, but once you grout, it's like, "ah ha! Now that looks nice!"

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