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DIY Thread
- Thread starter Greg
- Start date
As long as you did the gouging of your eyes yourself and didn't pay someone else to do it then I fail to see how it goes against the spirit of the thread...
hammer
Active member
So are you the type of person who is dangerous around all tools, not just power tools?
I'll admit that I'm definitely among the DIY-challenged...:dunce:
ctenidae
Active member
Depends on your definition of "dangerous". Usually I go well beyond the original scope of the project. One of the happiest days of my wife's life was when my Dremmel broke.
That doesn't sound right...
hammer
Active member
I get your meaning...unfortunately, I'm the other type of dangerous...
ctenidae
Active member
So, here's a list of what we plan to do to our new place, once we move in:
Hardwood floors throughout (tile and carpet now)
Expose brick, paint walls, redo ceiling
Kitchen: new counters (concrete, perhaps), new cabinets (may build ourselves) new appliances, convert to gas
Bathroom: move wall 1 foot, new sink and floor
Patio: remove most of the panters (gaining 3 feet), possibly redo brick
That's the short list.
Hardwood floors throughout (tile and carpet now)
Expose brick, paint walls, redo ceiling
Kitchen: new counters (concrete, perhaps), new cabinets (may build ourselves) new appliances, convert to gas
Bathroom: move wall 1 foot, new sink and floor
Patio: remove most of the panters (gaining 3 feet), possibly redo brick
That's the short list.
Marc
New member
I would've guessed it'd be the other way around.
ctenidae
Active member
Exactly.
So, anyone know anything about heating? Place has electric baseboard, which I'd like to replace with newer more efficient stuff. Hydronic, ceramic, flush mount fan, I'm almost overwhelmed. Standard baseboard stuff sticks out and makes furniture placement tough, and there's no "cool" design to any of them. At the same time, I worry that the flush mount fan heaters won't pack much punch...
Marc
New member
It's an apartment.
Wait til you're neighbors are gone for the weekend, then knock a hole into one of their coat closets from your unit and install a duct + fan.
Problem solved.
Marc
New member
In all seriousness, if you're spending the time and effort to put in hardwood floors, spend the extra for radiant in floor. Serious.
tree_skier
New member
you are not supposed to put radiant under solid wood flooring. You can put it under laminate put stay away from under solid wood.
Marc
New member
Why not? Never heard that. I know two homes with it, one with maple floors, the other with oak.
http://www.selfbuildabc.co.uk/building/underfloor-heating.htm
http://www.radiantpanelassociation.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=145
The only problem I'd see is if the wood is wet on install, the heat may dry out the floor faster and cause it to warp or crack. If the wood is sufficiently dry as it should be, I don't see an issue.
ctenidae
Active member
The difficulty lies in getting hardwood that can handle it. laminates work best, but I hate them- easy to install, sure, but so obviously laminate it hurts. Getting a stable enough floor at a reasonable price could be tough.
Plus, the radiant systems are kind of expensive, up front. We'd have to go with electric, since we can't lose the 2+ inch buildup needed for hydronic. It'd cost $1000+ to put radiant in the living room, though with a tile floor already there as a heat mass, it could be very efficient. I'm exploring some NSTAR and EnergyStar programs that could give a rebate (up to $1500!) for following reccomendations. Radiant heat is 30%+ more efficient than baseboards, so that's a possibility.
Maybe baseboards in the bedroom, and radiant in the living room/kitchen.
ctenidae
Active member
tree_skier's right- solid wood floors are not generally recommended. There are ways around it, though, but it involves a lot of conditioning and time, which may be worth it.
tree_skier
New member
Here is one company statements
http://www.hoskinghardwood.com/radiant-heat/default.asp
basically as a synopsis laminate will come with the manufactures warranty while if you put solid over radiant it voids the manufactures warranty. They will only install quatersaw (much more expensive) over radiant, and provide no warranty. Solid wood flooring is a lifetime floor, there are some that are over 300 years old. The expansion and contraction allong with uneven moisture content caused by radiant heat can ruin the floor. yes it can be done for example my brother in law did it and so far has lasted 2 years however my neighbor who is a master carpenter didn't and has said he's replaced a number of floors that warped/bubbled from the radiant heat.
http://www.hoskinghardwood.com/radiant-heat/default.asp
basically as a synopsis laminate will come with the manufactures warranty while if you put solid over radiant it voids the manufactures warranty. They will only install quatersaw (much more expensive) over radiant, and provide no warranty. Solid wood flooring is a lifetime floor, there are some that are over 300 years old. The expansion and contraction allong with uneven moisture content caused by radiant heat can ruin the floor. yes it can be done for example my brother in law did it and so far has lasted 2 years however my neighbor who is a master carpenter didn't and has said he's replaced a number of floors that warped/bubbled from the radiant heat.
smitty77
New member
Not when it comes to plaster. Unless you've already got skills or find you really have the knack from the start, get a pro. You'll see every bump and ripple in that ceiling every day of your life. A good pro will do it 5 times faster and 10 times better.
My father-in-law built his own house, and also worked in the building construction industry for 30 years, finishing his career as a Clerk of the Works for the state of MA, overseeing construction of school and couthouses mostly. He once asked a professional plasterer (and friend) how he would fair doing his house himself:
Plasterer: "How many closets do you have."
Father-in-law: "5. Why?"
Plasterer: "Because that's where you'll learn how to plaster. You'll probably do them twice before you're happy enough with the results to attempt anything in public view."
I sheetrocked, taped, and mudded my basement myself. Next time I'm getting a pro to do the mudding. It took a lot longer than I expected to get the results I expected, and I didn't do the ceilings.
Just my humble opinion.
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I found the key to mudding walls is to not work it too much. Throw it up there and leave it. I used to get anal with it and tried to get a perfect result right away. Better to slap a coat up, let it dry, scrape the high spots and then repeat. Perhaps a third coat and then sand it.
I'm in agreement on the "slap it up method" one of the first projects we undertook in our old place was to peel off 7 layers of wall paper in an upstairs bedroom. By the time I had stripped the walls,spackled and resurfaced them in preperation for primer.I realised it would have been easier to tear out the sheetrock and start from scratch.
smitty77
New member
Edit: When I was referring to my father-in-law plastering, I meant a full skim-coat.
Totally correct. Put it on, run the trowel over it, maybe twice, then leave it. But I've seen the pros at work and they do it so much better and in about 1/4 of the time. With all of the small walls here and there (a pantry, a closet, an "alcove" for the TV, a computer nook, etc) in my basement and the associated corners, and the sloped portion following the stairway.... It took a lot longer than I expected. It came out nice... just time consuming. The sanding is the sucky part, but they make a nice wet system for the shop-vac now. Saw that little gem at Home Depot about 2 months after I finished the project. I didn't know such a beast existed for the homeowner.
For the ceilings I'd have it skim-coated. You can mud and tape the joints only, but the texture always looks different (at least to me) after it's painted, especially with that flat-looking ceiling paint. Now if you're going for a swirled or otherwise textured ceiling, knock yourself out. No reason you can't do that yourself with minimal practice.
ctenidae
Active member
The ceiling is swirl textured now, which is what we want to eliminate. Once we get in, I'm going to chip at some of it and see what exactly we're dealing with, but I may pull it all down, put up 3/8 or 5/8 drywall, and see how it goes. Worse comes to worst, I'll get a plaster guy to come in and fix it.
On a side note, I ran across Disign Workshop, a cool program that lets you "build" the space, change lighting, and walk through it. Pretty cool. I've only started playing with it, and the textures and color options seem a little limited, but it's got potential. At least, enough to keep me playing with it for a month until I can play with the actual space.
