renovation « Sticks & Stones :: 802.505.5203 Greg Wallace

Archive for the ‘renovation’ Category

Dormer addition…

Sunday, July 11th, 2010

This addition was on a pre-civil war cape. The inspector dated it by the rafters, which were 4×4 timber that was sawn on a vertical blade mill instead of a circular saw mill. The old rafters were 3′ on center. Andy reclaimed the rafters to make a bunk bed for his kid. We framed the new roof up with a structural ridge. The eave wall rests on the old 8×8 timber plate. The original bedroom had a small footprint and was built in a kneewall space so it had very tight headroom which required the owners to get out of bed at the end. In addition they had a 5′ tall closet that was about 2 feet square. Now they have an additional 80 square feet with 6 feet of headroom. The two new closets are 82″ tall, 24″ deep and 44″ wide.

exterior of dormer addition after

interior of bedroom before addition

interior of bedroom after addition...a little messy at move in time. two pictures put together for this image.

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Mother in law house renovation…

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

This 600 ft2 house was originally built as a camp and then added onto. Major demo work, moving and removing walls, removing carpet, repairing subfloor.Old chimney was torn out. New plumbing. Upgraded insulation in walls and air sealing on many walls. Added a bath fan for ventilation/moisture. Blocking up doors and windows. Laid a solid wood floor and tile for the bath floor and shower surround. Still waiting on counters.

looking in from front door before

looking in from front door after

bedroom before

bedroom after

kitchen/bath area before

kitchen area after...waiting on countertops. bath is through door to right of fridge

bath area after

compact laundry and shower

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September…

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

This past month has been spent in the midst of replacement windows and some renovation work on an apartment in Waterbury. Nothing that is really visually exciting enough to be photo worthy. The lack of aesthetic excitement has turned the mind toward some of the basic issues behind the work.

When refinishing a floor it was clear that our sanding was to be the last one in the life of this 100 year old floor. SO…how best to preserve this floor? What is the greenest option? I am generally a fan of the Vermont Coatings floor finish but personally do not believe that it is anywhere near as durable as an oil based poly. So the choice was made to go with the oil knowing that when this floor needs help again it will have to be torn up. That way the wood will have a much longer useful life and that seems more important than saving the VOC and petroleum action from occuring in this case.

In the same apartment there was a tub surround that had failed due to tile on drywall accompanied by failing caulk. The question in this case was should we re-tile or replace the old set up with an acrylic unit. About the same cost either way. We decided to go for rebuilding the wall and insulating it properly followed by tile with epoxy grout. That way we eliminated the dumping of the old tub and the use of a lot of extra plastic.

These are the kinds of things that go on in the background of every job.

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