Clubbed basement

This job is a couple years old, but I love the way it turned out. Since I have had some questions recently about wainscot, I think these pictures are appropriate. This basement started out completely unfinished. The goal was a game room and laundry area. I did the framing, brickwork, tile, wainscot, drywall, trim, painting, drop ceiling and a whole lot of other stuff (including the custom cue rack). It was a fun project.

The EPA, lead paint, and Your Older Home

Chances are, that if your home was built or remodeled before 1978 then it may contain lead based paint. This year the EPA announced a new rule that went into effect this last April. Any Repair, remodeling, or Painting (RRP) that takes place in a home built before 1978 and and disturbing more than 6 sqft of painted surface indoors requires contractors to take specific precautions, to protect homeowners and residents from lead poisoning. A number of the new requirements including testing for lead paint, getting waivers signed, providing homeowners with lead paint literature and brochures, installing plastic barriers, wearing respirators, removing waste properly, and completely cleaning up any contaminated dust.

Below is an example of the plastic barriers that I installed in a home recently. I needed to cut through 30+ sqft of double layered plaster with multiple layers of paint, in order to access some water damage from leaking plumbing. Saws and sanders create a tremendous amount of dust , so the idea is to prevent that dust from leaving the work area, ventilating it outside through a HEPA filter, and being able to roll everything up and carry it out before doing a final cleanup. Its a very time consuming and expensive process, but it can help protect people's health, and keep a home cleaner. In this circumstance, no lead based paint was found, but i wanted to protect the homeowners from the dust because of their allergies and asthma.

Soffit, fascia and gutter repair

That blizzard we had this winter did a number on a lot of homes. This house lost all the gutter fascia and soffit on the front. I managed to replace it all, only after my siding brake broke, and I spent $300 on the repair kit for it. Wear and tear on tools and equipment is expensive.

Tile shower in progress

Another bathroom that I worked on recently. It needed to be finished in a hurry so that the customer could get moved into the home. The only problem was that someone else started it, and just about everything was wrong. I had to rip out everything and start over, otherwise the shower would have started leaking in no time. I used GP's fiberglass lined backer board and redguard to water proof the shower and as a backer for the tile. In addition to the tile I redid most of the drywall and tile on the floor. I also had to heavily modify a pocket door that someone else installed that actually pocketed behind the shower, to stiffen it up and make sure everything would remain solid.

New Basement Half Bathroom

Originally an empty unfinished basement. Framing, drywall, paint, tile, then add some fixtures and now a finished bath. Tough to photograph.

Roofing in the heat.

A good friend purchased a HUD home a few weeks ago and he needed some help on his roof. Most of the house had already been re-roofed, but one section 25' by 43' still needed to be redone. As you can see, we tore off the old shingles and patched some holes in the roof decking, laid new tar paper, and then I proceeded to run all the new shingles, while the homeowner addressed the ridge vent and wall/valley flashing. We finished in time for me to leave for a wedding by 3pm, and the homeowner was able to get the flashing done before it rained the next day. It was the hottest day of the year so far, and if i stood still for more than a few seconds I would stick to the shingles.

Note to self, friends don't let friends buy shingles at Lowes.

Just a quick Deck

This was a fun project, and pretty simple. I actually spent more time driving to Annapolis to pull the permits, and driving to the lumber yard to order materials (no phone orders), than it actually took to build this deck. The HOA required the deck to be all wood construction, no synthetic decking. The steps are 5 foot wide, with a 10 foot by 22 1/2 foot frame. The homeowner and I are internet friends, and share a common love for Jesus, so it was a pleasure to work for him.

On to the pics!

Gunstock Hardwood

All this snow has given me time to do a few things that I have been putting off. One of those things was to take pictures of a hardwood floor install that I did in January. Originally the Homeowners supplied their own hardwood flooring, as seen in the before pictures, and were going to go on vacation. The plan was for me to be done by the time that they got back. Unfortunately, the material they bought at the big box, was not the material that I recommended, and it had an inferior finish and way too many defects. I could scratch through the oxide coating and stain with my fingernail in 2 passes! The material was full of beetle holes, and there was no way that I was going to install it without the Homeowners' seeing what I described. After 2 days of phone calls and voicemails, to the Homeowners, big box, my suppliers, and manufacturers, we were able to return the "Mulligan" flooring for a full refund, and get much higher quality Bruce Dundee Gunstock 2 1/4" strip flooring for almost the same price. The Bruce flooring had almost no defects in 1100 sqft, so without the waste and cull, the Homeowners actually saved money, and paid less than my original estimate. I was able to complete the job the following week after they had returned home from vacation. Not the original plan, but I sure did appreciate the pot of coffee that they made for me every morning, and the fresh everything bagels with cream cheese. Hopefully they will have me back to install the stairs to their sunroom.