A Little Bit Of Fixed Framing

Earlier I posted this pic about some bent wall studs.

After much discussion with my SE it was decided that it would be a good idea to rebuild the wall 'correctly'.
This is at the dividing line between the old and new parts of the house...well, sorta... I didn't realize that the original house had a little bump-out in the back here...possibly for a covered back porch or stair well (more on this later....)

First I had to adjust the main soil stack for the two studio apartments.
You can see in this pic that its run goofily into the wall plane?

This is another instance where I want to slap the PO...there's going to be lots more to come don't worry.
The entire reason for this wonky plumbing is that they cut the vertical pipe that comes down from the ceiling about 6" to short...so instead of just adding some length they used a wacky combination of angles to 'make it work'.

The fix.

 Actually all I did was remove one 45 deg piece and use two longer couplings.
Its not perfect there will be some 'lippage' that might collect some 'solids' but I think the nice continuous slope will probably work in my favor.

Now on to actually fixing the wall.

A very important beam intersects this wall and it wasn't really being supported at its end by anything more than a single overloaded 2by4...

So, out comes the 3 ton car jack and I give the beam a little lift.

Then where there was really no serious support for this beam I installed a 4by6 post.

Then with the addition of some #1 s-dry studs from Economy Lumber the wall was done!

All the studs are vertical and not bowed!
Its a weird set-up on this wall. This wall is load bearing to the left of the post but not the right.
Here's a closeup of the opening where I hope the HVAC plenums will fit through.

While I was 'at it' I finished installing the foundation bolts along this oh so important wall for shear strength.

I had to use the slotted washers on the existing bolts as they were very off center. I love that the slotted washers cost more than the standard and you have to use an additional washer on each one.

Header Screw up.
The triple 2by8 header I built has developed a crack...

Here's a closer-up shot.

I showed this to my BI and he said basically, not to worry!!!
I used seriously wet wood to build this and its shrunk as its dried out in the basement.
I don't get my local 'real' lumber yard. They keep all their standard framing lumber outside year round...so in the wet season you get wood that's crazy wet. I remember carrying the wood from the car to the basement and thinking...dang this 8' 2by8 weighs soooo much...

I'm going to have to put shims in all around on this..I've already done the jack studs....live and learn I guess. Buy the #1 S-dry from Economy if you are worried about what using seriously wet wood will do to your project.

This whole thing started out with my just wanting to put the foundation bolts in the right place!

That's it for now.

Next up, 'Oy Vey!! More screwy framing to deal with.'

Woo-Hoo!!!! First Code Enforcement Permit Signed Off!!!

Woo, I say, Woo-Hoo!!!

Check out the glorious pic below.

That's our finaled code enforcement permit!!!
It was due to run out on 4/11/12 and I have been sweating that date for a while now.
This is the whole, if its not done in a year we're going to refile the lein on your house and charge you another giant bucket of cash to remove it thing....
Good Lord what a relief to get that out of the way!!!

Now we have one more code enforcement permit covering the deck and the kitchen in the main house to finish.
It's a good thing that the deck is an all outside job and today's weather was cold, 46 deg F and rainy! Perfect working outside weather right?

To celebrate I'm going to cook a fancy meal for everyone.
Ahhhh, steak dinner and a nice bottle of red wine tonight!
BBQ up some marinated asparagus, a big portabella mushroom grilled to perfection, and a nice salad, something for everyone.

Wait, ya know does something seem wrong about this?
I bust my hump getting the work done and creating the reason for the celebration then I do all the cooking also.....hmmmm... ;)

One more for the road....
Woooooo-Hooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This Can't Be Okay, Can It?

Holy Bowing Studs Batman!!!

Take a look at the pic below.

Those 2by4 studs are bowed pretty seriously.
With my 4' level up against it, it looks like they bow about 1" out!

I didn't notice this before but in the pic below from the previous post I think you can see just see the bow.

There's no way this could of just happened right?

I'm a bit concerned because this wall is the original end of the house.
There are two floors above this which makes me think that this wall should of been done
with 2by6's instead of 2by4's.

I'm thinking that I should not leave them this way.

Anybody have any thoughts on what I should do about this situation?

Help!!!!

Another Post About Soffits

Hurray!!! Soffits!!! or Bulkheads as I've learned they are called in some parts of the country.

Spent some time ripping down the old framing for the incorrectly done soffits.

This is the soffit for the exhaust pipe for the existing central heater.

Now you see it.

Now you don't

With the soffit gone you see the chase better.

This was where a chimney was and this chase goes alllllll the way up to the attic.

I'll spare everybody from all the before and after pics from the other soffits I removed, which look pretty much like whats above.

Fire Rated Chase Idea

I think that what I show above is the correct way to build a fire rated chase.
The drawing above is actually to scale.
Check out all those arrows!!! I luvs me some arrows.....

Additional Chase Questions

1. Whats a reasonable clearance between the HVAC trunk lines and the top/sides of the chase and to each other?
2. How much space should I leave below the trunk lines to run utilities?
3. What's the best way to run the utilities given the construction method of the soffit?
4. Does such a thing exist as a ceiling hung cable-piping tray? Is it code correct for me to run the utilities as shown?

Ducting Conundrum

Take a look at the diagram below.

The green boxes are the HVAC chases that I can make easily.
The problem is the right side of the plan.
That big red line represents where the old house ends and the addition begins.
I need to get two 7by8" HVAC trunk lines across that line.

Check out this pic of the area.

To the left I have a solid 4by12 under a 2by10 joist that I can not screw with.
Then, this entire wall will have to be sheared...
I'm stuck I can't see how to get the lines where they need to go.

Anybody got any ideas?

Earthquake Retrofitting 101

The following is just my opinion as a homeowner who has had two foundations redone and has earthquake retrofitted 2.5 houses himself. I don't pretend that its 'the TRUTH' and neither should you. I just hope that I can save some other people some hassle/time.

Well, not exactly.. more of an introduction or something.Since we had a little earthquake Monday morning I've been asked about earthquake retrofitting by like 37 people (no not really, but several at least).

First off, if you have a brick foundation you can not retrofit it. Not no way, not no how. If a contractor is telling you that they can do it they are FOS. I'm sorry, but step one in this case is, 'get a new modern foundation'.

Doing It Yourself
First I would definitely recommend the Berkeley Building Education Center's earthquake retrofit class.
It's an entire day and you will learn soooo much about how to correctly do your own earthquake retrofitting. It's a one day seminar and it costs $95 and it's very, very worth it. The class is taught in two sections. The first half is taught by a Structural Engineer, where he teaches you how to calculate how much retro-fitting you need (if your house is not too complicated). The second half is taught by an actual earthquake retrofitting contractor and he shows you what tools you need and how to use them. Soooo worth the money.

If the class is not timed correctly for you Simpson has a homeowner how-to that I also found very helpful. The Simpson guide tells you how to do everything (and explains the background and terms and some of the science) and what tools you are going to need, definitely worth downloading and reading. The only thing it doesn't show are the hold-downs which are absolutely required for this kind of work. I asked a Simpson engineer and she said it was because they didn't consider installing hold-downs to be a DIY thing?

Permits And Plan Set A
Even I have to admit that this is sorta a screwy situation. Apparently they can not 'force' you to earthquake retrofit your home. This makes no sense to me...if you are going to say, redo your foundation why shouldn't the city compel you to do the earthquake retrofitting at the same time?

If you choose to earthquake retrofit your house its called a 'voluntary seismic retrofit or strengthening' You can't do it without a permit legally, yet they can't require you to do it?

There is what's called 'Plan Set A' which is sorta a combo how-to and permit application in one.
Download Plan Set A and print it out and see if your house can use it. I've been told that the reality is that most houses can not follow Plan Set A but maybe you'll get lucky. If your house is more than a 2 family and/or the cripple walls are more than 4', or if it's more than a two story, you can't use it.
The good news is, if you submit a 'plan set A' permit application you will get a break on the permit fees.

Plan on this costing you around $2k in materials, not including the tools you will need.

In closing, I suggest you first read the Simpson hand-out then read plan set A...it'll make more sense. If you can understand both of those documents you should have no trouble doing the work yourself.

Having A Pro Do It
Here's where it can get weirder I think...I've talked to the main local contractors who specialize in only doing retrofit work.... Each one spent a while trying to convince me of how all the 'other' guys out there don't do it right....I suspect that they all are just using plan set A as a guideline and submit the permits under those guidelines so they don't typically need/use an SE.

If your house can not use Plan Set A then you will need to hire an SE to figure out the plan for you....well, I think that this is the case but I'm honestly a bit confused. The city employee I talked to about this said that I could still use the Plan Set A guidelines to draw up a plan and then they would check it out to make sure it's sound. This sounds to me like they city will do the engineering for you for the cost of your permit fees if you make a first stab at it....that just can't be right....can it?

Hire A Structural Engineer/ Do The Work Yourself
Here is the middle option: you can hire an SE to analyze the house and draw up the permit documents and then you can do the work yourself. This is for the case when you can't officially use Plan Set A.

I've talked to a lot of SEs in the area.....if they brag about doing hospitals and bridges on their website...you can't afford them, trust me.

I will recommend two engineers that I have dealt with in the past.

Tony Demascole is the SE who teaches the earthquake retrofit class at the BEC. He is great, been around for a long while and has probably more experience than anybody else in the area coming up with reasonable solutions. All his vast experience and knowledge comes with a price though, he won't be the absolutely cheapest guy for sure, but he won't be the most expensive either, but he will probably be the best.

Nate Williams of Mosswood engineering. I believe he charges $2500 for a standard seismic evaluation that includes him coming out to your house and measuring and drawing up the plans for permit submittal. He has been working with me on the issues here at Chez 3.0 and he has a willingness to 'think outside the box' and the patience to deal with all my goofy questions.

If you talk to either of these engineers tell 'em Chez Neumansky sent ya.

Having Pros Do The Entire Thing
There will be local construction businesses that advertise that they do earthquake retrofitting also....I would shy away from them and focus on firms that only do retrofitting.

There are three local firms that I interviewed and even though I didn't use them I think that they would be pretty good bets. They all come out and take a look and even draw up an estimate - all for free.

First there's Jim Gillett at earthquakeconstruction. He actually teaches the second half of the BEC class. He's been doing this kind of work for a very long time and works with Tony on a regular basis. I think if you hire him you will definitely get a top notch retrofit job. Be warned though, he has a bit of a 'rough' personality.

Secondly there is Earthquake Safety. The owner came out to the house and we had a nice long chat. I got a good vibe from him.

Bay Area RetroFit has a much slicker web site than Jim above and they have a lot of information also.
Had the least amount of contact with these folks so I don't have a strong feeling about them either way.

Having the pros do the entire thing will probably run you from $5-$10, if you don't have a super complicated house and they don't need to bring in a SE.

Hope this was helpful.

What You Don't Want To See On A Friday Night....

Soooo, been a long week of working...been an especially long Friday of construction....my ailments are a ailing me and I come downstairs after a nice looooong hot shower and discover this....
Click on video below.

Yep, that's water dripping out of our ceiling light in the kitchen....and I was already in my PJ's too.....
I'm thinking a pipe sprung a leak or the tenants toilet or bathtub is currently overflowing or....

Soooo, back on the work clothes and out comes the ladder...
The kitchen has a dropped ceiling that I can just squeeze my non-petit frame into...this is going to be soooo great for my back.

I shine a light around and there is no water coming from any of the copper pipes....thank jeebus.
None of the ABS DWV piping appears to be leaking either?

After much shimmying I can see a couple puddles of water on the backside of the ceiling drywall.
After much more searching about with the flashlight I discover that the water is actually dripping through the floor from one of the studio units!!!

Off I go to knock on our tenants doors...great, nobody home...now where did I put those keys...we are not the most organized landlords....

I get into one unit and start looking around under the kitchen sink...nothing.
This unit has a fish tank which is of course making a loud dripping water noise that is totally throwing me off. But, the tank is not leaking.

Onto the bathroom...where I discover the source of the leak!
The faucet in the bathroom has a slow drip and the tenant put a pan under it to catch the water which is great as water is included in their rents.
The only problem was is that the pan was full and overflowing onto the counter where it was running off to the caulkless crack between the vanity and the wall.
It wasn't a ton of water and I don't know how long it had been dripping that way but pulling the pan away from the faucet would stop the dripping into our kitchen I hoped.

I checked the other unit just to be sure and it looked fine.

Came back down stairs and crawled back into the dropped ceiling to mop up the puddles.

Success!!!
The next day there were no new puddles and its been dry ever since.

Owww, my back....where's my Scotch?

MC Escher Is My Plumber.

One of the things I've been doing while waiting for the engineer to figure out my earthquake retrofitting problem is trying to uncouple the water supply systems.

Somehow the two units in the basement were plumbed into the same water heater (in the attic 3 floor up) as the main house. My mission, because I had no choice but to accept it, was to figure out how the plumbing was connected and un-connect them.

Here is my super accurate diagram of the existing water supply piping.

Now, there were are a couple of smart-ish things the PO did with the plumbing.
One, was to have a main water supply manifold so that water could be turned off to each unit separately.

The main manifold looks like this.

Except that if you look at my super awesome diagram above the main water line (only 1") comes in at the front corner of the house then travels ALL the way back to the opposite back corner then travels to the various units of the house.
For the main unit it travels from here ALL the way upstairs to the attic where the water heater is, then the hot water flows down from there...

Mapping The Plumbing System
I used a super high tech method to map the pipes.
I turned on a hot water tap and then waited for it to get really hot then turned off the water and starting feeling around the copper water pipes to see what was what, and where it lead.
I did the same thing with the cold water taps but let them run because I could feel the water moving in the pipe with my hand.

Using this method I figured out pretty much where everything went....which is why the map looks so screwy.

Main Manifold From The Inside.

I bought these manila tags from the super awesome Pagano's Hardware Mart. As soon as I figured out where a pipe went and what it was for, I wrote it on the tag and wired it to the pipe.
In the shot above you can see that I've figured out where a couple of the lines go.

One line goes up to the main unit, one is for the basement units (except that they are plumbed with the hot from the main unit also), one is for both studio apartments and one, one is for a hose bib...yep a fancy valve and from there it's a straight run to a hose bib....that doesn't make any sense to me...

Spaghetti Programing

Here's my fav shot. You can see the pipes that go all the way up through a chase to the water heater in the attic. Then you can see the hot water manifold splitting off. As I've said, I've figured out where everything goes except for one line in this shot. The main line for the basement units splits off and goes up this chase and I have not been able to determine to where and for what ...
 
Ladder To Nowhere

That's what I thought when I saw the above plumbing. This is the mess above the laundry room ceiling. The plumbing doubles back on itself like three times in this space...

The most confusing thing for me was this branch pictured below:

It was a hot and cold line that seemed to go nowhere.
I was worried that they went up to the kitchen in one of the studio apartments...which would be super lame, but par for the course.

To determine where the pipes went I had to cut open some drywall to look around.

Nope, still going.

Nope, still going.

Finally in the closet of the small bedroom

I had my answer!

They went nowhere!!! Thank you very much PO for that adventure....

I cut the pipe and removed it from the wall. The water that drained out smelled kinda moldy to me...is that even possible? The pipes did slope downward and they were dead ends so.....

I capped the branch with some super awesome handy sharkbite fittings

Had the water back on in less than half an hour.

Here's the mess of copper pipe I removed from the walls.

This is from the pipe to nowhere and the long branch lines to the bathroom off the kitchen.

The New Water Distribution Plan
Well, I don't have one yet...

But, what I want to do is move the main water manifold to the utility room. It will take like 40' outta the length.
The hot water heater for the basement unit will also be in the utility room and I plan to do a PEX manifold there and run individual lines to the fixtures in the basement.

I also would love to put a small tankless water heater in the utility room for all the fixtures on the 1st floor of the main unit...except that the plumbing for the kitchen comes in from above not below so I can't easily tie into it.
I think it makes sense to try to do this as there will be a kitchen, two full baths and a laundry room on this circuit.
Then, the water heater in the attic would only need to supply hot water for the attic bath, attic laundry room, the master bath and the kid's bath on the second floor.

I'm not 100% positive but I think that the hot water supply for the master bath starts in the attic (one floor above) then travels down to the basement and then back up...cause it takes FOR EVER for the water to get hot...

Yay!!! Plumbing!!!