Roderick February Update

This month we tackled a few items that were expected…and un-expected.

• 3 structural beams
• ordered radiant heating kit
• bought some new air tools
• fixed blocked drain tile
• and a little wheelbarrow fun

 

The beam that the contractors put in was just 1 of 4 that need to be installed in the basement.  True, they put in the biggest one, but the rest are up to us.  The 3 we put in run perpendicular to the centre beam and hang off of it (or off each other) with hangers.

Adam created some really awesome support ladders that we used to bring the beams up to the ceiling height.  They consisted of two ladder structures temporarily attached to the ceiling and a cross piece that the beam rested on.  We will have to do a post about these ladders specifically because they worked really really well.

 

Our heating kit arrived and we were pretty excited.  We laid it all out and started to make sense of it.  Adam is in charge of understanding the mechanical room setup for our heating so I am leaving that part to him a little.

[fast forward to the end of the month]

After some further discussions with the city I am now told that we cannot use the type of system that we had originally planned…and ordered.  I was told (after many visits and never being told anything like this) I have to use a system designed by a TECA certified designer.  So off I go to figure out what the heck this means for our heating setup.  I am frustrated because after many conversations with the city I had not been told anything about these requirements for our heating system.  Now that we have a kit in our possession it is up to me to figure out what we need, what we need to change, and if we can do this at all.

I had a heck of a time dealing with the TECA designers I reached out to.  The responses I was receiving most were basically that they didn’t want to deal with our intended plan as it wasn’t one of their ‘cookie cutter’ solutions.  I got to the point that I was sick of being told contradicting stories about what was allowed or not that I went to our local technical library and sat down with the books myself.  And then I bought them.  And then I realized that our heating system was going to be much more complicated than it needed to be…and then I kept researching.

 

We bought a framing nailer…and it is FUN!  Ok, this is a serious tool, it can be very dangerous, but when used properly man does it make putting up walls FAST!

We also bought a metal connection nailer (you can see it in the beam pictures) which is used only to shoot nails for connecting metal connectors like joist hangers to wood.  It is also awesome!

A palm nailer was also on our new tool list.  This is essentially the best tool ever when you need to drive long nails in tight spaces. I have no idea how we would have done some of the joist hanger nails without because the nail gun and the hammer were both too bulky.

 

Since we bought this house we have had a pool of water around this one drain in the patio.  Given that we also have a lot of water under our foundation and a sump pit that doesn’t seem to drain itself very well we decided to hunt down our drainage gremlin.  It started with a hole…a camera…some scandalous pole maneuvers…hide an seek…and finally a rock quarry.

We ended up cutting out a 6ft piece of drain pipe that was packed with mud and rocks only to find the drain tile around the house was also full of rocks.  I reached my hand into the cut pipe and pulled out all the rocks before we reconnected the drains and filled it back in.

Bonus of this effort was that our drainage sump pit is now draining itself much better.  Seems our rock quarry in the pipe was blocking our drainage entirely.  Now we wait and see if it makes a difference in the rainy season.