New member, partial reno, on a Major Budget!
Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 9:04 am
Hi, new member here.
We have started a small reno on the house I grew up in. The original part is a mobile home (probably around a '78), and then it has two additions that are slab/stick-built.
Our goals: remove all carpeting/vinyl, repair any wet/weak spots in the floor, have sheet vinyl installed everywhere, gut kitchen and install new cabinets/countertops/etc, replace wall covering in kitchen and part of living room, replace toilet and vanity in one bathroom and repair floor damage, remove faux dropped ceiling from kitchen, figure out how to patch ceiling in kitchen, (and then get assistance from someone else in looking at part of the electric and the furnace.)
We've been working weekends mostly. Got all the carpet/vinyl ripped up. Still have some of the millions of staples left to either pull out or pound down. We just started working on repairing damaged areas of the flooring. Thankfully it all seems solid underneath - and we have 2x6's on 16" centers. We are replacing with 5/8" plywood. Boxing in the area below the repair and adding new insulation to that area as well.
Got the kitchen gutted. Started with pulling off the vinyl "wall paper". Plan was always to go back over kitchen wall and connected living room wall with 1/4" sheetrock. Found some ants and determined they were not in the sheetrock, but in the wall behind it. Also, signs of moisture around sink area. Figured out that there was paneling behind the sheetrock, so decided to remove it. Boo - it was glued to the paneling. So, that was a tough job. Finally got it all off. Found a bit of mold on the back of sheetrock, but not much. After more thought, I decided I wanted all the paneling in that area taken off as well. Not much cost difference to go up to 1/2" sheetrock, and this will give us a chance to redo the insulation and treat the ants better. Also happened to be where the area with the electrical problems are, so this gets it all exposed for our contractor when we get him out. Found lots of mouse poop, signs of ants, some yucky looking insulation, etc - basically what you would expect. Framing all seems to be sound.
The kitchen ceiling is still our area of contention. It had a lowered faux ceiling. When we removed that, found out they had not been careful above when making the hole for the light fixture. We also have some electric hanging down that went into an island that we removed. I think the plan is just to splice the line in a junction box in the ceiling. We'll probably do it the correct way and install a cover. Husband thinks we should add furring strips and thin plywood or hardboard and cover ceiling in that area (kitchen and living room connected). I think we just patch those two areas the best we can, add 1x4s down the strips, texture, paint, and call it a day. (Other parts of the house have the 1x4s down the strips and they have held up for years.) If we have problems with sagging or something down the line, THEN we can look at redoing that area.
Not sure what all prep will have to be done to put sheet vinyl down everywhere. (Two cats that are pukers - with no known cause or cure from vet - and a small dog that is on diuretics, = we have to have something that can withstand moisture on it for periods of time. Sheet vinyl seems our best option.) I assume we may need to use some kind of flexible floor patch/leveler type stuff around the edge of each board. We also need to redo the area where the two halves meet. It looks like it was caulked before, but some has come out. Thinking of looking for some caulk rope to shove in there and then following up with the floor patch/leveler.
In the addition (not mobile home), we have removed the carpet, the tack strips, and the base boards. Then we used a wire brush on each hole left where we removed the tack strips (where it was shot into the concrete), sucked up the dust with a shop vac, and then used concrete patch. After many hours of doing that, I certainly developed quite the technique for it and knew exactly how wet I wanted my mix!
I'm sure I'll be asking lots of questions along the way, but wanted to provide a basic overview on what we're doing.
We have started a small reno on the house I grew up in. The original part is a mobile home (probably around a '78), and then it has two additions that are slab/stick-built.
Our goals: remove all carpeting/vinyl, repair any wet/weak spots in the floor, have sheet vinyl installed everywhere, gut kitchen and install new cabinets/countertops/etc, replace wall covering in kitchen and part of living room, replace toilet and vanity in one bathroom and repair floor damage, remove faux dropped ceiling from kitchen, figure out how to patch ceiling in kitchen, (and then get assistance from someone else in looking at part of the electric and the furnace.)
We've been working weekends mostly. Got all the carpet/vinyl ripped up. Still have some of the millions of staples left to either pull out or pound down. We just started working on repairing damaged areas of the flooring. Thankfully it all seems solid underneath - and we have 2x6's on 16" centers. We are replacing with 5/8" plywood. Boxing in the area below the repair and adding new insulation to that area as well.
Got the kitchen gutted. Started with pulling off the vinyl "wall paper". Plan was always to go back over kitchen wall and connected living room wall with 1/4" sheetrock. Found some ants and determined they were not in the sheetrock, but in the wall behind it. Also, signs of moisture around sink area. Figured out that there was paneling behind the sheetrock, so decided to remove it. Boo - it was glued to the paneling. So, that was a tough job. Finally got it all off. Found a bit of mold on the back of sheetrock, but not much. After more thought, I decided I wanted all the paneling in that area taken off as well. Not much cost difference to go up to 1/2" sheetrock, and this will give us a chance to redo the insulation and treat the ants better. Also happened to be where the area with the electrical problems are, so this gets it all exposed for our contractor when we get him out. Found lots of mouse poop, signs of ants, some yucky looking insulation, etc - basically what you would expect. Framing all seems to be sound.
The kitchen ceiling is still our area of contention. It had a lowered faux ceiling. When we removed that, found out they had not been careful above when making the hole for the light fixture. We also have some electric hanging down that went into an island that we removed. I think the plan is just to splice the line in a junction box in the ceiling. We'll probably do it the correct way and install a cover. Husband thinks we should add furring strips and thin plywood or hardboard and cover ceiling in that area (kitchen and living room connected). I think we just patch those two areas the best we can, add 1x4s down the strips, texture, paint, and call it a day. (Other parts of the house have the 1x4s down the strips and they have held up for years.) If we have problems with sagging or something down the line, THEN we can look at redoing that area.
Not sure what all prep will have to be done to put sheet vinyl down everywhere. (Two cats that are pukers - with no known cause or cure from vet - and a small dog that is on diuretics, = we have to have something that can withstand moisture on it for periods of time. Sheet vinyl seems our best option.) I assume we may need to use some kind of flexible floor patch/leveler type stuff around the edge of each board. We also need to redo the area where the two halves meet. It looks like it was caulked before, but some has come out. Thinking of looking for some caulk rope to shove in there and then following up with the floor patch/leveler.
In the addition (not mobile home), we have removed the carpet, the tack strips, and the base boards. Then we used a wire brush on each hole left where we removed the tack strips (where it was shot into the concrete), sucked up the dust with a shop vac, and then used concrete patch. After many hours of doing that, I certainly developed quite the technique for it and knew exactly how wet I wanted my mix!
I'm sure I'll be asking lots of questions along the way, but wanted to provide a basic overview on what we're doing.