Demo and Infrastructural Upgrades for the House
This week is a blur of activity with the renovation. Demolition, hauling waste, building a new structural wall for a washer/dryer, plumbing, electrical, drywall, interior painting, insulation, HVAC installation, and more.
There's a lot of different actitivities happening simultaneously. I'm serving as general contractor/project manager, ensuring that everything is running on schedule. I'm leaning heavily on the various tradespeople to guide the work, as much of the specifics of the process is new to me.
Here's some pictures of what we're up to:
Drywall being installed over textured ceiling. The ceiling texture, commonly used in the past, has absbestos. Nowadays, it's cheaper and easier to simply cover it with another layer of drywall than to demo and dispose of it. Disposal of absbestos is possible to do, but very labor intensive. In Hillsboro, Oregon, one can dispose of it but it must be wrapped and tied and extra thick plastic bags. that are marked as toxic waste. They charge a lot for disposal as well, as they must cover the large bags with 2ft of dirt every night.
Before I could even order a dumpster, I needed a lab analysis of the construction waste that I'd be putting in there. Then, I had to sign a special form promising NOT to dispose of the ceiling texture in the dump.
Roughly 10 yards of construction waste: old rugs, underlayment, drwall, blinds, countertops, windows, and more.
Here's a dump truck being delivered. They charge by the weight. This dump has capacity for 30 yards of waste. 3000 pounds of waste picked will cost ~$500. This is way cheaper and easier than hauling all of this waste to the dump myself.
The ceiling drywall has been removed. For now, we'll use the ceiling bays for running plumbing and electrical to the upstairs unit. Eventually, I'll fill in the ceiling bays with insulation to deaden the sound between the upstairs and downstairs unit. The materials for the renovation are purchased and ready for installation. The garage is used as a staging area for these materials.
A dual pack or two pack meter head was installed on the exterior of the house. One meter will feed the panel for the upstairs unit. One meter will feed the panel for the downstairs unit.
This new platform will have a washer dryer and water heater for the upstairs unit. The black ABS pipe is the drain line for washer/dryer.
In addition to running new drains, the entire house is being switched over from steel to pex piping. This will ensure that the plumbing will have fewer problems down the road. The plumbers are also upsizing the water main from the meter to the house, which will allow for sufficient water pressure once we've added several new water fixtures.
New windows are getting installed wherever the old aluminum frame signle pane windows are. This will help with heat retention, air sealing, and soundproofing the house. There's also rebates for swapping in new windows in rental units.