Winemaking area

[PeterZ]

I've been away for a couple of days, so here are a bunch of random comments about the last 25 or so posts.

Mold abatement. Rip out everything that is moldy and replace it. Nothing else works worth a $^!t. (Official word from the experts in the Environmental Department of Naval Support Activity Mid-South)

Plastic against the wall = good. Plastic on the inside of the studs = bad. You want the inside of the stud bay to breathe with the environment in the basement, so the humidity in the stud cavity will be lower than the humidity of the walls.

Concrete floor primer - probably not needed. It is just a latex emulsion designed to keep dry concrete from sucking moisture out of the new thinset. (Remember - concrete does not "dry" it "sets." Setting is actually a chemical reaction between the portland cement in the concrete and water. If something takes the water away, the cement is weak.) Your floor is quite moist, and will not suck water from the new thinset.

Laser level - haven't seen a contractor put in a suspended ceiling without one in at least 10 years.

Looks like you're on well water, Wade. Do you have an analysis?

BTW - I'll bet Wade knows all of this. My post is for the lurkers and not so handy.

 

[Wade E]

Everything except the primer part as it said it was supposed to help in
adhesion. Yes Ive had the well water tested twice. Once when I bought
it as I was required to when we bought the house due to a FHA Mortgage
and 2 years agon when we had the refinanced our house to get a
5% mortgage rate as we were at 6 7/8% when we bought it. We started
with a 30 and when we refinanced 4 years later we went with the 20 year
mortgage and eliminated the PMI insurance.


Edited by: wade

 

[Wade E]

Okay I got a spot or 2 on the lens but oh well. Here is the self
leveling cement laid down and my back is sore. This stuff really starts
to set up pretty quick and settles quick whlie trying to work with it.
Ive never used it before and it was an experience. You must really keep
mixing it really good while working with it or you wont get a
consistant mixture. It came out pretty good but could have been better
if I had some experience with it. This floor will be linoleum or tiled
so it will not matter but If I was just going to paint it I would do
another coat to smooth out a few imperfection that I created trying to
smooth out better because I messed up a little and it was a little to
dry to try and fix it.

Edit: I guess it helps that I actually post the picture too huh!

Edited by: wade

 

[Angell Wine]

http://www.tyvek.com/whatistyvek.htm
The best thing they ever came up with.

 

[Wade E]

Thanks Angel as I know of this product and have used it many times.

 

[NorthernWinos]

That's looking nice and new

......I'm surprised you didn't have your crew pour a whole new floor while they were theredoing the drain and sealing the walls....Did you hang a plastic sheet behind the stud walls????


Looks like insulation and drywall are soon to get up and then your room will really be taking shape....

I am personally looking at my sewing room with a different eye....don't sew much anymore....It has 2 windows tho and might be a bit bright for fermenting...but it and the spare bedroom are sure not used much.....hummmmm...

 

[cindyjo]

Wade, it looks like your room is off to a great start. I am very jealous. Good luck with the rest of your project.

 

[PeterZ]

Yes Ive had the well water tested twice.

So what was the analysis? I used to be in water treatment, and you'd be amazed at how much variation there is around the country. For example, total dissolved solids (TDS) from memory:

Houston ~500
Memphis 145
Boston 25
Phoenix ~1500

 

[Wade E]

Peter I have the paper somewher and it is buried but all I remember
about it is that it was a little high on sodium but otherwise very
good. NW, I wiil hang plastic on the concrete as soon as Im ready to
insulate as I dont want any moisture from the floor to get trapped on
the inside of the plastic. I have a 7" counter top for the room already
and looking around for some cheap cabinets that are leftovers or
scratch and dents or just returns that no one wants. Some times its
just cheaper to find stuff like this then to build it yourself and its
not like I have time for this anyway as when this area is done I have
to start on the other side of the basemnt where our bedroom and wine
storage facility is going to be. That self leveling cement that I laid
down yesterday that said it was going to be dry in 2-4 hours, well its
22 hours later and its still moist in spots and I read the directions 4
times as it seemed really soupy but I know it has to be that way to
level itself. Maybe the more you use the longer it takes I guess. Oh
well.

 

[sangwitch]

Looking great Wade! I think I speak for several when I say, "I'm jealous".

 

[jobe05]

Sorry Sang, but Im not jealous just yet....... as a matter of fact, during this phase of the job...... Not jealous at all....... I mean, the long hours...... sore backs and knees, the purple thumb nail from missing the nail...... a dozen times!....... Nope.... Not Jealous yet............. But so far it looks darn good!

 

[Wade E]

I dont miss with the hammer Al!

I have a pneumatic nailer for just about everything including a pin
nailer that shoots little tiny thin pcs of wire that are practicall
invisible for doing fine trim and moldings as I do alot of sidework.
But man the sore back is true. After yesterday I popped a 800 Ibuprofen
and an Ultrasette which I guess can be equal to a perkadan. Im not a
pill popper but I could barely stand straight up after mixing all that
cement by hand and being hunced over spreading it as I was 6 feet from
the middle at any point in the room. Ouch!

NW, $6000 was as much as I wanted to dull out from my pocket as I beat them down from the original $7400 that they wanted!

My father used to be a car salesman and tought me how to get anyone
down on their prices. Know Im going to call George and see what I can
get another kit for!

Just kidding!

 

[Angell Wine]

If any of my nail guns end up your way give me Holler. The crack heads broke into my tool trailer this week and lifted about 5 grand worth of tools.

 

[rgecaprock]

Wade,


Great room there and you are really making progress.


Ramona

 

[Wade E]

Angell, That really s@#$s. I had my whole truck stolen once with a dirt
bike in the back. Luckily I just lost my muffler doing some mud bogging
2 days prior and when they started it up it woke me up and I
immediately called the cops then went running out the door. I actually
herd the cops pulling them over 3 blocks away. The 2 morons could have
gone up the hill and dissapeared into the boondocks but instead went
straight through the middle of town and right past a Dunkin Donuts
where the police were sitting if you believe that!

Thats when I was renting in a shady town. Not the pits but not great either.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Wow...$6000 to pour a cement floor...that's some real money. Guess I am out of touch...we poured the cement in our garage last fall...the Redi-mix cement trucks came and I wrote the check for $1643 [$94/yard]for a 30X32 foot garage/footings and a small apron....Our friend showed up with his 6 sons all in construction with 2 trailers, one with only cement tools...they unloaded 3 power trowels....[only used one]...the boys helped pour, skreet and they all left within a couple hours...then the 'old guys' Jim and our friend finished the cement...I like to put the edge on....Cost of labor...No Charge...well...Jim trades labor with our friend...usually that works our pretty good...Except now...the garage is closed in with house wrap on it....the soffit and fascia material in in there waiting to get put on....Our friend is calving out his cows now and has 2000 acres of crops to get in....so we will wait for our 'trade-labor' for a few more months....As for the siding...? My husband is foolishly spending our money on diesel fuel [by the 1000 gallon tank full] corn and soybean seed, Round-Up by the 30 gallon barrel, fertilizer and later Anhydrous Ammonia on the corn...so..our pockets are empty....our building project waits....Jim did seal the floor this week just to get that done and he did wire it over winter so there is power...we were suppose to build a cupola for on the roof, but never got that done.....So...know that the money that goes into building never seems to go far enough and labor can pinch the pocket book...


Love watching your project...a dream come true.

 

[Wade E]

No NW, it was $6000 for them to come in and break apart the whole
perimeter of the foundation, install drainage pipes and process( small
rocks under and above the pipes for the water to drain into the pieps),
install a sump pump with an alarm that warns you if you lose power to
it or if the water level rises above where it should be emptying, and
then re cement where they tore up the floor. Then they put a slurry on
all the walls that are below ground level which is a thick membrane
that penetrates into the concrete and seals it kind of like a
industrial wet-lock. Then they sprayed down all the walls with a
special spray that soppoedly gets rid of any mold and prevents new
mold. Then they hauled all the stuff that was dug out of those trenches
which in this case was 98 buckets of big rocks about 1' round as this
prperty was built on wetlands and is basically all fill. To dig a hole
in our yard for a post is suicide. When I put up our deck I had to
redesign the structure twice as I kept hitting boulders that were just
to big to move to put in my sono tubes. So I really didnt want to pay
anymore for pouring a self leveling cement. Dont know how much more it
would have costed and dont want to know now as if it was cheap enough
Id have to kick myself in the butt!

Edited by: wade

 

[Wade E]

I probably could have done this myself as I knew what to do but it was
just to back intensive and not worth hurting my back as I would be out
of work and not making any money. My back will probably never be the
sdame again and just bending over stirring and spreading 4 50lb. bags
of that cement took a toll on my back. Not to mention it would have
taken a lot longer and my house would be in array for at least 2 weeks
and my wife would kill me. I must say that they really did a nice job
and cleaned up reall well after. We were looking at the mess and were
thinking to ourselves, how the heck are we gonna clean this miss as
there was mud everywhere. They just came in with a special attachment
and hosed it all down into the trap rock right before they cemented it
over. Whew!


Edited by: wade

 

[PeterZ]

Wade, it looks like you poured it about 1" deep. That may be why it took so long to cure. It's usually used to fill low spots in a slab before laying linoleum or laminate wood floors. When used that way, it is rarely more than 3/16" thick.

 

[Wade E]

Peter, me and my wife screwed up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It says you can
use it up to 1" thick and each bag covers 50 sq. feet at an eight inch
and I used 4 bags for 109 sq. ft. knowing that my floor was pretty bad BUT</font>
I should have used my conversion calculator as I dont many conversions!
It said to add 6.5 quarts per bag and wife said that equaled 3.25
gallons per bag. My floor is still tacky and impressionable now but
almost dry and just out of curiousity I plugged this conversion into my
computer and my jaw dropped. I was to lazy and hurried to go upstairs
and dble check and I dbld the amount of water per bag. That solves the
mystery of why it isnt dry! As Homer Simpson says
"DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT" Okay, so I called the
manufacturer and they said to scrape what ever comes up with a hard
digging using a cement scraper so I did. I lost about a bags worth as
most of it was dry. Ill have to let the rest underneath</font></font>
dry and then redo what is dug out. I guess Im lucky I only did this
small area first instead of the big room on the other side. That is
more than dble the size and would be making me very mad instead of just
sitting here laughing at my self. What a maroon!

Edited by: wade