Beginnings...

The House

My partner andee and I bought our house in June of 2009. As a little shout out, Helena Cragg and Sylvia Williams with Synergy Enterprises (http://home.earthlink.net/~helenacragg/) rehabbed this 1920s craftsmen to its current state of beauty—they did a fantastic job then graciously sold it to us! It is just a shade under 1100 square feet with 9’ ceilings, original heartwood-pine flooring throughout with a deck and a great big space out back.

The house in halloween garb

This blog though, is about the belly of the house, its underside, the area that is usually ruled by water, mold and dirt. The house dramatically slopes from front to back with the front of the house only 2 feet above ground while the back is nearly 15’ high. It’s a beautiful, old piered-foundation with original red brick filling in the spaces between external piers. If you stand at the back of the house and stare at the structure, you’ll see more brick below than you will siding above.

The Plan

The first time I stepped foot in what the sellers called a root cellar, I knew it had a lot of potential. Headroom was not a problem. Not counting pipes or the duct work, the ceiling of the space, or the base of the floor joists above, is nearly 12 feet high in sections. I started with fairly modest plans of a workspace on the left side (when I talk about the space I’ll talk about it as as if you are facing it from the backyard), the space that used to be a garage for some tiny car that American’s probably still haven’t invented (though a Ford Fiesta would probably have fit). The garage used to make sense because there was an old alley that came from Quenn St. which is perpendicular to ours. But with the alley no longer functional and a new fence around our yard the space will not be for a car, small or otherwise! But as I tend to do, what started as modest or functional plans quickly turned grandiose. What started as plans for a 100 square foot work room turned into dreams of a 350 square foot work room, bedroom, hallway and bathroom with french doors leading onto a rear screened-in-porch. Whew! Yeah, I know I’m crazy!

French doors are goinna go where?  You'll see!

One of the first things that I decided (long before I had figured out the dimensions and purpose of the entire space), which complicates the job and runs counter to what almost every GC or builder I’ve talked to has recommended, was to install wood flooring throughout the space. Now, before you start calling me names that rhyme with cupid or bum, hear me out!

Wanting wood flooring, but being familiar with countless stories of warping, buckling and rotting with below-grade wooden floors I had to devise a plan that both kept water out (REALLY HARD!) and accounted for any moisture that might seep in. At this point the plan is still fluid and in progress, but with great help from others (Specifically, Master Carpenter Robb Damman has worked with me on the details of the plan and General Contractor Brad Redfoot on some building code questions—I would highly recommend them both) I have been able to work out many of the details.

The Workshop

The workshop space is shaped like a lowercase h. It is 16 feet long and 10 feet wide to a point about halfway in where it shifts to 8 feet wide. The width at that point is affected by the old stairwell that connects to a door off of our kitchen above (part of the plan will involve putting a trapdoor in that space to access the old stairwell). Ceiling height is a little bit tighter on this side of the house, but it is still very manageable. The vision is a 145’ work space where I can have a well functioning wood shop with storage and functioning areas for tools. The walls and ceiling will be drywall and the floor will be tigerwood (picture at right, more on tigerwood later).

As I said earlier, we believe this space used to be a garage. When we moved in Helena and Sylvia had installed an attractive faux-beadboard covering over the 8’x7’ opening, but to gain proper access to the space we quickly decided we needed doors. Not having built any doors before I decided it was time to try. I constructed the frames for the doors out of 2x4s leaving space for some old windows that a friend had given us a few years ago (amazing that we held onto them for just this occasion—thanks Noah!). With the frame built and the windows in I covered the area with rough cut 1x3s for a slatted wood look. As you can see from the pictures I am still in the process of painting but caulking and priming are done so it is weather safe from the outside. With the doors complete it was time to move to working on the inside of the space.

Though head height in the space was already well over 7 feet, in order to fit a wood flooring system (with footers, joists and subfloor) I have been digging down 2-3 feet in most places (picture at right: evidence of excavation in backyard). The eventual floor level will be equal to the bottom of the barn door frame. For the workspace, which is what I’m tackling first, I will be digging and pouring 14”x14”x14” footers for the joists to rest on. There will probably be 3 of them for the center joist (which will consist of 3 2x6s) to rest on.

The back of the future workshop, dug down over 3 feet

Making sure that the overhead structure (the house!) is supported during the digging process has been difficult but is obviously important. As I’ve been digging I have been leaving dirt around the load bearing walls or piers and will later support the floor with temporary posts (4x6s) sitting on solid concrete block to the sill/joist above. With the overhead structure supported I will excavate below existing footings and load bearing areas, the triple 2x4s by the stairs, for example (picture at right), and then pour new footings that will attach to the existing pier with vertical rebar (steel). I will also excavate and pour footings for concrete block walls on all outer edges to attach the outer joists to. The joists will be pressure treated 2x6s that will span no more than 16” and run perpendicular to the tongue and groove flooring that will be installed above.

But none of that would actually keep the water out, right? Right. So there are a couple of things I have done and plan to do that will address water issues. The first thing we needed to do, whether we finished the basement or not, was to deal with the water that pours in sheets from our non-guttered roof to the ground below. The 80+ years of this has done its damage to the foundation. Fortunately, Helena repaired areas where the outer brick wall had started to cave in, but there was still no drainage in place to stop it from happening in the future.

Because we wanted to maintain the historical integrity of the house we were against gutters from the start, what we decided on was a French drain. For those who aren’t familiar, a french drain is basically the drainage equivalent of burying power lines, you are moving your visible drainage from up high (gutters) to down low (in this case from nowhere to down low!). Last week my mom was in town and together we dug a trench the length of the house that lined up with the water that comes off the roof (an easy way to make sure you have the right spot is to run the hose on the roof for a while to simulate rain and wait for it to fall—in sheets :)). We then lined the trench with 6 mil plastic that overlapped the edges and inserted an 8” diameter drain pipe with a drainage sleeve over it, the drainage sleeve is made of a porous cloth material that keeps dirt out of the pipe and stops it from clogging. We then went over to the rock shop on Hillsborough (they are great over there!) and bought ½ cubic ton of drainage rock and covered the drain pipe and plastic with it. It rained the other day and it stayed almost completely dry down there (huge improvement!). My final move on the outside will be to run plastic partway up the outer wall seal it and cover it with rock ensuring that it slopes away from the house and towards the drain pipe.

Even with all of that though I expect that water will find its way in from the outside, the front or below, so to prevent decay and mold growth I will lay down thick plastic sheeting under the floor joists and run it up the side of the brick outer walls. I won’t be sealing the space but will be doing my best to prevent moisture from getting below the floor or from making it to the eventual wall studs and dry wall. I have a few ideas for venting the space beneath the floor but haven’t decided on one yet.

It’s late and that’s all for this first post. If you’ve made it this far you are probably named Dylan or impressively persistent. Either way, I look forward to using this blog to teach others what not to do and to keep myself on task. Budget concerns aside, I hope to set realistic deadlines for myself and use this as a written way of keeping myself on target.

Until next time, I’ll be digging!

Progress...

Not too far to go!