The remodeling thread (Episode one - Fireplace!)

[ghost]

The TV seems pretty low.  Are you sure you want it that close to the fireplace?

[Nerf]

The TV seems pretty low.  Are you sure you want it that close to the fireplace?

Yeah, it's getting raised, this was the height Stef originally requested, and as we're not using the fireplace anyways I figured I'd oblige, knowing this was a temporary mount until the stone got put up.

I think the current top of brick/bottom of TV is a good height for a mantle (it's going to be a reinforced concrete mantle, so no fire proximity worries there), and the TV needs to sit 8-12" above that.  The Yamaha projection surround-sound system we've got will probably sit on the mantle until I get a proper 7.1 receiver and wire up in-wall speakers everywhere.  After that, center channel might sit there, or nothing.  Hard to say.

Edit: It probably looks even lower because of the high ceilings, too.  Right now bottom of TV is 47" off the floor, top is 77", and the ceilings are 10'.

[ghost]

That may be part of it, but I was mostly thinking in relation to the fireplace.  You never know, you might want to use it someday, and would hate to see it somehow fuck up your nice TV.

[Nerf]

That may be part of it, but I was mostly thinking in relation to the fireplace.  You never know, you might want to use it someday, and would hate to see it somehow fuck up your nice TV.

Right now it's got a gas lighter in it and was used as a wood-burning fireplace previously.  We're going to put gas logs in instead, and there will be a solid concrete mantle ~2ft above the opening and 8-12" below the TV.  36" and a big chunk of concrete should eliminate any heat worries on the TV.

[Polysorbate80]

Rather than dropping in a conduit to run various components to the TV, I found it easier to just feed everything to the reciever and then send that through an HDMI wallplate.  I'm happy with it, and I'll be getting another one to run from the server in the basement to the receiver.  That is, once they finish drywalling the basement and it's not a dusty hellhole.

Side note regarding worker  The heat in the house was off yesterday while they were hanging sheetrock, which I figured was just to keep the dust from clogging the filter or getting blown through the house. 

Nope.

After the workers left, the heat was still off.  I went down to the mechanical room to see what was up, and found they'd pulled the basement thermostat off the wall and unhooked it without powering off the system.   End result, they blew a fuse I didn't even know was in the system, and they didn't mark down which colored wire went into which un-color-coded terminal in the thermostat.  Had to get the furnace guys out at overtime rates to put it back together right. 

Either the contractor pays that bill, or he passes it onto the drywallers, but it's not coming out of MY pocket.

[Furiously]

What type of panel was that?  I'm surprised your inspector didn't catch it.

[Nerf]

What type of panel was that?  I'm surprised your inspector didn't catch it.

Sylvania, electrician said he wasn't surprised as they're sort of shitty panels.  The scorching was half-hidden by some plastic plugs that covered some removed breaker knockouts, you had to get your flashlight and eyes at just the right angle to be able to see it.

But yeah, I'd expect an inspector to check a ~26 year old panel a little closely.  Oh well, at least the warranty covered it and nothing caught on fire or fried before we got it fixed.

I was chatting with the electrician for awhile while he was doing the panel - no electricity in the house so nothing better to do, and he was gun guy so we got along famously.  He said that out of all the warranty companies he does work for, Old Republic gives him the least amount of hassles.  American Homeshield, on the other hand, actually told him on two occasions "You need to find something that excludes this from our coverage" before he told them to fuck off and stopped taking their service calls.
So, if you're going to buy a house, call a bunch of electricians, plumbers, and appliance shops beforehand and ask them what warranty companies they do business for and which ones give them the least amount of problems.  We just got lucky.


Edit:

Hey Merusk, do you know much about spray-foam insulation?  Specifically doing a closed-cell application to the underside of the roof deck and running an unvented attic?  I'm really fucking allergic to dust and am going to vacuum out the old dusty cellulose in the attic this summer, and am trying to decide between blowing cellulose/fiberglass back in, or doing the sprayfoam.  I've found a lot of conflicting info on how a 'hot-roof' system can 1) totally fuck your shingles 2) not do a goddamn thing to your shingles, as it raises the temp maybe 1-3*F, much less than the difference between light and dark colors.
Also some reports about how Texas homes are built to 'breathe' and sealing the attic will lead to massive mold infestations, or how closed-cell foam actually *prevents* any type of mold from growing, as it doesn't absorb water and makes the house air/water tight.
HVAC system does sit in the attic, so keeping it much cooler in the summer time could help with cooling costs quite a bit.

[bhodi]

Just remember, if you use it, spray foam insulation doesn't adhere to some stuff (like plastic) at all. It isn't applied how you'd think it was applied. An unvented attic MIGHT be a bad idea, and make SURE you account for humidity if you're going all insulation crazy. What I've heard says basically that when you seal your attic, you seal in moisture and moisture from you living in the house can migrate up there and encourage mold growth.

My stepfather told me a story of his friend who did exactly that to his house, re-did his windows, had terrific insulation, and found out that, well, he had a mold explosion within the year because none of the moisture that people created while living in the house was able to escape.

[Merusk]

Yeah, attics are meant to vent for the reasons Bhodi listed.  If you're not venting the attic you'd better be conditioning or finishing the space (like on a Cape Cod).  At the least if you're going to do it, stick a vapor barrier down so as to reduce/ prevent normal moisture from breathing, cooking, showering, etc bleeding up into the attic. 

Since your HVAC is already up there, the normal bleed will probably do enough to condition the space.  We do the same thing up here with Sealed Crawl spaces vs vented and Basements.  Ducts are leaky SOBs, so sticking them in a sealed space knowing it'll condition the area somewhat vs venting it and blowing all that air outside makes sense to me.   

Here's some info I'm happy to share.  The site was given to me by tone of the construction heads at my last employer.  They're on the conservative side politcally so some of their points are.. colorful.. but they're one of the only places I've heard of actually approaching construction scientifically vs. "this is how it's always been done."  (You hear that a LOT in the industry.)  They think sealing your attic is a good idea IF it's got HVAC in it based on this article: Top 10 Dumb things to do in the south.   Note he said that a vented attic makes more sense from an efficiency standpoint (by 2-3%) only if your ducts are inside the house. Yours aren't.

As for specifics on dense foam insulation, I only know what I've read and have no practical experience because it's far too expensive for most production builders to bother with. The open-cell foams are 2x the price of traditional insulation and the closed-cells can be around 4x the price.   Their goal is the cheapest house that meets code and buyer expectations and additional costs like that, unless mandated, are always going to fall to the wayside.

I'm a fan of both of them because of the superior insulation value and the reduction of air infiltration.  (aka "leaks")  Open cells are around 3.5R/ Inch and Closed are around 6R/ inch.  Mineral batts are 3.2R/ Inch but allow lots of infiltration and when cut around things like Junction or outlet boxes they're typically left as blank spots in the wall. (Stick your hand near an outlet on the wall on a cold day and feel that draft!)  With foam you know it's getting in behind there and sealing things off.

On a roof you need to watch the weight, though.  Closed-cells can weigh about 2#/ cuft.  Since you want at least R38 on a roof you're looking at a min. of 1psf additional weight.  Not a huge amount, sure, but if your house was built by a guy just barely hitting the minimums on his headers you're overstressing them. (Well, not really because there's like 3 factors of safety in wood calcs.  Still, code is code so I wouldn't sign off on it if the calcs said "oh that needs a bigger header.)

[Nerf]

Nice article, I actually stumbled on that site and found a different unvented attic article last night.  It seems like it's a great idea if I can get the foam done cheap enough.  Roof weight shouldn't be an issue, but i'll look into it to make sure.
Also, not only is our hvac unit and ductwork in the attic, but we have 5 skylights and probably 20 recessed can lights in the house, so I could see the savings being significant.

[Sky]

When I bought my house the inspector  passed the main plumbing stack venting into the attic crawlspace. One of the first things I did was put it through the roof when I was putting in the bathroom fan (bathroom was vented via window previously...). We didn't pull the ceiling and vapor barrier/tuck tape it though, I'll have to pop up there this spring and see if I can seal it from above at all. Even when you're trying to account for everything you miss a few things!