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Invalid Validation posted:If you’re gonna waste the money anyways, you’d might as well do it right. You’d have to get engineered beams and basically a whole new roof. It’s one of those things if you plan to live in it the rest of your life do it, if you don’t plan on it then it’s a complete waste of money and time. To be honest if you’re getting into something like that it might be just as expensive to tear everything down to the studs and rebuild the house. This is if they plan on removing the joists, but it sounded like that wasn't the plan. They "just" want to remove the drywall, leave all the framing material in place (and exposed), and then fix up any insulation / ventilation issues. Still far from trivial, but not, I think, a full rebuild of the house.
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Mar 9, 2024 15:07
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Just because you like something doesn't mean it isn't objectively a bad idea. What happens when you take down two thirds of your ceiling then discover your heating bill has now doubled your monthly house payment and you can't pay it? Or that the GC you hired on the cheap cut corners and now you need to do what Motronic said and rebuild your literal entire roof? Or, how about have you even thought about your homeowner's insurance? Will those things happen? gently caress if I know, maybe not, but they're something that could happen that you pretty obviously have not thought about.
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Mar 9, 2024 15:07
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Op, do whatever you want, it's your drat house. Everybody in these threads skews towards the risk averse. Don't be one of those people terrified to do anything to their home that some hypothetical future buyers might not like. gently caress em, they'd probably have terrible taste anyway. Anyway, the best way to look for a contractor is asking people you trust who they recommend. If you don't have anybody you can ask, NextDoor (at least in my area) can be surprisingly good for that type of thing.
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Mar 9, 2024 15:09
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I don’t think any real GC will touch that job by the way.
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Mar 9, 2024 15:19
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GlyphGryph posted:......But a bunch of this poo poo isn't any of that, it's some variant of "wanting the kind of home you want is stupid and you're stupid for wanting it" and "you'll ruin the value of the house". You're getting this because your "plans" are the kind of thing that someone who is in over their head comes up with. They will not in fact result in what it appears to be your desired outcome and the people telling you this is a bad idea know this. Nobody is trying to ruin your fun or tell you what you should like. But you're asking for advice and you're getting it: what you want to do is possible, but not in the way you think. At all. It's clear you've never actually seen what 16" on center spacing looks like as it would aplly to this: it's not fit for purpose. And dimensional framing lumber isn't something to put exposed into a living space, ever. It can't be reasonably finished in-place to anything that would begin to be appropriate or potentially even pass a basic code inspection. So again, doing this right, even if it's not my style, requires replacing the entire structure of the roof. Your examples of what you wanted were exactly that: wide spaced rough hewn and nicely finished lumber with hidden fasteners. Not dimensional framing lumber with nailer plates on it and a bunch of holes and gouged in the bottom chord where someone ripped down the sheetrock. GlyphGryph posted:How? Dont just vaguely insinuate, if what youre saying is actually true and it will actually destroy the home, and you arent just being lovely by pretending that the home and your opinion of the home are synonymous, then please tell me what specifically and how. Doing it the way you suggested is in fact runing your house and, if found out, it very likely to trigger a dissolution of your mortgage. So unless you paid in cash you can not in fact just "do whatever you want" to the house. It's the collateral for your loan. It's contractually required to not be largely demolished inside. And it's unlikely to pass a C of O if that's a thing where you live. And your insurance may very well drop you for something that looks like "living in an unfinished/improperly finished space that is not considered habitable" by your jurisdiction or them or both. If you want to live in a shack made of found materials you should start out with that. It will be a lot cheaper than taking a habitable house and doing this to it. Invalid Validation posted:I don’t think any real GC will touch that job by the way. Of course not. The house would no longer be considered habitable and the mortgage bank could come after their bond/insurance. When your idea is that bad you really should stop, gather your thoughts and feelings, and try again.
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Mar 9, 2024 15:27
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Ignoring the bullshit you're making up and projecting onto me, fine. It sounds like I will need plenty of money and time to do this right so its a distant future thing if it happens at all. It does make me wonder how the previous owners coverted the one room they did to a vaulted ceiling if its supposed to be such a massive thing and require a roof replacement though.
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Mar 9, 2024 15:58
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GlyphGryph posted:It does make me wonder how the previous owners coverted the one room they did to a vaulted ceiling if its supposed to be such a massive thing and require a roof replacement though. With money, permits and a competant contractor. Not by smashing out the ceiling drywall and hoping for the best. GlyphGryph posted:Ignoring the bullshit you're making up and projecting onto me, fine. You wanted specifics. You got them. Now I want specifics: tell me exactly what the hell you mean by this.
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Mar 9, 2024 16:04
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GlyphGryph posted:Ignoring the bullshit you're making up and projecting onto me, fine. It sounds like I will need plenty of money and time to do this right so its a distant future thing if it happens at all. Start a thread with your projects! There's a few of em in here where the posters are following their hearts and doing their unique work as they see fit
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Mar 9, 2024 16:13
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Motronic posted:You wanted specifics. You got them. Now I want specifics: tell me exactly what the hell you mean by this. Here you go: Motronic posted:Not by smashing out the ceiling drywall and hoping for the best Motronic posted:It's clear you've never actually seen what 16" on center spacing looks like as it would aplly to this quote:If you want to live in a shack made of found materials you should start out with that. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Mar 9, 2024 16:19
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Y'all stop posting about posters please and continue posting about bad ideas.Motronic posted:So again, doing this right, even if it's not my style, requires replacing the entire structure of the roof.
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Mar 9, 2024 16:20
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GlyphGryph posted:
lol
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Mar 9, 2024 16:25
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You could technically do it be most people correctly identify it would look like poo poo and be a lot of time/money to make something that looks like poo poo.
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Mar 9, 2024 16:41
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Sirotan posted:Op, do whatever you want, it's your drat house. Everybody in these threads skews towards the risk averse. Don't be one of those people terrified to do anything to their home that some hypothetical future buyers might not like. gently caress em, they'd probably have terrible taste anyway. Yeah, agreed. Here's my strawman for this thread: The goons who freak out about other people doing whatever wacky poo poo they want to their property for their own reasons are just as big of dorks as the people who foam at the mouth every time someone dares to install a shade of grey in their life, and I bet they're the same people, and they all make me laugh. Edit: Oh, and if you disagree with me, that means you are one of those people. 
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Mar 9, 2024 17:35
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Y'all stop posting about posters please and continue posting about bad ideas. I picture looking up at a stripped attic, with exposed floor framing (rafter ties) and rafters as not a good look. Sure, you can finish the rafter/roof framing, but you have to install W-pan and soffit - to - ridge ventilation for moisture control, then insulate over that, then drywall over that. You're still left with a ton of ugly AF ceiling/(former) floor joists to dress up in some way, and 16" OC isn't going to promote the light, airy look that is a desired characteristic of a cathedral ceiling. You'd probably want to remove most of them while still preserving the structural integrity of the roof. On the other hand, that may be the look the OP is going for. Doesn't consider what mechanicals may be running through the floor space. It can be done if one is really determined, though. mutata posted:Yeah, agreed. The poo poo I've seen in almost 40-years as an insurance adjuster has inured me to almost anything except what is patently unsafe/dangerous.
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Mar 9, 2024 17:47
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"Rural Appalachian hunting cabin" is absolutely a valid aesthetic choice even if it's not one I'd choose. My personal favorite technically-a-code-violation housing design is earthships. If I had the money for the land and the bribes I would absolutely start packing tires with beer cans.
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Mar 9, 2024 17:48
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Earthships loving rock. So do geodesic domes, too, by the way, even though they are awful and make awful homes. The Tom Scott video about the rotating house in San Diego or wherever was awesome too. Man, hosed up little houses are the best. Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gisdyTBMNyQ
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Mar 9, 2024 17:59
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I think it's good to get a reality check when you come up with an idea. That is, if there's a good reason not to do it you want to know about it before you decide to start. Good reasons can include that it's impossible, impractical, or so much effort that you should just buy the thing you want in the first place rather than try to modify something that isn't it. Plus it's great content
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Mar 9, 2024 18:13
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Just for reference as part of a larger remodel my house had the attic converted to a living area. It serves as my office now and it probably cost around $40k once you include wiring, insulation, windows, hvac and a new roof. That was the pre covid cost and me poorly hanging my own drywall and laying my own carpet.
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Mar 9, 2024 18:31
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mutata posted:Earthships loving rock. So do geodesic domes, too, by the way, even though they are awful and make awful homes. The Tom Scott video about the rotating house in San Diego or wherever was awesome too. This is on Mt. Helix in La Mesa, just east of San Diego proper. Really cool house, you can drive right by it on the way to the top of Mt. Helix.
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Mar 9, 2024 19:02
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Y'all stop posting about posters please and continue posting about bad ideas. Painter covered a lot of the reasons this isn't feasible from the standpoint of structural requirements, challenges to work around them and spacing not being sufficient for the desired outcome. The code reasons inclue behing exposed framing lumber and mechanicals are going to be anything from actual fire protection deficiencies (making a "storage enclosure" into part of an inhabited space, nailer plates exposed to an inhabited space), to structural deficiencies like depending on the truss system it may have counted on sheetrock or other material on the bottom of the chord to prevent racking or other movement (i.e. now you need to hire an engineer), to the old catch all being done in a "workmanlike manner". Bare framing lumber is not workmanlike for reasons including that it can't be cleaned properly (rough surfaces, unfinished joints, etc), which is a thing not only in various portions of the building code but in general inspections depending on the jurisdiction (will not pass for an FHA loan, likely won't pass most certificate of occupancy requirements, likely won't pass insurance underwriting). In general, if it looks like you haven't completed construction it's not considered inhabitable and it's not insurable under a regular homeowners policy which means it's not financable with a regular mortgage.
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Mar 9, 2024 20:18
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Tearing out ceilings to expose roof beams is pretty common here (Japan), especially antique homes that are being renovated into a cafe or shop. You might need some conduits for electric and air, they're very common in concrete/industrial spaces. Like yeah GG's house might not have log cabin truss aesthetic but if it's not damaging the beams, then it's not damaging the structure. Put in a ceiling fan to push warm air down in winter, add a window or vent to release hot air in summer. Make the cat(s) happy. It's gonna be ok.
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Mar 10, 2024 00:50
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Really the problem is that American framing lumber is uniquely garbage tier pine and fir that's barely fit for purpose. You can find sturdier building materials used in favelas than you can in American tract housing.
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Mar 10, 2024 00:54
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On non attic topics, I finished my first round of  My mom visited and wanted to help a bit and so did my nine year old son. I learned a valuable lesson - do not let my mom anywhere near my walls. She managed to paint one square foot before she got paint on the ceiling, floor, me, and her clothes. The kid did fine, though, I let him do most of the first coat of the black on one wall GlyphGryph fucked around with this message at 01:34 on Mar 10, 2024 |
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Mar 10, 2024 01:25
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GlyphGryph posted:On non attic topics, I finished my first round of I can't unsee the fact the black isn't straight - a laser level is the perfect tool for this (and they're fun to play with). Covering up major defects like the window takes a bunch of practice - the general theory is add drywall mud, sand flat, repeat N times.. prime it and see how it looks, possibly repeat from the beginning until you're happy. Also if you do stripes again, spring for the green painters tape, it's more expensive but also more resistant to paint getting underneath it.
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Mar 10, 2024 02:53
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devicenull posted:Also if you do stripes again, spring for the green painters tape, it's more expensive but also more resistant to paint getting underneath it. To specify, I'm pretty sure you're referring to green Frogtape brand, which is low-medium adhesion and treated along the edge to seal and prevent bleeding underneath it. Use that. 3M's green painters tape, on the other hand, is high adhesion and much more likely to cause damage if put on a freshly painted surface. Don't use that.
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Mar 10, 2024 03:22
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Definitely want to get a laser level for future walls, thanks for the advice, they seem neat. Hopefully the curve wont be as noticeable after the border design is in - but thinking about ir, having the laser level for that work would probably be super useful too. Im using the purple painters tape right now, Ill look into the green stuff too. Honestly I just might raise the black border everywhere by an inche to get it straight instead of hoping it works itself out. GlyphGryph fucked around with this message at 03:51 on Mar 10, 2024 |
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Mar 10, 2024 03:49
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Another tip for using the painters tape: Put the tape outlines on the wall. Then paint the edges of the tape with the base color. Let that dry. The base color will seal the edge and any "bleed under" will just be base color, so no problem. Then paint your accent color over it and remove the tape.
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Mar 10, 2024 03:55
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GlyphGryph posted:Honestly I just might raise the black border everywhere by an inche to get it straight instead of hoping it works itself out. 
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Mar 10, 2024 03:56
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A trick I heard was to go over the edge with the same paint that's under it before using the edging color, so the base color is one that will bleed under the tape. Like in the above pic, you want to raise the black about an inch into the orange. Put tape on the orange above the highest point of the black section. Then paint the lower edge of the tape with some orange paint, so the new orange bleeds through onto the orange paint under it. Then paint over all that with black to get your sharp line. After you peel the tape, there shouldn't be black bleed through, because the bleed through spots were filled in with orange. Vim Fuego posted:Another tip for using the painters tape: Put the tape outlines on the wall. Then paint the edges of the tape with the base color. Let that dry. The base color will seal the edge and any "bleed under" will just be base color, so no problem. Then paint your accent color over it and remove the tape. efb
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Mar 10, 2024 04:01
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Get a self leveling laser level! I have a great Bosch one. Don't remember the model. But it's great
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Mar 10, 2024 04:02
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re: roof beams, just to put this in concrete terms. This is what you're imagining:  Which yeah, I get it, it's a pretty loving cool look. I dig it. This is what you almost certainly have:  And I'll add the caveat that I'm like 99% sure that's brand new construction, so if the plumbing and electrical was ever re-routed it may be a lot more chaotic looking. If you want a really low stakes way to experiment with this, go ahead and pull down a few feet of dry wall in any given room and look at what the lumber inside it looks like. You can repair that kind of exploratory loving around in a weekend's worth of work. Spoiler: no amount of painting in the world is going to make the structural lumber in your average house look pretty, and that's even giving the benefit of the doubt that it's an older home with old growth pine and not whatever crap they were building walls out of 10 years ago. This is also just setting aide any of the reasons that houses are built with ceilings below the attic that others have already mentioned, ranging from insulation to noise control to fire safety. Just purely on an aesthetic grounds its not going to look good.
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Mar 10, 2024 04:06
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So I went to open a window in my office in the new house and apparently somebody nailed it shut:  Why would someone do this? How do I remove it when I can't even see the head of the nail from the outside (see 2nd pic). I don't know poo poo about windows but somebody help me out here.
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Mar 10, 2024 04:44
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hark posted:Get a self leveling laser level! I have a great Bosch one. Don't remember the model. But it's great bosch GLL30 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bosch-3...-30-S/207134022
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Mar 10, 2024 07:31
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Thanks for the paint tips! I still think its not bad for a first attempt - but it IS still just a first sttempt, and Im looking forward to improving. There's enough peeling, broken down paint in this house to get plenty of practice, hah, and I already have another room stripped of wallpaper and ready to go. By the time I'm done maybe I'll repaint this wall from scratch. Speaking of stripping, for the walls that clearly have a couple of layers of paint on them already, do I need to strip the paint somehow before putting my own on? Or is it enough to sand it flattish and then just paint another one over it. Cyrano4747 posted:This is what you're imagining: For what its worth I think that first pic looks dumb as hell even before considering that its useless and would be happier with the second, in terms of... well, everything. Like folks have pointed out, I think the main issue for me is the possibility that it is absolute garbage grade lumber. I may have weird preferences but I do prefer my wood to look nice if making it do so is possible. GlyphGryph fucked around with this message at 12:52 on Mar 10, 2024 |
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Mar 10, 2024 12:45
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GlyphGryph posted:
Just paint over
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Mar 10, 2024 13:22
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Have some water in the basement. Wondering if it’s a big deal and what to do about it. We’ve been here for 2 years and it’s an unfinished basement. We had some huge rainstorms this past year and never noticed a drop in the basement but after last nights storm there’s a bit of water coming in on one side of the house. It looks like it’s coming in at the bottom where the floor meets the wall on one side. Is this something I should look to fix? It’s concrete for the wall and floor. Not sure if it needs sealed somehow or what to seal it with or just let it be and continue to monitor.  
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Mar 10, 2024 13:46
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If you have a sump pit check the drain/pump. Either way check your gutters and downspouts since this is a new thing. Make sure the water is getting far enough away from your basement. That appears to be coming from around/under the slab. It's what the drain tile+sump setup is designed to fix. But if all else is well you may not need mechanical drainage, and if this is your first time seeing issues you probably don't as long as that is staying unfinished.
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Mar 10, 2024 13:52
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Motronic posted:If you have a sump pit check the drain/pump. Either way check your gutters and downspouts since this is a new thing. Make sure the water is getting far enough away from your basement. No sump pit or sump pump. My gutters had guards put on last year and were cleaned out. The downspouts go into the ground and drain far away from the house. I should check where they drain to because that area does get clogged with leaves from time to time.
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Mar 10, 2024 13:54
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nwin posted:I should check where they drain to because that area does get clogged with leaves from time to time. That sounds like a good firat step. Most downspout/underground piping designs will just dump water out of the connection to the pipe right at your foundation if the pipe is clogged. That would definitely explain the water and should be an easy solution.
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Mar 10, 2024 14:23
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Motronic posted:That sounds like a good firat step. Most downspout/underground piping designs will just dump water out of the connection to the pipe right at your foundation if the pipe is clogged. That would definitely explain the water and should be an easy solution. Water flowing freely to the drain and continuing to do so. I’m on a well and I don’t know if this is possible at all, but could it be that with the ground thawing and the large amount of rain we’ve had (2.5” just last night) make it such that the water table is a bit higher which is allowing the water to find its way in the basement. nwin fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Mar 10, 2024 |
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Mar 10, 2024 17:04
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