Greetings! From The Land of DIRT!

[Chuck N]

Well. Ive been unable to post for a while. Came lurking once or twice but only for a couple of minutes.

LOML and I are into a huge remodeling project. We're tearing out the walls in all the ground floor rooms of our house except the kitchen (that's a further down the road project AKA don't have the money for it now project).

I have learned a couple things while in the midst of this undertaking. First; Our house is over a hundred years old and I was always under the impression that the house builders back in the day took pride in their work that you don't see in today's houses. That may or may not be true but I can tell you without a doubt that our house was not built by a professional house builder. The construction is solid and well done but the design...Well I don't know all that much about house building but I'm pretty sure the the load bearing wall (on a two story structure) generally runs under and parallel with the main peak of the roof. And the floor joists for the second floor should run perpendicular to this wall. In our house the floor joists for the second floor run in two directions. The one side runs parallel with the load bearer while the other side runs perpendicular to it meeting at the load bearer. That's actually alright except there is no header at the top of the load bearer. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it and I'm afraid of what the construction guy I got coming in to do the sheet rocking (I could do this myself but LOML wants the job done sometime before Christmas of 2015 ) is going to say when he sees it. I'm beginning to have dreams - nightmares - that involve the movie "The Money Pit".

Secondly; I have figured out where all the dust in the world is coming from: It is coming from houses like mine when the owners tear out the old lathe-and-plaster walls. I'm pretty sure that if you were to look at a satellite image of southern Minnesota you would see an immense dust cloud forming from right above my home town. I have never experienced so much dust and so much dirt in my life. And try as we might it gets everywhere and into everything. It's only been two weeks but I've already forgotten what it's like to feel clean. And to make matter worse I have another house that I'd been using as a rental. It's empty now and LOML and I thought we'd be able to escape to there to get out of the dirt. But my last renter trashed the place so we have to work on that one too to get it habitable.

Oh! I almost forgot. Here's some pictures of our time in the Land Of Dirt...

dirt1.jpg (132.28 KiB) Viewed 207 times

dirt2.jpg (141.68 KiB) Viewed 207 times

dirt3.jpg (114.64 KiB) Viewed 207 times

[Beer-lord]

That looks like lots of freaking work. You have my sincere pity and sympathy.

[BigPapaG]

Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt...

Hate it, don't envy you, feel your pain!

It should be nice once done though, and clean!

[Rebel_B]

Chuck, I hope you tested for lead before undertaking this demo! I sell a lot of lead test kits at my work, cause a lot of old paint on lath & plaster has lead in it. I was reading a letter in JLC Magazine yesterday, written by a long term customer of mine:
http://www.jlconline.com/framing/jlc-ap ... ne=general
Letters
By JLC Staff

“New Joists for an Old Floor,” by Emanuel Silva (Feb/14)
I am a remodeling contractor in Seattle and took the time to get certified for the EPA’s lead removal. I don’t like it, but I try hard to follow the prescribed procedures, and my crew follows my example. I also require all my crew to wear safety gear and am happy to supply it for them.

I was surprised by the article “New Joists for an Old Floor.” Emanuel Silva was working without dust protection to separate the living space from the kitchen remodel, had no ear protection, no respirator, no knee pads, and a pathetic pair of loafers to go with his shorts.

The lath on the wall and the wall cavities most certainly contain lead dust. If the EPA’s RRP [Renovation, Repair and Painting] criteria had been followed, all of the lath should have been removed at the time the demolition took place, bagged, and disposed of accordingly. Silva could be exposing himself and anybody he has close contact with to lead, especially children, which is potentially in his clothes and shoes after he leaves the jobsite. He also could pose a risk to the tenants of the house on a daily basis, who may be exposed as dust is carried by air circulation.

My apprentices read my old copies of trade magazines, which provide us with talking points at breaks and safety meetings. Instead of providing the dwindling number of new carpenters with examples of good practice, you have provided them with bad examples. My first-year carpenter immediately responded to the cover with surprise and disdain. He questioned Mr. Silva’s methods or lack of them for all the same reasons I list above. —Paul Stoner, Seattle

[Chuck N]

Sorry. That didn't need to be said so I took it out. I'm slowly turning into a Grumpy Old Man.

[Chuck N]

Well the tear-out is done. Now we've decided to bring the exterior walls out to six inches. Gonna be going from no insulation in the entire house to, I believe, an R-20 rating (does that sound right?) in the exterior walls. So the coming ice age isn't scaring me so much. After that's done the electrician will come and re-wire the house. The old wiring in here just scares the Hell outa me. Can't believe there hadn't been a fire some time. (Although we burned up a piece of flexible duct work during the tear-out when one of the old wires came into contact with it.)