Carpet & other stuff

After talking with some friends and family that had recently purchased carpet we ended up going to Home Depot based on their experience. They have a $199 install fee and a wide selection to choose from. We knew we would be spending a lot of time on the floor, so we were strongly considering the polyester for the softer feel even though it would "shed" for the life of the carpet. Then we found a Shaw branded Nylon product called EverTouch R2X. Basically a Nylon carpet that doesn't shed, but it feels like a softer polyester. We were sold... and it was a rapid install selection as well, so we could have it installed quickly. We ordered it on Friday 12/5, a service came and measured on the 9th, and it was installed on the 18th. The color of the carpet is Sugar Cookie... how can you not love that?

The walls got a little scuffed in spots where the installers were un-rolling the carpet. They warned us that would happen. It really isn't that bad though.... all surface marks I can either wash or paint over. I ran around last night and marked the spots with tape so I can touch them up later.








We went with a waterfall install style on the stairway.

I pre-wired for surround sound speakers, and installed screw terminal wall plates for the speaker hook ups. I used the Leviton "quick port" system. Basically they have open ports in the wall plates and you purchase clip in features depending on what you want to do.

I installed a new Kiddie AC/DC smoke detector where the old smoke detector was in the room. It's hardwired and linked in with the rest of the system. When any one detector is activated, all the other detectors sound the alarm.

Paint & Lights

The painting is done save for some touch up spots. For the wall surfaces, we chose a neutral color "distant tan" PWL-83 from the Behr White & Light collection at Home Depot. I was very happy with the paint coverage over the Kilz primer as only one finish coat was required. I used an interior eggshell finish as it hides marks much better than a flat and isn't as "shiny" as a semi-gloss. I'm going to put a short crown molding on the ceiling interface in the front side of the room, so you can see in the pics below that I just rollered up to the ceiling and didn't bother with trim work.

The previous homeowner had left a can of Duron brand paint they used on the walls and ceilings in the rest of the house. I wanted to try and match that for the ceiling, so I painted a piece of scrap drywall and when I was at home-depot picking up the wall paint, asked them to match it. They tried to match it with an eggshell and failed miserably. I'll give them the credit that they didn't require that I purchase it. I asked them to try with a flat finish, and they got close enough that I almost couldn't see the difference. I ended up using this also for the stairwell. I've always been a fan of Behr paint and after this experience, I still am.

For the trim paint, the previous homeowner had left a can of that as well, but this one had a full label. Rather that take a gamble matching at home depot again, I looked up Duron and was suprised to see they had a store right in Lancaster. I stopped in over lunch with the info and they were able to look it up and mix up an exact match on the spot. Sticking with tradition, I'm using a semigloss finish.

Here's some pictures after cleanup....

The main room has 10 6" recessed fixtures and I have one 4" fixture at the bottom of the stairs. I decided to finish these out with a standard black baffle and white trim rings. The fixtures were Halo brand, but I used Commercial Electric brand baffles as they were a few dollars cheaper each. They installed fairly easily with two extension springs engaged in slots in the recessed housing. I put in 65Watt BR30 interior floodlights to replace the standard incandescent bulbs I put in for the rough in inspection. The floodlights are great because they have a softer light and don't buzz. The 4" fixture got a 45W R20 bulb.

Primer

Arrggh.. so I found the bad primer and the good primer for this project. I was at Lowes using up a gift card and bought 2 gallons of the Valspar premium primer to put on the drywall.

It was noted to be "tintable", but most of the other brands said that as well. Maybe that was my mistake, but anyhow.. 2 gallons later, it looked like I hadn't done anything. You might not believe it, but the right side actually has a coat of this stuff on it.

I gave up at that point and went back to the Kilz primer, which was the same cost and worked great. Easy application and good coverage.

Drywall

So I don't mind hanging drywall, but I just don't like to tape & spackle. A friend recommended Richard S. Lapp drywall in New Holland, so I called him to quote the job. At the end of the day, for the cost, I decided just to let him do the entire project. For me, it's well worth the investment to get it done and look great in about a 1/10th of the time that it would take me to do it. If you live in the area, and need some work done, his phone number is 717.286.4631.

Richard came out to look at the job on Saturday, we agreed on the project on Sunday, and his supplier delivered the drywall Monday. Tuesday, almost the entire room was hung. Wed and Thursday he has been taping & spackling.

The space looks great so far.

The engineer behind the curtain

So Allison thought I was a little crazy early on in this project when I built a model of the basement as a solid model in CAD. I thought it was a nice way to determine how walls would look and once I settled on a design, it made it easy to count-up material requirements.

I'm happy to say I had one scrap 2x4 after all the framing. I think I'll do it again for the entertainment center and shelving. For me at least, it helps a lot to see it before I get started.

Insulation

Final step before drywall was installing insulation. Lowes had a sale on R13 rolls of Owens Corning faced insulation at $10 a roll. The pre-cut bat insulation was almost $40 for 13 pieces. Each roll would cover 4 joist spaces with a little scrap. So this worked out to $30 for 12 pieces. I was happy cutting to length, so for what I needed, it was about $60 cheaper to get the rolls.


I didn't have a stapler, so it was time for a new tool. Home Depot had the Ryobi One plus stapler on clearance for $45. What a great little stapler. It accepts a variety of staple lengths and has a simple dial to adjust the hammer force. I installed all the insulation on one charge with plenty reserve, and I had no staple jams. I dropped it off the ladder several times with no cracks and no functional issues.



Here's a picture coming in from the unfinished space in the basement.



And from the bottom of the stairs.

I stitched two pictures together with some issues around the treadmill, but you get the picture.

It's noticibly quieter with the insulation in, and looking a lot more like a functional room.

Fire Blocking

So summer is gone and so is most of the busy yard work and weekend activities that somehow absorbed all free time available. The basement is getting some renewed priority in life, and I'm making good progress again.

I passed rough-in inspection with no problems back in September. A framing inspection wasn't required because of the scope of the job. The electrical inspector only had one comment about considering fire-blocking the airgaps between the stud walls and the ceiling space. He noted that this is required for new contruction, but that it was up to me whether I wanted to do it or not here. It seemed like a good suggestion, so I did it.

There are two instances to resolve with fireblocking. The first is that the stud walls are offset from the foundation wall. As a result, there is a continuous air-gap behind the wall. In the event of a fire, the fire can travel continuously around the room with no inhibitors. To stop this, it is recommended to block in behind a stud every 10 feet. The second issue is at the top of the stud wall, where again, there is a air gap. Here, there is an uninhibited path for fire to run up into the joist space and travel from there. The solution here is that you fill this space to eliminate the gap.

Picture on the left shows the airpath for the 2nd issue, and the picture on the right shows the fire blocking element in place (purple).

A quick online search revealed several approved methods for accomplishing this. Rock wool was the most popular for hard to fill spaces that didn't have a lot of flat surfaces. It's basically fireproof insulation that you can jam just about anywhere. The two other methods were to install fire-resistant drywall and/or use fire-resistant expanding foam.

I chose a combination of the latter two because I had simple, straight sections to fill.

I found this great stuff fireblock expanding foam at home depot. It was just under $10 a can.

In this picture, you can see the expanding foam along the top and behind one of the vertical studs.

Here, you can see the fire-resistant drywall installed between the stud spaces. I then used the foam to fill the gap behind the studs, and around any wire-drops.

The vertical gap was too big for the foam in all but two locations. So I just used the drywall.