Monthly Archives: April 2010

I got the front wall furred out today. I still need to address the area under the window sill, but hopefully my Dad will help me with that this weekend.

Lovely furniture right?

With some time to kill while my brother came down to meet me for lunch, I started on installing the wire mesh on the back wall. I am doing this because of advice I got from a mason at work who I told about my moisture issues and spalling brick. He instructed me to scrub the brick thoroughly with a wire brush until most of the big loose pieces came off. I then was told to install wire mesh to the brick. He told me I could use nails or screws, but because I had an entire box of Tapcon masonry screws that were too short for the furring strips, I used those. They seem to work great, even into what appears to be a brittle brick.

The next step once I cover the bad areas of the wall with the mesh is to parge over the mesh with a thin layer of mortar. After this is complete I will apply some sort of water proof sealer (tbd). I then will feel more comfortable putting furring strips and drywall up on this wall.

At the sill…I will have to trim this I think, but I was waiting to see what to do with the sills.

The crumbling brick stops at about right where my mesh stopped. From that point up there doesn’t seem to be any deterioration issues.

I will most likely finish up with the mesh tomorrow morning and then go buy some insulation since I snagged my brothers truck.

I spent some time today furring out the back bedroom. It took a bit longer then expected because I had to fill in so many areas that had rotted wood with new wood. I cut new pieces, fit them in, and then spray foamed and gaps. I have one last little piece to do under the tall window, but I ran out of tapcon screws.

At noon I had to run to Home Depot to get 2 more bundles of furring strips and another box of screws to do the front wall downstairs and to afix some wiremesh to the kitchen wall.

Today I continued the push toward seeing drywall. I furred out the master bedroom walls this morning, but not before I tore through 3 masonry bits. I think I finally figured out how to keep the things from getting molten hot and ruining the boring end, so my 4th bit, which I had to run out and get at ACE Hardware in Federal Hill, made it through the rest of the morning. The trick seems to be going really light on the speed of the drill and easing the bit back and forth until it really starts to bore.

Here are some pictures of the completed wall:

Missing wood under window sill:

Proposed solution…a 2×4 flush with the furring strips and a piece of wood ripped down to approximately 2×5. It gave a nice tight fit and flushed things out nicely. I’m thinking I should be able to just spray foam in the bigger crevices on either side.

As it stands tonight the following needs to be taken care of before drywall can go up:

1) Masonry repair on kitchen wall – bought the supplies yesterday, hopefully get to this soon.
2) Install furring strips on guest bedroom wall, living room wall and kitchen wall.
3) Insulate front and rear walls with rigid insulation between the furring strips.
4) Insulate the upstairs ceilings with R38.
5) Pass insulation inspection.
6) Install blocking in the kitchen for cabinets.
7) Cut out stair well opening to create more headroom.
8) Get new windows installed…

I’d love to get the insulation inspected while I am still working evenings, but the windows are still being made, so that actually is the major hold up at the moment.

Well, Tuesday my framing inspection passed. Ordinarily I would say its cause for celebration, but I learned that I need to insulate the upstairs ceilings. The master bedroom plaster ceiling is in great shape and there is enough room to crawl around, so I don’t think that one has to come down. I did however spend the morning today taking down the back bedroom ceiling. It was FILTHY up there. Probably more black soot raining down then anywhere else in the house. It took me about 2 hrs from start to finish, but I guess in hindsight I’m glad its gone, it wasn’t in the best of shape anyways. I ran some more speaker wires at called it a day at 12:30.

Brick wash down is finally slated for this weekend. Tomorrow I will try and finish the speaker wiring and clean up a bit. I have a stained glass lady meeting me at the house Friday morning to price something up for my kitchen door transom. More to come.