Contractor fun – My Boomtown Revival

June 28, 2019

Is it over the top to expect a level floor?

The new basement floor was poured almost three years ago, by asshat builder. I posted earlier about being promised a 7′ basement, but receiving something less – more like 6’8″. Since my son is 6’4″ and possibly still growing, every inch down there counts, as it is supposed to be a play area for him.

Drywall/taping/mudding was finished last week and it’s ready to be painted and finished. And this week, since I’m on vacation, I went down there to do that. That is when I noticed that the floor is nowhere close to level. I don’t know why I never noticed before, or maybe I noticed but did not understand the consequence, because I’m not an effing builder. I’m only trying to pick up the pieces and staunch the copious flow of cash out my door by doing some work myself. Live and learn baby (I’m listening to Nina Simone as I write).

When I think back to when it was being poured, I recall seeing one of the asshat’s assistants levelling it with a 2×4, which I have seen being done on TV. Since there are dips in the floor greater than two inches, I can only surmise that the massive dips were installed on purpose.

Like, I can’t understand how something other than a reasonably level floor could have been installed.

In any event, after years of being shocked and dismayed by the work of the asshat builder and his asshat associates, I understood that there was nothing to be done except to fix it, since no sub-floor would sit on it properly. So, I undertook to use a self-levelling cement . I’ve never done this before and have zero experience with working with cement, but I’ve seen it on TV. Not unexpectedly, like it was for Goldilocks, it’s been a bit of a disaster for me.

The good news is that my son helped me and I never once had to pick up or carry any of the bags and bags of 50lb cement.

Other good news is that I figured out that you can’t believe what you read on a label. The label on the cement said to use about 5L of water per 50lb bag, and that for my roughly 150 square feet I would need four bags of the stuff.

But after mixing four bags with roughly 20L of water, I was left with a substance that wouldn’t really pour/self-level (it required pushing around with the handy squeegee I bought) and only covered one corner of the space.

So, we had to let that dry and went back to the hardware store to buy four more bags. This time I Googled reviews of this product and added more water as was recommended by some users. Unfortunately, too much, and it probably won’t set properly. But it still didn’t cover the entire floor.

So, copy and paste, we had to let that dry (as much as it will) and went back to the hardware store to buy four more bags. Like I said, the good news is that I had my son to carry the cement. I’m an old lady now and my hands and wrists don’t like 50lb bags of dead weight. And he liked learning how *not* to pour cement.

And, four days later, I’ve decided we’re close enough, and once we have concrete, I will wipe up the water soup left over and we will shim the heck out of the subfloor and proceed as if everything is “just right.”

June 28, 2019

Walnut floor

Who doesn’t love reclaimed wood?! I’m one of those people who gets extra joy out of reusing something historical and/or beautiful. Saving some cash is nice too. And knowing my own labour went into it makes me feel good too. So, three really good reasons to reuse! And that’s not even mentioning the environmental savings. No boatload of wood taken to the dump. No need to purchase additionally harvested wood. I can feel good about that too.

The main bedroom has walnut flooring, harvested from the living and dining rooms.

From here:

To here:

Stll not finsihed…. when the builder cleared out from doing trim work in this room, he took my mallet. Has not yet been returned.

What was notable when I took up the walnut floor is how many really short pieces went into it. The majority of pieces are 28-30″, with the shortest being 9″ and the longest being about 45.” In comparison, the fir taken from my grandma’s house ranged from 48″-180.” Much easier to install longer boards.

But, the walnut is nice too.

It still needs to be sanded and refinished, but I’m going to go for a similar natural finish.

May 28, 2019May 28, 2019

Another sad post

Last Tuesday I met with the Second Reputable Builder. I greatly reduced his chore list and asked him to focus on finishing what is started and one new thing: Rebuild my Juliet balcony. And then close out the plumbing ticket and the building permit and begone.

He said he would do that, except that the building permit can’t be closed until the siding is on. I said fine, get an extension on the permit and I’ll deal with siding later.

He said he would be done and out in two weeks.

Over the last week I have had a single drywaller here, taping and sanding the few seams in my basement. Probably spending 6 hours in total doing work. Nobody else has turned up.

I suppose if a couple of guys turned up and worked full days for the next 5 days, then they could conceivably get everything still on the list finished. But is that going to happen?

This building industry needs regulation. Standards. Enforcement. What I’ve seen is bullshit.

A reminder of my current living environment. Very stressful.

May 21, 2019May 28, 2019

Where we at?

So, you’re wondering why I haven’t posted anything new for a couple of weeks, when I have an excellent builder moving full-speed ahead and there should be lots of good photos and stories and excitement.

Well, the new builder is turning out to be similar to the old builder. While he promised glory in 6-8 weeks, we are 5 weeks in and are nowhere close. He sends a single guy to do work for a couple of hours once or twice a week.

The builder said he expects the drywall to take another week to complete. I agree, if someone is spending just a couple hours a day working, then it will take a couple of weeks to complete.

The walnut floor installation went like this: On Monday nobody showed up. On Tuesday a single guy showed up. He worked for 4-5 hours and left. He got about 6 courses of flooring in. Admittedly, it is slower going than using brand new flooring. But again, he did not work a full day. I can do 6 courses in about 2 hours. The next day I got a call from the builder that the flooring guy broke his hand playing soft ball after he’d left my house, and wouldn’t be able to finish the floor. The builder was going to try and round up someone else to finish the floor but it would take a day or two. I said, just take the week off and have someone back the following Monday.

I said that because I want as much certainty as possible each day, so I know what is expected at my house: Who will be there, do I need to set my alarm, do I need to clean up, make beds etc? Not just arrive home and find unexpected people have been in the house.

The following Monday, which was last week, nobody came. Nobody came all week, except for said drywaller, who spent 2 hours on Wednesday taping a couple of seams.

I started finishing the floor myself.

The quality of work by the carpenters is good enough, except where they did not understand or appreciate the use of reclaimed trim. For example, they cut into a 9″ baseboard in order to use it as door casing. For &%*! sake, the 9″ baseboard needs to be used as a baseboard!! It’s not like I can go out and locate vintage 9″ baseboards any given Saturday. And I had told them that if they did not have appropriate trim available for any specific piece, then they should use new fir (which I supplied).*

And in a couple of spots, someone used screws to install window casings. Screws! What the hell?? Why not finishing nails?? They used finishing nails on other parts, so why screws in other spots?? I’m not planning on painting the trim, so filling the holes will leave obvious, glaring garbage spots. Awful, and crappy craftsmanship.

Anyway, this is the work of a ‘show home’ builder. Readers, you must have LOW expectations when dealing with contractors and builders.

*Update on this aspect: When I took a closer look at the door casings upstairs and down, I recognized the work of a different builder. That is, the first builder I dealt with understood the use of reclaimed trim and demonstrated craftsmanship with it. Someone else did the bad casing trim – SANDED IT, CUT IT, SCREWED IT. That patina is lost forever! And, it will never match the other trim pieces! And I will no longer have enough of it! WTF!!

April 16, 2019May 21, 2019

Preparation for the new builder

It’s April 15, 2019, and the new builder and his team are starting work today. I am relieved but mostly worried. Worried about:

the financing. My contract with this builder is for an hourly charge for his workers, and whatever the trades charge for their work plus 15%. I think it’s reasonable, but I have no way of knowing the anticipated final cost.
I think I’ll get what I want, but I’m not exactly clear on what I want.
there are so many daily decisions to be made. Will I have enough energy to make through the next two months?
having strangers in the house for two months.
Living in a state of extreme disarray, including not knowing where anything is anymore.

Anyway, I’ve jumped off that ledge and they’re starting today. I’ll work through my anxiety and I’ll find the energy.

In anticipation of their starting work I had to clear out the spaces in the addition. It was a lot of work and my knees and back are done and need some time to recover. I spent three full days on it and had to scrounge for places to put stuff. Which raises a new question: Why do I have this stuff? I can see that my next task is getting rid of some of it before I have to put it away again. I’ll be considering everything before I find it a new home, and give away, recycle, or garbage whatever is ridiculous to keep storing.

Here’s a look at the basements, which is where most of everything was stored. Both basements are now pristine.

View from one end to the other (south to north).

In the meantime, my dining room looks like a scene from “Hoarders: Buried Alive”. Really. It creeps me out and I’ve jumped a few times when I catch a glance of it from the corner of my eye. And my living room reminds me awfully of a little old lady’s house, crammed full of useless things. I had to roll out an old carpet as well, to protect the floor, and it brings with it an awful musty smell. This is odd, I’m sure, but I sensed the house is not happy being junked up like this.

June 26, 2018

I finally did it

I finally fired the Builder. What an asshat.

After firing him I started looking up ‘contractor from hell’ stories on the internet. Found a story that is shockingly similar to mine. Although the renovation details themselves are different, the behavior of the contractor is spot on.

http://www.contractorsfromhell.com/my-horror-story/

Over 21 months of constant nagging on my part and empty promises on his part to get what should have been a 4 month project done. During that same time houses in my booming neighbourhood were torn down, new basements dug, two new houses built on each lot, complete with landscaping, driveways, and new tenants, all before my asshat Builder could finish an addition. He did, however, take several hot vacations with his family of 5, and had all winter to ‘sit on his butt’ (his words).

I wish I’d read the ‘contractor from hell’ story last year at this time, and maybe I’d have had the courage to cut him loose then.

June 26, 2018

Powder room door

I’m using doors, windows, trim, and flooring from my grandmother’s house (which is now abandoned). This is the door for the powder room, which is a pocket door.

Since the doors are shellacked, I merely wiped down the door and added a couple of new coats of shellack and it looks wonderful.

Then I installed it (definitely a two person job) and discovered that the effing builder had used drywall screws too long for the pocket space, such that when the door slid into the pocket it was scratched by the screws.

This is a 100 year old door, in mint condition. It survived 100 years of use in a family of 5 and my builder scars it with his effing malicious idiocy.

So, I had to dig out the screws from the already taped/mudded drywall and replace them with shorter screws.

What an effing idiot.

February 22, 2018

Bringing the Existing Plumbing “Up to Code”

I’ve heard it said many times that whenever work is done on an old house, whatever is touched by renovation has to be ‘brought up to code’. Of course that code changes yearly and is designed to keep manufacturers and industry folks busy and rich, and I’ve never questioned whether it’s true, because the Canada Building Code and its Provincial subsets are not public documents and must be purchased at great expense (every year). So, I have no idea whether it’s true. But on the basis that it is, the plumber noted that my existing bathroom plumbing, which was upgraded in 1999, did not have ‘p’ traps. Or ‘y’ traps. One of the alphabet traps.
The result is that my only bathroom has been torn apart. As has my dining room ceiling. And my living room ceiling. And living room wall. That’s additional work and cost I wasn’t anticipating, and mental stress as we struggle to manage around the living situation. The only non-disaster/untouched room in my house is my bedroom. And it’s a disaster anyway, because it is crammed full of things from every other room in the house.
I wouldn’t ordinarily gripe about this situation, especially since as far as I know this is the only unexpected thing to happen and the only unexpected cost, but I’ve been living in shambles and half-done work since July 2016 – 18 months at this moment. I’ve moved the same things around in my house, from space to space and room to room, trying to make room to live in for 18 months. I am DONE. Actually, I was DONE in December. And that’s when my friend Craig stepped in to take responsibility.

Anyway. I’m sure you’re not here to read about how angry I am. So, photos!

Here’s my living room ceiling after the plumber caused a freezing pipe at Christmas – the ceiling stain is from sewage.

Holes in the ceiling, cut to see whether my existing plumbing meets money-making code.

What was noticed by the builder at this point was that the previous plumbing company (Go Gregs!) cut through the joists to install pipes. So, my cast iron tub was not properly supported. Scary. The builder fixed that.

2x4s supporting joists until they can be sistered.

New plumbing in living room wall. What was interesting to see from this cut, was that plumbing was always installed in the houes – that is, there are no plaster keys in this area and it was always walled at an angle across the corner. Cool.

Long view of ceiling and wall cut outs in living room.

This shows the original fir floor in the bathroom (from below), but it also shows that the fir was cut away and replaced with plywood. Two layers of plywood now. So, in restoring that bathroom I will have to re-tile it.

Next post to display lovely photos of inside the destructed bathroom. Stay tuned.

January 25, 2018

Basement is “done”

My contract with this Builder was to create a 7 foot basement. He gave me 6 ½ feet instead. One of his many delightful surprises.

With flooring, that will make it pretty much my son’s height and into an unusable family space. However, it is square footage we never had before and hopefully we can get something good out of it, other than storage. Maybe a ping pong or fussball table?

Looking into space from the old basement.

View of the pass through to the old basement.

This is what my old basement looks like, crammed full of stuff.

The old basement will always be short and mostly useless, other than laundry and storage. I had hoped for more from the new basement. We’ll see what I can eventually make it into.

At least now the formerly bowing basement wall is no longer a danger to the house. In fact, the Builder tells me I could (theoretically) take down the entire wall between the two basements, because the engineered beam that the addition is built onto is also supporting the original house. I’m not going to test that theory without consulting an engineer.

January 7, 2018

Nearing Completion

I hope I’m not being stupidly optimistic in saying this, but the building seems to be nearing completion. In December my friend Craig took over managing the project and dealing with the Builder for me. I was at wits end, ready to commit assault, and he very kindly stepped in and has been saving the day.

Craig reminds the Builder that he also has to come to work everyday, stay for most of the day, and get some work done. Amazing that a so-called professional needs that babysitting, but he does. It hasn’t been 100% successful, in that some days the Builder still doesn’t come or do anything or stay for any meaningful length of time, but it has helped significantly as we’re nearing completion. I’m quite confident I would not be saying that if Craig hadn’t been babysitting.

Right now we have my beautiful windows installed, the insulation is almost complete, and poly on, with City inspection in a few days. If Craig hadn’t been on site, the Builder would have then disappeared for a month after he’d installed the windows. That’s his “m.o” But with Craig’s help, the Builder came back the next day to keep on working! Amazing!

One issue with the insulation is that some frost developed behind some temporarily installed pink insulation, where the Builder now has to put in foam insulation. Foam insulation can’t go onto frost, so we have to get rid of the frost. So, today, since the weather is supposed to be nice, I’m going to remove the pink insulation and set up a strong fan. It’s a small area. Hopefully by tomorrow the frost will be out and Builder can get sprayfoam done and final poly installed.

Then there is a chunk of concrete in the basement the Builder has to crack out. He’d installed it as a landing, but it is no longer needed. Then rim joist insulation down there and all small holes filled, widen the doorway area to the original basement, and clean up. The doorway area has to be widened because the plumber installed heating ducts through that door and now I can’t walk under it without ducking. So, new door location required.

Then sub-floor, and upstairs: bathroom fan, poly, attic hatch, et voila! Builder should be off my property until the springtime, when he comes back to clean up his work site, grade the elevation, and do a gravel driveway.

Oops, one more unresolved issue: the Builder did not put any heat into my upstairs bathroom. Yes, that’s how clever he is. It is wired for in-floor heat, but that is not sufficient in my climate So, either electrician comes back and installs electric wall-heat or plumber comes back and installs furnace duct.

Final electrical and plumbing inspections will be my responsibility, because I’m installing the drywall, flooring, and fixtures. With my friend Craig helping, I think I’ll be able to be motivated and educated on how to get that all done. It’s possible that by March I could be sitting in my addition, at least with sub-floor, drywall, and fixtures. Final painting, wood trims, and decorations might be longer.