Category: back stairs

Root Freedom

Over the past month, I’ve had a lot of work, so not much progress on the house. But last weekend the sun was out, and it was just beautiful winter weather to get a bit more done on the stairs. I pulled another “while I’ve got this open, I’ll just…”

The back porch upstairs smells moldy, is drafty, and has no insulation. So I started tearing off the siding, and added plywood. In the photo above left, the last of the old stairs is peeking out. Gone in the above right. And more nice plywood glamor shots.

Now I’ve got the stair framing replaced all the way up. Still need to finish the hand rails, painting, and.. and…

Meanwhile, we built up a rather large pile of rotten wood, and other debris. For months I’ve been trying to put a bit at a time into the garbage can. I finally went out and rented a truck. We piled it full – over a ton of landfill! Now we need to finish tearing off the ‘tear off room’. Above right, partway through pulling off the old siding.

My mum will like this: A couple of weeks ago I had an Arborist over to look at our lemon tree, and the other trees in the back yard. His first suggestion was to tear out the concrete around the tree. He said that putting concrete over roots creates a similar problem to over-watering house plants: The roots can’t get any air and are susceptible to rot.

It took about three hours with a rented jack hammer to take out most of the concrete. The tree looks so much less strangled by the concrete. Now the Arborist is going to come back and do some pruning and put in a couple of Espalier fruit trees. My mum hated all the concrete in the back yard. I agree; now that much of the concrete is gone, I feel like the garden is starting to come back to life.

I think Arwen wants to be a plumber: Here she’s looking out the kitchen window watching the contractors installing a new flue. The old furnace was starting to smell of fumes, so we had to replace it. The new one is about half the size. We didn’t get a super high efficiency furnace, but it’s supposed to be about 50% more efficient than the old one.

I also started to put in the final leg of the stairs. Because it’s cold out now (by our standards), I paint everything in the garage first.

On my way home a couple of days ago, I walked by a garage sale. They had this nice mirror hung off a tree. The cats seem to think it was a good buy.

“I feel pretty
Oh so pretty…”

Newel Post

This was the first time I’ve installed a newel post for a stair. I’d often wondered how a post can be attached at a right angle to a beam, and be sturdy enough to support a hand rail. Well, there’s a trick. It’s not just nailed down.

There’s a threaded steel rod embedded into the end of the post that bolts down to the beam below. It’s all hidden. First I need to drill a hole down the post. I had to get a long drill bit for this, because the rod needs to go about 8 inches into the post.

To get at the end of the rod, and put a nut and washer on it, I need to drill a large hole into the side of the post. It’s so nice having a drill press.

Above left, you can see the rod inside the post, with a washer and nut on it. I painted wood preservative all over the bare wood. After the post was solidly in place, and i was sure it was right,  I made a plug out of the same wood, and glued it in with a waterproof glue.

Above left is a view from underneath the deck at the beam that is under this post. I drilled a hole through the beam for the threaded rod, and pushed the rod through from the top, with the post attached. Then I put a nut and washer on it, and tightened it.

Tada! A post, sticking straight out of the deck, and it’s quite solid. There’s a bit more to it than I showed: To get the post vertical, I had to fiddle a bit with the angle of the cut on the end of the post. Because the deck slopes, if the post was cut perfectly square, it would slope, also. So now I’ve got the framing in for the first two flights of the stair. Just one to go.

Mole’s brother Jason gave me some clamps as a Christmas gift, years ago. They are unusual, because you can tighten them with one hand. I don’t think he realizes how useful they are; I’m using them almost every time I work on the stairs project to hold things in place while I adjust lengths, or fasten the other end. Above left, I’m starting to put in the hand rails.

Above right: Another project – I need to repair the window sash in the garage. This window is so rotten that it just fell apart in place and the glass fell out of it. The previous owners had plumbing pipes running up the outside of the house, and entering above this window. Rain would run down the outside of the pipe, and run into the window. I’ve moved the plumbing, but now the window needs help.

Stairs Phase II

After pounding away at nails on the new plywood for a couple of days, I ran out and bought a new nail gun. My hammering of nails managed to crack the plaster over the kitchen window. Need to fix it again. I don’t understand the mechanics of it, but somehow a nail gun can shoot a whole nail in with less noise, and much less rattling of the wall. One less thing to fix if I’d only known.

Do you think this could be part of a superhero Halloween costume? Of course, the cats need to inspect a new tool: Knitted ball or nailgun – decisions, decisions…

For my birthday (41!) I got a dual fluffy-cat-hug. Then I went and put the water resistant paper (“Super Jumbotex”) on the wall with the new plywood. I layer it staggered by half a sheet, so there’s always at least two sheets thick on the wall. Instead of nailing the siding directly to this, I read it’s better to leave a gap behind the siding. The gap allows any moisture that makes it through the siding to run down the wall and not be trapped between the paper and the siding. I’ve used 1/4″ thick strips of redwood stapled over the Jumbotex paper with stainless steel staples. I’ll use stainless steel screws to screw the siding to the wall through these strips.

After hours of sanding the old siding boards, Mole put a couple of coats of primer on both sides.

I’m not sure if it’s a building code requirement, or just one plumber’s interpretation of it, but there used to be three drain pipes running up here: One for the roof drain, one for the vent for the kitchen sink downstairs, and one of the drain of the kitchen sink upstairs. Seems to me it’s less cluttered to just have one pipe with sufficient diameter for both kitchen sinks, and one for the downspout. So I changed that.

Right now it’s quite far from the wall. There’s going to be a stair landing on the right of the top of the window. When that’s in, it will be easier to work on the siding over the window. I’ll also put a proper wall jack for the plumbing penetration. Caulk really does not seal these penetrations properly.

We’ve started on the second phase of the stairs. Last weekend, with Nick’s help, we tore out half of the upper part of the old stair. Ahh, so open! Now we need to build the new stairs. Above right, you can see that I’ve put most of the old siding back on. On the right of the photo is my neighbor’s fence, which I’m planning to cover (once the stairs are in).

Here’s the view out the kitchen window downstairs. You can see the stringer for the new stair lying on the deck. Above right is Arwen using Bella as a pillow. Since we came back from LA they have been more cuddly together.

 

Plywood

Engineers in California love plywood. I’m no exception; this house really needs some seismic retrofitting, and I’ve expanded the stair replacement project to include a shear wall (plywood!). Once I got the first level of the deck stable, and the upper stairs shored up, I took the siding off the back of the house and added plywood.

On a rainy Monday, I went out to the back and tore out the old steps.

I’ve got most of the first level framed. The pile on the right is all that’s left of the old steps.

Above left is the view out the kitchen window downstairs. The deck is starting to form. Above right is the laundry room. The new back door will be where this window is, leading out onto the deck and stairs.

The old back door had been chopped down to be just over six feet tall. To make the door back into a standard height, I added wood at the bottom and top of the door. Then I stained it with the same wood stain we’ve been using on all the wood work here. Above right – look at our garden spiders! They are getting big. Can anyone identify it?

Oh, and in my ADD style, I also decided to tear out the ductwork for the heating furnace, and add backdraft dampers and fancy iris dampers. We’re planning to get the furnace replaced, so I wanted to get the ducts in a row. ahem. Well, the purpose of the backdraft dampers is to try to stop wind blowing through the house through the heating ducts.

So, after putting the second to last coat of polyurethane on the door, our neighbor’s cat got into the garage. And went walking on my fresh varnish. I think I can get these out with a light sanding, but maybe I should leave them??

Above right, you can see the siding taken off the back of the house, ready for plywood! On the lower left of the photo, you can see how well the blow-in insulation fills the cavities. I’m completely sold on that stuff – it completely fills the whole cavity, unlike batt insulation. I messed with it a bit when I was adding hold-downs to tie this shear wall into the level below.

I’m not a fan of waste. And when it’s 100-year-old redwood siding, I’d be foolish to throw it out. But getting it off the wall without breaking it is a challenge. The technique I came up with is to make a tiny core drill out of a piece of pipe. Using my Dremel tool I sharpen teeth into the end of the pipe. I’ve got a piece of tape on it for the thickness of the siding. Works OK, unless the nail is in at an angle. Then it instantly destroys my core drill, and I’m back to sharpening.

And here’s a before and after. Isn’t plywood nice? The strap just adds the perfect touch, I think.

A friend suggested I paint the hardware before installing it on the deck. His thinking is that the paint would help to stop the metal from rusting. Being a perfectionist myself, I think it’s a great idea. Being an engineer, belt-and-suspenders is always better. And after finding out the price of hardware in stainless steel (almost twenty times the cost), I’m going for the paint. It takes ages to paint all sides, though. I’m wondering if I should do two coats?

Janeen spotted a mushroom in the wood from the old stair (while she was outside pulling nails out of it).

The paint on the back of the house is in seriously bad shape. How can siding get this bad? It will be good to resurrect this wood. Above right, Janeen is priming the backs of the siding boards, after they’ve been sanded.

Well, I’m almost ready to start on the next level. If I don’t get distracted.

M.C.Escheresque

We started to do the framing for the deck this weekend. Instead of doing the whole thing in one go, I’ve decided to split it into two parts: First I shore up the upper stairs, and build the lower landing. Then, when there’s a safe platform to work from, I’ll start on the stairs.

I think there were a few raised eyebrows when I managed to get some 16ft long 4×6 beams onto the Honda Civic! It’s amazing what you can do with some cardboard (padding) and ratchet tie-downs. I’ve not been organized enough to arrange for a delivery, so I’ve been using the trusty old car to bring all the wood. It took three trips. By the third one, I realized how much time I’d have saved to just pay for the delivery. Next time. Above right, we’ve got the first post installed.

Janeen is holding one of the posts in copper green wood preservative. It smells nasty enough that I’m sure it works. We’re using preservative pressure treated wood, but any cut ends need to be treated. Above right, some ‘inspectors’ dropped by to look around.

I love this photo: It reminds us of Escher’s three dimensional drawings. The white posts are the posts supporting the stair up to the upper level. The brown are the new ones, all fished between the existing posts.

Above left, I’ve cut all the posts for the stairs above, and it is supported on the new framing. Above right, it’s amazing how easily rotten wood comes apart. I took off the hand rails so that I could get the new framing in.

A pile of old wood is developing.

Janeen is checking the level of the new framing. I’ve got a block of wood taped to the end of the level. When laid on the framing, it reads level when the framing is sloping 1/8″ per foot, so that the whole deck slopes slightly away from the house. Janeen’s removing nails from the old wood (above right). Considering how rotten the wood is, it can be a real pain to get the nails out.

Putting hangers on the framing, and adding framing between the beams. Above right you can see a sheet of plywood stacked on the framing above: I couldn’t figure out how to get it up there once the framing was in, so we pulled it up first. Good thing it wasn’t a windy day.

A while back I promised a photo of the front stairs and front door. Here it is, after the painting. Because I did not have time to repaint the whole house, I used the same colors, and just painted the areas that where really in need. I’ve also finally got rid of that awful gate.

Rotten Surprise

I rented a mixer – and my neighbor, Nick: We got all the rest of the footings poured in an afternoon. Many hands – and machinery – make light work.

Nick carried about a ton of concrete bags through the obstacle course that is the back stairs construction site. Another great thing about using the mixer is that you can get the water ratio just right. We measured it using a gallon paint can.

After we finished the footings, I spent an afternoon putting the list of wood we need for the deck together (above right).

For quite a while now, the structural engineer in me has been nagging at me that the back wall of our house has no shear wall. A shear wall is basically a solid piece of wall that is specially built to keep the house standing up in an earthquake. You really need this solid piece of wall to extend from the foundation up to the roof. Well, there’s a small piece of wall coming down from the roof to the bottom of the first floor. But at the garage, there’s a door under it.

So I resolved to wait no longer, and move the door over to where there’s now a window.

Above left is the door, and the window has been removed already. I’m going to move the door into the window’s location, and make a shear wall where the door is.

This was the first sign of trouble. The door frame came out with chunks of wood attached to it. When I looked into the wall, I discovered that the wall framing was completely rotten. In fact, it was so bad that I could pull it out with my hands

When I started removing the rotten wood, it just kept going. The wall on the left is supposed to be a bearing wall. It carries the weight of the two floors above. But six feet of it were so rotten that they couldn’t possibly be supporting anything. What’s surprising is that I’d noticed no sagging or sloping upstairs at all in this corner. I shored it up with a temporary wall in front of the rotten wall. All the studs I cut about 1/8″ too long, and jammed them in with a hammer to try to force load onto them (instead of the rotten wall).

Above left is some of the rotten wood. It was practically powdery in some places. Above right, I’ve got the corner of the house shored up on 2×4’s – don’t show this to an engineer ;).

The rot had traveled along the grain of the wall top plate. Above right, I’m making a new top plate (it’s a single 4×6). The old framing is all true 6″ dimension, so I need to either shim things to fit, or cut down larger pieces.

Above you can see the new top plate. I soaked it in wood preservative – just in case. With the top plate replaced, I needed to move on to the bottom of the wall. In the future, I plan to replace all the foundations (that are currently brick) with new concrete foundations. Far in the future. For now, I’ll just have to be happy with bolting the wall to the old brick foundation.

I started drilling, and only got about 1″ deep. I moved a foot over, tried again. Same. So I took a cold chisel to the concrete topping. Above right, I found a metal file, still in good condition (except I’d cracked it when I was drilling), buried in the concrete. And there were various other metal objects, including brass dead bolt and some other mysterious brass element that I’ve just left embedded.

Once I started chipping, the brick just crumbled. I took out two courses of brick, epoxied in some threaded rod, added some rebar… You can see the embedded brass device above left, sticking out of the concrete topping. Above right, ready for concrete.

Didn’t take any photos, but I poured the footing for the wall last week, and today managed to get all the new framing in. I used a jack to lift this corner of the house about 3/8″ to get the new post in at the corner. That was a bit scary, as I was using a piece of 2×6 that was about 4 foot long. When I looked up, the 2×6 was bending dramatically. I gently lowered the house, and used a heavier piece of wood. Note to self: Use 4×4 or bigger when jacking!

We’ve got a new solid shear wall almost finished, and no more rotten wood (I fit most of it in the city compost bin).

Now I need to get back to the project I was actually supposed to be doing: The back stairs.

Back Stair Footings

We started to ‘pour’ the footings for the back stairs last weekend. Well, it was more like I got lots of blisters on my soft engineer’s hands by shovel-mixing concrete.

Because the back stairs are the second exit from our upstairs unit, I don’t want them to be out of commission for a long time. I’m leaving the old stairs up until I’ve got all the footings done for the replacement stairs. I’ll also pre-cut as much of the framing for the replacement stairs as I can so that once we tear down the rotten old stairs, I’ll be able to replace them quickly. That’s the plan.

Digging out footings for new stairMole using electric jackhammer

Figuring that the concrete that’s all over the back yard would be thin and easy to break out, I first tried to chip the concrete out with a sledge and cold chisel. Two hours and two blisters later, with only one footing chipped out, I learned the error of my ways: The rented electric jackhammer did the remaining eight, and the concrete in a corner of the garden, in the same amount of time.

Rebar bent into tricky shapesTieing rebar cages

Being an engineer is a handicap when it comes to foundations. Once I started with putting reinforcing steel in the footings, well, I started figuring out how I could bend the bars so that they would hold their position. Hence the funky shapes!

Rebar placed into hole (no dobies yet)Formwork for footing

Test-fitting the reinforcing (left), and with the formwork made out of plywood. OK, they didn’t need to be sloping, but I like it.

Inspectors show upNot sure if the engineer likes this one

And then the inspection. Bella seems to see something wrong on the footing: I think she thinks I don’t have enough concrete cover between the soil and the rebar. Or maybe she likes the smell of the string. Difficult because she never wrote a field report.

Shovel mixing is hard on the back16 sacks = 3 footings

So after my fun experience with chipping out the concrete, I’d planned to rent a concrete mixer. But it doesn’t fit in the car. So I got more blisters, and an aching back, by shovel mixing 16 60lb sacks of concrete to pour three footings. I’m going to see if I can strap the mixer onto the car somehow…

Starting on the back stairs

I was going to use this post to show the completed front steps and porch. But I forgot to take photos. Next time.

When we first looked at the house, the major thing that worried us–and actually almost held up the sale–was the condition of the back steps. So it’s a bit ironic that we just passed our four year anniversary here, and I’m finally starting on the project of replacing them.

Here’s a nice view out of the downstairs kitchen window. When my Mum was visiting, she tried to improve things by getting plants to put out there. On the right is the view at the outside of this window. Pipes everywhere, and paint  in rather poor shape. It’s hard to imagine, but this actually looks better than when we got the house (I’ve removed two pipes already, and a cable tv wire).

But nothing compares to this! These stairs are held together with paint and caulk. And the paint is seriously peeling. On the right you can see the temporary shoring I put in four years ago (I was thinking it would be there for six months max).

Last weekend mole and I measured, and I drew up some plans for the new stairs. My goal is to change the alignment slightly so that it’s not in front of the kitchen window. I’d also like to make a small deck out in this rather dingy space.

With a level, string, a tape measure and spray paint, it took me most of the day to lay out the locations of the new posts, and where their footings will be. Using a concrete saw blade, I saw cut around the outlines of the new footings. In about two hours of hand chipping, I dug one of the footing holes. There’s about five inches of concrete, then soft, dark, beautiful soil. On the right above you can see the footing hole.

I’m gonna rent a jackhammer next week–there are nine more to do.

…and some kitten photos:

Left, Arwen on the about-to-collapse-deck. Right, kitten cooking assistants (they are watching Janeen cooking).