Rebuiding "The Box"

With the structural wall re-framed and the floor extended, the entry and walls to the bedroom are mostly framed out and we're almost ready to have the plasterboard (called Sheetrock in the US) replace the temporary plywood walls. It's because of these plywood walls that we call the bedroom "the Box" - since we moved in, the "bedroom" has been enclosed by plywood, making it look like a "box". But today...that's going to change!

The re-framed structural wall and extended floor in-front of "the Box"

The first thing that needs to be done is some additional minor re-framing of the structural wall (also one of the bedroom walls) to create an opening where the new staircase will pass as it goes upto the loft (2nd floor). This work was left until today because in order to do it, I'll need to remove all the plywood. Taking down the plywood was technically easy to do, but psychologically, this is a very big deal for us - we've been living with it for over a year, and this is the first step to returning to some level of normalcy.

Temporary plywood walls of "the Box" (photo on the left) - a few minutes later, the first few panels removed (on the right)

All the temporary plywood removed from the re-framed structural wall along the bedroom

With the plywood removed, I was able to easily cut out the opening and set a new wall-plate that will act as a structural anchor for the new staircase. This completed all the re-framing work and I could now begin re-sheathing the walls.

Cutting out studs to make an opening for the staircase

The completed opening

 The re-sheathing of the bedroom began with adding plywood - but this time it's permanently attached to the exterior face of the structural wall. This plywood is being required by our official from Building Control (the equivalent of the Department of Buildings in NYC) to make the wall extra strong and stiff so that it acts as what's known structurally as a diaphragm system. The entire wall is sheathed in structural plywood and fastened every few inches with screws. Later, this will be covered with plasterboard and painted - eventually it will be blended in and hidden.

The first piece of structural plywood added

A few more pieces of plywood seen from inside the bedroom. The opening for the staircase is on the right side

The completed plywood seen from outside the bedroom - the door opening is again visible.

Once the plywood was completed, I shifted my attention to the other walls so as to hang the plasterboard. Before any plasterboard could be hung, the wall that separates the kitchen from the bedroom needed to have the final studs installed. These were quickly cut, placed and leveled.

The remaining studs installed at the side bedroom wall

Once the studs were in place, it was finally time to start hanging the plasterboard. I hung one board on the side wall just to see how everything fit together, and then quickly insulated the structural wall before covering it with plasterboard. All the walls will be insulated to help with sound dampening and to retain heat within the bedroom during the winter.

The first piece of plasterboard in the bedroom!

Insulating the structural wall.

Hanging plasterboard is quite not as basic as it sounds. Building control requires us to maintain a 1 hour fire rating around the bedroom, which can be achieved with either 2 layers of regular 12.5mm (5/8") plasterboard or one layer of special fire-rated plasterboard - which in the UK is, funnily, colored pink (to make it obvious the board is rated). Here I decided to use the pink (rated) plasterboard along the structural wall (because it won't have much traffic/abuse) but two layers of regular board on all the other walls (so they are stronger and can take more abuse & traffic).

A few more boards up - the pink (fire-rated) plasterboard on the front wall with regular board on the side wall.

Most of the plasterboard hung

The plasterboard went up rather quickly - but by this point it was late, and I was getting tired after a 12-hour day of labor. But the plasterboard made a huge difference in how the room felt - the plywood is gone, and our bedroom is finally starting to feel like a real room rather than a plywood box!

End of the day - the bedroom re-sheathed in plasterboard

Structural Wall Surgery

While the extending the floor, I was somewhat simultaneously re-framing the only remaining Victorian-era structural wall left in our flat so as to accommodate an opening for the new bedroom door. This door location is only possible because of the floor extension - the new door is squeezed in between the top of the old staircase, the kitchen and the beginning of the new staircase that goes up to the loft.

Perspective from 3D computer model used in the design phase - the new bedroom door and new staircase (upto new loft) meet at this critical location adjacent to the new kitchen

This arrangement was developed in the design phase when it became apparent that in order to open-up the space, yet maximize the size of the kitchen and bathroom, we would have a very tight convergence at this very location. This convergence makes the floor extension and relocation of the door critical to the new layout. At the time it was not obvious this wall was structural (it supports a post that helps hold part of the roof) but having worked previously on this wall, and reviewing the proposed work with building control, I felt confident moving forward.

March 27th - The original Victorian-era structural wall (plaster was removed during demolition)

The "surgery" involved cutting through the existing studs to create an opening that will fit the future door. As in all structural work of this kind, the most important thing is to brace the areas of the wall that are doing the structural work so that the wall does not "know" that you're re-arranging it - it's almost like a magic trick. If the structure realizes what you're doing...you're in trouble...

So the first step is to brace the beam at the top of the wall (known as a wall plate) that is actually carrying the weight of the roof post above it (that helps support the roof). The brace is rather simple - a heavy stud (old growth wood from the original roof) that sits on top of temporary beams that span the opening in the floor for the stair.

The temporary brace to support the wall-plate while structural work occurs

Once the brace was in place, I began to cut away at the studs and re-frame the wall to accommodate the opening. Because this wall is one of the bedroom walls, I did this work keeping the plywood sheathing in place, since the plywood acts as the temporary walls to the bedroom, keeping the dust out. But this made the work more difficult, so I had to go "old-school" and use a handsaw...

Cutting and removing the first pieces of the wall

Using a handsaw at a tight spot where power tools would not fit

The opening is done and new side studs repositioned...all that's left is horizontal member at the top of the door opening

Once all the members that were in the way were removed, I was able to reposition the vertical studs (doubling them up on one side for more strength) and then finally add a double "header" at the top of the door opening. A header is the horizontal member at the top of a door - because this wall happens to be structural, this header is structural and will do the primary work of transferring the weight, or "load", of the roof post to the rest of the wall.That's why the header is doubled up and additional vertical members are added using steel clips to ensure their position and strength.

Once everything was in place, I held my breath and removed the temporary brace...all is good!

The brace is removed and the newly re-framed door opening is complete

Before & After montage. On the left (before): the structural wall and floor - On the right (after): the extended floor with the new door opening

Tiling: Bathroom Walls (Day 8)

Having worked all weekend relocating the door and finishing the prep of the walls and floors for tiles, the bathroom was ready for Sean (our tiler) when he walked in on Monday morning.

Morning of Feb 27th - the wood batten is set for holding the tiles above.

Similar to how he started the shower, Sean set a wooden batten at the base of the 2nd row on the wall in order to hold the tiles. By locating and leveling the batten perfectly, it provides a stable and accurate foundation for the walls, and later, once the tiles are set, and the floor is tiled, he can go in and tile the gap precisely. This is one of those great tricks one can learn watching a professional -- if it was not done this way, I can now see that there could be inaccuracies that would be visible. Setting such large tiles is an extremely unforgiving task...I'm now really thankful that "Aglaya" talked me out of doing the tiling myself!

Late morning - most of the wall is finished.

After Sean finished the shower, it was amazing to see how fast he could work with just straight walls and full tiles -  in just a few hours he had finished one of the walls and had started the other. These walls are all in limestone - which is a beautiful but soft stone - and they are intended to provide a more neutral background against the bold color of the slate.

Turning the corner onto the final wall. You can see the red line of the laser level on the left side

By 1pm Sean had completed half of the final wall.

While Sean was working on the walls, I was resetting the loo's push-button flusher - it's wall mounted and had to be properly fixed to the wall before the tiles go over it. This was the last thing I did before heading to the airport...now it's up to "Aglaya" to finish overseeing Sean's work!

The mostly completed shower (with the laser level mounted on a pole)

Bathroom:Waterproofing the floor

The final push to finish the bathroom waterproofing has come down to today, which is a Sunday - my flight back to NYC is late tomorrow afternoon, so anything I need to do has to get done by the end of the day today.

 This will include affixing the waterproof tile backer boards (Marmox boards) to the walls and floor that will be tiled (outside of the shower). These are the final bits of waterproofing, and this will allow our tiler (Sean) to complete his work. Since I'm leaving tomorrow and he's still going, it's become apparent that his work will (unfortunately) only be finished after I've gone. This makes the perfectionist/architect in me nervous, but I've seen over the past week that Sean is very meticulous and we've spent a lot of time going over all the details and issues...so hopefully it will be OK. But "Aglaya" is going to have to step up and take charge after tomorrow!

Marmox boards lining the bathroom walls

Once the waterproofing on the bathroom walls had dried for 24 hours, I was able to apply the waterproof tile backer boards (Marmox boards) Sunday afternoon. Similar to the shower, after the boards are fixed to the waterproofed plywood, the joints are sealed with a waterproof silicone bead, followed by waterproof tape.

After removing the loo

After the walls were completed, it was time to focus on the floor - I had been nervous about this, as it involved removing our loo (toilet) in order to fully waterproof the floor below. Fortunately it went relatively smoothly and was easy to remove (with a little help from "Aglaya").

The plywood under the loo waterproofed, and the 1st batch of flexible tile adhesive ready to go

With the loo out of the way, I quickly applied the waterproof membrane to the plywood and after it was dry enough (could not wait the 24 hours this time!), I prepped for putting the Marmox boards on the floor. This involved pre-cutting all the boards so they would fit, and then mixing smaller buckets of the tile adhesive.

The first batch of the flexible tile adhesive spread out on the floor

It's worth pointing out here that I had ordered a special type of tile adhesive for the floors. Wood joists with a plywood sub-floor are not the best base for tile because they have a tendency to subtly move due to expansions/contractions in the heat/cold. In an old Victorian building like ours, movement could even be caused by large truck driving by outseide. These very small  movements have a tendency to make tiles -- or the grout lines between them -- crack, so one has to minimize the possibility of movement, while still accommodating for some movement. Here I had fixed the plywood with as many screws as possible to make the subfloor as rigid as it could be, and will then apply a flexible tile adhesive that is designed to go over wood subfloors. The adhesive will fasten the Marmox boards to the floor (minimizing the transfer of any vibrations or movement) while the Marmox board itself will provide a very rigid and inflexible base for the tile. The hope is that this carefully thought out system will minimize any cracking of our large, beautiful limestone tiles...

The 1st Marmox board in place on the floor - using some sacks to hold down the boards in a few areas

Yours truly placing the 2nd Marmox board in place

Spreading the next batch of adhesive

A close-up view of the adhesive - one uses a notched trowel so the adhesive grabs the boards better

Mixing smaller amount of the adhesive made it easier to work with, and within two hours I had all of the Marmox boards in place. Similar to the walls, beads of silicone are placed bewteen the joints, and then taped over with a waterproof tape.

The silicone between the joints (on the left); the silicone covered by waterproof tape (on the right)

After the work is completed, the loo is fixed back in place

By the end of the day (10pm!) the bathroom floors and walls were completed, and ready for the tiler to carry on with his work in the morning...

Bathroom: Closing one door / opening another

Once the tiler finished his work early Saturday afternoon, I was able to begin my work for the day. Today's agenda includes closing up our temporary bathroom door, removing the plywood to open up our new door, and waterproofing the bathroom walls.Although this is a relatively simple work, it's a very big deal for us psychologically as we're officially reconfiguring how we enter the rooms, making the bathroom en-suite (accessed through the bedroom). We had agreed with our tiler when he started work that we would leave this step as late as possible so as to minimize traffic (of people and construction materials!) through the "bedroom".

I started by removing one of the plywood panels lining the "bedroom" (in truth, it's still really "the Box") and attached hinges to it, making it a temporary door between the bedroom and bathroom before the actual finished door replaces it.

Afternoon of Feb 25th - removing a plywood panel where the new door will go

With the plywood rehung as a door, you can now see straight through the bathroom - here we're looking in through the new door, and out through the old opening that's on the living room side

Once the door was up, I began to cut plywood to fill in the opening that up to now had been our access to the bathroom. It was amazing how this relatively small change completely transformed the bathroom - it started to feel like a real room!

Starting to close up the opening

One last look between the rooms...

The opening fully closed!

After the opening was covered, I began the waterproofing - the plan is to waterproof the lower half of the wall, up to and including the ledge. As with the shower, the first layer is a primer, followed by a the paintable rubberized membrane.

Starting to waterproof the bathroom walls

Yours truly painting on the rubberized membrane waterproofing

Once the membrane was completed, it starting to look more and more like a bathroom: the shower is mostly tiled, the blue-grey coating is on the walls...we're getting there..!

End of the day...getting there!

Tiling: The Shower (Days 4-6)

So over the next three days Sean (our tiler) plugged away at the shower - like everything else on this project, it has ended up taking him longer than expected! 

Looking at the work involved, though, and the level of precision required, I can see why it's taking so long. I'm also glad that in the end, we decided to get a professional in to do this! I have to admit, I'm extremely impressed with his work...and can't even imagine how much longer it would be taking if I were doing it.

Over these three days, Sean tackled some of the trickiest parts of the job: the niche, the arch and the floor. My only concern now is time, since I'll be heading back to NYC on Monday and I'd prefer if he was finished before I leave.

Morning of Feb 23rd

Tiling the arch, using posts to hold the tiles in place while the adhesive dries

Beginning the slate on the rear wall

End of the day

Feb 24th - by mid-morning Sean finished the rear wall. One can now see the "wrapping" effect of the slate...

The shower floor - had a long discussion on the spacing and location of cuts...

End of the day - montage of the shower...it's almost finished!

Late morning on Feb 25th - starting on the shower's final row (between the floor and 2nd course)

By the end of the day (Saturdays are 1/2 days), most of the course is completed