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

Extending the floor

After almost a month in New York, I'm back in London again. Now that the shower is finished (!), I'm going to shift my efforts towards finishing the remaining "heavy construction" so that we can try to wrap up the major work by the of the summer.

What that means is that I'll now be focusing on the preparations for the new staircase that will eventually go upto our new loft & dormer. This will include:

• Extending the floor so it meets the correct location of the new stair. Besides adding around 15 sq ft to the overall area of our flat, this extension will also provide the necessary floor area to locate the new door into the bedroom (currently, "The box"). So this extension is critical to the new layout & design of the flat.
• Re-framing the structural wall (adjacent to the staircase) so that the new door into the bedroom can be opened.
• Once the structural wall is re-framed, it needs to be sheathed in structural plywood and then covered in "fire-proof" plasterboard (1hr rated to be precise), as per the instructions from our council's Building Control officer.
• Build and install the landing for the new staircase - it needs to be built first because it will help hold up the stairs...also, it will give the stairs something to frame into
• If the above items go well...start building the staircase...!

The existing staircase (down to the flat's entry door), with the structural wood wall next to it

Before extending the floor, I needed to open up the existing floor and determine the exact location and level of the new beam that will carry the new floor area as well as the new staircase. Because this is the only remaining area of the floor that was not leveled, the contrast (between the old sloping floor by the stair and the new leveled sub-floor) became quite obvious...with a difference of over an inch!

Morning of March 26th - the existing conditions and original end of the floor.

Sub-floor removed, exposing the joists underneath

The level shows the extreme difference between the old sloping floor/joists and where it should be so it's level.

Because of the extreme slope of the old floor, I realized that it will be necessary to reconfigure the top of the stair to get everything level. This required pulling off the top step so as to fully expose the beam below. Once the joist was fully exposed, I was able to set-up a string line and determine the future leveled location of the new beam.

Removing the original top step to expose the beam below

The string line and level - note the difference between the string (which is level) and the slope of the old floor/beam!

The location on the structural wood wall were the new joist will go. Removing the plaster to expose the wall plate below where the beam will sit. (A wall plate is a horizontal stud within a wall - usually in between floors)

With the location of the beam determined, it was time to create the openings for it to go into and determine the structural support that will hold it. On the side of the exterior wall, I cut into the wood trim and exposed a wooden wall plate that holds the joists (the wall plate sits on top of the brick wall below). On the other side (at the structural wood wall) I also found a wooden wall plate that was conveniently at almost the exact location I needed to sit the new beam on. Once everything was opened, I cut the new wood beam and inserted it in place. It took some time to set it at the exact level, but I was eventually able to get there.

Afternoon of March 28th - locating the wall plate that will hold the new beam (at the exterior wall) and establishing the correct level there. This required a thin steel plate to get it to the exact height needed.

The new beam at the correct level (notice the difference between it and the old beam)

Once the beam was set to the correct level, a second beam was cut and they were fastened together (this is known as sistering) to create an extra strong beam. This double beam was then fastened to the old, sloping beam to help stabilize it and prevent any further settlement or sloping.

The double beam fastened in place

Now the fun part started...I was able to remove the old railing and start setting up for the actual floor extension. This again required using string lines to determine the correct location of the new joists (that will frame into the double beam). Once everything was worked out, I was able to to cut the wood and install special steel clips (called joist hangers) that help make the structural connection between the joists.

Morning of March 29th - The new double beam in place...then removing the original railing.

String lines locate the positions of the new joists.

With everything cut and the joist hangers in place, I was then able to insert the new joists and fasten everything together. Within a few hours they were structurally sound, and i was able to add a layer of plywood so we could walk on our new extended floor!

The joist hangers in place, holding the new joists

The completed framing

Adding a piece of plywood so we can walk on it...

Tiling: The Shower (Day 2)

On our second day of tiling, Sean (our tiler) pushed ahead and began cutting/installing slate for the main shower wall. Once he turned the corner, we could really start to get a sense of what it was going to look like - I had initially been lukewarm about "Aglaya"'s choice of copper slate, but I have to admit, I now think it's actually going to look quite stunning - particularly (I hope) when contrasted with the limestone.

Sean appeared to be moving somewhat quickly, but somehow, by the end of the day, only 6 tiles had been installed...

Morning of Feb 21st

The first few rows of slates

Here you can see the tile adhesive right before the slate is installed

End of the day's tile work - can really start to see how the completed shower will look!

Once Sean had wrapped up for the day, I began my work, as part of our tag-team approach. Tonight, my task was to frame out part of the bathroom wall and what will ultimately be our bathroom door. Because  the bathroom is now en-suite, this new door is going to be between the bathroom and the bedroom. We're currently accessing the bathroom through a temporary door on the opposite side (the living-room side) so that while everything is a messy construction site, we (and our workers) aren't constantly traipsing through our "bedroom" to use the loo or while working on the loo.

Of course, the "bedroom" is still very much The Box - that is to say, it's still sheathed in plywood and not really a proper room yet. So I'm aiming to do this framing work from the bathroom side rather than the "bedroom" side so as to keep the dust and mess outside our sleeping space.

Cutting the rough opening in the floor stud for the new door - the temporary plywood wall is simply pushed out of the way

I carefully measured out where the doorway would go (making sure to accommodate trims, etc)  and cut out the rough opening from the floor stud using a circular saw and handsaw. From there, studs were cut and installed on either side of the opening - each one perfectly leveled. I then installed a few other studs and was able to temporarily attach some scrap trim and plasterboard on either side to see how the door would look....

The studs erected with temporary plasterboard & trim to get a sense of the wall & doorway

Heating Up: Not much of a weekend...

This weekend, as we raced to finish getting everything ready for the plumber, I had flashbacks to the insane, exhausting "marathon" we went through to get the scaffolding down a few months ago. Andre is scheduled to leave London on Tuesday, and our plumber is coming tomorrow (Monday) to install the new radiators and get the heat working - so we're down to the wire...

Morning of October 15 - yesterday's completed drylining

Andre started the weekend by continuing to hang plasterboard - this time in "the box". Once again, we were only working on one wall, since for now we just need to work on the area where the radiator is going to be hung. But it was a ridiulous amount of work. From my perspective it was far, far worse than working on the living rooms walls - even though the living room area is much bigger - because dry-lining is incredibly messy, and so we had to pack up everything and clear "the box" of all of our possessions and "furniture" (in reality, the only furniture is the air mattress, but still...).

Two boards up and ready for another

Finished and ready for plaster!

Once the pieces of plasterboard had dried and were rigid, I started plastering (known as spackling in the US) the joints between them. It wasn't difficult work, but I was totally unprepared for how finicky and tiring it was! I had to start by mixing dry plaster with water to make the plaster (spackle), ensure it was the right consistency, then apply it, smoothe it over the joints, wait for it to dry, sand it... and then repeat the whole process with a second coat. It looked and sounded so easy, but I discovered instantly that getting a smooth, even coat of plaster onto joints takes skill and technique - neither of which I had. (So in the end, it took Andre to make some of the more stubborn areas look presentable!)

Plastering the joints

We put in 12-14 hour days both Saturday and Sunday, but by Sunday night we did finally get to the point where the only thing left to do was paint the newly-hung plasterboard (just in the spots that will be behind the radiators, since after the radiators are installed we obviously won't be able to get to those areas).

October 16th - Hanging the last few boards

 But at around 9pm Sunday, exhausted, somewhat cranky - and daunted by the prospect of the enormous clean-up operation and reconstruction of the "box" that will have to happen before we can go to sleep tonight - we decided we deserved a little break while the final coat of plaster dried... so the painting only got done later on, after a quick trip to the pub and a couple of pints! Thank goodness for paint rollers...

Finished - ready for the radiator!

Heating Up: Drylining - Days 1 & 2

Having set the string line that locates where new plasterboards board will go, it's finally time to start drylining. As mentioned in the previous post, drylining involves hanging plaster slightly off the face of an old wall using dabs of a special adhesive plaster. As with much of the work we've encountered, it sounds simple, but requires a lot of labor.

I started in the corner of our new, enlarged living room, where the old kitchen used to be, and where I had just recently leveled the floor. This portion of wall was one of the grottiest in the flat as the old kitchen was in a truly nasty state - I was looking forward to covering it.

Morning of October 13 - the old wall

Since I had never done this before, I started slowly - carefully measuring the board and mixing the adhesive. Taking the advice of our Building Control officer, I also prepared a series of screws to provide additional support for each board. Once everything was ready, the adhesive is slapped onto the wall in a pattern that provides consistent support for the board. The board is then pushed onto the adhesive dabs, and the screws are fastened while carefully trying to line up the board with the string line and leveling it.

The dabs of adhesive ready for the first board

The first board pressed into place

So after the first board was up, I just started moving down the wall. I soon realized that the wall needed to be fully stripped of all the old wallpaper and then scratched up to provide additional places for the adhesive to grab onto. Scraping the walls ended up being time consuming, but  it was important to ensurethe adhesive had something more substantial to grab onto.

Putting the plaster adhesive onto the next area

Almost ready to place the 4th board

Pushing the board into place

The screws to provide additional mechanical adhesion to the wall.

End of the day - the first area completed

It took the whole day to set the first half of the wall, but once it was done we could see how much of a improvement it made. The next day continued on with more of the same to finish the other half...

Morning of Oct 14th - starting point

Scraping off all the old wallpaper so the adhesive can stick to something better

Under this window we had exposed brick, so I used some wood to make it easier

The last piece in place!

Looking down our newly drylined wall