Labor hired - $0
Tools acquired:
Framing nailer
pneumatic hammer for chipping away the concrete
RimSet for nailing down the base plates.
Update: Graco X5 Airless Paint Sprayer.
I am looking for ideas on how to frame out walls near the stairs.
I started by tearing out the 70’s brown wood paneling and found another crack to fix.
Also notice what was hiding near the ceiling.
“fixed” the cracks and moved on to framing. Pretty much just exterior walls.
I’m planning on putting a wall on one entire side of the stairs with a door at the bottom but on the opposite side I need to figure out how to cover the distance from the side of the stairs to a soon to be build wall. Ideally, the wall will enclose the support pole, but that leaves a 3.5" gap from the stairs to the wall.
I’m also planning on turning the area under the stairs into a hidden room of sorts for the kids to play in.
I also have to improve my cluster fuck of an idea to fix the slope I had in my kitchen so I can hide this mess too. Planning on knocking out the floor and making a nice 8-10" thick footer for a single post as the abortion pictured has flexed the floor a bit.
So, any thoughts on how to pretty up my shitty stairs some?
You are also welcome to tell me the correct way to do such work, but I reserve the right to blatantly ignore you and do it as I please if required.
Let me know if you want it wired up before you put the sheetrock in. I am not going to help with ideas on the framing of the stairs as I am not really that great at framing.
Cool place for the kids to play, that doesn’t look dangerous at all…might as well prep them with some ridulin and blindfold them while they’re under there…
What my kids choose to do to their friends is none of my business
I left out comentary on the sweet goodyear belt racks that should be from the 30-'s t0 50’s if the interweb is to be believed. I only destroyed one and cracked the other. 1 out of 3 is all that survived unmolested.
Its hard to tell exactly by the pics, but if you want the support column completely hidden, build a thick wall from the stairs to the end of the column. Looks to be about 6 3/4" ? I would just build a 2x4 wall along the stairs (carefully placing studs, and notch around support pole if its truly 3 1/2"), and trim out around the support column.
Depending on how crazy you want to get with this…
I would put a min. 6 MIL vapor barrier & min 1/2" foam insulation board behind the exterior walls. Even the 1/2" makes a huge difference. Treated bottom plate. Ram set / PAF’s work ok, but I’ve been using tapcon’s for everything, cause I got sick of the unpredictable destruction that sometimes occurs with the PAF’s. Mold resistant drywall & hang it a few inches off the floor. If sound is an issue, 2 layers of ROXUL Safe and Sound in the floor joists works wonders.
Stairs- tear out covering on treads and paint everything (i’ve had good success with Valspar porch and floor paint @ $23/gal & they make stair paint with texture for traction if desired. ieatpaint may have a better suggestion.)
& You’re “abortion” fix to a sagging floor is actually pretty common in older homes. I’ve usually seen it with a steel i-beam vs a 4 x 4.
I do have walls up now.
Once it came to drywall finishing, I completely lost interest as I hate it.
I also am still working out what to do to make a hidden door under the stairs.
My current thoughts are around SOSS hinges and a DIY book case yet to be framed in.
Don’t mind the mess. Our basement is the last stop storage before disposal.
I used a thick vapor barrier. It extends out the top and bottom of the walls.
If I were to do it again, I would have just used tapcon screws to hold 1" wood framing to the cement with thick foam insulation.
I have a long list of things I would have/should have done differently but I will not point them out until I’m drunk and people say “wow, that looks nice”
As for the cracks, we chiseled them out, put rolled up screen in and covered with hydraulic cement. After that cured, I covered it with some urethane crap like the
guy I paid $250 to fix a different crack used. The idea is that the water never stops, so you divert in into the drain tile under the house.
It’s grunt work, but not overly challenging to repair.
---------- Post added at 10:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:08 AM ----------
Have you been talking to my wife?
R&D personality at it’s finest. It’s usually not cost effective to go full term on a project.
Quote for this is the fucking way to do it. You wouldn’t believe how many assholes believe a coat of waterproof paint will keep all the ground water at bay. Nicely done!
As for drywall finishing I hit the seams and joints with a real thin coat of durabond 90 (cus i’m slow), scrape any chunks off with a drywall knife and then skim coat it with the premixed bucket stuff and a wide knife. After it starts to dry a bit you can wipe it with a sponge to blend the line or just sand it quick when it dries.
I think it would take that much time for me too, if we didn’t have to be living in our place in a week (maybe a thread to come shortly after). I love the huge rewarding fast results of framing and boarding it up - absolutely hate chasing the nagging details in drywall, trim and paint for days/months that make no difference to the average heterosexual male…
^ Word. I had my dining room hung and ready for mud in 2 days… It has taken me 3 weeks to get the motivation to finish all of the seams and corners etc.
My basement is starting next week and should be wrapped up by the first week or two of January. I will post a thread, I am doing it quite a bit different than this one.
I will be doing this to my basement very soon. I was quite worried when I saw that you didn’t do vapor barrier, then I saw that you did. My basement is framed already, but they never put vapor barrier down. I will be taking it out to put it in there and start the drywall.
