New Doors

Last week we had just gotten the new tankless hot water heater installed on the side of the house. This week we continued with the water heater installation by running the hot and cold water lines through the wall and to the tank. One thing I didn’t realize with this hot water heater is that it has a recirculating pump built in to the unit. That means it will recirculate the hot water throughout the house to keep it always hot. After reading that in the manual, I opted to run another 3/4″ hot water line to the far end of the house (kitchen) and connect it with the existing hot water line there. This will create a loop for the pump and the new line will bring the hot water back to the water heater. I’m pretty excited about this feature.

New LP gas lines

Once the water lines were done, I started on the gas lines. For this I’m using black iron pipe anywhere I’m going through the walls and then soft copper pipe to the kitchen to service our gas range (we haven’t bought this yet). I got the pipe stubbed out below the water heater and then another stub out near where the tank is going to sit outside. I will have to bury a short length of copper tubing between the tank and the house. Also, I’ll have to add a regulator where the gas line meets the house. I’ve ordered that regulator and it should be in this week.

Propane tanks

Oceana has been calling around trying to figure out our best option for a propane tank. Some places have extremely reasonable tank rental rates ($75/year) but after 3 days trying to reach them to ask them additional questions, we’ve opted not to go that route. Others have variable monthly fees that are based on usage that range from $20-$50/mo for the tank rental alone. No thanks. Lastly, you can purchase your own tank and then have it filled by whoever. Seems like that’s the route we’re going to go with.

Termite treatment

Back in the bathroom, after getting the gas lines run, I mixed up some borate wood preservative (termite pre-treatment) and soaked any exposed wood in the bathroom. Every time we open up a new wall or floor, we find more termite damage. We’re not surprised, but we’re using this as an indicator for what we can expect. As such, every wall, ceiling, and floor that we open up, we’re treating with the termite pre-treatment. Since I expect termites to visit again in the future, I’m doing everything I can to make the wood in the house unsavory to them so they’ll go elsewhere.

Bathroom Insulation

The next day, after the termite treatment had dried, I insulated the walls and ceiling of the bathroom. It’s amazing how much quieter the room got with the insulation. I’ll insulate the floor as well, but I’m waiting until the gas lines are complete. Once the remaining parts come in, I’ll pressure test the lines to make sure all of the connections are good. Once that happens, I’ll insulate the floor and install the subfloor. Progress is kind of on hold with the bathroom until that happens.

Our doors are here

We got the call this week that our new front and back doors are in! It’s only been 2-3 months, so that’s not terrible. Especially when the windows we ordered at the same time won’t be in until February. We’re replacing the two exterior doors of the house with hurricane doors. We opted for full lite glass with blinds between the glass. Both of the current doors are only half lite so this should help brighten up the house. Also, we’ve opted for both doors to be outswing instead of inswing like the current doors. This will open up a touch more floor space inside.

Door demo

We started with the fun one – the back door. This is the fun one because there’s lots of old damage here and it should be interesting. It didn’t disappoint. Oceana took off the old trim, the screen door, and the old door slab. After finishing up in the shop, I joined her on the door and finished the few remaining pieces of demo. We ordered the new door 2″ wider than the old door. The old door was 30″ which is a touch narrow for getting things in and out of the house. This, however, means I will need to reframe the opening. To expose the opening, I removed the siding on the left of the door. With the door out and the siding removed, I can confirm that this area was definitely an addition. It appears to be an old covered porch.

New framing

The original termite eaten porch flooring is visible and currently unsupported at the door because of the termite/water damage. This is where I started with rebuilding. I cut out all of the soft wood that was easily accessible (more will need to be done when the siding on the back is replaced) and started adding back in new wood. I got the old floor supported and in place. On top of the old floor appears to be 2 layers of additional flooring, with the top layer being the old pine floors. I’d like to refinish these so it looks like I’ll need to order/make some to fill in the missing area at the door. Once the floor was good, I framed up the sides of the opening and added a new header. I then waterproofed the sill with flashing tape and stuck the door in place. It fit the second time!

Felt paper

To cover the missing siding on the left of the door, I added a strip of felt paper. I’ll be adding felt paper behind all of the new siding, so this works for now and blocks off the massive hole in the side of the house. We finished just in time for the evening rain showers. The kitchen appears much bigger with this door. I can’t explain why, maybe it’s the light, maybe because it’s a touch bigger, or maybe because it’s an outswing. Regardless, it makes the room feel bigger.

The front door

Next was the front door. This was a much simpler install. The width on the old and new doors is the same. After removing the old door, we noticed the porch floor is about 1″ higher than the wood floors inside the house. Since we’re using an outswing door, we’ll need to raise the door up to clear the outside floors. Doing so meant cutting the opening taller to accommodate. After the door opening was enlarged, the door went right in. I got it shimmed and secured then installed the new deadbolt and handle.

Our sweating linesets

Do you remember how we were having trouble with the A/C lines sweating? These are the linesets to the A/C units that service the bedrooms. They run over the ceiling of the bathroom and they’ve been sweating profusely. I bought some super thick insulation and insulated the areas exposed above the bathroom ceiling. Well, even with the extra insulation, they were still sweating. When something cold is exposed to hot humid air, it sweats. Since the lines were well insulated, they really shouldn’t be sweating. This means there has to be hot humid air getting to the lines.

More drywall cutting

I ordered additional pipe insulation for the remaining areas that needed to be insulated. Once it arrived, I cut open the wall in our bedroom and the wall in the bathroom where the linesets run. I built a shelf to hold up the a/c unit while I insulated the remaining areas of lines. It’s definitely a bummer cutting into the drywall in the one finished room of the house. Oh well, it needs to be done. As I was doing this, I was searching for the source of hot air. I found it. And it’s crazy.

The cause

This house used to have windows between the “sleeping porch” (which is our current bedroom) and the living room. Because that’s normal, right? We removed those windows and put a doorway in one and the other window opening landed where the back to back closets now are. I haven’t drywalled the living room side yet, and the closet ceiling is low enough that there are open wall cavities leading directly above the back to back closets, which is the same ceiling area as above the bathroom. Since the rest of the house doesn’t have A/C, it’s regularly above 90° and humid in the living room, and that air makes its way to the space above the bathroom. After cutting the ceiling and insulating the lines the first time, any time that we would turn on the bath vent fan, the fan would suck up air from the path of least resistance – the living room. That drew more hot and humid air up into the space which compounded the problem.

Solutions

For the time being, I plugged the open wall cavities with insulation to stop the flow of hot air to that space. I’ll plan to drywall it this week. For now, I’ll leave the linesets exposed to make sure everything is good, but I don’t expect any more issues. If the rest of the house had A/C, this would have been a non-issue. If the living room side had been drywalled, it would have been a non-issue. Ah, the joys of living in a remodel. That’s all for this week. Thanks for following along!