I spent 4 hours finishing up the insulation tonight. Only thing left is to fill a couple of odd spaced holes. All the major gaps are filled now. At this point even without drywall I am hearing a difference already with respect to server in laundry room. Hopefully it will be even better with drywall and linacoustic up. Tomorrow night I will finish up the insulation and then finish up the integrity gaskets. Wednesday I have someone coming in to give me an estimate for drywall. Hopefully it won't be too much and can be done soon.
November 2005 Archives
I have finished all the wiring I can at this point. I finished and tested the fifth circuit along with my square lights. The only thing left to do is the sconces and the switch for the lights in the riser.
After the wiring I went back to insulation. I worked on the insulation in ceiling joists. I got about 60% of the ceiling insulation done. It isn't hard but very time consuming work. Measure, cut, stuff, pull and repeat. Hopefully I can get it done tomorrow as it is the last thing that needs to be done prior to drywall install. Speakng of which I will hope to find someone next week to do the install.
This morning I installed my five circuits into the main electrical panel. I first tested my three relatively normal circuits which are just outlets. They all worked. Then I tested the grafik eye circuit which has no less 30 individual wires running into it. Once it came on I then tested the lights. When they the lights literally came up it was a great feeling to see that I had done it all right. I then tested each zone individually. I can't test zone 1 as it is the sconces which can't be mounted until the drywall is in. The other five zones I could test. Four of the five worked perfectly. Zone four wouldn't light up. I first checked the bulbs and got no difference. Then I checked the wiring at each can and still nothing. I called my dad for ideas then. He gave me two things to try. First I switched the hot wires from zone 4 and 6. It made no difference so I knew the dimmer was good. Next I wired each can to an outlet by themselves to test and they were both good. Then I wired them together and still good. Finally I went back to test the wiring from the dimmer to the lights and found the problem. I had not tied the zone 4 ground and neutral into the common ground and neutral, this meant there was no power getting to the zone. I fixed that problem by joining them into the existing wire nut mess. After that zone four worked perfectly as well. I guess that isn't too bad forgetting one set of wires, considering I managed to avoid any short circuits or anything.
I need to install one more outlet in my last circuit that will power the stereo rack, sub woofer and projector. Once that is done I can test that circuit and all the electrical wiring will be done and verified. With that done I just need to finish installing insulation before drywall can be installed. I will also probably test the speaker wires and the Ethernet and satellite wires as well.
Last night and today I installed my 12 recessed lights. I also finished the wiring from the lights to the location for the grafik eye. After I finished the lights I installed all the receptacales. The last thing I did tonight was terminate all the wiring and screw it into the grafik eye. Tomorrow morning I will do the wiring in the panel when I am more awake and there is natural light. Then I can test everything to make sure it works before the drywall gets installed. My biggest fear is some of the electrical is messed up and I don't find it while I can fix it.
On Monday I received my shipment of 12 recessed IC cans. Also the trims and bulbs came as well. There were two small problems. One they forgot to send my black trim rings and two at least one or two of the bulbs they sent seem to have been damaged in transit.
On Tuesday I got the lights that I will be mounting in the riser to illuminate the edges of it. I am still waiting for my receptacles to come in. Luckily I called the place I ordered them from and corrected the order. It seems that when correcting my mistake on wall plates they added 10 more receptacles instead of 10 wall plates. Most of these items I don't need until after the drywall so thankfully it won't postpone that any further.
Friday night and Saturday I tried to do as much as I could to get ready for next steps. I continued to tidy up and tighten up various wiring bits. Along with that I keep trying to think of all the possibilities I can to plan for the future. As I do that I add another box here, some 12/2 there and even some 18/4. I ran through my second 250 ft roll of 12/2 and had to get a third. I used a good chunk of the first roll on upstairs however the majority of first roll and second are in basement. A whole lot of electrical wires running around.
In between the wiring I would work on insulation. I finished up a bit more of the external block walls, there are a few empty pieces left waiting for potential wiring. I then completed all of the 2x6 walls. I stapled the kraft facing up as well. I started on the ceiling after that. I am filling the joists with R19 as well wherever I can. Especially the gap from the main room to the laundry room.
The last thing I worked on was mounting Integrity Gaskets on all the walls and ceilings in the theater area at least. Depending on what I have left over I will try to work on the rest of the room. This product is supposed to help stop sound transmission at least a little and it is fairly cheap and very easy to install. It looks very much like a green version of the 3M double sided sticky tape (IG is only sticky on one side). I don't know how much it will help, but I am sure it can't hurt.
Tuesday night I started by taking out the first shelf I mounted. I talked to my dad and realized that mounting the shelf flush with the 2x4's wasn't a good idea. There needs to be a lip to be an edge for the drywall. I then mounted the controller shelf and the TV DVD shelf. Then I realized I forgot to put a back on the last shelf. The other two shelves basically have the back of the wall drywall as backs, but this shelf has a 9" opening behind it. I pulled the shelf back out and mounted a back on it. After the shelf I did some finishing work on the main rack's Sat and Ethernet wiring.
Wednesday night I started by finishing up the last of the speaker wiring. I then went back and cleaned up some of the wiring in other places. I finished up by making one of the plywood sides of the rack enclosure.
Today I started to receive some of the parts of my lights orders and outlet order. Hopefully I will get more tomorrow so I can work on them over the weekend. I also found out that I can't get any R-21 insulation easily so I am going with R-19 (which apparently becomes R-18 when compressed). I started the night by running the 18/4 wire for the entry light switch and an extra run for the possibility of a switch near the front row seats. These switches will be manual controls for the grafik eye in common locations. After that I started on the insulation in the 2x6 walls.
I am working 2-4 hours a night trying to finish everything I can before the lights come. At this point it is just how much time some of the tasks take, not really the difficulty. This weekend I really want to get everything other than lights done, and then maybe take of next Tuesday to work on lighting.
Tonight I built my first in wall shelf. It is the new releases shelf. It fits between two studs in the 2x6 walls. It has enough height for four shelves of DVDs or Xbox games. It sits flush with the stud and I guess I need to decide if I want to cover the edges with drywall.
I got the shipment notice for my twelve recessed cans tonight. They won't be in until next Monday so I may have the weekend off from working on basement since I will have nothing to do.
I have been spending the last few days shopping for fabric for my walls. Not my usual thing. Luckily my mom is a seamstress and knows lots so she is helping me along.
Today I worked on wiring again for about 6-7 hours. At this point I have all electrical back to the panel. I also have all but the front right and sub speaker wires run. I finished up the Satellite and Ethernet wires as well. I had just enough of one Ethernet spool, the dual coax and the dual coax / dual Ethernet combo for the runs I needed. Each spool ran out with a few feet extra, which worked out well. I only have one Ethernet and a single coax spool left. The only wiring I have left is for the individual lights, which is still a bit. I am waiting for the lights to come in so I can place them and then run wires. Luckily none of the runs left have to go all the way back to the panel which makes it easier.
I also cut all the shelving I am going to place into the wall in various places. I am going to have a shelf in the column for the gas meter to hold TV DVD's. Then I will have a shelf near the front door for recent DVD's. Lastly will be a shelf near the front row of seating for game controllers, which will also have a hole to route cables through.
I spent about 12 hours today working on wiring. I got all the conduit run and all but one of the speaker wires run. I am waiting to find a longer subwoofer cable to go along with the last speaker wire. Some of today's conduit didn't flow quite as well as my first few. More turns today which makes it harder to go through. The only thing left to run through the conduit is video cables, which I won't do until the drywall is up. I started running some Ethernet and satellite lines to some other locations in basement before stopping for the day.
Tonight I ran conduit for my speakers. I got the conduit run for the three front speakers and the sub. Although as I write this I just realized I ran the wrong size conduit for the right front and sub combo. Might I say blargh. Hopefully I can get that already glued conduit back out. ARGH!
Yesterday I got a call that my chairs are in. Luckily the place I bought them from will hold them while I finish the basement. I also ordered the remaining lights for in the ceiling. I also ordered some step lights to put in the riser. To go along with the step lights I decided I will use a motion and ambient light switch. That way the lights won't need to be controlled by my dimmer.
I also ordered a bunch of 15 and 20 amp receptacles. I ordered them online so I could get black ones and no screw wall plates. Hopefully they look nice.
I am still looking at fabric, hard to decide. I may need some real help from my mom.
Last night and tonight I continued working on the electrical wiring mostly and a little time on speaker wiring. I have run 3 of the 5 circuits back to the panel. I have extended them to all their locations to prep for drywall. I am about 30% done with electrical, since I haven't started on the 12-15 recessed lights I need to do. However many of the lighting runs will be much shorter.
Sunday morning we started on the riser. The riser is 5'x9'x10" with a 10"x8'x7" step on the front of it. Let me just say, when drawing up the plans for this and imagining it somehow the size didn't come across. Once it was built it is far bigger in practice. We built it with 24" O.C. supports and 3/4" plywood on top. I bounced up and down on it so I am pretty confident it will hold chairs and people. The last thing we built was a square base for the sump pump well. That way I can put a lid on it and make it as unobtrusive as possible. Especially now the pipe that was 5 ft in the air is now gone.
The last thing we did Sunday was to go to Home Depot for the last of the seven weekend trips to get some lumber. This time I got some medium grade lumber to make some shelving out of. I am going to make some recessed shelving to hold DVD's. I am going to have some shelving for TV DVD and then a new arrivals shelf for visitors.
My dad left about 12:30 to ensure he could get home before dark. At this point all the major construction is done. I will be able to do everything else by myself until the drywall. I will have professionals come in and do the walls and ceilings for drywall. The last piece I will need help with is mounting the Linacoustic and fabric on the walls. I think both my parents will come down to help me with that in 2 weeks or so.
We started Saturday morning by disassembling the existing sump pump. We dug out the bottom of well to make it a bit deeper. We drained the well and quickly realized that the pump doesn't only deal with rain water. Apparently the well is below my houses very own sea level. Water just seems to bubble up from the ground at a pretty constant rate. We kept having to drain it with my dad's wet dry vacuum. We assembled and glued the remaining pipe pieces.
While we waiting for the PVC cement to dry we started building the final wall section. It was a normal wall with no windows or anything. It worked well except for one small problem. The water pipe that goes to the outside hose outlet came down a bit at the corner. My dad had to chisel the corner down to make it fit below the water pipe. After the wall we went back to the pump.
We assembled the final pieces of pipe and set the pump into the well. My dad then started filling the well with water to get it to run. It ran once without issue, and then we filled it again. The second time became this weekend's water incident. The pipe strap on one of the rubber couplings wasn’t quite tight. It worked its way loose and the pumps very sufficient water pressure began spraying like a sprinkler all over the basement. My dad unplugged the pump and we figured out what happened. I mopped the floor to remove the majority of the water. Then my dad went back and tightened all the pipe straps. After that the pump as worked perfectly as far as we can tell. No leaks anywhere along the piping.
After the sump pump we made the framing to go around the gas meter that is conveniently placed in the middle of the wall in the basement. Not too much to it, just two 12" wall pieces. The last thing we built was the frame for my rack. I ordered it last week to make sure we got the sizing right. It is a Middle Atlantic SRSR-X-24. We made sure to make a solid floor for the rack to mount to, since it will hang out and have some serious leverage.
My dad showed up about 4:30 PM on Friday the 4th. We started by going over my list of what I wanted to do this weekend and making sure what we needed to get. We then made our first of the seven weekend trips to Home Depot to get some lumber and other odds and ends.
This week in preparation for my dad to return I began working on electrical wiring and insulation on outer walls. I first began by deciding where to put all my gang boxes for both electrical and stereo wiring. I also measured out and planned the location of the screen, projector, speakers and chairs.
I found some gang boxes that are depth adjustable. I am using these in all the locations that will behind the drywall and linacoustic combo. I used normal gang boxes in all the locations that will only be behind drywall. I also started figuring out what size conduit I need to run around the room for various stereo wires.
I also began placing the insulation on the outer walls. I did all the cavities that don't have wiring in them. Once I finish wiring I will add the insulation in those as well. I was kind of amazed how easy it was to do the insulation. I am not sure why I thought it would be hard. The insulation I bought comes with a vapor barrier attached, that way I don't have to worry about doing my own after ward.
I started running the electrical as well. I ran the circuit for the sconces and over to where the dimmer control will be. I also ran one circuit all the way back to the panel. I will extend that circuit for the chairs, arcade and just normal outlets.
