Ceilings

Duct Duct Goose

/ Scott / 1 Comment

Full steam ahead on Bob’s new bathroom. We’d like to complete the walls and ceiling, and then install the tile floor. But first we spent a good chunk of time doing some behind-the-scenes utility work.

Three ducts hide behind the various bathroom walls. The shower fan vents to the outside via a drop ceiling. The dryer vent blows lint and hot air to the outside behind the knee wall. And the heat-exchanger runs from the dining room to the living room, as I’ve mentioned before.

Mark and I bumped out the knee wall to accommodate both the dryer’s rigid 4-inch duct and the heat-exchanger’s flexible 6-inch duct (along with some plumbing). We salvaged a door from the old upstairs configuration, cut it to match the roof pitch, and installed it in the knee wall for future access. Threading our 25 feet of flexible duct through the various races, we found it reached from the chimney all the way around to the toilet, leaving about a 5-foot gap to the dining room intake.

South section of the heat-exchange duct.
North section of the heat-exchange duct.

That gap was the perfect length to install a fan, along with a couple of rigid angles and a rigid straight duct we already had. Connecting adjacent pieces of ductwork is quite simple: slide the male end into the female end, drill 3 or 4 self-tapping screws around the perimeter, and seal the joint with shiny metallic tape. At least it’s simple in theory. In practice, access with a drill can be very difficult, and the metal may bend instead of catching the screw. We took our time and did it right. In one instance, Bob used a crimping tool to convert a female end into a male end.

Above the new duct, Hans puts up drywall around the witch window.

Above the new duct, Hans puts up drywall around the witch window.

We installed drywall to cover up the knee wall, and we mitered our first piece of whitewashed ceiling board to fit snug to the top of drywall. Ceiling installation went smoothly until we ran out of prepared pine. I ran out to the barn to locate and stain a bunch more 12- and 14-footers. They’ll be dry by next time, and then we can finish the job. We’re making steady progress on the other bathroom walls, too.

Artistic Mark finishes another wall with salvaged barnboard.

Artistic Mark finishes another wall with salvaged barnboard.

Closet Confidential

/ Scott / 1 Comment

Mark and Hans and D.D. and I can pat ourselves on the back. We’ve completed the finish surfaces for the new walk-in closet. That’s one room down, lots to go!

Mark designed and assembled a series of panels for the knee-wall. He clad the panels with the same cedar siding as the walls for consistency, but he chopped off the tongues and grooves between panels. That’s because he designed them for easy removal. His panels hide the utility race behind the knee wall, but they’re screwed on (not nailed) so Bob can pop them off any time he needs access to the ducts or electrical cables.

Mark also miter-cut some barnboard to cover the duct race along the closet’s west wall. It doubles as a low bench for sitting. Paired with the cedar siding, the dark barnboard makes this cozy room resemble a sauna.

The bench to the left of the closet door.

The bench to the left of the closet door.

But we departed from that spa look with our sloping ceiling, which we finished with the same whitewashed tongue-and-groove pine we used in the living room. We had no trouble at all fitting the boards tight to our new rafters… proof positive that we installed those rafters nice and even. Access was a little tricky at first since the ceiling slopes down to about 18 inches headroom. Hans and I sat on the floor to install the first few courses, then sat on stools, then progressed to kneeling and finally standing.

The ceiling contains a bunch of lighting fixtures, for which we stubbed out cables before the insulation went in. I couldn’t cut holes for the lighting in place without sawing through a cable, so we dry-fit each board, measured and marked the light locations, then returned the board to our saw station where I had at it with a compass and jigsaw. Finally, Mark threaded cables through the holes and finish-nailed the board.

Once we finished the ceiling and added some trim, we pulled out our protective plywood to reveal the grey-stained finish floor. While the closet looks darn good with all its finish surfaces (if I do say so myself), we still have some work ahead, namely the built-in shelving. Might happen this coming week… though if weather permits we have an exciting outdoor project that’ll take priority.

Over My Head

/ Scott / 1 Comment

Wiring is complete for the overhead lights in Bob’s living room. But we can’t install all the fixtures yet. I’ll explain shortly.

I made up three circuits for the living room ceiling. One switch will control the lights on the south side of the room, illuminating a new L-sectional sofa. A second switch will control the lights on the north side, a more open space visible from the kitchen through the stair landing. And a third switch will shed light on the wet bar Bob plans to install on the west wall.

The lighting is low-voltage, using 14-2 cable with no grounding wire. Each circuit includes a “home run” back to the barnboard-clad basement stair nook, which will house a transformer. I stubbed out cable ends at the rough location of each light, giving myself plenty of slack, and I made up each converter box with wire nuts. Later, as Hans and Mark installed more of the ceiling, I measured the precise light locations, cut holes with a jigsaw (making sure the cables were taped up out of harm’s way), and let the converters hang through.

Converter boxes hanging down, awaiting lights.

Converter boxes hanging down, awaiting lights.

The light fixtures themselves came with the converters, and we have the right number of them. So why not install them? Wrong color! Bob ordered white fixtures to match the ceiling and trim, but 17 out of 20 packages were mislabeled and contained satin-nickel fixtures rather than white. Worse, the two colors connect to their converter boxes differently. That means I might have to take down all the boxes and make them up again for the proper connection when the correct white fixtures come. Fortunately, the lighting company’s customer service seems pretty responsive.

The white fixture on the right is correct. The satin nickel (aka grey) fixtures need to come down.

The white fixture on the right is correct. The satin nickel (aka grey) fixtures need to come down.

While those technical difficulties get resolved, we have an array of wall projects to take care of upstairs. Stay tuned.