The Aparto Ver. 3.0

Ok, most of the kitchen is torn out.
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Found some more questionable stuff, which sucks, but not surprising.

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How does this one strike you?

That is a wall stud for the bath room and it is sitting on top of a piece of flooring, the flooring that I'm removing.

The clowns who did this should be flogged, I cannot imagine doing this bad work.
They put mini sleepers (if that is what you call them) on top of the floor joists, and they are all over the place, nothing is done right.
Also they put the floor in first, no subfloor, and then built the walls on top of that, so the flooring is impossible to get out to replace without damaging the bottoms of all the walls..... YIKES!
Still have to open two more walls for the plumbing, and I'm thinking it might just be faster to replace all the drywall and be done with it, messing around with old drywall is no fun, it lets go and the paper is bad etc etc.

I'm also considering removing the mini sleepers and putting down the full 1" thick, (OK it's actually 24mm thick) subflooring, and then the 12mm subfloor I bought already and finally the 12mm flooring, this adds up to 48mm, the flooring and mini sleepers I have now add up to 54mm so the new floor would be 6mm, a 1/4" lower than the old floor, I don't think that would matter, and boy would it be a better floor. Really that is the way I should do it.


Tomorrow I'll get the rest of the floor out then I'll get the plumbing started, I have to get the plumbing in before start fixing up anything else, so that is high on the list.

So far 8 big bags of garbage all hand bogged down to the 1st floor and stacked here and there..... boy I'm tired!

Cheers!
 
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Good job so far Stu. Gosh it absolutely amazes me what you come across in these aparto renos. I grew up in South Africa and we got mislead to believe we were behind the times in many ways. We had no tort laws making it possible to sue someone on contingency but even that did not create an environment where we abandoned building codes.
Heck i have pictures somewhere of the enormous issue that was created once when i wanted to build a front wall for my property (full double brick wall with concrete foundation rising 6ft) and we could not find the steel peg in the ground showing the boundry. We did eventually find it after we had the surveyor out and more costs.
But the things i have observed taking place in Canada with Holmes on Homes and your Aparto reno has me thinking that things were not as backward as we led ourselves to believe. I guess some of it may have to do with the fact that our construction methods were brick and mortar and therefore not that simple to modify.

By the looks of things here it seems every guy that thinks he can swing a hammer or glue a piece of pipe suddenly things he is a general contractor and knows the code and can taken on anything he likes with the aid of the Home Depot and their "You can do it we can help" slogan.

How do the walls in that apartment relate to the structure as in i thought the exterior was concrete. If so i presume these walls are to be able to provide a drywall interior shell to accommodate plumbing electrical and finish?

I guess there must be or must have been a fair bit of corruption in Japan in order to get a building inspector to "look the other way".

Your whole outlook and approach seems to be out of step with the rest of what we see happening in these pictures. Tenants can be thankful you doing the work, what would it be like is this was todays contractors?
 
Building inspector......? :huh: what's that....?

Oh you mean the guy that shows up at a NEW building, does not get out of his car, and the site foreman hands him an envelope with something in it, and the Building Inspector signs the piece of paper that needs signing.....? Yeah, don't see those guys around much :rolleyes:

Corruption in Japan??? Say it ain't so! :rolleyes:

The framing is sort of a cross between Timber framing and what used to be called Balloon Framing

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Balloon Framing

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Japanese house Framing

New homes are built very well these days, the problem with this place is that it is old, like it was built out of two old housed, made into one then renovated many times over the last 65 years. Here in Japan when you are doing a renovation, you ,do not need to pull a permit and there is no inspection. Yes the rules are different for sure, but mostly it works well. My buddy Neil just had his home renovated last summer, I was there along the way helping out and offering ideas etc, the carpenter who came was really knowledgeable and I learned a lot from him, he did a VERY good job, no corners cut at all. It really depends on the company and the carpenter, and as they say, you get what you pay for!
 
In those first pictures in today's post: Is that metal duct a heater exhaust, or a vent fan duct? If heater, shouldn't it be better protected from the floor above it?
 
Is that a knob for knob and tube in that first pic on the bottom right side? I have to agree with you on just pulling out the drywall, usually end up with less work in the end and can make better decisions about how to re-do things. :lurk:
 
I have never been to Japan, but what strikes me most is the blandness of the pre-torn out walls, plus the mish-mash of things in such a tight space.

In the USA, currently many people are liking deeper colors even in small rooms.

I look at the room in the picture below, even though it is very small, to me it looks like a room I would enjoy spending a lot of time in.

the walls look to be dark brown cork and dark stained 3/4 ply panels with a projection TV on the ceiling.

I'm not sure if its a cultural thing or not, liking the all one color off white rooms, but the affect in the pic, even the builtin couch seems an easy job.

Might be able to get a couple more dollars rent for it????

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Is that a knob for knob and tube in that first pic on the bottom right side? I have to agree with you on just pulling out the drywall, usually end up with less work in the end and can make better decisions about how to re-do things. :lurk:


Yes it is, no longer in use, but yeah, a knob for the old wiring. Remember this house is at least 65 years old.
 
Thank you Jim, I figure I might as well do the best job possible while I'm here.

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I got down to the original floor joists. I need to block out some edges for support, but I hope to have all the demo done by the time I leave today. It's 11:30 AM I've got another 2-1/2 hours to go, a Snickers bar for lunch today, I don't have the time to go get lunch.
I can't wait to get back on plywood, walking on these joists just kill my feet!
 
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Looking good so far, but if you slip off one of those joists the folks downstairs are going to have an unexpected dinner guest--lol:)


And just for fun, a little Stooges remodeling humor:

 
Done for the day, eat, shower, nap, then to the L shop to work for another 6 or 7 hours!

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Here is the pile of bagged garbage so far, will not be much more than that.

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Destroyed these "Pro Framer" gloves pretty quick. Need to find done all leather gloves that fit, maybe they will last longer.

Tomorrow Thursday the 27th I should be able to finish the plumbing. That night after deliveries I'll go to SVH and buy the sub flooring and drywall.

The 28th Friday I'll get the electrical done and maybe some of the sub flooring.

The 29th Saturday l get the sub flooring done and the garbage hauled away.

The 30th Sunday will be drywall and prep for the cabinets.

The 31st will be cabinets and finishing up other little bits and bobs.

The wallpaper guy should come on the 3rd or 4th.

The gas guy on the 5th.
I have an extra day or two of fudge room, I hope I can stick to this schedule.
Wish me luck!!
 
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Ted I'll be putting down thick sub flooring 24mm and 12mm. Between the two layers I have some sound deadening mat to put down. Then on top of all that another 12mm of flooring, almost 2" thick!

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Plumbing is almost done, ran into a few snags but they just ate up time, and we all know I've got LOTS of that.....
The blue and pink pipes are for cold and hot water, I need more blue pipe, I am just short, and I've only done the pink pipe from the hot water tankless heater to the
Hot water manifold, but this plumbing is fairly easy, just cut and then push it into the fittings, snap and you are done!
Will go and get sub flooring and drywall tonight, then finish the plumbing tomorrow and start the electrical on Saturday. I hope to have the plumbing, electrical and drywall done by Sunday night. Then Monday install the cabinets.
We shall see!
 
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I've still got to wrap the blue and pink hoses outside with the beige wrap and tape, they kind of stick out right now, but I don't want to wrap everything up until I'm sure I have no leaks, fairly confident, but still, I'll wait. Then I'll fill the holes in the wall with plumber's putty, and police that electrical cord a bit better too.

Heading out to SVH again soon for the subflooring etc.
 
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Stu can you show us a close up pic of the way the pipe connects. That is if there is time when next you taking pics. Just curious to see how it slips on.

Then looking at the scaffolding does it anchor to the building or is it just resting against it, looks in the pic like there is an end bracket that looks secured to the building side.
 
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