Had a porch making a mud room

Jim Benante

Member
Messages
30
Location
Woodinville, WA
It's taking me a awhile, but I am almost finished with the interior. Here are some shots of my project.

It starts with the old entry way. The deck was leaning and wobbly. I was motivated and nieve about realistic time available for the project. I chose to go one step further than replacing the deck. I would make a mud room and then a deck. Well the addition is nearing completion and the deck has not begun. I have a 21 month old son and that is my excuse for not finishing sooner.

I performed all the work except for the spray foam insulation. I plan on installing pex tubing for radiant heat that will eventually tie into a syatem I plan to install in the rest of the home.

All in all I am enjoying the project. I had a great neighbor move away who was a great help when I needed an extra set of hands. Now I end up waiting for a chance to get help when my tasks require four instead of two hands.

I plan to build a deck that will extend four feet out from the new front door and then steps down to a platform with steps to the ground. Any ideas on how to make it fit well with the house? I am thinking somethinf similar to the original design although much better built. I am planning on using ipe for the deck.
 

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Hi Jim,
That looks like a real nice addition. Good for you!
Thinking about your staircase some questions come to mind.
1 is this the main entry to the home?
2 what do you see as the "flow" of traffic from deck to platform, is it straight toward the front or out the door and to the right, or is it along the garage wall, and how many steps from deck to platform?
3 Aesthetics or function first?
You have fine start for a very helpful space. Push on "Daddy".:D :thumb:
Shaz
 
Thinking about your staircase some questions come to mind.
1 is this the main entry to the home?
2 what do you see as the "flow" of traffic from deck to platform, is it straight toward the front or out the door and to the right, or is it along the garage wall, and how many steps from deck to platform?
3 Aesthetics or function first?
You have fine start for a very helpful space. Push on "Daddy".:D :thumb:
Shaz

Shaz,

1. Yes it is the main entry.
2. Flow- I would like to have a two sets of stairs and two patforms. The first platform will extend the width of the addition and out 4 ft. Then a set of stairs to the lower platform. I am thinking about some benches on this patform. I don't want the lower platform to be huge, but I'd like it to flow with the look of the house and offer a place for greeting and seeing off guests. I would like the first set of stairs to come straight out from the house in fron tof the front door. The second set of stairs I would like to angle toward the driveway.
3. I'd say function first, but I want it to flow with the houses architecture.

Good news I moved the front door out to the new opening today and hung a few more sheets of drywall.

Bad news, The house had two front doors on the covered porch. I moved the main door. The secondary door was removed today and it had no sole plate???:doh:

Check it out. What should I do? It is filled with celluose insulation and has two 2X4 wall studs cut on an angle in the void.

My idea is to cut the 2x4's flush with the subfloor and add nail a third in place against a stud. Then place a 2x4 in the sill and build it up with ply and put a wide transiiton of solid wood to top it off. This doorway leads to a family room. The other doorway leads to a hall way that leads to the kitchen and living room.
 

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Shaz,

1. Yes it is the main entry.
2. Flow- I would like to have a two sets of stairs and two patforms. The first platform will extend the width of the addition and out 4 ft. Then a set of stairs to the lower platform. I am thinking about some benches on this patform. I don't want the lower platform to be huge, but I'd like it to flow with the look of the house and offer a place for greeting and seeing off guests. I would like the first set of stairs to come straight out from the house in fron tof the front door. The second set of stairs I would like to angle toward the driveway.
3. I'd say function first, but I want it to flow with the houses architecture.
Hi Jim, sounds like you have a good idea for what you want. Take a sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" and fold it in quarters(4- 4 1/4"x 5 1/2" sizes.. Draw a "to scale" floor plan of the area you have available to cover with steps and platforms on one of those 1/4 pieces. ( it will show the garage side, the front of the addition and the door, the end of your addition on the left and back to the main house.) Cut that shape out with sizzors and trace it on the remaining 3/4s of the uncut paper. you have now the ability to wonk out different ideas on three exact size plot plans. Sometimes I will do this and copy it so that I have more "fixed measurement" drawings to work with. Have your bride draw some ideas and the kids too. it's brainstorming on paper.
Good news I moved the front door out to the new opening today and hung a few more sheets of drywall.

Bad news, The house had two front doors on the covered porch. I moved the main door. The secondary door was removed today and it had no sole plate???:doh:

Check it out. What should I do? It is filled with celluose insulation and has two 2X4 wall studs cut on an angle in the void.

My idea is to cut the 2x4's flush with the subfloor and add nail a third in place against a stud. Then place a 2x4 in the sill and build it up with ply and put a wide transiiton of solid wood to top it off. This should work well.This doorway leads to a family room. The other doorway leads to a hall way that leads to the kitchen and living room.
You seem to have a handle on it. Nice project.
Shaz
 
That is going to be a big improvement Jim. My only suggestion is to hang tough as a large project like that can certainly take more time than anticipated when working alone in your spare time. I can tell that you are working for yourself as the drywall pieces actually fit where they belong. You should see some of the drywall work around here.
 
foam insulation in the roof truss area??? wont that cause moisture problems? or do you have air movement figured into your plan?:dunno:


Larry,

Google around on the subject. There is a change in thought about airspace if spray closed cell foam directly to the roof sheathing. There is a good thread at SMC about it. I started a thread about insulation and it became a debate on the air space issue, with opinions on both sides. Anyway I have no concerns after researching the topic, although some will never buy into the idea.

Jim
 
I can tell that you are working for yourself as the drywall pieces actually fit where they belong. You should see some of the drywall work around here.

It does fit well, but I have wasted 3 sheets and I'm not finished yet.

First one was one I tried to do the ceiling by myself and rented a drywall lift ($35). Not a good idea in such a small space where the length of a ceiling is longer than the width of the room (sloped ceiling). Le't just say craaaaaaaaaack and a wasted $35!:huh:

Second was with me being unable to visualize properly and cutting the hole for the light out so that the brown side of the drywall would face out. My friends helping tried to convince me to hang it with the brown side out. I wouldn't budge though and within 20 minutes we had a new one up. :eek:

Third was just a measuring thing where my measurements where fine, but I forgot to incorporate the fact that my floor is now 2.5 inchels lower than the future tiled surface. :bang:

I have about 3 more pieces to hang then I'm done and onto mud and tape. I am going to get a few quotes from the pros, but I will probably be cheap and do it myself.
 
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Thought I'd share some further developments. Things have slowed a bit lately as my wife is pregnant again and she has been pretty "morning(all day) sick" so I have had to really step it up with the normal household duties and caring for our 22 month old boy.

Anyway, I am ready to install my 1/2" pex tubing. I have a few photos of the tubing layout w/out tubes installed. I have 3/4" plywood ripped to 7 1/4" and spaced 3/4" apart. It is glued and screwed in place. I routed the arches in the ends with a 3/4 cove bit that is rounded on the bottom. I was a little lazy and simply drew my half circles and hand routed then instead of making a jig. They aren't too bad and should serve their function well. The shiny plates are aluminum heat transfer plates. They will be pulled tight to one side of the groove and stapled on only one side. This allows for quiet movement when heated and cooled. They will be spaced 1/4" apart. What you see is an incomplete set up. I have to cut the final pieces and install the tubing. I was unable to finish last week as I had a conference in Victoria, BC to attend all week and I just returned. Victoria is a very nice place to visit and the weather was great, although I was in a conference during most of the daylight hours. In addition, I will be puting down hardibacker and then tiling the room in slate.

The second photo shows where the tubes will enter and exit the room. They will be run under a stairwell and through the subfloor to the crawl space for a future tie into my whole house system. I still need to cut out the sole plate to allow the tubes to be run through the wall.

This is an above the floor system radiant heat system. The remainder of my first floor will eventually be radiant heat and probably a below the floor system. This above the floor system came about because I didn't match my floor heights as close as I should have based on some bad advice I followed. I won't be activating the system in this room until I am able to ge tthe rest of the first floor up and running. Probably be a year or more as I have a several other large projects in the wings.
 

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pex system?

ok enlighten this old guy on the cost per sq ft for the radiant heat your installing,, have thought on doing that for the shop i am in process of. would solve the concrete floor foot fatigue and the heat problem. could put it in the crete like noraml too.. i have heard you can runa econmy system of a 50 gal water heater.. any advice would be appreciated.
 
Larry, depends on sqfootage.

1/2" Tubing cost about ~$100/300ft. You need about 1.5 ft per sqft.

Boiler or high efficiency water heater cost about $3000-5000+ depending on size and features.

Manifolds- haven't researched enough to know what these costs if you build your own vs. buy a prefabricated.

I anticipate to spend about $6000 when it is all said and done on my whole house (~2100 sqft).

I'm sure others can chime in who have gone down this road and know more about hidden costs.
 
Larry, I was looking at putting radiant heat in my house.
I found the Radiant Floor Company http://radiantcompany.com very helpful. I ended up going with forced air. The hvac contractor I used looked at the bid and said it was a really good deal for the radiant. I decided to use forced air because it was in a basement and I was worried about humidity.
 
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