Figure this would be a good "journal" for my house remodel project. Here's a quick preface: I have owned the house for about 10 years now. It has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths with a total of about 2200 sqft. I refinanced several years ago with cash out for a new roof and to remodel. Got the new roof on and remodeled one bedroom. Now in the middle of remodeling the master bedroom and bath. The current project within a project is to replace the windows and sliding door in that bedroom. Managed to get the bathroom window put in today. Before and after shots:
Got another window done today. I started by digging the insulation out from around the window with a coat hanger. Much easier to sweep the floor inside than pick up bits and peices in the ivy/grass. Especially with the wind today. Then I cut the old caulk from around the outside trim and hammered from the inside to get the window moving and flush with the inside wall. I had some sheets of rigid foam laying around so i propped them up to help with heat loss. Probably unnecessary on a 55°+ day and in a bedroom that doesn't get used but the insulation and 2xs were already in the room. Used a flat bar to pry the window out the rest of the way from outside. I had to think a little on how to get the replacement in by myself. The old one was a little lighter and coming down is much easier, especially went you're not to worried about damaging it. Luckily it was pretty simple with not much setup work required. Figured I could lift it to the concrete ledge and then get the 4 wheeler to stand on and lift it the rest of the way. It worked. I started by staging everything within reach of the window. Wheeled the window under the opening with a 2 wheel cart. Put some cardboard on the ledge, lifted window up to the ledge, and wedged it there with a 2x. Grabbed the 4 wheeler and backed it up next to the 2x. Then I stood on the back and lifted the window the rest of the way into the hole. Centered window and secured in the hole. Cleaned up my mess and that's about it.
Thanks for sharing the remodeling you are doing. It is always interesting to see how other houses are built and renovated.
Sometimes it takes a bit of ingenuity to figure out how to install something by yourself. Even if something isn't overly heavy, if it is big and ungainly, or above the head, it takes an extra something. I keep plenty of sturdy "good" boxes, and wood cutoffs around that have helped tremendously on such projects. Looks like you came up with a good plan that worked out perfectly.
Got the ceiling put in the master bedroom the last couple days. Here's where i left off, for the most part, last winter. I had the paneling left to put up. That whole bay done. The whole ceiling. The recessed led lighting i chose has these halo "nightlights" if you flick the switch on off and on again within a couple sec.
Started working on the master bathroom. Got the subfloor down and the toilet flange figured out. Now to get new water lines from one end of the house to the other and maybe relocate the hot water heater. Should be fun since the house was built on a slab and the roof joists are exposed so there's no attic to go thru. Anyway here's the prep and subfloor install. I was going to remove the old flange but after drilling 3 holes in the lead that connects the original toilet flange to the steel pipe, my mind started thinking. So i did some looking at lowes and found a twist in place toilet flange extender. My only concern was getting the correct size to go inside my steel pipes. Not like steel pipes are used much anymore but luckily my house must not be the only one like this. Here's the cleaned up flange. Here's the new flange adaptor. The threads on the new flange are tappered so when you twist it tightens the rubber up inside the steel pipe. Once the flange was figured out i got the insulation and subfloor cut and installed. Foam layer first. Then the subfloor. To secure the subfloor i had to drill and anchor into the concete. All holes got chamfered so the tapcon heads were flush. Gotta clean a little more of the inside of the pipe but i can get the new flange to lock in place now so should be extra good once i get it a couple more inches in.
I managed to get phase 1 of my plumbing redone. So as i mentioned before there's no attic or basement in this house. Running wiring and plumbing from one end of the house to the other was going to be a challenge. The main water line comes in by the garage and bedrooms are on the opposite end of the house. Here's a drawing i got from the appraisal when i first bought the house. This house was built with steel pipes in the late 50s. Needless to say they are kinda nasty inside. Rust stains galore. This was the feed to the hot water heater to give an idea what i mean for those that don't know. Not only the rust issue but with the pipes being layed in the concrete originally, it takes about 5 min to get hot water at the bedroom end of the house. The first thing to figure out was how to get new pipes from one end of the house to the other and not have them exposed overhead. Originally the furnace was in the utility room and there's a big cold air return that runs down the whole center of the house that feed it. A couple years ago a buddy and i tried to gain access to that return but failed. I got into it a little a couple weeks ago a got er figured out. Here's where the furnace used to sit. It was a downdraft fuel oil unit. All ducts, hot and return ran thru the concrete floor. I tore that sheet metal down, low and behold there was my return air duct! After i got access to that i had to decide exactly what i wanted to do with the plumbing to make it the best. To improve hot water delivery i decided to move the hot water heater to the middle of the house in the living room temporarily. Eventually there will be a new utility room built around it cause the plan is to move the furnace there too.
So i forgot to take a better picture of the old hot water and pressure tank location but you get the idea from this one. I ran a 1" supply line to the new hot water heater (HWH) location. It's going to be used to supply the bathrooms with cold water also plus 2 hose bibs. Probably still overkill but it eased my mind. Then i insulated the hot line and wrapped duct tape over to protect it while feeding in thru the return duct. Got both those plus the wire down to the new HWH location. Moving of the HWH was next. Got all connections made. Decided to not put in the electrical shut off until a room gets built around it and final location decided. Then the new pressure tank where the old HWH was. Thats the end of phase one. The waters back on with no major leaks. All (3) minor leaks have stopped too. One was the shut off at the HWH, another was the pressure relief valve on the HWH. 3rd was a brass fitting into steel i just didn't have tight enough. Phase 2 is gonna be getting 2 3/4" (1 hot, 1 cold) from the new HWH location down to the linen closet and then up and over to above the bathrooms.
Thanks! It's definitely been a learning experience. Luckily God gave me pretty good reading comprehension.
That's a good question. Not too sure but I'll bet you I relearn it now that you pointed it out. Probably the way it was referenced in my family while growing up. Which is terrible being that my dad and his dad were both residential contractors. Auto industry was bad for stuff like that. Just a quick one was when someone would ask for atf fluid. Edit: thinking about it more now. If it's a water heater that doesn't mean there has to be hot water coming outta it.
Hey brenndatomu since you're a thinker riddle me this. How does this.... water heater have two 4500 watt elements for a connected total of 4500 watts? Do they only use one at a time? Only reason I'm curious is cause when i sized the wire, i looked up a new....... water heater install instructions. I couldn't decide on size between 8 or 10 gauge cause in their instructions it says dual 4500 watt elements but didn't say total watts drawn. Well as luck would have it a 50ft roll, same rating, of 8 was a couple dollars cheaper than 10. So I'm sure you know what i got. Looking at this...... water heater this morning and i noticed the tag and it got me wondering what the total draw on a new heater is.
Only one hot water heater element runs at a time. 10 gauge wire should be more than sufficient. Watts = AMP X Volts. 4500 watts / 24o volts = 19 amps roughly. 10 gauge wire is rated for 30 amps and 8 gauge is rated for 40 amps. I would definitely use a 30 amp breaker in your electric box.
Sounds like you're the guy i need to talk with about wiring in the future! I went with the 8 incase the water heater needs to be upsized in the future. Plus it's a 40ft+ run. Same price is really the main reason. So on breaker size. There's a shut off by the old water heater location that has a breaker in it that's not marked on the switch. So i took the cover off the shut off and looked closer. I'm pretty sure it was a 60 so thats what i went with in the breaker box. I didn't even pull the water heater fuse in the old box to see what's feeding the shut-off. I've started updating some of the wiring in this house too. That's another project or "phase". I guess i could've figured out the amps and such myself and come to a better conclusion. I'll tell ya I'm pretty decent at car, DC, wiring and such. Residential (AC) seems to be very similar except with different numbers. Thanks for your insight.
That's my understanding too...I've personally never seen a residential size/type WH that called for larger than 10ga wire...but I'm no pro plumber, so who knows... The only problem with oversizing wiring is sometimes you'll run into issues with not being able to physically fit the wire into the various devices properly...for example, a 10 ga wire using 15 or 20A switches...it doesn't fit right, or maybe at all...if using stranded wire some people will cut enough strands to make it fit...uh, yeah, you just made your wire the next size (or two) smaller!
Here's the chart i referenced. Not sure why i didn't use their breaker advise. Plus i should know better than to just copy someone elses work.
I'm thinking this 8 will go into a shut-off with breaker then i can run a short peice of 10 to the water heater.
Via Google search it looks like there are 25AMP 240V breakers but I don't know if I've seen them at Menards / Lowes on the shelf. Most off the shelf 240V breakers are going to jump in 10AMP increments. It does look like you can order 25 AMP breakers from Menards. Square D™ Homeline™ 25-Amp 2-Pole Standard Circuit Breaker A 4500 watt element is a standard element in pretty much any size ( 40 - 80 gallon ) residential hot water heater. And there's not enough voltage drop in a 40' run, that would force you to go to a 8 gauge wire. I get it though, I've gotten some deals like that and I'll "make them work".
