At Home In The Woods

[dave1949]

Dave, I've been wondering about how to deal with the nails and screws. Great idea. Where do you get one of those wide magnet bars? I've never heard of them.

Obed

I know Northern Tool sells them. Don't own one, so others may give you better advice. I gathered mine the old fashioned way. I don't know if the magnet bar will suck them out that red clay
Dave.

 

[CurlyDave]

I have this one - Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices and on paved surfaces it works very well. It is harder to push on gravel, but still works.

I suspect it won't work very well at all in mud, haven't tried it there.

 

[dave1949]

Obed,
As to your partly buried red oak, I think if you pull back the dirt and stone next Spring it will be fine. Root compaction due to driving over them is harder on the tree than a temporary pile over the roots. It takes a couple years for root compaction damage to become evident as some die-off in the crown.
Dave.

 

[Obed]

I suspect it won't work very well at all in mud, haven't tried it there.

You're probably right. I guess I'll have to pick up the nails the old fashioned way.

 

[Obed]

Obed,
As to your partly buried red oak, I think if you pull back the dirt and stone next Spring it will be fine.

I hope you are right. I have several trees with the roots covered right now and am not sure when I will be able to uncover them.

Obed

 

[Pops15]

You can get the magnets at Lowes or any place that sells roofing.They work pretty well but they won't pick up nails that are embedded in the ground.

 

[Obed]

The interior load bearing walls went up Friday. The long portion of the wall will actually have 2 doorways in it. The framer didn't put in the doorways yet because he wanted my wife to confirm the location of them. He said they would be easy to add later.

 

[dave1949]

That's good that the framer used treated lumber where it is contact with concrete. Wood will always absorb moisture from concrete when they are in contact. Did he put in sill sealer too?
Dave.

 

[Obed]

That's good that the framer used treated lumber where it is contact with concrete. Wood will always absorb moisture from concrete when they are in contact. Did he put in sill sealer too?
Dave.

I'm not sure if sill sealer was used. The hardware (nails, screws, hangers, etc.) that touches the pressure treated wood is hot-dipped galvanized per the code. Apparently unless you make them, builders around here frequently skip using special hardware made for pressure treated wood even though the code requires it.

Obed

 

[EddieWalker]

Obed,

What are you finishing the floors with? Some of those puddles look pretty big. While the water is sitting there, put a tape measure in them and see how deep they are. If it's just an eigth of an inch, then that's fine. If it's more, then depending on what you are doing for a floor, you'll need to make them level.

Tile and carpet don't care, but wood really likes a flat surface. Vinyl is hit or miss, depending on the hole and brand of vinyl. Some are stiffer then others, while others will form to just about anything.

Getting your concrete guy to fix it is cheap right now, because it's his mess up. Having the flooring guy do it down the road is expensive, because it's more work on his part that he'll have to charge you for.

Eddie

 

[Obed]

Obed,

What are you finishing the floors with?

Getting your concrete guy to fix it is cheap right now, because it's his mess up.

Half the basement will be concrete floors (garage, utility room). The other half will eventually be carpet and vinyl. In the grand scheme of things, I'm not sure I would notice these spots if water weren't sitting on the concrete to show every dimple.

Are the size of the puddles abnormal? How can a concrete guy fill in a low spot without the patch up work chipping later?

Obed

 

[EddieWalker]

The water shows you were the low spots are. Measuring how deep they are will tell you if you need to do anything or not.

For a concrete finish, I don't know if self leveling compound will work. It's always quite a bit darker when I use it, and I've never seen what it looks like over a period of time. It dries so quickly that you can tile over it the next day.

I don't have any experience with staining concrete other then talking to the guys after it's done. Prep and the condition of the slab are important, but from what I understand, they will stain anything. There is ideal, and then there is what they have to work with. If you put a clear coat on it to make it shiny, you will see more imprefections then if you leave it dull.

I personally don't care for concrete floors. I tried them, and some of my clients have them. In my opinion, it's a fad that is popular right now, but like allot of things that people feel they must have in a house, it goes out of fashion after awhile. I've tiled over most of my concrete and plan to cover the rest with wood next year. Some things are timeless, others are gambles on how long they will look good, or something that you want.

Eddie

 

[dcyrilc]

The water shows you were the low spots are. Measuring how deep they are will tell you if you need to do anything or not.

For a concrete finish, I don't know if self leveling compound will work. It's always quite a bit darker when I use it, and I've never seen what it looks like over a period of time. It dries so quickly that you can tile over it the next day.

I don't have any experience with staining concrete other then talking to the guys after it's done. Prep and the condition of the slab are important, but from what I understand, they will stain anything. There is ideal, and then there is what they have to work with. If you put a clear coat on it to make it shiny, you will see more imprefections then if you leave it dull.

I personally don't care for concrete floors. I tried them, and some of my clients have them. In my opinion, it's a fad that is popular right now, but like allot of things that people feel they must have in a house, it goes out of fashion after awhile. I've tiled over most of my concrete and plan to cover the rest with wood next year. Some things are timeless, others are gambles on how long they will look good, or something that you want.

Eddie

Here in the Seattle area, basements, daylight and otherwise, have had concrete floors for over 80 years and they are still doing it. I don't recall ever seeing one that wasn't.

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm not sure if you're pulling my leg or if you misunderstood my post.

Concrete floors with a colored stain, or many colors of stain have become a very popular trend in everything from high end homes to Walmart. I call it a trend because I'm unsure of how long it will remain popular. My guess is that in ten years, it will not be done anymore, but that's just my opinion.

If I wasn't clear, I apologize.

Eddie

 

[razvy]

razvy,
I'm very impressed with your project. Thanks for posting the pictures. Did you build the forms for the poured walls yourself?

Obed

O yes , I use 4'x8'x3/4" plywood coated whit used motor oil which I used later for sheeting the floor, my walls are 10" thick and 4 ' high.
I like your concrete job, come out perfect , at mine I have lots of flows that's the price you pay when you work by yourself

 

[dave1949]

Half the basement will be concrete floors (garage, utility room). The other half will eventually be carpet and vinyl. In the grand scheme of things, I'm not sure I would notice these spots if water weren't sitting on the concrete to show every dimple.

Are the size of the puddles abnormal? How can a concrete guy fill in a low spot without the patch up work chipping later?

Obed

I would put a good commercial grade tile in the laundry area. It's soo much easier to clean and keep looking nice than concrete.

Leveling your dips for tiling shouldn't be any issue from the way the pics look at least. There are three leveling methods, the tiler can use leveling compound and a latex bonding agent, or for deeper spots there are mortars for leveling/building up low areas. For the most part, tilers will trowel thinset mortar ahead of the days work area with a 2-3 foot long trowel to even out any dips. That works just fine as long as you don't exceed the thinset mortars max depth recommendations, and I'm not sure that really matters for a small spot either.

The garage floor could be fine with just a good sealer applied periodically unless you like a finished garage look. If you like painted concrete which does keep it from getting stained by oils, etc., paint it after it has cured out but before you get it dirty.
Dave.

 

[EddieWalker]

Looking at the second picture in post 287, I also noticed that there are no headers above the exterior window and door. Is that a load bearing wall? I keep thinking that it must be, since it's an exterior wall. Even if the floor joists line up on that wall, and spread the load out that way, it's curious that they didnt' put a header in there anyway.

Eddie

 

[dave1949]

I personally don't care for concrete floors. I tried them, and some of my clients have them. In my opinion, it's a fad that is popular right now, but like allot of things that people feel they must have in a house, it goes out of fashion after awhile. I've tiled over most of my concrete and plan to cover the rest with wood next year. Some things are timeless, others are gambles on how long they will look good, or something that you want.

Eddie

I agree that some things are timeless. The trick is to choose things that fall in that category. One example I think would be granite/marble/slate countertops. I can't imagine anyone preferring formica over those - ever. Another timeless material IMO would be real hardwood flooring. The laminates and composites will never take on the aged patina of real wood. They won't last nearly as long either.

Etched and stained concrete could easily be over done I think. It may be a nice accent to an area that gets plenty of natural light. I wouldn't go into the ornate patterns too much. In any case, if it gets old, it can be tiled over or area rugs can obscure it, make it less prominent.

I am no interior designer for sure. It's hard to pick the next Harvest Gold or Avocado appliance colors. I think stainless steel is very faddy now and people will get tired of it in the future. It's a cold and maybe overly commercial type finish. I'm thinking white appliances are ready for a come back.

I have noticed that most new homes tend to follow current fashions very closely. That makes sense for a builder who wants to sell it, since it will be appealing to the largest number of people and represents little or no risk taking on taste. The end result is a lot of houses with no differentiating characteristics. That can be boring and souless. Twenty years from now, these houses will be as easy to pick out as a 1960's house is today.

When building your own home, one you plan to live in long-term, and as long as it isn't carried to an extreme, I think it's nice to go with what you find pleasing and to your personal taste.
Dave.

 

[harpoonalt]

The nice thing about getting tips or ideas is that sometimes one or two just click and you use them. Our basement is just a basement with my workbench and a workout area. I painted all the concrete walls with a regular white house paint to brighten it up and used regular porch and floor enamel on the floors to keep it cleaner and hold down the dust. That and I used 4' flourescent lighting to make it even brighter and not seem like a basement. Cheap idea for parts of the basement not used for living. The wall and floor paints held up great for 15+ years in our last house.

 

[lakngulf]

I think stainless steel is very faddy now and people will get tired of it in the future. It's a cold and maybe overly commercial type finish. I'm thinking white appliances are ready for a come back.

Dave, I read from this: Your wife wants stainless steel, you have white that works just fine. That is my exactly my case.