At Home In The Woods

[Pops15]

Its looking good! Another suggestion that Mike in WV touched upon, is what kind of texture do you want on your walls and ceiling? I like the rougher texture on the cieling, it hides a lot, and a "knock down" on the walls. Its basically just dry wall mud put on thin and spread out. It provides a little texture, I like the looks, and it hides any minor problems with the dry wall.

Knock down isn't mud. The same product can be used for a few different types of texture. It can be sprayed on and left as is which will provide a very rough texture. Once it has a chance to partially dry a wide plastic knife can be use to "knock down" the texture. It's great for ceilings as it hides imperfections in the drywall finish.

I'm not a fan of knock down texture on walls. First off, the door and window jamb widths have to be increased. Custom jamb widths can get very expensive.
Secondly, it can be tough to patch knock down without the patch being visible.
Third, it takes more paint, and makes cutting in around trim much more difficult.

 

[Obed]

Knock down isn't mud. ... It's great for ceilings as it hides imperfections in the drywall finish.

I'm not a fan of knock down texture on walls.

We plan on putting knock down on the ceilings but will leave the walls plain.

I don't care for knock down on the walls because it seems like the texture will collect dust and dirt. Plus, I suspect knock down on the walls may be a passing fad and will date a house. If you ever wanted to undo the knock down on all the walls in your house because it went out of style, I imaging you'd have quite a job. It might be worse than removing wallpaper. Plain simple painted walls have stayed in style for decades. The walls used to be made with plaster, then drywall came around. I suspect that plain drywall walls will still be in vogue 30 years from now. Even if a product comes out that replaces drywall, I don't think you'd have trouble selling an older house with drywall because drywall is so easy to work with.

Knock down on the ceilings makes sense. Knock down hides the imperfections and can be re-painted. I don't see knock down on the ceilings as a passing fad because of these reasons.

Obed

 

[Obed]

Bathroom Exhaust Fans

I really, really, really dislike a noisy bathroom fan. A loud fan does not provide a conducive reading environment. LOL.

The wife brought a couple fans home so I could "approve" them. The fans had electrical plugs on them so I just plugged them into an extension cord and tested the fan noise. Both fans met my approval.

In the master bath we plan to have a combination fan/light in the tile shower and a fan/light in the toilet stall. The master bath also has a window in the toilet stall and a window over the claw-foot tub that will help with ventilation. The hall bath will have one combination exhaust fan/light. We would like to have separate switches for the hall bath fan/light so we can turn on the light without having to turn on the fan. We just have to make sure we have a large enough place for a multiple gang box for the switches.

 

[Obed]

Uncovering the Footers so that Brick Can Be Laid

It seems like I live to dig.

We have gravel covering the footers that surround the garage. I need to uncover the footers before the brick can be laid because the brick will sit on top of the footers.

Tonight after work I removed the gravel covering the footer at this section of the garage in preparation for laying brick.

I couldn't see a good way to use the backhoe so I hand shoveled the gravel into the FEL and hauled the gravel to a gravel pile.

Here's the uncovered footer after a couple hours of hand digging.

I believe I may be able to use the backhoe to uncover the footers in front of this section of the garage.

 

[Obed]

I've never seen a separate duct to cool the flue. I'm curious as to why that is needed with Obed's fp. ...
I wonder if Obed's flue is double wall and just uses a separate duct for the outside air?

Pops, you got it right. Our flue is double-walled, not triple. So the air for cooling the flue is fed by its own duct instead being fed by air between a second wall and a third wall. The flues for these high efficiency fireplaces are very expensive; I believe they are made of stainless steel. I suspect it is cheaper to run a separate duct for the cooling so you can use a double-wall flue instead of a triple-wall flue.

Obed

 

[buckeyefarmer]

what brand of fans? I got some noisy cheap ones I would like to replace. someone mentioned once in a thread they liked some panasonic ones.

 

[Obed]

what brand of fans? I got some noisy cheap ones I would like to replace. someone mentioned once in a thread they liked some panasonic ones.

NuTone. The fan noise is rated in Sones and is posted on the box. We found that 3 Sones or less was quiet enough for us.

Obed

 

[srs]

Obed, I hope you don't mind my suggestions, but just a thought here. To help eliminate any drafts from bad weather and more importantly to keep bugs out of the house I caulked the area between the top of the concrete walls and the wood sill plate. I went crazy caulking any area that wood contacted the concrete. Of course you'll have to pull the house wrap up a bit but that isn't a big deal. I also used spray foam in a lot of areas to seal the house. Even if you used a "sill sealer" tape I would still caulk the perimeter of the home. If in doubt caulk it!!!

 

[mikefromnh]

Obed, I hope you don't mind my suggestions, but just a thought here. To help eliminate any drafts from bad weather and more importantly to keep bugs out of the house I caulked the area between the top of the concrete walls and the wood sill plate. I went crazy caulking any area that wood contacted the concrete. Of course you'll have to pull the house wrap up a bit but that isn't a big deal. I also used spray foam in a lot of areas to seal the house. Even if you used a "sill sealer" tape I would still caulk the perimeter of the home. If in doubt caulk it!!!

Air sealing now will save you money in the long term. You might consider the airtight drywall approach. Pay special attention to all the electrical boxes at the least.

Info-401: Air Barriers?Airtight Drywall Approach —

 

[eepete]

My fan story: Bought the low Sone fan at a box store. Installed it in the 1/2 bath on the 1st floor, but the box got one side bolted up against one of the ceiling joists. So the fan that was oh so quiet in the store and when I just shot juice to it and held it suddenly sounded like a jet engine. BTW, this bath had fiberglass in all the walls. So it's not too bad on the outside, and any noises don't get out/are drowned, but it's loud when you're in that bathroom.

Used similar low Sone fan in the upstairs bedroom baths. These were supported by the "barely strong enough to hold it up" metal supports that came with the fan, and the whole assembly was unsteady until the drywall mud was put on. These fans were reasonably quiet. These were the $80 class fans, and had a light and night light. They were wired to the 3 rockers Decora style switch.

In the master bath, used a Brone fan that is a squirrel cage fan with 4 inputs and one output. Then you run 3" ducts from the inputs to places in the ceiling where you put a fitting through the drywall. The fan itself is mounted remote (but accessible via the attic or other means) and on shock mounts I got. It's perfect. It's the quietest fan we've ever had. At times, I have to hit the switch and listen to see if it's on or not. This fan is $250 or so at box stores, and with fittings will be up in the $330 range or so.

So you can have a very quiet fan, but it costs. If you buy the $80 to $120 class fan, it can be quiet but be very careful what is up against and how it is hung up.

You say "It seems like I live to dig." like it was a bad thing...:laughing:

Pete