Capital City Grange

December 23, 2019: Basement renovation begins in earnest!

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On the Monday before Christmas, Dec. 23rd, Northern Basements arrived, right on schedule, to begin their part of the work. The pictures below show how much they accomplished in the first day!

#01 Northern Basement truck & trailer arrives by the fire-exit door, on the West side of the building.
#02 The Northern Basemenst truck has gravel for the drainage channel ready.
#03 Northern Basements trailer, with the unloaded insulation panels, and the sump for the drain channel.
#04 Drainage channel has been installed in the jack-hammered channel under where the stairs and landing were removed.
#05 Drainage channel has been installed along the East wall, sitting on the footing.
#06 The jack-hammered space has been filled with gravel around the drainage channel.
#07 The drainage channel under the stairs has been covered with concrete.
#08 A drainage channel access port has been installed, so that the channel can be flushed out if it ever clogs up. The channel itself has been covered by concrete. Note that the flange of the channel has a space behind it, so that any water that makes it through the wall will drain into the channel.
#09 The drainage channel extends along the entire East wall, covered with concrete.
#10 The crack in the East wall, one of the places water has come into the basement, is covered with a waterproof barrier, which will direct any leakage into the drainage channel.
#11 The new sump, with pump installed, has been set into the floor and covered with concrete. The white PVC pipe will be connected to a drain line, eventually draining to the far side of the driveway, well away from the building.
#12 Foam insulation panels have been stacked in the basement, ready for installation after Christmas.

December 27 & 28, 2019–foam insulation panels and rim-joist insulation

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Northern Basements parked their foam insulation trailer in front of the old entrance, running a hose downstairs to insulate the rim-joist ends above the foundation. This is another critical step, which seals up air leaks as well as providing good R-value in this area above the foam panels
The kitchen is protected with plastic, before the foam insulation is sprayed into the rim joists, above the suspended ceiling. We chose to not install foam panels on the kitchen wall, as we expect to eventually remove all the counters and appliances when we remodel the kitchen, but we wanted to seal up the joist ends along with all the other walls.
At least 3″ of foam is sprayed into the rim-joist ends, and above the windows. You can see how the Northern Basement crew had to work around the heating ducts & the ceiling framing.
Here’s the foam in the spaces above the foundation wall in the kitchen–in the foreground is the top of one of the fluorescent fixtures.
Northern Basements crew boss Hunter is measuring for one of the last foam panels, in the stairwell. The white foam fills what would otherwise be empty space above the concrete basement wall.
Northern Basements drilled through the siding into the rim joist spaces, in places where they were not accessible from inside. They did a very thorough job filling all the spaces!

December 26, 2019–foam panel installation begins!

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The day after Christmas, Northern Basements was back to install foam insulation panels on the concrete walls.

The foam panels are getting started on the East wall. Panels are glued and screwed to the concrete walls. You can see one of the channels molded into the foam for wiring.
Later that day, most of the panels are up. Foam seals the joints between the panels. In this picture you can also see the foam filling spaces around the window frames.

More foam panels cover the North wall, and will make their way up the fire exit stairs. The metal strips are set into the face of the foam; later sheetrock will be screwed to these “studs”.

December 31, 2019–electrical outlets get installed

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Convenience outlets installed in the East wall and others will allow lower-level users to plug in laptops, projectors, speakers, and anything else needed. The outlet boxes will be installed in the cutouts in the foam panels; wires are run in channels molded into the foam.
There is a separate circuit for power for the sump pump; also for the dehumidifier (not visible in this picture).

January 2, 2020: sheetrock & FRPs delivered

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Jan. 2–the Kamco truck came with this small “Moffett” forklift attached to the back, which the driver is using to lift down the stack of sheetrock, with the Fiberglass Reinforced Panels (FRPs) on top.
With the panels set on the ground by the fire exit door, Stan Carlson and Sam Planck bend an FRP to get it started down the stairs.
Jill Murphy and Thomas Begley move an FRP past the plastic, to the temporary work-site storage location in the alcove between the kitchen and the fire exit stairs.
Sam and Dean Grondin bring a piece of sheetrock (moisture and mold-resistant type) down the stairs.
Stan and Kurt Giavara pick up one of the last pieces of sheetrock.

Contact Us

Tim Swartz, President, CCG#469
802-225-8921 (cell)
grangepresident@capitalcitygrange.org

 

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