WTF has failhorse been doing. (lrnin' to be a contractor)

[Failhorse]

I've been on the forums. But I haven't been playing. What honestly could have taken me away from precious?

Well some traveling for work and "fun." But I also decided to slay the 70's looking beast in my basement. Looking back to when I bought my house it had charm. The basement was a dank gold/black covered - wood panel wall orgy fest. Why else would they paint the walls gold? Moreover there was a legitimate 48 star flag in my rafters. Well the 2x10 supports were red, the bulkheads were white, and in the far corner someone painted the ceiling blue and stuck 48 stars in the ceiling.

So, the wife and I decided it was time to fix up the place. Space is always at a premium. But we had high hopes and a very limited budget. We wanted to add a bedroom, bathroom, and a large living space. We had some contractors come by. It was $10k just for a bathroom. Total some contractors wanted to charge us $40k just to finish the basement. Which is completely idiotic. Materials (in my head) were less than $5k. So I was getting ripped off.

Luckily I have a bunch of friends in the trades. Yet, none of them wanted to work for me for free. So I spent weekends learning the trades. Plumbing, dry wall, electric, tile, ect, ect. It goes on and on. Long story short. Managed to turn a shit hole into something nice.

I ended up doing a lot of bartering and the total cost of this thing has been near nothing. I got a 3 person jacuzzi tub for free, and traded for licensed electrician work so i could pass inspection. But words don't explain the peril i've been in the last few weeks. Take a look.

Before:

Sorta before (just some framing up.)

After:



I get a lot of people are younger and owning a home is a long way off. But what you can take away from this... Learn how to do shit yourself. There are certain things you should hire a professional for. But dumb things like simple plumbing, ect. You should know how to do. I see a lot of friends doing the whole hiring the lowest bidder bullshit and have so many problems a couple years down the road. Do it yourself. Do some research. And if it's screwed up in a year. At least you spend only on materials, vs. a dumb ass from craigslist.

The end.
(well not quite. The bathroom is not done yet, and i have 1/2 a ceiling to finish. I also learned to measure before you decide to put shit in. The said jacuzzi tub didn't fit down the stairs. I had to take out 1/2 a wall and the entire staircase to fit it. I also skipped a bunch of small stuff that will probably bite me in the ass later. Tiling is also really hard if you are finishing a floor that was meant to never be level. And acoutical insulation is super imporant. And what i learned afterward. Don't use metal studs in basements. Or screws in wood 2x4 walls... good luck.)

All total. If I didn't barter for much of my stuff. I'd probably have spent about $12k. This would include hiring a professional to break the feces pipe and connecting the new pit/sump pump to the main stack. =)
I used 18in ceramic tile on the floor. Metal studs throughout. Concrete board in the bathroom. Green board everywhere. Closed cell spray insulation on the walls. Acoustic bat insulation in the ceiling. LED can lights. Conduit (never do anything else) for electric wire runs. PVC for the bathroom. Ran all new copper pipe in the whole house. Solid oak pocket doors. New windows. Fixed 3 cracks in the foundation (injection process) And ran new 50 amp service to my garage. ( So I can hook up solar panels to power the 2 ejection pumps in my basement.)

[Vivi Hill]

Nice work!

[Failhorse]

Thanks Benny.

Also very important.
If you have a house before 1980. In my first picture you can see some vinyl tiles on the floor. Those have asbestos in them. If you don't know what that is. Well, that's a different conversation. But vinyl tiles are considered a category 1 danger. And say you can remove them yourself. I did. But I did the negative air pressure thing. So if the fibers did some loose they blew right outside. Be fucking careful. Especially with old houses. Asbestos will fucking kill you and linger for a very long time.

[Mr. Widdle]

That's astonishing work, good job.

[Thret]

That's awesome Failhorse! Wonderful job!

When you're looking for solar cells try the PVL (Photovoltaic Laminates). They're solar power cells but it's a thin film instead of those giant, fugly panels. So far I've only seen them done on metal roofs but some research might yield a process for putting them on a regular roof so you don't have to strip the roof down and redo it. There are plenty of examples but this link has a couple good photos of them (Numbers 3, 4, and 5). Regardless, fantastic work and I'm sure the solar panels will knock off a little on heating and cooling bills.

P.S.- You might want to look into the possibility of wind power too. They have some vertical axis turbines that don't look too terrible.

[fingerman]

Nice work. I have done tile before, it is not fun.

[GoDM1N]

I assume seeing how the only tools I see are a air compressor, a nail gun and a guitar, you used the nail gun to nail your feet to the ground so you weren't blown away as you played a awesome rift that built everything around you. You then used the compressor to blow the dust off your clothing.

"You built this basement. You built this basement on rock n roll."

[Hatred]

as a tradesman i have to say that looks fantastic !

i do stuff like that all day ... and for someone to learn to do it yourself you just put 9/10 do it yourselfers to shame

nicly done bro !

[Rologton]

Impressive! My father, brother and I did something similar in the basement of our last house. With just ourselves and an old family friend we added a bedroom for me, bathroom, kitchen, bar and TV room with surround sound and 72 inch plasma TV. It was awesome.

Then we moved a year and a half later much to my completely serious and legitimate FURY.

[Maringue]

Nice work man. So many contractors have no problem completely ripping people off because they know they are too lazy to ever do it themselves. The only thing I would never do myself is the electrical (other than basic stuff). Everything else is not that hard, it just takes time.

And tile does suck to put into a basement, you usually have to use a special compound to re-level the entire floor since the original builder was probably lazy and didn't get it level in the first place.

[Failhorse]

Yah i didn't relevel the floor. Didn't think about it until after the framing was done. But in the event of a flood i need the water to be able to drain out.