# Interesting Find while remodeling



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

So have a space under the stairwell I turned into a closet, opened it up and found a poem wrote by one of the original owners. Original house was built in 1857, then added onto later.

Decided to save it so covered it in plexiglass. Also found there was an interesting gap up in the very top that led directly under the flat roof. so for the last 100 and some odd years the furnace has been pulling cold air from under the flat roof all winter, and lately hot air from under it all summer when the central AC ran. Near the bottom of the stairs is a 10" cold air return duct, it also happens to be the shortest run of return duct. Stairs had two ducts cut into the kicker boards. I made up some custom duct work and closed them two off then connected it to the 10" duct. Also closed the gap off and filled with insulation. Also the outside wall never got filled years ago as all the blow in just fell under the stairs as the bottom of the walls were open. Wife was really happy about shoveling all that out.

Closet under stairwell. by Marty Lappin, on Flickr

Untitled by Marty Lappin, on Flickr

Stairwell to closet by Marty Lappin, on Flickr

Untitled by Marty Lappin, on Flickr

Sometimes old wood is superior ;-)

Old vs new by Marty Lappin, on Flickr


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## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

What's that written by? Aliens?

Just kidding, they don't teach cursive in public schools here anymore.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

BWfarms said:


> What's that written by? Aliens?
> 
> Just kidding, they don't teach cursive in public schools here anymore.


They've went back to it here as of late.

The original owners of this farm made it his home place and also owned five others in the area that he sharecropped out, I guess he was a poet of some kind, isn't unusual to hear of people finding something he scribbled in a hay loft or behind something in one of the other houses.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

Marty,

Part of the old house I live in is about the same age (or a couple years older). It's had several additions, so you neve know what you might find, during re-construction. Can be kind of like a treasure hunt. But haven't found the 'Big Payday' yet.  It is something to see rough sawn pine boards 18-20+ inches wide in the walls/ceiling, the trees they had to work with, wow.

With all my additions, i think I have three different types of foundations even. Along with 3 different ceiling heights too. Let alone which way the floor slopes in each room (must have made some interesting marble game playing at one time). 

Larry


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

r82230 said:


> Marty,
> 
> Part of the old house I live in is about the same age (or a couple years older). It's had several additions, so you neve know what you might find, during re-construction. Can be kind of like a treasure hunt. But haven't found the 'Big Payday' yet.  It is something to see rough sawn pine boards 18-20+ inches wide in the walls/ceiling, the trees they had to work with, wow.
> 
> ...


Dude, when were you sneaking around my house? Office, living room and our bedroom has 9' ceilings, kitchen, bathroom, pantry and game room have 8' ceilings, the alcove over the kitchen table is 10'. Upstairs I haven't even bothered to measure, technically according to our county codes its only a story and a half anyways as the upstairs have a 45 degree miter between ceiling and walls either on the north/south or east/west walls, one 12"x12" ceiling tile covers the mitered part so don't lose any headroom anyways.

Ditto here as well on foundations, have fieldstone walls in part of the basement, some oddball cinder block size I've never seen before in the other part and part of the foundation where its just crawlspace is just fieldstones stacked three foot wide.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

After the closet I tore into the office, found 3 different places the back door was at one time or another, peeled the mortar off the ceiling and left the lathe as its holding up 10" of cellulose under the flat roof. Screwed 2" wide strips of 1/2" plywood over the lathe to keep it tight, fastened 1" polystyrene foam faced insulation to the plywood then screwed 2x4's over the insulation. Ran a string several different ways, left the 2X's just snug in some places and cranked em right into the polystyrene in others to take some of the humps and dips out of the ceiling. Regular ole drywall over the 2x's then, sealed around the perimeter during this to end up with a double dead airspace in the ceiling to add to insulation value. Our bedroom is on the other side of the west office wall and never had a duct to it as it has the fieldstone walls under it.

So&#8230;I tried something nobody could tell me if it would work or not, basically insulated three stud bays with foil insulation, then coiled up a minimun of 75' of 1/2" pex in each one like a giant slinky, cut in a 4"x10" register top and bottom of each stud bay, more insulation to close it off then sheetmetal over each one to prevent ever running a screw into it. Also shimmed the new drywall out 3/4" of a inch so if I had to still could use drywall anchors to hang something. A room that used to have two outlets, now has twelve. Also has ethernet on each wall as well as well as phone jacks. Wasn't a big deal to add another heat zone as I already have the laundry room in the basement as its own zone with baseboard then the bathroom is setup as another with a kickspace heater. Another zone valve and a grundfos Alpha pump handily does all three zones or ramps down for 2 or 1. Takes a 14x16 room from 64 to 71 in roughly 84 minutes.

Always just used to sleep with the bedroom door open in the winter and it stayed decent enough, had a heated mattress pad with dual controls in case the wife ever got cold. It stayed decent enough even a few winters ago when we set new record lows. However after seeing a video on how it's the fumes that kill in a fire and not the actual fire anymore I wanted to get some kind of heat in that room. People who sleep with bedroom doors shut have a LOT more time to get out before succumbing to fumes.

The wifey is happy happy happy with the results, especially since the thermostat is on her side and being a hybrid radiant/convection heat its completely silent other than the click of the thermostat.

Upstairs rooms will all be getting proper wall heat when I redo those.

Wall heat on the Cheap by Marty Lappin, on Flickr

Wall heat on the Cheap by Marty Lappin, on Flickr

Wall heat on the Cheap by Marty Lappin, on Flickr

Had to attack a beam at another angle, this wasn't long enough to get thru. Was seriously going thru batteries faster than I could charge em.

Wall heat on the Cheap by Marty Lappin, on Flickr

Office remodel by Marty Lappin, on Flickr


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