Рубрика: RENOVATION 3

CONTAINING THE MESS

Managing mess is crucial to a successful renova­tion. Torn-out plaster and drywall are nasty stuff to handle and worse to breathe. The dust gets everywhere, and the volume of debris is prodi­gious. If you’re sloppy as you renovate, you’ll pay later: Finish floors are particularly vulnerable to grit that isn’t swept up and to nails […]

HEADERS

Every opening in a wall must have a header over it. Headers must be able to carry a cumulative load and transfer it downward without warping, flexing, or pulling away from the sides of the opening. Thus headers must be sized according to the loads they carry and the distances they span. Your local building […]

Exploring Your Options

To assess the framing hidden behind finish surfaces, go where it’s exposed: the basement and the attic. Joists often run in the same direction from floor to floor. Generally, a girder (also called a carrying timber or beam) runs the length of the house, with joists perpendicular to it. Some houses will have framed cripple […]

Carpentry

This chapter od, the king of building materials. Built amid virgin forests, the first wood houses were fashioned from mas­sive ax-hewn timbers that took half a neighbor­hood to raise. Because iron was scarce, those great post-and-beam frames were joined without nails. Instead, they were fitted tightly and then fastened with whittled wooden pegs. The technol­ogy […]

Gutter Hangers

Gutter sections need to be supported by hang ers at least every 32 in.; closer if there’s a heavy snow or ice load. The many variations can be grouped into two general types: roof mounted, which employ a strap nailed to roof sheathing, and fascia mounted, which screw or nail directly to fascia boards or […]

Rain Gutters

Gutters direct water away from the house, pre­venting water from collecting next to the founda­tion and thereby possibly undermining it. The two most common gutter profiles are half-round and K-style, in which the gutter has a squared-off back and an ogee front. For appearance’s sake, try to match the profile of new gutters to old. […]