Rael
09-13-2009, 01:25 PM
...
This is about the place nobody ever wants to go to in the house. Under the house. I always called it "the cave". Cold floors above it in the winter time from open vents to the outside, and moldy in the hot, humid weather. A ~23' x 26' x 48"H empty, musty, dark, spider web and thousand legger infested space. It had generations of old vinyl siding, a sink, old duct work laying around, and was unlevel as the builders had left it 35 years ago. It's only purpose might have been to scare a young kid into believing that this is the place where the kids go who don't brush their teeth. :evil:
But then I started brainstorming on how I could use this area to 1) claim my garage back, and 2) to get more room in the utility room at the cave entry. I did some research and decided to seal up the area. First step was removing all of the debris, leveling it out to just a very minor slope (just in case of a water event). Then I removed the vapor barrier covering the joists above (still have to remove the insulation).
Installers came and spray-foam insulated the entire exterior area between the joists while closing up the vents. They hung this thick, reinforced vapor barrier all the way around on the walls, and taped it to an even thicker floor barrier which sat on top of a convex-concave plastic floor liner.
My 11 year old water heater was in the adjacent utility room at the cave entry, and was showing visible signs of rust along the bottom. Also, it was only using one heating element, so it was definitely time to get a new one. I had them replumb to the (now white cave and hooked up the new water heater in there (bought a 50 gal. low-boy to fit in there). Ran wiring to install two light fixtures. Bought and assembled two 3' x 8' racks, they hang from the joists. The goal is nothing on the floor.
While it is still an unfinished project, you can see the direction I'm going with it. There will be more racks. The temptation to fill yet another storage area with un-needed stuff is what I'm going to try avoiding. Just thought I'd share this, I really believe it was a very worthwhile project.
Before shots:
68330
68331
68332
68333
68334
This is about the place nobody ever wants to go to in the house. Under the house. I always called it "the cave". Cold floors above it in the winter time from open vents to the outside, and moldy in the hot, humid weather. A ~23' x 26' x 48"H empty, musty, dark, spider web and thousand legger infested space. It had generations of old vinyl siding, a sink, old duct work laying around, and was unlevel as the builders had left it 35 years ago. It's only purpose might have been to scare a young kid into believing that this is the place where the kids go who don't brush their teeth. :evil:
But then I started brainstorming on how I could use this area to 1) claim my garage back, and 2) to get more room in the utility room at the cave entry. I did some research and decided to seal up the area. First step was removing all of the debris, leveling it out to just a very minor slope (just in case of a water event). Then I removed the vapor barrier covering the joists above (still have to remove the insulation).
Installers came and spray-foam insulated the entire exterior area between the joists while closing up the vents. They hung this thick, reinforced vapor barrier all the way around on the walls, and taped it to an even thicker floor barrier which sat on top of a convex-concave plastic floor liner.
My 11 year old water heater was in the adjacent utility room at the cave entry, and was showing visible signs of rust along the bottom. Also, it was only using one heating element, so it was definitely time to get a new one. I had them replumb to the (now white cave and hooked up the new water heater in there (bought a 50 gal. low-boy to fit in there). Ran wiring to install two light fixtures. Bought and assembled two 3' x 8' racks, they hang from the joists. The goal is nothing on the floor.
While it is still an unfinished project, you can see the direction I'm going with it. There will be more racks. The temptation to fill yet another storage area with un-needed stuff is what I'm going to try avoiding. Just thought I'd share this, I really believe it was a very worthwhile project.
Before shots:
68330
68331
68332
68333
68334