Clearing the Print Shop

The smaller addition to the main office space, we lovingly call the "print shop".  In the past, this space was used as a small mom and pop printing shop for the neighborhood.  We will use it as the kitchen and an education space.

We knew there was a lot of damage in this area, the leak in the ceiling was pretty obvious when we first looked at the property.

As we first started the demolition in this area, we found some nasty surprises.  Termites and mold.  Lucky us.

The termite damage looked to be fairly old and we found very few live ones in the wreckage. 

In at least once section, the damage had been confined to the multiple layers of wooden paneling on the walls.  The termites had eaten all of the organic substance from it all, leaving only the plastic layer on the surface.  Extremely creepy.

Our new open air bathroom.  TP will be stored on top of the ladder

Water and termite damage aside, we found little that disturbed us as we went.  We pulled the ceilings down and took apart the one and only remaining bathroom in the place.  Another dumpster full, we began to plan our rebuild strategy.

Breaking into AJs Office

Dan and the guys came back a few days after the bobcat rampage to break through the wall into the new office space for AJs office.

I removed the steel and glass window and the guys cranked up the saw and cut through the double thick brick wall.

He really is in there... somewhere.

After getting the door cut, they attacked the floor in AJs office so we can lay in plumbing to the 3rd ADA bathroom and the heated floor tubing





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Bobcat Rampage!

While waiting for our permits and plans to be completed, we interviewed several concrete contractors, plumbers and radiant heat flooring installers.

After weeks of conversations, one thing became clear.  The old, lumpy, oil stained floor had to go!

Between the new plumbing, the radiant hear floor system and other mechanical issues replacing the floor allows us a clean slate to build on.  Did I mention the radiant heat floor?  It is a hot water system(someday upgraded to solar assist) that will heat the entire concrete slab of the building, effectively turning it into a large radiator, evenly heating the space and everything touching it.

A very, very nifty piece of technology supplied and installed by ECS Geothermal.

We decided to use Dan Wilson Concrete and Construction for our concrete work.  After interviewing several, Dan came in and made some great suggestions and seemed to really understand what we are trying to do with the project.  Contract signed, he and his crew got to work tearing out the floors and a wall section.

On to the demolition!

First Nibbles

This turned out to be a very thick slab.  Over 9" in some places.

One little surprise we found was the old pneumatic car lift.  Dan was able to lift it out with the snoot of the jackhammer.  Good thing too, it was tremendously heavy and locked into the clay bed.  It would have taken us a week to dig it out my hand.

 90% broken out and removed, the office space feels more like a war zone than a construction site.

Next:  Removing the window to AJ's office and getting the print shop finally gutted.

Demolition, Plans and Permits

Sorry for the delay in posting, it has been a heck of a lot of work and running around the past few weeks.

Dad and I spend a solid week taking down the small office in the front part of the barrel vaulted office space.  As I have said before, it was built like  battle ship.  Some sections had multiple layers of plaster, wood studding, metal studding and about 30lbs of various glues and nails.

We nibbled at it, little by little, section by section till we were able to drop whole sections.  It was a ton of work and we more or less took a week off afterward.  That one little office was most of a 20 yard dumpster worth of debris.

They just don't build em like that anymore.  For a damn good reason...

While all this was going on, we had several meetings with our architect, mechanical engineers and countless contractors.  It was a bit frustrating at first, but I think things leveled out and things are looking up.

Next step is to get our plans finalized and officially sealed and then shipped off to various city and county administration offices.

Revealing the Barrel Vault

 Mark and Ray spent 2 weeks and 2 dumpsters getting the false ceiling off the barrel vault and then the cobbled together framing that held it all up.

Fiber panels are down, framing still to go.

This is a ton of framing stock.  All held onto the trusses with gravity and bent nails

Finally getting the framing off the beautiful iron trusses.

The iron, even in the newer section of the barrel vaulted space is amazingly elegant.

The older section of hot riveted iron.

The newer section in the rear of the building was matched very well. 

This is why we bought this building.  In person, it feels huge and airy.

It was a lot of pretty unpleasant work.  Ladders get heavy and hard to climb after a while, but we powered through and got it all down.

The barrel vaulted portion of the building is why we purchased in the first place.  Once revealed, it really came home what a special building this is.

Demo Day!

A couple of weeks after we got the keys, some of the folks that work for Cherub decided it was time to come down and swing sledgehammers!

Sam, Jessica, Nita, Ray and Chelsea all came down to start tearing up the joint under Mark's dubious supervision.  Everything was safe and sound as long as they avoided... well, everything.

Nita leads off with some enthusiastic crowbar work

The target of the demolition crew was the smaller section of the building.  Once holding a print shop, it had been carved into little offices and cubbies that all had to go.  Luckily, we had just the crew to get it done!

Walls came down, doors were shattered, HVAC torn from its very roots.  Have to admit, it was dirty, dusty fun.

Jessica tearing into the old rear office.

Sam, Jessica and Chelsea taking out a major divider wall.

Chelsea worked like a champ!

Sam just likes to hit things with sledgehammers...

THE AFTERMATH

 Post demo we retired to the Mexican place across the street for beer and way too much food out of the terrace.

That was a damn fun and productive day!

Nothing was left by the end of the day.  Amazing work.

 Cherub is blessed with some great folks.  Fun to work with and a blast to hang out and destroy real estate with.

Sledgehammer Biopsy. (This may sting a little)

The day after we signed the mortgage and picked up the keys it was time to start exploring our new kingdom.  I walked around the place and randomly broke holes in walls to see just what was hiding in the 80 year old nooks and crannies.

Suspended ceilings hide frightening things.  Like this giant metallic and plastic octopus.

Creepy bathrooms are creepier with holes bashed through them.

It was bad.  Not horrific, but bad enough that the amount of work ahead of us became a little frightening.  We knew if was going to be a total demo back to the support walls, with all electrical, plumbing, heating, phones, etc being stripped back to the sources, but we had no clue the place is built like a battle ship in certain spots.  Multiple layers of sheet rock and steel studs, glued and screwed to the old plaster, which in some places was put over nearly inch thick tongue and groove wood siding.  They don't build em like that anymore...

The old office was build frighteningly well.  Just this tiny amount of demo took 3 hours.

The false ceiling in the large open area was the first thing to be seriously attacked.  We threw a ladder up the to side wall and began tearing down the ancient fiberboard(no, not asbestos) to get a peek at the condition of the barrel vault.  It was tremendously exciting to finally poke our heads up above the old iron trusses and see the scope of the roof scape.

Very first picture of the barrel vault.  There is still dust in the air.

                                                                  It was tremendous!

The following week we had a licensed electrician in to kill all the power in the building expect for one outlet right next to the main power panel so we knew we could strip 80 years of accreted wiring and patches.  Best to start fresh.  We also turned off the gas supplies(2 meters) and locked them off to make sure that we could remove all the old gas piping for replacement.  The water we left on.  Accidentally cutting a water line is annoying, and frequently amusing, and shutting off the one usable bathroom is NOT an option.

Once the dumpster arrived, courtesy of our good friends at Captain Hook.  We like those guys a lot.  Small, local company and the name rocks!

We began in earnest to get the ceiling torn down and all the old electrical stripped off the walls.  Marks father, Ray came in to lend a hand for the demolition portion of the project, mainly because Barb wants him out of the house.  Mark worked on the ceilings off the ladder, Ray worked on the electrical and plumbing removal.

First of 10 piles of wiring, plumbing and HVAC metal we removed.

After a few days we could start to see the span of the barrel vault.  It is everything we had hoped for.

 On the down side of our project planning, it became clear that the leaks in the smaller portion of the building were bad enough to justify a complete tear off and replacement.  Luckily we end up with a superior roof with all of the old penetrations removed and sealed over with a high tech membrane roofing system that will guarantee us a lifetime of security.

Luckily we have used a local company for roofing in the past.  Buck Roofing came out to inspect the project and gave us a quite reasonable bid that we accepted almost immediately. Normally multiple bids are advisable, but we knew what the price range should have been for the bid and when they came in slightly under budget, it was time to sign a contract.  The roof project is set to begin sometime in early November.

The first slow parts of demolition was a blast, we cannot wait to get deeper into the project!