New (very old building) shop

[Xplantdad]

Originally Posted by lynn

3 out of 4. Don't know why the 4th one flipped.

[Lynn]

After getting the dividing wall rocked on one side (the warehouse side), I wanted to get the other side spray foamed along with the inside of the North wall in the shop. But first I felt like I needed to get all the brick work squared away. There were a lot of loose bricks and a lot of crumbling mortar. Part of it is just age, but part is that the building had been victim to a fire before WWII. There had been some previous attempts to repoint the bricks, but it was not done very well at all. There is really only one way to do it right; you have to dig out ALL of the soft mortar, and tightly pack in new mortar. After paying a relative AND a professional mason to do the job, I decided to do it myself.

All of the pics in this post are AFTER the other guys had supposedly fixed it. All the white chalky mortar is so soft, you can dig it out with a fingernail. You can see in a couple of pictures, there is some new gray mortar next to the white stuff. The professional mason? He didn't do it, but had a couple "helpers" do that work. All they did was put mortar on a finger and push it into existing voids. They did not remove any of the old mortar. That wheel barrel? It is one of THREE full loads of old mortar that I dug out by hand in prep for new mortar.

On most of the lower section (where previous “repairs” had be performed) they had just taken mortar in hand and slathered it over all the bricks with voids between them. It was ugly. So, on that part, I used a hand held concrete grinder and ground down to the brick. Then I started digging out the mortar. Most of the mortar from that “repair” was really hard, so where it was stuck in the brick, I just left it. I only dug out what would come out with a screwdriver or paint scraper. Went through about 5 paint scrapers; and that screwdriver won’t likely ever drive a screw again. I kept sharpening it at the grinder.

[Lynn]

Oops. Pics didn't attach.

[Too Many Projects]

Sorry to see you had to re/do all this yourself to get it right. Seems to be the way many contractors work anymore.
I'm confidant your work will still be there when the building turns 200 yrs old...

[Too Many Projects]

Ya'know, bringing this up again is like finding an old action/thriller novel a person read a year ago and forgot much of the details so.... ya just gotta go back and re-read the whole dang thang again...

[Crush]

What’s the saying? If you want something done right, do it yourself” sadly this is more often the case these days!

[Lynn]

I have always said there are three ways to get things done:
1. Hire it done.
2. Do it yourself.
3. Tell your kids not to do it.

Of course, that is a bit tongue in cheek. Apparently, 1 and 3 are hit and miss as far as quality.

I did get the two non brick walls in the shop spray foamed last week, and, for a change, i am very happy with the result. Guy did a great job, and you could barely tell he had been in there. Went with closed cell. Will post pics when we get to that. I am way behind bringing this up to date.

[Lynn]

I had so much fun with the manhole cover, I decided to do a mini version.

When I got the building, there was no city water. But, it was hooked into the city sanitary sewer system. The sewer line coming from the building was actually exposed. Hard to believe. I did not want to dig for a new sewer line, so I made the best of it. When we poured the footer for the north wall, I made sure to build it up a bit over the slab height. I put a six inch pipe built into the footer horizontally, to allow the new sewer line exiting the building to pass through. I had to cut out the old part of the slab where the toilet was for two reasons. 1. I wanted to relocate it, and 2, I needed the sewer line to go just a bit lower to make sure I could cover it with the sidewalk. I am looking for pictures of that work, and can't find any. But I know there are somewhere. Will post when I find them.

Because the sewer line was so high, and because by code you have to have a cleanout setup right by the building, the clean out was slightly above grade. And it was right by the pedestrian door. So, while my electrician (Tommy) was doing some work that didn't require my help, I built this little concrete area to protect my clean out.

Small enough job that I just mixed cement in a wheel barrel. I used a sprinkler system cover and box from one of the big box stores. Should have taken a pic of it with the lid on. It looks very nice, and no one can tell it covers up the sanitary sewer clean out.
Technically, I think I need to grind off the words "Sprinkler System" and mark it permanently as the sewer clean out, but the inspector didn't say anything about it.

[Lynn]

Almost done with brick work in the shop side. I have about 3 hours to go. There is no way to get the lower half looking good, but I have at least plugged all the holes and there is no loose mortar.

These pics show new mortar. I have not washed the brick yet, so it will look a bit better cleaned up. No point in washing until I get done with drywall tape and bed, as that sanding will create a whole new layer of dust.

My son came over yesterday for a few hours and we got started on drywall.

[67since67]

That brick wall is nice!!