Owch, don't ever piss off the wife. :) Man, now that you did all that, wanna come do some work down here? I got a deck to do. :) Wow, and to think I was debating replacing a door down here in the basement. Maybe I'll just leave it be. I know anytime I get into a project, it always starts off seeming easy and ends up being a nightmare. :) On Jul 13, 2009, at 1:52 PM, Dan Rossi wrote:
> > > It seems that every project I undertake becomes an epic, instead of a > simple job. Must just be my personality. I do tend to go over the > top a > lot. > > I installed the door in my basement over the weekend. It took a lot of > work and several trips to the store, as usual. > > First, I propped the door in the opening and wedged it in place and > took > some measurements. It seemed like a five quarter deck board on either > side was a perfect shim, but I needed about 3.5 inches of header. > > I built and installed the header first. I made it flush to the outside > edge of the basement wall. I then stuffed the door back in the > opening. > That is when I realized I had my first problem. > > With the top edge of the door aligned with the front edge of the > header, > and with the door plumbed vertical, the bottom of the door was way far > forward sticking out of the whole. The foundation wall leans outward > at > the top. > > So, I disassembled the header and moved it back further into the > whole. > All that took a lot of time. > > Then I had to mount the deck boards to the cement walls. I dread > hammer > drilling into cement and brick, it is hard work and I have had, .. > issues > with that before. > > I had 2.75 inch Tapcon screws to work with. I got the board up against > the wall and plumbed it vertical. I had already pre-drilled the > holes in > the board so I got the hammer drill out and plowed a couple of holes > into > the cement. This is where I got worried. My mason had made mention of > using some pretty big Tapcons, but I figured the 2.75 inch were long > enough, even though one inch of them would be in the wood. Well, of > the > holes I drilled, it was obvious that some of them were only making it > through the coating of mortar that he used to flatten the ends of the > block wall. They probably made it into the block a bit, but not much. > Other holes were obviously hitting the block as it was much more > difficult > to drill, and took much more time. > > I got the screws in, and was reasonably happy with the security of the > board to the wall. This was the latch side of the door. > > Of course, I snapped the drill bit on what was to be the last hole > on that > side, and didn't have another bit the right size. > > That was the end of work for Saturday. > > On Sunday, I went out and got four inch Tapcons, and three bits of the > right size. > > I got the hinge side deck board against the wall, got it plumbed up > and > started drilling holes. It wasn't too bad but definitely a lot of > work. > I was definitely hitting block with the deeper holes. Then came the > next > problem. > > My little driver, which could mostly drive the 2.75 inch Tapcons, > didn't > stand a chance with the four inch Tapcons. I started wrenching them > in by > hand, with a ratchet, but quickly realized that I would reach > retirement > age before getting them all in. > > So, I borrowed an air impact driver from a neighbor. Of course, it > has a > half inch stud on it, and the driver bits need a quarter inch > socket. I > couldn't go from a half inch stud to a quarter inch socket with out > using > multiple adapters which made the whole rig very unstable. So, another > trip to the store to purchase a single adaptor which I couldn't > find, so > still ended up with a rig that was not the best, but more stable > than what > I started with. > > Even with the impact driver, these four inch Tapcons were a bitch > and a > half. I snapped two of them clean off. I was having problems > because, in > order to get one all the way in, you couldn't stop once you got it > turning. But I was worried about over driving them. If you stopped > part > way in, you couldn't get it started again without stripping out the > head, > which I did several times. > > Finally, that board was up. Then the door went in and it took a lot of > coaxing since I couldn't quite get the thing shimmed as perfectly as I > would have liked. There just wasn't enough movement after I put in the > framing. But finally, it was in, shimmed pretty close to perfect, and > fixed in place. > > I was so close to being done I could taste it. I just had to put the > lock > set in place. I got the knob put in no problem. The door opened and > closed just fine. I got the dead bolt in place without a hitch. Just > one > piece to go, the metal cup in the jam to receive the dead bolt. No > joy. > It wouldn't go in all the way. So I had to drill and chisel it out. > After several attempts, it finally seated all the way. > > I screwed it in place. Then the door wouldn't close. It kept hanging > up. > After some investigation I found the issue. The screws holding the > cup to > the jam were pretty long. They were passing through the jam and > framing > and when they hit the cement they pushed the jam out just a hair, but > enough to prevent the door from closing. So, a couple of shorter > screws > later, and the door could close and lock. > > There is still much work to be done to seal the door, trim it out, > pour > the cement slab, build the walls around the pit, blah blah blah. But I > leave for Peru on Wednesday and I can really use the vacation. *GRIN* > > Oh, and when I say "I" throughout this narrative, I actually mean "we" > because Teresa was working side by side with me the whole time, > except for > a couple of hours when she fled upstairs after I pissed her off. > > Later. > > -- > Blue skies. > Dan Rossi > Carnegie Mellon University. > E-Mail: [email protected] > Tel: (412) 268-9081 > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
