With us out of the house and the cabinets out, work has started for real. Before the builder can start we have to get the hazardous materials out so the hazmat crew rolled in this week and got down to business. Luckily we had no asbestos in any of the drywall they tested but we did have it in the 2 layers of flooring that were under the tiles in the kitchen. We also have asbestos tape on the duct work so that all has to come out, and presumed asbestos in the packing used on the vent stacks. The lead in the exterior paint and window putty isn’t as high risk. The power was cut on Monday and the demo crew rolled in on Tuesday.
All the work happened during the work day so i didn’t get many photos but the aftermath was shocking. They sealed up the house and had a hepa filter blowing out of the house to create negative air pressure and prevent any dust from spreading in the neighbourhood. Once that was inspected and signed off on they got to work. Basically they smashed up all of the tiles then cut out the floor with the lino on it. We were left with a fragile subfloor full of gashes from their saw and all of the pre-existing knot holes. Basically all of the structure of our floor was the t&g fir that got cut up. Walking in the kitchen is sketchy to say the least but luckily i had a few spare bits of plywood to put down over the biggest holes. I am a disappointed that the cuts were so rough heading into the bedrooms, bathroom, and living room. They didn’t put a great deal of effort (no effort actually) to prevent damage to the floors and they cut out the floor well through the thresholds of the rooms and the cuts are nowhere near straight. It will take a bit to true that all up before we put in the new floor.
Taking out the duct work was also pretty destructive. If we had known we would have done a bit more prep. Because the tape wraps all around the fixtures they had to take them all out, but it would have been nice if they had at least unscrewed and taken off the decorative grates. We found remains of them bent by crowbars and unsalvageable. Chalk that up to experience.
They didn’t deal with the plumbing because there was some confusion apparently. I sent a photo to the builder and he will sort it out next week.
With the floor out and no hazmat in the walls, i got busy taking out the drywall in the little addition. This is the last of the drywall we have to dispose of so it felt like a bit of a milestone. Naturally it took way longer than i expected. I found 8 wasps nests in the walls and ceiling and huge holes around the light fixture on the deck. No wonder it was so cold in the winter! Once we got all the drywall off and looked at the structure, it was apparent that the addition had once been a small partially enclosed back porch that got closed in at some point. You could see it in the old paint on the bottom of the roof boards.
Sunday I got started on the plaster lathe after a trip out to Reifel for bird watching and a break. The lathe is a little bit more fun because you can just lay waste and shovel it all up afterwards. Once you are in to the wall a tug on the crowbar pulls off the lathe and the plaster with it. Thanks to our testing we know that there is no asbestos in the plaster but i still kept my hazmat mask on because all that dust is pretty gross. I didn’t get as much done as i had hoped but i did make a good start.
Leave a Reply