Knoxvillager :: Renovation

New Law Dealing with Lead Based Paint and Older Homes.

Mike — Wed, 05 May 2010 20:02:39 +0000

If you haven’t heard yet there is a new law that has gone into effect concerning renovation and lead based paint. It basically requries anyone who is paid to do work on a house to get certified and follow certain procedures to limit the spread of lead dust from disturbed lead based paint. This will certainly lead to higher renovation costs on older homes, but the fact of the matter is that these are procedures you would want your contractor and trade people following anyway. You can get more information about the details of the law from the EPA on their website.

Homeowners are not required to follow the new procedures if they are doing the work themselves on their own home. However, the procedures in this law are good recommendations for anyone doing work in a house built before 1978. You will probably hear a lot about lead based paint over the next year or so; now might be a good time to freshen up on how to deal with this issue in your own house.

I found it on…..eBay?

Mike — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 02:59:54 +0000

One place that is often overlooked for architectural salvage is Ebay. We don’t have a wide variety of local salvage stores here in Knoxville, but even if you live in a place that does you might find a wider selection and higher turnover of period lighting fixtures, knobs, and furniture on eBay. Check it out, and you’ll soon be addicted to seeing what kind of treasures come up on a daily basis.

That is where we found this porch light and the price was very reasonable. You take a risk not being able to put your hands on it before you buy, but I have found sellers to be very forthright about what they have. If f it doesn’t turn out to be what you expected you can always sell it on….well, eBay.

Out with new, in with the old

Mike — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 23:39:27 +0000

This door was put in by a previous owner. If you look closely you can see where they pieced in the siding after they replaced the original, larger door.

Here I have taken out the previous door, removed the siding pieces around it, and installed a door that came out of an old building in downtown Knoxville.

Here is the new, old door trimmed out and primed. The new door matches the house better than the old and the animals seem to approve of the larger window.

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Old Bottles

Mike — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:21:21 +0000

One of my favorite things about renovating a historic house is finding old treasures throughout the process. Legend has it that years ago an old shotgun was found in the stud cavity of our back bathroom. Apparently a former owner was putting in a shower and had to cut the wall open to get it inside the bathroom. As luck would have it they picked the right spot and found a shotgun from back when they built the house.

We haven’t found anything that dramatic yet, but we do occasionally run into interesting finds. In this case Jessica was digging out a stump along the new fence line and ran into a whole collection of old bottles. Our best guess is that this is where the trash was set out way back when. I will post more pictures of other things we have found and tag them “found”.

Perfectly spaced fence posts

Mike — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:52:02 +0000

If you have ever built a fence you’ve undoubtedly been frustrated by how difficult it can be to get your posts plumb, and evenly spaced. Accomplishing either one of those things is not so bad in itself, but trying to do both can drive you crazy. Most of the time we just resort to making sure they are plumb and dealing with the space in between them later. It turns out dealing with it later isn’t all that great either. To make it work homeowners resort to nailing the rails or pre-made panels directly to the face of the posts, which makes for a less than attractive fence. Or if they are feeling up to it, they cut each rail to fit in between the posts only to realize they have just kicked the issue down the line and now have to deal with picket spacing problems or pre-made panels that don’t fit.

One of these two ways is how I have always built fences and frankly I haven’t lost much sleep over the fact that it wasn’t perfect. But now that I have a smaller yard and would be looking at this thing close up everyday I tried to figure a better way to build a fence. Here is what I came up with.

Instead of setting all of my posts and then filling the spaces in I decided to just set the first one and work my way down the line finishing one section at a time. This required that I prebuild a (roughly) 6′ section of privacy fence that was square and the right length to have the last picket land exactly at the end of the rail. Since I didn’t have a second post up yet I didn’t have to worry about exactly how long my fence section was going to be. All that mattered was that it was square, the picket spacing worked out, and I could make the same panel over and over again. Once I had one post set and one panel built I went ahead and dug the second hole. It has to be close to the correct distance from the first post but there is plenty of room for error with the hole. Even if you end up way off, you can dig out one side or the other later.

Once that was done I screwed one side of the panel to the inside of the first post. Then I supported the other side of the panel with some 2X2’s and shimmed the bottom to get the whole thing level. Notice I am using a string line to make sure I stay in a straight line as I go along. Just tie it to your first post and then to anything that will hold it taught where you want your last post to be. Now placing the second post was a breeze. I just tossed the post into the hole and screwed the panel to the post before I mixed and poured the concrete. If you find the hole will not allow you to get the post up against the panel, take the post out and widen your hole. By letting the square, level panel determine where the post would fall I ensured it would be a perfect fit. Once everything is in place just bump up to the string line and concrete the second post in.

You can’t do the next panel for a day or so since the concrete has to dry, but that gives you a chance to build your next panel and dig the next hole. BTW, you may have noticed the posts are way to high in the picture above; by buying your posts long and cutting them down after you are done you can avoid trying to get the post set at the right height while you are dealing with all the other issues of building your fence.

ZIRCON Metallicscanner m40

Mike — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:50:40 +0000

Basically a mini metal detector, this little gadget is remarkably useful in an old house. Use it to find screws and nails in just about anything including lathe, which allows you to easily figure out where studs are behind plaster walls. It is also useful to scan for nails in reclaimed wood, find drywall screws in finished drywall, determine nail frequency in hardwood floors, or locate finish nails in trim. You can even check to see if those old windows still have the lead weights in the walls. I’m not a fan of traditional stud finders but I find myself coming up with new uses for this thing all the time, and it is significantly more reliable than any stud finder I have ever used. It has 4 LED’s that help indicate the depth/size of metal objects. In addition, the blue top cylinder lights up to indicate when you are directly over a metal object. There are other brands out there which I have not tried, but this one works well. And for $35 bucks it will pay for itself in no time.

Knox Heritage’s Architectural Salvage

Mike — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:31:28 +0000

Knoxville doesn’t really have one of those cool stores — that are usually in a scruffy former warehouse — filled to the brim with old sinks, doorknobs, windows, keys, etc. BUT, you may be surprised to learn of an unexpected place to look for those one-of-a-kind items. Knox Heritage, everyone’s favorite preservation organization here in Knoxville, has a nice selection. Their stuff is available to check out anytime by appointment, on the second Saturday of each month (times vary by season), and during KH business hours on the Friday preceding the second Saturday of each month. Soon you’ll be able to browse from home on their website, and some of their stuff will be on Craigslist.