Renovation

Photo by twitter user @ruSERIOUSINGme

@ruSERIOUSINGme writes, “Car dies halfway out garage? Rebuild garage around car.” Awesome.

And in other renovation questions – another reader has some serious basement reno questions:

“Dear PoP,

Currently, our basement is completely unfinished – exposed pipes everywhere, crumbling asbestos tile on the floor, etc. It is probably 600 sq. ft. and we are using it for storage as well as for laundry (our washer and dryer are down there). It does, however, have the potential for a basement apartment (small 1 bd., 1 bath), which we are hoping to do. We are good on the 7 ft. ceiliing height and have two egresses – both a separate front and back entrance from the outside. The questions I have for your readers are:

1. Once we make this an apartment, we will lose access to the washer/dryer downstairs. We’ll presumably leave them for the tenants. Where do people usually install laundry on the first or second floors of their rowhouse? I can’t think of any place in our house that would seem realistic. When we demolish the stairs to the basement (right now we also have access down from our kitchen), it will create a small pantry-size room that could work. I was hoping to make this into a 1/2 bath, though, since we currently only have a full bath on the second floor. Any other ideas?

2. What do readers think of flooring options for the basement? We’ve been told that tile is best for mositure/possible flooding reasons, but I’m not a huge fan of tile at all. We really want to go with concrete floors. Do readers think that that would go over well with possible tenants or seem too “cold” and industrial-feeling?

3. Does anyone have good contractor recommendations? Like I said, this is a big job as the basement is not currently finished at all. I’d love to hear what others have done and who they liked. Also, I know costs vary tremendously based on finishing touches (countertop choice, appliances, etc.), but any idea how much this would cost us? We have one estimate that came in at $46,000.”

“Dear PoP,

We recently purchased a fixer-upper rowhouse complete with original screen sleeping porches and an unfinished basement. We would like to renovate the sleeping porches and make the basement into either a large den/play area or a small apartment. I have been Googling my brains out trying to find some examples of these types of renovations but haven’t come up with much. At this point, I am tempted to knock on the doors of homes which are obviously renovated and ask for a tour! To prevent this, I was hoping you could encourage some PoP readers to submit photos of their sleeping porch and/or basement renovations and help a neighbor out.”

If anyone would be willing to share their renovation photos please send me an email at princeofpetworth(at)gmail(dot)com.

Photo by PoPville flickr user DCityDude

“Dear PoP,

I live in a 115 year old townhouse and rent out my basement apartment. Nobody is overly loud or plays music or TV above a civil level, but we can still hear each other through our floor/ceiling at normal volume talking voices. Although our tenant has never complained I’m sure she must be annoyed by our dog running around our place chasing his bone and us walking on wood floors. We have our floors covered as much as possible by area rugs to help with the noise, but we can still hear her and she can surely hear us. We like our tenant and don’t want her to be chased away by our noise. Also, after living in apartments for several years and recently moving to a house my wife and I would prefer not to hear our neighbors.

I’m wondering what our options may be for soundproofing an old row house. The wood floors are original to the home so tearing them up is not an option. In the basement apartment there are drywalled ceilings that likely are screwed directly to the joists. I’m not thrilled about the idea of tearing through the basement ceilings to add some sort of soundproofing materials, but I am starting to think this may be my only option. One other important thing is that my ceiling height downstairs is just above 7ft (the minimum required for my CofO) so I can’t bring this any lower. Do any of your readers have any tips for me that don’t include turning up the volume on my own speakers? Any ideas for good contractors if I must replace the drywall and add soundproofing?”

Some options were given back in Jan. ’10. Anyone else have good suggestions?

Photo by PoPville flickr user fromcaliw/love

“Dear PoP,

We recently purchased a row house in Petworth that will be undergoing some pretty serious renovations. One thing we had not counted on, however, is replacement of the water service line. As it turns out, we have an old galvanized water line (1/2″ or 3/4″) connected to DC Water’s lead service line. I hear that this is just about the worst possible combination from a contaminant point of view. (see, e.g., http://www.dcwasa.com/lead/). From my conversation with DC Water, it sounds like most of Petworth is in the same boat. DC Water is slowly replacing many of the lead service lines in the district, but there are no plans for our block any time soon. However, I understand that if you replace the private side of your service line (the part on your property), then DC Water will replace the lead service line on the public side. (see http://www.dcwater.com/lead/replacement_program.cfm).

As part of our plumbing upgrades in the house, we are apparently required to upgrade to 1″ copper service. Has anyone else performed a similar upgrade/replacement? Who are some good plumbing contractors in the area that can handle this, and approximately how much should we expect to pay? Anything in particular we need to watch out for?”

Photo by PoPville flickr user hellomarkers!

“Dear PoP,

We are hoping to install a reverse osmosis water spout on our kitchen counter asap. I understand that I can just buy one at Costco, but installing it is something I don’t want to do on my own – a big reason being the granite countertop. I’ve looked around at the usual plumbing people, but no one says they do this sort of work. Any advice? I’d need someone who can drill a hole in the granite and set up the water line.”

Wow, I’ve never heard of this. Anyone ever have a reverse osmosis water spout installed? Also another reader requests good plumber recs if you have one?

“Dear PoP,

I live in one of those lovely big non-refurbished homes in Park View. You know the ones. Where the same nice old lady lived since 1953? Still has the old push-button light switches and modern amenities were added, piecemeal, over the decades? I love everything about my house.

Except the fact that it might burst into flames at any moment…

We’ve lived there happily for a while, but we are now making the place ready for renters as we move overseas. Clearly, the electricity issue must be dealt with before we go. We’ve called a couple of folks, here and there, for smaller jobs, but have not found anyone who seems both competent and trustworthy.

Does anyone out in PoPVille have a strong love for their electrician?”