Project Description
Location: Mill Creek, Wa.
Here is one of our recent remodels that took place in Mill Creek- The homeowner had just moved in a couple months prior to the start date, they wanted a place for their grandkids to come and stay and requested we remodel the entire basement. We decided upon a plan to remove the load bearing partition wall to make the kitchenette area larger as well as add a new wall to add another bedroom. The room was originally used as an office so it had fluorescent tube fixtures on the ceiling, phone jacks everywhere and still had the permanent indentations of the desks that previously had sat on the carpet. They wanted new flooring, baseboards and casings, doors, new gas fireplace to replace the original wood burning one, a whole new kitchenette with relocation of the previous fixtures. The downstairs bathroom was also specified to be remodeled with the plan to bump that wall out enough to add an infrared sauna to the room without taking up too much space. Upstairs we replaced the kitchen countertops, added a new subway tile backsplash, and new custom cabinets with display shelves, and a place to house fine china and silverware. New sinks, and fixtures replaced the old ones, and the electrician replaced various receptacles and fixtures to match the new kitchen. Once this was finished we repainted the entire upstairs as well. Once the project was underway, it was becoming evident that there were quite a few things that were done incorrectly by the original builder. We found no insulation in the rim joist (area separating the two floors on the exterior walls) and the rest of the existing insulation that we found was so inadequate, and was installed incorrectly offering no thermal resistance whatsoever. At that time the owners decided to completely replace all of the sheetrock to replace the failed insulation. After this was all removed it became apparent that the sill plate was inadequately attached to the foundation. We called in the city building official and our structural engineer who then requested us to install 32 new retrofit anchor bolts, and to add plywood to the interior walls to add some form shear strength to the building where there was none previously. After the structural retrofits were completed, we sealed all the concrete walls with one layer of XPS foam board which we then sealed all edges with spray foam, and all seams with seam tape, we also air sealed all cracks and penetrations that were found. We laid new pressure treated sills, built our new interior walls, and insulated these walls with new stone wool insulation. All new sheetrock was installed and then we were finally able to continue with the project as originally planned.