Home Remodelling 2008
Before and after pictures from our basement remodelling and plumbing repair project
Main room. Note the square in the floor - that's the pad from the old furnace, that had to come out.
The main room, sans pad. Bernie repoured concrete to level the floor.
The rest of the main room and furnace room, pretty much gutted.
The laundry/storage rooms - Bernie and Mike had to cut the floor to lay pipe for the new bathroom and below floor evacuator pump.
Laundry / storage room, opposite view
Old laundry sink going away.
The old kitchen faucet, fully turned off, but happily streaming away despite that.
Our dining room ceiling and wall opened up to reveal the evil galvanized (steel) pipes. The old owner could have replaced the steel pipes when he had the walls open to remodel the upstairs bath a few months before selling the house, but no, he saved a few bucks.
More steel pipes - grrrr.
Yes, those are the original pipes installed in the house when it was built in 1913 - man they were creative in routing pipes back then. They put a 90 degree bend between each joist.
When you look up negligent in the dictionary (did I spell that right?) you see this picture: new copper pipes stuck into steel pipes. Any plumber knows you need to put a plastic isolator between the two dissimilar metals to avoid the corrosion you see here, or better yet, replace the old galvanized pipe as we are doing now. This corrosion is significant, it stains the water in the sink and is filling the steel pipes with corrosion. This was done less than 5 years ago. A few bucks were saved then, which cost me thousands now. GGGGRRRRR!!!!!
You can't see it here, but they also reversed the hot and cold pipes - hey bubba, why's the hot cold and the cold hot?
Yes, that's a lovely access hole cut in our bedroom wall to sort out the plumbing hi-jinx in the bathroom. Nice!
Nice new pex plastic pipe replacing the galvanized - thank goodness for Mike the Plumber and crew!
More pex, so much neater!
Now to the basement - Bernie the general contractor ROCKS! Notice most of the pipes are now in the ceiling, fantastic smooth finish on the walls, great floor tile. This is the main room.
Looking back towards the stairs.
Wow - windows which keep the weather out - what a concept!
Ellen's dream since we bought our first house in Chicago - separate sinks in the laundry room for laundry and for Derrick's projects!
The laundry room, ready for new washer and dryer.
The new basement bathroom - check out the tile!
What an amazing transformation!