Back in October or November I had an allergy test done and found out I’m allergic to certain molds and dust mites. Like pricked with the sample and before they finished all the other stuff, I was reacting. This news made me decide to remove the carpet out of mu office. The idea being that I could work on the bare floor until I decided what exactly I wanted to do. So I removed the carpet. The next morning there was a very strong musty smell. I also noticed a weird spot on the wall where the molding was bulging out. This is the same area where we had the leak early February (last year).
So I cut out the drywall to have a peek inside. Then I ended up having to cut more drywall because I needed to follow where it was coming from. I was also not very happy.
So I did what any sane person would do. I know, I’m surprised as well. I covered it with plastic mad a call to a remediator, and moved my stuff upstairs so I wouldn’t be in the mold room.
The remediator came by and stated they couldn’t do anything as it was still an active leak. So we needed to hire a contractor to find the leak and replace the sheathing. This was the first week of December. So I signed up for Angie, used to be Angies list. I do not recommend this method. I specifically filtered so that we would only have local businesses, like based here only, or mom and pop llcs. Not national companies. We still got hammered with calls up and down I5, OR CA. also NV, TX one from FL. We managed to get 3 companies scheduled. The first one stated they wanted aprox $13,000.00 per week paid up front and no idea how long it would take, but at least 3 weeks. This was just to find and fix the leak, so no go on that one. The next one suggested just stripping the whole side fixing anything we see and making certain everything is water tight again. He suggested we contact insurance, and on further discussion we asked for a bid for the one wall, as well as to just do the whole outside of the house. He said he’s have a bid in a week. A week later he stated he was still working on it (he had mentioned he was backed up). The third guy basically was just someone to come out and look at the job, didn’t seem like he really knew what he was dong and had to get with the foreman, then would send a bid.
We did not get any bids, nor any further communication. (the second guy did send an email today apologizing for losing track of our job, then recommended one of their subcontractors.) I January we thought we had another guy to either do the side, or the whole house, but that ended up falling through due to a crew shortage. He at least let us know he wasn’t going to even be able to get to the bid. He was however very through in going around the house. He looked at all the issues. Took a crap ton of notes and measurements. and at one point he toughed the window weephole and a cup of water came pouring out.
ever since everything started drying out. weather the leak was from the window and a backed up weephole, or something else we do not know. We also haven’t had the torrential downpouring of rain since. Since everything started drying out, I decided to start to ‘kill’ the mold. This way I would know if it spread, or renewed.
So as it stands, the sill needs to be replaced, and the sheathing needs to replaced because both are rotted.
We currently have an appointment with a local remodel company to do the whole architectural design exterior remodel we’ve talked about doing for the last few years. If we’re goin to have to take out a home improvement loan, might as well have them do it all now, and correctly. This is going to be a year long process.
Since I was already moved out of the room, we decided now would be a good time to look at doing better soundproofing so Melissa isn’t hearing me at all, and vice versa. It also seemed like a good time to experiment with the room lighting. I am not too picky on mine, during the day I typically only have a desk lamp on, but when I m working on something, it would be nice to have a lot more light in my office. Since her office design consists of installing recessed lighting, we used my office as a test as to how to go about it. Since the room was already wired for in ceiling speakers, I decided to get that done as well.
So I tore the drywall off the wall between my room and the hallway. Her room is on the opposite side off the hall, and her door is offset.
Once this was opened up, and I could poke my head into the ceiling cavities where the speakers were going to go we could see just how open it all was. Everything is built with manufactured I joists and 1/2 inch lightweight drywall. Sigh. no wonder we can hear each other. Since it was all opened up, we took the opportunity to hardwire a few extra network lines in the room, an additional line into the hallway ceiling for a future additional wireless access point, as well as enough extra wire for an additional run through Melissa’s office for an additional hardwired security camera. We also discovered that ceiling speaker are better with boxes to help prevent bleed though into our bedroom upstairs, as well as to get better sound. So I made my ceiling into a church ceiling. It’s holy.
I also ended up rerunning the speaker wires from the server closet to the wall junction as the ones the former homeowner installed had nearly completely oxidized, and were sticky. I suspect they used a line lube when they pulled and it was absorbed by the cheap wire casing.
All the wire run, I sealed everything in the wall as best I could
and installed sound batting insulation. I went with rockwool mostly because I never played with it before, and Fiberglass really bothers me.
We also decided it was probably worth the extra expense to get acoustic drywall, instead of double layering. I didn’t want to mess with custom door jambs and things. So we rented a U-Haul intent on heading to Puyallup to pick up 4 sheets. The supplier, was closed for inventory, so we ended up going up to Kent. with the added mileage, and the fact that the prices are increasing due to supply issues, we deemed it a good idea to get what wee need for my room, as well as what we need for Melissa’s room when we are ready to do that one. since she’s going to have two walls to do, we ended up buying 12 sheets. They are 90 lbs each. The U-Haul rode a LOT nicer after it was loaded down. For the record, and this may go without saying, but… regular drywall is way easier to install by yourself. I really have to thank Tom Silva and Kevin O’Conner of This Old House for their extremely helpful and simple video on Ask This Old House of transferring electrical box measurements. On the panel with three boxes, I was only off by 1/16 on one edge. If I was using regular drywall, it probably wouldn’t have been an issue. As it is the poor stud spacing made it so I only had two options to install the drywall that didn’t waste two full sheets. I chose the less taping of the two. It is going to be a bit harder, but I can deal with it.
Next I reworked the speaker boxes. I used double layer MDF, some scraps from the acoustic drywall, and a roll of fiberglass. The fiberglass was going to be mush less messy over head. The boxes weigh approximately 50 lbs.
It certainly has helped with the sound quality. They sound way better than I expected they would. I am only using a little HiFiBerry2 chip amp, and I really do not feel the need for a subwoofer in the room. The boxes reduced the sound transmission in our bedroom from 40db when I played at moderate volume in my office down, to the mid 20s to low 30s at higher volume. The only real issue is that our noise floor is right around there or under. Like, in the bedroom you can hear the clock clicking, and your breathing, louder than the speakers, but because there is no other noise, you still hear the speakers. This is rarely going to be an issue, one day when we redo the flooring in the room, I’ll lay 2lb mass loaded vinyl and that will knock out the rest of it all.
Sometime when everything started drying out, the smell in the room also dissipated. We thing the smell was actually water in the crawlspace. So in prep for the new flooring, I leveled the cheap chipboard flooring and sealed the gaps. Between this and new underlayment, I shouldn’t have an issue. I had checked the crawlspace ad found no mold, just the peaty soil smell. We had been getting a lot lot of rain. At this point, since we know it is going to be a while before we can get the exterior wall fixed, I have moved back into the office. I’ll tape and paint after that is all done. For now we added some things so I do not sound like I’m working in an echo chamber.
