Green and Efficient Renovation, in Mpls and St. Paul » DIY

Clean air in your home

Meshach — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:53:09 +0000

I’ve noticed that I get headaches and stuffed up these past few years, except in summer, when the windows are open. I thought my previous house was clean but recently I have found otherwise. First, Dan at Stafford Home Service advised me to get a larger (wider?) whole-house air filter, then he installed a UV bulb. This has made a pretty significant difference. Although I had previously had an electrostatic filter, he did not see the benefit, especially considering the price (always nice to know a contractor who is trying to get you better service and a better budget!) One of the other things we did was to install the returns in the attic. This has had to significant benefits, one, it created more space in the basement, two, the returns are not sucking up the dirt along the floor. This is something I observed myself, and I’m pretty happy Stafford recommend it.

I also started using a Roomba. This has made a huge difference as well. A huge difference! I can;t say how awesome these little guys are! And my house is a lot less dusty! It’s also an incentive to keep the floor clear as I know Roomba will be doing the cleaning for me. Awesome!

Ecobee smart thermostat installed

Meshach — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:41:47 +0000

After reading about the Ecobee Smart Thermostat, and it’s cool green technology and remote control abilities (iPhone and iPad control!) I ordered one online. Dan at Stafford Home Service installed it in less then an hour. The guys at Stafford were already pretty knowledgable about the ecobee and were more then willing to help. Dan was excited that I was looking at green, cutting-edge technology. If you ever have any questions about anything in this area, give him a call.

I love how I can access the eco thermostat from my iPhone and iPad. It allows me to keep the heat low and then turn it up on my way home! Awesome! It also shows me realtime weather reports and has an algorithm that automatically automates my settings and helps me use less energy. The calendar is incredible as is the web portal (you can take a look from your office, or change your settings while on vacation).

Here’s a quick video we made (it’s a little rough, but we did it on a whim):

Features include:

Program

The Program button shows you how your thermostat is currently programmed. The program Wizard function lets you easily create a basic program for your thermostat. The Editor function helps you create more advanced programming.

Details

The Details button gives you access to all of your heating and cooling settings. You can scroll lists by dragging your finger across the screen to see the full range of options.

Alerts

Let your ecobee Smart Thermostat alert you if there is a problem with your system. You can also send custom messages from your web portal to people at home.

Quick Save

Quick Save works just like a light switch. Touch the Quick Save button and your thermostat will automatically set your system to conserve energy and save you money, making it easy to run an energy efficient house.

Weather

The Weather button provides you with the latest weather forecasts for your area.

Remote Access

The WiFi enabled Smart Thermostat offers you remote access allowing you to control your HVAC system from anywhere at any time with no additional monthly or annual fees. You can control your HVAC system through your secure, personal web portal anywhere there is an Internet connection. Or, download the ecobee Smart Thermostat iPhone and iPod Touch app free of charge from the iTunes store.

Reports

Reports is a tool that gives you the ability to track the performance of your HVAC system. It will show you the performance over a 3 day period or of any day since the thermostat was installed.

Access to reports allows you to understand:

How your indoor temperature and humidity vary
How quickly your heating or cooling system can recover from a setback
How long your system has to run to maintain the temperature in your home
How the outdoor weather affects your heating and cooling

Reports gives you greater control over your HVAC system and home comfort.

Basement concrete patching

Meshach — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 02:43:37 +0000

After taking out the chimney and old furnace room we found the floor, bashed up a bit, with holes as well as not-so-flat. The original furnace must have been put in before the concrete floor, as there was a pad that had clearly been wet when the furnace was dropped in and the floor sloped away from this in all directions. Me, being a fanatic about level floors and straight lines, could not possible just cover this up. So, we went at it. like last time, I rented an electric mixer, which is a god-send. Don’t do it without one! This time I also rented an electric hammer (jackhammer), to see if I could make the job easy enough on the body that I might be able to avoid feeling like one of those guys from Cool Hand Luke. I got together two of my friends (who have helped so many times) and my ever-trusty girlfriend (who does as much work as we do and manages to always look good doing it) and we hammered away.

Before I turned on the jack, my friend stood back. We thought all hell would break loose as the jack hammered the old floor into rubble. We thought the very foundation would shake and we would have trouble staying upright. Well, it turns out to be quite a bit mellower then that. It may have been the fact that the concrete floor was 4-5″ thick, it may have been that there was more Portland cement in the original mix then a sane man would specify. Whatever the reason, the floor barely budged. After a few hours of trial and error, I started to get the hang of it, with the last hour cruising by. Needless to say, it was not a walk in the park, but it was better then just using an 8LB hammer like the first time (I felt like I was going to die from strain.) After 6 hours we had a 12′ diameter hole. That was enough for one day.

The next day my girlfriend and I laid down some foam (for a little insulation) and 17 bags of sand mix cement. That’s over 1,200lbs of concrete. It took us 6.5 hours. And man is laying concrete hard (especially when you care about how flat it is. One thing I learned was that sand mix can be easily smoothed out when dry, so about 1.5 hours of back-breaking work perfecting the skimming was wasted time. Live and learn.

Basement bathroom addition

Meshach — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:15:16 +0000

I decided to add a bathroom to the basement to better utilize the space. Stinson Builders of Minneapolis came in today and put in the framing. It looks fantastic. I decided to go with a full bath, with bathtub, so I could take out the bathtub in the 1st floor and put a walk-in shower in its place. Removing the bathtub with no replacement not only robs you of the chance to soak those weary bones it also comes at the expense of resale value. People like bathtubs around for ankle biters and dogs, which also occasionally bite ankles.

Concrete patching in basement

Meshach — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:23:53 +0000

We dug up a 49′ x 2′ trench along two walls last weekend for the plumber. This weekend we patched it. It was way more work then I thought it would be. Here’s what I learned:

Use sand mix. Some places do not sell this and will try to sell you morter mix if you ask for sand mix. Don’t do it. The sand mix is the ideal thing for the small cracks in the existing concrete floor and the 1-2″ depth.
I didn’t use a bonding agent and it looks fine. To better seal the new concrete to the old, the concrete guys recommend mixing this in.
Get a mixer! I rented an electric mixer that we brought right into the basement. It was $40 for the day and worth every penny. Mixing concrete is hard work!
Follow the instructions and then test it, for each batch, before using. Batch to batch inconsistencies make for necessary testing.
The wetter the mix, within reason, the harder it sets and the longer it takes.
Rent, or buy tools. Get a rough trowel and a smooth. To go more quickly, get a few more rough trowels and have multiple people going at it at once. It’s tough for more then one, possibly two, working on the finish trowel.
Expect to be very sore. Icing a floor with stone frosting is hard work! That and you are hunched over for hours. Stretch when you are done and drink water!
Wear gloves and masks. It’s dusty work.
It took four of us 7 hours. We were all rookies though.

Good luck!