DRAWINGS AND DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS HELP YOU AVOID REMODELING NIGHTMARES

the home three years before, and Dr. Larsen and his wife trusted me. Little did they know, I had no clue how to build the three simple walls needed for the small new bathroom.

By Tim Carter

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DIo you want to build a new wall inside your home? Perhaps you're trying to create a new small space for a home office or hobby room, or maybe you have a bigger appetite and are transforming a dank basement into a finished living space. But you have no idea where to start. I've been there. I've experienced your anxiety.

’d like to share a story with you. This saga transpired over the past six weeks, and I feel it contains a valuable lesson that could save you thousands of dollars, allow you to sleep at night, and go to dinner with your remodeling contractor at the end of the job.

Weeks ago, a woman who lives in Ontario, Canada, purchased one of my short phone call consultations. She was upset about a new exterior door that was installed in the basement of her home. She called to ask me if it looked OK or if she was just being too persnickety.

I survived with the help of a few phone calls to my boss. It was a humbling experience as I discovered you don't know what

You can't always do this in an existing home, especially if the ceilings in the room are finished with drywall or plaster. As you tilt the wall up, it binds against the ceiling. If you're challenged by a finished ceiling, you'll most likely have to install your top and bottom plates, making sure the plates are outside, and that was also above the basement floor. I couldn’t tell if the patio was sloped away from the house so as to direct water away from the basement.

Building a new interior wall in an existing house can be much different from doing it on a new home job site. When we carpenters build a wall for a new home, we typically build it flat on the floor.

Every now and then it's interesting to go back in time. I clearly remember having to build my first partition wall inside a house. I was a soaking wet-behind-theears carpenter working for a small remodeling company. One of my college professors, Dr. Larsen, had asked me to install a half bathroom in his home. I had no idea what to do, so I told him that my boss could do the job.

As I always do, I asked her to send me as many photographs as possible so I could get a handle on the situation. Fortunately, she sent great ones that allowed me to see every aspect of the job.

This job was very complex. The homeowner had decided to build a new patio beneath a deck. The basement of the house was only partially below grade, and the door was installed in the exterior wall in the basement under the outdoor deck.

Once the simple plans were drawn and the contract signed, I was sent to my professor's house to start the job. I had painted the outside of

To make the whole scheme work, the contractor had to excavate the ground beneath the deck to be able to install the patio. This patio extended to the columns supporting the outer edge of the deck. The contractor may or may not have known this, but the footing piers under these columns would have to be sunk lower into the ground, as they no longer would have enough soil cover to protect against frost heave.

I immediately saw a grave error in one of the photographs. The contractor had cut a notch in the house foundation to accommodate the new door. But the top of the notch was 6 inches above the basement floor!

Other photos indicated that he had already installed the new patio you don't know. Keep in mind this was decades before the Internet and YouTube. You have no idea what an advantage you now have when you have to educate yourself about how to repair and build things around your home. Count your blessings!

The notch in the foundation was not wide enough. This meant it was impossible to position the door far enough back in the wall in line with the wall framing that sat on top of the foundation wall.

"... should have had superb drawings showing exactly how everything was to be installed. There should have been detailed and crystal-clear written �����tions. " plumb in the same plane. You'll then cut each wall stud to fit snugly between the plates and toenail them in place. Drill angled pilot holes in the ends of the wall studs for the nails. Use no less than 3-inch-long 16d sinker nails to connect the wall studs to the plates.

Building a new interior wall in an existing house can be much different from doing it on a new home job site. When we carpenters build a wall for a new home, we typically build it flat on the floor. Once all the studs are nailed to the bottom and top plates, we tilt the wall up and secure it so it doesn't fall over.

But it gets worse. The contractor had not created a slope on the horizontal part of the notch in the foundation. This slope is necessary to shed water away from the underside of the door threshold. Without this slope, there is a very good chance water will leak into the basement under the threshold.

I told the distraught woman that I could make a simple color drawing showing exactly where the door frame should be in relation to the exterior of the concrete foundation and the existing wood-frame exterior wall. I also sent her several links to great illustrations and cross sections that I found on the websites of leading manufacturers of exterior doors.

Furthermore, I sent her links to several YouTube videos, including one of mine, that showed how to install a new exterior door in an existing wall. I believe she watched them, but it’s possible she didn’t comprehend all the information.

The good news is that she is still in possession of well over $30,000. I told her under NO circumstances to release another dollar to the contractor until the door is installed correctly. She followed this advice.

But just a week ago she texted me to say that the contractor was putting all sorts of pressure on her to pay him a large sum of money, even though nothing had been done to correct the door installation.

This woman also got a call from the contractor’s family divorce lawyer demanding money from her. Can you believe that? You might now understand why the contractor was trying to get his hands on money.

The bad news is that the woman told me she was about to hire an attorney to sue the contractor. I told her in no uncertain terms NOT to hire a lawyer.

If there is no ceiling, you can tilt the wall up so long as you orient the wall in the same direction as the floor joists above. You simply make sure the top of the wall rises up in between two parallel floor joists. Once the wall is vertical, you can then slide it into position under opening you My your it at rough measurements Measure of the where attached the door. measurement. of your much frame the door. be trimming when you want between the top You height just the factory Trust install drywall gap between and the ©2021 Content

The simple reason is you have better odds of winning at blackjack in Las Vegas than winning a judgment against a contractor and getting paid. First and foremost, we already know this contractor has no money!

How could all of this been avoided? The woman should have had superb drawings showing exactly how everything was to be installed. There should have been detailed and crystalclear written specifications. She should have then talked to the general manager of the best traditional lumberyard in her city to find out the names of the contractors the GM would use to remodel his house!