Completed Fireplace Surround

The fireplace surround is finished and installed.  What do you think?

More Fireplace surround constuction

Back view of the mantel

Sideview of back plate cleat

Cleat attached to wall

Fireplace surround underlying construction

Mantel and corbels being stained

Finishing in progress

So here’s the continuation of my earlier post on building the fireplace surround.   The pieces I haven’t covered yet are the corbels, the mantel, and how these pieces are mounted to the wall.

I drew a template of the corbel on paper and transferred it to a piece of pine.  I cut out the template with a jig saw and sanded the curves smooth.  Each corbel is glued up from three pieces of 1 inch red oak.

I cut equal sized blanks for each piece on the table saw and cut them to length on the miter saw.  I ripped all the pieces to width during one session on the table saw so the dimensions would be the same.  I set a stop on the miter saw stand so the length would be the same on each.

I traced the template on to each blank and rough cut the curves with a jig saw.  I then clamped the pine template to the blank and finished cutting the curve with a straight bit in my router.  It was a little time consuming, but it worked OK.  I thought using 1 inch oak would be easier than 3/4 inch because I would have fewer pieces to cut and glue up.  It turned out that 1 inch is just beyond the depth I could cut with my router and bit, so it came out a bit rougher than I would like.

I glued the pieces for the corbels together.  They are attached to the back plate with wood screws.  The back plate has 3 pieces of oak glued and screwed to it.  The top and bottom piece are to pushi it out from the wall to give it some more depth.

The middle piece is a cleat that attaches the corbels and back plate to the wall.  I cut one piece of oak at a 45 degree angle.  Once piece is attached with glue and screws to the back plate.  The other is screwed to the studs.  I used construction adhesive as well to provide additional bonding.

The matel is a box created with pocket screws.  Everthing is glued together.  It mounts to the wall by sliding over a piece of 2x ripped to slightly less than the opening on the back of the mantel and attached to the wall with lag bolts.

Here’s how it all goes together.  The leg on the left side of the fireplace goes on first.  Making sure it is plumb and level, it is attached to the two blocks of pine behind it.  Then the base is attached to the leg.

Next the corbel and back plate slide over the cleats and sit against the right leg.  Then the mantel slides over the block.  Once it is leveled, it is attached with wood screws through the top.  I tried several different ideas so that there wouldn’t be any exposed hardware, but this won’t really show.

Then the left leg and base are attached.

Installing Screen for Home Theater

When I was planning out the home theater, I was really torn on what size screen to get.  I had several sales people tell me that for my room, I should not go any larger than 90 to 100 inches.

So when I ordered my projector I was all set to order a 90 inch screen.  I was talking with the salesman from Projector People and placing my order.  I started asking him some questions about the screens and he asked me how I decided on the size.  I told him about the input I had received and he gave me his recommendation – wait.

His advice was to put the projector up and see what size image looked good in the room.  He said he had never had anyone call him back and say they thought they got too big a screen, but he had a number of customers regret not going larger.  The Panasonic projector I bought lets you adjust the image size from about 40 to 200 inches.  And it’s bright enough that the image didn’t look half bad just projected on the wall.

After about a  month I bought an AccuScreen 119inch fixed frame screen for $399 from Projector People.  The price was fantastic -  I had expected to spend around $1,000.  The size is good and was pretty close to the size we had projected on the bare wall.

Installation wasn’t too bad.  The frame easily connects and is held in place with screws.  The screen tension mounts over frame.  This was the piece I was most nervous about, but it was really pretty easy to get tight and flat.

The screen hangs on brackets.  I spent a bit of time getting it level.  Finally I ended up using a laser level to get a straight line across wall.  This  shouldn’t be required, but my wall was bowed some and the ceiling line varied a bit from side to side.

Hanging a flat screen TV

I bought a Panasonic Plasma TV to go over the fireplace in the basement.  I put it up this weekend with a a Sanus VMPL50 Universal Flat Panel Mount (about$75 at Amazon).  Here’s the steps I followed.

I set the TV on its stand on the floor and then mounted the brackets to the back of the TV.  The mount came with plenty of hardware choices and it had the screws I needed.    I then attached the wall mount to the brackets.   I placed a level on the top of the TV and measured from the top of the TV to the top of the wall mount.

I transferred this measurement to the wall and found that the wall bracket would hit the bottom of the electric outlet.   The mount is a universal one, so there is some room for adjustment.  I was able to move the mounts on the back of the TV down by about 1 inch, which gave me the clearance I needed.  I rechecked the measurements with the level and drew a level line on the wall to indicate the top of the wall mount.

I found the center of the studs over the fireplace.    I temporarily attached the wall mount with some wood screws.  I then drilled pilot holes for the lag bolts into the center of the studs.  When I was finishing the basement, I added some additional blocking in the wall, so I was able to secure the mount with six lag bolts (four are required).  This mount isn’t going anywhere – I could hang it.

Next it was time to put the TV on the wall.  This is definitely at least a two person job.  The top of the brackets mounted to the TV have a lip that catches the wall bracket.   Once both brackets were firmly on the wall bracket, I was able to move the TV laterally to center it.   Once in place, there is a safety screw in the bottom of the bracket to keep it in place.

This mount has a nice feature that lets you tilt the TV.  Each bracket has a tension knob that controls how much pressure is required to tilt the TV.   This is a nice feature -  some of the wall mount reviews I read said you had to take the TV down to adjust the tilt.  This would be a hassle.

Fireplace surround construction

I finally got around to buying a TV for the basement.  The blue tape about the mantle was used to get a feel for the TV size.    Since it’s going to be installed over the fireplace, I felt motivated (finally) to finish the fireplace surround.  Lots of sanding, stain, then poly.

Fireplace surround before finishing

Fireplace viewed from the right

Construction detail of base of leg on fireplace surround

Construction detail of leg of fireplace surround

I wanted to show a bit of the underlying construction before it gets permanently attached.  It’s built from red oak.  The legs on either side are three pieces of oak joined with pocket screws and glue.    At the top I added a band of flat trim with cove underneath it.  The base is made from three mitered pieces topped with cove.

I routed the cove trim from the same material so it would all match.  I used brads to attach the trim, but if I was to do it over, I’d do it all with glue.  The oak is really hard and I had some splits in the trim from using the nail gun.

The legs will be attached to the pine blocks screwed to the wall.    The hardware will be hidden at the bottom by the base and at the top I’ll attach it from the side facing the mantel.

More on constructing the corbels and mantel later.

Permit your renovation or not?

When we started renovation of the basement we struggled over whether or not to get a building permit from our county.  Why spend the money?  Would it be a signal for the county to increase our property taxes?  What would happen if we didn’t get the permit and we wanted to sell the house?  Are there implications with homeowners insurance?

We got all sorts of conflicting advice.  Some neighbor’s got the permit, others did not.  In the end, we decided to get a permit.  This was our reasoning:

- the additional cost of the permit was small relative to the overall project cost, about 2%.  In our county, the permit is based on the square footage and we have a relatively large basement (about 2000 square feet).

- the permit and the county inspections would make it a legal renovation.  There would be no implications when we went to sell the property and there would be no implications with the homeowners insurance.   You should check with your insurance agent to determine what is or is not covered in a basement renovation.  My understanding is that some below grade finishing can be excluded from things like water damage.  Your agent will also be able to adjust your insurance limits if needed.

- there is some leverage with contractors.  We made it clear that we were permitting the project and that inspections would be required.  Full payment would only be made after inspection passed.  We only used a few sub-contractors, but this turned out to be a great tool for vetting them.  There were a handful of subs who tried to talk us out of the permit.  I could only assume they were not going to do the work to code or they had something else to hide.  I passed on all of them.

- technically in our county if an unpermitted project is discovered, they can make you remove the project or enough of it to prove it has been done to code.  There would be no cost saving if I had to rip out drywall to prove electrical and plumbing were done correctly.

I was very intimidated by the inspection process at first, but it turned out not to be a big deal.  The inspectors were all very helpful and we got some great advice for free.  We found that our inspectors were very receptive about answering questions about how to do things correctly.

All of our inspections passed with no re-inspections.  We didn’t think too much of this until we went to get the certificate of occupancy and the clerk told us it was pretty unusual, so it turned out to be something we were proud of!

Finish trim on the basement stair landing

I finally got around to installing quarter round on landing on the basement stairs.  It looks much more finished now.  The quarter round is pine stained to match the stairs.

Basement landing with quarter round

Hiding the litter boxes

 

We have three cats and their litter boxes are in the basement.  One of the first basement renovation tasks we undertook was to enclose the litter boxes to keep them out of sight and keep the dust contained.

I considered a number of alternatives, but couldn’t find the right placement that didn’t waste space.  Finally I realized that I could build a small closet adjacent to the stair well. 

I created a small door for the cats from the stairwell.  A large double door is accessible from the storage room for cleaning (and hiding).    Future owners without pets could easily close the stairwell opening and use this as a storage closet.

Cat litter box closet

Doors hiding litter boxes

Kitchen and lighting updates

The last few weekends the basement project has been a lower priority than enjoying the home theater and pool table!  None the less a few small things did move forward.

The cabinet pulls finally came in after over a month of waiting.  I bought a plastic template to make the install easier, but the holes in the template didn’t align with the hardware.  I drilled holes in the template to match my pulls and the rest went pretty quickly once I overcame my fear of drilling into the new cabinets!

Lighting is now finished, yeah!  The lighting punch list included sconces for the home theater, a light for over the pool table, rope lighting for the top of the kitchen cabinets, and pendants over the bar.  The sconces and the pendants went in easily.  Getting the pool table light to hang level and the globes to align took a bit of persuasion.    I spent a couple of hours on this and it was pretty frustrating at times.  I had to gently bend the light fixture to get the globes to align nicely.

Rope lighting on top of the cabinets was pretty straightforward as I installed switched outlets during construction.   The only tricky part was that the cabinets have crown molding, which made installing the clips for the rope light difficult.  I gave up on the screws and used construction adhesive to attach the clips.  I let it dry for a few hours and it worked fine.

Opening up the basement with french doors

Our basement had a single metal door leading to the patio.  We attended a party where our hosts had installed french doors from their basement to their patio and we knew that was exactly what we wanted.   Here’s the original door:

Original basement door

Based on the architectural requirements of our homeowner’s association, we needed to align this door with the one on the first floor that leads to the deck.  To install the new door, here’s what needed to happen:

• the switches to the right needed to be relocated
• the pipes to the left of the door are overflow for the water heater pressure valve and water heater overflow pan.  Both needed to move.
• the structure needed to be reinforced.
• optionally, since I needed to remove siding to make these changes I decided to replace the black sheathing with plywood.  It’s probably not necessary, but I hate that stuff.  It’s non-structural and I hate the idea of cutting corners to save a few bucks.

Moving the pipes was relatively straightforward.  I turned the pipes into the next joist bay.  The copper pipes were dry fit and then sweated together.  The plastic pipe is CPVC which is slightly different than PVC and uses a different glue than PVC.    CPVC has a higher rating for hot water, which is probably why it was used for the overflow.  The electrical relocation was a little more involved because of the length of the wires and the continuation of the runs from this box to other junctions.  I had to pull new wires for a number of the connections, including a run from the panel box to these switches.

I needed to install a new header to support the structure across the wider door (60 inches).  Given the height of the door I had room for an 11 inch header.  I wanted to provide as much support as possible so I ripped three 2×12’s to an 11 inch width.  I sandwiched 1/2 inch plywood between the three 2x’s using construction adhesive and nails.

Before I removed the original header I built another wall for support using 2×6’s.  I nailed one 2×6 to the floor joists and another to the floor and  placed 2×6’s 16 inches on center to construct a wall.   Once I had the wall in place I nailed a 2×6 on either side of the wall to help keep it from bending.

Once the support wall was in place I removed the door, header, and siding and cut back the sheathing.  On each side of the header is one king stud and  two jack studs.  I put the header in place by myself and it was really heavy.  A helper would have been helpful.  The door was also really heavy.   A good sized neighbor and I had all we could do to lift it into place.   It took me a while to get it plumb and level.  Both doors are operable and swing in.   It lets in a lot of light and has come in really handy when we needed to move large objects into the house.

Finished Basement Door

Basement door installed Finished Basement Door