Saturday I finished the wiring behind the flat screen.  I replaced the standard outlet with one from Panamax that is recessed and has surge protection.  I also ran component and HDMI wires through the wall.

Saturday I took a class on Table Saw basics.  I’ve been looking for a woodworking class and found that a hardware store in Atlanta, Highland Woodworking, offers a wide variety of classes.

Driving into class on Saturday I was a bit anxious.  Would this class be worth giving up my Saturday for?  Would the instructor be knowledgeable?  I’ve gone to classes (in subjects other than woodworking) where I have known more than the instructor or the material was so basic that it was a waste of time.

It was an awesome class.   I’ve been using a table saw for a few years on some pretty basic projects, but I learned plenty.  Jim Dillion, a local professional woodworker and a former college professor, led the class.  Jim spent a good deal of time on safety and technique, which I was really interested in learning about.  He was also great at gearing the day toward areas the students were interested in.  The five hours I spent in the class will save me tons of time on my next project.  As well I will be a lot more conscious of safety – and I already give power tools a good bit of respect.

The class inspired me to learn more about my own table saw in order to produce better work.  I don’t have a high end tool shop – my table saw is a Craftsman homeowners model that is pretty basic (compared to the higher end saws).

So today I spent some time with the saw cleaning and adjusting a bit.  I cleaned and waxed the table.  I also lubricated the worm gears for adjusting blade height and angle.  I checked my blade for square against the table and found I have some adjusting to do.

So I think I’ll spend a bit of time in the evening this week cleaning and adjusting.  Then it’s on to building some of the great jigs Jim introduced to us this week.  I’m going to start with the cross cut sled and then build a high fence.

The class was well worth the $75.  I’ll be back for more classes.

The carpet in a large first floor closet needed to be replaced.  I was looking for a relatively inexpensive floor covering that would be durable and easy to clean.

I found an engineered hardwood that matched the color of the hardwood in the rest of the house for $1.89 square foot.  The closet is just over 60 square feet, so with waste I figured we needed about 70 square feet.  The hardwood is sold in packages of 30 square feet, so I needed to get 3 packages. I’ll use the left over in some of our other closets.  For some reason all the closets in the house have carpet in them regardless of what flooring is in the room.

In one evening I removed the old carpet.  This is pretty easy to do if you have new blade in your utility knife.  Just cut strips in widths that are easy to handle and roll it up.  A small pry bar is useful for taking out the carpet tack strips.   I found that just running the pry bar over  the staples from the padding removes most of them as well.

Before installing the wood I put down some red rosin paper.  Honestly, I’m not exactly sure it is necessary, but I’ve done it in previous installs and they all went well, so superstition wins out.  The flooring is 3/8 inch thick and can either be nailed down or glued down.  I’ve installed hardwood with flooring staples before, but never glue. 

I really wanted to avoid the glue if possible.  I’ve done some tiling and I know that no matter how hard you try, it gets all over.  I usually spend a fair bit of time on hardwood making sure all the seams are tight.   I couldn’t quite picture how the planks would stay in place on the glue while I tapped the rest of the floor in place.  I image you still need to face nail the starter strip to keep everything in place.

I installed the floor using just 1 1/4 inch brads.  I could have rented a stapler but it’s a small area and the flooring sales person said I could float the floor in a space this small, so I figure it wouldn’t do any harm. 

Steps I followed for this install:

1. Remove carpet, padding and tack strips.
2. Cut molding and door jamb as necessary to allow the flooring to slide under it.  Don’t worry about the baseboard, because you need to leave room for expansion and you will cover it with quarter round after.
3. Staple down red rosin paper.
4. Create your starter strip.  Leave a space between the baseboard and the starter strip ( for me this was 1/4 inch).  I set an adjustable square to the width of my flooring plus the space to ensure an even distance from the baseboard.  There will likely be some variation in baseboard and wall, but don’t sweat it as long as it is not wider than the quarter round.
5. Face nail (through the top of the board) the starter strip into place.  I try to place the nails close to the edge of the board so it will be covered by the trim.  Don’t go too close as you don’t want to split the board.  Any holes that show can be filled with color matched putty later.
6.  A couple of tips on layout.  If you have multiple boxes of flooring, pull from more than one box at a time.  There can be some natural color and grain variation and it looks better if it is mixed across the floor.  Also, try laying out a few rows in advance.   Use a mix of long and short strips and arrange your strips so that the end joints are offset by 3 to 6 inches.  Avoid repeating the same pattern of seams within 3 or 4 rows of each other.  If you have a helper to lay out in advance and figure out the seams, it will go much quicker.   Set aside any planks that are damaged or less visually appealing.  You can use these in less visible areas if needed.
7. Start installing!  I use a scrap piece of flooring as a hammer block to tightly align the seams.  The scrap block incurs all the damage while preserving the tongue on the installed pieces.   Once the piece is in place, nail it in.  You can rent a flooring stapler for this purpose.  It drives a staple at an angle through the tongue of the board.  For my install I carefully used an air powered brad nailer to shoot a brad at an angle through the tongue.
8. When you reach the end of a row, you will likely need to cut a piece to length.  When measuring, account for the space at the wall.  Remember to pay attention to which end you cut to make sure the tongue and grooves align.  I save the pieces I cut for potential starter pieces for the next row.  To get the end joints tight, I place a small pry bar against the end of the plank and the baseboard and push it into place.  Use gentle pressure or put a scrap of flooring on the baseboard so it isn’t damaged.
9. Work you way the the opposite wall.  When you get to the last row, you will likely need to rip the planks to width.  I use a table saw, but I suppose you could do it with a jig saw or circular saw.  I use a pry bar placed against scrap wood on the baseboard to fit the last rows of flooring into place.   The last row is face nailed just like the first row.
10. Install trim moldings.  I like to use quarter round, but shoe molding works as well. 

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Whoever was in charge of silencing squeaky hinges when our house was built must have had a ready supply of dry graphite.  Every door in the place was lubed with it.  If you love the look of fine black dust on your doors, hinges, moldings and floors then graphite is your product.  Otherwise, I would try to avoid it.

Once the graphite is on the hinges, it’s tough to get rid of.  My neighbor went so far as to replace all the hinges on all his doors.    Here’s my solution.   This takes a while, but be patient.  If you don’t get the graphite out, you’ll end up doing it again.  I’ve found that attacking one room at a time works pretty well and I usually try to do it before I paint the room.

Arm yourself with some rags, rubbing alcohol, q-tips and vinyl gloves.  A hammer and a nail set works well for removing the hinge pins.  I found it easiest to pour the rubbing alcohol into a disposable container to avoid contaminating the whole bottle.

Warning – if you rub latex paint repeatedly with a rag soaked with rubbing alcohol, it will remove some of the paint, so be prepared to do touch up.

Place a drop cloth or a newspaper below the hinges to catch any graphite dust.    Put on a pair of vinyl gloves and wet a rag with rubbing alcohol.    Wipe down the hinges with the rag and remove the hinge pins using the hammer and nail set.  Remove the door and clean the hinges and hinge pins with rubbing alcohol.   The q-tips work well for getting inside the hinges.

Once the hinges and pins are thoroughly clean, lubricate them.  I have found Liquid Wrench Lubricant to work well.  I wipe a small amount on all the metal parts that will touch and then put some on the pins before reinstalling.

Once everything is back together, use a dry cloth to remove any excess lubricant from the hinges.  Any graphite  remaining on the door or moldings can be removed with a rag and rubbing alcohol.