Now that everything is cleaned up, we went and updated the plumbing and electrics.

Every bathroom needs it’s own 20 Amp circuit, so the electrician ran a new wire down to the panel in the basement, and replaced all the wiring to the bathroom. We installed a new fan and light combination, which is ducted through the attic to the outside.

In renovations, things that aren’t planned for do happen. A defective fitting on one of the new shower valve stops leaked ..read more

My customer’s bathroom is now gutted, but the cleanup is far from over. While the gutting crew was amazing, cleaning up is a lot of work. They aren’t too careful on de-nailing, so that ‘s the first thing to do. It’s not fun to keep getting caught on old nails and pieces of old wire lath. This bathroom tile was an old mud job, so there were little shirt and hand ripping remnants of wire lath left behind. The mud ..read more

We just gutted a bathroom for a customer that I’ve been working for since my son was a baby- and he’s 36 now with 2 children of his own! This bathroom was probably original to the house, but the owners are very neat and everything was in amazingly good shape after 60 years or so! The tile was starting to crack in the bathtub area, and the whole bathroom, while very clean and tidy, needed an update. When I worked at ..read more

Have you had a lot of main drain stoppages? Had bad backups at inconvenient times? It may be that you have a house trap on your main drain line. These were commonly installed for many years, ending probably 40 years ago. They are illegal to install now, probably because they impede the flow of waste out to the sewer. Many of our customers have had us remove them.

Some house traps, like the one we just removed, are under the cellar ..read more

Recently I had the great privilege of working for a client that wanted to preserve an existing vapor system.  This was in spite of the fact that they are planning on raising the roof and adding a small addition to their kitchen – a perfect time to modernize the heating system. They hadn’t moved into the house yet, and it was the winter, so they wanted to get some heat going so they could spend time there working and planning.

I ..read more

It’s time to do your spring cleaning! At least it will be in the next few weeks. While “washing walls and waxing floors” (does any one really still wax their floors?) floors, you should remember to clean your plumbing as well. You can use a simple cleaner such as white vinegar to do it.

In your kitchen, you can clean your dishwasher by running a load with only white vinegar and water , or you can buy cleaning products for the ..read more

I was just going to a call and drove past a large house that we had done a 2 pipe steam to hot water conversion. That house had over 25 radiators. It occurred to me that a lot of people may not know that this is even possible. If more people knew about the possibility they would consider it. Can any two pipe system be converted?  That’s a firm maybe.

One of the best things about converting a large house, and ..read more

We just finished replacing a steam boiler in a three condo building.  The old boiler, which was only 9 years old, was a 12 section boiler with only a 2 inch header. There was also a return pipe that was just a little bit higher than the boiler water line.  The 12 section cracked and was leaking water and steam, but even before the crack they had been contacted by the gas company because of their excessive gas use.

When replacing ..read more

We are now working very closely with Mary Regan of Wayside Kitchens on the design of our kitchen and bathroom cabinets. With the variety of cabinet vendors they carry, we’re sure to find a suitable style to fit your taste. Mary and I collaborate on the kitchen layouts. I have been working in houses all my life, plus I do most of the cooking at home,  so I have a real world idea of what works and how the work ..read more

In the last installment, we had all of the in the wall,  or behind the scenes stuff completed. Now we start on hiding all the most expensive work!

In most cases, we will install blueboard, which is just sheetrock that has been designed as a base to stick a smooth coat of finish or veneer plaster to.  We do this for several reasons. One, it makes a nice smooth finish for the painter. While the painter will still probably have to ..read more