Nuts n Bolts - Hardwiring IKEA Lighting

It's been a while since Kerry shared with you our new "master" bedroom (it's really not very "master-ful"). Today, I wanted to share with you how to hardwire some basic IKEA wall scones, that are meant to be plugged into an outlet.


One of the projects that Kerry was pretty certain she wanted in our bedroom, and I wasn't fully on board with at first, was hardwiring lamps over our built-in nightstands. Of course, after I got it finished, I remembered why she's the designer. What we started off with was two ARSTID wall lamps from IKEA. 

First things first, I opened up one of the packages and examined the 'base' of the light to determine the best route for modification for hardwiring. I found that in order to access the wires the back cover plate needed to be removed from the base by taking the two screws out on either side of the fixture. 

Once the back plate was off, I cut the plug end off in order to pull the wire through the hole on the bottom of the fixure.

After the chord was out of it's designated hole, I pulled the plastic wire guard out and put it aside for a minute.

I used a 5/16" drill bit to put a hole into the back cover plate.  Be careful, the plate will want to spin around once the bit catches. I used the hammer to hold the plate in place. Pliers probably would have worked better, but that was all that I had up in the room with me at the time.  I also drilled it onto a scrap piece of wood so I didn't end up putting a hole in the floor.

Once the hole was drilled, I placed the re-used wire guard in the new hole.  It's important to put this piece in place as the new hole will have metal burs on it that could cut into the wire as you pull it through, so this will protect your wire.

Take a look at the wires in the back of the fixture and take note of the black wire, this is your hot wire. You will need to take a marker and put a mark on the end of that wire where you cut the plug off, so that you know which wire is the hot one when connecting it to your power source.

Once my wires were marked, I drilled a hole in the wall where we wanted to place the fixture. I then used the plate to mark on our wall where I needed to drill for the drywall anchors.  Then Kerry got busy drilling the holes and I got the anchors in place.

 

Next, I ran the wire through the hole I had already drilled in the back plate... 

... then fed the wire into the wall and to our power source (in our case, we used existing outlets).

I was careful to make sure that before connecting anything that our power was off! This is an absolute must to avoid potential electrocution. 

Once I was certain our power was off, I took the end of the wire and stripped the two ends of the chord, and connected the hot wire to the top gold screw (on the left) and the white (neutral) wire to the top silver screw, on the right. Outlets will be labeled with which side your hot and white wires should be connected to.   

If you are unfamiliar with wiring, it might not hurt to do some googling on how to properly wire up an outlet.  Typically the power comes into an outlet on the bottom of the outlet and if it is in a series, the upper screws provide power to the next outlet or in this case the light. 

Once the wire is connected feed the rest of the wire through the wall and mount the plate to the wall with the previously installed drywall anchors. 

Re-attach the fixtue to the plate with the two scews on either side, place a bulb inside the fixture and turn the power back on.

 

This may seem like an intimidating venture, but it really is pretty simple. If you are uncomfortable with electricity then this probably isn't for you. However if you know you're basic wiring, you should be good to go.


So, are you up for hardwiring some IKEA lights yourself? Anything I missed that you want to ask?

Nuts N' Bolts: Guess-timating 101

After another blogging hiatus, I'm back and with some content that can hopefully be useful to each and everyone one of you. 


Having a solid background in construction has given me the 'privilege' of working on many different types and sizes of estimates over the years, including some as large as $25M. No matter how big or small the jobs have been, there always seems to be a common thread when it comes time to actually build the project. Something was always missed or overlooked. There are three things that are certain in life for an estimator, taxes, death and missed items in a job estimate. The name guess-timate was developed by my fellow field personel who would receive the budget and often discover those 'hidden jewels' that the estimating department had ignored.


When you sit down to begin your latest project/renovation on your house you NEED to put together an estimate. I always get a good laugh out of shows like Property Ladder when you hear these lavish plans with limited time frames and minuscule budgets. Immediately I know that one of three things is true 
1) They have never thought about actual costs or time frames in an estimate 
2) They are construction virgins 
3) Maybe they're just plain delusional.


I must admit that I was guilty, when we attacked the basement, of just flying by the seat of our pants. Since it was a "spur of the moment" renovation, we neglected to put together an estimate or even a definite plan. Although we were very cost conscious of the things we put into the basement, we were just trying to get it finished quickly in order to qualify for the tax rebate incentives available at the time. Now having put that out in the open, if I had to do it again I most certainly would have writen up an estimate and developed a budget for my plan although it was constantly changing throughout the construction process.


The estimate will give you a quantity of items that you need in order to complete the project, which you can then take with you to the building center to compile your costs. These costs are what will create your budget.


The biggest difference between putting a budget together for a say a new addition vs. a renovation of a bathroom, is the amount of contingency you want to include. Contingency is a line item or percentage used towards the grand total to help cover any screw ups or omissions in your estimate. When doing a renovation your contingency should be higher because your unknowns are increased. Who knows what lurks behind that old drywall or plaster? My basic #1 rule for estimating is if you're unsure, round UP! Its better to have a few extra pieces that can probably be returned, than be short a few screws and scrambling back to the store to finish the job, it will save you a lot of time and frustration.


Construction can seem like a complicated process but if you break it down by its divisions its really basic. It is typically divided into the following 16 divisions: 1 -General Requirements 2 -Sitework 3 -Concrete 4 -Masonry 5 -Metals 6 -Woods and Plastics 7 -Moisture Protection 8 -Doors and Windows 9 -Finishes 10 -Specialties 11 -Equipment 12 -Furnishings 13 -Special Construction 14 -Conveying Systems 15 -Mechanical 16 -Electrical. Categories 10-14 are not used as often in a residential application but its helpful to know these things if say you wanted to put a decorative spire on your new addition, it would fall into the Specialties category.


If you take these categories and start at #1 and ask yourself how is this project going to start? Is there going to be any demolition? How will I dispose of it? How will I deal with the dust? It is helpful to write down any and all questions and run it by a friend or significant other (hopefully someone with some experience in construction) so that they can elaborate on your questions which will lead you to a proper work plan which will help develop your estimate.


I will list our budget below by category and then do a follow up post with the actual costs and you can see where I made my wins and losses.

I didn't add in any contingency as a line item but I did round up on most items and was very conservative in my lump sum items. I was also fortunate to have leftovers from the basement such as drywall and vapor barrier which equated to zero cost for me. Since I will also be doing all the labor work myself and with a few helpers those costs will be limited to cost of beer and meals.


Be sure to check back in a few weeks to see how my guess-timate compares to the actual costs we have incurred so far. I hope this gives you a good starting point of how to get started on a budget. Feel free to ask any questions! Estimating and putting together a budget can be very time consuming and boring but it's essential to a successful project!

Nuts 'N Bolts - Going Tankless

Back again with another edition of Nuts 'N Bolts. Today, I'm talking about Tankless Water heaters and why we decided that getting one was the right choice for us.


Much like going ductless, going tankless can help lower your monthly bills and make your home a little greener. When Kerry and I began discussing opening up some more space in the basement we were throwing around the option of getting a tankless water heater in addition to removing the furnace. Thus opening up what used to be the former utility room and creating more usable space in the basement. 

We did our research and discovered that many of the companies, who sell tankless units, will also rent them to you and install them for FREE. After making some calls and finding the most favorable monthly rental fee, I set up an appointment for a consultation. Following our meeting I had to take a day off for the company to complete the installation and over the course of 4-5 hours the installation was completed.


I must say I was a little disappointed in the fact that they did not upgrade my piping from a 1/2" to a ¾” feed to and from the water heater like I had requested during the consultation, however they did extend my gas piping and place it in the spot I wanted for no extra charge. Later I would discover when I installed my PEX piping upgrades, I should have demanded they do it since it probably cost me another $150 in piping and fittings. However I was able to do it exactly the way I wanted it and it made for a much cleaner installation than the way they would have done it.


The main advantages to having a tankless unit is that it only is running and burning fuel when you are in need of hot water. There is no constant heating of a tank even when you are not home, it will instantly fire up when it senses that water is flowing through it and the unit will send the hot water to the tap in almost the same time as it would take for the conventional tank to do so. 


However, one drawback is that if you are turning it on and off constantly (like I do when I shave in the morning) the water will not stay hot, it needs to be constantly running or you will get drop offs in temperature as the system fires up and cools down. This might seem like you are wasting water, but the cost of that small fraction of water is highly outweighed by the savings you will have on gas over the course of a year. 


The other main advantage of the tankless is that you can set the temperature digitally, to be the exactly what you desire for showering.

A typically tank heater will heat the water to an extremely high temperature and then you will have to cool it back down by mixing in cold water at the tap. The precise nature of the temperature setting will allow you to calibrate the temperature to that of the people showering and set it as hot as possible without having to cool the water down, and wasting energy.

I look forward to having our second eco-energy audit where we will also receive a hefty rebate for replacing our tank with the tankless unit. If we planned on staying in the house for years to come we would have purchased the unit outright but with the rebates, it was in our best interest to rent. I’m thrilled we have gone tankless, and I’m sure you would feel the same.


So how about it people. Have you switched over? If so, what do you think about going tankless? If not, have you been thinking about it, or do you have reservations? Would love to hear other people's takes on the tankless water heaters.

Nuts 'N Bolts - PEX Piping

Switching it up a little bit this week, and bringing you my little bit of knowledge on a Thursday rather than a Wednesday! Today we're talking about PEX Piping!

When it came time to run the new plumbing in the basement for our laundry and bathroom I was not excited about the prospects of buying lengths of pricey copper piping and using a torch to ‘sweat the joints’. I saw the potential for me to be sweating about burning the house down and inhaling toxic lead fumes while burning myself with the torch or acidic flux paste. Yeah, exciting stuff!

One of the options I had seen used on TV was the use of plastic piping with mechanical connections called PEX piping. Without getting into the geekology of what chemicals and synthetic ultra-compounds its composed of (in this case HPDE) , lets just call it like it is, advanced plastic tubing. It is sold just like copper piping in ½” and ¾” sizes and has a variety of different fittings, valves and connectors all available at your local tool-warehouses.

Just like copper it can be cut with a tubing cutter (seen above) but it has some key advantages over copper, aside from having to keep a fire extinguisher handy when you are installing it. First they sell a PEX product which is pre-insulated so you don’t have to pay up extra for the black jacket insulation associated with copper. It is also more energy efficient because it resists the transfer of heat more than that of metal piping. Second, you can run it through the ceiling much like electrical wire and don’t have to worry about joining multiple smaller sections to go perpendicular to the joists. It can also be bent around a corner which cuts down on the amount of fittings and lowers the chances of having leaks at the joints.

(pictured above - Tubing dips to fasten tubing to studs)

PEX is pretty cheap when compared to copper, yet it also is resistant to scaling and buildup found in copper lines and it almost completely eliminates the clanging ‘water hammer’ sound typical in metal pipe systems. However, I still utilized some copper in my installation because it is more rigid and it already existed as part of my system. I discovered a few good tips when choosing the type of connectors to hook up your system. There are three main types of connectors, compression rings, Push-To-Fit, and SSC (stainless steel couplers). On our budget I went with the cheapest…err most economical, SSC, hence the crimping tool (pictured below) for this type of connector was $45 vs. $200 for the compression rings and each P-T-F coupling was $3-10 PER item!


The main mistake I made with the SSC pieces was that I purchased a handful of bags containing 6 pieces each, after figuring out exactly how many I would need for each section of piping. How is this a mistake you ask? Well, you will need an extra one here, have to re-clamp one there and suddenly you are right back at the store for another $1.99 bag of 6 more clamps. I should have just bought the multi-pack and had extra for future projects instead of nickel and diming my way to 3 extra trips to the big orange, that I love oh-so much.

(3/4" and 1/2" stainless steel couplers)

One of the other lessons I learned is that the tubing does kink rather easy if you try to employ my brute strength method of pulling pipe through the joists. I must admit I have to suppress my caveman instincts when I get frustrated and just hammer on something until it fits. I ended up with some bloody knuckles and kinked piping trying to muscle the ¾” piping through the joists. Everyone’s system will be different, but typically you should run a ¾” main line and ½” lines off of that feeding each appliance and tap separately. I ran my main line down the center of the house from the cold water main line to the water heater and then from the water heater down back down the middle to feed each of the ½” lines, separately feeding each outlet. This helps ensure that each tap or appliance gets a healthy supply of water even when other outlets on the system are being used simultaneously.

(3/4" PEX brass elbow)

I highly recommend looking into one of these systems if you are intimidated by sweating joints or if you’re like me in that you hate having to deal with torches and soldering. I still had an adventure reconnecting copper pipe and learned that a heat shield is a thing of beauty in tight spaces, however PEX made my life a whole lot easier and it could do the same for you too!

Has anyone out there ever worked with PEX piping? Any interesting experiences or tips you learned along the way? Would love to hear other experiences.

Nuts 'N Bolts - Installing the Heat Pump

It's been quite a long time since I last made an appearance around here. Figured it was better late than never to continute the saga of our heat pump installation. You can read the first part, explaining what the system is and why we decided to go with it, right here.

After we knew for certain we were going the heat pump route, the unit sat in our garage for a few weeks waiting to be installed. Finally, my contractor friend and I were able to find a time that worked for both of us and the installation process began.

Our first step was to anchor the mounting bracket to the side of the house and bolt down the condenser onto the bracket. When the unit was mounted on the wall we installed an electrical disconnect switch to meet code regulations and ran power from the main circuit breaker to the disconnect box. I used ½” PVC conduit to run the wires from the outdoor unit to the separate indoor units. The electrical consists of 4 wires including the ground wire, and the terminals are clearly labeled and the directions provided a wiring diagram as a backup for those who might not be 100% sure of what their doing. I must admit, I tend to ignore directions but I'm glad I looked them over because I realized we were missing a wire before I got too far into the installation.

The outside condenser unit, mounted to the wall with the disconnect switch below.

I took care of the electrical myself and wired the entire system together, the hardest part was anchoring the PVC conduit to the wall without any spare hands. We did have an electrician come and take a look at my panel to tell me which spot was best for the system, and we were able to utilize the same circuit that the old AC unit had been on.

Once that was done, we worked together to run the copper tubing. Two sets of hands were better than one in this situation, since we needed to straighten the roll out and slide the insulation over the tubing while attaching it to the PVC with zip ties.

The most difficult part of the tubing is making sure your fittings that tie the units together are solid so that the coolant doesn’t escape. You will need a specialty tool to ‘flare’ the ends of the tubing which can be purchased at a home improvement store for around $75. Fortunately, I didn’t need to buy one. You will also need a tubing bender to make the 90 degree turns without kinking the tubing. The last thing you want to do is kink the copper, have to cut it and then put an unnecessary fitting, creating yet another spot for potential leakage.

Hanging the indoor units was relatively easy, anchoring them into the wall studs or using extra drywall anchors if we couldn’t find two studs. The most difficult part was getting through the brick for the unit in the kitchen but with the help of a hammer drill we made quick work of it. I used ½” black plastic tubing as drainage piping from the indoor unit to the ground below the unit on the outside of the house.

The pipes coming out of the brick, in the back of the house, from the kitchen mounted unit.

The unit comes pre-charged with environmentally safe refrigerant, so after your tubing connections are checked for tightness, you open the valves and it's almost ready to run.
After tying in the system to the electrical panel we powered up and worked out the bugs in about a half hour. The top of the condenser unit comes off and has a diagnostic chart and two LED lights on the control panel indicate any problems.

I still need to decide how I am going to cover the lines on the outside of the house, for now they are tucked under the overhang uncovered. A protective shroud is available for purchase which kind of resembles a down spout and is paintable, I think we will wait until we stucco the house before that is installed.

We'll eventually hide all of these pipes with the shroud.

My contractor friend is a family man with a very busy schedule to say the least so it was over the course of 3.5 days in which we installed the unit. If we had everything we needed and put in a full days work we could have hammered it out over the course of a weekend. The installation was a little frustrating at times because neither of us had done this before but now after completing it I would have no problem doing it again. My buddy plans on installing another unit in the near future and I offered my services to help him install it (I will work for beer!) since he didn’t charge me installation on my unit since it was considered his learning experience.

Interested in tackling something like this yourself? Here's what you'll need...

Tools required:
Hammer Drill
Flare Tool
Tubing Bender & Cutter
Level
Cordless Drill
Wire Strippers
Screwdrivers
Crescent wrench & Ratchet Set
Saw for PVC Conduit

Supplies Required:
Romex Wire (check power requirements on your unit)
PVC Conduit and fittings
Disconnect Box w/Switch
Copper Tubing
Anchors or Epoxy and Threaded Rod
Zip Ties
Drainage Piping and fittings
Spray Foam
ScrewsTubing Insulation

So what's the consensus? Helpful rundown? Would you try to install something like this on your own, or with the help of someone else? Have you ever considered a heat pump for your own home, or had one installed? We'd love to hear your thoughts and personal experiences - share away!

Nuts 'N Bolts - Going Ductless

Installing a multi-zone split heat pump may sound like an intimidating task given the fact that the name alone sounds like a serious piece of hardcore technology. However it might be a lot easier than you envisioned, provided that you have a basic electrical and plumbing know-how.

First, I'll give you a little background as to what exactly one of these units are and how they operate along with what lead us to make the decision to go this route instead of a traditional Furnace/AC combo.

From the Mitsubishi Website:
"Like your refrigerator, heat pumps use electricity to pump refrigerant and transfer heat from one space to another. When we transfer heat from within our home to the outdoors, we call it “air conditioning”. Conversely, when we transfer heat from the outdoors to within the home, we call it a “heat-pump”. Because refrigerant is naturally much colder than outdoor temperatures even on a very cold day, it actually absorbs heat from outdoors, and transfers the heat it absorbed outside to within your home. The refrigerant’s physical properties do this naturally. What you pay for is the electricity to pump refrigerant via copper tubing from outdoors to indoors. Because we move the heat rather than create it (as electric baseboard or resistant heat does), we can deliver up to 4 times the heat for the energy we consume!"

http://mitsubishi-mini-split.com/?p=10

The heat pump system is comprised of two main parts, the outdoor unit which houses the pump and the condenser and the indoor unit which distributes the conditioned air. The outdoor unit is similar to the traditional AC condenser that sits in many homeowners front or side yards like an old broken down Chevy. The heat pump condenser is much more compact and can be placed just about anywhere outside the house. The other difference is that this condenser can be reversed to provide not only cool air, but heat in the winter as well.

Indoor Unit

The indoor unit resembles that of an air conditioner and base board heater love-child. Being a multi-zone system you can place multiple units throughout the interior of the house and choose to heat or cool certain areas at a time, increasing efficiency. Depending on the size of the system you can have up to 4 interior units for each outdoor condenser. Our system is designed for 20,000BTU with each indoor unit providing 10,000BTU. The indoor unit is comprised of a blower with vanes which directs the air flow through the apparatus providing hot/cold air into the house. The indoor and outdoor units are connected by copper tubing(to transfer the refrigerant) and electrical wiring.

Outdoor Unit

The outdoor unit has a large fan mounted vertically that acts the same way as your automobile radiator does. It draws air through the metal radiator composed of aluminum fins containing the refrigerant. The unit also contains a pump which transfers the heated or cooled refrigerant to the indoor units. In the summer it uses the air to cool the fins turning the refrigerant into a liquid which chills the air and in the winter it heats the liquid to a gas, creating heat and warming the fins. One downfall of this system is that it is only effective to -15*C, so in the event of any extreme cold temperatures, the system switches to defrost mode and no longer heats the air. As a backup we will be installing a gas fireplace in the basement as well as utilizing the wood fire place in the living room upstairs.

When we made the offer on our house and had our home inspection, (nobody should leave home without one) it was confirmed that the furnace and AC unit were both 20+ years old and on their last legs. We figured they would have to be put out of their misery sooner rather than later and to avoid the risk of losing the house in renegotiation, we bit the butter and made due. Shortly after moving in, we realized that the AC barely made a dent in the upstairs oven we call our bedroom. Fast forward to the fall, Kerry and I attended the fall home show in Toronto in search of a reputable company to price up some new HVAC systems for us.

We grabbed many brochures and talked to various 'experts' on different units and we felt most were just talking heads who just wanted to sell us the most pricey, luxurious model to up their sales quota for the year. We found one guy who truly seemed he wanted the best for us and talked us down from a Cadillac and showed us something more in the Honda range.

I had scheduled an in house visit with him to show him our current system and provide us with a quotation. When he came by we talked about what I was looking for in a new furnace and AC and that I would probably need to upgrade the duct work as well since there was no return air ducting in the upstairs, hence the oven-like quality of temperature at night. We discussed various plans and the quote he gave me was something in the $6000-7000 range for a new system including the duct upgrades(this did not include any and all repairs to the drywall that would be ripped up in the process). It also didn't take into consideration the necessary upgrades to the existing duct work which was a result of the previous installer's less than stellar job.

After presenting the price I discussed doing the duct work myself to save a thousand dollars or more and just before he left he asked me if I had checked out the ductless system at the show. I had never heard of it and how no idea what they entailed. After handing me some literature he priced up the unit for me and instantly I became a fan even though the price was comparable to the furnace/ac combo. However no ducts meant cleaner, filtered air being distributed throughout the house (with two dogs and 2x the fur and dander this was a huge plus) as well as no need for expensive metalwork and drywall replacement.

One of the perks of being in construction is the connections you make along the way. Lucky for us, I had made friends with a subcontractor that had done some welding on my previous project. He had mentioned that he had his HVAC license and dabbled in that work on the weekends. I gave him a call and he told me he would look into pricing one up and get back to me.

Once he had quoted me a price with a savings of nearly $1500 plus installation materials I was sold. Scheduling in time to install the unit was a project on its own as we were both busy most weekends but we were finally able to free up some time after about 3 months of trying and thankfully the installation (which Ill get into in my next post) only took about 3 days.

In Part II of Going Ductless I will go over the installation process which is a lot easier than you may think. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them for you. Cheers.

First Time Blogger

Before I begin my adventure in this space I'd like to introduce myself and give a little run down of what you can expect from me.

Growing up near Boston and closely following the 'Big Dig' Ive always experienced and had an appreciation for construction. I have always been fascinated by construction and was first introduced to it hands on by my grandfather. I remember helping him mix up batches of concrete around the farm since I could first hold a shovel (fully getting that concrete dust embedded in my blood).

I also preferred watching This Old House on weekend mornings over the cartoon network (I'm different, I know this) I even went to school for it (BS in Construction Management). I hope to provide some of my knowledge I've learned along the way through school, personal experience and watching old Bobby V himself. I will try and provide the 'nuts and bolts' aspect to our renovations and projects giving you a dose of the technical side of things.

Since I spend most of my time doing the manual labor it will be a nice break to get on here and share what Ive learned and some of the knowledge Ive gained while helping Kerry bring our designs to life. Keep an eye out for 'Nuts and Bolts with B" here at First Time Fancy and feel free to ask any and all questions and Ill try to get them answered during breaks in the renovation action. Now back to your regularly scheduled programing...