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Framing a wall: idiot edition
Howard_Casto:
Fair enough... but I have seen dang fool idgits out there without one, so I thought I'd mention it.
shponglefan:
Way ahead of you guys, have one running as we speak. ;D
SavannahLion:
Depending on where you live. You can add a skirt around the house.
I've only ever seen it in the mountains, you strip back about two feet of topsoil about six feet away from the house and lay down a thick layer of plastic and attach as appropriate to the house. Seal any edges. We added a layer of rock to help with drainage. No drain pipe that close to the surface because of freezing in winter.
Note we sealed the concrete on the outside before backfilling and we do have a drain pipe below the frost line. The skirt was an added measure. It works perfectly if you don't pierce or remove the skirt. Until the skirt was inadvertantly removed recently, I never witnessed water from the drain pipe or seepage in the foundation.
In the valleys I think a drain pipe and gravel is sufficient to move water away from the foundation since there is no freeze cycle. The only other time I saw a similar system using a skirt was on Holmes on Homes where the skirt is much smaller and the drain pipe sits on top, rather than below in our case. I don't think he had to contend with a deep frost line though. YMMV.
You can use either as a temporary solution until you get enough cash to dig down and do the job proper.
shponglefan:
So now I discovered this new wrinkle in my plan: building permits!
I originally wasn't expecting one to be required. I know my city requires them for finishing a basement (floor to ceiling). But in this case I'm not actually finishing anything, just insulting a single foundation wall.
So I went to the city office to check. I was told that anything to do with insulation (i.e. replacing existing or adding new) technically requires a building permit. Framing by itself does not, as long as I'm not making new living spaces. And I was also told I can probably get away with replacing like insulation w/ like insulation without needing a permit. Which is good, because I'd already had that done in one of the upstairs bedrooms.
They told me it's basically to make sure any new insulation meets or exceeds what was there prior. Which is almost comical given how poor this basement is insulated (the finished portion has 1 inch styrofoam in between furring strips; no sealing, holes in it, etc).
I talked to a few people and one guy said while I "technically" need a permit to replace insulation, if I'm covering it back up with drywall nobody would ever know. It was funny to hear that coming from a city official.
So now I'm wondering if it's worth going through the hassle of bothering to get a permit. I know insurance can be an issue, and the electrical will be seperately permitted. For just insulation and drywall though? I'm really not seeing the value in what I'm getting for money here... and if it's a matter of later selling, I can always rip it all out anyway.
Howard_Casto:
Lol... as a guy that lives in WV I kind of laugh at permits. Around there at least, only three actually count in a home, electrical, gas, and depending upon the situation, water.
Here's the thing about permits (caution, opinion incoming). Unless it's a new structure, there is absolutely no way they can prove that you've done any work to your house, unless one of the utility companies is involved. It's not like an insurance company keeps a book of every re-modeling done to every house in the united states... they only know work has been done if YOU tell them it has. This is why the city official gave you that advice imho... sometimes even though there is technically a law in the books, it isn't really enforced.
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