What's Behind the Walls is Important

This is the point in every project where people get bored with following along, because they don't think all the systems in a house are interesting (HGTV rarely talks about it on their shows!).  But if you want to buy an old house, this is the most important part of your home. It's where a huge percentage of the budget gets spent and will have an impact on your costs to own the home for decades to come.

So let's start with electrical.  There was no knob and tube wiring in this house, which was a refreshing change.  Instead it's all armored cable (with cloth wrapped wires inside).

 But there wasn't a lot of wiring.....period.  The living room had 2 outlets.  The kitchen had 2 outlets.  That's not enough for modern living and it also means lots of extension cords everywhere (which have their own safety issues). The wiring is ready to be replaced!

Cloth covered wires fray over time....this needs replacing!

So once again, we're starting from scratch.  The guys pulled out all the old wiring and have replaced it with new, up-to-code electrical.  

Because electrical demands are increasing all the time (heat pumps, EVs, fancy appliances, etc), we decided to upgrade the electrical service to the house from 100 amp to 200 amps.   We also relocated the electrical panel to the new 'utility' room in the basement. (there was a sub panel in the upstairs bathroom that needed to go, it would not be attractive in our brand new bathroom!!)

Brand new 200 amp service!

This might sound odd, but when the electrical is going in, you need to know what type of fixtures you will be installing.  Maybe you don't know the exact fixture, but you need to identify if it's a pendant, sconce, recessed light, etc.  That means the kitchen and bathrooms need to be designed, so all of the light fixtures will be in the right place.  So while we won't install those things for months, we need to know the electrical requirements now!  (and sometimes I don't like the fixtures I picked out.....it's better to decide that now, so I can find something different).

This fixture looked great in the Pottery Barn store - but it is too big for this space

And there is something so exciting about seeing all this nice, new wiring throughout the house! 

Be still my heart - look at that gorgeous new wiring!

With all this new electrical capacity, it's time to talk about heating and cooling.  We'll be installing heat pumps into this house.  These are the cold weather ready heat pumps that can handle extreme cold.  The lines get roughed in now and the indoor and outdoor units will get installed later in the project.

I still hear people say that heat pumps can't handle a Maine winter.  They must be talking about previous generations of heat pumps.  Or they may be in houses that haven't been insulated and air sealed - we will be doing both. The units we are using are good down to minus 20 degrees (my own home has only heat pumps and they're great!).  And of course you get the added bonus of air conditioning in the summer!

Another key 'behind the walls' element is all new plumbing.

It's starting to look like a bathroom!

I've learned over the years that it's just easier to pull out all of the old plumbing and replace it with new.  That way you know you're in great shape for the future.  And of course with an additional bathroom and a redesigned kitchen, we need new plumbing anyway!

Finally, we are air sealing and insulating the house.  The first step is to spray foam critical areas that don't do well with traditional insulation.  I have a love/hate relationship with spray foam.  It does a great job of air sealing and insulating (with a very high R value), but it's not great for the environment and it's hard to install.  So I use it sparingly, where it's absolutely necessary.  For this house, it means spray foaming the sills in the basement - including the walls 2 feet below the ground level outside.  The floor of your basement will be at 55 degrees.  But as you to upwards and closer to ground level, the temperature will be similar to the outdoor temperature.  In the winter, that can mean some really cold walls. So this keeps everything nice and warm.

We also spray foamed the ceilings on the former porches (the sunroom and the powder room) and the floor below.  With its high R value and air sealing, it ensure we will have nice warm spaces on a cold winter day.

Finally, we used dense pack cellulose for all the walls and sloped ceilings.  This is my favorite insulation - it's environmentally friendly (recycled newspaper), has a good R value and does a great job of sound suppression.  The first step is to put a mesh web up on all the walls.  Slits get cut into the web and the cellulose is pumped into the cavities.

It's a messy job, but as soon as they're done, the difference is amazing! 

We have passed all our inspections, so now it's time to start installing drywall.  That's always a huge milestone - can't wait to see the walls go up!  Pin It