My wife and I are very voracious readers.
In our house not having a good book to read is almost a criminal offense.
Unlike a lot of readers today who use digital book readers like the Amazon Kindle, we enjoy hard copy books.
But that enjoyment comes with a cost, and that cost is where to store the books.
You see we have books yet to be read, those that have been read, enjoyed and maybe read again someday, and those that were so enjoyable that we can't part with.
To help alleviate the storage issue we decided to build a floor to ceiling book case in our family room.
Over the next couple of posts, I will take you through the steps involved in building and installing the bookcase.
Our home is a 1970's split level.
The main level was built at grade level, and the family room and laundry/utilities room were built below grade.
The walls on this lower level are a combination of cinder blocks and studded walls.
The cinder blocks bring the walls from the floor level to a height of 31" where conventional framing takes over, bringing the walls to a natural 8'.
The cinder blocks are wider than the studded walls.
This difference in width creates a step in the wall.
The builder of the house decided to highlight this offset by creating a shelf at the top of the cinder blocks.
This shelf was made of 3/4" particle board, YUK.
This "wonderful" wall treatment covered two adjacent walls in our family room, The remaining two walls were built we conventional framing floor to ceiling.
On the front wall of the house, we decided to eliminate this offset.
Well not really eliminate, we decided to build out the wall so that it has a single depth.
Our original plan was to simply remove the particle board shelf, exposing the top of the cinder blocks, followed by removing just the sheet rock from the shelf to the floor.
Then build a stud wall on top of the cinder blocks, bring the upper wall out until it was even with the face of the cinder blocks.
Our plan was then to add another layer of sheet rock, adhering it to the cinder blocks on the bottom, and then securing it to the stud above using conventional sheet rock screws.
When we removed the sheet rock from the lower portion of the wall ( from the shelf to the floor), we found an unpleasant surprise.
NO insulation.
This was the first of many surprises we found in the home, but that's a story for another time.
So on to plan B.
I built two walls, one was simple 2x4 construction on the bottom of the wall.
This wall was secured to the floor using concrete anchors.
The spacing of this wall was conventional 16" on center, providing space for R 11 insulation.
On top of this wall I built a second wall, This one was made of 2X8 studs that were ripped down to 7", the width needed to bring the upper wall flush with the lower wall.
This wall was secured to the lower wall, the ceiling studs and to the existing upper wall.
The upper wall was then insulated with R23 insulation, before being covered with sheetrock that runs from the floor to the ceiling in one contiguous piece.
While plan B was more work, it did provide an unforeseen benefit.
With the original construction, all of the electrical outlets had been installed by the builder above the shelf.
After deconstructing the wall, I understood why this was done, but none the less, it was less than ideal.
Who wants electrical outlets half way up the wall.
This may be okay in the work shop but not in the home.
So while I had the walls open, I took advantage and moved the outlets to their normal location.
Another by product of the upgrade was the windows in the family room.
The house came with aluminum windows that leaked badly in winter and summer.
In fact the only thing these windows did well was to provide natural light to enter the home.
So as happens in most home renovations, one thing leads to another, which leads to another thing, and so on and on.
The two windows which were located in this wall were removed and replaced with quality casement windows.
The windows we choose are mounted to the outside of the window opening, via a flange.
When mounted this way, there is space from the inside edge of the window to the face of the finished wall.
This space has to be covered.
Some modern builders will choose to simply run sheet rock out to meet the window, but being a woodworker...
I couldn't do that.
The manufacture of the windows we choose offers trim to cover this area.
It is known as "Jam Extenders".
Unfortunately for me, they only offer this in conventional widths, that are sized for either a 2x4 or a 2x6 studded wall.
Our walls are much thicker than that, so I built them in my shop.
Besides the ones offered by the manufacturer were made from finger jointed pieces of stock, not really suitable for staining.
Again being a woodworker, I prefer stained woodwork over painted woodworker any day.
So I spent a day making oak jam extenders for these windows.
Back to the built in book case.
The adjacent wall, had been built using the same "quality" methods as the first wall.
No insulation over the cinder blocks, and electrical outlets mounted half way up the wall.
This wall also featured an aluminum sliding window.
This window offered an excellent view of the side of our neighbor's home, and leaked just as badly as the two double hung windows that were removed from the front wall.
After a long discussion, oh about 5 minutes long, we elected to remove the window entirely.
It was replaced by the upper half of the book case.
The area covered by the cinder blocks was turned into the lower portion of the book case.
But enough for today.
How about checking back in a couple of days for a detailed discussion on building and installing the bookcase.
In our house not having a good book to read is almost a criminal offense.
Unlike a lot of readers today who use digital book readers like the Amazon Kindle, we enjoy hard copy books.
But that enjoyment comes with a cost, and that cost is where to store the books.
You see we have books yet to be read, those that have been read, enjoyed and maybe read again someday, and those that were so enjoyable that we can't part with.
To help alleviate the storage issue we decided to build a floor to ceiling book case in our family room.
Over the next couple of posts, I will take you through the steps involved in building and installing the bookcase.
Our home is a 1970's split level.
The main level was built at grade level, and the family room and laundry/utilities room were built below grade.
The walls on this lower level are a combination of cinder blocks and studded walls.
The cinder blocks bring the walls from the floor level to a height of 31" where conventional framing takes over, bringing the walls to a natural 8'.
The cinder blocks are wider than the studded walls.
This difference in width creates a step in the wall.
The builder of the house decided to highlight this offset by creating a shelf at the top of the cinder blocks.
This shelf was made of 3/4" particle board, YUK.
This "wonderful" wall treatment covered two adjacent walls in our family room, The remaining two walls were built we conventional framing floor to ceiling.
On the front wall of the house, we decided to eliminate this offset.
Well not really eliminate, we decided to build out the wall so that it has a single depth.
Our original plan was to simply remove the particle board shelf, exposing the top of the cinder blocks, followed by removing just the sheet rock from the shelf to the floor.
Then build a stud wall on top of the cinder blocks, bring the upper wall out until it was even with the face of the cinder blocks.
Our plan was then to add another layer of sheet rock, adhering it to the cinder blocks on the bottom, and then securing it to the stud above using conventional sheet rock screws.
When we removed the sheet rock from the lower portion of the wall ( from the shelf to the floor), we found an unpleasant surprise.
NO insulation.
This was the first of many surprises we found in the home, but that's a story for another time.
So on to plan B.
I built two walls, one was simple 2x4 construction on the bottom of the wall.
This wall was secured to the floor using concrete anchors.
The spacing of this wall was conventional 16" on center, providing space for R 11 insulation.
On top of this wall I built a second wall, This one was made of 2X8 studs that were ripped down to 7", the width needed to bring the upper wall flush with the lower wall.
This wall was secured to the lower wall, the ceiling studs and to the existing upper wall.
The upper wall was then insulated with R23 insulation, before being covered with sheetrock that runs from the floor to the ceiling in one contiguous piece.
While plan B was more work, it did provide an unforeseen benefit.
With the original construction, all of the electrical outlets had been installed by the builder above the shelf.
After deconstructing the wall, I understood why this was done, but none the less, it was less than ideal.
Who wants electrical outlets half way up the wall.
This may be okay in the work shop but not in the home.
So while I had the walls open, I took advantage and moved the outlets to their normal location.
Another by product of the upgrade was the windows in the family room.
The house came with aluminum windows that leaked badly in winter and summer.
In fact the only thing these windows did well was to provide natural light to enter the home.
So as happens in most home renovations, one thing leads to another, which leads to another thing, and so on and on.
The two windows which were located in this wall were removed and replaced with quality casement windows.
The windows we choose are mounted to the outside of the window opening, via a flange.
When mounted this way, there is space from the inside edge of the window to the face of the finished wall.
This space has to be covered.
Some modern builders will choose to simply run sheet rock out to meet the window, but being a woodworker...
I couldn't do that.
The manufacture of the windows we choose offers trim to cover this area.
It is known as "Jam Extenders".
Unfortunately for me, they only offer this in conventional widths, that are sized for either a 2x4 or a 2x6 studded wall.
Our walls are much thicker than that, so I built them in my shop.
Besides the ones offered by the manufacturer were made from finger jointed pieces of stock, not really suitable for staining.
Again being a woodworker, I prefer stained woodwork over painted woodworker any day.
So I spent a day making oak jam extenders for these windows.
Back to the built in book case.
The adjacent wall, had been built using the same "quality" methods as the first wall.
No insulation over the cinder blocks, and electrical outlets mounted half way up the wall.
This wall also featured an aluminum sliding window.
This window offered an excellent view of the side of our neighbor's home, and leaked just as badly as the two double hung windows that were removed from the front wall.
After a long discussion, oh about 5 minutes long, we elected to remove the window entirely.
It was replaced by the upper half of the book case.
The area covered by the cinder blocks was turned into the lower portion of the book case.
But enough for today.
How about checking back in a couple of days for a detailed discussion on building and installing the bookcase.
Source...