Good luck Troy, FEMA is setting up camp right down the street from my house. It appears there will be a fully functioning "headquarters" by tomorrow.......I'm :pray: for you buddy!

Good luck with the FEMA situation Troy. :thumbsup:

OK, so I picked out some really nice tile flooring for the basement, to replace the carpeting, I sure hope this is going to work there. I got this 14"x14" tile in a blu-black marble color, on sale for only $.99 /sqft. Even with the cost of the thin set mortar and the grout, it's actually less costly for the materials than getting vinyl flooring installed (almost $2.50/sqft), and I can install it myself, at my own pace - although it will be much more labor-intensive, especially having to grout 650 square feet of tile! :eek: I almost decided against getting tile, but after talking to a few people at the flooring place, they said I should have no problem putting the thin set onto the concrete floor with some paint remnants remaining, as long as I rough up the surface a bit first.

As far as the paneled walls, I need to replace 12-15 panels which soaked water up about 10" from the bottom. I was looking at replacing the paneling with 1/4" plywood, a bit stiffer and a nice smooth finish, no slats cut into it. I could go with cheap 5.0mm luan for $10 a sheet, or go with a nicer 5.2mm plywood underlayment for $20 a sheet - it uses harder wood and has a much smoother finish on the front face. I'll probably go with the underlayment; any visual imperfections in the wood grain pattern are not an issue, since the walls will be painted again. Only question is, most 5/16" paneling is made from MDF nowadays, I just wonder if that is less prone than the underlayment to warping from any dampness, once it is installed on the walls... anyone a builder out there? :shrug:

I do plan to keep the bottom edge of the paneling about an inch or 1.5 inch off the floor, and use solid PVC moulding also gapped an 1/8" or so above the flooring, to keep any trickling water away from the wood. At least, that seems like a good plan...

Well, no actual work done on the basement last night, I desperately had to make a trip to the grocery store - almost completely out of food because of being so busy in the basement! I also stopped at the local True Value hardware store, bought some Tapcon screws to remount some of the loose furring strips back onto the cinder block walls, and a real nice pair of knee pads for doing the flooring work - $24 hard molded knee pads on sale for $7.50, can't beat that! :thumbsup:

Going over to Harbor Freight at lunch to check out wet saws for cutting tile, I figured it will be better just to buy one than to pay $50 per day for a rental - I'm going to have a slew of tiles to cut for along the wall - about 120 feet-zes worth, over 100 tiles, I calculate...:ohnoes:

Will most likely go to Lowe's tonight to pickup at least 6 of the wall panels I need, and some 14-2 romex wire to start installing wiring for my wall sconces behind the panels while they're off the walls. May as well just go to town on my new, improved theater room, no? :whip:

Sounds like a good idea to do the wiring now Troy. Man, just think of all the money that could of been used to purchase more equipment.....on second thought, dont think about it. :D

Grrr! - I've already thought about that, days ago. My 3D projector... :cry:

AND, another big blow - I just got an email notifying me that I received a direct deposit into my bank account from FEMA, for my flood damages... Woo, I got a whopping $203 towards my repairs... *sigh* I guess it's better than nothing, it's free money, but not what I was expecting... :(

I assume they didn't explain how they came up with that (LOW!) figure, huh?

From what I heard, it is going to be just a drop in the bucket.....with the way the budget crisis is in this country and all the disasters, there is just so much left to go around. I say do something special with that money on the govt's tab Troy.....like a keg of some expensive beer or something. :shrug: I think it would be better to drink away the little money they gave you than to see it spent on something else.

So just posting up a few more photos - here is what the water did to my wall panels:

http://troyfrey.com/forum/flood/walls2.jpg

http://troyfrey.com/forum/flood/wall3.jpg


Here's what I found behind the front wall after I cut the bottom 1.5" off the panels - the remains of a baseplate, so rotted it was as black as charcoal in many places...

http://troyfrey.com/forum/flood/frontrot.jpg

A view of my new lawn ornament, with my Scion and my Dodge truck at the curb:

http://troyfrey.com/forum/flood/dumpster.jpg

And finally, on a more positive note, here are two pics of one of my new 14x14 tiles I got for the basement floor - the first one shows the color, the second shows the surface texture in the reflection... should look pretty nice when it's done! :rock:

http://troyfrey.com/forum/flood/tile.jpg

http://troyfrey.com/forum/flood/tile2.jpg

Good morning Troy:)
Sorry to see your dilemma:( You have your work cut out for you, but you'll have an even nicer HT when it's finished:rock:
Thanks for the pics.

I like the look of the new tiles Troy......keep up the good work!

Morning Troy. I'd wish you a happy hump day but it looks like you have more important things to do right now. That sure does look like a lot of work. If I lived closer I'd be there in a heart beat to help you out.

However once you are all done and with the nice looking tiles you bought, you will have to re-name your HT to Frey's Theater Palace. :rock:

Haha, yeah - the Frey Palladial Theater, or something like that... :D

I like that even better. :headbang:

Huge + 1 there!! Those look beautiful!

Please tell me that you plan on using a dark gray or black grout... I do not really like the black tile/white grout look.

Sucks about the flooding and damage, but love the new tiles!!!

Good luck!

Yes, I was definitely going to use black grout with the tiles, and I really loved those tiles too, but...

After doing some further research online, every site discussing laying tile on concrete floors said it was absolutely imperative to remove every spec of paint from the concrete before putting thin set down. There is no way I'm going to be able to do that, there are multiple coats of paint on my floor. The best I can do is scrape all the loose paint off and sand the rest so it is roughed-up for anything applied to it. I also was starting to fret about having to grout 650 sq. ft. of tile, it would take me weeks to do that. I just bit off more than I could chew. So, I ended up canceling my tile order. Sorry guys.

So, I decided to go my original route, using Armstrong commercial vinyl composite tiles (VCT), since they use glue instead of thin set (commercial spreadable glue, not those cheesy peel-and-stick tiles!), which won't be so finicky about paint left on the concrete. Plus, they can be scored and cut with a knife, instead of having to use a wet saw. I can lay the entire floor of VCT over a weekend... My mother and I went back to the flooring store and brought the box of sample squares home, and decided on a little bit more, um, shall we say, "festive" color of floor, which will probably look totally wild on here, but actually looks very good on the floor in the theater room, with the dark blue walls and the purple-carpeted stage - I give you, Violet Bloom and Cirque White...

http://troyfrey.com/forum/flood/violetbloom.jpghttp://troyfrey.com/forum/flood/cirquewhite.jpg

The violet is not as bright as it looks on here, and the white will just be an accent color, either a border or just scattered into the tile grid somehow... Yeah, I know, nowhere near as luxurious as the dark tile, but more practical, much easier and quicker to lay, and it's got a matte finish instead of a high gloss, so the image on the screen won't be refected off the floor... :shrug:

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Hey, if it'll be easier & go on faster & can still "do the job", I'm sure it'll look fine in the end Troy.
Good Luck buddy!! :rock:

Those look good, too. :thumbsup:

I'm glad you re-thought your plan. I think you made the better choice and with your skills it still will come out looking freaking fabulous

Yep, I'm kinda pressed for time, and these tiles will go in much more quickly, so that makes me happy! :thumbsup:

My youngest daughter is going to freak when I tell her the floor is going to be all purple - I originally was going to do black tile with some darker purple accent tiles, now the floor is going to be mostly purple... so she should be happy, too!

Haha, love that poster, it's freaking fabulous! I never even heard of that before, is that a TV show? (Sorry, I hardly ever watch any TV...)

I believe it is a book. :D Gee I wonder why you hardly ever watch TV...oh that's right... you always have 10 projects going on at once. :p

I can't see any pics of the new tile Troy? It sounds rather cool and funky......good idea about making your life easier......it is about time somebody help you out, even if it has to be yourself!

EDIT: I can see them now....now that is purple!

Well, got a lot of running around to do over my lunch hour, since I cancelled the ceramic tile - I have to return the wet saw I bought at Harbor Freight, and then return the tile installation kit-in-a-bucket I bought from Lowe's yesterday, then stop at the flooring store after work to return the sample box of tiles I took home last night.

I ordered my vinyl tiles, glue, and slotted trowel last night from the Lowe's website, supposed to be all ready for pickup by October 12, hopefully sooner... this order is about $200 less than my ceramic tiles, and the Wet saw and installation kit was almost another $200 - so I'm $400 to the better going with the vinyl tiles... :rock:

The new tile looks very palatial;):D

Which tile, Bill? The ceramic tile I cancelled out on definitely looks palatial, but the vinyl tile looks more, uh, pedestrian...? ;)

Better than Willy Wonka... ;)

:eek:

I've worked with tearing stuff out like that after plumbing failures - but an outright flood like what you had...Jesus.

I mean the purple title:D That is the newest tile:p

Hey Troy, do you want me to change the title of your thread to:

Daily Working Nights in the Frey Theater?

:)

That's no joke. I remember growing up my parents basement flooding a few times. I was suppose to be hauling stuff out but one time I took a inflatable raft and laid out in our new basement pool while dad looked for more pumps. I got yelled at for that one. Dad has always had fully furnished basements with a bar, pool table, living room area, and stone fireplace. It left a mess I won't forget.

Well I guess purple indicates royalty, so yes, I suppose it would be somewhat palatial... I stand corrected! :)

Haha, seriously, if you can, I wouldn't care - it would definitely be more appropriate, for the next two months, anyway - that's all I'll be posting about right now! :D

Well, it's not fun having this happen, but at least the worst of it is over, other than removing the rest of the wall panels and scraping the paint off the concrete floor - the rest of the work is all new construction work, which I like to do - so I'm actually looking forward to that part.

I didn't have enough water in the basement to float around on a raft, but I probably could have gotten out my remote-controlled boat I have for my parents pool and run that around in part of the basement - didn't think about it at the time, lol... :cool:

Really, let me know if you need a "temporary" name change to your Thread.....at this time, it seems appropriate with all of the work you have been doing.......:thumbsup:

PM sent.

Time to head home and start tearing out more wall panels in the basement... Yay.

I took vacation days all of next week to work on the basement, so hopefully I'll get a lot done in the next 4-5 days... I may go back to work on Thursday if I get caught up, so I can use more days once the vinyl tile shipment comes in. :whip:

PM replied....nice change to the thread title.... ;)

Good luck and I hope you make lots of progress Troy!

Nice thread title Mr Frey. :rock: Best of luck to you.

Lol - good luck with your FLOOD RECOVERY to the Frey Theater:whip: :rock: :D

Can't wait to see the Theater when it's finished..... Hope the rest of way is smooth sailing.......:D

Like the new thread title. Hope you get everything up and running soon.

Woo, the first new wall panel is up! Got up at 7am this morning, ripped down the fourth old wall panel, pulled all the panel nails out of the furring strips, screwed any loose furring strips to the wall with Tapcon screws, unmounted the electric baseboard heater, took down the marquee light box, and installed all the electric wiring for the 5 light sconces going on the wall. Finally, I cut and hung the first new panel. Whew!

I'm using 1/4" plywood underlayment for the new panels, and they will be painted once they are all up - so just ignore the ugly grain patterns on the panels...


http://troyfrey.com/forum/flood/wiring.jpg


http://troyfrey.com/forum/flood/firstpanel.jpg