This DIY home bar is a cool design. This isn’t a super detailed plan with a measured drawing, but this home bar is laid out with enough photos that most handy folks should be able to figure it out.
I like the fact that this bar has two tiers, a nice overhang, and a clipped corner. These are all hallmarks of thoughtful design when it comes to a large home bar. If you are looking to enhance the professional look even further, you can purchase bar molding and brass foot rails from Rockler.com.
Building science research has shown that the quality of indoor air is more often than not worse than that the air outside your home. The air inside the living spaces in your home can be contaminated several ways: pet dander, insect infestations, unwanted mammalian pests, excessive moisture, poor ventilation, radon gas, and toxic chemicals like smoke and cleaning agents. The basement usually has the worst air quality of any other space in your home thanks to what’s going on down there: wet and damp foundation surfaces and poor ventilation.
If your basement, cellar or crawlspace smells musty, this is a strong signal that you have a dampness issue. On the other hand, if you have noticeable areas of wetness on the ground, foundation walls or even on the ceiling, you actually have a water seepage problem. In a situation like this, if you want healthier basement air quality, than you absolutely have to remove the source of the water seepage by calling in a basement systems and waterproofing specialist.
How Basement Moisture Management can improve the Air Quality in Your Basement.
Actually, with diligent maintenance it’s simple to stop the harm that water damage will cause to a home and the air quality inside it – really easy, in fact. If more homeowners would consider moisture management a routine home maintenance task, moisture & water issues would disappear. It’s as easy as that.
A basement moisture management checklist is pretty simple to manage. Here a number of pointers for raising the level of basement air quality by managing moisture levels:
• Identify and fix damp or leaky pipes, faucets and valves.
• Consider methods to improve air flow and ventilation.
• Examine your basement for dampness and odors frequently
• Use commercial products that absorb moisture and dehumidifiers to dry the air especially in problem zones like laundry rooms, crawl areas, and attics— all locations that a major contributors to poor air quality.
If you want healthier air in your basement or cellars and you’re not inclined to “do-it-yourself” then the best way to create a maintenance-free, moisture free environment down under is to call a Basement System or Basement Waterproofing specialist. It’s worth the small investment.
Dealing with Mold in a basement? Take a look at this before and after.
This is from a project that we completed around 2005 but we hadn’t posted this directly on the WNY Handyman site.
We had some mold issues due to neglect, improper grade, tree and shrub growth, a block foundation, plugged gutters, and downspouts draining straight down at the foundation.
Corrected water problem (outside grade, downspouts, gutters).
Removed tree, overgrown shrubs, and trimmed growth back from house.
Bleach and water treatment to remove the mold. More Information can be found at www.epa.gov.
When I begin most new renovation projects I make a point to be sure to make unattractive spaces look nicer. They don’t necessarily have to be renovated, but they do need to be cleaned up to the point of no longer being detrimental, but a positive feature. Some of the spaces that I focus on for a quick improvement are the garage space, yard space, and basement.
The basement is perhaps the area where you can find the most benefit. It is part of the house and used often. Remove and hanging item from the ceiling that you can. Lose old cable and wiring and remove any items from the floor that you can. If possible, paint the floor a uniform color (they often aren’t) and even paint the support posts in the same color as the floor. This will help those obstructions to disappear.
The first home that I renovated was a perfect example of this. The basement was very large (it was a ranch house). However, the basement had 60 years of junk hanging from the ceiling and items taking up floor space (shelving).
Our recent cottage project provided me 2 examples of cleaning up a sight line for an immediate improvement. The first before and after photo below shows the immediate improvement, of a stunning view, with the simple remove of an unused swing support. This was a subtle improvement, but when you add up 20 subtle improvements, you are suddenly showing a beautiful place that feels cleaner, larger, etc. (Click the image for a large view).
The chimney, below, was cluttered with with cables, brackets, and a large antennae. None of these were necessary and cleaning them up provided a much cleaner look. In fact, the neighbor commented as soon as he came by. It was that immediate a change when viewed in person.
If you are selling or renovating a home, consider these simple, small changes. They will add up to make a world of difference.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
If you have a crumbling rubble foundation, you are probably wondering what your repair options are and what the cost might be. For starters, this is not a DIY job. Typical do it yourselfers don’t have the ability to lay the blocks required to make this repair.
My experience with a rubble foundation repair. I happened to be fortunate that the water infiltration into this basement was minimal. Because of that, I did not have wash out issued in the foundation. These old rubble foundation walls eventually give way if water infiltration is an issue. Over the years, the force of the water will break down the cement and the wall can start to crumble. On top of that, most people will apply a band-aid fix that will essentially skin the wall with cement. This will hold for a bit, but eventually the skin will start to flake off in large bits.
In our case, we had a foundation wall that was 14″ to 16″ thick. There was only one area where I had concern about the amount of rubble that had crumbled from the wall. When enough of the rubble foundation material crumbles away, it will compromise the integrity of the upper foundation (usually large stones or cement) and cause cracks, settling, or worse partial collapse. We hired a competent contractor who has done hundreds of jobs similar to this. The contractor is from the East Aurora, NY area where an old stone foundation is common.
Our fix could have been accomplished using a variety of techniques. The 2 best solutions were a poured interior wall, or a block interior wall. Due to cost and accessibility, we selected a block interior wall. The new block wall is tied to existing structure with Rebar and the wall itself is built to last. This interior wall is placed against the existing rubble foundation wall and will eliminate future crumbling of the foundation. Not only that, but it provides a crisp interior wall with a nice clean look.
The cost for a repair of this nature will depend on the linear feet you need to cover and the height of the new wall. Assuming you catch the repair prior to any structure being compromised, you will not have a need to do any lifting of the existing structure. This new interior wall essentially acts to “retain” the current footer.
Don’t let your rubble foundation get to the point where your house needs to be lifted and the foundation dug out and rebuilt.
Since we have a smaller basement area (there is some crawl space that isn’t affected), our cost was below $5,000. Some might not consider this a cheap fix, but it would certainly beat the $20,000 bill you will face should a major repair/reconstruction be required. Get multiple estimates and be sure to go with a contractor who has done this repair before.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
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