Some tips for DIY first timer :
This message is for those who like me, enjoy doing things himself/herself but quite inexperience, I have learned some tips after renovating the basement for 3 weeks and would like to share with you before I forget:
- use steel plate and wood stud, this is the best way to construct the basement frame: economical, regid, and easy to construct.
- since using steel means you mainly use screws rather than a hammer, therefore, invest on a powerful screw gun is worth it, as it will make your job so much faster.
- concret screws, make sure you get the right length, not too long, I used 2 1/4 which should have been 1 3/4, the longer does not necessary make the fastening more strength, but definitely make you drill 3 times more effort. I think as long as the screw 1" below the concret, it is good enough.
- you need to replace the concrete screw bits quite often, for me, I need to use over 10 bits. It is not worth to use an old bit and trying to use your effort/time to make up for the worn out bit. replace a new one will make you 5 times faster/easier.
- use long philp screw bit and insert directly to the drill for driving screws, do not use extension, it makes a hell lot different as the bit vibrate a bit with extension and the driving self drilling screw just doesn't work well.
- get a telescope type extenable stick, like those cleaning windows, use it to measure the height of the floor to ceiling for setting up cutting studs, save a lot of eye effort and more accurate than looking at the tape measure, best to get the stick can extend up to 8' if not possible, use a 2x4 fix length block at the bottom as base for measurement, like I did.
- get three drills, one corded hammer drill, one cordless 18v drill, one corded or cordless regular drill, so that you don't need to change bits all the time. the hammer drill is for the floor, the 18v drill is for powerdrive screws, the regular drill is for bit to cut through metal before using the hammer drill (so that you don't damage the concret bit and need to replace all the time), also for pilot hole sometimes.
- self drilling screws, it is dead important, don't use non-self drilling ones, I got the first box wrong the first time and waste me a lot of time and get a lot of frustrations.
- If you use steel studs or plates like I do, don't follow the book for building as they are meant for wood, no need to draw those 16" lines, cross on the plate...etc., it is kind of quite different in one sense, you got a lot of flessibility with steel, and making mistakes is no big deal with steel, just unscrew and screw again... this is different from wood, which you have to pull the nails, so mistake is much less forgiven with wood.
- I am getting a metal saw tonight, cutting steel will make your hand very painful after too many cuts, will let you go how it is going.
- when drilling holes on the concrete for the screws, use the drill bit that come with the screws and the depth can be set at the level where the bit with drilling pattern just totally go inside the floor, no more or no less. This is the best depth.
Also, use 18V drill to drive in the screws, do not over power by using a Dewalt drywall screw gun etc., the bit will break and you cannot get a sense how tight the screws easily.
Framing Bathroom:
Always purchase the shower unit first before framing, when framing for the corner of the shower unit, do not put two studs touch each other at corner walls. Do not screwed the base to the frame, do it at the end, but keep dry fitting it to ensure no surprise not fitting... Only wood studs can be used for washroom, steel studs not a good idea and don't know if it will work, frame all four walls of the bathroom with wood.
Cutting heat supply trunk:
It is not as difficult as I originally thought, and the time of doing the pipe connection and cutting an intake hole is not that long, I did three vents pipe from trunk to floor level and 2 return airs connection in approx one day. I find using the manual cutter is very difficult, using the angle grinder is the easiest but also the most scariest because of the fire work. Using a jigsaw is the safest and pretty fast, except it is kind of hard to use it in tight spot... I used combination of angle grinder, jig saw and manual cutter. I would think if without angle grinder, I would not be able to do it or do it very slow...
Even you use wood studs, do not use wood plate, use steel track, it is so much easier.
Purchasing Tools and Materials
Try to purchase used/new tools from online auction. It save you a lot of money, got to do this sooner than later to eliminate wait time. Some materials can also be purchased online, but this is very minimum.
Drain and Supply Water pipes
go back to the drain pipes and supply pipes. I find the drain pipe is not much problem and only challenge is TEE into the existing pipe, you need to cut the length out in exact right length, too short, it couldn't get in, too much, you are in big trouble because you will leave gap... I kind of cut too little and then need to trim more, and trim more... and it was done finally anyway.
for supply pipes... if you are the first timer like me, please use pre-soldered pipe parts + soldering, it just increase your confident that there is no leak, although I used some parts which are not pre-soldered and still not leak... it almost a perfect job except I made a big mistake... I installed the shower unit 90 degree off, that means in-take becomes out-take and vice versa, this is all because I didn't read the manual careful enough, instead I looked at the structure, it has a printed word "UP" and I used it as a guidence, and in fact it is dead wrong, I don't know why they print a big word "UP" there to mislead people,... for that, I need to fix the structure by cutting out some pipes and put in couplers. Teeing into existing lines still the big challenge with similar reason of the drain pipes, you need to cut the right length, I found out soldering is in fact less trouble, although I worried most, I didn't encountered a leak due to wrong soldering yet... Another tip: buy the smallest pipe cutter possible, I made the mistake went for the best looking one, and it is not useful to cut existing pipes due to limited space, I end up require to use rotary tool to do that, so rotary tool is also very useful for tight spot... forget about hand saw, it just too difficult... and ware gloves, I got burn with a hot solder in one of my figure because of rushing into trying the first soldering experience. Also, use a metal plate as sheild for things behind the pipes, don't purchase the expensive HD protecting cloth, somthing like $30 plus tax...Also, buy a $3 long mouth lighter, it is money well spent, rather than using matches or regular lighter... Mark all edges with marker on all connection when you dry fitting, then you know how depth you insert the pipes when you doing the actual fitting. Fitting 90 degree or 45 degree albrow is a real challenge, in fact, I advice don't bother dry fitting them, they are so difficult to fit, and pull out, just fit them and solder them... Make sure you spend the money on the Wrench, it is impossible to push/pull those albrow from the pipes bare hand, I did one with the help of my foot, then I purchased the wench and found out it could have been so much easier...
for threaded joins, make sure you tight it up, it is very trouble to fix later on when everything is all set, and threaded joins are the easiest ones to have leak according to my experience.
will keep you up to date in the future.