Major AC Repairs

Since we fired the original AC company, we had to find another that would do the repairs to our HVAC system to make it usable.  We finally found another company that agreed to repair and redo our HVAC duct work. 

Before the work started, we called to the city to get the status of our HVAC permit.  The original AC company told us that everything was completed and that they passed the city's inspection.  However, when we called, we found out that the original AC company lied to us and there was no city inspection performed on our AC system. 

So the new AC company agreed to perform the repair work and then do the city inspection with on our HVAC system.  They changed the sizes of some of the ducts to increase air flow; they added a vent to the upstairs hallway which had no vent before.  They replaced all of the torn ducts and made sure that the ducts were not crushed, so that we would get more air flow.  They also checked the charge of our AC units and found they were improperly charged; they corrected that as well as too many other things to list.  It took the new AC company almost a week to complete all of these repairs.

All new ducts getting installed under the house.

New ducts installed in the attic.

 
After all the work was completed, our system passed the leak test and passed the city inspection.  Finally, our new HVAC system is up to code.  We can finally use our air conditioning now that the summer is over and the weather is cooling off. 

Grout in the Shower

Once the tile was finished and the thin set mortar dried, it was time to do the grout.  The tiles adhered very well to the wall, so that was a relief.  We opted to use non-sanded grout with a special additive which made the grout stain resistant and not need sealing. The additive was added to the grout instead of water.  The guy at the tile store recommended the tile additive to us, and it seemed like a good idea for use that for a shower where stains and mildew would be an issue.  We had all kinds of shower grout problems in the past where the grout cracked and got water behind it, so we wanted as much of a maintenance free shower as possible.

We grouted the entire shower, and it looked really nice.  We now need to wait until the grout dries completely to see how it came out and to do the caulk at the corner and bottom.

Tile before the grout.

Grout all done.

Shower bottom all grouted.

Laying the Shower Tile in the Jack-n-Jill Bath

The shower walls were not plumb, so laying the tile was going to be more difficult.  We wanted to make sure that we lay the tile in such a way that it disguises the fact that the walls are not plumb.  We measured the walls and planned out our tile to make sure that we ended up with whole or almost whole tiles in the corner.

We decided to use whole tiles at the bottom of the shower base because the shower base was almost level.  The slightly uneven gap between the tile and the shower base would be filled in with caulk at the end.

Since this was a small shower and we didn't have a good place for recessed shelves for the soap and shampoo, we decided to install corner shelves.  Recessed shelves were not possible, since one wall contained the plumbing and the other wall contained the pocket door.  It seemed very challenging to install the corner porcelain corner shelves because they were so heavy; it seemed hard to believe that the mortar alone could hold them up.  But it did, and when it dried they were very stable.

Tub Refinishing

There was an antique Kohler tub in the house in the upstairs bathroom.  It was in poor condition, scratched, peeling paint coming off it, and rusty in places, but we really liked how it looked and that it was an antique.  So we decided to keep it in the same bathroom and just have it refinished.

Back of tub.

Tub before it was refinished.

Rusty drain before refinishing.

Refinished tub.

Refinished tub edge.

Curtains

Of course, it is totally out of order to hang curtains before painting the trim, molding, and walls.  However, we were trying everything we could to cool the house.

We got inexpensive curtains from Ikea; these were not thermal curtains but regular light blocking curtains.  There are still AC problems that need repairing, but in the meantime the curtains help a little.

Shortening the curtains to fit the windows downstairs.

Upstairs hallway.

Downstairs bedroom.

Custom-made temporary windows covers made out of the fabric cut off when we shortened the downstairs curtains.

Preparing the Shower for Tile

The workers framed our new jack-n-jill bathroom and added the walls and pocket doors.  We chose pocket doors because the bedrooms upstairs are fairly small, and we didn't want to waste space with doors that swing open.  The shower base was installed before the walls.  The plumber roughed in the plumbing and the workers were told to use cement board on the walls where we would be installing tile. 

New pocket door in the Jack-n-Jill bath.

We got the tile and mortar, and we were ready to begin preparations to install the tile.  Upon inspection of the walls, we realized that they were not stable.  If we pressed on the joints where the cement board pieces met, they would bend and move easily.  We could not lay tile on walls that are not stable and bend because our tile would crack and eventually fall off.  Tile must be laid on a stable surface.

We took off the cement board and realized that there was no support structure underneath to which the cement board could be attached to.  The workers only attached the cement board on the edges. 

The cement board was only attached on the side; this made the pieces unstable in the middle.

 We built a support structure around the plumbing, so that we could properly attach the cement board in a way that it would not move.

Added supports to nail down plywood.

Plywood added for stability and a place to which we can screw the cement board.

We added a vapor barrier under the cement board to protect the walls from any water that may leak from the shower.

Vapor barrier was installed below the cement board.

We attached the cement board to the wall, and created a stable surface for the tile.  We even measured and strategically attached the cement pieces board, so that all joints would be spanned by the tile.

Shower walls are ready for tile.

More AC Work

The AC company finally came out a week later than promised to perform repairs on their existing ducts and to add the new return duct.  They did the work in a couple of days and left when they were finished. 

When we came to look at the work, we found that they left our front door unlocked.  Luckily, it looks like no one came in and stole anything. This was very alarming. 

We found that the work was done very poorly. 

Ducts in the attic pierced by roof nails.

Torn open ducts

Crushed ducts - this party explains our lack of air flow

More crushed ducts

These types of tears in the ducts are all over the place under our house.

 
Unfortunately, they had to cut our finished drywall to run the AC ducts from the attic down to the crawl space of the house.  I guess its lucky we didn't paint yet.  Hopefully, the drywall can be repaired, so that there is no trace of these cut outs.

Finished drywall cut out to access the ducts in downstairs kitchen

Finished drywall cut out to access ducts upstairs

This was about the sixth time that the AC company came out, and their quality of work is very poor each time.  Each time they come out, they also cause some sort of damage to existing ducts such as tearing open nearby ducts close to where they are working.  We finally realized that they are simply not capable of doing a reasonable quality job.  We had no choice but to fire them and are now planning to find another AC company repair our HVAC system.

As a result of this, our work on the house comes to a standstill.  It is nearly impossible to continue working on the house in the summer heat when the AC is turned off.

The AC Can't Keep Up in 92 Degree Heat

The summer started and the temperatures rose into the lower 90's.  We wanted to save on energy costs, so we turned our ACs to a very warm 79 or 80 degrees.  In the afternoons, it was the hottest time of the day and we noticed that the ACs couldn't even cool the house down to 82 degrees.  The units were running non-stop and could not even bring the temperature down to 82 degrees until night time.  The outdoor high temperatures were about 92 degrees each day, so our AC system couldn't even bring the temperatures down 10 degrees in the house.

This was very alarming.  We just paid for two brand new central heat and AC systems, and we are still going to have to use window AC units to cool our house!?!  Something must be wrong.  We have very large AC units for the square footage of our house, so the size of the units should be more than enough to cool the house.  Once again, we went into the attic to investigate the problem.  It turned out that the many of the supply duct joints were taped instead of being sealed with mastic and the tape popped off.  The ducts were leaking cold air all over the attic.  This was again a problem related to incorrect installation.

We also noticed that the return vent for the smaller HVAC unit was larger than the return vent for the larger HVAC unit.  This did not make sense, since the size of the return vent must be proportionally sized to the size of the HVAC unit.  When we asked the owner of the HVAC company about that, he told us not to worry about it because it was good enough. 

We decided to research the size of the return vents and ducts on the internet to see what the manufacturer of our HVAC units requires.  We learned that the smaller HVAC unit's vent and duct was a little too small for the size of the HVAC unit, but it was close so we decide to let that go.  However, the size of the larger HVAC unit's return vent and duct was way too small.  We also learned from our research that having a return vent/duct that is too small causes poor airflow from the supply vents and poor efficiency.  This could be another reason why our AC could not cool effectively.


We called the HVAC company to let them know we need another return vent/duct for the larger unit, and we need the supply ducts in the attic sealed correctly so they don't pop open again.  The owner of the company became outraged with us and told us we were wrong about the size of the return vent/duct.  He also insinuated we were unreasonable with our requests for these repairs.  After cooling down and making some phone calls, he finally agreed to do the work.  He proposed a location for the new return duct/vent which would make the length of the return duct about 60 feet long.  We asked if the return would be effective with such a long run because it seemed like it would lose suction, but he told us its fine.

He promised to do the work the next week; however, the workers never showed up.  So hopefully, they will complete it the week after that.

More HVAC Problems

While watering the plants, I noticed a drip coming from a pipe at the roof line.  I immediately knew this was the attic HVAC condensate line backing up.  But how could the drain be clogged after only two months of use?  This is a brand new HVAC system, and it should work for years without this type of problem.

It turned out the installers used the HVAC air handler and overflow pan as a trash can, while they were doing the installation.  They never cleaned it out.  And therefore once water starting running all of the debris flowed down the drain with the water and the clogged the drain causing the water to overflow in our attic. 


The reason that the water leaked back into the return plenum and our onto the floor was because the air handler unit was not level.  The air handler has a primary pan under the evaporator coil and if that is not level and it experiences a backup, it overflows into unexpected areas (like the return plenum).  We cleaned out most of the debris from the secondary overflow plan earlier.  The clog was inside the air handler, which they also used as a trash can.  It was more insidious because we could not see what was inside there like I could in the secondary pan.


Luckily, we caught this before it caused major flooding in the attic and ruined the brand new drywall on the ceiling below.  It did flood the attic some and caused mold to grow on the wood in the attic.
 

Wet attic floor from the HVAC pan overflowing - we used a shop vac to suck up all the water. There was enough water to fill the shop vac container many times.

Soaked return plenum from the water backing up into it.

Moldy attic floor from the leaking water

We called the HVAC company out to have them level the overflow pan, unclog the drain and remove the debris we couldn't remove ourselves, and replace the return plenum.

When they came out and did these repairs, they tore open a large hole in the supply duct in the attic.  This caused the cold air to escape into the attic and not get to the house.  As a result, the attic was cooler than the house and the AC ran continuously.  They also moved the overflow pan for one of the HVAC units in such a way that the condensation was dripping onto the attic floor instead into the pan.  Of course, they didn't notice any of these things; we had to find the problems once again.

So they had to come out once again to repair the things they damaged.

Our First Attempt At Tile

It was a little intimidating to do tile for the first time.  We took a class at the local home improvement store and read lots of library books on the topic.  Now we had to put what we learned into practice. 

We decided to start with something easier.  We decided that the laundry/storage room tile would the easiest first tiling project.  It was a smaller room with simple 12x12 inch tiles.  We bought an inexpensive tile saw from the local home improvement store because we knew we would be doing lots of tile in this house.  Buying the tile saw was equivalent to the cost of renting one for only a couple of days.

We measured and divided up the room and started the tile work.  The tile saw worked like a champ.  It turned out pretty well; the hardest part was doing the grout.  We used sanded, tinted grout, and getting it into all of the joints proved to be a challenging job that required lots of muscle.

Laundry/storage room before tile was laid.

Tile drying after it was laid.

Tile drying.

Finished and grouted tile.

Finished and grouted tile.

A Landscaping Break

We had so many problems with renovating this house, that it seemed like everything was an uphill battle.  We needed to take a break and do something fun outside that helped us relax.  We decided to go ahead and do the landscaping because if we plant small tress now, then it will take several years for them to grow and become established.

We first had to hire a company to grind out the large stumps from the side yard.  Of course, this was not as simple as it seemed either.  The stump grinding company hit the main water pipe that led to our water meters, as they were grinding out the stumps.  This caused a water leak, and the city had to come out and repair the leak.  At least the plumber didn't have to come out for this one.

Once the stumps were removed, we could plant new trees.  We really need shade on that side because the house has so many windows, and it gets very hot there in the afternoon with direct sunlight shining on the side of the house.

We ran hoses under the house and connected them to multiple sprinkler heads.  We added a three zone timer to automatically water our new trees late at night.  

We planted 5 new trees on the side. Note the brown patches; that is where the stumps where ground out.

We planted 2 Queen Palms out front and one pecan tree.

The grapevine we planted last year is thriving and even has grapes on it.  Hope we can get them before the birds!

The grapefruit tree we planted last year has some small grapefruits on it.

One of our automatic sprinkler heads.

Plumbing Problems

We tried one of the hot water heaters, but we did not try the other one.  When we were to try the other one, we realized the plumber forgot to connect it to the cold water.  There was no water flowing to the hot water heater at all.  Since the drywall was already done, and we hoped that the walls did not need to be opened to connect the hot water heater to water.

The plumber came and fixed it without having to open the wall.  Luckily our plumbing is accessible from under the house.  When the plumber left, we decided to try the hot water heater and we noticed that the hot water heater turned on even when we flushed the toilet or used cold water in the sink.  After some testing and troubleshooting, we realized the plumber connected the water for the entire house to go through the hot water heater.  This means that we had hot water in the toilet as well as the cold water valves leading to the sinks, etc.  Now there was no cold water in the apartment at all!

We called in the plumber and his boss who both came out to investigate the situation.  After a day of work, they finally diagnosed and fixed the problem.  We now had both hot and cold water!

We started using the sink and toilet as normal.  We could now stay in the house while we worked on it, as we had electricity, a sink, a toilet, hot and cold water, and heating and air conditioning.  After a few days in the house, we had another plumbing issue.  The main drain to the house backed up.  We realized this when the drain water started coming out of the unfinished drain in the downstairs bath.  We called the plumber back, and again he fixed the problem. 

So far, we haven't had any other plumbing issues.  We really hope that we don't need to call the plumber for a while.

Heat and AC Problems

The duct work was all done, and the drywall was all done, and the electrician finished wiring the house.  Next it was time to finish out the heating and air conditioning system.  The HVAC guy came and installed the thermostats and finished up the loose ends. Some of the ducts in the attic already started coming apart, and he had to redo them as they were installed incorrectly to begin with.  He installed the returns and the vents and turned on our new HVAC systems.  The city inspection was done and the systems passed inspection, and everything was finished.

We decided to give our new HVAC systems a try.  The nights were still chilly, so we decided to turn on the heat to see how it works.  The HVAC units are heat pumps, so we expected the air coming from the vents not to be super hot.  We knew heat pumps blow out only lukewarm air.  But when we turned on the heat, the air seemed a whole lot cooler than just lukewarm.  The heat did heat the house eventually, but stayed on almost 100% of the time to heat it just a few degrees.  This really worried us because the house has no insulation and only single pane windows, so we thought it would be almost impossible to heat the house on a really cold day or cool the house on a really hot day.

We decided to investigate this, and we found that the heat was acting very strange.  The heat would go off and then cold air would continue to blow for several minutes longer actually cooling the house.  This didn't make any sense.

After reading information online and reading the manuals for the HVAC systems, we realized that they were installed incorrectly.  The outdoor units were set to run the air conditioning and the indoor units were set to turn on the heating elements when the thermostat was set to heat.  Essentially, outdoor and indoor units were fighting each other, as one was cooling and the other was heating.  This put unnecessary stress on the systems and made them run almost 24 hours a day. We called our HVAC installer, and he fixed the problem.  Unfortunately, the compressor on one of the outdoor units failed.  We cannot say if the failure was due to this misconfiguration for sure, but it does seem likely.  The HVAC installer also replaced the outdoor unit that failed.

We were nervous that the systems were damaged due to this misconfiguration, so we negotiated a 2 year no charge warranty with our HVAC installer.

Since this was fixed, both the heat and air condition work well and easily heat and cool the house.  Even with no insulation and single pane windows, we are able to have the modern comforts of central heat and air conditioning.

Electrical / Hot Water Heater Problems

The lights fixtures are installed, and the plumber has installed the hot water heaters.  We should be able to get hot water in our sink.  The prospect of hot water was very exciting, as we never had it in this house before.  When we turned on the hot water heaters, only warm water came out.  The water temperature was only a little warmer than tap water.  We also noticed the the lights were flickering every time we turned on one of the hot water heaters.  We initially had warned the electrician that we though the old wires could not handle the new electrical panels, but we were told not to worry about it.  This is not good; the wires that delivered electricity to the house were too small and could not handle even one of the hot water heaters. 

It turned out that the wires coming into the house from the electric pole were too small to meet the needs of the modern electrical panels that we had installed.  We called the electric company and requested larger wires to serve our newly rewired duplex. The electric company investigated and decided we needed a new transformer and a new larger electric pole was necessary for the transformer.  They had turn off the electricity to the block while the work was done.

New electric pole waiting for installation

New electric pole and transformer installed

Although we still don't think the new wires are large enough, we'll have to wait until we get the rest of the duplex completed and the appliances installed to really test it out.

After the new electric pole and transformer was installed, the hot water heaters still didn't work that well.  We had to call customer support and troubleshoot the hot water heaters. We found out that the wires were screwed on too tightly and caused the contacts to bend and not to give power to some of the heating elements.  Only one out of the three stages was effected by this, and this made it harder to figure out what was happening.  Once this was resolved, we got hot water!

The little hot water heater that caused so much trouble

Light Fixtures Installed

Finally the drywall is done, so we can move onto to the light fixtures.  The electrician is mostly done with rewiring the house; he has been taking a very long time.

We decided to use very cheap lights temporarily for some of the light fixtures, while the contractors are still working.  We don't want to use the antique light fixtures that we purchased on eBay just to have them damaged.  Those will be installed once we finish the floors and paint, so that will be some time in the future.  There is a lot more work to do before then.

Its very exciting to actually flip a switch to turn on a light.  It took a very long time to get to this point.  We don't take this luxury for granted anymore.

Living room ceiling fan, recessed lights, and new smoke detector

 

Ceiling fans for the high upstairs ceilings

 

Ceiling fans for the shorter ceilings downstairs

Working hallway lights

 

Working front porch lights!