Pantry Renovations

This is a photo story of pantry renovations done in 2013 by Friesen's Construction Renovation & Concrete.

The client's problems began in February when lack of sufficient insulation in the attic and walls of her house led to ice damming on the roof. The heat escaping the inside of the house met the cold winter air outside and formed ice ridges on the roof. Then, when a mild Saturday came in February, the ice started to melt and drip through the roof, and through the plaster and lathe ceiling of her old house (built in 1926), and a large section of her pantry ceiling fell down to the floor.

Ruth, the client called her insurance contact, and another company came to clean up the mess. But because they were afraid the ice on the roof would cause more plaster to come down they didn't do the finishing work. That is, put drywall up on the celing and west wall, and paint to restore the room.

This is when Gary came to have a look, and poking in the exposed lathes discovered that Ruth had NO insulation between the inner and outer walls! And very little in the attic at all. He suggested she call the insurance claims rep to see if they would be putting insulation in.

Ruth called and quickly learned that insurance does not replace what was not there in the first place. He suggested that she allow Gary to put insulation in the other walls while the other company was stalling. Gary and his friend Isaac, took care of that the very same weekend.

They began by ripping out the lathes, and taking them away. Then they brought some batts of R22 insulation, and Gary cut and fit them between the 2 x 4s of both outer walls, the west and the south wall.They also installed a vapour barrier over the batts, so that moisture from indoor heat could not affect them in the winter time.

The client agreed that they could put drywall in place on the other three walls, and leave the ceiling and the west wall for the other company to do as they had promised.

However, she ended up waiting six weeks, and they did not show up. Finally, she called, and learned that they had decided that Friesen's company could finish the job. They didn't want to do it after they heard about the insulation work he had done, but they had not been thoughtful enough to let her know!

The client called the Claims Rep to see if Gary could finish the work. This was allowed if he would submit a quote with his GST number. This was quickly accomplished, and he went to work.

To get the drywall up to the ceiling he had to bring in a worker, but he was able to do all the rest himself.

Gary mudded all the drywall panel seams and sanded them down and touched them up again and again, showing himself to be a perfectionist.

In fact, Ruth, was surprised to see that he used a bright light to search out any irregularities or flaws in the mudding. He wanted to have perfectly smooth walls and ceilng.

The original plan had been for Ruth, the client, to do the painting herself, but when she mentioned that she would not have time to do that until the weekend, Gary quietly added that job to his, and got the room all painted, and came back for the second coat too.

Broken plaster creates a lot of white dust, which had got quite ground into the laminate flooring. However, the client was pleased to come home after Gary's last day of work, to find that he had thoroughly cleaned the floor and the room, and put the baseboards back, freshly painted. It was a great relief to her to have the project done - and done to a far higher standard than she had expected!