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-   -   Birth of a Man Cave (http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=801584)

grant_west 03-31-2014 3:29 PM

Birth of a Man Cave
 
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Dr Evil had a hollowed out Volcano I had to settle for the under portion of the house.
With the boat and the Gem car in the Garage I didn't have a place to "Do Work" I was always doing stuff in the driveway or making a mess out of the Garage and my beloved boat.

We decided to take a crack at making some room under the house. This is what we were dealing with

grant_west 03-31-2014 3:30 PM

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This is the starting picture

grant_west 03-31-2014 3:31 PM

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And this is what the finished product is

grant_west 03-31-2014 3:32 PM

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here is a view from the other side

grant_west 03-31-2014 3:36 PM

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So this is how it was done. We had to use a jack hammer and pick and shovel

grant_west 03-31-2014 3:39 PM

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more

grant_west 03-31-2014 3:40 PM

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Here is the form for the new wall

grant_west 03-31-2014 3:43 PM

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Here is where we started the pour. The new wall is like 3-1/2 feet thick almost 4 yards just in the wall. The bottom of the wall spilled out to create the floor.

grant_west 03-31-2014 3:46 PM

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Now we moved outside

grant_west 03-31-2014 3:47 PM

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This is all stamped and colored

grant_west 03-31-2014 3:49 PM

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Finished:

phathom 03-31-2014 4:15 PM

That is awesome! I am in the same type of situation. My garage is used as the work area/man cave/my office, just way too much for a single car garage. have a crawl space that is currently like 3-4 feet deep and have though about doing just this thing to give myself more space. This inspires me and will probably piss off my wife now that I have a reference of what to do and a new project to think about.

Just curious if you don't mind answering, how much did this run you, and did you do most of the work yourself?

grant_west 03-31-2014 4:47 PM

No I don't mind you asking at all. Originally it was supposed to cost me $4600 but we ended up going over by a thousand, So in the end it was a $5600 Project. I did this project with a friend so I helped out. He claims that this would have been a 10k+ job had he done it for a customer. Digging out was the worst. It was all rock. at times it was moving fast and others it was slow going. My friend cycled threw about 5 workers who just gave up!!! They wanted to work but they wanted to push a broom ect. It was hard to find guys that could get down! Guy's would show up and start to complain about working hard and he would just send them home. I got to say for a guy not built for this type of work it beat the crap out of me. My buddy is a Animal he got on that jack hammer and would go to town!

brett33 03-31-2014 5:10 PM

That is an awesome evil lair! Well done! Only question is, when do the sharks with LEDs attached to their fricken' heads come in.. Haha! Seriously, awesome stuff as usual Grant. We need more DIY/build threads around here!

markj 03-31-2014 9:10 PM

It rubs the lotion on its back... Seriously though, that looks good. That's also way more than $5600 worth. Your friend was right.

buffalow 04-01-2014 7:58 AM

Looks good bro. Get that ductwork insulated - That will save you some money every month on energy. Or replace with newer more efficent duct and really save a bunch. Help pay for gas :)

grant_west 04-01-2014 8:38 AM

Jason: about the Duct work. Do you wrap it like a candy cane around and around or do you wrap it around the duct like a taco?
And how far should the wrapping go? How far should it be wrapped to the unit?

Gnargnar 04-01-2014 4:54 PM

How long did it take

grant_west 04-01-2014 7:38 PM

I worked Only on weekends and it took like 5 weekends. Some weekends I only worked 1 day so I would say if you put your back into it you could get all the dirt out in 4 days and set the Forms in another day and pour in another day. So if you put a straight week into it you would be good to go. And it also depend on how fast you need Sharks with Lazer Beams

Gnargnar 04-01-2014 9:11 PM

I would stick to the weekend plan anyways, my back would give up after 2 days

buffalow 04-02-2014 9:07 AM

G - Depends on which insulation you buy determines how to install it. The simple way - if it is sheet metal, insulate it. For each supply and return duct that is exposed to outside temperatures, they affect the temperature inside your house and how hard your system is working=energy burn. If you are in summer and it is 100 degrees outside (like 80 under the house), than your AC unit is working to deal with a duct that is surrounded by 80 degrees. Reverse in the winter. The goal is to insulate it enough to minimize the outside world. So I would insulate every piece of sheet metal you can reach. Same as dual pane windows, insulating walls and ceiling-they all affect outside temps from coming into house. There may even be a rebate from your utility company to do it. I would say a minimum of R-4.2 insulation on the duct, but probably standard should be R-6 and now there is R-8/R-10. If you are going through this trouble it makes sense to reseal all joints before you insulate, just to minimize any air leakage. There may be rebates to seal duct as well. Of course you can rip it all out and install new flex duct that is already insulated and sealed from the factory. I can help you with costs on this stuff as well.

Something like this
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Master-Fl...BA50/100396973


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