Basement Build Log - Part 5

Well, I've done a lot since my last post. Though the current state picture won't show it all. What is noticeable...
- Put a small stud wall in the bar storage area to hold the electric subpanel. The subpanel is also in, just not hooked up.
- I also put in the side walls of the media cabinet; not big walls, but interesting to put in.
- I also cut out half of the bathroom wall behind the toilet and moved it back ~3 inches. This gives me the clearance I need for the toilet itself. It looks kind of sloppy, but it'll hold drywall. (note: I tore up a couple good reciprocating saw blades cutting through nails here. The nails I fire into the concrete on the floor must be some kind of special nail that's 10x harder than a normal nail.)

What I've done that's not in the image:
- Father-in-law and I insulated all of the 2x6 exterior walls with R-16, faced insulation. The basement stayed ~65 degrees last night as opposed to ~50. I was actually able to sit down here in shorts for 3 hours without losing any limbs to frost bite.
- I ran the 14-2 Romex for the behind-the-bar outlets, as well as for the room outlets in the theater room. Nothing's hooked up, but the cable is run and ready to be hooked up. Still a few circuits to run, but it's a start. I've drilled a lot of the holes for the other circuits, just haven't run the cable.
- I've begun running ductwork for the bathroom vent fan. I'm going to end up running 30-35' of 4" ductwork for this damn thing, since there is no wood wall anywhere near the bathroom. And I'm sure as hell not venting my basement bathroom to the front of the house. And I'm not venting it through a brick wall, because I'm not drilling a 4" hole in a brick wall.
- I've also actually gotten my permits now. This is a tail unto itself and I'll leave it for below. Sufficite to say, some plans have changed.




The New Bar Plans

You'll notice that the new bar plans above have been drastically simplified. The building inspector informed me that I am only allowed 1 appliance in my bar. Otherwise, they would consider it a 2nd kitchen, and I can't have a 2nd kitchen unless I re-classify as a multi-family dwelling; which would in turn mean walling the basement off from the rest of the house and installing a fire wall between to the "living areas" to prevent a fire from spread from one space to the other.

Now, one might think: "Okay, limit 1 appliance, no big deal. Put in a fridge with a built in ice maker and I'm good to go." One would be wrong (as I was). As evidently a SINK is considered an appliance. Yes, the 2nd thing you would use to try to put out a fire (if the fire extinguisher didn't work or if you didn't have 1) is considered an appliance that contributes to the limit that was put in place because of fire hazards. Ah, local code laws, gotta love em.

Lesson: Re-consider ever telling the city you're going to do any work. They seem to simply exist to make arbitrary decisions based on generalities instead of applying the actual situation at hand and determining a logical course of action.

Result: I will simply be installing a sink in the bar, and then a number of cabinets. When the final inspection happens, that's all that can be there anyway.


The Electrical Situation
I've spoken with god knows how many electricians now, including the inspectors a couple of time and continue to get varying information on what I can and can't do.

A little background info: First off, I'm no expert on electric, so I speak from a stance of mostly ignorance. If you've ever run electrical cable, you've probably seen Romex cable. It's that white or yellow cable stapled to studs running from outlet to outlet. It's used because it has all the wires you need, wrapped together inside a nice insulating sheath for you. So, you can run 1 cable instead of running 3 wires inside of conduit. SCR is basically the same thing, except it's supply cable. It's probably the big cable that's coming into your house from the supply outside.

So, I spoke with 1 insector who said "you can either use SCR or run individual wires in conduit." Easy choice... I'm not running conduit 70 feet if I don't have to.

Then I spoke with the guy at Kentucky Lighting & Supply: "no, you can't run SCR inside, that's a fire hazard." Fantastic, either he's lying to get me to buy conduit from him, or he doesn't know WTF he's talking about. He also mentioned to me that if I use aluminum wires, I have to buy the "black goo" used to oxidize the wires at connection points... you know, to prevent a giant fire from burning down my hotel... err... house.

So, I call the inspector again and they say the same thing they said before. And I'm going "WTF". He also said "no, you don't have to use black goo now. wire makers put that on for you when the make the wire now".

Anyhow, long story short, I've got 3 electricians coming Monday to give me estimates on hooking up the subpanel (and running the feeder cable) for me. I'm fairly confident now though, that we can just run aluminum SCR and be fine. But, if one of these electricians will do it on the cheap (HA HA, yeah right) I'll go with them.

That's it for now. Next weekend is the hookup day for electric.