Demolition – A Vancouver Special Renovation

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We just finished the first week of the reno and all things considered, everything went quite well. The kitchen, both bathrooms, and the dining room are all down to the studs, and we’re now getting a good idea of where we go from here. We wanted to remove the wall that formed a useless hallway in the centre of the house but weren’t sure exactly if there was anything structural in that wall. When we pulled it apart, it wasn’t a major structural wall, but it did contain one supporting post. In the City of Vancouver, if you’re going to mess with structural elements, you’re going to need an engineer to sign off on new plans (B1 & B2). To try and avoid this, I went to City Hall to get the original plans to see if there was a possibility that the engineer would write a letter allowing this change without full structural drawings. In the end, he just wanted extra bracing in a couple of spots and that was it…

The other thing that was a bit of an unknown, was the state of the attic. The original homeowner decided that there was no need for bathrooms air vents, which isn’t a good thing. With all of the rain and high moisture levels, we have in the Pacific North West, air circulation in the home and in the attic is important. During the inspection, we could see that there was black staining in the attic, but couldn’t see much due to the 18″ crawl space that you’ll find in Vancouver Specials. The worry was that there might be some mould in the attic that we would have to deal with, but it turned out that we didn’t. We’ve decided to paint the attic, just to seal everything up, and adjust the insulation so that the soffits are fully exposed.

Next week, we’re going finish the framing, start of the electrical and plumbing.

Have a look at some photos of the place so far…

vancouver special rennovation project before demolishing

vancouver special rennovation project before updates

vancouver special rennovation project outdate bedroom

vancouver special rennovation project old bathroom

vancouver special rennovation project outdated bathroom

vancouver special rennovation project kitchen old fashioned

vancouver special rennovation project living room

vancouver special rennovation project interior living room before

vancouver special rennovation project before room

vancouver special rennovation project before bedroom

vancouver special rennovation project before garagevancouver special rennovation project laundry room previous

 

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