Rough Plumbing and HVAC

Today, the HVAC and plumbing crews were here. They got started on the rough HVAC and rough plumbing, and I had to look up what’s meant by “rough.” As I understand it, this means that they put in the pipes and ducts, routing water and air to where it needs to go. Later, after the walls are put back in place, there is still more to do in finishing the work by adding fixtures and vents to all of the pipes and ducts sticking out of the walls. Well, maybe not actually sticking out of the walls, but ending near some hole in the wall.

Everyone was happy to talk with me about what was being done, and there were a few decisions to make, so after they all left, I took some photos of the key points. I’ll try to use those to show you what has been going on.

The remaining drywall was removed from the kitchen walls. I guess they didn’t know for sure that they would need to remove it until a plumber got a look at things.

There had been two air return vents in the kitchen partition wall originally. They were up near the top (made to look like a single wide vent), but with the top portion of the wall being cut out to make shelves, we had a choice. The vents could be in the lower part of the wall, which would be less efficient, or the ducts could be rerouted to put them high up on another nearby wall. We felt they would look better being up high as well as more efficient, so that’s what we decided. Actually, I don’t recall for certain that there was an option for putting both of them in the partition wall; that option might have been to have one low and one high. Either way, I think this is the best choice.

We discovered that a set of nicknack shelves that were planned for the hallway won’t be possible. What was presumed to be an empty space in the wall that could be made into shelves turned out to house a chimney from the furnace and water heater. That space does have enough room for the additional air return duct, and we will still be able to have a set of shelves halfway down the hallway.

They reopened the new bathroom floor to get at the plumbing, and I think also get at some of the HVAC stuff. The good news is that this means they probably won’t need to cut a hole in our basement bedroom ceiling to get at this stuff.

We’re getting an additional vent to our new bedroom, just to make sure we have adequate heating and cooling. If it turns out to be too much, we can always close a vent. You can also see in the picture that they sealed the space around the chimney that comes from our wood burning stove.

It was discovered that the hood/microwave over our stove never vented to the outside. The ducts had just emptied into the space between the joists (or was it between the studs), so that is being fixed. To bring it up to code, a new vent had to be added to bring air into the house to replace the air being vented out of the house. The air goes through a sort of soft, puffy duct to route it to the furnace.

So that’s it for today. I’m expecting HVAC and plumbing tomorrow, and then we’ll see the electrician on Friday.