The Mud Room Project.

Zach Neal, Wit Ventures.

The mud room project came about because a previous owner had added a room on to  the back of the house. Useful enough, tt was in poor condition, and sinking into the earth. While this is not directly connected to our income property, a one-bedroom apartment in the basement, (‘Apartment, Steps from Beach’), There was a concrete porch there, and on top of that, in order to bring it up closer to the level of the kitchen floor, he had added another four inches of concrete. This is one big mess to clean up and with certain technical headaches, like connecting it all up to the rest of the house.

All the weight of that, plus inadequate foundations, (it was only a porch to begin with), meant that it was pulling down on the rest of the structure, i.e., a primary residence. The challenge, was to take the room out, while keeping the roof, which saves an estimated three to four thousand dollars or so. 

We’re talking trusses, deck, roofing, and trim, eaves-troughs and the like. There was electrical there, interior as well as exterior, and this had to be revised as well. This room will not have any plumbing, but it will have lighting and other amenities. This all has to be taken into account.

In the photos, readers will see how the project has progressed in spite of rough spring weather. Workers have stripped the cladding and brickwork, cut holes and propped the roof, which must weigh a ton or two. They took down walls, windows, doors, tore up flooring and pretty much everything. 

They demolished the old porch and concrete, laboriously carting that all away, and finally, augered three ten-inch holes and putting in three piers, a combination of holes, concrete, sonotube and metal brackets, to support our new structure. This will be an adjunct sort of off to one side of our country kitchen.

Under the decking, there is a short riser, and then the basic floor joist structure, which is decked and with proper vapour barrier protection.

The walls will be framed in for our next post, and there will be openings for windows and doors. This author’s nephew is the cute guy in the photo, and ladies: he’s single.

The other one is the builder, whom we shall only identify as The Duke.

Thank you for reading.