Just Finished Project - Rebuild a Vault to Kitchen Skylight

[tbellemare]

When I bought the house we live in, almost 16 years ago, a considerable amount of "remuddling" had been done. On the surface, most of it looked good and some looked pretty sloppy. A bit below the surface, it almost all looked pretty sloppy. I have been essentially redoing almost all of it over the years.

One feature of the house is a skylight in the middle of the kitchen, a kitchen that is fairly generous for a house its size around here in the '70s. It has leaked a few times and it got steadily worse over time. The leaking ruined the ceiling vault on the low end of the skylight and some of the surrounding ceiling and walls.

[attachimg=#1]

I had to have the roof replaced a while back and had the skylight pulled and reset properly, which stopped the leaking. I since took the vault down to the sheetrock, removing the crapped out joints and tape and started fresh. After some work with a knife and sanders on both the walls and the aluminum frame of the skylight, I got it pretty well cleaned up.

[attachimg=#2]

I removed a pot hanger I made that was along one edge of the vault prior to beginning the project and had another, factory made rack to hang in the middle. I got it off CL unused for $25. It was a distress sale from someone that bought it, waited for a while to install it as their kitchen was being remodeled, and then discovered it wouldn't work.

[attachimg=#3]

If you look carefully in the bottom left of the immediately above image, you can see where the water was causing the paint and plaster of the wall to flake off.

Please also note that the new pot rack is hanging from screw hooks that are sunk into a perimeter piece of solid wood. You might think that I put that there to provide a predictable place to sink the screw hooks. You would be correct. Although, that is just how it worked out...

I originally put them there as a sort of valence to hide a strip of LED lighting. They came in handy to hang the pot rack as well.

[attachimg=#4]

I'm not the best at making a nice finish on a wall. In fact, I'm pretty poor at it but I'm getting better. I'm not happy with how smooth these surfaces are but my wife really likes it and is happy to have it finished. She is, after all, my only inspector and as such, the only one that matters...

Tom

 

[stvrowe]

Nice touch Tom - skylight installations like that tend to look like dark caves at night even with a well lit room.  The LED lighting adds a very nice visual feature.

 

[tbellemare]

Thanks, Steve!

My wife says it makes the room look bigger and they make a great "night light". I just like the effect...

Tom

 

[wow]

Tom, that looks great!

There are two things in particular that I like about it:

1. You are a dealer, but actually use tools in real life? Cool!

2. It took you 16 years to get around to this? There's hope for me after all!!!

[big grin]

OH - you forgot to tell us which Festool products you used to accomplish this. You DID use Festool products for this, right?

[scared]

 

[Sparktrician]

I really like the concept of using LED lighting inside the skylight vault.  Good job, Tom. 

 

[tbellemare]

I did forget to mention which Festool products I used so here goes...

Planex, RO 90, C 15 w/ Keyless (for mud mixing/drilling) and Centotec (for drilling/driving), TS 55 REQ for ripping 1 x 10, Domino for assembling ripped 1xs to make valence, Kapex for cross cutting/bevelling, and CT 26 w/ WCR to keep everything neat and clean as I progressed.

I did this in my spare time, which is why it took 16 years. In all fairness to me, the skylight wasn't properly reinstalled until about 5 years ago.

The work was also done completely in our living space. That's a testament to how neat and clean one can work with these tools. Though my wife couldn't be termed a "neat freak" like my dearly departed mother could, she likes things to be nice and tidy.

Tom

 

[jacko9]

Nice job Tom.  I have a similar skylight  4' x 4' which provides a lot of light in the kitchen and hall area but, in the middle of summer it was like a furnace opening with the overhead sun.  I found a retractable shade kit that has a metallic reflective side so that in the summer my wife can adjust it during the day to control the heat.

Jack

 

[erock]

Excellent job Tom!    I'm impressed buddy!    The LED lighting was a sweet idea!   

So now that this is done….what's next to check off the honey do  list?

Eric

 

[tbellemare]

That's cool, Jack - Literally!

I may have to consider that option. Our skylight (about 2' x 4") only gets sun directly streaming through it for a short period each day but it does make a difference. When it's hot and the sun is shining directly through it, that is not the place to be in the room. I have diffused that by putting the pot rack in the sun rays' path but it still contributes to the overall heat of the room. 'Conservation of Energy and all... That calculation changes a little when fluid dynamics are considered, but you know what I mean. If the inside of my skylight is hotter than the outside, it is actually removing heat from the house. That is something I've wondered about for a long time but haven't done the experimentation to determine. After this project, I find it more intriguing.

The vault gets really hot, as it is the high point in the room and it holds a heat generator. Each step up the ladder must have been 10 degrees? Another thing I noticed, while masking the aluminum frame of the skylight during bright sunlight, was how hot the frame was. As we all know, aluminum has phenomenal heat transfer characteristics. Just like aluminum frame windows need a heat transfer barrier, which is basically a gasket, so do skylights. I'm talking LEED stuff here - I'm not pulling this particular skylight anytime soon, even though the whole LEED thing started in Austin.

I live in a tri-level house on a significant hill. The air conditioning is by far most effective if I close the doors between the levels. Leaving the door to the highest level open causes it to be super hot. I don't know why anyone would want a 2-story in hot climates?

Tom

 

[jacko9]

That's cool, Jack - Literally!

I may have to consider that option. Our skylight (about 2' x 4") only gets sun directly streaming through it for a short period each day but it does make a difference. When it's hot and the sun is shining directly through it, that is not the place to be in the room. I have diffused that by putting the pot rack in the sun rays' path but it still contributes to the overall heat of the room. 'Conservation of Energy and all... That calculation changes a little when fluid dynamics are considered, but you know what I mean. If the inside of my skylight is hotter than the outside, it is actually removing heat from the house. That is something I've wondered about for a long time but haven't done the experimentation to determine. After this project, I find it more intriguing.

The vault gets really hot, as it is the high point in the room and it holds a heat generator. Each step up the ladder must have been 10 degrees? Another thing I noticed, while masking the aluminum frame of the skylight during bright sunlight, was how hot the frame was. As we all know, aluminum has phenomenal heat transfer characteristics. Just like aluminum frame windows need a heat transfer barrier, which is basically a gasket, so do skylights. I'm talking LEED stuff here - I'm not pulling this particular skylight anytime soon, even though the whole LEED thing started in Austin.

I live in a tri-level house on a significant hill. The air conditioning is by far most effective if I close the doors between the levels. Leaving the door to the highest level open causes it to be super hot. I don't know why anyone would want a 2-story in hot climates?

Tom

Tom,

In out two 2' X 4' skylights we installed Bali Cellular shades that also help a whole lot.  I think we got them from Home Depot and they come complete with track for easy opening and closing.

Just before we retired we looked at new homes in different locations and we were astonished at how many so called "retirement communities" had two level homes.  We decided to stay in our single level home and save our knees.

Jack

 

[wow]

We decided to stay in our single level home and save our knees.

Jack

30 years ago while I was designing our house my mom was diagnosed with a brain tumor (she passed many years ago) and I decided to make everything a single level in case she came to live with us. She never did, but fast forward two decades and my wife's folks came to live with us. They were with us for several years - walkers and all - until passing recently within 2 months of each other.

I recently sprained my knee, and am thankful every time I look at the stairs to the basement that I don't have to go up or down them more than I do.

I don't know if I was smart, but I'm sure glad that I made that choice!

 

[Sparktrician]

We decided to stay in our single level home and save our knees.

Jack

30 years ago while I was designing our house my mom was diagnosed with a brain tumor (she passed many years ago) and I decided to make everything a single level in case she came to live with us. She never did, but fast forward two decades and my wife's folks came to live with us. They were with us for several years - walkers and all - until passing recently within 2 months of each other.

I recently sprained my knee, and am thankful every time I look at the stairs to the basement that I don't have to go up or down them more than I do.

I don't know if I was smart, but I'm sure glad that I made that choice!

My next house will be a single-level one for other reasons.  One of my dogs that departed in February had a very bad case of hip dysplasia and spinal spondylosis making trips upstairs very painful and return trips downstairs a train wreck in the making.  I couldn't carry a 100# German Shepherd that wiggled all over the place on my deteriorating knees, so we came to an accommodation.  I would give him "Dad's Taxi" in the evenings, carrying his rear end up the stairs while he took care of the front end.  In the mornings, I had to back down the stairs, ready to catch him when he lost his footing, preventing his collision with the wall at the bottom of the stairs, which frequently necessitated cutting out and replacing some of the drywall.  While I love the house and location, I find myself looking forward to selling, and getting out of this region into a smaller rambler with a huge garage and no stairs. 

 

[tbellemare]

Excellent job Tom!    I'm impressed buddy!    The LED lighting was a sweet idea!   

So now that this is done….what's next to check off the honey do  list?

Eric

It's seemingly endless, Eric...

I'll try to keep my posts illustrative. I actually enjoy this stuff. I just wish I had more time to enjoy.

Tom

 

[Sparktrician]

Just a thought for Tom and Jack re solar heating issues - what about having a tinting specialist come in and put on one of those 3M tints that reflects 98% of the UV (heating) rays?  It made a huge difference in my former house to have that done on the south-facing windows.  The one down side is that I had to start using grow lights on the plants because of the dramatic reduction in UV. 

 

[tbellemare]

We decided to stay in our single level home and save our knees.

Jack

30 years ago while I was designing our house my mom was diagnosed with a brain tumor (she passed many years ago) and I decided to make everything a single level in case she came to live with us. She never did, but fast forward two decades and my wife's folks came to live with us. They were with us for several years - walkers and all - until passing recently within 2 months of each other.

I recently sprained my knee, and am thankful every time I look at the stairs to the basement that I don't have to go up or down them more than I do.

I don't know if I was smart, but I'm sure glad that I made that choice!

My next house will be a single-level one for other reasons.  One of my dogs that departed in February had a very bad case of hip dysplasia and spinal spondylosis making trips upstairs very painful and return trips downstairs a train wreck in the making.  I couldn't carry a 100# German Shepherd that wiggled all over the place on my deteriorating knees, so we came to an accommodation.  I would give him "Dad's Taxi" in the evenings, carrying his rear end up the stairs while he took care of the front end.  In the mornings, I had to back down the stairs, ready to catch him when he lost his footing, preventing his collision with the wall at the bottom of the stairs, which frequently necessitated cutting out and replacing some of the drywall.  While I love the house and location, I find myself looking forward to selling, and getting out of this region into a smaller rambler with a huge garage and no stairs. 

I feel for you, Willy.

My little buddy, Muddy, AKA Mud Boy, AKA Sir Barkalot, went to his leg-hiking, butt-sniffing spot in The Sky a while back. He was a REAL chick magnet. We would go many places and the HOT women would flock to him. I miss that little guy.

May he rest in peace...

http://festoolownersgroup.com/festool-sales-dealer-area/which-member%27s-dog-or-cat-picture-is-your-favorite/  Reply #15

Tom

Incidentally, I don't know why he looks harlequin in that image?