0219 - Basement Moisture-Proofing, Home Audio, Blinds, and Appliances January 15-January 21, 2007 | July 16-July 22, 2007 >> Vila: Hi, I'm Bob Vila. Welcome to the show here in Melrose, where our basement-finishing project is nearly complete. Today, we're gonna be recapping how we keep the moisture out of the space down there, but we're also shopping for appliances -- laundry equipment and the like -- putting in a fabulous Bose AV system, and some window treatments like we've never seen before. Stick around. One of the key things about refinishing a basement is to make sure that it's gonna be dry, and then warm. So we got together with our friends from Basement Systems. We couldn't have done it without them. Lots of measures here to kind of waterproof this basement area, and this is the latest.
>> Right.
>> Vila: This is an underlayment, right?
>> It is. It's a plastic subfloor made specifically for basements. And in a basement, it's very important that we don't have organic material on the floor, because we have water vapor coming up through concrete. It's porous, and we don't want to have mold underneath the floor.
>> Vila: Now, before we got this far, let's just recap some of the methods that have been used for waterproofing this basement. The first things that we did involved a perimeter drain system. You want to recap that for us?
>> Yeah. In order to keep the floor dry and to drain water from the floor and the walls, the first thing that we did was put a perimeter drain in. What we did was take all that water from the perimeter drain to a sump location. The sump system that we installed is called the Triple-Safe System because it has three pumps in it. You have an A.C. pump. You have an A.C. backup and a D.C. battery backup pump. So you're covered in all cases. You're not gonna get flooded from pump failure.
>> Vila: Okay, so we've got the lid on it, and we're just adding more crushed stone to secure it. But there's always gonna be some standing water in that. Isn't that a problem?
>> Normally, it would be, but this sump system has an airtight lid on it. So that pool of water that's sitting there all the time doesn't evaporate.
>> Vila: So it can't evaporate back in. All right.
>> And we've also included an airtight floor drain in the sump lid. So this way, if there was a plumbing leak from any plumbing source in the house, it would run to this low spot and then run down this floor drain, which lets water down, but damp air cannot come up 'cause it has a cup and a check ball underneath that floor drain.
>> Vila: So you've thought of everything.
>> We try.
>> Vila: What about if you run out of power and you go on battery power?
>> Well, that's important that the homeowner knows that they're on battery power, so this is the charger box and control box for the battery backup pump, and we're going to mount this on the wall up there, and there's a loud alarm that sounds off when the homeowner is on battery power to tell them, "Hey, you've got to restore these primary pumps before the battery goes dead."
>> Vila: Okay, it seems like you've thought about everything, but there's got to be some other potential problems down the line. You're taking all the water that collects here up and then through in between the ceiling joist to an outside location. What about issues of freezing?
>> That's an important issue, too, and we have the solution to that. They're called ice-guard fittings, and we've mounted them outside already.
>> Vila: And this is all kind of aimed at controlling any water infiltration from underground.
>> Right. Rainwater is what you're particularly concerned about. When it rains a lot, the backfill gets saturated on the outside of the foundation. It creates a little hydrostatic pressure. Pushes water through the walls and up at the floor-wall joint.
>> Vila: Terrible, terrible thought. And then, speaking of the walls, an older house like this -- it's not quite a century old, but still the quality of the foundation walls is not what you expect in today's homes, where you have a uniform concrete pour. Here, it's kind of punky and rubblestone.
>> Right.
>> Vila: What have we done to deal with water infiltration through the walls?
>> Well, what we wanted to do was create a vapor barrier on the inside of the walls to prevent water vapor from evaporating into the basement environment. And we wanted to drain any leaks that come through the walls down into the perimeter drain without being exposed to the basement environment. So we put a product called "Clean Space," which is a reinforced vapor barrier, on the walls and tucked it down into our perimeter drain so it would take care of those.
>> Vila: And what about other issues, like appliances -- like, the water heater, for example, if it should fail and it's now in a finished basement?
>> What we've done there is we installed a ring, called a flood ring, around the water heater that will drain water away into our perimeter drain in the eventuality that the water heater would leak or any of the fittings associated with it would leak.
>> Vila: Okay. And then the last question is, very often people have to go down and buy a dehumidifier. Even though they've taken all these measures to control the moisture, they still feel there's damp in there, and the furniture is gonna get ruined or whatever or mold growth. What do you suggest, in terms of dehumidifying space?
>> Well, you need a dehumidification system that's made for basement environments. Most dehumidifiers are rated at 80 degree, 60% relative humidity. And at 80 degrees it's easy to take water out of the air, because you cool it a little bit, and you get condensation. But in basements we have temperatures that are much cooler, maybe 62 degrees, 65 degrees. We need a dehumidifier that is made for that environment. And here we've installed what we call a SaniDry Basement Air System. And it is a 100-pint-per-day dehumidification system. It has air filtration built in. It's very energy efficient. In fact, it's "Energy Star" rated. And it will perform very, very well in basements that have the cool temperatures.
>> Vila: Thanks, Larry.
>> Vila: And, of course, we added new windows, and we've just trimmed them out with these new bali blinds. Up in the kitchen, we've installed, where we have a 9-foot patio door, we've installed a very unique, new treatment. Watch.
>> What we're putting up here today is the Sheer Enchantment Blind from Bali. And first of all, we're gonna start with these heavy-duty brackets. I've already measured. So all I do is put them in. And then we'll put the headrail up. We've got the heavy-duty headrail here, and if you look inside it's got a steel pantograph or a scissors option, which give you smooth traversing when you put the blind up. And it's always good to have a second pair of hands, because we've got a 9-foot slider, and it's kind of hard to do by yourself. But it just snaps right in. Okay, now we're gonna snap the veins in. The veins snap right into the vinyl stems, and just remember to put the notch towards the back wall. And if the plastic stems down the road happen to break, they are very easily replaced. Okay, now that we've got the louvers in now, we have the controls which will give you total privacy if you close them, or you can open them up so you can see outside. But now we're gonna go one step further with the fabric we're gonna add on top of this. The Bali Sheer Enchantment will give you the look of draperies. And how we're gonna do that, we're just gonna snap it right on to each louver. You start at one corner. Doesn't make any difference. And what you want to do is slide this right on. You notice those little snaps. And just go all the way down the line. The beauty of this is, if it happens to get dirty, then you can just unsnap it, throw it in the wash with a little Woolite. Do not put it in the dryer. And just hang it right back up. And you get it nice and clean. At the bottom, we hold the sheer in place by a thread, which just slips right into the vein. To cap it off, we add the beautiful wood cornice option to hide the headrail. Make sure you screw down the cord so children can't get at it. It's a safety feature. Make sure you do it. With everything in place, we're gonna show you the three light-control options. First of all, with the veins closed, we have total room darkening. And you open them up, and we look through the sheer fabric. It gives you a beautiful drapery look. And third of all, if you traverse the blind out of the way, we give you the clear view of your backyard. Upstairs in the bedroom and in the dressing room, we feature Bali Diamond-Cell Cordless Shades. And they also have a top-down, bottom-up feature, which gives you privacy and also lets you have light come in through the top. They're cordless, which are great for kids. There's no strings. In the boys' bedroom, Bali Roller Shades. They come in really cool racing-stripe colors -- blues and yellows. And the kids love them. They're room darkening, and the kids really sleep late in the morning. And Sarah loves that. Okay, down in the basement we feature Bali Natural Shades. Those are made of natural products, like reed and bamboo. And they also feature a beautiful wooden balance and some edge banning to go around. It really fits in the decor really nice.
>> Vila: This closed caption sponsorship is brought to you by...
>> Vila: Hi, I'm Bob Vila. Next time on the show, our basement-refinishing project is getting the finishing touches. We'll be recapping what we did to keep out rainwater and moisture and make the environment nice and warm down there and also putting in a new type of vertical blinds in the big, sliding patio door that's off the kitchen. And we'll be installing a home-theater system to beat the band. Don't miss it.
>> Vila: Hi, I'm Bob Vila. Next time on the show, our basement-finishing project is almost complete. We'll be recapping how we keep the moisture out, but also putting in window treatments, putting in a home-theater system, and shopping for appliances. Don't miss it.
>> Vila: Hi, I'm Bob Vila. Next time on the show, our basement refinishing is almost done. We're putting in the window treatments and a home theater. Don't miss it.
>> Vila: Andrew Gillis is with us now. He's a friend of the homeowners, and he is an expert on the latest in audiovisual equipment. And we need your help. Now, what did they choose? This is a Bose system, right?
>> Right. This is the Bose Lifestyle Whole-Home Audio System. It basically does surround sound down here in this room for the television, and then it also has zones throughout the house that do audio for the different rooms.
>> Vila: So that we've got the capability of putting different sounds, different music selections in different parts of the house. And even though this is a small house, it's now four levels, I think. So you can get all over the place. Now is that achieved wirelessly?
>> Well, some of the parts are wireless. See, there is a wireless zone that you can put anywhere in the house, where you can get music. And then there's also fixed zones in the kitchen and then outside in the garden. And there's a wireless remote for each one of those.
>> Vila: What is this thing that we're looking at right here?
>> This is sort of the core of the whole system here. This is where all the music is stored and where you sort of configure the system. And all of the other remotes actually use this system to send audio to the rest of the house.
>> Vila: Does it equate to what I think of as a tuner and then a DVD player and a CD player?
>> Yeah, this is actually all of those things in one. You can actually take all of your CD library and store it in this system and then have access to it anywhere.
>> Vila: Now, Ricardo, our homeowner, is a musician, and I understand he has over 300 CDs here in the house. How many can you burn in here?
>> This holds 340 CDs.
>> Vila: Wow.
>> So you can take 300 in here, and then, the system, you can actually set up sort of music libraries for each person in the home. And as they listen to music, and they pick which songs they like and which ones they don't, the system will actually adapt to them and help them find songs that they like automatically. That's actually what I'm setting up here. I have set up some zones.
>> Vila: So you've got holiday mix right now, but you got one zone for the kids and one for the husband and one for the wife.
>> So this is our back-room panel for all of our AV equipment. This is where we're mounting the amplifiers that go with the Bose Media Center. The Bose Media Center has multiple components, and we're connecting them all with this Bose interconnect cable. And this is the hub right here that connects all of the wires together. Outside, we have our Bose outdoor-rated speaker here. These can actually be buried a little bit in the ground. And that allows them to have a sound that fills the yard but not be seen.
>> Vila: What's this all cost?
>> I believe this system is about $5,000.
>> Vila: For all the different rooms in the house.
>> That's mostly just for the base. I think the other rooms are extra.
>> Vila: Okay. What other pieces of equipment are involved in the whole thing?
>> It's pretty much just this system here. There's also an amplifier that works with the speakers upstairs.
>> Vila: Does this open?
>> Yeah. You can actually put a DVD in here if you want to watch it on the screen here. But yeah, mostly the system is controlled with the remote control.
>> Vila: Even when you're outdoors?
>> Yeah. All of Bose remotes are radio. So you don't have to be in the room where you're using them. You can be anywhere, and they'll work.
>> Vila: This is the main place, where the action takes place. This is where they're getting the big-screen TV. Will this also provide them with a surround-sound capability?
>> Yeah, this has 5.1 channel surround sound. It has the Acoustimass module on the floor here and tiny speakers front and back.
>> Vila: And what does the Adapt IQ do for it?
>> Well, this system actually can be adapted to the room. A lot of high-end homes have these custom audio systems that you have to have an engineer come in and actually tune the system to your house.
>> Vila: To the conditions of the room.
>> Right, because, of course, the rooms are different, and people sit different places. So this system, you actually put on this little headset and walk around the room, and it will tune the system to the room you're in.
>> Vila: So once they have the furniture arranged -- and this is not a huge room. It's kind of a rectangular room. It's twice as long as it is deep. The ceilings are low. There's acoustical walls and everything. It's an unusual space. So once they've laid out their furniture and such, they can use those to perfectly balance the system.
>> Yeah. You only have to do it once. It takes about 10 minutes, and then once it's tuned to that room, you'll always get really good sound, no matter what's going on.
>> Vila: Sounds like heaven. Thanks, Andrew.
>> Vila: So, one of the other things that we got to do in creating this new basement space was to carve out a half bathroom and a laundry room. And everything's on a pump system, 'cause we're in a basement space below the grade of the street. So we've got a Swanstone deep-laundry sink with one of these great Moen faucets here. We have room for the ideal laundry equipment. This is of course the front loaders from Whirlpool that make life easier for the homeowner, especially since they're elevated and have the storage space underneath it. And on and on. There are so many details that manage to get fit right into this very tight space.
>> Sarah and Ricardo had a lot of different appliances and electronics to fit in their house, and they had some really unique constraints, like the size of this room. So what they did was, they went online to BrandSource.com to get the different brands, sizes, and shapes to fit in here. You know, BrandSource is a national entity that has almost 2,500 retail outlets doing almost $10 billion worth of great buying power. So they got an awesome deal. Everything was professionally installed by a local dealer at Gray's Appliance, here in Melrose. This is a state-of-the-art Whirlpool Duet pair. You can manually set everything to have a customized wash or let the machine do everything for you. It's extra-large capacity. It'll save tons of energy, and it has great storage underneath. And these machines are ultraquiet. Mom and dad in this family both work. So they can't shop for groceries every other day. That's why they need a large freezer, like this one from Amana. Plus, it fits great under the stairs. And if that's not enough, we have even more freezer space in this bottom-out freezer from Amana, with more refrigeration for extra beverages, birthday cakes, and everything else you need for entertaining. In the other room, we even have a G.E. Wine Cooler, which will chill your beverages to the perfect temperature. And we have a G.E. Microwave for popping the perfect popcorn, because there's gonna be a lot of movies here with all the home theater that we have in the other room. And anchoring the system down here is a 50-inch Samsung flat panel. Samsung is state of the art, top end. It's flat panel, and it really brings the movie-theater experience home. And in the master bedroom, a slightly smaller 42-inch Samsung plasma is great, because it's so slim it doesn't dominate the decor. And the kids even got their own little Samsung LCD set up for watching DVDs in their own room. You know, all these units were easy to compare and contrast online at BrandSource.com. Plus, the homeowners got great, quality service from our local BrandSource outlet, which led to even more time for this beautiful stainless-steel grill.
>> Vila: That's it for this week. Next week we'll be showing you the completed project, including all the furnishings that are coming down into the wonderful basement family room, as well as some of the changes throughout the rest of the house. Till then, I'm Bob Vila. Thanks for joining us. Looking for help on your next project? Visit BobVila.com for everything you need to get the job done right. You'll find show highlights, interactive tools for planning your next project, and helpful how-to articles for every room in your home. BobVila.com -- the ultimate home site.
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