This is part 3 of an on-going series. For part one click here. For part two click here.
So, in the last series I went through prepping the floor for a concrete delivery. Just to catch you up, this is how it looked:
The guy from the concrete company came over and had a look at the room. He also brought a laser leveler which is a really useful tool for getting a straight floor.
The funniest part of that story is that after going on somewhat of a tirade about how uneven the floor was, turns out that his uncle delivered the original concrete back in 1970.
Anyway, it turned out that the floor was even more uneven than I thought originally, so I carted down about 30 more wheelbarrows of sand to raise some of the lower areas. The layer of concrete varies between about 6 inches and 2 inches, which gives you an idea of how uneven it was.
Since the room is pretty big, I decided to slope it in two different ways. The area where I'm going to do most of my brewing and cleaning is sloped towards the drain, and the area near the door has a slight slope towards the door. This makes the room easy to clean as the floor and walls can be hosed down.
Some of the readers of the previous articles commented on the state of the floor, and just to give you an idea of how high the concrete had to come to make it level, I thought I'd add this.
That's a piece of 2x6.
After the floor was put in, I watered it (with some help from my family) about twice a day for 3 days. This is to keep the concrete from drying too quickly and cracking.
I combined the watering with having a few brew days where me and my brother did an IPA, an amber ale, a saison and a 90 IBU IPA.
Putting up the wall
As some of you may know from the forum thread where I posted a rough sketch of how I wanted the room, the divider wall was supposed to have a couple of corners. However, I decided to build it straight across the room. Because it's easier, and it would make it easier to add a walk-in cooler at a later date. It also makes it possible to change the door from roughly 5.5 feet to a full 6.5.
As I now have some space not included in the brew room, I may add a bar or fermentation chamber, but I'm haven't decided what would be the best choice.
I'm not entirely up to date on my English carpentry terminology so if you have any questions ask and I'll try to explain.
I used 2x3 for the framing and 8mm x 90mm expansion nails to attach the bottom board to the concrete. I went with treated water-resistant pine for the bottom since it's the most likely to be exposed to water. I also used some foundation "paper" underneath it to make sure that it's as water resistant as possible.
I used regular pine for the rest, as it's cheaper and if water ends up above the 3 inches covered by the foundation paper, I have bigger problems anyway.
I mounted the "stands" (the pillars between the bottom and top) with 23.5 inch spacing using wood screws, I tried using deck screws but they kept bending on me. A tip here, is to cut a piece of 2x4 to the exact length you need between each pillar, so that you are sure to get the right distance between them.
Note to self 3: The benefits of a battery operated drill are outdone by the fact that it's always out of battery when you need it not to be out of battery.
We also got the water hooked up, and a temporary drain put in so that I no longer have to get water from the garden hose during my brew days.
Before:
After:
The next article will cover finishing the wall and installing the electrical outlets.
If you have a project you've been working on, be it a brew room, a new beer, a new technique we want to know about it! Contact TxBrew for more details.
So, in the last series I went through prepping the floor for a concrete delivery. Just to catch you up, this is how it looked:
The guy from the concrete company came over and had a look at the room. He also brought a laser leveler which is a really useful tool for getting a straight floor.
The funniest part of that story is that after going on somewhat of a tirade about how uneven the floor was, turns out that his uncle delivered the original concrete back in 1970.
Anyway, it turned out that the floor was even more uneven than I thought originally, so I carted down about 30 more wheelbarrows of sand to raise some of the lower areas. The layer of concrete varies between about 6 inches and 2 inches, which gives you an idea of how uneven it was.
Since the room is pretty big, I decided to slope it in two different ways. The area where I'm going to do most of my brewing and cleaning is sloped towards the drain, and the area near the door has a slight slope towards the door. This makes the room easy to clean as the floor and walls can be hosed down.
Some of the readers of the previous articles commented on the state of the floor, and just to give you an idea of how high the concrete had to come to make it level, I thought I'd add this.
That's a piece of 2x6.
After the floor was put in, I watered it (with some help from my family) about twice a day for 3 days. This is to keep the concrete from drying too quickly and cracking.
I combined the watering with having a few brew days where me and my brother did an IPA, an amber ale, a saison and a 90 IBU IPA.
Putting up the wall
As some of you may know from the forum thread where I posted a rough sketch of how I wanted the room, the divider wall was supposed to have a couple of corners. However, I decided to build it straight across the room. Because it's easier, and it would make it easier to add a walk-in cooler at a later date. It also makes it possible to change the door from roughly 5.5 feet to a full 6.5.
As I now have some space not included in the brew room, I may add a bar or fermentation chamber, but I'm haven't decided what would be the best choice.
I'm not entirely up to date on my English carpentry terminology so if you have any questions ask and I'll try to explain.
I used 2x3 for the framing and 8mm x 90mm expansion nails to attach the bottom board to the concrete. I went with treated water-resistant pine for the bottom since it's the most likely to be exposed to water. I also used some foundation "paper" underneath it to make sure that it's as water resistant as possible.
I used regular pine for the rest, as it's cheaper and if water ends up above the 3 inches covered by the foundation paper, I have bigger problems anyway.
I mounted the "stands" (the pillars between the bottom and top) with 23.5 inch spacing using wood screws, I tried using deck screws but they kept bending on me. A tip here, is to cut a piece of 2x4 to the exact length you need between each pillar, so that you are sure to get the right distance between them.
Note to self 3: The benefits of a battery operated drill are outdone by the fact that it's always out of battery when you need it not to be out of battery.
We also got the water hooked up, and a temporary drain put in so that I no longer have to get water from the garden hose during my brew days.
Before:
After:
The next article will cover finishing the wall and installing the electrical outlets.
If you have a project you've been working on, be it a brew room, a new beer, a new technique we want to know about it! Contact TxBrew for more details.
