Let's build a trap door leading to a secret fish room under my porch!

kenchilada · May 2, 2023

surlytx said:
Sort of reminds me of George Constanza sleeping under his desk

No idea who this Costanza is but he looks a lot like the architect I hired for this project..

kenchilada · May 2, 2023

Day 8. More framing of tiny walls. Short on time again today but I want to finish this tomorrow and start paneling.

Also I found this at the end of my driveway...

Ironwill723 · May 2, 2023

Before you buy regular 4x8 paneling look at LP Smartside panels at lowes or home depot. They are for exterior use and come with 50 year warranty.

LP SmartSide LP SmartSide Cedar Texture 8 in. OC Panel Engineered Treated Wood Siding 8 in. Application as 3/8 in. x 4 ft. x 8 ft. 27874 - The Home Depot

Improve the curbside appeal of your home with the help of SmartSide Siding Panel. Can be easily installed without the need of any special tools.

www.homedepot.com

JGT · May 2, 2023

Looks good. How are you getting the RODI to the sw tanks? Maybe running the plumbing in the walls before paneling? Could go under the floor but I think you’ve got the ply down already so going through the joists would be a pain.

kenchilada · May 3, 2023

Ironwill723 said:
Before you buy regular 4x8 paneling look at LP Smartside panels at lowes or home depot. They are for exterior use and come with 50 year warranty.

LP SmartSide LP SmartSide Cedar Texture 8 in. OC Panel Engineered Treated Wood Siding 8 in. Application as 3/8 in. x 4 ft. x 8 ft. 27874 - The Home Depot

Improve the curbside appeal of your home with the help of SmartSide Siding Panel. Can be easily installed without the need of any special tools.

www.homedepot.com

I considered this but figured the extra money wasn’t worth it. I painted my garage last year and it’s covered in T1-11… it is 45 years old and still perfect shape! Mostly because it’s 8” off the ground. If the bottom is near the ground it will rot if not sealed.

kenchilada · May 3, 2023

JGT said:
Looks good. How are you getting the RODI to the sw tanks? Maybe running the plumbing in the walls before paneling? Could go under the floor but I think you’ve got the ply down already so going through the joists would be a pain.

I was just going to run the pipe outside the wall but yeah, why not run it in the wall? I’ll do that today, thanks for the idea.

I might run a second pipe to use as conduit for 1/4” tubing (to protect from critters chewing and breakage).

I’ve had problems with the clear tubing (the cheap stuff at Home Depot) getting brittle and snapping, so I need to find out which kind is going to last. I thought it was all polyethylene though.

Also thought of just running 1/2” hard PVC under the house and terminate with 1/4” john guest fittings on the ends.

biecacka · May 3, 2023

Put a mini fridge and humidor down here. Small poker table…..not a bad area!
looks good, really thinking under the porch/outside the box on this one.
Are you worried about moisture at all? From he water tanks, to rain?

corey

wmb0003 · May 3, 2023

kenchilada said:
I was just going to run the pipe outside the wall but yeah, why not run it in the wall? I’ll do that today, thanks for the idea.

I might run a second pipe to use as conduit for 1/4” tubing (to protect from critters chewing and breakage).

I’ve had problems with the clear tubing (the cheap stuff at Home Depot) getting brittle and snapping, so I need to find out which kind is going to last. I thought it was all polyethylene though.

Also thought of just running 1/2” hard PVC under the house and terminate with 1/4” john guest fittings on the ends.

Great idea running it in conduit; I had some critters chew through my john guest tubing for my AWC that is ran through my crawlspace. Luckily I caught it in time before it caused any real harm to the reef or water damage.

Gumbies R Us · May 3, 2023

biecacka said:
Put a mini fridge and humidor down here. Small poker table…..not a bad area!
looks good, really thinking under the porch/outside the box on this one.
Are you worried about moisture at all? From he water tanks, to rain?

corey

I would love to see a full-blown man cave get put under there haha

kenchilada · May 3, 2023

biecacka said:
Are you worried about moisture at all? From he water tanks, to rain?

Not really, the house is on the highest point of my property so it stays dry down here even in major flooding.

I am going to at least ventilate it to match the crawlspace ventilation that I am blocking with this. That’s about 2 square feet. Probably just some simple screened vents.

I do think I’ll get some degree of mildew in here just because it’s Louisiana and that happens to everything not climate controlled. So humid here. My house is on 9 acres and theres a quarter mile of bayou on two sides.

kenchilada · May 3, 2023

wmb0003 said:
Great idea running it in conduit; I had some critters chew through my john guest tubing for my AWC that is ran through my crawlspace. Luckily I caught it in time before it caused any real harm to the reef or water damage.

Ugh, yeah I had squirrels chew through a section of flex air conditioning duct! Tore it out and ran hard duct.

I hate tubing in general. My whole house is copper pipe. When the gas company installed my water heater they used flexible hose, I tore that out and replaced with copper.

kenchilada · May 3, 2023

Gumbies R Us said:
I would love to see a full-blown man cave get put under there haha

Oh the man cave was last year’s project. It used to be our garage.

My other hobbies live here…. collecting and restoring pinball machines and playing jazz piano.

Gumbies R Us · May 4, 2023

kenchilada said:
Oh the man cave was last year’s project. It used to be our garage.

My other hobbies live here…. collecting and restoring pinball machines and playing jazz piano.

Was not expecting that at all!!! That’s super neat you restore pinball machines, I’ve played a couple before one of my favorites being black knight by Williams. Anyways, if this is what you can turn your garage into? I’m now very curious to see the fish room.

kenchilada · May 4, 2023

Gumbies R Us said:
Was not expecting that at all!!! That’s super neat you restore pinball machines, I’ve played a couple before one of my favorites being black knight by Williams. Anyways, if this is what you can turn your garage into? I’m now very curious to see the fish room.

Black Knight is a good one!

Hopefully I don’t go that overboard on this project.

kenchilada · May 4, 2023

Day 9 & 10. I forgot to post pictures yesterday. I’m done with all the walls now. Seems like its going slow because I’ve only had an hour or two a day to work on it lately. It took about 5 hours total to frame it all. About the same as it would take for a full-size room because it’s the same number of cuts and nails, just shorter!

Next I’m going to frame in the pockets ahead of installing ceiling paneling. Also going to drill and put some PVC in the wall and start running electrical. I’ll probably just put a 3 gang junction box on each end, run some 12AWG and leave it at that. This will be added to one of my two dedicated 20A tank circuits.

I should think about lighting but I’m trying not to overcomplicate things. It would be cool to run some lighting recessed in the wall though.

OrchidMiss · May 4, 2023

kenchilada said:
Day 9 & 10. I forgot to post pictures yesterday. I’m done with all the walls now. Seems like its going slow because I’ve only had an hour or two a day to work on it lately. It took about 5 hours total to frame it all. About the same as it would take for a full-size room because it’s the same number of cuts and nails, just shorter!

Next I’m going to frame in the pockets ahead of installing ceiling paneling. Also going to drill and put some PVC in the wall and start running electrical. I’ll probably just put a 3 gang junction box on each end, run some 12AWG and leave it at that. This will be added to one of my two dedicated 20A tank circuits.

I should think about lighting but I’m trying not to overcomplicate things. It would be cool to run some lighting recessed in the wall though.

I so greatly enjoy everything about this thread. Excellent work, my friend. Love watching the progress.