We completed the first major milestone today. The first phase of the electrical upgrade: addition of circuits and service panel upgrade is done! We doubled (or quadrupled? I don’t remember…) the electrical capacity. We added dedicated circuits to the bathrooms (left the existing one; added one for the new space heater and one for the outlets), 3 or 4 in the kitchen (see left picture) and spread a few others throughout the house. All rooms have ceiling lights (original Eichlers had very few of these). And all outlets throughout the house are now grounded!

The roofers have already started installing the insulation - you can see it on the right picture. Some rigid insulation, on top of which they will lay the Duro-Last, a single-ply membrane, also called “pool liner” (because that was the first usage for that material).

As Eichler do not have crawl space or attic, owners who needed to add phone and TV capacity had only one choice: to run the wires along the outside walls. After 30-40 years you can imagine why most Eichlers look like a Swiss cheese entangled in a web of cables…

One of the immediate reward of using structured cabling is that you don’t need anymore all these ugly cables that were running along the house. I took great pleasure in tearing them!

It makes a huge difference aesthetically (check out most Eichler homes - they are plagued with this mess of wires running outside), but it also closes the door to the hordes of ants, spiders and termites that were using these convenient access into your home. Granted, they will find other access but there is no reason to make it too easy on them!

Re-wiring a house is a time consuming (and therefore muy expensive) task. If you go down that path, you should seriously consider adding some extra capacity and giving yourself some leg room for the future. The International Engineering Consortium says it better than me:

typical costs for building operation and alterations over a 40-year life cycle far exceed the initial construction costs. Proper systems-integration planning to optimize the construction process can reduce these ongoing life cycle costs.

The best way to do this? Structured wiring (also called at times “smart wiring” by some, especially realtors…).

The electricians will run combination cable (2x cat5e + 2x RG6) from the garage to each room. I plan on using one cat5e for the phone (up to 4 lines), one cat5e for data (up to Gigabit Ethernet) and the two coax for video distribution (in and out). Note that the cat5e could also be used for audio distribution or security systems, so this bundle gives you quite some flexibility. Wiring the complete house (about 10 terminations) requires a 500-ft spool - that’s around $350 in this configuration.

I will be taking care of the distribution panel, terminations and faceplates (a time-consuming but not so complex process) and will be posting the details later on.

In addition, I’ve asked the crew to drop in a few extra audio cables in the living room, going from one side of the room to the other - this is for the future 5:1 surround sound home theather!

If you would like to read more about structured cabling, Leviton has a great “Wiring Strategies Installation Guide” available for download.

As the roof has to be replaced I started investigating about my options. The best source of information for this is, once again, the Eichler Network. They have a great article about roofing.

This foam stuff sounds like a very funky 1970’s option. I think I’ll go with the single-ply Duro-Last (also known as “pool liner”) - checking with some flat-roof owners in the area, but also in Europe, this seems to be the most sensible option. I have identified three companies and will get bids for the job.

An interesting thing that emerged during my quest for the best roofing option was the electrical question. Indeed, Eichler homes have no crawl space and no attic. So the electrical wires run straight on the eaves, under the roofing material. Obviously a nightmare when you want to upgrade - you need to open the roof to access the cables; provided you know where they are! This explains for the mess of wires you can see on some Eichlers: people just take a shortcut and run the cables around the walls or on the roof. Bottom line: if you remove the roof you have to take this opportunity to upgrade the electrical..

I guess I also need to find an electrician now…

Note: you may wonder why this blog is subtitled “Adventure in DIY remodeling” if I’m going to get contractors to do everything. Well, Duro-last requires a professional installation, and the re-wiring will have to happen very quickly while the roof is off. I need help here! My turn will eventually come…