The Final Sacrifice To The Soffit God
As many people know who have crossed my path over the last year, my labor of love has been the ongoing renovation of the basement in the Somrod Townhouse. We finally crossed one of the major hurdles in the project today: we have built all of the soffits and chases. You have no idea what a relief that is.
You probably also have no idea what the hell a soffit or a chase is, but let me help. A soffit, in the basement sense, is essentially a box made of wood framing that runs along your ceiling to hide ductwork, pipes, and any other unsightly thing. (Unfortunately, I cannot build a soffit to cover up the neighbor’s house across the street!) Soffits are finished by covering with drywall, smoothed, and painted to match your walls. A chase is the standing version of the soffit.
In total for our basement renovation, I have built 7 soffits and 1.5 chases. The first 3 soffits and 1.5 chases were done last fall during my initial drywall run. Then I took some time off from the project (from burnout!). At the time I took off though, the major eyesore left in the space was this massive industrial size ductwork that the original contractor had run right across the center of the main room. It was ridiculous: anyone over 5’10″ had to duck to walk through the room. This was definitely something I could not build a soffit around. More importantly, what good is a finished basement for resale value when it has a giant duct bisecting it!
Finally, this past April, we had an HVAC specialist come in and reroute this massive ductwork into a smaller duct system that wrapped around the perimeter. It was unbelievable how the sudden headroom blew me and S.Rod away. The only problem was that it was going to take a whole group of soffits to cover it, a project easily ten times more complicated that the first ones I’d done.
Luckily, now armed with the help of a now fully mobile assistant, the framing of the last 4 soffits was completed over today (iPhone pix below). Now all that remains in the basement is to finish drywalling these and a few other walls, install the drop ceiling, finish the doors, and add some trim and moldings— and it might actually be a livable and workable space.
S.Rod does not set off airport-security with her sexy cuteness, or her titanium spinal support. This petite Puertoruvian uses her powers of the Force to keep all facets of the Somrod business afloat. With her love and talent in jewelry, crafts and interior design, Ms. S.Rod hopes to make the world a better place one beaded necklace at a time.
You’ve just gone a long way towards explaining why we still live in an apartment. Yikes! Great work, but man that looks rough, sir.
To the contrary, every soffit I build adds value to our townhouse… earning us more money when we sell it in the future.
Provided the gas price extravaganza doesn’t drive the economy in chaos.
Hello Mark, Sorry I am responding with a question so many months later. I too have ductwork running down the middle of my basement (something like 40 feet). Would like to have this rerouted to either side. First question: Where would you recommend to find a HVAC Specialist. Second question; I’m sure that it is all relative, but along what range of cost would you anticipate the rerouting would cost? Although I’m not a big fan of taping/compounding and sanding, to save some $ we can do any soffits/walls, ourselves. Just want to get an idea of how much $$$ I might be looking at. Thanks for any info you could provide.
Lori
Hey Lori,
HVAC specialists should be easy to find— just Google that and the name of your town or county, and you should get several results. When you call them, just make sure they handle residential duct work and ask if they can come out to give you a quote.
I would get at least three quotes for doing the job, since many contractors will try and railroad you if they think you don’t know any better. I recall that my duct rerouting cost about $600, but (a) we used the flexible ductwork (which is cheaper but not as effective as the rigid metal) and (b) it was a much smaller job than yours. But see what your quotes bring in, you might be surprised for the good… in a down economy, low-priced work is better than no work at all for a contractor!
Also, ask if paying in cash can get you a discount… some contractors will do that and it saves tax/etc. Good luck!