Blower Room

The blower and wind reservoir will be located in their own room in the basement immediately below the organ.  Unfortunately, that space had been my wood shop all this time!  Now that the vast majority of cutting and sanding is finished, I am willing to clean out the wood shop, move most of the equipment into the assembly room, and start remodeling.

I began by removing two tiles from in front of the fake fireplace and cut through the sub-flooring.  There is a narrow gap about 4" wide that I will bring the wind trunk up through.  It will take a little more engineering than I had planned on, but I can make it work!  The basement walls are sound in spite of the cracks and gaps, but I had water in the basement on a regular basis until I had a new driveway poured a few years ago.  All the old drywall had to go.  I also replaced the window in that room with a new energy efficient window to match the windows I installed shortly after buying the house.  I then began framing up the new walls.  I also installed a beam under the organ and supported it with screw type support posts.  I don't know how much the organ will weigh, but I don't want to take any chances.  I can now park a semi tractor in the living room if I want!  I put a plastic vapor barrier between the studs and the cement block wall too.

After framing came the electrical.  I hired an electrician to install a sub-panel in the blower room so all of the organ will be on its own dedicated circuit from the main breaker.  Then I ran all the wiring out from the sub-panel myself.  There is a switched outlet that is controlled by the power switch in the console.  That turns on the rectifier and the blower.  I ran another switched circuit to the console to turn on the console lights.  I could have wired them to the main switch, but I think I will want to be able to turn the lights on without turning on the organ sometimes.  I will loose some lighting in the living room after the installation, so the music and pedal light might need to serve as accent lighting.  Other circuits are for lights in the ceiling of the blower room and the new adjacent walk-in pantry, and I put in plenty of wall outlets.  There never was enough power in that room back when it was a wood shop.  There is also a 220v circuit for the baseboard heater.  Being in the northwest corner of the basement and having a window, and no furnace vent, I am afraid that the room will get really cold in the winter.  Baseboard heater will take care of that.

All four walls and the ceiling are well insulated not only for temperature, but also for sound.  I want the blower to be inaudible while playing.  I used mold-resistant drywall knowing the history of moisture problems.  Even though the new driveway fixed most of the problem, if we have a real gully washer the gutters overflow and a little moisture comes in.  I have done a little drywall work before, and this went pretty well.  The trickiest thing was getting neat corners where two walls meet the ceiling.  I installed an insulated exterior door into the room.  My thought was to keep the room airtight except for the one opening covered with a furnace filter.  I know this is probably overkill, but in the future when I'm doing woodworking in the basement I want to be sure to keep the air in the organ clean.  I primed and then put on two coats of paint and allowed it to cure pretty well before installing the light fixture and heater.

 Blower Room Album