| 22 Sep 2007 |
After living with the two houses that I have built and looking at and working on many more, I have come to believe that the essential element of any home is the heroic space.
The best way to understand and appreciate 'Heroic space' is imagine the best view that you have seen 'inside' a building. In other words imagine the view and then imagine the space that you were in when you saw that sensational view. That is a heroic space. Views are a powerful element to use create a heroic space but heroic space is much more than just an expansive viewscape.
Every house should have its heroic space. You may not have a dramatic view or a grand vista. It can be done with space, height, depth, light, windows, connections and other things.
You need to try to spend at least part of your day in a heroic space.
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| 3:57 PM |
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| 06 Jun 2007 |
Well it's official... the Hybrid Home just got its gas bill for a year. Including taxes $415.84.
That works out to $ 34.65 per month for heating, hot water and cooking.
The Hybrid Home is located right on the Pacific Ocean at the 49 parallel North. The Hybrid home is three bedrooms and just under twelve hundred square feet. It is the 'Model Home' that is featured on the top of this page. |
| 10:53 PM |
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| 29 Apr 2007 |
The Hybrid Home
These days hybrid cars are all the rage. Well I am here to introduce the Hybrid Home. The CustomHomeXpress model home is a Hybrid Home; is is fueled by both propane and wood fuels.
Well, you might say that this is not such a new idea, many homes have wood stoves as well as another heat source. Although that is true, our Hybrid Home is different. Traditional wood stoves heat the space that they are located in but do not necessarily heat the rest of the home. A typical problem with the latest generation high efficiency wood stoves is that they overheat the room that they are in while the rest of the house remains much cooler.
Our Hybrid Home has solved this problem in a very elegant way. Not only do we heat the entire home but we do so with quiet, comfortable radiant heating. Hot water is circulated from our wood stove to radiators throughout the house. The water is circulated by the pump in the propane furnace. Although the pump is always circulating the water the propane heater only switches on when the 'loop' temperature drops below a certain temperature set point.
Because the hot water radiant heat is such an even heat, we typically keep the wood stove burning (very small fire) all day to maintain a comfortable temperature. At night the temperature slowly drops but the propane comes on for short cycles to keep the house from getting too cold.
To connect the radiant heating system to the wood stove we used a stove from the British manufacturer
Aarrowfires. We used the smallest unit the Stratford TF30B. While this unit is sufficient to heat a 1200 square foot house in the Pacific Northwest, next time we would pick a slightly larger model to allow for larger logs and longer unattended burning.
The propane furnace also supplies instant, continuous hot water for cooking and washing. We also use propane for our gas range. In the The cost of propane averages $35 / per month. This cost coupled with an electrical bill for the home of about $30 gives a total utility bill of $65 / month on average. To control electrical usage (for lighting and close drying) we use only low wattage florescent bulbs. We also tend to hang up sheets and towels outside or in an unused bedroom to dry.
The bottom line is you can have a wonderfully livable house and use very little fossil fuel energy with a proper hybrid heating system. Compare our utility costs of 65$ for a three bedroom home to your utility bill. |
| 11:54 AM |
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| 08 Dec 2006 |
| How did I end up with the perfect House? |
| 4:01 PM |
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| 25 Nov 2006 |
Cleaning your chimney
It has been two years since I installed my wood burning stove. I had been given all sorts of warnings by home owners about cleaning my chimney. The problem is creosote. We know it as that black stuff that they put on telephone poles and pilings. it occurs naturally in wood and builds up in the chimney as we burn. Left to builld up I can cause restricted air flow through the chimney and in extreme cases it can catch fire. From what I understand this can be a very scary experience as your chimney becomes a crude jet engine. I will suck air from the bottom of the chimney for combustion and then when the combustion occurs it will expand and blast out the top of the chimney. Most people go running out of there homes convinced that the whole place is going to explode.
While that doesn't usually happen, houses have been known to catch on fire (rare) and chimneys have been wrecked (more likely)
Not wanting this to happen and feeling like I had left this way too long I went to my absolure favorite hardware store in the world Hardware Sales in Bellingham WA. (subject of a full post on it's own) and checked with my freinds inside.
At Hardware sales I was treated to an imprompto lecture by one of their great staff. The secret, it seems, to cleaning your chimney is to use 'Creasote Destroyer' prior to the actual cleaning. This wonderful powder is thrown into the fire when it is hot several times before attempting to clean the chimney. Creasote is a tar. It is typically not easy to get off of the inside of your chimney. Of course there is also plenty of carbon 'soot'. Creasote Destroyer is supposed to cause the creasote to crystalize and make it easy to remove with a brush. I tried thowing this powder (about a half a handful) into my fire three times before I finally attempted the chimney sweeping.
When I got around to running the brush through my chimney the resultant soot that fell to the bottom was like a flake. I used a six inch plastic brush that has threaded extenders that are attatched as the brush is extended into the chimney. A lot of the flakey particles were dislodged in the first few brush strokes. Then pretty much nothing came out. I surmised that I was finished. Actually checking is difficult if not impossible. I was happy that the process happened just like my chimney mentor from 'Hardware Sales'. I ended up with about a one gallon pail of soot when I was finished. The whole process did not take more than ten minutes.
Hopefully this did the trick. Chimney sweeping is one of those things that is defined not by what happens but by what doesn't happen. So far so good. Next time I will try and get a light into the chimney to get a look at the before and after.
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| 06 Nov 2006 |
Well a lot has happened since the little house was finished. I built the house for my children to stay in but as it turned out they couldn't make it this summer. So I listed it on VRBO (vacation rental by owner).com and got immediate results. So I ended up renting it to some very nice vistors to Point Roberts.
This was a very good thing as it gave me a chance to see the little home being used and get some feed back on its functionality. The largest group I had was a family of four very tall people from Seattle. They stayed for 3 days and seemed to enjoy themselves.
I added more blinds and drapes for privacy and a an incredibly compact but very functional entertainment center featuring a 17 inch flat screen TV.
I am strugling with the heating of the little house. Currently I am using a 'oil filled' electric heater and it is working fine. In the long run I am hoping to find a very small propane stove for the corner.
Meanwhile the 'Big House' continues to prove to be one of the most livable structures on the planet. I just checked my propane consumption and I have used an average of 10 gallons per month in the warm months. While this will go up somewhat in the cold months I am becoming much more adept at operating my integrated radiant heat wood stove.
Because it is connected into my hot water radiant heating loop the wood stove provides a very even gentle heat. The trick is to keep it running with a minimum of effort. That means building the fire right and feeding it right. The key, of course is the wood supply. You need dry, dense wood. I have been using wood from trees that have been felled in my neighbourhood for one reason or other. They need to be seasoned for at least one summer and then split and piled for a couple of months.
In order to get the feeding of the fire just right I have four sturdy 'wicker' backets. These hold paper, kindling, and two sizes of wood. I make sure I get the fire going really well and then I adust the air supply right down and work up to really big dense pieces. Not real rocket science but when done right you can get your fire going and then let it burn for four hours or more unattended. I actually managed to 'resesitate' my fire in the morning after it had burned all night. This was a first.
While some might say that a fire is a nuisance, I find there is nothing more satisfying then knowing that I am heating my house with local fuel and thus doing my part to end the maddness of our hydrocarbon obsession.
My next postings will detail the building of a home automation system based on the new Z-Wave technolgy and adding a back up power system to be able to disconnect from the grid.
Stay tuned |
| 10:24 PM |
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| 18 Jul 2006 |
Sustainable Home #2, a 400 square foot fully equipped home is finished. I am now working on the landscaping.
The kitchen tile turned out better than expected. The handmade Mexican tile is the focal point of the main floor and has given if a very soft comfortable feeling. This was my fourth tile job and it went pretty smoothly.
It seems that in a sustainable home environment everything is interlinked. In order to do the landscaping I need to enhance my woodshed by adding shelves to hold the extra wood and tools that I have acquired while building the two sustainable structures. I will then be able to clean up the construction site. I am in the middle of this project which also involves rethinking the layout of my woodshed as a result of going through two winters of using wood as a heat source in my larger home. What I have found is that I have not used the kindling as much as I expected and need most of the area of the woodshed for burnable logs. So I am going to build a large wooden box for kindling with a shelf above it for storing construction equipment.
Once the landscaping is finished the project will be ready to photograph.
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| 9:57 AM |
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| 19 Jun 2006 |
Well this Sunday was Fathers Day and I celebrated by not working on sustainable house #2 (new name). This is largely because I am finished !! Well... almost. The only significant job left to do is the feature tiles in the kitchen area. I have agonized over this for weeks. I am using handmade Mexican tile from Casa Talavera My research indicates that this is the best source of these tiles on the net. The pattern of the tiles is a totally creative exercise. I hope it looks OK when it is done.
The floor went down nicely in the main floor. I used engineered oak planks approx. 7 1/2 inches wide and 4 feet long. About two dollars a square foot. Easier to put down than the single boards but the trick is to end up with no gaps between the planks. You need to be real careful with the first course. I also used a mixture of light oak and red oak filler to fix the cracks and a good mix is largely invisible when applied carefully.
I am trying to get the gas fixtures hooked up. This is a tricky process as the appliances could all use different gas pressures. So far I am in the test phase. I am using standard gas compression fittings but am finding that if I give them the ‘sniff’ test I can smell gas. So I have resorted to using special Teflon tape for gas. It is in a yellow roll and is much thicker than the standard.
I refilled my propane tank for Sustainable house #1. It has a 500 gallon tank which has not been filled for 15 months. The average cost for propane gas for heating and cooking was 41 dollars. Of course I augmented the propane heat with the wood stove that is integrated into the radiant heating system.
The plan was to finish Sustainable house #2 by the summer solstice. Well it looks like I will miss the date by about 3 days.
Then it will be time for pictures.
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| 9:40 AM |
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| 17 May 2006 |
Well I got the floor in upstairs and it is truly beautiful. I used bamboo engineered flooring. This is a board that is 4 inches wide by about 40 inches long and 3/5 thick. It is made entirely of bamboo but it is layered (3 or 4 layers). It is prefinished t&g four sides. It goes down pretty well. I was going to use it as the only layer between the upstairs and the downstairs so you would see it as the ceiling of the first floor but I decided at the last moment that this could pose structural problems so I laid down a thin layer of 1/4 plywood first.
I am planning to have the floor in downstairs by the end of this month. Before then I will have to do the tile in the bathroom. The bathroom contains a toilet and a shower. It is 32 inches by about 65 inches. The kitchen counter is 52 inches by 22 inches. I intend to use very fancy handmade mexican tile to finish the kitchen counters. This will be the visual focal point of the downstairs.
I am also putting a lot of work into an alcove that will house a shelf for the entertainment unit and a folding table for meals.
Once the house is complete I will post copious photos to properly show the effects of these special features. The expected result is a house that feels spacious and delightful. |
| 11:07 PM |
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| 27 Apr 2006 |
Update April
Lots has been happening on the incredible 400 square foot house. I have had a few europeans and a New Yorker over to look and they are of the opinion that it is quite spacious. I have purchased a Nikon 5400 to take more and better pictures which will be posted when the building is finished. We are on schedule to hit our goal of being finished by the summer solstice.
Since the last post (apologies for the lack of recent posts) much has been done.
- Electrical has been finished
- Plumbing rough-in has been finished
- Drywall has been finished
I will file separate posts on each of these tasks in the near future.
Currently I am trying to finish the kitchen. This is no small feat considering that I have 52 inches of counter space. I have souced the key components (sink, cooktop, refrigerator and microwave) so I know that everything will fit but I will need to build custom cabinetry to make everything fit.
In the next week or so I will begin to finish the floors and then we everything will come together.
Stay tuned, I hope to post more often as the end nears. |
| 7:53 AM |
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| 23 Jan 2006 |
Disaster Strikes
Well, we finally had one of those 'incidents' on the jobsite that resulted in a serious loss of productivity. I think I mentioned that when applying cedar shakes rememeber to use galvanized nails. We tried to follow this rule but one of our local lumber-hardware suppliers steered us wrong. We ran out of nails from our first supplier and went to by some more from another supplier. Upon checking the nail bins, it wasn't immediately apparent which nails to use so we asked one of the experienced staff. When pointed to the suggested nails we asking pointedly if the nails in question were galvanized and were assured that they were. WRONG!
The next day I noticed marks on the shingles and asked my son who was helping me what was going on. He said he was using the new nails and his hands were getting dirty. I examined the nails and decided that they in fact were not galvanized. We immediately stopped using them but the damage was done. I thought we were simply going to have to put up with some iron marks on the shingles. About two weeks later we had a real heavy rain. The next day it looked like the little house had been crying and it's mascara was running. Nasty black streaks had begun to show up on the face of some of the shingles. In a heavy rain the water seems to get in behind the shingles and this water when it came in contact with the iron nails produced a blackish liquid that reacts with the cedar and you get a serious black line.
What a shame! We will have to pull off the shingles on one wall and reapply them (adding new shingles for the broken and stained ones).
It is going to be a real pain but all I can say is thank god we caught it when we did. |
| 11:34 PM |
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| 23 Jan 2006 |
More Notes on Cedar Shingles
- The amount showing between courses of your cedar shakes is called the 'coverage'. Typical coverage is five inches. I was told I could go to seven inch coverage but I found I could go to seven 1/2 inches.
- You need to double up on the first (bottom) course to cover the spaces between the shingles.
- You should leave at least a pencil width between the shingles to allow for expansion.
- Alow for one inch protrusion around openings as the shingles will always be three deep.
- You overlap the shingles on the corner in an alternating pattern. You will need to trim the side of the corner shingle to make it fit properly but you can mass produce the cut on this as it is always the same.
- We used a chalk line to get a level bottom line when putting on the shingles.
- Always use galvanized 1 1/8 box nails. Neven use iron around shingles as it stains the shingles.
- Don't bother trying to use a nail gun as a framing gun is too powerful and will split the shingles and a finishing gun doesn't have nails with large enough heads.
The rest is just common sense. Putting on shingles is one of the most satisfying jobs in building as you see these marvelous random patterns appearing on your walls as you work.
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| 11:33 PM |
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| 21 Dec 2005 |
Metal Roofing
I like metal roofing. It is generally agreed that it can last much longer than ashfault or cedar shingles. The figure that is usually mentioned is 50 years. It is also quick to install, if you organize the job properly. It also looks good, adding strong bursts of color to the structure.
The guest house is 13 x 15. A friend asked me: why didn't you make it 12 x 16 so all your dimensions would be even. The answer to that is that I designed the structure from the roof down. My roof surface is a perfect 12 x 16. The only thing I cut for my roof were the roof rafters.
The roof is the most difficult part of the house. This is especially true when you are ON IT. I HATE WORKING ON THE ROOF. Maybe I am afraid of heights but I find it nerve wracking and exhausting working on the roof, so I put a lot of thought into the process of building my roof. The key to my roof building process was the building of scafolding on the eave sides of the structure. Using simple V braces nailed to the 2x4 studs (prior to sheathing, of course), I suspended a 2x10 just below the lower edge of the rafters. I nailed a 2x4 on the outside edge of the 2x10 and this provided support for a ladder to be laid on the roof sheathing and resting on the 2x10 to provide access to the upper portions of the roof.
You need to really think through just how you will be able to work on your roof. In this case gravity is not your friend. There have been a lot of terrible accidents as a result of falls from roofs and ladders while people work on roofs. If you do a good job of providing access to the roof work area the job will go MUCH faster. |
| 8:56 PM |
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| 13 Dec 2005 |
Notes on Cedar Shingles
Typical shingles are 18 inches long. You overlap the shingles and the amount showing is the 'coverage' Typical coverage is 5.5 inches but you can go as high as 7 inches. Shingles are sold in 'squares'. A square covers 100 square feet at 5.5 inch coverage or 125 square feet at 7 inch coverage. A non kiln dried square is 10 cubic feet and weighs 280 pounds. Kiln Dried squares weigh about 200 pounds per square.
Shingles are graded as #1 - #4 with ones as the best. Ones and Twos are recommended for homes and threes and fours for outbuildings. |
| 3:50 PM |
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| 12 Dec 2005 |
Important - Plywood has a grain.
If you are working with plywood especially thinner plywood sheathing be aware that it should be applied in such a way that the any edge that is not being directly nailed should be running horizontal. In other words the edge that does not have direct support underneath it should be a horizontal edge. This may be a little counter intuitive but if you make a mistake you will know what I mean. The top and bottom of a four by eight sheet should always be directly supported. The sides do not need to be.
I discovered this while installing the roof sheathing and it is a mistake I will never make twice. Instead of a nice solid look the plywood is wavy at the top and bottom. I think it will not be noticeable because I am using special supports for my metal roof but it is very disconcerting when it happens.
Other than this one mishap the roof sheathing is on, the skylights are installed and the tarpaper is applied. The structure is now wheather tight. I have even had some time to apply the wall sheathing.
I used velux skylights. They are very easy to install with L brackets that you simply nail to the firring members around your skylight opening. The important thing is to meticiously apply generous layers of tar paper to act as the first layer of water resistance.
The metal roofing has been ordered. This is a very complex process. You need to order the metal sheets of course but you also need a ridge cap system, flashing for any opening (like skylights), gable trim and screws. And don't foret the pipe flashing for your plumbing vents. Make sure you talk to a very knowlegable person before you finalize your order. |
| 3:50 PM |
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| 29 Nov 2005 |
Well after four busy days over the thanksgiving weekend the guest house is really taking shape. I have put up all the walls and the second floor system. I used my CAD system to lay out the rough openings and roughly place the studs. The key consideration is the application of the outside sheathing. I am using 3/8 plywood. You must always consider how the plywood will tie together on the studs. Typically we lay out the wall studs on 16 inch centres. This makes for four studs on 48 inches. You must take into consideration that the first stud is butting to the end of the plywood while the fourth stud ends up centred on the 48 inch dimension. This is so the next sheet of plywood has something to nail to. Despite our best efforts there is usually some work to do once the framing is done to place studs to make backing for some corners and such. This is called back framing.
I also used my CAD system to lay out the roof. I was originally planning a 18/12 pitch roof. This makes for a very steep roof with lots of room inside. The down side is if you end up with a peak that is not easily accessible from a step ladder then the job gets a lot harder. After placing one of my temporary end posts to hold my ridge beam, I realized that 18/12 pitch was dangerously high. I went back to the CAD system and after trying roof lines from 12/12 on up, I decided on 16/12. Still a little scary when working on the ridge beam but doable.
The second story floor system is 2x6 with a finshed floor of 1x3 'engineered bamboo', so I am not using a subfloor. The bamboo will show through to the first floor and the 2x6s will also be visible. Because I am using 1x3 I did not have to adhere to any 4 foot centres and instead I spaced my floor joists evenly across the length of the floor.
Once again I used my CAD system to design the roof rafters. The key is the angle of the cut for the ends. Mine ended up at 53 degrees. Also important are the length of the rafter and placement of the 'birds mouth' cut where the rafter meets the wall. Despite the best efforts of my CAD system my rafter was mysteriously long, but apart from trimming it by a couple of inches it fit perfectly.
I am now ready to put on the 3/8 inch roof sheathing and along with a layer of tar paper the structure will be weather tight. This is critical as it is rainy season in the Pacific Northwest. |
| 9:26 PM |
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| 07 Nov 2005 |
Plumbing Rough In
Well I completed my plumbing rough in and am ready to put the t&g plywood on my sub floor. The tricky part of plumbing rough in is what is called the DWV (drain-waste-vent) system. This is the part of the plumbing that handles the waste. The most dificult aspect of DWV is the venting. It is fairly easy to visualize the drainage. After all we are all familiar with the images of water going down a drain. What we may not know is the vents that are an integral part of the drainage system. The concept is that water will not go down a drain unless the air in the drain pipes can escape through vents.
The DWV piping must at all times have at least a 1/8 inch per foot slope to the sewer main or septic field. This is the defining factor in setting the finished elevation of your structure.
Venting is an integral part of the plumbing code and was developed in the New York area when the first generation of large buildings exposed major problems with sewer gases and waste water flow. My initial rough in is very simple with just one line of three inch pipe to the toilet and secondary two inch lines to the shower and sink. Venting is taken care of with a one and one half inch pipe running from my three inch main sewer pipe through the ceiling.
My contractor neighbour Warren came over to look at my subfloor layout and suggested a 'hidden beam'. This is a simple but effective way of incorporating a beam into a floor. Just double up the joists and make them part of the subfloor 'box' instead of laying them under the 'box'. This eliminates a major obstruction to services under the floor as well as getting all wood members further off the ground and intendant moisture. I will use this technique to great advantage in my loft floor. |
| 11:38 PM |
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| 17 Oct 2005 |
Pouring your own concrete Part 2
When I returned to the building site after five days the concrete had set up beautifully. Now that I had one corner poured, I set about pouring the remaining three corners. Before I started pouring, I got my daughter to help me check the measurments. As usual they had 'magically' gotten way off. The ultimate rule in building has to be 'measure twice, cut once'. Always repeatedly re-check measurments. This is one of the great mysteries of building. Why, when we are so careful, does everything always go out of whack. Well it just does, so get over it. With a foundation the key is to get the diagonal measurements to be identical. Then you know that you have a perfect rectangle.
I have revised my concrete formula.
- 1.25 parts portland cement
- 3 parts sand
- 3 parts 3/4 inch rock (aggregate)
The process that worked best for me was to put the water in first, then the rocks, then the concrete and finally the sand. I sometimes had to use my shovel to 'help' the concrete mixer. The key is not to use to much water. An occasional squirt to help the mixer won't hurt but it is really quite amazing how little water is needed. Be patient as a well mixed concrete with a high 'slump' is the ideal.
Slump is the engineering test for concrete. A small portion is put in a conical container that is then overturned on the ground. A measurment is taken to see how far the concrete has 'slumped' from the perfect cone shape. This indicates if the concrete is mixed corectly.
I also put some reinforcing wire in my forms. The combination of steel and concrete is necessary as concrete has tremendous compressive strength and steel has great tensile strength. The combination of the two is literally what we have built our world with. In this case I used the heavy metal mesh that is commonly used in slabs, cut it with a sawzall and wired it into the form with reinforcing tie-wire. Total elapsed time less than an hour.
The day after finishing the concrete I began backfilling the forms and completing site preparation. It is important to get your site into as good a shape as possible as you will be working around this area as you build the structure. Also care must be taken to bring the utilities into the perimeter of the floor plan at this time.
Meanwhile I have been looking for some good books on building window frames for the antique windows that I have purchased for the cottage. They will be the defining element in the design but a great deal of work will be needed to refinish and mount them. |
| 9:55 PM |
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| 10 Oct 2005 |
Well the guest house project is in full swing. I have excavated the services and brought in 10 yards of sand to use as fill to properly cover my service trench. I am using what is call 'pit run' which is essentially artificial sand created at the gravel pit as various aggregrate products are separated. Some of this sand will also be used for mixing the concrete. I also had some 3/4 inch agregate left over from when I put in a 'french drain' to handle the run-off from my gutters.
The formula for making concrete which I found on the internet is;
- 1 part portland cement
- 2 parts sand
- 3 parts 3/4 inch rock (aggregate)
I was using a 2 gallon pail as my measuring device. I found I needed to fill the bucket just over half full of water (1 gallon). I have an old cement mixer which was late stepfather's (thanks Ev). I needed to re-mount the motor as the belt kept coming off. The best process, I found, for mixing the concrete was to but the rock, sand and water into the mixer and then finally add the cement. Then I would stick the shovel into the mixer to help get all the ingredients mixing properly. Finally I would spray 3-4 one second bursts of water into the mixer as it was turning. Wait 10-30 seconds after each shot of water to gauge if the mix is turning freely. You should not end up with runny concrete that has visible pools of water. The concrete should rather have the consistancy of heavy oatmeal.
I finished filling five forms today. I have three more. They are three main corners. I have poured the other main corner. Now that I have one corner set, I will go back and check all my measurements. I am using 'big foot' concrete forms for my footings. I felt this was the best solution for this structure as it is set amongst some trees and I wanted to damage the root structure of the trees as little as possible. I even cut one form and wrapped a large root that runs through it. I find I need to continually check my measurments at this stage as all the dimmensions are interlinked. The key in a rectangular structure is to check the basic distances AND the diagonals. The diagonals are the critical dimension as if this dmension is not the same in both directions then yor rectacle is 'skewed'. This will cause many problems as you proceed to build the structure.
I will not find out the result of my experiment in concrete construction until I return to my house this weekend. I am hoping I will find strong solid concrete. |
| 12:14 AM |
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| 27 Sep 2005 |
It is the fall now and I have been filling my wood shed with dry wood. I have segregated piles of really good heavy fir and not so good popular as well as a large pile of kindling.
Unlike last winter when I was more or less splitting wood as I went, I have everything ready for this season. Although the Pacific Northwest falls are typically warm and dry, because I live in a heavily forested area, I have needed heat a few times. If I am away for a few days the house can drop to 60-62 degrees. When I get a good fire going I can get the temperature back up to 70 in about four hours. Once the house is warm, just the typical heat from cooking etc. will keep the temperature up. My 500 gallon propane tank meter has not moved appreciably since the spring. At this rate I could go well over a year on one tank.
Living in the sustainable model continues to be a fantastic experience. As the cost of energy goes up, I am feeling secure and unstressed with a total energy bill of well under $ 100 per month. As I watch our President's pathetic entreaties to drive less in the wake of this falls huricanes, I am reminded of similiar talk a generation ago by then President Carter. I watched in dismay as the conservation efforts of the 70's were dismantled in the 80's. One can only wonder what drove the politicians to undermine our efforts at energy self sufficiency. I feel a little bit like the third pig... safe and sound in my sustainable house.
The experience of building the sustainable home was so rewarding, I have been trying to find a follow up project and I think I have found it. I am embarking on building a guest house. It is meant to be a way to apply and refine my concepts on 'real' housing. Not an ego driven edifice but rather the modern equivalent to Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond, only with water, sewer, electricity, phone and of course high speed internet. Thoreau's cabin was 10 X 15. This cabin will be 13 x 15 with a loft. It is my intention to build a truly amazing structure. |
| 11:35 PM |
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| 27 Apr 2005 |
Well spring is upon us and I have a few quick notes and observations.
I have been living with my 'special' heating system for almost a full winter season now and it has been a very rewarding time. I imagine myself a little like our forefathers and have even thought about our first nation ancestors as I wrestled with my fancy wood stove. Although I have a high tech propane heater that will kick in if my hydronic loop temperature gets too low, it is a point of pride to try and totally heat the house using the wood stove. This proved quite tricky as it turns out I didn't really know what I was doing. My wood was old and damp and I didn't understand how to control the air flow in my stove.
The stove has an air vent on the bottom which when opened causes an excellent draft to flow up throught the grate and this causes the fire to burn well. The problem is that if you leave it open it causes the fire to burn itself out too quickly. It turns out that the best strategy for keeping your stove burning is to get the fire real hot and then close the lower vent and let the fire pull the air in from an upper vent. Once I learned that the object of a good fire was to get the lower vent closed and still see a good fire then things got a lot easier. I can imagine what it must have been like to survive by the warmth of a wood fire. You simply couldn't let it go out.
Now with the warmer weather I don't need to keep a fire going all day. I can just get a good fire going and then let it go out. The house gets warmed and it just stays warm. This summer I will get lots of good wood stacked up for next winter and things will go a lot more smoothly. |
| 11:06 PM |
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| 30 Jan 2005 |
We have been living with our ‘wood stove’ heated house for a month and a half. I should mention that if the wood stove is not lit then the propane combo heater takes over automatically. This does not detract from the challenge of using wood to heat your home. We have all experienced the pleasure of being in a room with a fire. I think there is something buried deep inside us the responds to this feeling. In the Model home this feeling is compounded by the fun of watching the hydronic loop temperature change with the heat of the fire. We have been through a cold snap where the temperature was below 20 F (cold for the west coast) and the wood stove could heat the entire house with an even heat.
The interesting part of the experience has been learning to build and maintain a fire. Of course I have built many fires but in this case I had to source and chop the wood and then build the fire. The responsibility of keeping the fire going is really where the art of wood heating comes in. Your wood source is critical. But more than that how you burn it is important.
I had quite a few trees on my property that I had to take down in the preparation of the lot for building. The bigger trees I chopped up and piled. The smaller ones I left intact thinking I might need them for posts etc.. When it came time to start using the wood for fuel in my wood stove I found that a lot of the larger rounds were too big to fit in my stove, so I began cutting up the smaller trees. After lying around for three years they didn’t burn very well. I then started bucking the bigger rounds into smaller ones and using those. The wood from the large trees felt much heavier and denser. It would burn well but only if you got the fire really hot first. And even then you needed to be prepared to add some medium size pieces to keep the fire hot and ensure that the big piece kept burning.
The constant monitoring of the fire has been a challenge but it is kind of fun. There is a certain satisfaction that comes with tending the fire. I am now annoyed if I hear my propane boiler kick in as it means that I have let my fire cool off. I have found that I can set my propane boiler start temperature way down when then stove is on. If the house is occupied and the fire is on then you can set the loop temperature on the propane boiler to 110 degrees. This means that the propane boiler will start when the loop temperature drops to 85 degrees and take the loop to 110 degrees before turning off. This makes for a gentle drop in the house temperate at night from the low 70s to the high 60s when the fire is out. This assumes an outside temperature in the 40s. If the house is unoccupied and the fire is out then a set point of 150 degrees is needed for the propane boiler.
Despite its challenges the hydronic integrated wood stove has been an excvellent addition to the Model home and when used yields a total utility bill (gas and electric) of 75 dollars a month.
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| 11:22 AM |
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| 31 Dec 2004 |
Well this is the last entry of a very eventful year. After receiving our occupancy permit for the Model home we continued to evolve our concept. The ultimate plan was to add a wood stove that 'hooked' in to our hydronic heating system. We sourced a unit from England and proceeded with the installation. There was much to learn. We had run half inch 'pex' tubing in the walls to the area where we planned to put the wood stove. We also framed in a hole for the chimney system.
It turns out that you need a 'class A' chimmney system for a wood stove. This means you use double wall stainless pipe for the chimney. After much study we decided on Simpson 'duravent'. Because we were running this on the outside of the house we ended up needing twenty four feet of pipe. Then there is all the connectors and supports. It is quite a production. But I must say it quite a sight to behold; gleaming, perfectly fitting four foot tubes of stainless steel.
To install the chimney we set up two ladders with ladder jacks and built a platform twenty feet up. Using a sawzall we cut a hole in the roof at the gable end. The whole production took a day and a half.
Then we had to install the wood stove. First we built a platform and then we plumbed in the hyronic system. It sounds simple but there was much trial and error.
The bottom line is I can now heat THE WHOLE HOUSE with the wood stove. And the living room does not overheat as the heat is being drawn away to the other areas of the house by the hydronic heating system. It is a whole new level of interaction with the home. I Get up in the morning and build a fire. I watch the hyronic 'loop' temperature to see the heat being dispersed into the entire house.
My only regret is that I did not get a bigger wood stove.
Cheers and Happy New Year! |
| 10:38 PM |
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| 10 Nov 2004 |
Well this is the one year anniversary of the start of the 'Builders Blog'. Coincidentally I passed my final inspection today. So this is a moment for reflection and celebration. The CusomhomeXpress model home is officially finished and I am living in it. I must say I am surprised at how much I enjoy this home. Maybe it is because I conceived and built it but it just seems so comfortable and pleasant to be in.
The key reasons for this seem to be the precise size of the interior spaces and the interaction of the home with its surroundings. The house sits in a grove of cedar trees and is surrounding by lush north west greenery. All of the windows have been designed with the concept of ‘zen view’ from the Pattern Language. Here is the key; windows should bring the outside into your home without dominating the interior space. All of my windows are long and thin. Windows need to be at least twice as high as they are wide in order to be pleasing. The exception is for elevated views. An elevated view is defined as an interesting and pleasing view that is high enough to be private. With an elevated view the exterior view can dominate the room with as much window as possible as this will greatly add to the feeling of space in the room. The model home is two stories and this gives it intimacy gradients. The house was designed using the principles of design set forth in the seminal book ‘A Pattern Language’ by Christopher Alexander. The model home follows these patterns;
127 INTIMACY GRADIENT
128 INDOOR SUNLIGHT
129 COMMON AREAS AT THE HEART
130 ENTRANCE ROOM
131 THE FLOW THROUGH ROOMS
132 SHORT PASSAGES
133 STAIRCASE AS A STAGE
134 ZEN VIEW
135 TAPESTRY OF LIGHT AND DARK
136 COUPLE'S REALM
137 CHILDREN'S REALM
138 SLEEPING TO THE EAST
139 FARMHOUSE KITCHEN
141 A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN
142 SEQUENCE OF SITTING SPACES
144 BATHING ROOM
145 BULK STORAGE
159 LIGHT ON TWO SIDES OF EVERY ROOM
160 BUILDING EDGE
161 SUNNY PLACE
163 OUTDOOR ROOM
164 STREET WINDOWS
167 SIX-FOOT BALCONY
168 CONNECTION TO THE EARTH
171 TREE PLACES
172 GARDEN GROWING WILD
173 GARDEN WALL
174 TRELLISED WALK
221 NATURAL DOORS AND WINDOWS
230 RADIANT HEAT
236 WINDOWS WHICH OPEN WIDE
233 FLOOR SURFACE
236 WINDOWS WHICH OPEN WIDE
237 SOLID DOORS WITH GLASS
238 FILTERED LIGHT
239 SMALL PANES
242 FRONT DOOR BENCH
250 WARM COLORS
251 DIFFERENT CHAIRS
252 POOLS OF LIGHT
I will be posting photographs of the model home as soon as possible.
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| 11:54 AM |
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| 27 Oct 2004 |
Well I had my final inspection. Once you have passed your final your house is ‘certified’ to be built as per the county building standard. With the complexity of a typical house this is a very good thing as this certification is in essence a seal of approval. Technically you are not allowed to live in your house until it passed the final inspection.
The inspector did not question me as to obvious fact that we were already moved in. In fact we only had a couple of deficiencies. We need to put ‘shock arrestors’ on any mechanical valves in the water system. I am assuming that this is in case you are using plastic water pipe (which we aren’t) so it won’t explode. As well I needed to put a drain into my sink from my dishwasher. This is to prevent damage if the dishwasher drain becomes clogged from food particles. Finally I had to put ‘returns’ on the ends of my handrails. All in all I was pleased that we had got this close on first try.
On the exterior the deck I built was measued at thirty four inches above ground level. In our county if the deck is over 30 inches off the ground you need a permit and railings so it is easier for me to bring in some fill to bring up the level of the surrounding area. Once I have done this I will be ‘technically’ finished the model home.
Currently I am working on some decorating details in the bathrooms in an effort to really put the finishing touches on what has been an exciting and satisfying project. I hop to have pictures posted on the site very soon. |
| 11:55 AM |
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| 14 Sep 2004 |
Looming on the horizon is the ‘final’ inspection. Technically you should not occupy a house until it has had a final inspection. On the interior of the model home ti has meant little more than installing stair railings. On the exterior is where the work is concentrated.
The big job was finishing the exterior gable walls. These wall are twenty-three high it the peak. This makes the job particularly difficult. Our solution was to borrow a couple of long extension ladders and build a platform using ‘ladder jacks’. These are aluminum accessories that install on the rungs of the ladder and form the basis of a platform. You can then lay a 2x10 or 2x12 across the two ladders on a horizontal.
Once we had the platform in place we could finish the underside of the gables and apply the exterior finish sheathing. We installed ‘z’ channel at the horizontal transitions between the panels. We used a product called Q-Ply for our exterior finish. This is a paint grade quarter inch plywood that has grooves machined into it at eight inch centers. It is similar to T-111 plywood. Once we had the sheathing finished, we had to:
- Paint the sheathing
- Install a gable vent to provide for proper ventilation in the inside of the roof cavity.
- Paint the underside of the gable.
- Install the window trim
- Caulk the top edge of the window trim to prevent rain from running behind the trim.
- Install a trim piece where the sheathing meets the gable for cosmetics.
All of this had to be done from a ladder jack platform which although it does the job is a wobbly, shaky experience. I found the second day on the platform worse than the first as my muscles had been stressed from the day before. This is definitely a two person job as you need one person on the ground handling materials for the person on the platform. Major kudos to my brother who helped me out on this project.
Other exterior tasks that need to be completed prior to final inspection are
- Closing in of eaves. Here the space on the side of the house where the roof overhangs the wall needs to be filled in. You can use readily available eave vent which is a two inch perforated metal strip that you sandwich between two boards to fill the space.
- Trim at sub floor. On the model home the 4x8 siding only reaches to the top of the sub floor so we install two layers of 1x8 beveled cedar siding to cover the sub floor. We installed ‘z’ channel at the transition between the paneling and the siding.
- Roof Drains. Code requires that you have a roof drainage system. This is a good idea if you are building on a foundation with a crawlspace or foundation that is lower than your ground level than during heavy rains it is natural to have the water to run off the roof and find the lowest level. You have several options for carrying away this rainwater. You can run a four inch sewer pipe out to the drainage on the road or in our case we built a ‘french drain’ which is a six foot cube dug into the ground and filled with drain rock. All of this is hooked up to your eave troughs. Installing eave troughs on the model home was relatively easy as we had only two thirty six foot straight runs. Your local building supply will have all the modular pieces for this.
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| 2:30 PM |
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| 17 Aug 2004 |
The CustomHomeXpress ‘Model Home’ is nearing completion. The only remaining details are exterior finishing items. We have been living in the house for two months now. After living in the house I can genuinely say that it has exceeded expectations. It is an incredibly livable home.
All of the spaces work. The upstairs bedrooms are well sized. Although the children’s rooms are only seven by twelve we have compensated by installing a loft bed in one and a bunk bed in the other. The children are totally happy with the result. The master bedroom has two closets and a storage area as well as room for a desk (home office). The large upstairs bathroom has a skylight and a soaker tub and a towel warmer radiator. All upstairs rooms have nine foot ceilings which greatly add to the feeling of space. The upstairs also has a laundry / storage area, a pleasant hallway space and a lovely stairway with a skylight. All of these elements give the feeling of an intimate living space that is completely separate for the downstairs area.
The downstairs is also a miracle of space utilization. There is an excellent entry with a small seating area, visual expansion from the stairs and windows and a good view of the premium kitchen. The kitchen is designed to function as a ‘country kitchen’. It is the central meeting place in the home. It has a big airy feeling, a pantry, a utility room and room for a hutch. A tiny bathroom is accessible from the entry area.
The main living area in the downstairs is also a complex space that visually ‘borrows’ room from the kitchen and the outside deck. The eye is drawn to the double french doors. There are also four tall thin windows in the corners that provide visual excitement. The dining area shares with this space. The living is large enough to actually feel like four separate areas.
The outside deck is an integral part of the experience of the home. It invites inside-outside movement and projects a soft brown light into the home.
The environmental considerations of the house are handled by a combination propane fired boiler which provides heating and domestic hot water. This unit has an efficiency of over ninety percent and provides silent, comfortable heat via radiators and continuous hot water which never runs out. Without a large hot water tank we have eliminated the largest energy consumer in the house.
The CustomHomeXpress ‘Model Home’ is the result of three years of research and building and has yielded a home that is a model of livability that adheres to the design principles of the ‘Patten Language’. As well, it is a model of sustainable living which should use dramatically less energy then a typical house and yield total utility bills of under 100 dollars per month.
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| 2:07 PM |
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| 01 Jul 2004 |
So the 'build your own home' project is in it's finishing stages. This last weekend we got the heating system working. If you remember we are using a super efficient (92%) propane unit that heats the house and the hot water and fits easily under the stairs. We had quite the saga and had to ship a re engineered burner unit in from Spain to get things working but last Friday night I finally settled into my big soaker tub and just went 'aahhh'. We still have a few adjustments on the unit but as well as being efficient it is fully programmable for days of the weeks and hours of the day.
I am now struggling to design the decks. I got some books from the library on the subject and the more I study it the more complicated it seems. I am going to try and work trough the complexities by building a small deck at my entrance. |
| 1:03 AM |
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| 08 Jun 2004 |
Bathroom tiling – Part 3 Final Grouting and sealing
I finally finished my bathtub tile job. Well almost. I had to go over a few spots with a second grouting. The main area was the joint between the wall and the tub. This area was pretty rough after the first grouting. I got in there with my trusty grout saw and a hand vacumn and smoothed everything out. Then I applied another layer of grout, this time using a thicker mix. I went over the area with my finger and a wet cloth to get it just right. I wanted this area to be perfect as this is the major area for leaks. You do not want the water from your tub escaping and leaking into floor and ceiling systems.
Once it dries, I will go over it with my rough plastic sponge to ‘polish’ the area and remove any excess grout while at the same time shining the tile. Finally I will apply a coating of grout sealer to make the grout waterproof.
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| 12:34 AM |
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| 02 Jun 2004 |
Trim
One of the final tasks when you are building your own home is to install trim where the walls meet the floor and around the doors. These are two areas where all the little construction inconsistencies have been allowed to accumulate. By applying the trim we cover all these ‘problems’ and the interior of the house looks finished.
Installing trim is, however, a very exacting process. You need to be accurate to about 1/16 of an inch. All corners need to fit together with 45 degree cuts.
Because I was in a hurry due the eminent arrival of my furniture, I started with the long pieces first. All of my trim came in fourteen foot lengths. I think they pick this length to accommodate the many pieces that you will need to trim out your door frames. Each door will require four approx. 7 foot pieces. Once I had installed the long pieces I finished with the shorter lengths. With a notepad I moved into a room and measured the lengths of the pieces needed. I used the actual length of the wall to be covered. Because of the 45 degree cuts the length of the final piece of trim will be longer. When measuring and marking my trim for cutting I always marked the back of the trim. In this way you can compensate for the angle cuts. The other trick is to make a final cut mark in the top edge of the trim and when you pull down the blade of the chop saw make sure you are cutting on the right side of the line. This is where you will get the precision in your cuts.
I used an electric bead nailer to fasten the trim. These are approx 60 dollars and are reasonably good for trim but not much use for anything else.
All in all I was pleasantly surprised at the ease and speed that the trim went down.
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| 12:00 PM |
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| 26 May 2004 |
Bathroom tiling – Part 2 Grouting
Grouting your tile should be a fairly easy task compared to placing the tile. The key word here is ‘should’. To make an easy job of it you need to be careful as you place the tiles to keep everything very clean and neat. The problem is the laying tile is an inherently messy job. You should err on the side of excess when trowel ling on your mortar as you want good coverage on your tiles to ensure that they do not come off. This will, however, lead to mortar oozing out from between the groutlines of tile. If you leave this excess mortar to dry you will have to grind it out with a grout saw and this is a very time consuming chore. The answer is to go over areas after you have tiled and before it has dried and scrape out the excess mortar. You may have to take out the spacer and re insert it during this task. It is well worth it. I did not do this as I was in a hurry to finish the tile placement. I paid a heavy price during grouting. I estimate I spent 4-6 hours prepping my tile area before I could start grouting.
Grout typically comes in 7 lb. boxes and mixes with a small amount of water. Be careful not to add too much water as this will make the grout too watery to apply to the walls. I made that mistake but was able to pour off the excess water and this helped my grout mixture thicken slightly. I originally was going to use a darker grout to match the pattern tiles that I used but decided to use a white grout to hide any of the irregularities in my placing my tile that resulted from lack of precision and continuity in my tile cuts.
When applying grout to the walls it helps to get as much grout on the wall as is possible. You do this by dipping your sponge rubber grout trowel into the grout bucket and getting as much grout on the trowel as is possible. Then wipe this grout onto the wall with a smooth horizontal stroke. After five or six applications of this trowel technique you will have a significant amount of grout adhering to the wall. You can then work the grout into the grout lines using sweeping horizontal strokes. Once you have finished working the grout into the cracks then remove the excess grout by pulling the grout trowel across the area with it tilted at a 45 degree angle.
Section out the area that you grouting into areas of about 5 – 10 square feet. Apply the grout in the first area and then go on to the next. When you have finished the second area then go back over the first area with a grout sponge. This is a large sponge with rounded corners. The sponge should be damp but not dripping. Go over the area with the sponge to remove any grout on the tiles and rub it in the cracks to pull out any grout that is loose. You will quickly see how the cracks will get more defined.
Some tile books stress getting the tile as clean as possible with the sponge but I found that as long as you went over it with the sponge it would clean up beautifully if after it dried if you went back over it with a abrasive pad. I used one that looks like a stringy plastic sponge. It was invaluable in helping me clean the mortar off the tiles before grouting and it made short order of cleaning the grout off the tiles at the end of the job.
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| 11:28 AM |
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| 21 May 2004 |
Ceramic tiling - Part 1
Tiling you bathroom is another way to save money when building your own home. The basics of tiling are very simple. You put some grout on the wall, you stick some tiles on it and your done. With tiling the devil is definitely in the details. If you are doing a simple bath surround then the job is not hard. My first tiling experience was doing four walls around a soaker tub with one vertically angled wall and one wall with a window in it. Some of my notes are as follows.
1. Spend a lot of time visualizing the tile layout. You will inevitably be cutting tile and this will be a real slow down, so optimize your tile laying to minimize cutting AND to hide irregular cuts.
2. Cutting tiles with an inexpensive tile cutter ($20 at Lowes or Home Depot) is quite easy, provided that you use a fairly thin tile. I used a very thin 6x6 tile for most of my walls cutting it was a snap (pun intended). At the front of the tub I used a heavy 6x8 tile and it was much harder to cut. The most difficult cuts are those where one of the resulting pieces is less than an inch at which point the small piece tends to shatter. You can get a special set of tile pliers with a wide clamp on them and they will solve this problem. One of the big challenges when cutting repetitive cuts is to get them all the exact same size. If they are slightly different dimensions then you end up with irregular grout lines. One way to moderate the problem is to use a grout that is the same colour as your tile.
3. For the really difficult angled cuts on my heavy bullnose tile, I simply went to Lowes and had them cut on their tile saw.
4. I recommend that you get the more expensive mortar as you don’t want the tiles coming off. It includes polymers (plastics) and eliminates the need for special additives in your mortar mix
5. Mixing tile mortar mix is quite a chore. You add a precise amount of water first and then add the mortar mix and stir with a drywall mixer on a 1/2 inch drill. The typical process is to mix the mortar for 5-10 minutes until it is very smooth. You then wait ten minutes and mix it for another 2 minutes. The typical ‘open’ time (time before the mix gets hard and has to be thrown out) is 6 hours.
6. Get lots of spacers to insert as you lay the tiles to keep the grout lines even. Insert them in the center of the tile with only one 'leg' sticking in the crack. You can put them in the corners but this will make them hard to remove.
7. Keep lots of paper handy to wipe off the tiles and hands as the mortar mix tends to get all over every thing. Also keep a sponge and bucket of water for the same purpose.
8. You can also buy premixed thin set mortar mix and it is an excellent product.
9. Remember to get edge or bullnose tiles to place on the outside edge of the tiled section.
10. You will probably want to put some accent or pattern tiles in your tiled area to bring it to life. Try and keep this simple as laying patterns can take a lot of time.
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| 11:35 AM |
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| 13 May 2004 |
Door Installation
Installing your doors is not a terribly difficult task. It does require some patience and there can be problems relating to the rough openings (RO) left in the walls for the doors.
Doors are generally bought pre-hung in their casements. My doors where screwed shut using one long drywall screw set through the casement into the door. You remove this screw and slide the door and casement into the rough opening. The casement is then set in place by inserting cedar ‘shims’ into the space between the casement and the rough opening. These cedar wedges are pushed into place from both sides to form a fiction fit.
You should carefully assess the general ‘plumb of the rough opening before you start inserting the shims. This involves checking the vertical and horizontal plumb of the door jamb with a level. It is in setting a door that you gain an appreciation of just how accurate a level really is. It can easily show variations of one quarter of an inch.
Once you have set some preliminary shims you can check to see how the door open and closes in the casement. This is the key test of your efforts. Once the door appears to open and close correctly you can begin to set the door by driving three to four inch nails or screws into the casement at the points where you have inserted the shims. You should have at least three connection points on each side of the door.
If, after setting the shims the door hits against part of the door jamb then try removing the shims and starting again. Try increasing the space on one side or the other of the door. You can also try opening and closing the door several times while it is not set to see the natural tendency of the door to sit in the opening.
I found that some doors went in real easy and some just took a bunch of fiddling time.
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| 12:42 AM |
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| 07 May 2004 |
Floor installation
Once the painting is done you are on to the more pleasant tasks. I decided to put hardwood throughout my main floor. I was then presented with a bewildering array of choices. All different species of wood in solid and engineered planks. Engineered hardwood flooring is essentially plywood with a hardwood veneer. I was drawn to this type of product because of it’s lower cost and ease of installation. In all my years of being around hardwood floors I don’t recall ever having to resurface the hardwood, so it is hard to justify using one half inch or more of hardwood when one eighth inch will do.
After much research I settled on ‘Peerless Plank’ red oak flooring from Biwood Floors. This is an eight inch by six foot ‘plank’ that has a tongue and groove on all sides. It fits together perfectly. We (two people) installed a 600 square foot main floor in one day. It was a pleasure working with the product. We started on one wall by face nailing the planks leaving a good half inch of space at the edge of the floor where it meets the wall. This is to allow for expansion and contraction of the floor. They sent us a few pieces of off grade material to use as hammer blocks. We placed these against the plank and with a few taps from the hammer the planks fit together without any spaces or cracks. It’s actually a bit amazing to see these planks going together and fitting so snugly.
We first laid down a layer of fifteen pound felt on the floor in the direction of the planks. Once we had set the first row of planks we nailed the succeeding planks through the tongues using two inch brads and an air nailer. Inch and ¼ brads work as well.
In one area we introduced some waviness in our pattern when we were cutting around some closets. We then found that the planks would not fit perfectly. We corrected this by using a large screwdriver which we dug into the sub-floor and used as a wedge to generate a continuous pressure on the plank as we nailed it. This generally ‘sucked’ the planks in tight. There were a couple of tiny gaps in this problem area which I am planning to fill with red oak colored wood filler.
We also made one big mistake in our layout. Our main floor in roughly ‘U’ shaped. We started at the top of one of the legs of the ‘U’. After we had filled in the leg and the base of the ‘U’ we then realized the in order to finish we would have to proceed from the base of the ‘U’ back up the other leg. The problem with this is that when moving back up the leg we had the groove showing and not the tongue, so consequently we did not have anything to nail to. We solved our problem by faced nailing on the edge of the planks. We could get away with this as the area was quite narrow. The rule then is: when planning your job remember you must always go in one direction with your nailing.
It was quite exciting totally transforming the main floor of the house in one day. It is tough work but very rewarding. The tradesman I had working with me let slip that he normally charged $4.50 a square foot to install and finish a floor (not including materials). I didn’t have the heart to tell him my floor installed including the flooring would end up being just over half that. If you are planning to install yourself, I heartily recommend renting an ‘air stapler’ that is specially designed for installing these types of floors. They are available at Home Depot or Lowes or other large rental shops. These staplers are set on the proper angle for nailing through the tongue of the plank and will ensure a fast and perfect job.
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| 12:33 AM |
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| 06 May 2004 |
Painting
Once you have meticulously sanded every square inch of your drywall and gone over every wall with a trouble light shining at ninety degrees to the surface to touch up the imperfections you are ready to start the painting process.
The first step is to clean the floor at the base of the walls. This is necessary for when you spray the bottom of the walls. Remember to mask off all windows and doors etc. with plastic sheets. At that time if there is still a lot of drywall dust on the floor the paint sprayer will blow the dust all over the room (and the new paint).
Your first coat is the primer. Be sure to check with your building inspector as in my area they want you to use a ‘vapor barrier’ primer. This is to help keep the moisture in the house from traveling through the walls and causing rot. Vapor barrier primer is available at paint stores but they will just look at you funny if you ask for it at the ‘big box’ guys. The big decision in painting is the spayer. Do not use a standard ‘airless’ sprayer. You need a professional industrial grade sprayer or you will drive yourself crazy spending way to much time painting. If you fully sand and prep your whole house, you can give it a primer and a finish coat in one day with a good paint sprayer.
Buy lots of paint. Check with a pro on this and give yourself some extra. A pro grade sprayer can go through a five gallon pail of paint in a half an hour. You want to get good solid coverage with your primer. Get enough paint on so you cannot see the difference between the areas on the wall with mud on them and the areas with just drywall. Do not count on the finish coat to cover these visual variations. Always keep a roller on a handle close by to enable ‘back rolling’ where necessary. If you see that your sprayer has splattered paint or you have areas where the paint is to heavy and in danger of running you back roll these areas with your roller. This will even things out nicely and the finish will look quite homogeneous.
The standard for paint finishes is to use a flat finish on the ceiling and a semi-gloss on the walls. I did not mask between the ceiling and the walls and I have not noticed a problem visually by doing this. Good quality latex dries so quickly that you can start your finish coat almost immediately after you have finished the priming.
Don’t forget to wear old clothes, some kind of head covering, a face mask and safety glasses if possible.
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| 12:31 AM |
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| 05 May 2004 |
Drywall sanding and finishing
So the process of installing drywall consists of installing the board, taping the cracks and then applying at least two coats of drywall filler or mud. Then you need to ‘sand-out’ the job. This is the process where you go over every inch of the walls and sand out any imperfections. Drywall mud sands very easily and this is taken into account as you put on the mud. The art of putting on the mud is deciding when to walk away from an area that you working on knowing that it is as good as it is going to get and that the remaining imperfections can be sanded out. That being said you can expect a significant chore in the sanding out process. And what’s more you should plan on going over all areas with a forth coat to ‘touch up’ any problem areas. I spent a good eight to ten hours on my five thousand square feet of drywall. Try and find some good safety glasses as the drywall dust is very irritating when it gets in your eyes. I do not suggest goggles as they will fog up under intense exertion.
You will need a pole sander and 150 grit drywall sandpaper. As well you should always have a drywall sanding ‘sponge’ and a three inch putty knife to use a scrapper for any heavy areas (especially around corners). The sanding cycle consists of going over an area with the pole sander to get a level even look. Then use the sanding sponge for the fine touches. Always have a high intensity quartz work light shining on a ninety degree angle to the wall that you are working on. In ohter words put you light at one coner of the wall that you are working on and have it shining towards the other end of the wall that you are working on. This will cause the imperfections to cast strong shadows. If you can make a wall look good with this lighting it will look very good in regulat lighing after it has been painted.
No drywall job is every perfect so you need to pick what level of quality you feel you can maintain. If you are going to texture your ceilings or walls they can be a little less perfect.
I was fortunate in that I was able to stay close to my building site for a week and telecommute to my job. I was then able to work every night on the house. I will be posted some notes from that week over the next few days.
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| 1:13 AM |
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| 21 Apr 2004 |
Drywall Filling (part 2)
You know when the whole drywall thing is getting to you when putting mayonnaise in your sandwich provokes an anxiety attack because it reminds you of drywall mud. If you decide to do the drywall in your house be prepared for a big job. There is a reason that this is the most expensive sub contractor on your house. It is a real learning experience. You will find that you will get a lot better at all aspects of hanging, taping and filing by the time you are finished. That’s the good news. The bad news is you will make a lot of mistakes along the way. Drywall is very forgiving. You can fix anything given time. But then again with such a large job you get tired of ‘fixing’ it in the next coat.
Some of the tricks I have learned.
1. The 12 inch trowel is your workhorse. Use this tool wherever possible even when doing corners to get the mud on the wall. You can apply a lot of mud in a short time with this tool.
2. The inside corner tool is the next most important tool. Practice on the corners in your closets until you get good at using this tool. Your corners are a very time consuming and difficult part of the process to master. I have just purchased another corner tool with a much larger ‘V’ to do the final coat on my corners. I hope this will do the trick.
3. Pace yourself by applying a lot of mud on day and doing detail the next. This will help you from getting worn our and give time for the heavy mud areas (like outside corners) to properly dry.
4. Keep a sanding sponge and a 3 inch trowel with you at all times. Whenever you approach an area to apply a second or third coat make sure you go over it quickly with your 3 inch trowel (and sanding sponge if necessary) to remove any burs.
5. The consistency of the mud is very important. If it is too thick it will be tiring to put on. If it is too thin it will be messy and runny. Generally the mud should get thinner as you proceed from coat to coat. Mix each box in your five gallon pail with the paddle on your ½ in drill. Don’t be afraid to add a little water as you go. It will mix easily using the trowel or whatever you use to scoop the mud into your pan.
So, after a three day weekend I am finished my third coat downstairs and second coat upstairs. I will have to sand out my downstairs and then I should be done. Unfortunately it is obvious that I will need a major forth ‘touch-up’ coat but I think that with what I learned I will be able to finish the upstairs in three coats.
My attempt to use Ames drywall tools to help me was a resounding failure. They are tricky to use and require a consistent job from start to finish as well as a precise consistency to the mud AND some lessons from someone who knows before you try it on your own.
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| 12:31 AM |
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| 13 Apr 2004 |
Drywall Filling
After you have hung your drywall and applied the first ‘taping’ coat of drywall mud you must then apply two more coats of drywall mud before the walls are ready for paint. In the first taping coat you are most concerned that the tape is properly ‘glued’ to the drywall. This simply means that you get the paper tape fully covered in mud on the underside and that you removed any excess mud by running a trowel over the tape. All of the edges of the paper tape should have mud oozing out. If you use glue on fiberglass mesh tape than you simply want to ensure that the tape is fully covered. I was initially expecting to use a lot of fiberglass tape as it seemed to be easier to use but it is hard to get a good finish on corners and if you have a ‘banjo’ or a bazooka to help with your paper tape then it will be faster.
With the second coat the walls will start to look finished. The areas where tape and mud have been applied will be fairly smooth but certainly not perfect. The object in the second coat is to begin ‘feathering’ the taped areas. This means so try to get a very thin coat of mud on the outside of a tape ‘joint’ which becomes thicker as you approach the center of the joint. Because it is the second coat do not spend too much time on each joint. This will often simply cause problems.
A big part of the second coat is filling all of your corners. This means wall corners, window jams and closet jambs. In these cases the second coat must be applied in two stages. First the inside of the jamb and then after that has dried the wall side of the jamb.
For inside corners you should also do them in two steps. Do one edge and wait for it to dry and do the next edge. I became frustrated and gave up on my inside corners. I am going to try an automated corner tool from Ames Tool. Ames is the industry leader in supplying tools to drywallers and will rent all of their tools.
Although it seems that the drywalling will never be finished, I have proceeded on ordering the flooring. After much research I have settled on a 7 inch by six foot plank from Biwood. This is an ‘engineered’ hardwood meaning it is a plywood with a prefinished layer of oak as the top layer. It looks great and is very well priced.
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| 10:19 AM |
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| 07 Apr 2004 |
Drywall taping
Well after two 14 hour days and two 8 hour days the taping of the drywall is almost done. I had a little help but mostly I did it myself. The ‘banjo’ taping tool helped immensely. This is a simple tool that has a box with a handle and a reel connected to it that holds a roll of drywall tape. The tape passes through the box and gets covered with a layer of mud and is ready to be applied to the wall. The secret is to mix the mud to the right consistency. Too thick and the mud will not stick to the tape as it comes out of the banjo. Too thin and it will run out of the banjo in streams. One annoying occurrence was the condition where as you started pulling the tape out of the banjo after about three feet the mud would be very spotty on the tape. We attributed this to the mud having too thick a consistency. In general the banjo was a godsend. The key tools for taping are;
- 2 – five gallon pails for mixing and cleaning
- 1 – one gallon pail for cleaning
- 1 – six inch trowel
- 1 – 3 or 4 inch trowel
- 1 or 2 drywall pans
- 1 – inside edge trowel
- 1- mud mixing tool for your half inch drill
- 12 inch trowel
- mud pan
- mud hawk
- 2 – 6 inch plastic trowels
You use taping mud and you must mix it with a small amount of water in a five gallon pail until you have the consistency of cake icing. You will be putting on at least 3 counts of drywall mud. In the first coat you are just covering seams and screw holes. The object is to get the tape on with the underside well coated with mud. Do not spend much time making a neat job. Drywall sands very easily so this take care of any rough spots on the next coat. Just make sure the tape is well ‘glued’ with the mud. We tried fiberglass mesh tape. This is an alternative to paper tape and it works ok but in general with a ‘banjo’ the paper tape will be faster and it is claimed to be stronger.
Don’t forget the window sills and closets will need corner bead and this is quite time consuming. Once again the object is to ‘stick’ on the corner bead with the first coat so make sure there is plenty of mud under the corner bead.
After the fist couple of hours you will be quite productive. The challenge then becomes the endless monotony of the job.
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| 12:29 AM |
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| 30 Mar 2004 |
After repeated efforts to find someone to 'tape and fill' my drywall I have decided to do it myself and save some money. I have taken a book out of the library on the subject, read the publications at Home Depot and Lowe's and combed the internet.
I had great expectations for progress this weekend but most of my time was taken up moving out of my old residence. I did however apply what I will call the pre-coat. In the drywall filing process the first coat is where you put on the tape. Because of my inexperience with hanging drywall I ended up with some 'problems'. Mostly in the cieling area, I had large gaps and uneven areas. To handle these problems I applied a filler coat to the worst areas using 'PolyFilla' This is a plaster like product that I have used since childhood in Canada but is not readily available in the US. It is cellulose based, mixes with water like drywall compound and has a 'working' time of 30-40 minutes. It goes on smooth like joint compound but dries with good strength. It is much stonger than plaster of paris for example. So I will sand it (it sands out well) and then begin on the taping part of the dryall saga on Friday.
I have three and a half days and I am going to try and finish the taping and filling by the end of that time. I am going to try using a 'banjo' tape application aid to speed the process. |
| 1:28 AM |
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| 23 Mar 2004 |
‘Crywall’ - Part 2 Well we hit it again for another action packed weekend. This weekend’s goal was to finish ‘hanging’ the drywall. I got started Friday afternoon and by late Friday night I was thoroughly worried about finishing on time. A couple of family members pitched in and this was a big help. I also enlisted the help of a tradesman on the Sunday. The bottom line is on Sunday night we were basically finished. I made out a list of details that needed to be taken care of by the tradesman and I am now looking for someone to ‘tape and fill’ the drywall. This is the magic part of the drywall process where you take a really messy bunch of board and make it into nice smooth walls.
The secret to hanging drywall is to have the right tools and then as much as possible work out a system that works for you to get into the ‘rhythm’ of applying the board.
The basic process of hanging is :
Survey a wall and decide how you can most efficiently apply the board. This is critical and you primarily look for stud placement to work out your cuts. Once you have a plan for the wall start at one end and work to the other. Be careful to check for backing or stud members to nail to as this will sometime influence which wall buts into which. Then clean the floor beside the wall and mark the studs and outlets on the floor. Although you should have standardized the height of your outlets and switches, it is a good idea to also mark the height of the outlets on the floor. When putting in your outlets use your hammer as a standard. When putting in the switches start them at 48 inches high off the floor. Measure, cut and hang. These are the basic steps.
Keep your key pieces of equipment close by (these are listed in the last posting). The best way that I found to get into a rhythm was by hanging the sheets with about ten screws and then going on to the next board. Leave the cutting of holes and final screwing to later. In this way you can get some real progress and leave the less arduous tasks to a helper or for when you are tired.
The other key piece of equipment that your should have is a Rotozip. This is a specialized router optimized for cutting drywall. It works well … too well. It cuts through the drywall so easily that you can easily cut way too much. I system I used was to cut a pilot hole in the center of the opening that I was trying to cut and then reach in with my finger and check the exact location of where I was. You can easily cut concentric holes with the Rotozip to gradually open up an area for a box. Ideally you want to lightly follow the outside of the box that you are opening. You can rely on the noise of the Rotozip blade to tell you when you a touching the box. You must use a light but firm touch to prevent cutting into the box.
Drywall is a big expense in building a house. The model house which has about 1200 square feet of floor area has about 5300 square feet of drywall area. A typical cost for drywall is now above a dollar per square foot. This includes the materials, hanging and finishing. Although it is not extremely complicated or difficult to do, it is hard work hanging the board (especially the ceiling) and any mistakes will be visible in your finished home.
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| 9:33 AM |
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| 16 Mar 2004 |
They don't call it 'crywall' for nothing. My plan for the drywall portion of the project was to organize the drywall, participate in the placing of the drywall (the boarding) and then letting some tradesmen finish the job. From my Blog of last week you can see that I got the drywall on site and did start the boarding. I then left the job to some hired tradepeople. Unfortunately after checking with them each night on their progress I decided that I had underestimated the size of the job and so I suspended the project until I could try and see how far I could get on my own. Well not exactly on my own as my brother was kind enough to help. We purchased the basic tools
- razor knife
- Measuring tape
- dimpler
- four foot T square
- cordless drill
- drywall rasp
- stud finder
- drywall saw
- Drywall lifter
- Chalk line
The dimpler is a very useful philips head attachemt that goes on the cordless drill and sets the drywall screws just right into the drywall. Oh yes, one more thing, get some safety glasses as the drywall dust tends to get in the eyes when cutting out holes in the ceiling.
Drywall is inherently simple to work with. Just cut the drywall board with the razor knife and give the board a flip with in the direction away from the board and it will snap along the cut. Then cut the paper on the other side of the board and you are done. The dificulties arise when you have to cut holes in the drwall to match the holes in your ceiling and walls for lights, switches and wall plugs. As well, to properly fasten the drywall you need to mark the studs on the board.
Good drywall boarders can hang the drywall in a couple of days. You should plan on 3-4 times that if you do it yourself. I recommend using a subtrade. The drywalling of your house can be the biggest single sub-trade cost so be prepared. Start early trying to line up a well recommended supplier. |
| 9:35 AM |
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| 09 Mar 2004 |
Another frenzied weekend and we are well into the drywall phase of the ‘build your own home’ model home. The weekend started out as an exercise in expect the unexpected. This is the key to the success of any project. Expect problems and try to recover. I was all set to take delivery of the drywall. Perfect timing, Friday, just in time for a busy weekend, except that the truck broke down and so the new delivery was scheduled for Monday. I used all my powers of persuasion and got them to hire an outside company to deliver early Saturday.
This turned out to be a blessing as I could properly clean up and prepare the jobsite. One of my key ideas was to get the drywall delivered by a ‘hiab’ or a truck with a small crane on it. In this way we could get the drywall lifted by the crane to the second floor. Carrying drywall up stairs is a very tough job. My plan worked. We hoisted the drywall in and after we were done we finally got to put all the windows in.
Keeping the job site clean is a key part of managing the project. I set aside 2-3 hours every 3-4 days to completely clean the inside to the house. I have built two piles outside the house. One is for garbage and one is for wood scraps. I bought a good quality push broom and it has been one on my best investments. Also get a dust pan and a small brush to clean in the hard to get places. Nothing speeds up the progress on a jobsite like a good cleaning.
We also installed the double French doors in the living room. Alas, when we went to put in the entrance door we found that it has been built to open out. This, of course, meant that it will have to be redone. Luckily, I have to get my interior doors from the same supplier, so we can make a switch when he brings those.
I also ran all the phone and cable wires. This is a small (couple of hour) job but you must get the materials on site. You can use the typical electrical box to terminate the wires. I put both wires in the same box as I found a nice faceplate that has both connections.
When you start putting on the drywall you better be ready as it is relatively easy to add wires and circuits when the walls are open and very hard after they have been closed in.
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| 12:05 AM |
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| 02 Mar 2004 |
This weekend we achieved a major milestone in our ‘build your own home’ project. We passed our framing inspection. This is probably the most difficult inspection. When you pass this inspection the local building officials essentially certify that your structure is sound and meets the requirements for energy use.
My inspector was concerned with the structural integrity of the building but also had to ensure that the second storey met fire codes. Another major concern now in building design is how the building and it’s occupants breathe. As our homes become more tightly sealed, there may not be enough air movement for the oxygen used for combustion in gas stoves and fireplaces and even for breathing. The typical resolution to this by the building codes has been to ‘beef up’ the design of our existing bathroom ventilation systems and also ensure that the bedrooms have a specific method of air balance other than opening a window. My inspector told me I could order my windows with a special venting system that meets this code requirement. As I hadn’t done this he suggested I use a special device called a ‘Fresh Air 80’s that acts as a passive ventilation system. You can install these units in the walls in the specified rooms (typically the bedrooms) and this will make you code compliant.
A typical house also generates a lot of water vapor. As we breathe and use water for cooking and washing we are increasing the water vapor in the air. Typically the air inside a house will be warmer and more humid than the outside air. Our basic knowledge of chemistry tells us that nature will try and balance this. The warm air will travel through the walls and the water vapor will condense into liquid when it gets cold. If the walls don’t breathe, that is, allow for some air movement, then the water will be trapped in the walls and they will get moldy and eventually rot. Some states require an exhaust fan that is controlled by a humidistat so that it will turn on automatically and ventilate the house when the humidity gets too high. In Washington state, where the model home is being built, you must design a ventilation system with a prescribed air flow rate (CFM) based on square footage and number of bedrooms. The state provides a work sheet for this. For the model home we needed at least seventy-five CFM. We were allowed to use our bathroom fan in the design. We did, however, miss one important point. My bathroom fan used a three inch pipe, so I assumed that I could use three inch ducting for my exhaust system. This is wrong. You typically must use at least four inch ducting. There is very little difference in cost or installation time, unless, of course you are doing it twice. You must also remember to allow for the ventilation of your clothes dryer and range hood. Your building code office will be able to give you the necessary information to do this. I received a yellow booklet with my building permit that detailed most of these ‘gotchas’. Despite the re-engineering of my ventilation system, the building inspector gave us the go ahead to insulate and so we are on to the final step before we finish the walls.
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| 11:42 AM |
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| 24 Feb 2004 |
This weekend was a challenging episode in the saga of ‘building your own home’. It saw us failing both framing/plumbing inspection and electrical inspection. The good news is that we didn’t fail too badly. The one big thing that we missed on our framing inspection was the fire blocking of the side trusses. Our gambrel roof design uses triangle shaped trusses to form the side walls of our second floor. The inspector wants us to block the possibility of fire traveling in this truss cavity into the upper roof trusses and also stop a fire from traveling the full length of the structure. So we are adding blocking at the top of the trusses and ‘firewalls’ in the trusses every ten feet, which is only two spots because of the design of our second floor.
Our electrical inspector was very patient with my inexperience. He noticed a few things that weren’t finished and also found boxes with too many wires in them.
Here is the formula for calculating how many wires can be in a box. This assumes that you are using 12-2 for all your wiring (a good idea).
Each #12 insulated wire – 2.25 cu. inches
All the grounds – 2.25 cu. inches
Each switch or plug – 4.50 cu. Inches
A standard wall box is 18 cu inches, so using these calculations you can have only two wires terminating in them. The deeper 22 cu. inch box can have three wires. An alternative is to use a double switch box and only have a single receptacle finish plate on it.
The overall design of your wiringis largely governed by the codes for specific rooms and appliances. All appliances that are fixed in place need their own circuit. This includes
- Stove
- Dishwasher
- Washer
- Drier
- Microwave (if it fixed in place)
The kitchen requires two dedicated circuits for the plugs. You also need a dedicated circuit for the plugs in your bathroom and these need to be protected with a ground fault detecting plug. The bedrooms and the smoke detectors need to be on an ARC fault protected circuit. Arc fault detectors are a technology that detects arcing-faults in electrical circuits that could cause fires. You need a smoke detector in every bedroom and on each floor of the house. These smoke detectors need to be tied together in a three wire circuit. Interconnected devices require three conductors plus an equipment grounding conductor: a black hot conductor, a white neutral conductor, a red or orange interconnection conductor plus the green or bare equipment grounding conductor.
The interconnection conductor causes the connected smoke alarms to signal an alarm when one device senses smoke, thus providing early warning of smoke. The total length of the interconnecting conductor cannot exceed 1,000 feet.
It is also a good idea to keep all of your external lights and plugs on a single circuit. It is also required that all there be an electrical receptacle on at least two sides of the outside of the house. I have a sixteen circuit panel and I will use at least fifteen circuits. Unfortunately I pieced these rules together as I went and I did considerable rewiring. The next time I build a house the wiring will go much faster.
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| 11:26 PM |
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| 17 Feb 2004 |
I spent another intense weekend on the jobsite. We are racing to completion on plumbing, electrical and heating. As well, on his next visit the inspector will do a final check on our framing. We will then be ready to insulate and sheet rock the walls.
We had great success with our heating. We are using hot water heat. It is extremely efficient, totally quiet and a very gentle heat. Add to these features, very easy to install. After talking to our supplier we built a template of the different radiators that we will be using to help get the position of our holes. Then we quickly drilled all the holes and pulled the ‘pex’ tubing into place. Our gambrel roof design gives a nice eighteen inch space for our services on the second floor. We then ran the tubing along the second floor joists and up the holes in the floor. We ran three loops. The key to this type of heating is the ‘Pex’ which is crosslinked polyethylene tubing that can withstand the heat and pressure of the hot water heating system. Instead of the time and cost of running copper tubing you can quickly pull in pex tubing. We are planning on using a wall hung gas boiler that will handle both heating and domestic hot water and will fit under the stairs.
We have almost finished the basic electrical rough-in. We have used 1500 feet of 12-2 wire. For lighting we will be using a combination of recessed pot lights and low voltage tracks.
In our quest to ‘build your own home’ we are now starting to see the finish line.
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| 11:53 AM |
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| 13 Feb 2004 |
Have spent the week on the heating system and the kitchen cabinets. I have also been trying to organize the schedule for finishing the house.
For the kithen I have been studying the various cabinet sizes and configurations. The kitchen counter is at 36 inches. The bottom of the range hood is at 60 inches. Lots of pieces to the puzzle. Not to difficult though as a lot of thought has been put into the general kitchen layout in order to set the windows.
Went to visit our hydronic heating supplier, the good guys at Blue Ridge Company. I picked all the necessary tubing (pex) and fittings to do the heating rough in. A quick call to the building inspector informed me that I will have to do a 'pressure test' of the heating piping prior to closing in the walls.
Our finish schedule looks like this:
- plumbing ins 2/19/2004
- electrical ins 2/23/2004
- insulation 2/26/2004
- drywall 2/27/2004
- paint 3/14/2004
- trim & doors 3/15/2004
- flooring 3/21/2004
- cabinets and countertops 3/25/2004
- appliances and fixtures 3/27/2004
- move in 3/29/2004
It is an agressive schedule, especially considering that I have a 'day job' to keep up, but I think we can do it.
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| 1:12 AM |
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| 09 Feb 2004 |
I Spent another four days onsite and we are on to a new phase in the saga of building your own home. On the first day I installed a special modification designed by the engineer to take care of an issue of our foundation sill plate on our main shear wall. Also on day one the roof was finally finished. This was cause for celebration as I gained a great appreciation of the difficulties of working on roofs.
We also succeeded in getting the building inspector to sigh off on our sheathing and shear wall inspections. This means we can finish the exterior.
Now we are concentrating on the plumbing and electrical rough-in. For your rough-ins you install all the pipes and wiring to the point where you are ready to have an inspection. The plumbing inspection is conducted by the building inspector and the electrical by a separate inspector. In am using a plumbing contractor for my plumbing but I am doing my electrical myself. I have done a lot of electronic wiring in the past and several of my contractor friends suggested that I do my own electrical. I have bought a book on the subject and I am trying to fit all of my necessary circuits in to the sixteen that my panel holds.
Some work was also done on finishing the exterior. I had purchased Tyvek housewrap for this but after a number of discussions I decided to use good old fashioned 'tar paper'. I issue here is walls that 'breath'. It is important have a way for the moisture (water vapor) to escape from the inside of the house. Th | |
