More Windows

We were greeted by this fine site after work yesterday!

Windows going in and a funny story about "extra" concrete.

Not much daylight left in th evenings . . . .

The windows should all be in by the end of this week. This is exciting because some of the rooms have never even had Rough Openings. Due to the nature of SIP panels, if the load above is below a certain amount, the RO can be cut on-site leaving only 1' of SIP intact above as a sufficient header. These new openings will really let the light into the master suite area and upstairs bedrooms.

The garage and basement slabs are in and they look great. I told the masons to clean out the truck chutes and dump any extra concrete into the block piers for the front porch. Well, they had enough extra to FILL the two larger ones. I figure they weight about 4000 pounds each now. They are built on a footings 8' down (same level as basement footings), but I sure hope the don't start sinking now! They did the filling the day they did the basement slab, before they came back for the garage, we put 4" block to carry small slabs that will carry the posts to support the porch roof. We formed up those slabs so when we lay the next (and last!) 4 courses, they will start just above the finished decking. I think these are really going to look sharp once the stone veneer (or cultured stone) is applied.

I feel sorry for the poor bastard 50 years from now who says, "lets knock out these piers and change the look of the front porch".

We made good progress on wiring this weekend (see next post) and started painting the trim to prepare for install. A local electrician is advising. I've hired him for consults and a few days of labor; however we'll do most of the wiring ourselves. It will probably be a couple of weeks before we'll call for the next inspection (framing and mechanicals), in the meanwhile, the builder will finish the windows and start on the soffit, fascia, and trim.

How to install outlet boxes in a SIP walls

During the plan stage, you mark up your drawings with every location you think you might want an outlet or switch on an outside wall. When the panels are being manufactured, they cut vertical chases into the foam at those locations; and then mark the OSB top and bottom. As the builder is setting the panels, we drills holes through the bottom plate and through the top spacer and 2x6.

I made a template for my router by tracing around a face-mount box with a marker. By cutting to the outside of the marker line, the hole is the right amount "oversize" so I can use a collar round the router bit. Here are pics of the sequence during install.

Sorry for the Delay - Mechanicals and Slabs

The shingles have started and the HVAC and Plumbing rough are mostly done. I am not totally satisfied with the mechanicals and am going to try to have a few minor changes made.

The vertical shot shows the HVAC chase looking towards the kitchen and loft. The run on the left is the supply to the bonus room - ot does not go to the second floor, but rather runs through a soffit off to the left. The middle run is the upstairs supply; right is the return.


The other two pics show the prep for the basement and garage slabs. Foam and rebar in the garage; and a rough in for a basement bathroom.

Gables and Stairs

Not a lot of major stuff lately, but things are moving ahead.

The HVAC rough-in started today, and we finished the stairs from the first to the second floor. Those were a real head-scratcher because of the landing and doorway that will go through to the bonus room.

The distance from the first (finished floor) to the landing was divisible with a 7" rise. The distance from the landing to the second finished floor was divisible by 6-5/8". Not the best way to do a set of stairs, but it seems to be OK.

My thought was that a slightly shorter step up after a landing (going up) would be safer than a taller step. Further, on the way down and after the landing, the slightly longer step down does not seem noticeable. I am going to post this over in the Breaktime forum at the Fine Homebuilding website to see what some experts say.

Trusses

Not much to say about this one. It was a long day, but I'm not complaining since we had a crane. The rafter tails are not long enough so we will be scabbing on some extensions prior to sheathing. They plan on completing most of the sheathing by Friday.

New Site Supervisor

This little hummingbird built a nest not 6' off the ground and 20' from the house. The wife was the first to spot it. We think she's sitting on some babies.

More Interior Walls

This just about does it for the interior walls. The wife and I finshed the interior walls by building the walls for the office, powder room, and her closet on the first floor, and the bedroom and bathroom walls on the second floor.

The picture with the dogs shows the foyer and the door to my office. The dogs are looking out the front door and the powder room is on the other side of the wall on the left side of the picture.

The picture that looks like a jumble of studs is taken from the office looking back towards the powder room (there is access to the powder room from the office via a pocket door, or the hall via a regular hall). You can also see in that picture the small pantry and the HVAC chase.

The picture taken from above the top plates is the upstairs bedrooms and the bath they share (and a nice view up the bay)

This week the crew will finish framing the garage walls (those are being built conventionally) and get ready for the trusses and crane on Wednesday.

Check back Thursday.

Anybody out there?

I know that we have some family and friends checking out this blog, but I am curious who else is out there. I put a sitemeter counter up and I see that folks from all over the world have clicked over for a look-see (Cool!).

I am guessing that most click over from the updates I put on the Breaktime Forum over at FineHomebuilding.com. If you've been checking this site on a somewhat regular basis or just clicked over from Breaktime, Thermomass, or where-ever, click on the small "X comments" link at the end of every post and let me know.

Lurking is allowed, but if you have any questions about what I am doing or why, ask away.

We hope to wrap up the interior walls this weekend.

Interior Shots with the Second Floor now up

These pics show the clerestory windows from the inside. (Those openings are actually for 2 windows each). The three on the right are high up on the wall in the great room. The one on the left is in one of the upstairs bedrooms. That picture was taken from what will be the other bedroom and through where the upstaris bath will be (Since there are no interior walls on the second floor yet)

The other two pictures show the loft/balcony from above and below. The stairs come up there and the area below the loft defines the kitchen.

3 Days Later, a Second Floor

They put down (up?) the second floor deck on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, they stood up all of the second floor walls.

The headers for the clerestory windows were installed before they put up those panels. The windows on the three bumpouts (and one in-between the two upper bumpouts) will probably be cut out and bucked today.

A Weekend's Worth of Interior Walls

A friend from work came over Satuday. He helped me with the two main load bearing walls. It took him, my wife, and I to raise the big one. The reason that the one wall is made from 2x10's is because it will support a SIP above, and a run of trusses over the master suite. The 2x10 gives us the width we needed. Also, the studs in that wall are 24"oc and layed out so the trusses fall above each stud. In any event, getting those walls raised was the main goal for the weekend.

The next day; however, the wife and I made a bunch more progress. We did the rest of the layout and cut the bottom and 2 top plates for all of the first floor walls. We even got a few more of the smaller walls up, too. Mainly some short walls in the powder room that tie into the pantry and HVAC chase.

The goal for this week is to get the second floor deck and walls up and be ready for the trusses.

Tall First Floor Walls

(Wow!) Now we can really get an idea of how the great-room is going to look. The tall windowless wall on the right in the interior shot will get some windows later. You can see the open spot at the top which will receive the header. The big window wall is topped by a gable. We spec'd that truss as "load bearing" so we could get away with the long SIP headers.

We are going to work over the weekend to get two main interior walls up so they crew can work on the second-floor deck on Monday.

What a Difference a Day Makes

The picture from the previous post showed a completed floor deck on 8/2, here is what was done by 2pm that same day.

The panels ARE structural, but some window openings will still require headers. The other window openings - those not cut out yet - are field cut with an electric chainsaw with a special baseplate attachment. Then the foam is removed to a depth of 1.5" from the cut and 2x6 lumber is installed around the perimeter of the rough opening.

Floor Deck Done, Ready to Raise Some Walls

I wanted to throw this quick one in here to show that the floor deck was done. The picture you see here was taken from a vantage point that I am using on a regular basis. I don't hold the camera in the exact, perfect spot every time, but the idea is to show a chronological progression.

I-Joists and SIP Rim

They started by installing the SIP rim on 3 sides. It straddles a 2x4 that is glued and nailed to the sill plate. Nails are then driven through the OSB flange on the SIP into the 2x4. Next, they slide in the I-Joists and cut them to length.

The double LVL in the floor system will carry the load bearing wall that extends up to the clerestory windows and uppermost roof. The doubled I-Joist will carry the post that supports the sitting area of the loft that overlooks the great room. I mentioned mistakes in the original engineered floor layout and those were it.

In the original layout, the LVL was missing and the loft sitting area support post carried down to another post in the basement. The missing LVL could have been a real problem and should not have been missed. The post, in my opinion, was more of a "cop out" on the part of the floor designer. The sitting loft is small, carried to the foundation on almost 3 full sides, and is a "floor load" only. The double I-joist removes a post from a bad spot in the basement and is more than sufficient to carry this load.

Sill Plate and Basement Beams

These are the two main load carrying beams in the basement. The lumber yard sent the wrong length steel columns so the beams are on temp supports for now.

The small walls will support/surround the nested stairs and those rest on those single course of block I mentioned in a previous post.

Not as visible here is the treated sill plate. The builder installed it on some pink foam sill seal and took the extra step to tapcon it down to the inner wythe (there were regular anchor bolts in the outer wythe). The specs for the Thermomass wall call for only a 2x6 sill plate, but I bumped it up to a 2x10 since we are using a 4-1/2" wide SIP rim board.

2.5 days to backfill

We should wrapup bacfilling/rough grading today. It has taken a bit longer than expected for a couple of reasons. Primarily, there has been a lot of fill to bring in. Not only do we have a lot of the basement exposed due to the high water table, but we are taking this opportunity to resolve some drainage issues.

When I get the bill for all of the gravel and fill hauling, I will post the number of loads. I have a feeling it is going to be a large number. We hope it is not too much of a budget buster. The other reason is that the truck hauling the fill got a flat tire yesterday.

There have been a couple of other minor bumps in the road that had to be addressed, too. There were mistakes in the engineered floor layout I only discovered the day before yesterday (and framing stars today). I was never given that layout drawing, but I did find it in the materials with the lumber delivery. Mainly miscommunication issues, but one or two were plain-old "the floor guy didn't read the plans close enough". Luckily, none of those issues should hold us up.

Also, in a minor panic, I realized/remembered that there are some short load-bearing walls in the basement. (If you want to go back and see the plans, they are the walls that support the stairs.) In any event, the slab in the basement has not been poured yet, so there is no place to build the walls. The footings are there, but those will be covered by the slab. I kicked around a few ideas on how to fix this.

Most options either involved temporary supports or placing treated lumber that would later be encased when the slab is poured. I did not like either of those. What we finally did was lay a single course of 6" block. These block will support the walls and the slab will be poured around and half-way-up the block when the time comes. I think this is the best solution - today we'll see if I set them in the right place ;-)

Porch Piers

How much (many?) concrete block can a husband and wife lay in 2 days? This much. . . not bad for a couple of DIY'ers. We were hoping for "good enough" and I think we did better and got "not too shabby". It is isn't professional quality, but it is level, plumb, and square and there is only 1/4" difference in height between all 4 pillars. As with many projects like this - skills improved during the course of the project.

These are the supports for the front porch. We made them out of block for 2 main reasons:
1 - We are going to cover them with cultured stone or stone veneer. The final shape is acheived right away with block. The alternative was to pour tubes and then build square boxes on the tubes and cover them. To me, too much of a hassle and not as good of a base for the stone.
2- I wanted us to have a hand in each stage of the building process. I did not want to take on the whole foundation, but this was something I thought we could handle.

We hope to backfill today so we had to get the level of this block above grade. There will be either 3 or 9 courses of block above this. It depends on if we want the stone veneer to end below the porch , or continue up to the bottom of the taper in the porch columns. We are leaning towards the latter, but that's for a future weekend.

Foundation Exposed

Sorry - this post is a couple of days late. The forms actually came off on Monday. The only forms that were pulled on Saturday were the ones on the inside of the outdoor fireplace footing. The mason said that forms inside a small space like that are nearly impossible to remove after more than a day or two of setting.

The mason accidentally installed regular basement windows when the plans were marked for rough openings for some small casements. Since he has to cut them out anyway we decided to make them a little bigger.

The next guy through will be applying damp-proofing coating below the line I put on for finish grade. As you can see we need A LOT OF FILL. The water table is so high and the top soil so thick that couldn't dig very deep. . . . It's not so bad since we had some drainage problems on the lot anyhow. The slope we can establish from here should remedy that problem.

I also need to set lay the block for the porch piers. We may try to start backfill on Friday. We'll see. . . .It's going to be a busy week!