I'm Building My Own House.............

[Andrew Colglazier]

So, in spite of the heat we've been able to get all the steel up, and finish the rake trim. This was an interesting process done with three people. Two would hand the steel, endwise, to the person on the roof, who would pull the steel up to the ridge. The person on the bottom end would position the steel and hold it while the top person would begin running in the screws. It went fairly rapidly, much more rapidly than asphalt shingles.



When the steel is up then foam "closures" are inserted into the ends of the steel ridges to close off the openings to prevent water and critters from entering there. Next will be the ridge vent which we will be installing today. I'll try to get some pics of that process and get them up today.

Andy

[1066vik]

good job!
looks nice and clean.

[Andrew Colglazier]

The roof is pretty much done. After installing the rake trim, we started on the ridge cap and vents.

First we cut the underlayment out all along the ridge to open up the roof.



Then we apply "closures" to the steel on each side of the opening. These are basically just heavy strips of foam which have an adhesive on them. The profile of these strips conforms to the profile of the R-panels, so they fill the space between the top of the roofing and the bottom of the ridge cap.


Once these closures have been applied, it's just a matter of running the ridge cap down the length of the spine of the roof, on top of the foam closures, and screwing them down to the roof.


Once that's done, there isn't much else to do but to sweep the entire roof to remove the little metal shavings the self-tapping screws produced while putting on the roof. The roof and the screws are galvanized, but once a hole is drilled, the shavings can rust. If they aren't swept off the roof, they can start little spots of corrosion.

I'm glad that work is done. Working on a roof this steep is a constant strain, my ankles and my back definitely feel it!

Andy

[Andrew Colglazier]

Today we put the front door in.


It was a pain in the butt compared to the single pre-hung exterior doors we did earlier. This is a Feather River door, and I don't recommend them.

The first door was built out of square, so we sent it back. This door was also out of square, but we were determined to make it work, and we did. Unfortunately I have to say that the components, especially the astragal components, are not particularly robust. Most of the fittings are plastic, the screws are soft and poor quality (I replaced all of them with higher quality screws). The door grommets supplied for the passive door bolts are also plastic, and don't inspire confidence in their strength or longevity. I put the door in because we need to get the house closed to the weather. We'll be getting our siding in in the next couple of weeks, and I need to get everything trimmed out before the siding goes on.

Andy

[12345678910]

A double door is a nice feature, especially at moving time.

Every dwelling should have that.

[Andrew Colglazier]

So, things move forward slowly. We installed the gable vents -


Prepainted lap siding has been ordered, should be here in a week or two. Meanwhile the siding we plan to put in the gables has arrived and is on the ground here at the hacienda.


This stuff and the siding are John Hardie products. The siding will be prepainted from the factory, so all we'll have to do is put it up. The gable siding only comes unpainted, no primer or anything, so that will have to be done after it is put up. So I'm learning how this stuff gets installed, another totally new activity for me.

I ordered some stuff which hopefully will make installation faster and more accurate.

One PacTool International SA904 Gable Scribe -


And two PacTool Siding gauges -


Hopefully these will make the installation faster and easier.

Andy

[1066vik]

wear a dust mask - otherwise you'll be blowing concrete out your nose for a week!
We did 4x9 sheets of Hardie Panel rather than the siding -- good stuff either way.

[maethor]

Very cool. Thank you for taking the time to take and post pictures, it's very interesting. I bet you have a hell of a lot to do though.

[Andrew Colglazier]

Very cool. Thank you for taking the time to take and post pictures, it's very interesting. I bet you have a hell of a lot to do though.

Oh yeah, it does become a bit overwhelming now and then. At the moment we are working to plan how we will be finishing out the eaves on the house. We have decided to have open eaves with exposed rafter tails. This is a traditional look for older southern homes, but to do it right will require quite a bit more work than if we went with closed eaves with soffits.

We have to choose a finish for the undersides of the eaves, and decided how to trim out the entire area. It will take a lot of work to do this, and I want to use materials which came from the old building I deconstructed to do the work. So, currently we are thinking of using the metal siding with a pressed tin siding for the eaves.

This will require that the tin be cut to 24" x 44" pieces for the rakes so they can fit between the lookouts, and 24" x 24" pieces to fit between the rafter tails under the eaves. Then the tin will have to be cleaned and made as flat as possible. I plan to use nylon trim lathe to finish out the spaces, and then the whole thing will be painted to fit the color scheme of the trim and gables of the house.

I did a bit of a test run on this to see how it would look, and so far we like it. The problem is finding screws that will hold the tin to the underside of the eave surface. The roof has 7/16ths thick OSB and then the steel of the roof, so long screws can't be used. So, we'll have to locate some self tapping sheet metal screws that will hold the tin in place which are short enough not to damage the steel roof, but still hold the tin. We'll likely also use some liquid nails to attach the tin. The trim pieces will be attached using stainless finish nails, run into the framing.

I'll take a few pics of what we are doing today so the above will be a bit more clear.

We also received the 12" x 12" blocks which will be going into the window above our south door. They look like this -


That'll be a new experience, I've never installed these things before.

We are also in the process of nailing down the details of our air conditioning system. Ugh!

Andy

[Widerstand]

I am really digging this thread, it's rad to see it all come together like this.

[The Warrior]

This has been a fun thread. I haven't posted on it, but have been watching it though.

[Andrew Colglazier]

Well good, glad folks are enjoying it!

We got about 3/4s of an inch of rain a day or two ago, and I held my breath to see if we had any leaks, but the house remained totally dry, no moisture! That was a relief, even though I didn't expect any leaks.

We've been working on the exterior of the house, installing antique tin from the old building I tore down on the underside of the eaves and rakes. Because we want open eaves (no soffits), we have to cut the tin to fit between the rafters and the lookouts up against the OSB decking.


The tin is glued with Liquid Nails, and then screwed in place. The piece is then trimmed out with 1" x 3/4" nylon lathe. The whole thing will then be caulked with painter's caulk, and painted.



This is quite a bit more work than if we just closed up the eaves with soffits, but I think we will like the look.

We have also begun installing the window trim. This is 4" Hardieboard trim which is 3/4" thick. We've cut the ends of the trim pieces to give the windows a bit more whimsical look.


The joints at the corners of the trim will be caulked and painted. The lap siding should be arriving any time, but we have a fair amount of work to get done before we start putting up the siding!

Meanwhile the plumber has been out, making arrangements to run vent pipes up from the slab, through the framing, and out through the roof. We've also been in contact with several air conditioning companies to get bids on putting in our central air system. I don't feel comfortable installing my own AC system.

Andy

[Andrew Colglazier]

The glass blocks I mentioned above are in place -


All of the windows are trimmed out. Only the gable vents need to be done, and the doors.


Today a fellow will come out to talk to me about air conditioning. That will be an expensive proposition.

Andy

[Andrew Colglazier]

Things move slowly forward - we continue to trim out the doors and windows;


We have the back door and the front door to trim out, then the gable vents, and we'll be ready to put up siding. Speaking of which -


The lap siding has arrived at the supplier, and will be delivered tomorrow morning! So today I went around the house and nailed on the bottom strip. The bottom strip is what gives lap siding its angled appearance. The first course of siding will go over this strip, and all other courses will follow that angle.


The strip is ripped down Hardie plank, cut 1.5" wide. The stuff is .5" thick, same as the siding.

Back to air conditioning - that was a shocking conversation. To install a new central air system in a new build will cost about the same as a new economy car. No thank you. We've done our research on the subject, and the components can be had for 50% of that price without labor. So, we'll be doing our own air conditioning install. It seems that the components can be purchased and put in place, the ducting run, the lines and power run without too much difficulty. Then call in an expert to hook everything up. That should save several thousand dollars, so that's what we are going to do.

Andy

[1066vik]

that's exactly what I did - purchased the high efficiency parts, ran all the ductwork, wired the breaker, had the system ready to set up and the pro came out to set up the sub panel, hook everything together, and offered a 12 month warranty on the parts he touched - all for a bit under $8k, which was less than half of the original quote.

[Andrew Colglazier]

that's exactly what I did - purchased the high efficiency parts, ran all the ductwork, wired the breaker, had the system ready to set up and the pro came out to set up the sub panel, hook everything together, and offered a 12 month warranty on the parts he touched - all for a bit under $8k, which was less than half of the original quote.

There you go, cuts the whole ball of wax in half. Any tips or problems I should look out for?

Andy

[1066vik]

we put dampers in every run for load balancing before closing up the ceiling in the basement
3 machine screws at each join & foil tape all joints. (overkill according to some, but it's a tight system with no noticeable leaks in 3 years)
Also wrapped every run with fiberglass batting to limit condensation. (used leftover batting to wrap the air handler too - we were getting a LOT of condensation off it that first year due to the concrete curing)
Used 10x20 rectangular duct for the main run and 6" round for all the laterals because those were standard sizes.
your local plumbing/furnace contractor's supply can tell you what size main run you should need based on footprint of house and size of air handler. (I have a 3 ton unit, so the 10x20 was recommended)

if you have a good compressor, invest in a cheap step bit and air nibbler from HF for cutting the holes for your lateral runs and trimming duct to length.

[Skimo]

What a great thread to stumble on!

[Andrew Colglazier]

Started putting on siding today!! Yay!!!!!!!!



We started on the side of the house which will be seen the least, so if I made any mistakes, they wouldn't show up so much.

We are going for an older fashioned, rustic look, and that means some pretty narrow lap siding. In our case, four inch reveal. This means we have a lot of courses to put up. :confusedAT:

This tool is really good to have. A siding gauge. It can be set to always space the siding to give a uniform reveal, and it also holds the course being nailed in place while being nailed.


We have our studs on 24" centers, and finding the studs is much easier to do than I anticipated. The sheathing is 48" wide, so all we have to do is feel for the seam, put in a nail, measure over 24" and nail again, repeat. Because we used OSB sheathing, if we miss a stud it isn't such a big deal, especially since we are using ring shank nails which hold very well.

As we get to the window frames, we have to mark out and cut to fit.


Imagine how far along we would be if we were using 12" lap siding!





We spent a good part of the morning just getting ready to put on siding, so we didn't get as much done as I had hoped. But tomorrow, we just pick up where we left off and hopefully we will get all the lap siding up on the west side tomorrow.

Andy

[ssblood]

Looking good! Are those Hardi Planks?