Posts Tagged ‘construction’

re-decking

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

Finished just yesterday, the floor downstairs has to dry for 10 days, which makes this the perfect time to re-deck the undeck.

As you may recall, the rotting deck was pulled out on November 15 and its replacement has been on hold since the end of March while we waited for our engineer to get back to us. So we’ve been living with a harrowing two-story step from the upstairs slider for the last 5 and a half months…

that first step’s a doozy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In all that time, nobody tried to step out onto the deck. Good thing.

Today Joe and his nephew Josh started dismantling the exterior of the deck…

first boards coming off

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

coming along nicely

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The plan is to do some spelunking on the inside of that wall in order to see what the structure detail is.

The engineer drew up a concept for supporting the deck without the posts, which David says he’ll share with you tomorrow… The question is how much rejiggering will the current structure need in order to accommodate the engineer’s design. A little? Or a lot?

the deck: where we left off

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

Let’s see, what’s been going on at the homestead since I last had time to share?

Removing the siding on the inside of the deck surround…

removing the siding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

removing the siding 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turns out the wall on the west side of the deck was completely soggy to the point of rotting…

soggy siding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It absolutely reeks of mildew and was covered in slimy goo. Gross. The wood on that side is not salvageable, unfortunately. Especially once you add in the carpenter ant damage…

signs of old carpenter ants

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They love wood that’s been softened up by poor drainage. Luckily we got rid of the ants right after we moved in.

So where does that leave us? The walls are temporarily covered in housewrap to keep out the spring rains…

deck walls with housewrap

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now there’s a slight pause in the rebuild of the deck while we wait for the engineer to chime in. On what, you ask? Biggify this and check out the deck as the architect imagined it in 1970…

architectural rendering of our house, circa ’70 | Haynes and Associates

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cantilevered. No supports.

Compare that to how it actually got built a year later…

view from the corner, post-construction | Haynes and Associates

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A single post stuck in the middle. Well, not exactly the middle — slightly off-center so that it wouldn’t interfere with coming and going through the lower slider. Weird.

Compare that to how it looks now…

finished wall, February 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At some point, posts were added to either end in addition to the one in the center. David and I think this looks a little clunky and have always imagined we’d try to go back to Irving Hayne’s original vision if possible. Next week, Eric over at Structures Workshop should come back to us with drawings and we’ll find out if we can make it happen. Good man. We’ve tapped him more than once for this remodel.

 

 

and the siding?

Thursday, March 8th, 2012

Painting is done — shall attempt better shots. Siding is still in progress but the bottom floor is just about done. Yay!…

siding in progress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That black mesh in the shot above goes beneath the siding…

closeup of cedar breather

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Called Cedar Breather, it creates a 1/4″ air space between the house wrap and the back of the siding so that moisture can’t build up there. After all, it’s water that encourages paint and stain peel off the wood, causes rot and mold, and invites insects to dine. Better not to give it a chance.

Around the slider, Joe and David created and installed aluminum flashing to match what they did around the window

installing the flashing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So instead of the bulkier wood trim that used to surround the windows and doors, now we have a nice, clean metal edge…

closeup of flashing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks fantastic, boys!

finished wall of siding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Really loving how the dark stain worked out!

 

exciting siding

Monday, March 5th, 2012

The boys are out in the freezing cold today nailing up the siding…

joe nails up the siding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Details later. Thanks, Joe!

okay, vacation’s over

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

Back to work!

david and joe at work

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So David and Joe have been getting the un-sided end of the house ready to close up while the plasterers finish up downstairs. David can update us on the proceedings thus far.

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Now that the siding is all stained and had a chance to dry, we can get ready to install it. First up: flashing the sides and tops of the door and window openings.

Here, a side piece was carefully mitered onto the existing sill flashing that went in when the window was installed…

window flashing with mitre

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, the side flashing got nailed to the house and then taped to the house wrap. The joint between it and the sill flashing, as well as the joint between it and the window frame, will be caulked with the same low-VOC grey caulk we used between the windows and the house…

next step on the flashing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The top flashing rests on the two side pieces of flashing and was also mitered. It extends up through a slit in the house wrap and was nailed in place…

yet more flashing detail

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The corner junction of the top and side flashings was taped and then the house wrap taped down to the top flashing. The goal is to shed water out as it goes down, never allowing it entry to the house.

That piece of pressure-treated wood with the big bolt in it and the nice piece of flashing under make up the the deck ledger…

hoping to shed water

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ledger board had to go in before the siding, but that story deserves a post all its own. Here’s a sneak peek of the newly stained siding installed around the big downstairs window…

newly stained siding and window flashing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hot. Love how clean it looks — no more clunky trim! Don’t worry, the blue strip above the siding is just the blue of the overhead tarp captured in the shiny new flashing.

yeah, i said butt splice

Monday, January 9th, 2012

David will now pick up where I left off last week.

—————————————————————————————-

So Joe and I got a bunch of gyp board (aka sheetrock or drywall) hung on the downstairs ceiling. As Brook pointed out, it’s a ⅝”-thick product called QuietRock. I chose it specifically for its soundproofing, noise-reducing qualities as the downstairs will eventually be our entertainment area. We don’t want to hear action movie blasts and techno beats through the floor upstairs.

Quietrock is made up of (from front to back): paper, ⅜” gypsum, a layer of a non-hardening viscoelastic glue, ¼” gypsum and paper. It’s still a Type-X fire-rated product but has much better sound dampening characteristics than standard ⅝” gyp board. It also differs from standard sheetrock in having a paper-wrapped long edge which is not removed upon installation….

paper edge on short side

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No matter what kind of gyp board you use, there’s a trick to getting a really flat wall or ceiling with it. The long edges come from the factory with a taper that allows for the thickness of the joint compound and tape you’re going to add, so that the separate pieces of gyp board become one monolithic, smooth mass. But the short edges have no taper and if left to their own device will make a visible hump when taped. You see this all the time. Here’s a typical wall in our house…

bad tape job

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The solution, if you plan ahead, is to buy one of several products that screw to the back of the adjoining pieces to pull their edges into a taper. Failing that foresight (ahem, I did it again), you can make your own butt splice —  that’s what Joe and I did. Butt splice: splice the gyp boards together with another board behind the gap where they butt up against each other.

To make the butt splice, first I picked up  1/16″ mat board at my local art shop. Then I cut it into 1″ strips and stapled it to plywood planks (same thickness as the drywall, sized 9-1/4″ wide x an inch shorter than the length of the joint) along both long edges…

mat board stapled to plywood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As each sheet of QuietRock went up, we screwed the finished splices to the backside like so…

ceiling detail shot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ceiling detail shot 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the two pieces of gyp board are screwed to the plywood along their edges, they flex upwards slightly along the screw line…

where boards butt pulls up to a taper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That creates a tapered edge which will take tape and compound just like a factory taper. Voila! Super smooth ceiling or wall! Tape and compound still to come…

QuietRock all spliced up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But first, we have to finish the rest of the ceiling and walls.

[FYI, the process we used above is Fine Homebuilding’s butt splice tip in action. Thanks, FH!]

 

every time a window closes

Monday, December 26th, 2011

… a door opens. That’s what they say, right? So a few weeks back, it may have looked like all the windows were in and we were set for the winter. But no. These two hopper windows have been waiting in a corner…

window1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas week, David and Joe finally unwrapped them (Thank you, Santa)…

windows

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

… and fitted them in over the upstairs sliders where they belong.

windows2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now the living area is much, much warmer. Bonus: we no longer hear the constant flap flap flapping of the blue tarp. I can’t wait until said tarp is gone and a trip to the livingroom no longer feels like a visit to the bottom of the deep blue sea.

While the boys were at it, they also tackled installing the new and incredibly heavy aluminum door downstairs. But first they had to get it there…

door1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

door2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s where David takes over:

First we had to remove the old door and its associated framing (which was pretty funky, it must have been installed at 4:20 on a Friday). Once we had that corner of the house open we realized the beam was sitting on just two 2x4s, one of which was split. They missed an opportunity to land the beam on that foundation wall on the left side of the opening here…

door4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The concrete under the door was packed in under the old door in a haphazard way, so we replaced that too — remembering to use a bonding agent between old and new concrete so they’d stick together…

door5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We put super tape between the new door framing and the foundation walls, and used treated lumber for good measure…

door6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The old concrete work is pretty funky, so it took some serious shimming to get the door plumb and square. Then I filled the remaining spaces with low-expanding foam. That will look much cleaner when the walls get finished…

door7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The door hardware is German and super smooth…

door8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The locking system will take some getting used to. The lever throws the bolt and also four pins that lock the door along its whole length. …

door9

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supposed to be storm proof or something — with the right glass, which we didn’t opt for since we don’t live in Florida.

Looks hot, doesn’t it? Our front door will be replaced, too. In the fullness of time, of course.

 

flash, flash i love you!

Sunday, December 4th, 2011

I mentioned the other day that our custom flashing deserved its own post. And so be it.

Joe and I examined the details we received from the architect and came up with three profiles to flash all the door and window openings. Joe is an expert at keeping water out of houses and he suggested using metal .040″ thick for its longevity. We chose mill-finish aluminum so it would blend in with our clear anodized aluminum window and door frames. [It’s also available in white, bronze (really just brown) and green — and it’s paintable — we won’t be painting ours.]

I left the ordering of the flashing a bit late and ended up having to pick up 4′ x 10′ sheets of aluminum at Beacon Roofing. Now .040″ doesn’t sound that thick (it’s just over 1/32″), but it’s stiff enough that Beacon couldn’t roll all three aluminum sheets together! I delivered the sheets to James at Renaissance Cornice. We went over the design (drawings below) and he bent them up on his CNC metal brake the night before we needed them. The night before! Man. Thanks, James!

The window flashing turned out pretty great…

window flashing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the concept showing how it will extend over the siding which isn’t back on the house yet…

Window sill flashing.

 

The flashing for the sides and top of the openings will align with the sill flashing and make a frame around the doors and windows…

Sides and top flashing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because the downstairs slider opens onto a patio, we took extra care to install it in an even more waterproof manner. Joe designed a clever interlocking flashing system…

Slider 2-piece flashing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One piece goes up the face of the house and then under the bottom of the slider where it will get bent up to keep out any water that makes it in there…

window2_11

 

The other piece goes down the face of the house and then tucks under, shedding water onto a large piece of lead flashing between the wood framing and the concrete slab. Why lead? It lasts forever. The concern is with the ground so close, snow and ice could build up and then melt and sneak inside. We’ll use this same profile for the rest of the exterior doors on the house.

 

 

window time: day 2

Friday, December 2nd, 2011

This is where we left off with windows. Now here’s where we pick up… The problem with just-in-time construction is it doesn’t allow for falling behind.

Tuesday we tried to stay ahead of the window and door installers by at least one opening. Here’s Joe applying house-wrap over the new foam+plywood and frames on the upstairs portion of the back wall…

window2_3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joe installed the custom flashing, bending it up at the inside corners and then sealing it down with super-duper tape…

window2_4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tape? For obvious reasons, you don’t want to put any fasteners through flashing — water has a way of getting into places you thought it couldn’t. The trick to keeping it out is to seal everything from the bottom up in order to shed the water back out. Bad flashing details can trap water and then it’s perfectly happy to cause  mold, mildew and rot — not something we want.

Next up: the two big fixed window frames. Waiting to go in, no glass in them yet…

window2_7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The aluminum window frames are thermally broken (they have a non-metallic connector between the inside and outside faces to limit heat transfer) but are ordinarily installed hollow. Joe and I decided leaving them hollow was a missed opportunity to be more energy-efficient, so I ripped 3/4″ EPS on the table saw to fit and we jammed it in there…

window2_8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the window frames were installed level and square (which was easy because we made the extension frames level and square), butyl rubber got applied to the inside face of the frame…

window2_14

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close-up of the frame almost ready for the glass…

window2_15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was an honorary glass man for the day, helping hoist the new panels into place with a fancy suction cup handle. Those suckers were HEHVEE….

window2_1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joe was the balance man…

window2_2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the glass was in against the butyl rubber, aluminum stops were snapped in on the outside and a rubber gasket was driven in-between the stops and the glass. No fasteners show so there’s a nice clean look.

That slot in the aluminum stop is a weep hole to let water out in case the wind drives it in there…

Glass panel installed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each glass panel has a low-e coating on the inner piece of glass (“lite” in technical jargon). It acts as sort of a one-way system for radiant heat — heat from the sun can come in but can’t get back out…

window2_6

 

The new sliders look great, perform great and slide like butter on a hot pan…

window2_9

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A bump stop goes in at the top of the slider to keep fingers from being crushed…

window2_5

 

Digging the nice, clean look of the door hardware…

window2_10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, looking great from the outside…

window2_12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But wait — not done yet! The gaps between the window and door frames and the house need to be filled. Caulk can bridge small gaps just fine but bigger gaps require that foam backer rod stuffed in. This stops the caulk from falling in to the gap…

Backer rod saves caulk!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joe picked up a tube of this at Home Depot…

voccompliantmyass

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DO NOT use this. It stank to high heaven and smelled up the whole house even though it clearly says “V.O.C. compliant.” Not good. I’ll find something braincell-friendlier for the rest of the project.

So here’s the finished caulking job. The caulk is clear so it’s hard to tell what’s happening but I promise it’s in there. You can clearly see the backer rod!

Clear caulk is freaky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Backer rod didn’t fill the really big gaps at the tops of the two big windows so I put blue tape across them, pushed in a bit to leave room for caulk…

Blue tape has SO many uses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I filled all the gaps with expanding foam from the inside. The smaller gaps now have caulk or backer rod and caulk to stop the foam. The big gaps have the blue tape for the foam to expand up against. Soon I’ll strip the tape and caulk them from the outside, easy peasy.

What did we do before expanding foam?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that, my friends, was a long day.

window time: day 1

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

Back in the spring we started looking at manufacturers of aluminum windows and ultimately chose Arcadia. About three months ago, we put in our order for the first round of windows. As of yesterday morning, replacement of the windows and sliders on just the deck-end of the house finally kicked off.

Did I say “just”? It took four people from Rhode Island Glass to unload it all…

windows1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the shiny new goods were unloaded, Joe and David got the window wall ready to go by removing the moldings holding in the old wood frames…

windows2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goodbye, moldings. I will not miss you. You make no sense in an MCM house that wants a cleaner, simpler look…

windows3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The crew from Rhode Island Glass carefully removed the old glass. Mind you, they’re standing on scaffolding one flight off the ground and the glass weighs a gazillion pounds…

window4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like that’s not hard enough, the two panes started to separate from each other. Nice. Somehow they lowered it to the ground and carted the whole business up-slope without injuring themselves. Goodbye, cloudy old glass…

window5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David and Joe worked upstairs, installing the wood frames to extend the openings out flush with the face of the 3″ foam+plywood, while the crew worked downstairs…

window6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Newly fitted window box complete. The giant windows on both sides of the central slider were resized about 12″ narrower in width…

window7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

… to accommodate future built-ins planned to run along the walls of the upstairs livingroom. The cabinetry needs a solid wall to die into…

window8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the foam+plywood went a layer of house-wrap to keep out the elements. Joe carefully detailed the openings prior to windows…

window9

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The house-wrap was then topped off by custom-made aluminum flashing…

window10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The flashing deserves its own post — it’s pretty special.]

The downstairs slider went in and then the window. Full pics tomorrow…

window11

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before the day came to a close, Joe and David had all four of the upper window and door extensions fully adhered, leveled and screwed into place…

window11.5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But there just wasn’t enough time to get windows and sliders in upstairs. Although David wrapped the openings in anticipation of last night’s storminess, at 1:30 the gusts, how you say, compromised the plastic…

window12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

… and the storm found its way in. Nothing like fixing things in the middle of the night to make you tired for round two the next day…

window13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can hardly wait to find out how it all ends, right?