30 x 57 in Arkansas

[PEG688]

  #1:  At least "I" think a fair amount has gotten done.


#2:   

#1: That's all that counts, your the boss , your happy , everyones happy

#2: Now if it was my job and grass was growning inside the foundation we'd have a problem 

I'd be having a talk with the lead carpenter on the job 

[glenn kangiser]

Only grass, PEG.  Some of mine has trees growing in it.

[n74tg]

All that grass inside the foundation has been sprayed with a RoundUp clone (1-2 days ago), AND what is not in the pics has been covered with black visqueen for two weeks; so everything under it is dead.

Once the spray is finished, all that ground will get covered with 6mil black visqueen.

[n74tg]

In case anyone's interested, the blog has been updated.  There's a little more detail there than here in the forum.

[glenn kangiser]

Blog and floor looks good, Tony.

[TheWire]

Perhaps Glenn can send his building inspector over to clean the plants out of your crawl space.  Baaaah

[glenn kangiser]

I used to be able to, but living in the California wilderness, she became a meal for a mountain lion or bobcat. urvival of the fittest around here.

[n74tg]

Finally, putting up the outside walls has begun.  These walls are a little over 9.5 feet tall.  That height matches the height of the garage, which the house will tie too. 

The walls are 2x6 on 24" centers and "stack framing" was used; ie every stud sits directly on top of a floor joist (except where windows go; and there at least one stud is on a floor joist).  Likewise, the roof trusses will sit directly on top of the wall studs.

The walls are built in 10' long sections, because with the 2x6 studs and the 9.5' height, that's all I can stand up by myself.  There are two sections shown in the pic and they are tied together with 3x7 Simpson StrongTie plates as is shown in the books from BuildingScience.com (and is also accepted by the IRC Building Code).

There is still some framing to be put in where the two windows go, but that comes tomorrow. 

As getting this thing in the dry will take longer than normal (I'm working alone), I've primed the bottom and side surfaces of the sill plate. 

   

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks for the update, Tony.  I assume you put the stud at the joint of the sections after you stand them?

[n74tg]

Glenn -
I sent you a personal message...thanks

[glenn kangiser]

Got it.

[n74tg]

All the exterior walls are up now, and I've got about 1/3 of the OSB sheathing on. 

Here is the east wall.



And here is the south wall (and part of east wall).



And here is the lifting jig and block and tackle that I used to lift the panels into place.  There is a guy wire that comes off the backside of the jig that is attached to a floor joist to resist the tendency for each panel to try to pull the jig off the wall top.  The highest panel tops are 18' up in the air, so I made it a point to never stand under any load on the block and tackle.  Actually, in almost every case, I had cradles clamped to the walls that the bottom of each panel would slip into as it was raised.  That way it was always supported in three places before the nail gun went to work.

[glenn kangiser]

That's great, tony.  Thanks for the pix.

[n74tg]

Pour the Concrete Front Porch





Okay all the wall sheathing is up, so it's time to order trusses...well almost.  I needed to pour the 5 x 8 front porch first so the column that holds up the beams and roof trusses would have something to sit on.  We mixed our own concrete; 11 mixer loads worth and the project took about 3 hours, but we're done and it looks pretty good. 

It was quite an adventure doing and is written up in detail in the house blog (address below) if you're interested. 

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks Tony.  Looking forward to the next installment.

[n74tg]

The Trusses Are Up




It took three of us three days to complete, but all the trusses are up and temporarily braced.  We had to hand carry the trusses in from the street and lift them up into place. 

A much more detailed description and more pics can be found in the blog below. 

[considerations]

Wow - great!  It is so satisfying to make visible progress!

[Sassy]

   way to go!  Sounds & looks like it was a lot of hard work!

[n74tg]

Purlins:

I haven't posted any updates in awhile, so here goes.

Most of the 2x4 purlins are on.  I hurt my knee right after the trusses were finished, torn meniscus the doc thinks.  So, I'm not as mobile as I was before.  The decision to do arthroscopic surgery (spelling?) is rapidly coming as I'm tired of this lack of mobility, and the subsequent weight gain that comes from not exercising. 

And, I've made the "plumb cuts" on about half the truss (heel) ends, so the fascia will go on parallel to the house walls.  I found a little video on YouTube that shows an ingenious way to line up all those cuts.  It involves using two strings.  The pic above does a pretty good job of describing it.  You can also see the cut marks I made on the first three trusses.

In the second pic, that board sticking up in the middle of the upper string is not part of the method.  It's just an extra board leaning against the wall on the inside.  I should've removed it before taking the pic.

There's more info in the blog at address below.

[Redoverfarm]

Sorry I don't get the pictures.  Just the usual outline w/red box "X".  I went to your blog and saw what you are trying to describe.  I generally just snap a line on the top of my rafter tail.  Then take a scrap piece with the correct plumb cut and line it up with the top of the rafter and the chalk line then strike a line with a pencil transfering it to the rafter tail and cut.  It is a little easier if you figure the off set of your saw and clamp that scrap to your rafter tail then using the guide of the saw against the block there is little margin of error.

[n74tg]

I just read your reply and I'm seeing both pics just fine. 

[n74tg]

I checked this post this morning, and I too am getting the "red X's" instead of the pictures.
I redid the post, and the pics are showing again.  Could someone else look at it and reply whether the pics are showing or not.

thanks

[fishing_guy]

They're showing as of this post...

[glenn kangiser]

yup - got em

[n74tg]

Metal Roof Started



Yes, I finally got it started.  It's K-Panel, 26 gauge roofing, hunter green in color.  What you see installed is 21 pieces, or about 25% of the whole roof.   

In the beginning, each piece took what seemed like a really long time to get installed and screwed-down.  But, later I realized that if you've never done it before, that it just that it takes awhile to get the most efficient methods figured out and implemented.  On the last two days I've gotten about 8 panels installed per day.  If the weather holds I could get finished in as few as 7 more days.  Now having said that, I'm sure it will take at least twice that long. 

There's a lot more detail in the writeup at the blog address below.