1.5 Story In Kentucky

[MountainDon]

I like cords that are about 9 ft long or so. That's long enough to allow ripping down an 8 foot panel of plywood or whatever, without having the plug catch on the panel end, and not so long that it's a bother when you store the tool.

[phalynx]

Wow,,, most people just buy the tools with the cord already removed...  Prohome,, I think you added an extra step.   

I vote 36V LiIon Dewalt saw!!!.  That thing has been a beast.  Built everything of my home.

[Redoverfarm]

I usually don't use cordless tools on bigger projects.  Even when I do use them I always have a corded back-up cause me and batteries don't get along that well. They die an early death.

And yes it will happen like Scott. But a quick mend will last until the next time I nick or cut it.  About twice and I feel sorry for it and buy a new life line and install.

[MountainDon]

I used virtually nothing but the 18Volt Ryobis on my shed and on my cabin. Yes I had corded saws and dills in reserve, too, however never used them, except for the circular saw with the special blade for cement board.

I have given the Lithium Ion batteries a huge recommendation before and will repeat it. They are many times better than NiCads or NiMh. The big thing I have never liked about Nicads is the problems you inflict on them by charging them before they're fully discharged. That is a Nicad killer and I think we all do that. It's understandable because we want a full charge before starting a job. The Lithium Ion shrug that off; it is no problem for them. The Ryobi's also have a charge indicator built into each Lithium battery. I don't know about other brands.

It also seems to me that the Ryobi 18 V Lithium Ions provide more torque than the Nicads.

I have two of the Lithium chargers and four Lithium batteries. I've never run out of charged batteries. Running them off a small inverter powered by the Jeep battery works well. I have relegated the Nicad batteries to flashlight duty.

[prohomesteader]

I don't feel that bad about cutting the cord now, I reckon I'm not the only one

I used my brother's saw for a bit before getting another and it cut like cutting butter, he said it's all in getting a new sharp blade, so I argue the blade is more important than the saw

Random Question:  Why do they mark the 4x8 pieces of wood with 16" and 24" on center lines but they don't do the same for 2x wood?  I wish they would.

Building Question: Can we put the gable eves on in the spring?  we were thinking of making the roof flush with the side of the house on the gable ends, closing them off, and putting the felt on the roof for the winter.  in the spring we would extend the gable end to have eves and put the metal on then.  We would do this to save some time, we only have a few more weekends until it starts getting colder here and we need to get moving quicker.

[peteh2833]

I'm going to try and get my roof on before the snow flies here in Northern Pa. I'm trying to get it dried in so that I can work on the inside during the winter. I don't mind working in the cold outside. Pete

[MountainDon]

Building Question: Can we put the gable eves on in the spring?  we were thinking of making the roof flush with the side of the house on the gable ends, closing them off, and putting the felt on the roof for the winter.  in the spring we would extend the gable end to have eves and put the metal on then. 

No.

That is if you mean installing all the standard rafters now, out to the end wall, sheathing the roof out to those gable ends and then installing the #30 roofing paper, and then adding on a foot or two of end overhang later. The reason I say no to that is the sheathing on that end over hang must extend at least one rafter bay over the main portion of the roof to give adequate strength to the overhang. Sheathing is always installed with the long side parallel to the side wall eves, BTW, as you have started.

There may be other reasons not to do as you propose, but the above is the main problem I see.

Re saws: Yes a good blade (carbide tipped) is almost more important than the brand of saw.

Re stick lumber markings: that's what tape measures are for.    Seriously though 4x8 panels and other manufactured lumber products have better control on the dimensions. Ten foot 2x4's are not often exactly 10 feet long for example. Nor are they always exactly 1.5 inches thick. 

[prohomesteader]

@peteh2833 - good luck, i'll keep an eye on your thread, I'm just a few rafters ahead of you right now

@don - thanks for the advice on the eves.  I reckon we can notch out the last rafter that's over the house and put out the supports, throw on sheathing to the edge and hange them over by a couple inches, and do the "false rafter" when we get up there to frame the gable wall then.

[peteh2833]

Yes you are a few rafters ahead of me. Are you doing a loft over half or the whole building? I'm installing the loft this weekend and then next weekend the roof. I have a rafter already cut to use as a template as long as it fits correctly. Hopefully next weekend I'll get the rafters up and some if not all the sheathing up and take the final measurements on the roof so I can order the metal roof. Great progress prohomesteader.

[prohomesteader]

@peteh2833  - our loft is only going over half.  we used 2x10x18' for the rafters.  they were quite heavy and took more effort to put up than we thought.

To get each 4x8 onto the roof I'm using a 75ft nylon cord with almost 400lb capacity (it's pretty smooth, no "knuckles" to get caught on the rigdgebeam) and then tying one end to the truck hitch, throwing the roap over the house, one end to the board, then driving forward and it raises the 4x8 onto the roof.  done correctly and you can get it into the exact spot you need it plus it takes little effort vs. lifting the thing all the way up.

I also just returned my $30 harness to walmart and picked up a "fall arrest kit" at lowes for $130.  I haven't been on the roof yet but I LOVE this thing.  the coolest part is the adjuster that is built onto the rope, it lets you let out slack or remove slack with every step you take so there is never any slack in the roap. 

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=134465-429-94050-00000&lpage=none

I've been playing with it on my deck today.  I also bought 8 werner 12/12 roof jacks.

I plan on using the roof jacks to hold some of 2x10's horizontally to walk across the roof sideways and a ladder to go Up the roof.

unfortunately I couldn't find any of the ladder hangers  so i'm going to have to build something myself for the ladder to attach to the roof.

[glenn kangiser]

The fall arrest kit is much better.  It's what we use on the big buildings...when the general contractor cares....

[prohomesteader]

wowzer things slow down when it gets to the roof, but, aside from some "slightly" off center rafters we made some great progress.

we currently have ALL the rafters and the sheathing on the roof and are now putting on the felt. the sheathing is in place with a few nails and we are really nailing them down permanently as we come across each rafter doing the felt.

my brother took a video of us getting the sheathing on the roof and I'll hopefully post it soon.

To get on the roof we made a wooden ladder for the roof and use an extension ladder in the truck bed to get to the roof ladder. putting the ladder in the truck bed keeps it from going anywhere.

I'm WAY more comfortable on the roof with the wood ladder and the pro harness than I was inside the house doing the rafters up on the "bridge" we made on top of an 8 foot ladder.  thank goodness rafters are done

we will do the rest of the felt over the next week or so then frame in the gable ends.  maybe put a front door on the place and close up the back with sheathing finally

here's a couple pics:



and a picture from far away

[soomb]

Impressive.  And you have no prior building experience?

[prohomesteader]

@soomb - no building experience before, thanks

here's a couple junky cell phone pics.  as usual the roof is real slow going for me.

we got a front door installed, a really cool milestone, now we can lock ourselves in



we closed off the back and got the back gable framed and most of it sheathed.  also, you can't tell from the picture but we have felt 100% done on 1 side.  The other side is still all wood right now, moving their next.

it's really slow going tacking on the roofing felt, at least for me.



hopefully in the next week we can get the front gable closed and the felt done on side 2.

[prohomesteader]

it's been awhile, we really SLOWED down doing the roof but we've made some more progress,  the house is mostly waterproof now (minus two small leaks we are waiting for it to rain again to find) and wrapped

here is side 2 with the felt on now, I'm sure glad putting those little tacks on and rolling felt on the roof is done



two lessons learned:

1.  Tie your ladder to the roof, this way it can't get knocked down while you are up there.  This happened to me, fortunately

2.  Keep you cell phone on you when you are on the roof.  after the ladder got accidentally got knocked down I called the wife and she drove the hour drive to put the ladder back in place.  it would have been a rough jump, I'm real lucky I had my cell phone

here's the front gable closed and wrapped.  the wrap is a little sloppy however I wasn't going for looks, just wanted to keep the rain off



we are putting some insulation in now to help keep it a bit warmer when we are working this winter



the back gable closed and wrapped



we aren't sure when we will put the metal on the roof but hopefully in the next 2-3 months (it's in the budget for after the house we are in sells)

after the insulation I might try my hand at plumbing or electric.

[prohomesteader]

here's the video of how we got each piece of sheathing on the roof, they were a bit too heavy for us to play with on the steep roof so we had to improvise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsMTcyWWjYE

we used rope, a truck, and a ladder to get the sheet up there, then we went in the house on ladders or the temp bridge and nailed it in temporarily.  we put the final nails in each sheet when we got on the roof to do the felt

[phalynx]

Prohome, if it gets up there, it works... mission accomplished.  I started laughing during the video because I thought you had it rigged to bring the ladder up with you.  I thought, someone has been spending a lot of time engineering this solution..   House looks good.  It feels so nice when it's dried in.

Am I missing something or is there no windows in this house?  Are you putting them in after?

[Redoverfarm]

prohomesteader Maybe you have addressed this but it appears that the insulation is not faced to the interior.  Is this faced insulation or are you going to put a film of plastic over the studs when you finish insulating as a moisture barrier.  All exterior walls should have a moisture barrier on the warm side of the wall(interior).  From the pictures it looks like you used faced insulation but installed it toward the outside of the wall.  If this is the case and you try to put up a plastic film as a moisture barrier it will trap moisture between the two and you will end up with mold/ mildew in the wall. 

[prohomesteader]

@phalynx lol i wish I rigged it to do bring the ladder up also. nope, it flung the ladder each time

@redover - good questions.

I don't know which way insulation goes so your advice would be appreciated.  I looked multiple times on the stuff for where it says "this side in" or something but it didn't

it is faced insulation or one side has a paper on it and one side just has pink stuff if that's what you mean.

could you explain how the wall should be built? 

should I rip it out and turn it around and then I would be ok to sheet rock over it or do I need to rip it out, turn it around AND put plastic over it before the sheetrock?

thanks.

[Redoverfarm]

prohomesteader the facing on the insulation is the vapor barrier.  It needs to go to the inside wall.  That is the point that the cold and the warm air meet.  I hate to break this to you but I would remove and put the paper faced to the inside.  The insulation is usually sized to fit the opening by friction.  Then there is a paper tab on both sides which get stapled to the interior of the stud cavity at the inside edge.  Proper way is to cut to length from ceiling to floor, push loosely into the cavity until the paper face clears the front(wall side) of the stud.  The just fold back the tab and staple to the inside of the stud.  Remember that you do not want to compress the insulation as the R-value decreases when compressed.

In addition I noticed that you started the ceiling rafters at their intersection with the wall.  The same principle applies to this area as well regarding the facing to the inside.  Also you will need to use rafter-mates or baffles against the sheeting between the rafters before putting the insulation in to create as air space to allow air to travel from the soffit to the ridge vent.  Here is a site which will help on the installation. It also has a picture of the pink baffles for the rafter air chase.

http://insulation.owenscorning.com/homeowners/

No you would only use a plastic film if it was unfaced.  Since it is faced you would not want to put plastic over it.  One last tip and that is not to pull the tabs over the face of the stud.  It looks like that is the way to do it but it is not and it will hide the stud from you later to put up drywall which you will need to see.

[prohomesteader]

thanks redover those videos were great,  I've got no problem turning them around, they only have a few staples in them and shouldn't rip that much, just time and they're fixed

as for the bafflemate, let me see if I understand

the peak of the ceiling has collar ties (not installed yet) which are pieces of wood that go between the rafters on each side.  they go a few feet down from the ceiling peak and create a "mini attic" a few feet deep.  we will put dryall over this and the entire ceiling

you are saying that the soffits should have the bafflemates running all the way up and emptying into the "mini attic"?

this is to get airflow into the mini attic I assume?

thanks again

[Redoverfarm]

Pro the baffles or raft-r-mates are not meant to really ventilate the attic but to reduce condensation that would collect between the insulation and the roof sheeting.  It also cools the roof and the house in the summer and prevents ice dams in the winter.  The house is sealed with the insulation so the air flow will not effect the way the insulation works.  Here is a short topic of the subject.

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/article/0,,194780,00.html

When you install your roof you will put either ridge vents or gable vents which will allow the hot air that rises from the soffit vents to the attic area.  If you are going to insulate on top of the collar ties then the baffles only need go past the point that the insulation stops.

The soffit is the area of the bottom of your rafter that is perpendicular to the outside wall.  The rafter cavity is that space that runs from the soffit to the ridge of the roof.  You can start the baffles just at the outside of your exterior wall where the rafters rest on your plate.  Then continue to a point that you stop insulating.  Making any sense?   

[prohomesteader]

thanks redover farm, it makes perfect sense now.

[prohomesteader]

I got most of the insulation turned around now and want some heat

I bought, and quickly returned a kerosene heater, now I want to install a stove, but I have some questions.

my main confusion is this, according to mountaindon and some internet reading

The rule of thumb for chimneys is that the chimney should extend at least 3' above the highest point where it passes through a roof, and at least 2' higher than any portion of a building within 10'.

so because my peak is just 10 feet from the edge, that would mean my chimney needs to extend at least 2' beyond the ridge.

but then I see that peteH has an amazin looking chimney that breaks the rules above



so my questions are these:

1.  Will I burn my house down if the chimney is done like steve's? (I'm a wood stove newbie)  or better yet, any special considerations to think of?

2.  If it shouldn't be done like that, how would you build the chimney?  I want my stove in the front right corner of the house.  Maybe run the chimney up the cathedral ceiling to the ridge and then out the roof there?


Also, should it be this expensive?

$150 -stove, cheapest one from tractor supply

$80 - stove pipe to make it to the ceiling

$200 - a flashing kit with rain guard and roof brace at lowes

$120 -    6"x24" chimney pipe, $40 each, for on top the roof and through it, need at least three right?

$550 - TOTAL

Seems really high for installing the cheapest stove I can get.  You think?

(note to steve: sorry if you didn't like me using you as an example, but I'm really struggling researching chimneys for this place right now)

[Jochen]

If you have to follow code your are lost.
************************************
The minimum height of chimney required is the same for all support styles
and sizes. The diagram below shows minimum chimney height as
required by code. A quick way to calculate this dimension is to multiply the
vertical rise per 12" of horizontal distance (X in the diagram) by 10 and
add 24". When the chimney is installed within 10' of the peak it must clear
the peak by 24". The minimum chimney height is 3'.

*************************************

But using common sense I would install the stove as you suggested, like Steve's example and see if you will have enough draft. Especially on windy, cold days. You can always extend the exterior chimney with another 24" piece. Maybe you have then to use brackets to support the chimney.

Jochen