Al and Robins 20x30 1 1/2 near Lake Eufaula, OK

[ajbremer]

Thanks suburban cowboy, that looks great and it gives me some ideas too!

Well, yesterday a friend at work just moved into a new house and didn't like a few things about it. He had a couple of awnings over some windows that he didn't like so he gave them to me. I drove them home last night and put them up on top of the front and back door this morning. I'll have to remove them when I put my log siding on but that's not a problem.

Here's the front awning:



And here's the back awning:

[ajbremer]

Working on my house has really slowed down lately.

I haven't been working the overtime offered me for months now so the materials haven't flowed in like I'd want them to. After this next week I plan to kick it in gear and get back to work on the place once again.

All I did this memorial weekend was rest and watch movies...how dare me!

[ajbremer]

Tuesday - July 2nd, 2013

It's a nice sunny morning...a good day to mess with insulation?

Anyway, my local lumber yard has been gracious enough to give me credit every month and that opens up the awesomeness of me being able to always have building materials on hand. In the past, I've usually ran out of money between paydays so that option is good (as long as I stay within my budget).

I've begun to insulate my cathedral ceiling, 15' x 2' long strips. I staple my insulation on the bottoms of the 2x's. I've seen where people have stapled their insulation to the inside of the 2x's right near the bottom - what's right, what's best?



Also, I'm still using my little Ford Festiva as my work truck. Here it is with 12' long 2x12's in it:

[Redoverfarm]

Al generally it is stapled to the inside of the rafter near the top.  This is so that the rafters are visible when you go to attach the final covering weither that be drywall or T&G.

[ajbremer]

Wow, thanks John.

It doesn't surprise me that I've been doing it wrong. Thanks again!

[CjAl]

I feel a little less silly for haing 16 footers in my su urban now, thanks

[waterbug]

I am glad to see the Festiva work truck is still going strong Al. 

[ajbremer]

Wow,

Here it is August 1st, 2013 and I haven't worked on the house in many weeks. Of course I have a ton of work to do on the house.

I have the material to build the back porch, I have enough wiring and receptacles to run more wire, I have a little bit of insulation left that I can hang, and I have a stack of dry wall too. I guess I just have to get the 'build bug' again. To top off this minor rant, it'll be in the 100's all next week.

You'll be seeing many pics and vids when I do start up again...it'll be soon - thanks!

[CjAl]

come on AL, YOU CAN DO IT!!

[ajbremer]

Ok CjAl,

I've started again. Maybe I'm getting the building bug back!

I realize that I still haven't finished the log siding on the gable end (and the rest of the house) but I have to wait till I get another load of log siding.

Here's the start of my back porch roof:
(Pic coming soon)

[ajbremer]

Monday Night - August 26th, 2013

Got a few more posts up for the back porch:

[ajbremer]

Wednesday Morning - August 28th, 2013

More back porch work.

I have some questions:

I wanted to originally have the back porch 8 foot wide but I used the infiltration system for my lateral lines which are directly below the 5' mark width of the porch. That is why the porch cantilevers about 27 inches. That said, I put my porch roof posts right at the edge of the 7'3" porch width. Since there's no support under there I'm going to put a brace under each upper post that angles down to the bottom of the post under it. I wanted you to know that first. Now my question:

That rim board above the post is a 2x8. My rafters are going to be 2x6's. I'm going to use 5/8's OSB with the same shingles on it as my main roof. Should I use 2 rim boards, one on each side of the posts or will just the one you see work?

[ColchesterCabin]

Psts look like 4x4's, less than an 8' span I would notch the top of the 4X4 on the inside edge and you should be okay with 1 in my opinion. After all in OK there shouldn't be high volumes of snow. If there is then you may want to laminate 2. If the posts were 6x6 I would notch the inside and outside edge and run 2. IMO anyways. Glad you got the bug back!

[ajbremer]

Thanks ColchesterCabin!

The posts span is 5.5 feet. Right now I have a 10" long piece of 2x4 screwed into the post and under the rim so that the rim is held up by it. The rim is also screwed into the post in 4 places at each post. I'll put in a few more screws later. Here's a pic:

[UK4X4]

Oaklahoma - the land of tornadoes !

Why not cut the posts down run a triple beam and use simpson brackets - I know it will cost more but would be a more standard construction method

Sure someone will pipe in with a proper way of doing it for your area

[MountainDon]

I'm not sure I follow what this quote means,  "I wanted to originally have the back porch 8 foot wide but I used the infiltration system for my lateral lines which are directly below the 5' mark width of the porch. That is why the porch cantilevers about 27 inches."


IIRC, OK has a snow load of 20 psf.  The 2x8 should do the job of supporting the roof load. But...

... Scabbing a section of 2x to the post with fasteners is not a good method. That mainly relies upon the shear strength of the fastener for vertical support. It also relies heavily upon the integrity of the 2x8 and the 4x4 wood. If it begins to split at any of the fastener penetrations that fastener's strength becomes zero.

Better would be using a 4x6 for the beam and placing it on top of the 4x4 posts using Simpson post/beam connectors as was suggested.  Notching the post to provide a ledge/shelf for the 2x8 as suggested would also probably be better than using fasteners to hold the 2x8 on the side of the post.

But the real more important issue is the large cantilever of the floor which is supposed to hold that roof load as well as the floor load along with all the people that may congregate and be leaning on the future railing.  There is no doubt in my mind that the roof support posts should be aligned over the posts that carry the loads to the ground. A brace system will help, but most of the attempts to brace and carry loads sideways and then down usually rely too heavily on mechanical fasteners. Fitting a diagonal timber as is done in timber framing would likely be the better crutch. That requires some notching and fitting.

I do not have any other solutions as to how to best execute this without moving the posts that are in the ground to be in alignment with the roof posts. 

This also raises the question of how the floor beams are connected to the posts in the ground. They appear to be scabbed 2x as supports there too. 

Regarding the screws. They appear to be the common gold zinc plated screws. Those are not very good when shear forces are applied to them. They can snap with no warning; not rated for structural use. Good for holding down a deck board, but not to support a shear load. If that is what those screws are they should be replaced with a suitable structural rated screw at the very least. (Fastenmaster and GRK make some structural rated screws.)  Also, if those are the gold zinc screws they are not compatible with any PT wood. The posts appear to be PT. Those screws in PT wood will corrode and eventually become very thin and easy to snap.

(It may take some years and may not. The wetter the weather/wood the faster the corrosion happens. I have run personal tests with scraps of PT wood and different screws and nails. The PT approved are fine after years... the gold ones are now rust inside the wood where you can not see.)

[ajbremer]

Thank you for such an informative post Don. I will get the proper screws. Also, instead of bracing the roof post diagonally to the inset floor posts, I also thought of using concrete pier blocks that'll sit on the ground along with a StrongTie Adjustable Post Bases.

[MountainDon]

...concrete pier blocks that'll sit on the ground ...

IN the ground below frost depth as the main house is, or you are inviting differential movement between the main house and the porch posts. The foundation for the existing porch floor posts are the same depth as the house?

[ajbremer]

My whole house is on angle iron stilts so I thought I would use some more.

I used angle iron to hold up the outer rim board in order to support the cantilevered porch. I'll dig more holes and do the same at the other post locations. Maybe I'll be under the back porch roof by Sunday.

[ajbremer]

Got a few more rafters up on the back porch. I'm going to try to get them all up tomorrow:

[ajbremer]

Got all the rafters up on the back porch today. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll get the osb, felt, and shingles started. The picture doesn't show all rafters up yet but I worked into the night and finished.

[Redoverfarm]

Al I think I would add my porch supports before loading the rafters w/osb & shingles.  Just a thought.

[ajbremer]

Thanks Redoverfarm.

I got the OSB on the roof. Tomorrow I hope to finish the post supports and lay the felt paper...maybe even start the shingles.

[ajbremer]

Finally able to 'play' on the back porch:

[ColchesterCabin]

Congrats Al, looking good on your porch!