I figured i benefited so much from going through other builders' threads that I'd better share our building experience. Please ask any questions that you all have and comments are good too.
My wife and I bought an old farm in Oregon with an old house but the house didn't last long:
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-kbAEMtgQMSE/T-ZpC12tKWI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/h60RWPoMMV0/s512/Burning%2520002.JPG?gl=US)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-pl-YWXjG2rg/T-ZpZHiXMWI/AAAAAAAAAfY/qSia9lSnFVA/s720/Burning%2520016.JPG?gl=US)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Y9oxqbDmQi0/T-ZpppR42DI/AAAAAAAAAfg/qaCfOuXcOJM/s720/Burning%2520022.JPG?gl=US)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-TYW7tefdhJo/T-ZpyB4foyI/AAAAAAAAAfo/HmkbRDXgutI/s720/Burning%2520026.JPG?gl=US)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-gAWpl6bdCC8/T-Zp7_vDzuI/AAAAAAAAAfw/6XwbxPR91Ys/s720/Burning%2520028.JPG?gl=US)
Yes we meant to burn it down. We posted those pictures on facebook and it's amazing how many old friends were checking to make sure we were ok!
Here's what the new house will look like. It's basically the the 20x34 universal that we stretched to 38 ft. and added an 8 foot shed addition to the first floor.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-T1oh0RSZEaI/T-ZvAkQ9RtI/AAAAAAAAAgo/bwU3c8hwCO4/s912/plans.jpg?gl=US (https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-T1oh0RSZEaI/T-ZvAkQ9RtI/AAAAAAAAAgo/bwU3c8hwCO4/s912/plans.jpg?gl=US)
We have water (spring), new septic, electric and phone over at the new homesite (about 200 feet from old homesite) and things are really starting to move! Formed up footings last monday and poured them friday:
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-hufoBeqJNVg/T-ZuNXQW97I/AAAAAAAAAgY/371Ny4u87Os/s640/lumber.jpg?gl=US)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-gOY4mXQjDRA/T-ZuSiqZEqI/AAAAAAAAAgg/ArtxDGAkPCY/s640/forms.jpg?gl=US)
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We're waiting for help to lay the block foundation so started an outhouse (don't tell the health department!)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-koMWMOstweM/T-Zt6DOxipI/AAAAAAAAAgI/ysPF_tVZiQM/s512/P1050393.JPG?gl=US)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0JMHagt-1KU/T-ZuBf0PV6I/AAAAAAAAAgQ/kEawZWEFiBY/s512/P1050396.JPG?gl=US)
laying block tommorow hopefully!
ED: removed double posting - MD
Looking good. Whereabouts in Oregon are you guys at? Umpqua Valley here w*
We're east of Myrtle Point in Bridge.
Block foundation wall is up and being inspected today- hopefully passes for a concrete pour on friday then the fun begins!
Awesome! Will be watching the build. What's concrete gonna run you per yard?
$125/ yard for concrete plus a couple hundred to have a pump there. If I remeber right the footings had 11 yards of concrete and the block took 4 or five yards to fill (around 600 blocks).
We worked on the mud sill last night so we'll get pictures up soon!
Ok- the block is laid and poured full. Lots of fancy tiedowns for seismic. Things are still on schedule so far!
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Mud sill on- had to level it up a fair amount with mortar. The homebuilt a-frame was a great investment in time. We've got two so we can use for scaffolding, sawhorses, and lots of other uses.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-7HUp3vogJRo/UADmdYYOrYI/AAAAAAAAAig/z2Ugrff86zk/s640/P1050411.JPG)
starting on the ponywalls. THese glulam posts have to extent from the footing up through the floor and to a beam supporting the second story.
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high 70's- too hot for Sadie
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got all the pony walls up but they were a 1/4 to a 1/2 inch too high. whoops. So we notched out all the spots where the i-joists sit. worked well and now we have a flat(er) floor!
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-kGJ4bENNJXQ/UADn-hDGuZI/AAAAAAAAAkg/JfDu-i_xUPw/s640/P1050430.JPG)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-GKoP95MBAgI/UADntVOudHI/AAAAAAAAAkI/B5mr5SBQ6Hg/s640/P1050426.JPG)
Lots of squash blocking
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-LBishFwIthk/UADoKRE33wI/AAAAAAAAAkw/i4-TiMOYm7Y/s640/P1050434.JPG)
Looks great. I have a question: what kind of frost depth do you have out there because it looks like the footing for that foundation is sitting pretty high... or are you going to backfill all around??
12 inches deep is what they require but yeah we're going to backfill pretty high up the block wall. The house is kinda in a hole now and it is starting to look like a tower already. The good news is our "crawlspace" is around 5 ft high so it'll make a nice root cellar!
i think if i already went 5' i would just add anoher two or three rows of block and have a basement you could stand in. i am totally envious of your root celler tho
Yeah- we considered a full basement but it just wasn't in the budget. we'd have needed more excavation and also the wall would have needed engineering because more than 4' of unbalanced backfill triggers that sort of thing here i guess. As it is it'll be a pretty decent cellar i think.
Got the subfloor down yesterday. I read in fine homebuilding that a good crew can lay a subfloor bigger than this in about two hours where an unskilled crew would take a full day. They were right on, at least for the unskilled crew! Joist spacing was not perfect so there was a fair amount of cutting to length.
I don't think we'll ever build anything again without a nailgun- what a difference in productivity!
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so......there's a up side and a down side to subflooring. whoops. hopefully that doesn't foul us later
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ready for a dance party! Walls will start going up this weekend.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Aplk7KQlgd4/UAWCW1HkvrI/AAAAAAAAAlY/-BiVvT7OnI8/s720/Week5%2520042.JPG)
Can't wait to see this one go up. Really looking forward to it. We are building a single story garage to move into first but then we will be building a widened universal as well.
Austin
I'll try to include as much detail on the addition as possible. We'd initially planned on building just the universal and add the shed addition later but plans change. Because we wanted the first floor to be fairly open there was some substantial engineering that had to occur to make sure sheer wall stuff was taken care of. I guess it's good that we're doing it now versus trying to make all those changes later.
Quoteso......there's a up side and a down side to subflooring. whoops. hopefully that doesn't foul us later
The "down" side is the smoother side. Especially on roofs this can be important for safety. The other side is tectured and gives better traction. Another point can be that if something like a roof is sheathed with the stamped side up, then the inspector can not see what the sheathing is if you have building paper or wrap applied. There might be other reasons too.
A couple walls are up!
We got our lumber form a small local mill. We feel bad using some of our boards for studs:
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they aren't all this pretty but definitely better than we'd get at the lumber yard.
building the walls. Used a jig to cut a bunch of studs/trimmers/cripples in bulk and it's amazing how fast the walls went together.
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we definitely didn't' use any "advanced framing" techniques- there is a lot of wood in these walls!
Had over about half of the extended family to help lift walls. We'd never lifted walls this heavy so we weren't sure how it'd go. An 18 foot section with a big header and sheathing attached was no problem for the five strong backs we had on hand. Many hands make light work i guess. WE got brave and attached a couple sections together on the ground to make a 24 foot wall and it went up fine. Who needs wall jacks! I'll try and find some photos of the raising. but here's the end result on sunday:
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I highly recommend sheathing the walls on the deck. simply squared the walls, nailed down the sheathing and took a router to the window holes. The walls turned out plum! I guess that's how it's supposed to work but it still amazes me.
Wife and dad were out today putting in footing drains and backfilling a little so it's not so much of a climb up to the first floor. we used 4" drilled PVC wrapped in a fabric sock for the drainage. It'll drain to daylight. we didn't use any drainrock or sand so hopefully this will be sufficient. the ground here is very well drained naturally so we're not too worried.
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More walls up! we were only able to put some of the sheathing on before lifting the walls because of how they overlap on the corners and butt up against each other. I'm sure there must be some way to get all the sheathing on before lifting- we'll have to give that some thought before we do the second floor. I'm glad we did most of the sheathing while the wall was flat- much easier and faster that way!
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Now to get those 6x15 beams up. I guess they weight 20 pounds per linear foot and are between 12 and 14 feet long. After debating lots of different methods to get them lifted up into the brackets, we decided to just try some lifting and grunting. Turned out fine wiht the help of our handy dandy a-frames and the two of us pulling lifting pushing and sweating a lot.
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this was the really heavy one
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These are the kinds of beams the engineer said we needed to add the shed addition on the side of the 20x34 (38 feet long for us) universal. Of course we wanted a fairly open floor plan so things woudl likely be simpler if you kept the long wall mostly intact and used small openings instead.
I'm sure that the hard grunt work of getting those beams into place will be appreciated time and time again as you enjoy the completed project. Well worth the effort for doing ot right.
I love it so far. It's fun watching the build. Thanks for sharing. Can't wait fo see more!
Cathy
Great pictures.
Did you get the beams from the local sawyer too? How much were the 2x6s from your sawyer?
Nice to have extra hangs! I'm the loan lifter so the biggest I can go is 10' long with no doors or windows or about 6' with a window or something that adds extra wood. Also, I always sheath the top of the walls so I don't have to lift plywood that high. Finally, I always ready to run the 4x8 sheets of sheathing perpendicular to the studs, so that is what I did. I have my sheets sticking 1.5" above the top of my walls so I can add the top plate later. The sheathing holds it square and I lift it up. Also, with the sheathing at the top of the wall, it gives me a great place to put my hands to lift the wall over the concrete ancors.
thanks
Austin
The glu-lam beams were manufactured- I think they're a weyerhauser product but I'm not sure. The I-joists and rim boards are weyerhauser. The dimesional lumber is all from a local mill, East Fork Lumber, and I believe i was $0.43 a board foot for planed/graded lumber. The engineer spec'ed vertical sheathing in the shear walls so that's what we did. Intuitively, I;d have thought that horizontal is stronger but what do i know! We left the tops of the first floor unsheathed so that when we sheath the second floor its overhanging sheathing will match up and tie the two floors together a little more.
More pictures of wall raising and beam raising.
The whole family showed up to help raise walls but we weren't quite ready for them....so we put them to work doing other things!
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Dad using a router to cut out window/door holes while the wall was on the ground. worked really slick!
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we started out small raising walls but got braver
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The second row of beams we put up was only 12x6 instead of 16x6 but they were a little longer (20' and 18' long). We had two more hands though so they went up fairly easy. Our A-frame scaffolding is getting a serious workout!
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the a-frame can be a little hard too move around though!
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hangers for i-joists went of really quick and once they;re nailed to the beam you just spread some subfloor adhesive into the bracket and pound down the joist until lit bottoms out- no nailing necessary!
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where we're at now- almost ready to start on the second floor. THe interior walls took longer than we thought they would- lots of figuring for blocking, wall junctions etc. Some interior walls are sheathed with plywood because they are shear walls or we wanted a solid nailing surface underneath. (http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/551200_730286198479_729545862_n.jpg)
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the stairs took some thinking and figuring but they turned out ok. we have 2x8s on for temporary treads. This stairwell will be open and the woodstove will sit in corner of the stairs.
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the pattern for cutting the stair stringers
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2x4 ledger and toeplate that hold the stairs in place (hopefully). We used lots of subfloor adhesive before nailing so hopefully it won;t squeak.
The beam made for some kind of goofy interior walls. this one had to be cut apart and rebuilt. It's still a little janky.
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same with the exterior wall. I hate cutting the top plate apart like that. we ended up replacing that short length of top plate to the right of the beam with a longer one that spanned several stud bays.
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More squash blocking for the second story floor joists.
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Had to hack up the saw guide to make it work for cutting i-joists.
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the second floor! The dog likes the view but isn't so sure about the lack of subfloor.
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One questions for you all: If you look at the older photos above you see that we left out concrete blocks for venting the crawlspace. Are there vent grills that simply snap into this size hole (16"x8"). It seems like a common way to vent a crawlspace but i can't find any such grills.
More photos for folks who are interested
borrowed the neighbor's tractor to lift subflooring up to the second floor- much nicer than packing up the stairs!
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added a 4x4 post to support a jog in the floor joists. Had to notch this out to make headroom for the stairs. We didn't want to have to do this but it'll actually work out well as we'll integrate the post into our stair railing. Not sure if it's done right but it seems fairly solid.
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All cleaned up. Once we finished the subfloor on the second floor we took down our wall bracing and tidied up and swept. It was nice to get everything organized so we weren't tripping over stuff all the time!
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closet and front door
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laundry area and kitchen
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living room
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downstairs bath
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backdoor and kitchen
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upstairs
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we're a ways up now
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now it's time to start framing the second floor
Yall are framing faster than I can READ!
Looks great and I think with that 4x4 tied into the stairs it will be fine. It is only carring the load of that one floor joist.
That "crew" really helped out! I just finished my exterior walls this past weekend. It look me a little less than one month working by myself (26'x52').
Your place is looking great! [cool]
Looking good. [cool]
second floor exterior walls up. Now we need to get interior walls up before the trusses arrive.
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the morning fog is a nice break from the afternoon heat
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Lots of big windows upstairs too
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Shower to the top floor!
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Gutter drains. They are separate from the footing drains but the two tie together ten feet from the house and daylight about 100 feet down the hill. Four inch drain pipe barely fit in our trench! Also trenched in water line and phone line while we had the trencher rented.
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Here's where we are after the long labor day weekend.
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We also need to decide what we are doing for porches before the siding gets done. Oregon says that if we have a covered porch more than 6 feet deep we need to have it engineered. We definitely want a shed roof porch off the front (the front is where the two a-frames are in the last picture above. I think we want at least seven feet deep though and maybe eight. Bit of a hassle paper-work wise (plus the engineer wants his $ to stamp things of course). Might just do a 6 foot deep porch off the back though- it'll basically be a place to take off boots in the dry with steps down to a ground-level patio so I think 6 feet might do there. Any thoughts on porch depth?
Would they accept a self drawn plan with engineered parts using software ?
ie there's free software that I use that outputs the engineering for all the main building parts
and then just draw draw the deck using those parts.
If they really need the engineer's stamp you can then just have the engineer check and sign the dwgs, and not pay for the whole design process and the drawings.
Personally I think 6 ft is too narrow, if its a place where you wish to hang out - put your feet up of swing in a hamaca.
if its just a dump the shoes and store some firewood it should be fine.
I've always liked an 8' porch which is enough to have a small group sitting together. 6' is fully functional for the uses you mention.
The engineering request likely involves checking the beam sizes and connections for earthquake bracing for your locale. It shouldn't be an expensive workup. Ask for estimates as there can be lots of variations.
You've made some great progress! It's such a beautiful setting ::) Cathy
great project! [cool]
You are flying thru the build! Clearly you know what you are doing... are you a builder or what?
Excited to follow your progress.
Thanks for all the comments and encouragement. No we're not pros by any stretch of the imagination and a closer inspection of out work shows that. We just read a lot and got some advice from builder acquaintances. Also our inspector is really helpful and lets us know exactly what he wants to see happen. So an update on the porches. WE decided to go ahead and have them engineered so we can build them now. Figured it's be a lot easier to properly detail the flashing if we do it now versus tacking the porches on later. Lots of photos to bring you all up to date:
The spring needed a little work so we headed up the hill to get it closed in:
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Sorry no before pictures, basically the spring was a small hollow against a bank with tin roofing over it. we wanted to seal it up a little better so we made a dam out of an old aluminum swimming pool (came with eh place, very handy!) and some bulkhead fittings.:
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The end result, just shy of 1 gallon per minute of very clear tasty cool water. Not a whole lot of water but with the 55 gallon settling tank and an existing 1200 gallon storage tank it should keep up just fine.
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This spring is quite a ways up the hill but luckily there is a logging road going up to it (hence the jeep). There is probably a quarter mile of 1 inch poly pipe to get it down to the house. We replaced a large chunk of that but a fair amount is lying on top of the ground. A later project will be to replace that with new buried line. Gravity flow water is quite nice! we get about 55 PSI pressure at the house and no pump!
Ok back to the house. Julie framed up the hip room on the what we're calling the "addition" since we'd initially planned on jsut building the main two story portion and adding the side later. This was supposed to be a simple shed roof but we thought a hip roof woudl look better and I think it was worth the extra work. After a lot of head scratching and reading up (especially in fine home building) Julie figured out how to cut all the rafters for the hips:
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Dad helped a lot!
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We wanted to get the final grading done before the winter rains came (we've had a nice dry fall which was good for us this year!) so we brought in the big guns and hired a local earth mover. He brought in his excavator, dump truck, and cat to bring the level up a little higher. We put the house in a fairly low spot (not the best spot for a house but it was where we wanted it!) so we need a lot of fill to keep it from being in a pond and also to improve the looks a little. The contracter found a good spot to get dirt form on the place and started moving it.
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I was amazed at the difference it made in the feel of the place and also how fast the work went. The contractor was a very good operator and was very efficient. still I think it ended up being a couple thousand dollars worth of work. I'm glad we were able to get dirt off the place rather htan trucking it in- I think there were 15 or twenty loads of dirt moved so that woudl have added up fast!
Now onto exciting stuff- trusses!
We hired out all the roof work so we could get things dried in by winter. plus we rally didn't want to mess with trusses and roofing so high up! setting the trusses took two hours and the whole roof took two guys (three to do the trusses) 7 days to get done. Money well spent I think!
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Our roof contractor Jim
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I'm glad it's him up there and not me!
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Julie is frantically priming cedar fascia boards so the will be ready for the roofers.
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We've found that while hiring out subs certainly helps move the project along, it also makes for busy time for us as we are helping out the contractors and making sure all the materials are ready for them.
Not bad for a day's work! I like help!
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Julie put up soffits while the crew roofed. 3/8inch AC plywood with aluminum vents. If we did it again I think he'd used stouter plywood for soffits- maybe 1/2 inch or 5/8. That way you might not need a nailer in between trusses/rafters to support it. We didn't use a nailer with the 3/8 and it worked ok but is not perfectly flat. The fascia is full 2x6 rough sawn port-orford-cedar. We didn't; do a subfascia and then a finish board on top- just kept it simple, I figure the fewer pieces you put up the less likely you are to get water trapped behind things and rot them out.
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The bottom chords on our trusses were 2x10 but we needed them deeper so we could blow in R-49 insulation (I think R-49 is way more insulation than we need in our fairly mild climate but that's what he code says). So we needed to add a 2x4 on top of them. Our attic floor will sit on these 2x4s. They;re roughsawn because dad cut them on his sawmill.
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Our siding contractor brought out his Gradall early so the roofers could use it- very handy!
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Our attic trusses. with the 2x4s scabbed on top of the bottom chords we only have about 5'10" head room but I can stand up between the trusses (I'm 6'4"). We haven;t cut in the gable end attic windows yet.
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All done with the roof. Those cornice returns on the main roof were fairly time consuming for the roofers ($) and will probably rot out before anything else but I really wanted them! We used Port-Orford cedar for all the exposed wood so it should last a while.
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Poured piers for the porches. 2 feet by 2 feet and 10 inches deep with two layers of 7 inch OC rebar! Seems over stout but what do I know. BTW the porches needed to be engineered since they were deeper than 6 feet but ended up being fairly standard construction (thankfully). The engineer initially thought we'd need to sink PT 6x6s into the ground for posts while we really wanted 4x4 posts to keep with the look of the place. turned out ok in the end. Engineering fees were $250. Poured the footings using sackrete and an electric mixer. Took and afternoon and a sixpack of beer, concrete isn't too bad! Most all the porch wood is either Port orford cedar or PT.
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from the county road:
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Julie still priming to keep up!
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Ok fast forward. another sub was brought on to do windows, exterior trim/siding. Oregon code now requires a rainscreen siding or special draining housewrap. I would have much ratter used good old felt but the inspector insisted on the new code. Oh well, hopefully this newfangled housewrap works ok- I worry about moisture getting trapped behind the wrap but i suppose since we aren't taping the seams and our sheathing shows a lot of light we should be fine! Here's the product they're using, hydrogap. there are little raised plastic bumps that are supposed to let water drain.........hmmm.
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The main 2-story section will be hardiplank lap siding but the "Addition" will be hardipanel with cedar battens to give a board and batten look. We'll paint this section white and the main section slate blue/gray. Folks seem a little skeptical bout this idea but I think it'll look good.
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Julie likes the front porch already!
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QuoteWE decided to go ahead and have them engineered so we can build them now. Figured it's be a lot easier to properly detail the flashing if we do it now versus tacking the porches on later.
IMO, a wise decision!
Also a good decision on the truss roof installation, IMO. I can'y imagine getting them up there w/o a crane.
Looking good!
Very nice! Love that you get about 55psi gravity fed from your spring and don't need a pump. My spring is only a few feet above the cabin, so that wasn't an option.
I'm impressed! Looks awesome [cool] Way to go Julie!
The picture with Julie up in the attic adding the 2x4s, it looks like there is a 1x6 sitting on top of the gable end truss to support the barge rafter. Is the gable end truss shorter than the other trusses? Is the 1x6 cut into the gable end truss? I'm about to do my barge rafters, that is why I'm asking. I have trusses as well and I'm trying to figure out the best way to get it done.
thanks
Austin
yeah the gable end trusses came 1 1/2 inches shorter than the other trusses to allow the 2x lookouts. Otherwise I suppose you'd have to notch them. In this case we simply end nailed the lookouts into the last real truss top chord and into the barge rafter.
ok siding is going up and the house is starting to have a face
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Gutter are a MAJOR Upgrade with the rain we'd been having. Siding guys are VERY happy
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6 inch smooth haridiplank. i think it's a 4 1/2 inch exposure or so on the siding? The hip addition part will be fake board (hardipanel) and real batten (port-Orford-cedar)
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The primed hardiboard doesn't; look too bad! I kinda wish we'd given more thought to the design of the front gable since it's the face of the house and you see it from the road and driveway. I think the second story windows should have been a little taller and attic window should have been bigger and lower. Oh well!
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things are starting to get muddy- I think we'll jsut throw some grass on this winter to hold thigns together and work it smooth in the spring. How do the rest of you in temperate (non-snowy) areas deal with new mud?
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Woodstove is another major upgrade!
outside's done except for paint!
next electrical, insulation, drywall- all hired out thankfully
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window trim detail: head trim is 1 1/4 (final thickness) x 5 1/2 and side trim is 1" x 3 1/2 . sill is full thickness 2x6 ripped in half wiht angle cuts and a saw kerf on the bottom to catch drips. apron board under sill is another 1x 3 1/2
I think i woudl have gone a quarter inch thicker on everything if i did it again to give a little more reveal on the hardiboard. This was all done by Upper Valley Builders
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Generally looking quite stately. Good work.
Looks wonderful!
Dried in for winter - awsome !
long time, no update.
electrical was subbed out as was insulation and drywall
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insulation was sprayed in fiberglass. it looks like it'll work great but it got EVERYWHERE!
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drywaller used edges around the exposed beams and this one bracket.
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Drywall is done now I'll try to take photos tonight.