Progress finally

[John Raabe]

I have know builders who had good luck with water sealers. These are very thin flood coatings that soak into the wood and provide waterproofing and sealing properties.

http://www.wolman.com/product_category.asp?CatID=80 - Wolman products
http://www.thompsonswaterseal.com/products/waterproofers.asp - Thompson products.

You would get some help with moisture control and greatly cut down the staining and spotting. It also hardens the surface and provides wear resistance without a plastic coating.

[jwv]

I'll remember and give thanks..will you?

Yes...http://www.thetrenchmovie.com

Judy

[PEG688]

 Thats what I was saying same as you equal Moisture Content = MC.  Water in spots will raise the grain in spots  , [highlight]water all over raises the grain all over, no spots[/highlight].

As far as water in the basement,   ya,  so what it's cement , it will dry out

Of course the way it's been raining back  there it might fill up to the floor joist

How bad where those storms a couple of weeks ago?

I'm from Burrillville , RI org. moved out here with the navy in 1978 , still have a sister in Harrisville , RI .

  Ah back to your place , even if you have to pump / shop vac the basement dry after the roof is on , oh well , it is what it is , not really that big a deal, IMO.

 Now the sand,  thats the killer. That will damage your floors as it sounds like you'd like them to be the finish floor in the place .

I'd put , and do this on all my jobs , some scrapes of plywood at each door to try to catch some of the sand , have people kick there boots, as clean as possible each time they walk in, on the foundation , it helps some .

I also use a elec. leaf blower , [highlight]best broom I ever purchased[/highlight]  , when you get a dry day or ,when ever possible clean the floor up with that , Blow the crap out the door holes , if you have sill plates in the door openings cut then out ASAP helps with water draining and also makes sweeping / blowing easier.

Your oldest kid might be able to be the blower operator , teach um how much fun it is  

 As far as temperory sealants , Tompsons might work , IMO (sorry John) it is almost  worthless. So for a temp seal it might work .

  The linseed oil will darken the floors and  ANY oil you use now will

 #1 Attract and hold sand.

 #2 Will need to be sanded off, unless it wears off, pryor to the real finish you'll be appling .

  #3 For a finish floor on that Spruce I'd look at a water based product that has a hardener that you add  just before you apply it . It will always be a "soft wood " floor so the dogs toenails will be a issue , but if your a  realist it will have that warm NE "feel" in no time

 You can sand it down as on of the last things you do with a power floor sander , try and rent a Hummell . Or one of the new multi headed random orbit floor sanders , you'll have to do the edges , corners with a hand held unit . That will clean it all up , vac it then finish it.

I can find the name of that finish if your interested, I think.  
  I got it from a local floor sales guy I'm friends with.    

If you have gaps in the first floor decking that is what you should expect. real wood will swell,  then shrink back once it is dry.

  Inside the house in summer the MC might go as low as 8 or 9 % I'd guess in NE , In winter if you heat with wood  the MC could go as low as 4 or 5%  also a guess.

But the heating season of your house will be when it is the dryist for MC .

 Think about wooden boats , old ones for a minute , they are put in the water in spring (((Think small row boat and pond now , not a full time wet boat , ))   , they sink or dang near sink . You pump / bail them out  few days later and they have swollen up tight . They float , might leak a bit if you run a outboard on one from vibartion .   But once they swell they float.

Now in fall ya pull the same boat out and it drys , even though its getting snowed on / rained on the MC gets lower , cracks / openings show up that you can see light thru etc .

Real wood,  not plywood will shrink and swell for a very long time , if bugs , mold , dirt that holds bugs and mold etc are kept at bay.

Hope this helps explain what I'm talking about .

But yes if your seeing gaps that is what you'll be living with .

Lumber even KD lumber in a lumber yard / pile on the site is no where near as dry as it will be once the roof is on.

[highlight] I will remember how my freedom was gained , and I will be praying for all those currently deployed to gain freedom for others .[/highlight] A worthy cause IMO.

Former AE-1 PEG

     

[Sassy]

When You Come Home

Daddymem & Mommymem, I am really amazed at the progress you have made on you place!  I look forward every week to seeing what you have accomplished!  Looking good.  Sassy

[Jochen]

Daddymem it will be nearly impossible to protect your softwood floor against wear. Moni has also 2 x 6 spruce as finished floor in her house for around 4 years now. And heating the entire house with a woodstove has dried the spruce in some areas so much, that you can nearly throw a hammer through the gaps. But on the other hand, when the children will loose a toy upstairs there is a good chance to find it downstairs in the living room.    With children and pets, we have also dogs and cats, you have to sand and recoat you floor several times over the lifespan of it. But as you already said, some "rustic imperfections" just belongs to a wooden floor.  
Jochen

[Daddymem]

I can find the name of that finish if your interested, I think.  
  I got it from a local floor sales guy I'm friends with.    
     

Yes please.

More rain rain rain rain rain rain rain this weekend again.  :'(  I might be able to get those last four boards up , the simpson plates on, and start window/door framing between deluges...if I get lucky.  We got the stuff in the cellar up on blocks and tarped over, hope it doesn't fill up too much, it shouldn't...we left a 1-foot gap at the end of the bulkhead floor-less.

I guess we'll let it be for now and decide how to finish later. Yes, this is our finish floor.  I want my CO, then we can put down other materials in the future if we wish.  I really would love a vermont slate entryway and carry that over into the living room with a similar hearth under the woodstove and wall behind it....we'll see.  Shoes off will definitely be a rule...but we know what happens with rules.  Our dogs are anything but easy to nail trim, our cats are actually easier-they may get declawed anyways, I think the house would be a giant scratching post to them and we really don't want them going outside over there anyways...no need to feed the coydogs.

I was in the National Guard, served on Otis here in Bourne, and Fort Rich in Alaska, so yeah...I remembered.

[PEG688]

Daddymem this is the one I used on my floor's .  House built 1954 Red oak "shorts" very common flooring back then , I sanded to bare wood then filled with a water based wood filler then sanded with a drum sander , a Hummell was not avaiable in my area at that time and the new multi head random orbit's where not made then either , this re finish was done in the early 90's .

Then IIRC I had 3 gals of finish which was about a gal "to much" but I had the time , my wife was away on a planed visit (she doesn't do well with dust, lung ,  breathing issues ) anyway I had the time and it was summer and the finish dries very fast with good ventlation and warm / not humid temps. I could do 3 coats a easy in a day. Not a 8 hr day but a DTY day   I may have put on about 8 coats easy to apply IMO not a bad idea

 http://www.allprocorp.com/techbuls/CoroTB/2450TB31921WBFlrFinAcrUre.cfm

 The two part stuff is much better than a one part off the shelf water borne IMO.
 
Good luck , PEG
 

Here's another good site never used this brand but the info is good  

http://www.hillyard.com/ProductsServices/Programs/WOOD.HTM#2

[glenn kangiser]

A concrete contractor used an oil based urethane to coat exterior main entrance colored stamped concrete at a major shopping mall in Fresno.  Should be pretty good stuff.  About an acres worth of solvent evaporating into the air at one time made this my first huffing experience.  Made me want to go listen to Laquerhead.

[Daddymem]

Thanks!

[glenn kangiser]

Nice new pictures and a couple cute kids!

http://schluterhomestead.blogspot.com/

I am pretty excited about the well -- Is that a type of cap over a pitless adapter - water goes out underground for frost protection?

[Daddymem]

Your description sounds about right...the water does come out down around 4 feet to be out of the frost zone.  Pretty good document on private well guidelines in our area, including sketches can be found here.

[Mommymem]

Bump for a little progress in between rain storms.  [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]
http://schluterhomestead.blogspot.com/

[glenn kangiser]

You don't have to hog all the rain -- we could use a bit again now.  Progress in spite of rain is good though.

[Mommymem]

We didn't get as much done as we'd hoped to with a 4 day weekend. Those rafters were not fun to make, but we got em done! We weren't able to set the rafters up yet since they were far to heavy for just 2 of us to handle. We're watching the weather to see if its going to rain this weekend or not to get them up.

[glenn kangiser]

That looks like a job for a boom truck. :-/

[Dustin]

24' rafters have gotta be killer. It's best to make 'em all and then lift 'em all.  For your project, I would get another two friends for the day, two people for each side. 24' would get too unwieldy. Call it "lifting day" and offer to BBQ lunch.

At least you only have to raise them a few feet. We did 12 16' rafters on 5' kneewalls in a few hours. There was 3 of us, but it could have been done with 2 easily. Being able to help with that (and meeting John and seeing his house) convinced me it was doable for me to build a house.
I've got 18' rafters on my house with the same 5's kneewall. Should be interesting.

[Mommymem]

Yeah, we decided it would be best to get some recruits. My brother & sis-in-law are coming to visit in a couple weeks so that'll be some help plus our friend, Rick who's been helping us almost every weekend. But no matter what work we happened to be doing on any weekend I always feed the help.  

[glenn kangiser]

It should really look like a house after that.  

[deertracks]

I look forward to viewing your "weekend progress" at the start of each week. Things are finally drying out here on the west coast and hopefully now that summer is officially here the rain won't be a factor and you can have every opportunity for moving along with your project. It's looking great... thanks for sharing.

[Daddymem]

I gotta give my props to Mommymem.  Her blog is incredible.  Aside from bouncing things off me once in a while and a few typo/spelling corrections from me here and there, it has all been hers and she has made me pretty durn proud of her.  I think I'll keep her  

Probably not much done this weekend...it is the off one so that means rain.  Mad rain-bloody hot-mad rain-bloody hot-mad rain...I think I get the pattern now.

[glenn kangiser]

Here, Daddymem---trade weather with you----  our low here on the Mountain last night was about 83.

[deertracks]

Wow Glenn... no wonder you wanted to be underground. It's cooler down there!!

[Chuckca]

HOT HOT HOT:

Rat now it's 1400 and 102 degrees - our worm up doesn't start until about 1700 - forcast sez 106 degrees.  Sat = 110 degrees. Ouch!

[Daddymem]

The thing around here is that when the heat comes...so comes the humidity.  Same goes for the cold.  I've been in Georgia at 114F and it is worse here in the 90s with humidity.  I've been in Fairbanks  at -55F and it is worse in the single digits here with the moisture.  Why stay?  Because between those rare extremes, the weather is generally fabulous.  It is very nice to have real seasons.

[speedfunk]

I feel for you guys... this rain has been testing our window weatherstripping ..oh wait ..we don't have any  

We can't start to put siding on our firstday b/c of the rain and the co. putting driveway in is 2 weeks back b/c of constant rain.   Hopefully this will end as we hope to finishing up in a mo or so!


good so see you guys making some good progress.  It's really neat to see the trusses on.