Sunday Morning - April 1st, 2012 Mid-Oklahoma

I've started my interior bathroom wall and decided to make all interior walls 2x4's. I can start on my loft joists after I get these few interior walls finished - that will be exciting to me, to finally be able to step up there on the loft.

Here's 2 pictures of the start of the bathroom wall:

Monday Morning - April 2nd, 2012 Mid-Oklahoma

Finished the interior bathroom wall. Now starting on the adjacent bedroom wall and the 2 short walls that connect them. Here's pictures:

Tuesday Morning - April 3rd, 2012 Mid-Oklahoma

Finished the main interior walls. Just have to do the 2 smaller walls that will connect the bathroom wall and the bedroom wall. One small wall will create the bedroom closet and the other one will be the hot-water heater closet. Both will have bi-fold doors.

The loft i-joists will sit on top of these interior walls forming the main loft area.



I always make sure my wife comes out to help me lift walls whether I need the help or
not , that exciting part should never be forgotten:

Looking good.  You will breathe a sigh of relief when the roof is on. 

Hope your all tied down nice and tight and this weather does not go north !

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2124648/Debris-thrown-skies-large-extremely-dangerous-Tornado-targets-Texas.html

Tuesday Night - April 3rd, 2012 Mid-Oklahoma

Well, a 4.0 earthquake hit this morning here in mid-oklahoma at 2:33am, it was centered 16 miles from where I work in McAlester, Oklahoma and 56 miles from my countryplan. Everyone at work (most live there in McAlester) was talking about how it woke them up. I didn't feel a thing, must be the good shock absorbers in this RV (I don't have it totally leveled since I last moved it).

I tried my  best to do as much as I could on my build but it started raining too hard. I got a bucket of plastic cap nails from a guy at work who had some left from when he had his place built and he gave them to me. So I got out there as fast as I could but I was only able to go over the top plate of the long south wall.

I cut the house wrap 1 foot length in order to go over the top plate and cover it until I put my roof on. I figure that it'll still be some weeks before I have my roof on and I don't want the edges of the osb to get wet up there. When roof time comes, I'll remove the wrap up top for layout purposes.

Here's a couple pictures of the house wrap over the top plate:

Thursday Morning - April 5th, 2012 Mid-Oklahoma

Yesterday after work I used those plastic cap nails on the house wrap, cut open all the window holes, and also put some wrap on top of one of the large window sills.

I'm figuring, since it'll be a little longer till roof time - I'll also cover the top exposed window sills with the house wrap so that water won't get into those exposed edges of the osb. There's a few wrinkles in the wrap but oh well, I'm hoping that won't affect things. I hope to begin working on the i-joist placements for the loft before the week is out.

I'll be applying many more plastic cap nails on the wrap in the next few days.



Here's that large window where I covered the sill with plastic wrap. Will I have to remove
that wrap and those nails that are on the sill and around the window? Will the window seat properly if I leave them there?



And here are those plastic cap nails:

(Pic Coming Soon)

Just an FYI be careful with all those cap nails around the window openings, they may interfere with your window install.  If they are to close to the edge of the window opening your window fins may not sit flush.

Thank you rdzone,

I'll remove any plastic cap nails that interfere with the window installations.

Since they are all cut out already and there is concern about water, why not go right ahead and install the self stick flashing (Grace Vycor Plus or equivalent) ?  Then it's done and the window cut outs are waterproof (pretty much).

Friday Morning - April 6th, 2012 Mid-Oklahoma

Great timing Don!

I searched youtube for a video on Grace Vycor Plus and found a really good straight forward video that shows me how to install it. In the beginning of the video, they show about 4 or 5 houses that were only a couple of years old and were already greatly affected by mold, rot, and moisture because of no or improper flashing.

Here are links to the video, installation pdf, and the price at Lowes.

Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6i7U75cECE

The installation pdf:

http://www.na.graceconstruction.com/custom/flashings/downloads/26324_Guide-B.pdf

Lowes sells a roll of this stuff for about $30.00:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_236541-711-5003104_0__?productId=3027049&Ntt=flashing&pl=1&currentURL=%2Fpl__0__s%3FNtt%3Dflashing%26page%3D1&facetInfo=

Grace also has rolls of roofing underlayment that sell for about $115.00 a roll. Two rolls would do my whole roof. Here's that at Lowes:

http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=283849-711-5008030&langId=-1&storeId=10151&productId=3151833&catalogId=10051&cmRelshp=req&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1

When I flashed my windows after the tyvek was up I used a similar product:
http://www2.dupont.com/Tyvek_Weatherization/en_US/products/residential/resi_flexwrapnf.html



The inspecter did however want to see a slight slope from inside to outside on all the 2x6 under the window so that "if" any water should get in it should naturauly drain to the outside.
He allowed me to just insert shims from the inside to raise the inside edge of the sill 2x6.

I'll second the tyvek flex wrap for creating pans - i used it mainly for the front and rear doors.    Al - i feel your pain with those nail caps, thats what our harware provided me and then i saw this - you need one! 

http://www.amazon.com/Stinger-CH38A/dp/B002FYCZCA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTFMm7R97UE

its worth its weight in gold!  I recall wrapping our inside beams with the tyvek before the roof was on (outside hadnt been wrapped yet) and it was a real pain to work with those nail caps.  This is a breaze!

Saturday Morning - April 14th, 2012

Finally got all the interior walls finished. Can't find my phone cable at this moment so pictures will have to wait.

I've noticed builds here where there was no cap plate on the top of the interior walls under the loft joists. I plan to put cap plates on my interior walls because it will stabilize the joints and make them stronger, am I correct?

Also, I looked up a pretty good weather data base just to see how much rain has fallen on my build, especially my Advantech flooring. The database only goes to a larger city/town then where I live that's about 35 miles away but that'll do. The data there said that it rained 21.5" since the day I brought the flooring home and started to install it up till today. Here is the link to that weather data:

http://www.wunderground.com/

The Advantech flooring is doing well but I can see discoloration and very few spots where the layers are barely starting to want to 'undo'.

I'm now ready to start cutting web-stiffeners and installing studs and i-joists in my wall cavities. It's getting exciting (slowly).

You should have no problems with advantec. We didnt have a roof on for 3 1/2 months and it rained alot.  It had held up perfectly with no issues.  It might get dirty looking, you could stray bleach on it and it will look new again. but never had any issues.  Its awsome stuff.

Monday Afternoon - April 16th, 2012 Mid-Oklahoma

First of all, thanks beckhamk for the information. I've decided to also use Advantech as my floor to the loft. I'm sure it'll get wet before the roof goes on...most likely.

Finally finished the interior walls and added the cap plates to the top of them. I also put in my first i-joist, nailed it to the gable end, and then attached i-joist number 2 and sistered studs under it to support it.

You'll notice, in the wall cavity, that only 1 stud under the i-joist supports it to the half-way point of its width, you think that will do or should I use 2 studs at each sistered location?

You'll also notice that I didn't slip and nail a web stiffener/web shim between the i-joist and the main support studs in the cavities for greater connection strength, I'll do that when I get the 1" thick wood. I bought a sheet of expensive 3/4" plywood thinking that it was the thickness that I needed but I'll need 1" wood.

I used 5 x 7 40d ring shank pole barn nails in the 'rim-i-joist' that's against the gable end above the interior walls. That one i-joist will hold the weight of the last 16" of floor and I'm very confident that those huge nails in the top and bottom of the i-joist at each stud location will have no problem holding up. I probably should go out and buy more of those ring shank nails so that I can use them whenever I nail an i-joist.

Here's a picture of one of those 40d nails:

(Pic coming soon)



Look at this next picture closely, it's the top of my interior walls. I had pictured the i-joist sitting on the top of those 2 wall tops perpendicular to the gable end. Come to find out, those tops would have to have been exactly the same height or that 20' long i-joist would not be level.

Now for some trig: Just for perfect reference, let's say that those 2 tops were sharp points 48" from each other in the exact middle of the build. That leaves 8' of length to each side. Now let's say that one wall is 1/8" (.125) higher than the other. The triangle would be .125 for side (a) and 48" for side (b). The angle of that hypotenuse is 0 degrees, 8 minutes, and 57.15 seconds - round it off to 9 minutes. Now let's find out how far 8' (96") drops. Angle (A) is 9" (9 minutes) and the hypotenuse is 8' long. It dropped 1/4". If it's dropping 1/8" in 4' - it'll drop twice that in 8'. To sum it all up: the height difference of only 1/8 inch between those wall tops cause a 5/8" difference from one end to the other, that's a floor that's not level.

Sorry for all the dumb math, I get carried away with explaining things sometimes. In fact, you might want to check my math if your inclined to do that kind of thing...I remember one time I was wrong.

I wish I would have paid greater attention when it came to getting those walls exactly the same...but I didn't so now I'm going to shim between the bottom of the i-joists and the top of those walls.

One more thing, if you have a good eye - you will notice that I set that first i-joist right on top of those walls and commenced to nailing it everywhere I could with those long ring shank nails. Pretty level huh ... NOT! Those wall tops are not the same height (I'm not telling you how much there off). I'm just going to leave it there, work around it, and shim it.



I talked a lot of math above. It all reminded me of the Wizard of Oz Scarecrow math error. Remember when he got his diploma, he said, "The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an Isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side. Oh joy, rapture, I've got a brain. How can I ever thank you enough?" When we watched that as kids we thought that he was oh so smart. But wait, what he said was wrong! The Scarecrow states an incorrect version of the Pythagorean theorem. There are two errors. The Pythagorean theorem applies to right triangles, not isosceles. Also the theorem is that the squares of two legs equals the square of the hypotenuse. Properly stated, "The sum of the squares of the two legs of a right triangle is equal to the square of the hypotenuse." Here's the youtube video of him saying it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUCZXn9RZ9s

Here's a couple of pictures of the i-joist sitting on the stud:

Wednesday Morning - April 18th, 2012 Mid-Oklahoma

Got more work done yesterday, I had enough time to get 2 more i joists in place.

Putting 1 stud under the i joist only goes to about the half-way point of the i joist width, as I mentioned on the above post. So I put osb between the sistered stud and the wall stud in order to send it out to the middle of the width of the i joist, that centered things a little better.

Those i joists are actually floating above the interior wall tops by only about 1/8" so I'm going to put shims under those points and then nail them to the wall tops. Once I get the Advantech flooring on top of those i joists it'll create a strong diaphragm and then those walls will become even more stable.

Just for reference, those i joists cost around $34.00 each.

Here's a few pictures of yesterdays work:

Hi Al,
I haven't been following, started PT this week, chemistry and a movie have been winning. Who would have known girls half my size and age could be so cruel.  . You're dealing with engineered components,,, and you did a good ol boy, those flanges were never checked with a 40d nail I'd bet. That is probably a .225" shank and I think they will have specified a .131.. Either use the nails they specify or, I like your intent, prebore the flange with a bit ~80% of nail diameter wherever you use a large nail.

You need to fireblock between floors. How about cutting the joist support stud 1-1/2" short and put a flat 2x block between studs atop that. It will distribute the load better and do the fireblocking.

Wednesday Night - April 18th, 2012 Mid-Oklahoma

Hi Don!

Hey, it's great to hear from you again. Your absolutely right about those nails that I used not being in spec. That 0.131 dim. that you mentioned is correct. Those nails that I used were 0.196 in diameter. I don't think those nails, being only around 0.033 larger in radius than specified would hurt anything. They seemed to go in real nice with no splitting around them. BUT, I like your idea about pre-drilling those nail holes to 5/32 first through the i joist flange only (80% of 0.196).

I think I'll give the iLevel people a call tomorrow just to see what they think. They were real nice and answered all of my questions very patiently the last time I called them.

I forgot all about the fire blocking and I think that what you said is a great idea about cutting the joist support studs 1 1/2" short and put the block between. Am I correct in assuming that I should put a fire block between every single stud where there is a loft floor above it? What about the 2 open areas each side of the catwalk, I guess I should just put fire blocking between every single stud throughout the whole build right? I'll google and study more about fire blocking.

Thanks for your posts Don, I hope you'll feel better all the time.

I had to put a block between every single stud.....

Saturday Morning - April 21st, 2012 Mid-Oklahoma

Thanks for your post nysono, I'm now going to put blocking between all of my studs also - it sure won't hurt anything and I believe it's the right way to do it...in my case.

I called iLevel and asked them some questions about how I should attach those i joists to my stud cavities using the 'sistered stud' method. They basically concurred with what all has been suggested here many times in the past. They did mention one thing that I haven't heard of before. They said it is wise to put a block between the adjacent stud and the top of the i joist flange for 2 reasons. One, it'll hold the i joist in from pushing away from the attached stud and two, if you push it out about an inch or more you can use it as a nailer when your putting your sub-floor on. Basically the dude at iLevel went right along with what DonP and others have been saying.

Here's a picture of me doing what DonP suggested, using a block as a fire block but also acting as an i joist rest:



And more pics of i joists:







This last picture is where I sawed a bunch of i joist fillers. I used 7/16 osb and made them 9 1/4 x 5 1/4 and I use 2 inside each ijoist space.

awesome. I cant wait for this part of the project... seems like lots of fun!

Sunday Morning - April 22st, 2012 Mid-Oklahoma

Thanks for the comment duncanshannon. I had to think for a second when you said, "...seems like lots of fun!". Sometimes I have to think that to myself when I get out there to work on the build EVERY SINGLE DAY. I say to myself, 'This is fun, this is fun, this is fun...'.

Building a house yourself, by yourself, for the first time, and learning and studying as you go, is likely the most consuming thing a person will ever do...in most cases. I truthfully tell people that I have more time in studying and learning how to build it than I do in actual build time. Eight months ago, I truthfully didn't know the difference between a joist and a rafter - thank you God for countryplans!

Well, yesterday I finished a couple more i joists. I only have 2 more to go for the west end. Then I'll begin to put the i joists up on the east end. On that end there will be no interior walls to crawl up and around on to help me lift them up there. I'm excited about my next load of lumber being the Advantech for the loft sub-floor.

I'm 'starting' to get the hang of putting up the i joist using a block under the lower flange which also creates the fire block. You'll notice that I used a short block for a nailer sistered to the stud and under the blocking on the opposite side of the top i joist flange. I like that idea better than toe nailing.

Here's pics:

(One pic coming soon)







In this last picture (top view looking down), you'll notice how I used shims under the i joists and on top of the interior walls for more stability.

  Backwoods BC Canada 1-1/2 story. Al , really appreciate all the effort you and others have contributed to outline everything in detail about your build. I hope to get down that path sometime this year. Still working out issues with the building inspector. My next approach with the inspector will be with a site assembled engineered wood ridge beam, similar to your build.  Thanks again for sharing.

Thursday Morning - April 26th, 2012 Mid-Oklahoma

Thanks for your comment hemfir, I hope you get everything worked out nicely with that building inspector.

I've been working more on the loft. I got stumped for a little while about how I wanted to attach my catwalk to the other loft sections. I could have used an LVL with hangers but I found out that I can just use my #230 iLevel i joists with hangers, backer boards, and fillers.

I called iLevel and they were once again very kind and patient with me on the phone. They answered all my questions, did calculations, and sent me pdf's of the findings.

Here's a little plan I did in paint that shows what I'm doing with my loft work:



Here's a top view of the main loft area. All that's missing is the last i joist that will sit on top of the wall and meet the 3 catwalk i joists perpendicularly:
(Pic coming soon)


Here's a picture of the i joists at the other loft end, the nook loft. You can see where I used shims under that 2nd i joist. Shims are quickly becoming a tool for me. I know that there wouldn't be shims in the perfect world but oh well, as time goes on hopefully I'll use less of them.
(Pic coming soon)


And here's a whole shot of the start of the nook loft end:
(Pic coming soon)