September 2011

September goal was to get the roof edge and soffits, done. So the first order of business was to put the soffit material on the framing which I had finished at the end of August. I set up my table saw to cut the sections of soffit to bridge the gap between frame on the top of the wall to the roof edge. They were “hooked” together by the lateral interlock built into the aluminum soffit stock, and then the edges screwed to the wood frame and the roof edge. When the soffits were mounted I then set about putting the fascia in place. They are an “L-shaped” aluminum extrusion, the flat edge slides under the drip-edge of the steel shingles, and the “L” comes down around the bottom of the roof edge and covers the screws on the soffit material. The biggest part of install volume was on the bottom edges of the roof, but the finickiest bit was the fitting the gables with soffit and fascia. They also had to have the cement board panels to approximate the color and texture of the stucco on the ground level walls.

So in total there was a bit of task switching between aluminum work, and cement board work, and then when the roof edges were done start the window trim cutting and installation. And on the rainy days work on finishing the varnish on the kitchen cabinets.

Soffit on south eave of house.

Soffit and fascia on North eave of house.

Soffit and ceiling detail in breezeway.

Soffit detail on northeast corner looking toward garage/workshop/breezeway.

Soffit detail, north side of house.

View from south showing fascia on breezeway and workshop.

View from the south showing roof edge fascia in place.

Fascia on garage west eave.

Fascia and soffit done, West eave of house.

Fascia, soffit, and Hardieboard done on house, West eave.

Fascia, soffit, and Hardieboard complete west eave of workshop.

Fascia and soffit done East eave of house.

Fascia and soffit done West eave of house.

Hardieboard facing done on East eave of house.

August 2011

The wordpress software buggered up, and I lost a lot of work I had put into doing posts.   After a back and forth with the sys admins the problem was solved, but I had got out of the habit of updating as I went along; mea culpa.   I have been queried by friends and family about how things are going, and they have been going slow but steady.   I am now going to try and update the progress on the house, probably not as richly (or verbosely) annotated as when  the work is done but at least a summary of the work and pictures of the progress.

After my son and family visited in early July I got back to working on the cabinets for the kitchen as documented in the last post, and my sisters encouraged me to visit Iowa and see my Mom when sister Trish was visiting, recently moved from Framingham, Mass to Louisville, Kentucky.   Anyway that took a little more than a week out of my work schedule, but family visits are pretty special, and 93 year-old Moms aren’t going to be with us forever.

I made a cross-border trip and came back with the soffits, fascia for the roof edge, and cement board trim for the exterior window frames.  Installing them and completing  kitchen cabinet finishing and installation was my task over the next several weeks, as well as starting work on my patio structure.   The gallery below shows what was accomplished before the end of August.

Framing on beams to attach soffits

Soffit framing, corner detail.

More soffit framing, what the roof edge looks like before soffits.

Soffit framing on the south roof overhangs

Boxes containing the soffit strips stored on the screen porch deck, which were cut on my table saw.

A completed section of soffit installation.

Kitchen base cabinets in place.

Base cabinets in kitchen island in place.

Pallet containing pre-painted cement board trim “Hardie Board” used on exterior window trim.

Spring has sprung!

The unseasonal warmth has persisted with brief interludes of more typical early Spring temperatures for the region. The result is that I have been able to finish the putting the steel shingles on my roof. The last part of that was shingling the top of the solar chimney. I delayed going up there after discovering that all the pollen, and leaf bud fallout from the big trees around my lot rendered the roof quite slippy, which was a significant deterrent. After a couple good rains, the traction on the roof was acceptable, and I had at it. I had also been ruminating about a safe way to get from the roof ridge up onto the top of the solar chimney, and the final successful plan was to screw 3 2×4 pieces to the corner of the chimney to form a sort of ladder so I could climb up onto the flat top. It worked well, and I got the shingles on, and caulked around the edges and back down as it was getting to quitting time. So I left my ladder in place, knowing I would need to remove it later. I decided it would be fun to get pictures of me up there at the top turret of my castle, so got my neighbor down the street to come and photograph me as I was up there to take down the ladder steps. Below are pix showing the roof finished status and me on top.

April 15, On the roof, to remove the temporary ladder.

Beginning interior framing, temporary windows, and shingles, shingles, shingles.

On Wednesday November 11 the framing crew finished what I had contracted them to do. The deck was complete on the breezeway, and interior framing of the solar chimney and the ends of the cathedral ceiling was complete. I had started the shingle preparation, putting the starter edge on the south face of the garage roof, installing the ridge caps for the hips on its edges, and putting the EaveGuard on the south edge of the roof. Then began screw shingles into place. Slow process as I am learning the procedure and with expensive materials don’t want to make mistakes. Pretty much every morning has been a slow start for roof work this week, with frost or dew on the roof that has to dry off before it is safe to be on the surface, and with the short daylight hours too dark to work safely past 5:30PM.

By Friday shutdown time I had nearly completed the shingles on the south face of the garage, and had starter edge on the east roof face and the EaveGuard in place too. More sunny days forecast, so hoping to move right along, and pick up speed as my confidence in managing the steel shingles builds.

The interior of the house is now starting to look and feel like a house. I am very pleased that sun patterns are happening exactly as designed. FIrst light in late Fall winter comes into the dining area, and warms up the whole great room all the way to where the back wall will be. The solar chimney has been framed inside, and has plywood panels in place defining how it will bring light into the back of the great room, and exhaust hot air in summer. Pictures below show light patterns early morning, and again about noon.

Dining room, great room sun at 8:00 AM.

Master bedroom, sun at 8:00 AM

Great room, sun at about noon. Note the solar chimney above the sweeper.

East face of garage roof, starter edge and EaveGuard in place.

Friday, November 13, South face of garage shingles nearly complete.

I continued to work systematically whenever the roof was safe, to install the shingles. Unfortunately the occurrence of either frost or dew on most mornings, meant that I could not be on the roof till near noon and some real rain also slowed things down. With the short days, the effective work day was cut in half. In the mornings when the roof was not accessible I put my plastic window substitutes in place, to keep the wind and weather out of of the interior. Now have all except the entry door in the house, and the two doors in the garage covered tightly. The lower temperatures also take their toll on my hands and joints, hot showers help but summer is much more fun!

November 23, Garage roof south, east, and north faces complete, ridge vent installed.

View of roof from the north, garage roof shingles and breezeway underlayment.

FIrst shingles on the house roof, west face of roof begun.

Still working away as the weather permits on the shingles, a good day’s output after the roof drys off, is three courses before it is too dark. The set of pictures below are status completed just before the snow and rain came through on December 8 and the cold and wind set upon me. I have continued to work at getting the garage door framing completed for installation of the insulated overhead door, and reframing the small garage door so it will accommodate a 36 inch door. Praying for a warming trend with sun and low wind 🙂

December 8, South face of house roof. This side dries off fastest in the morning, so it is where most progress is made.

Shingle status on the north face of the house roof.

Looking past the NE corner of the house at the breezeway and garage. Note the plywood sheets keeping snow out of the garage bay.

Shingle status on the west face of the house roof.

Continued to plug away, at roof when it was dry and to hang the entry doors to the house and garage. The overhead door will wait till after New Year. I now have the south face of the roof complete except for the last course of shingles from the solar chimney to the east. This is because I have flashing to install around the chimney base, then the last of those shingles will go on. Yesterday (December 18) I got a good session in the afternoon on the north face of the roof. Unfortunately overnight there was light snow so waiting for melting and drying to see when I get on the roof again. Pictures of progress below.

December 19, South face of house roof complete to the ridge except for one course from solar chimney to the east end.

Entry door to the house, hung and sealed.

Looking down the breezeway at the garage entry door, hung and sealed.

North face of house roof, shingles up to the top of the hip on the east end.

I was offered a good price on a kerosene construction heater by my friend Ron who built the strawbale house just down the street from me. I fired it up in hopes that the heat would warm the roof and speed the melting and drying. Unfortunately the efficacy was minimal, but the sun came out and I systematically used a broom with an extension handle to brush the snow off. The sun then did its thing, and I was able first to get more shingles on West face, which got direct sunlight. The north face dried and the humidity was such that Wednesday morning December 23, it was safe to get on the roof before 10 AM. so I got a lot of shingles on. Christmas Eve day was similarly good conditions and I was on the roof by 9 AM, and finished (with suitable breaks for food and warmth) a 5:30PM when it was too dark to be safe and accurate. Driving rain and wind overnight and all day on Christmas, a dusting of snow by Boxing Day morning. Pictures of the progress below.

December 23, South face of house roof complete to the ridge.

More progress on the west face of the roof.

North face of roof, shingles up to the top of hip on the East end, most of the overnight snow swept of to let the shingles dry off.

December 24, progress mid-day when I broke to warm up and have lunch.

Status at end of daylight on Christmas Eve, finished to ridge on the East end, 6 courses from top on the West end.

I continued to pick away at the west face of the roof when the snow melted, but kept getting more to torment me. Yesterday December 29, was dry and sunny, but very cold and windy. I brushed off snow with my extension broom, and let things dry off. Today it was dry, warmer and much less wind. I got on the roof for several hours and finished the north face of the roof to the ridge all the way to the west end, and all but one course of shingles on the west face up to the gable face. Will see what the weather brings tomorrow, supposed to be mild, but likely snow 😦 Pictures below of the latest status of north and west faces.

December 30, North face of roof finished to the ridge completely.

West face of house roof, one course left to the gable face.

Installing house trusses and finishing the roofs.

I picked up the Triflex roofing underlayment and Eavguard ice shield on Halloween, expecting I might be able to prepare the roof on the garage for the steel shingles which were ordered on Tuesday, and maybe arriving on following Tuesday. Then went over the installation manual from Wakefield Bridge, and it was not clear the sequence of applying Triflex and Eaveguard. So had to wait till Monday to get clarification from the roofing guy before moving ahead. It turns out that the Triflex is installed first, then the starter shingles, and over that the Eaveguard. So set up my ladders and scaffolds around the garage, peeled off the tarpaulin and started putting on the Triflex. My neighbor across the street Richard, came over and gave me a hand, and we got the north and south faces of the roof covered and then the rains came chasing us wet and bedraggled off the roof.

Tuesday morning, Nov 3 the crew to intall the trusses arrived, but the big crane was not available that day, so they put the master truss in place by hand, aligned it vertically as the reference plane, installed the hips and jacks on the west end of the house, and put the plywood deck on that small section of the roof. Then we went to the east end of the house and set about construction the beam array which will support the roof over the screen porch. This consisted of 4 6×6 treated wood posts supporting firbrolam beams that are the base for the jacks which form the corner and eastern edge of the roof. The engineered beams are enormously strong, but also very heavy, the long one weighed nearly 400 lbs. We got it finished and properly braced, and the rains arrived again and the crew dispersed, but with the promise to be there at 7 AM with the crane to put up the rest of the big trusses.

A point of pride; Tom Ritchie the framer complimented me on my wall and nailing plate alignments. The north and west wall were less than 1/16 inch out of perfect square on the long diagonal. As we did the whole set of big trusses, the heels were within 1/4″ of aligning perfectly to the edge of the nailing plate on the 30 foot span, so all my attention to detail in building the wall paid off.

November 3, Lifting the master truss into place on the nailing plate.

Bracing the master truss in the true vertical position, all the rest are referenced to this truss.

Finishing up the alignment of the master truss.

Setting and nailing the "jacks" on the west side of the master truss.

Jacks and hips in place, starting the plywood deck.

More work on the deck.

Most of the deck in place.

Deck and the fascia on the gable complete.

Fibrolam beams and 6x6 posts set in place and braced on the screen porch slab, ready for the jacks to complete the roof profile.

Wednesday, November 4, The crane arrived minutes before 7 AM, set up and the crew was at it at full speed. Since the crane gets $200/hr, it was very useful that the trusses were going into place virtually perfectly with no need for any fiddles to make them right. When they were all in place and minimally cross-braced, the crane packed up and left and the crew set about getting the more permanent bracing in place and putting the plywood deck on the north face of the roof. Things were going great guns, until about 10:30 AM, when the rains descended upon us again. It was dangerous to be on the roof, and the crew had a job down the street, that was inside, so they went there, hoping the weather would break, but it was not to be.

Wednesday, November 4, Picking up the first truss of the day.

Headed for the nailing plate.

Putting the first one in place.

Set on the nailing plates.

Moving along with the trusses.

The last big truss in place, disconnecting the cable.

Tying in the last truss, and the crane getting ready to go away.

A bit of a curve in the bottom chord of the last truss, some adjustment required.

My neighbor Lloyd surveying the work.

Looking up at the cathedral trusses.

November 5, Putting on the roof deck on the south face of the roof.

Working on the deck, jacks over screen porch still visible.

Gable on the west end of the roof complete.

Thursday morning dawned grey and threatening more rain, but by 10 AM it cleared and the crew showed up and went to work. They first installed the jacks over the east end of the house and built out the hips. Then they set about putting the deck on the south face of the roof. Not all done by the time they quit around 5 PM, but not much left to do. I worked through the morning measuring and cutting firring strips to attach 6 mil clear plastic over windows. This is to protect against overspraying of the polyurethane foam into the house and on the floor, and also to keep the wind and weather out. After lunch the wind was down a bit, so I was up onto the garage roof applying Triflex to the uncovered surfaces. Had to run over to McNaughtons and get more since I ran out, and now have enough to at least get a good start on the house roof as well. Finished the garage roof as it was getting dark, about 6PM. Good weather predicted for the next 3 days, so hopefully will get the Triflex on the house roof to keep the water out, and get a good start on the shingles for the garage.

Friday morning dawned cold and sunny. Frost on the ground, and on the roof. The crew arrived bright and early and set about putting deck on over the screen porch and working on the gable above it where they could put dry plywood. After the sun had been out a while they were able to finish the upper east end of the north face of the roof. When that was done they went at building the solar chimney, which which will give passive ventilation in the summer. They finished about 3 PM and I got started on putting the triflex on the north face of the deck.

All day lots folks driving past VERY slowly looking and wondering. Tom decided to pull peoples chain a little, asked if he could put a cross on the back of the chimney, and I suggested, put a phony machine gun on top. The final result was a silhouette of a soldier with a rifle, and a label “Lest we forget” since it is Remembrance Day this weekend.

When the crew dispersed, I headed up on the roof and before dark got Triflex on the first 12 ft of the north face. Good weather predicted tomorrow so maybe get the whole roof done if all goes well. Shingles for the garage will be delivered tomorrow, so maybe as start on them too. Need to work when the sun shines!

Friday, November 6, most of the east end of the house has deck complete.

Filling in the last bit of deck on the trusses.

The last section of the deck going on.

Putting the last piece of plywood in place.

Laying the foundation for the solar chimney.

Setting the corners on the framing of the chimney.

The temporary bracing on the south side to keep the corners true.

Putting the plywood deck on the top of the solar chimney.

The framing of the chimney from the northeast corner.

Nearing completion, putting the plywood fascia in place.

FInished solar chimney viewed from the north, note the outline of soldier and gun on top.

View of solar chimney from the south, with the window frame which will allow hot air to be vented.

Saturday was a mild sunny day and I got in a long day applying Triflex. Finished three of the four faces of the roof by dark, and was ready to rest my weary bones. Sunday morning was sunny but started with a thick ground fog which took a while to burn off. Headed off to church, and came back in the afternoon to dry roof and mild sunny weather again. Got up on the roof and by dark finished the remaining face of the roof. Was hearing the bagpiper playing down the street at the Remembrance Day ceremonies at the cenotaph.

Sunday November 8, FInished putting Triflex underlayment on house roof view from the north side.

View from the south side of the house.

Remembrance Day recognition on the solar chimney.

View from the north, house and garage with Triflex in place.

Monday morning bright and early the crew showed up and started work on the breezeway beam structure. A lot of thinking and discussion since only the rough outlines were on the truss plan. Really glad I had a person in charge with a lot of experience and a sense of pride in doing a good job.

Monday, November 9, the first fibrolam beam in place for the covered walkway between house and garage.

Second beam of breezeway in place.

Setting the trusses on the breezeway.

Attaching the fascia to the truss tails.

Doing the creative framing to blend the two roofs gracefully.

Putting the first plywood sheet on the breezeway.

Much of the deck in place, the crew gone for the day.

View from the south, most of plywood in place on the breezeway.