At Home In The Woods

[bdeboer]

My buddy had a AZZ neighbor like that. How we stick it to them in Indiana is mow the lot, put a fence up, then bring in hogs. Even better if you are little west of said neighbor to allow the full aroma a good flow to his nose. Chicken and roosters also do a good job.

Anyway that is the way us Red Neck boys from Indiana do it.:thumbsup:

Chris

Rusty recycled roof tin for fencing and hog houses complete the package here. Sorry for the highjack

 

[bdeboer]

Attic and Soffit Ventilation
My wife has been researching attic ventilation needed for our house for cooling efficiency, prevention of ice dams on the roof, and for moisture prevention. According to her calculations, the vinyl soffits that all the vinyl subs normally use would not provide adequate ventilation. If that is the case, then almost no house being built in our area meets the ventilation requirements based on the fact that our soffits are 2 feet wide which is at least double the width (and therefore potentially double the ventilation) than most of the houses that are being built. We needed double the ventilation than what the vinyl installers would provide by default.

The vinyl subs who gave us estimates were recommending that 1 out of every 3 vinyl soffits be a vented soffit (i.e. has holes in it for air movement). However, we need at least 2 soffits out of every 3 to be vented to meet the ventilation requirements put out by The Home Ventilation Institute. However, if 2 out of every 3 vinyl soffits is vented, we may have issues with sagging since our soffit area is 2 feet wide. The vented soffits are not as stiff as the non-vented soffits and are thus more prone to sagging. One of the vinyl subs is getting us a quote on how much he will charge to add 1x3 blocking along our eaves in order to support the soffits and prevent sagging.

There is a part of me that wonders how important it is that we meet the attic ventilation requirements put out by HVI since most of the homes in our area only have 1/4 of the ventilation that HVI recommends.

Are they using perforated vinyl soffit? The soffit we use has 3 sections with the center being perforated. I do not see how it would be structurally weaker. The soffit is placed pependicular to the house. I also am not sure if this meets the "hvi" flow requirements. This is used everywhere but the gable ends. Sorry for the picture quality, it looks like it the soffit is sagging but it isn't. This picture is from a 2' overhang that is about 7 years old.

 

[eepete]

Agree with others- improve your ventilation. Our old house was built to the "local standards" and it was not good enough. The attic was too hot.

Our new house has completely enclosed and conditioned attic space just so I don't have to deal with all the ventilation issues. Unfortunately, it does cost a bit more.

You are seeing the trend here. For each and every trade and aspect of a house, what is "normally done" are practices that have been cost reduced to the point where it holds up long enough for everyone to get your money and head out the driveway. It's great that you are involved to the degree you are and are catching these things now. You won't catch everything, but you'll catch enough that you can deal with the other problems as they occur down the road. Sadly, any house that got finished or didn't go 3X over budget has flaws. On the plus side, you will soon be living in a finished house .

Keep up the good work and perseverance :thumbsup:!

Pete

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Attic and Soffit Ventilation
.

The vinyl subs who gave us estimates were recommending that 1 out of every 3 vinyl soffits be a vented soffit (i.e. has holes in it for air movement). However, we need at least 2 soffits out of every 3 to be vented to meet the ventilation requirements put out by The Home Ventilation Institute. However, if 2 out of every 3 vinyl soffits is vented, we may have issues with sagging since our soffit area is 2 feet wide. The vented soffits are not as stiff as the non-vented soffits and are thus more prone to sagging. One of the vinyl subs is getting us a quote on how much he will charge to add 1x3 blocking along our eaves in order to support the soffits and prevent sagging.

I bought some vinyl soffit and fascia to use on my shed, and didn't like it at all. On my house I used Alcoa metal soffit, and used all vented, no solid, where vented is required. Metal will hold up well with no sag.

 

[Obed]

More brick pictures.

 

[Obed]

Are they using perforated vinyl soffit? The soffit we use has 3 sections with the center being perforated. I do not see how it would be structurally weaker. The soffit is placed pependicular to the house. I also am not sure if this meets the "hvi" flow requirements. This is used everywhere but the gable ends. Sorry for the picture quality, it looks like it the soffit is sagging but it isn't. This picture is from a 2' overhang that is about 7 years old.

Based on the picture of your soffit, it appears to be installed the standard way they are installed here. 1 out of every 3 soffit pieces has holes in it (i.e. ventilated). My wife called one of the manufacturers and was told that the ventilated piece is not as sturdy/stiff as the the non-ventilated piece. To get the HVI recommend ventilation, we would need 2 out of every 3 pieces to be ventilated.

 

[Obed]

Hall Night Light
Thanks to the great input provided by TBNers, I decided on the hall night light design. This weekend and yesterday evening we worked on roughing in wiring for a night light in the hallway. I may use a night light similar to what eepete suggested. Since I want to be able to turn the light off, I decided to put 3-way switches on each end of the hallway so we can turn the night light on or off just like a regular hallway light. If we have guests, we can leave the night light on at night.

At one end of the hallway, we had a single gang box for the hall light 3-way switch. We replaced the box with a double gang box that will house 3-way switches for the hall light and the hall night light. At the other end of the hall, we had a double gang box for the other hall light 3-way switch and the foyer light switch. We moved the foyer switch to its own single gang box and roughed in the wire for the hall night light 3-way switch.

We also installed a single gang box in the middle of the hallway to house the night light. Above the night light box is a single gang box for the whole house fan. We replaced that box with a double gang box that will hold 2 switches for the fan. We also moved the fan switch box up extra high on the wall so that someone doesn't accidently turn on the whole house fan when intending to turn on the hall light.

While it doesn't seem like much, I ate up several hours reworking/rerunning the existing wiring and re-wiring the boxes plus adding two boxes. However, I believe I will really like having the hall night light on switches. I also want to add a switch in the night light that will be located in the master bath. It'll be nice to be able to go in the bathroom without having to fumble around in the dark or be blinded by a bright light.

 

[tommu56]

We ordered a whole house fan from Grainger; I picked it up yesterday. Today my wife opened the box and noticed that the shutter was broken. The shutter was made out of the most flimsy thin plastic. Some of the plastic pins on the inside of the frame that the louvers rotate on are broken. My wife is now looking for a different brand fan with a more substantially built shutter. One fan she saw had a metal shutter. I like the idea of a metal shutter a lot better than a plastic shutter. The shutter is going to open every time the fan turns on and will "jiggle" as the air runs through it.

I found it interesting that the box than contained the shutter says "BUILT TO LAST". They must have meant that the box is built to last because the cheap plastic shutter certainly wasn not built to last. It wasn't even built to "start". Also, look at the packaging. The "THIS SIDE UP" marking on the box was hidden by the outer box so it was impossible to tell which way the box should be oriented during shipping. Also, if you look closely at the top of the outer box, you can see foot prints.

I would look for a powered shutter spring close probably will be industrial in nature but it wont be flopping in the wind doesn't impede the flow of the fan then pick the fan to go behind it

tom

 

[bdeboer]

Based on the picture of your soffit, it appears to be installed the standard way they are installed here. 1 out of every 3 soffit pieces has holes in it (i.e. ventilated). My wife called one of the manufacturers and was told that the ventilated piece is not as sturdy/stiff as the the non-ventilated piece. To get the HVI recommend ventilation, we would need 2 out of every 3 pieces to be ventilated.

Just to clarify a little, that is actually one 12" wide section cut from a longer piece with 2 solid sections and 1 ventilated section. I am curious to the sturdy/stiff comment as the strength seems to come from the ribbed area between the solid and ventilated and the lips that overlap with the next piece. I do know that from installing it that the last piece without lip on the end will sag if not properly supported by facia. Has she checked into metal alternatives?

 

[eepete]

Obed, if you go with the light I used, the "dot" in the center is not a screw that hold the cover plate on, but it is a CdS light sensor so that the light turns on when it's dark. Sometimes, if the hall is dark enough, it stays on all the time. For the LED lights, this isn't much energy.

I suspect you know this, and elected to add your switches to insure they are off, but just want to make sure you know that. A win to your approach is you can go back later in life and add the "standard" night light with a bulb (and hence more light). Might be good when kid(s) are young or parents are old and you need a bit more light.

Use a deep box for the night light- it's a tight fit. The little one that cost 50 cents are a real tight fit. You might want to buy on of the lights at the box store now and be sure the size box you have is OK.

At the last minute (i.e. just before drywall), I added a few more hall lights by just running another wire to a nearby outlet. So if you find you want to add more, but are (chronically) short of time you could do that and let the light turn it self on and off.

Pete