Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[pclausen]

Ron, I really appreciate your advice regarding the fascia issue and will be sure to get it addressed with the builder before the gutters go up. They did not sub out any of the siding work, his crews did it all. He has different crews that he sends to different sites each day, so it is very possible that one crew did the fascia on one side and another crew did the other. He tries to keep the same crew on a particular site, but depending on deadlines and various other factors, that might not always work out.

Day 81

The propane tank was delivered

The first coat of mud was put on inside

And here's the 19" rack they buried in the wall. I tried to explain to the main guy on the drywall team what was wrong, but those guys did not speak a lick of English, so I'll probably just take care of it myself before they get to the priming stage.

We had over an inch of rain last night, so no excavation work today. Hopefully it will be dry enough tomorrow that they can begin work on the septic drain field.

Power got turned on today!

 

[J F]

Lookin' good, Peter. :thumbsup:

 

[dave1949]

Peter, You probably want to take a careful survey of all the electrical boxes, lights, etc., it isn't uncommon for one to get sheet rocked over.

Also, where you will have T&G on the ceilings, the IC cans, if they are like mine, will have to be dropped after they finish the mudding, if they are even doing more finishing in those sections. If the cans aren't adjusted down flush with the T&G, the beauty ring to bulb clearance will not look right. Just something to watch for. The cans should have a locking slide that is accessed from the room side.

 

[J F]

I try and paint the ceiling similar to the stain/paint color on t & g work, so if any gaps develop, they're less noticeable.



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Edit to add (much too large) pics of before/after.





Ready for final touchup/clearcoats/sheet rock paint

 

[pclausen]

That looks great Jay! Great top about applying a base coat of similar color before attaching the T&G.

Dave, it will be all track lighting where the T&G goes, so I should be in good shape there. Just need to use long screws to attach the lighting base plates, right?

I texted the builder around 7:50 this morning saying I had some concerns about the construction I wanted to discuss with him. He called me back before 8am and we will meet up around 2pm on site. I'll definitely give him an A for effort! I have a list of all my issues in a nice excel spreadsheet, and print outs of the various pictures you guys have posted, mostly fascia related. I'll give him a copy of the punch list and hopefully we'll get it knocked out over the next few days.

Also, with all this fascia talk, I decided to look at how it was done on my house (built in 1997), and low and behold, they did use the 1x2 when doing mine. Here are a few shots (It's time to get the power washer out again soon, lol).

So even after 16 years, it remains quite straight and flat, unlike the zoomed in versions of the original images of the trouble areas at mom's house.

I have all this printed out to show the builder this afternoon.

 

[westbrooklawn]

Lol, that's it Jay!

Spoke to the gas company. The up front cost of a 500g tank is $1,850. Leasing it has a one time fee of $150, and $110 per year if using less than 1/2 tank annually, otherwise there is no other cost. So no "uplift" fee per gallon or anything like that. So even if she used less than 1/2 tank per year, it would still mean that it would take 15 years before she would have spent $1,850, so leasing seems to be the obvious choice.

If the tank is customer owned the price per gallon for LP is much lower than with a leased tank. You can also price shop and change suppliers if you own the tank. When you factor the lower gas cost into the equation, the payback/break even time is much shorter. In my case it lowered the break even time to under 5 years. Might be worth looking at....

 

[mkane09]

So, if my amateur mind has this right, the 1x2 is there solely to allow the covering to be made in a "z" shape, in order to give it more rigidity and eliminate the wrinkles? I have to admit, the fascia looks pretty bad at the front of the garage on Mom's house.....brand new. How much of a problem is it going to be to fix it?

mkane09

 

[pacerron]

Peter,
Your pics forced my big mouth open, already.
Like in your pic 1 down at the spouting end, of your house, get up there on a step ladder and lift the corner of the shingle a little.
I think you will see that the top of the fascia is made into a T and goes back under and is nailed down to the roof.
That is the big difference between it and the floppy Z top on your mom's fascia that is wavy already. See how even the drip lip that sticks out remains on yours. It is double thick and nailed back under the shingles.
Set your camera control for the real close up position. You will see a flower icon or something in the viewfinder to indicate the setting. Zoom in close but be careful that it is really in focus.
Stop down as much as you can, like f8 or f16. The depth of field becomes very shallow up close. Take a pic of that to show the builder.

An extra duty I had as a young base civil engineering officer many years ago taught me how to really see the details in something rather than the glance look that we all normally take.
I was stationed at a base that had become almost surrounded by the city and in those days some of the guys screwed up a few times and created sonic booms in the area. The locals found that if they filed a report that they had plaster damage from a sonic boom it would be investigated and perhaps receive compensation. As today, there were always those looking for a free prize. A few simple questions and a little close looking quickly separated the wheat from the chad. Of course we had records of when all the real times a boom happened. We usually started by complimenting the person on the great paint job and asked how long it had been that color. It was common for the ones trying to defraud your tax dollars to say, oh we painted it 3-5 years ago and love it. Then we would take out the magnifying glass and look at their cracks. Calling them over to look and asking why there was a different color of paint down in the crack closed the claim
In today's digital world it is so easy to record the before and after situation in home construction and other projects. The close up shots of stuff that gets covered up is what really brings home the bacon. Good luck on your meeting. It sounds like you are prepared.
Ron

 

[EddieWalker]

(It's time to get the power washer out again soon, lol).

A few years ago, This Old House did a show where they demonstrated how much damage power washing a house caused. First, no house is designed or capable of withstanding thousands of pounds of water pressure. They are built to keep out the rain and wind to a certain degree. The power washer destroys your seals. Things like caulking, paint and mortar come apart under the power of pressure washing. The water gets into the house framing and stays there for months. Mold grows, and water now has a path to get into the house when it rains, causing more problems.

To clean a hose, buy a quality house detergent. I prefer Zinsser products, but there are several good name brands at any home improvement store. Spray it on, let it sit, hose it off and scrub with a brush. Even doing it this way, you might have to go back and re caulk some of the places that you discover need attention or that came apart.

Eddie

 

[timster2]

I am by no means a pro builder, however, I am a bit of a geek in that I read the instructions before I start a project. I have sheetrocked a lot of walls and am now in the process of finishing a basement. When I looked at the initial pictures of the drywall installation I was struck by the lack of fasteners. I thought perhaps they were not finished but now that I see the first coat of joint compound it is apparent that they did not use the proper amount of fasteners as recommended by USG and others to put up the drywall.

From USG installation guide:
Apply panels horizontally or vertically to framing. If applied horizontally, install top row first. Position first panel tight against the installed ceiling panel and fasten to studs. Space nails maximum 8 apart along framing, screws 16 apart, starting in the center of the panel and working toward the perimeter.

I think one line of screws in the middle of the panel is not enough. There should be about 28+- screws per 4x8 panel if you follow the manufacturers recommendations/instructions.