Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[pclausen]

You must have your internet fixed:dance1:

Lol, I wish. Still about a week or two out.

But I did get turned on to "EasyTether", which allows me to explore the USB diagnostic port on my Android phone and create a network connection to my computer. Yes, my phone has various Internet sharing options "out of the box", but those all require me to have a data sharing plan with my provide, which I do not have, and did not want to get for this temporary solution, but EasyTether was the perfect solution.

 

[wmonroe]

The garage will be insulated and have drywall put up. Wasn't planning on heating it, but maybe it would not be a bad idea to at least run a duct or two to it, and then just leave the vents closed? Would hardly add any cost I would think.

When I was building almost two years ago I wanted the builder to run a couple ducts to my attached garage which is also insulated and dry walled. He wouldn't do it though saying it was against code because exhaust fumes could travel through the ducting and into the rest of the house. I just trusted him and never checked with the inspector so I can't say if that is true or not.

 

[dave1949]

Pete,

How chilly do you think the garage would be without heat? Sometimes it's nice to have a area to keep things cooler than a typical basement, but never freezes. Oddball things like a place to hold plants dormant, store vegetables that will keep, etc.

I have Overhead Door's best insulated residential doors, I think that makes a big difference in heat loss in a garage. I'm sure other companies have equivalent or better insulated doors. To me they are worth the extra cost. It is colder here though.

 

[pacerron]

The garage will be insulated and have drywall put up. Wasn't planning on heating it, but maybe it would not be a bad idea to at least run a duct or two to it, and then just leave the vents closed? Would hardly add any cost I would think.

Everything is cheaper now than adding later. Perhaps a hot duct coming out the step up going into the mudroom. Add a dampener in the run back near where it leaves the trunk so you can really turn it off in addition to closing the vent. There will be enough leak at the garage door to negate any return requirement. It wouldn't be safe to have a return from a garage anyway as you could pull carbon monoxide into the cold air trunk return. You probably leave the HVAC blower on all the time so that should keep anything bad from sneaking back in the hot outlet, but you better investigate it well before doing. Another option would be separate radiant heating in the insulated garage if she ever wanted to use the space for hobbies. Good lighting now, regardless. Garages tend to accumulate trip hazards.
The basement with the windows in the NE end would make a good place as well. I had envisioned a glass double door there and making an excellent natural light studio.

 

[s219]

It's hard to be sure about anything these days, but they probably will use hangers.
The nails we see so far are just air gun spikes that will rust away. There are heavy coated nails for deck framing that really hold up well.

I am pretty sure hangers are required by code here in VA. They will likely put them on in the last step before the decking goes in. Normally they give that job to the "kid" or "gopher" on the crew to do at the end when the carpenters have moved on to something else.

Code in VA requires galvanized nails in salt-treated lumber, so those nails will do just fine.

I honestly would suggest not second guessing the builder/crew with their choice of fasteners. While I am sure some people frame with screws, that would be considered nuts around here, where we put framing together with the nail gun and then follow up with hangers. Screws are definitely preferred for decking, but not framing except in certain cases.

 

[aczlan]

Electrician will also run a conduit up inside the cimney frame for TV, Sattellite and Wireless Internet antenna runs. This will be much cleaner than running those on the outside. There will be a number of conduit drops into the basement from various places in the house for speaker, network and coax runs. Also, the electronics for the TV, whole house music and media sharing, will be recessed flush in the wall in the living room. Kinda a scaled down version of my system in the basement, which looks like this:

Very nice. How much power do you have running to there? I remember wiring in a 30 amp 120v drop for a media room on one house I worked on, was setup similar to yours.

Aaron Z

 

[pclausen]

I have Overhead Door's best insulated residential doors, I think that makes a big difference in heat loss in a garage. I'm sure other companies have equivalent or better insulated doors. To me they are worth the extra cost. It is colder here though.

I believe the garage doors will be R9 and the walls, being 2x6 with the same ~1.5" blow foam and the batts, will be the same as the rest of the house. Thinking about it some more, I feel not worrying about running HVAC duct's the the garage makes the most sense. The garage should stay "temperate" I think.

 

[EddieWalker]

I discussed that quite a bit with mom, and we decided not to do the lean to greenhouse so as to not complicate, and put at risk, getting the house done by 5/1. Besides, a 4x8 would be very small, but about all that would have worked on the deck. Instead, we will put in a free standing greenhouse sometime later, probably in the fall. So a pair of skylights are still a go. In fact, I spoke to the builder about that today, and he'll get those ordered to be sure they get installed before they start finishing the inside ceilings.

With all the talk about insulation that has gone on in this house, isn't it counter productive to put in skylights? I don't know of anything quite as bad for loss of energy then a big hole in the ceiling with no insulating properties. At least with windows, most of the energy is going up and held in place by the insulation in the attic, but when you put in a skylight, that just creates an open path for heat to leave or enter the house almost unrestricted.

While the light is nice, what you lose in energy, it's a lot cheaper to run a light all the time.

I've also found that there isn't any such thing as a skylight that doesn't leak. It's just a matter of when. You might get lucky and get 20 years out of it, but there are a lot of people out there who didn't get half that out of theirs. I know it's always blamed on the installation, but just the way they are designed leads them to failure over time. The more severe the environment, the sooner they fail.

Eddie

 

[pacerron]

With all the talk about insulation that has gone on in this house, isn't it counter productive to put in skylights? I don't know of anything quite as bad for loss of energy then a big hole in the ceiling with no insulating properties. At least with windows, most of the energy is going up and held in place by the insulation in the attic, but when you put in a skylight, that just creates an open path for heat to leave or enter the house almost unrestricted.

While the light is nice, what you lose in energy, it's a lot cheaper to run a light all the time.

I've also found that there isn't any such thing as a skylight that doesn't leak. It's just a matter of when. You might get lucky and get 20 years out of it, but there are a lot of people out there who didn't get half that out of theirs. I know it's always blamed on the installation, but just the way they are designed leads them to failure over time. The more severe the environment, the sooner they fail.

Eddie

I think the sun room in this house is an isolated entity with it's own heating zone according to the plan.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

With all the talk about insulation that has gone on in this house, isn't it counter productive to put in skylights? I don't know of anything quite as bad for loss of energy then a big hole in the ceiling with no insulating properties. At least with windows, most of the energy is going up and held in place by the insulation in the attic, but when you put in a skylight, that just creates an open path for heat to leave or enter the house almost unrestricted.

While the light is nice, what you lose in energy, it's a lot cheaper to run a light all the time.

I've also found that there isn't any such thing as a skylight that doesn't leak. It's just a matter of when. You might get lucky and get 20 years out of it, but there are a lot of people out there who didn't get half that out of theirs. I know it's always blamed on the installation, but just the way they are designed leads them to failure over time. The more severe the environment, the sooner they fail.

Eddie

Another great thing about skylights is when a strong wind gust blows one off. I had to repair my friends house as he was in Florida for a couple months. He has a lot of sky lights in his house and it is a constant battle keeping them from leaking but the best was when the wind blew the window off its frame. It was the back side of the house away from the prevailing winds so it was a freak thing but the mess is still the same. I like the light and such but their just not worth the hassles to me.