At Home In The Woods

[eepete]

When you're in the thick of the "fog of construction", each day brings a $50 to $500 decision to make. And sooner than you think your budget cushion is wearing thin. So I'm just going to wish Obed the best of "luck" making these decisions and trade offs. I know he values the feedback, but only he is in the position to make the call.

Regarding this particular issue, I hope there is a window somewhere on the floor in question where a boom truck could deliver 4x8 sheets years down the road. Failing that, I hope there is some way to maneuver the sheets in later through the house. If there is, then the 7/16 is a fine choice and it saves money that will no doubt be needed later for things that will come up that are "now or never" decisions.

Obed, still liking the thread, loving the pix, and smiling because I now how nice it is to "get out of the mud" on a house project.

Pete

 

[dcyrilc]

When you're in the thick of the "fog of construction", each day brings a $50 to $500 decision to make. And sooner than you think your budget cushion is wearing thin. So I'm just going to wish Obed the best of "luck" making these decisions and trade offs. I know he values the feedback, but only he is in the position to make the call.

Regarding this particular issue, I hope there is a window somewhere on the floor in question where a boom truck could deliver 4x8 sheets years down the road. Failing that, I hope there is some way to maneuver the sheets in later through the house. If there is, then the 7/16 is a fine choice and it saves money that will no doubt be needed later for things that will come up that are "now or never" decisions.

Obed, still liking the thread, loving the pix, and smiling because I now how nice it is to "get out of the mud" on a house project.

Pete

Ditto here.
...and dying to hear the rest of the story about the eviction.

 

[Obed]

We really wish we didn't have to have any subflooring upstairs. I'd be happy with nothing but floor trusses up there. We have plenty of storage space in the basement. Main floor = 2100 SF. We expect we will eventually finish the basement for a mother-n-law suite. Potential basement living space = 1200 SF plus a single car garage and unfinished utility room/storage area. We don't need any more space. We want all our living space on one floor (i.e. ranch) even though the house looks like a 1 1/2 story house from the outside.

A ranch house has a large footprint and thus a large attic area. There is 1700 SF available in the "attic" that could be finished as living space. But we don't need or even want that space for living. In fact, we have changed some things so the tax appraisers don't call the attic "potential" living space and jack up our tax appraisal. We originally had plans for a nice staircase going from our foyer entrance to a door that would open into the unfinished attic. Unfortunately, if we put in the stairs, the tax folks will add 1700 SF to the recorded house square footage and increase our property taxes by 50%. So we are going install a wall to close up the area where the staircase would have gone. We can easily tear out the wall and put in a staircase later if we choose. We are installing pull-down steps in the garage ceiling for accessing the attic. I would love to have regular stairs to the attic but don't want the property tax increase.

The other factor to which I have previously alluded is the ability to have easy access to the area above the main floor ceiling. How would we blow the insulation over the main floor ceiling with 3/4" tongue-n-grove subflooring glued and screwed on top of it? Also, it's not fun to open up the ceiling sheetrock for repairs or to run wiring for things for which you didn't originally plan. Patching the ceiling frequently leaves visible marks. With the 7/16" OSB partially screwed down in the attic, we will have access to what ever we need. We can add wiring for surround sound in the living room, add a ceiling fan, run Cat 6 wiring, etc. whenever we choose.

Yes, we can get more 4x8 sheets of subflooring to the upstairs in the unlikely event that we finish the upstairs.

 

[mikefromnh]

Regarding the future stairs:

Have your or are you framing a closet where the stairs would be. You could put the door to the closet where the bottom of the 'stairs' land. Later on it is a simple matter to open the door, rip out the ceiling and frame the stairs.

You can never have enough storage! And walk up attic storage is a luxury. Makes being organized much easier.

It wasn't that long ago that it was common practice to sheet the whole house with 1/2", frame the interior and then double the ply where carpet or tile is going. Hardwood flooring (3/4" t+g) would go directly on the single layer of ply. That way all the floor heights would line up pretty well.

 

[grainger12002]

Obed
My best wishes and absolute good luck(!) with the decisions that come daily on your new home construction project. Not much to add as most has been said I just want to say good luck and try to enjoy the project. As with all things there are good and bad in every day,dwell on the good,dont let the GC or others wear on you.
All the best,stay warm and as close to budget as possible !!
From Eastern,CT

 

[nhkabotab7800]

Obed, in light of recent posts perhaps just a "Cat Walk" down the center? That would alow easy blow in insulation, and access later if needed, as well as saving some money on materials.

 

[Obed]

Obed, in light of recent posts perhaps just a "Cat Walk" down the center? That would alow easy blow in insulation, and access later if needed, as well as saving some money on materials.

A "cat walk" would have been great. However, the truss designer strongly recommended subflooring the entire attic for structural support. So that's the way we went.

Obed

 

[dcyrilc]

A "cat walk" would have been great. However, the truss designer strongly recommended subflooring the entire attic for structural support. So that's the way we went.

Obed

Pix? How's the weather been since the snow? Looks like the current storm's passing north of you.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I "stocked" some 5/16" osb in my attic when I built. I eventually spread them out, but they aren't nailed down so I can easily move them if I need to. I put about 4 sheets too many up there, they are sometimes in my way.

 

[2manyrocks]

I used to live in a house that had finished flooring in the center of the attic to make it easy to walk on, but nothing in the areas where the pitch of the rafter joists made it difficult to stand fully upright. It also had a nice finished wood staircase (built in a straight run, too) which always struck me as odd because the staircase wasn't really in a public area of the house. The house was built in the early 1900's when builders didn't try to squeeze staircases into compact sizes like today. The finished attic flooring wasn't of the same grade as the finished flooring on the main floor, however.

No one knows for sure which way this economy is headed. In the past, I'd have said advantech won't get any cheaper in the future. I think the day is quickly coming when the attic would make a good play space for your child. Then......