At Home In The Woods

[dave1949]

As or the BH when you get the concrete slab make a dolly for the BH. I have made dollys for all my stuff and man does it make it easy. For a BH I would either weld up one or bolt together some 4x4 timber and use nice 4" or larger casters. Just roll the implement over to the tractor and make all the small adjustments needed. I have one for my Bush Hog, 2 bottom plow, 6' disc, grader blade, 7' snow plow, FEL bucket, ect. Works great and saves your back and will keep your little one from learning a bunch of 4 letter words.

Chris

Equipment dollies are nice. With my subframe backhoe, I get close enough to it to connect the hydraulics, then use the bucket, dipper arm and stabilizers to get it into position. If done patiently at a low idle, it works. Biggest challenge I have is getting the weight balance correct to remove/insert the subframes pins easily. Almost always takes a few hammer hits for those.
Dave.

 

[nhkabotab7800]

Obed, lookin' good, real good!

Rember to not cover the weep holes in the first course of brick when you do your finish grading, allowing the wall to breath properly is imperative to a proper functioning wall, as is the proper thru wall flashing.

Also make sure flashing is corect at deck, these are areas that are often done incorrectly, and can cause major repairs years down the line.

 

[2manyrocks]

What are some tips for keeping his future brickwork from getting mud stained during construction?

 

[Coyote machine]

Dollies, we don't need no stinkin' dollies!
I suggest spending $20 apiece and buying premade 4 wheel dollies from H. Depot. They carry 1000lbs each and are cheaper than trying to buy the parts and build them your self.

And for termite protection at your foundation when you install your deck use this product:
York Shield 106 Copper wood frame flashing & TERMITE BARRIER. It is a 3oz./8"x20"
yorkmfg.com 800-551-2828

Oh, and while we're on the subject - your roof going slowly is not good. Your contractor should make it a top priority to get the roof completely sheathed at this point and sealed at the ridge too. Having felt paper on top of the sheathing as you currently have, without it covering the ridge is allowing water under the felt paper, and could be keeping the sheathing unnecessarily wet. Plus, it appears on the back side of the house they have covered part of the roof with sheathing, and some of it with felt paper!? That makes no sense. Finish sheathing the entire roof, then cover it with felt paper top to bottom and do the dormers too, with felt paper and Grace bithuthane (ice and water shield) in the valleys and the first few feet of the edge of the roof at the facia board area. The roof is NOT the place to economize on materials used and in the proper sequence. Go kick some contractor/roofer butt to get things moving in your best interest.
So see what you can do to move this up to top priority with your builder. The sooner you're closed in the better for all your structure below the roof as well as the roof itself. This is sort of a no-brainer that should be the contractor's top priority for you and any house being built by any contractor.

 

[Obed]

Obed, lookin' good, real good!

Rember to not cover the weep holes in the first course of brick when you do your finish grading, allowing the wall to breath properly is imperative to a proper functioning wall, as is the proper thru wall flashing.

Also make sure flashing is corect at deck, these are areas that are often done incorrectly, and can cause major repairs years down the line.

nhkabotab7800,
I have some questions.

1. Our house is on a slope like the majority of houses in our region (i.e. hilly). The brick ledges on our house are all below the final grade which means the 1st course of brick will be below grade. How should the weep holes be done in this case?

2. Also, could you explain what you mean by "thru wall flashing"?

3. What do you mean by "flashing at deck"?

Thanks for the comments.

Obed

 

[Obed]

Here's another question. We have some penetrations through through the poured concrete basement wall that are below grade for electrical, gas, and water. What needs to be done to prevent water from coming through these penetrations?

Thanks,
Obed

 

[eepete]

Where I had penetrations through the basement wall, when I backfilled I did it in layers and build up a "chimney" of pea gravel with layers of landscape fabric both around the chimney and covering it every 2 feet or so. That made sure that any water getting in there would drain down to the footer drains. The chimney stopped at the top penetration (lined them up vertically) and then put plastic over the top of the pea gravel.

The wall penetrations were PVC pipe put in with mortar (had pre-cast walls). Then coat with tar. Pipes and conduit came in, things were size so the gaps were small (.25 to .5"). Filled the gaps with spray foam, then capped both sides with RTV. So far, no leaks.

Pete

 

[buckeyefarmer]

What are some tips for keeping his future brickwork from getting mud stained during construction?

straw or landscape fabric around the foundation.

 

[mikefromnh]

Here's another question. We have some penetrations through through the poured concrete basement wall that are below grade for electrical, gas, and water. What needs to be done to prevent water from coming through these penetrations?

Thanks,
Obed

Hydraulic cement.

Use it to fill the voids around the pipes -- both inside and out. It expands as it drys. Mix only a little at a time, it sets up fast.

 

[nhkabotab7800]

Hey Obed,

I attached a couple of pictures that I hope will better explain what I am talking about... you know a thousand words...

In your case I would expect to see a brick shelf cast in place in your foundation, I believe you said that that is what you have. Determin what the distance is from the top of the brick shelf to the top of the foundation where your wood walls are resting. This will determin how many courses you can have burried. Normally if the first course or so of bricks are going to be burried you move the flashing that goes between the bricks up so that the weeps are not below grade. You need weeps at the top of the wall as well! The thru wall flashing as the picture shows is to allow water that will get through your wall to escape. I like to see the thru wall flashing come thru below the bottom of the wood wall sill plate. This is so that in case there is a back up of water you are more likely to not get any inside the house. The thru wall flashing should extend out past the front face of the brick by about 1/4 top 1/2 inch. A good mason will fill in between the brick and the foundation with mortar to create a solid surface to support the thru wall flashing. another important piece is the mortar net used behind the first couple of courses of brick that are on top of the thru wall flashing. this is used to make sure the mortar that falls between the brick and the wall does not plug up the weep holes and trap the water.

The flashing at the deck is to protect the ledger board and I think with the picture is pretty easy to understand.

I hope that helps and does not confuse further. i'm happy to answer any other questions you might have to the best of my ability.

remember that water and wood are a bad combination pay special attention to roof flashing and wall flashing this is an area that is typically over looked by the different trades as it really is a responsibility of more than on trade and so each assumes the other will do it. just make sure one of them does it.

think like water, and remember that capilary action can cause water to go up hill as well.

 

[firefighter9208]

Obed,

If your going to brick the house, the house needs to be bricked before the porches are built. That way the porches will be on the outside of the brick wall. You will just take a long masonary bit on a hammer drill and drill through the porch band 1 3/4" , brick (6" with air space") , band 1 3/4" on the floor joists and put in long bolts to hold the band of the porch to the side of the house. On our house the bolts were either 12" or 14" with washers and nut. I used an electric impact wrench to tighten them. My wife got in the crawlspace and put on the nuts and held the nuts with a wrench. I sinched them up tight and we were good to go.

Chris

 

[bdeboer]

Here's another question. We have some penetrations through through the poured concrete basement wall that are below grade for electrical, gas, and water. What needs to be done to prevent water from coming through these penetrations?

Thanks,
Obed

Our well driller typically uses bentonite for the water lines. The electric and gas are typically above grade due to the meter and regulator respectively. The rim joist is drilled for these connections.

 

[radioman]

Here's another question. We have some penetrations through through the poured concrete basement wall that are below grade for electrical, gas, and water. What needs to be done to prevent water from coming through these penetrations?

Thanks,
Obed

hydraulic cement in the elongnated holes and then tar around it.

 

[Obed]

Today work was done on framing the garage rafters. Also, supplies were delivered and placed in the garage instead of in the parking area in front of the garage. Yay! It has been getting old trying to keep the supplies from being put in the parking areas.

 

[Obed]

Thanks everyone for the input on weep holes, deck construction, and sealing hole penetrations. Lots of great ideas and food for thought. You guys are great. Tuesday we went and looked at some houses to check out the brick mason's work. We liked what we saw. I got to see weep holes and where they were located.

Today some guys from the gas company came by to talk to my wife about installing the vent pipe for the gas water heater that will be located in the basement. The wife doesn't want the vent pipe exiting the roof where it is visible from the front of the house. The gas co. guys said that they could not run the vent pipe to the roof on the back side of the house the way my wife wanted it. They said the horizonal run has to to rise 1/4" every foot. The pipe would only have to run horizontally for 10 feet in order to get the pipe to exit the roof on the back side of the house. We have 18" high trusses below the attic floor so we don't understand why they can't run the pipe that way. To run the pipe 10 feet, we only need 2.5" rise and we have 18" to play with minus the 4" pipe and 1" clearance on each side of the pipe. We suspect it's because we're dealing with gas co. workers (i.e. monopoly) who don't care about service. If they do the installation, they just want to run the pipe the quickest easiest way they can. We're going to talk to the H&A company and see if they will run the vent pipe the way we want it to be run.

 

[CurlyDave]

We're going to talk to the H&A company and see if they will run the vent pipe the way we want it to be run.

I hope you get it.

Our house is on a hill with the front door facing uphill, into a big old mountain and thousands of acres of BLM land, and the "nice" side faces downhill toward the view.

The guys who installed our attic fans told me how they took great pains to install them on the side opposite the front door, which of course is the "good" side of the house and the only one anyone ever sees.

I don't really care what the deer and the bear uphill look at. They went out of their way to do it wrong.

 

[dieselfreak]

Beautiful!!

df

 

[TBDonnelly]

I've seen roofing felt layout nice and flat, then if it's not shingled over the same day and gets rained on it'll 'wrinkle up' as it dries out. Some of the wrinkles telegraphing through once the shingles are installed. Any thoughts?

Don

 

[Bartcephus]

Obed, the house looks GREAT.... I'm sure it will look better when finished. I sure wish you could move that other (60 acre) tract of land down here to Texas because I would certainly try to snatch that up.

I don't know why your mechanical (H&A) contractor could not place that vent pipe for you on the back side of the house. Most of the homebuilders here do all the interior plumbing and vent lines. Gas company only "constructs" to the meter. They will however do more if contracted to do so. Talk to your H&A guys and see if they will take care of that for you in the contract price. I really don't see an issue with that unless the gas co. Will refuse to supply gas.

Best Wishes to you, Your wife and your newborn....

 

[EddieWalker]

On the bricks below grade. Don't do it. In fact, it's something that I've never heard of, so make sure that it's actually done there.

Mortor does not like moisture, and in ten years, it will soften on you if it stays wet. Sometimes it's longer, but it's always just a matter of time. Termites love it. As the mortar softens, it allows the termites access to behind the bricks, and then into the house. I can't even count how many times I've see this happen.

Never let dirt touch your bricks on your house. You always want to see the concrete under the bricks. This keeps the mortar dry, and it lets you see any termite tunnels going up the concrete to the mortar, where they will always get in.

Number one rule to keep termintes out, keed the dirt and mulch away from the bricks!!!!

Eddie