At Home In The Woods

[nhkabotab7800]

Obed,

tell him to rent some putlogs ( i just like saying that word ) :laughing:

 

[shane]

Obed,

tell him to rent some putlogs ( i just like saying that word ) :laughing:

Agreed. If the Egyptians could build the pyramids surely he (the bricklayer) can work around that porch. Goodness.... that porch isn't even worth mentioning. Some of the subs I work around find the silliest "problems".

 

[Obed]

Agreed. If the Egyptians could build the pyramids surely he (the bricklayer) can work around that porch. Goodness.... that porch isn't even worth mentioning. Some of the subs I work around find the silliest "problems".

Shane,
I think the size of the porch shown in the picture is deceptive. The porch is 16' wide and 6' deep.



I did a search for putlogs on the internet but didn't understand exactly how that kind of scaffolding would work on our house.

How would a brick mason set up his scaffolding to put brick above this porch. This area of the house is almost 3 stories high.

Thanks for the suggestions,
Obed

 

[Amiigan]

Heh, nice

 

[srs]

Just a thought, wouldn't it be easier (and better) to take the porch down, install the brick, then reattach the porch?

 

[PAGUY]

I agree w/ Stanley.

 

[Obed]

Just a thought, wouldn't it be easier (and better) to take the porch down, install the brick, then reattach the porch?

The porch has already been taken down and rebuilt once. I hesitate rebuild it again due to structural stress on the house caused by tearing out stuff and re-doing it. The first time the porch roof was built, where the porch tied into the house at the porch ends, they cut into the overlapping top plates of the basement exterior walls at the corners. They also had forgotten to account for the brick; there was no space to lay the brick between the porch roof and the wall. So the porch had to be completely taken apart and rebuilt. There is now a 6 inch gap between the wall and the porch roof for the brick. At that time, we also had them lower the porch roof a foot because we didn't like how close the top of the porch roof was to the main floor windows above the porch.

The back porch was the only significant problem we noticed with the new framer and he quickly took care of the problem. Yes, I wish the basement porch was not yet installed...

 

[srs]

The porch has already been taken down and rebuilt once. I hesitate rebuild it again due to structural stress on the house caused by tearing out stuff and re-doing it. Yes, I wish the basement porch was not yet installed...

I really question the thought of supporting the brickwork from the porch roof up. There is a lot of weight that will be resting on some type of metal brick ledge which will be attached to the house. I again repeat my opinion and suggest removing the porch (as one unit laying it down on the ground) and bring brick up from the CONCRETE brick ledge. Your carpenters can mark the areas on the house where bolts (not lag bolts) will exit the house and ledger boards can be bolted directly to the house overtop of the brick. The porch can then be tilted back up into place and bolted to the house. I think this would be very strong and tie everything together. Perhaps Eddie can chime in on this one, he is very knowledgeable regarding building homes.

 

[Pops15]

There should be a steel lintel to carry the bricks above the 1st floor (basement) windows and below 2nd (main) floor windows. That really isn't that much weight. Note the gang of windows on the 2nd floor. There will be another lintel above those windows. and yet another above the 3rd floor windows.
Even if the porch roof was removed, the weight would still be carried on steel lintels which in turn will be carried by the bricks on either side of the openings.
Lintels aren't usually fastened to the framing.
The roof being there has no effect on how the weight of the bricks is carried.

 

[Obed]

I really question the thought of supporting the brickwork from the porch roof up. There is a lot of weight that will be resting on some type of metal brick ledge which will be attached to the house. I again repeat my opinion and suggest removing the porch (as one unit laying it down on the ground) and bring brick up from the CONCRETE brick ledge. Your carpenters can mark the areas on the house where bolts (not lag bolts) will exit the house and ledger boards can be bolted directly to the house overtop of the brick. The porch can then be tilted back up into place and bolted to the house. I think this would be very strong and tie everything together. Perhaps Eddie can chime in on this one, he is very knowledgeable regarding building homes.

The brick will not be supported by the porch roof. There is a 6" gap between the porch roof and the house wall. There are some 2x's spaced 16" O.C. going through the wall sheathing that tie the porch to the house framing. The brick will laid around the 2x's and continue up the wall. The brick above the porch will be supported by brick from the footer up to the main floor windows. Above the windows, brick will be supported by a lintel that sits on brick on either side of the windows as Pops described. A picture would be helpful but I don't have a close-up of the porch framing. Pops is correct; the porch has no bearing on how the bricks are supported. We have had discussions with several different people with framing experience regarding how to tie the back porch to the house taking the brick into account.

The issue we face at this point is not about how to support the brick or tie the roof to the house through/around the brick. The issue in question is how does the brick layer set up his scaffolding so he can lay the brick above the height of the porch roof? The brick mason said he intends to set up his scaffolding on top of the porch roof; he wants the framer to beef up the porch supports so the porch roof will support the scaffolding.

Obed

 

[Obed]

The past couple of weeks, we've had several people look at our Cumberland Plateau property that we have up for sale. Warm weather seems to have brought out the property shoppers. Since we had a baby and the wife is staying at home, our priorities have shifted so it would be really nice to sell the plateau property. Some parts of me will hate to let the property go. We bought the property because we love the outdoors. A lot of the people who have looked at the property are hunters. Catoosa Wildlife Management Area is walking distance from the property. Catoosa WMA consists of thousands of acres of managed forest; they have scheduled hunts but you have to be picked in a lottery in order to hunt there. So there's lots of wildlife. Our property has gets the spillover of wildlife and would be a paradise for a hunter. The property has lots of deer, wild turkey, foxes, and otters. Here are a few pictures.

The creek.

Small waterfall.

The big water fall.

The river.

Another section of the creek.

 

[nhkabotab7800]

Obed,

call a scafolding comany and ask about Putlogs they come in a few different sizes, I have used them up to 20'. that is about the max, but should work for your 16' porch.

it really is the easiest answer to take care of scafolding issue over your porch, they attatch easily to the scafolding framing and then you simmply keep going with the next level of scafolding. kinda supprised the brickies do not know of them...

seems to me that it would be the least expensive way to answer your problem.

 

[mikefromnh]

Pops has got it right -- lintels are required anyways every so many feet anyways -- you could not go 3 floors straight up without steel lintels re-supporting the brick. Usually its just a piece of angle iron bolted to the house and hidden in the mortar joint.

I'd tell the sub to get over it -- he should have the scaffolding and ladders necessary. AT most I'd put a couple more posts up and maybe some temporary cross bracing. But that is doing the sub a favor.

 

[Obed]

Pet Door
We want to have the option to put in a pet door so the cat (and maybe small dog) can come in the house and leave the house at will. Has anyone done this? We will need to frame an opening before the brick installation begins.

Obed

 

[Wood_Butcher_Dav]

What about putting it in a door? The door off our utility room is foam core steel that has no storm door that works great for us. No cat litter box in house .

Dave

 

[mikefromnh]

Pet Door
We want to have the option to put in a pet door so the cat (and maybe small dog) can come in the house and leave the house at will. Has anyone done this? We will need to frame an opening before the brick installation begins.

Obed

You can put it in a steel panel door. Done it many times.

Also there are now storm doors available that come with a pet door already installed.

 

[brin]

Obed...at this point after all the time you have been building this house, if I were you I would concentrate on wrapping it up...get er done ! and worry about these little things later, you have got to be tired of this by now..

 

[mikefromnh]

Obed...at this point after all the time you have been building this house, if I were you I would concentrate on wrapping it up...get er done ! and worry about these little things later, you have got to be tired of this by now..

How's the budget doing anyways?

Do the quotes you got from builders seem so high still?

 

[woodlandfarms]

IMO, the dog door is a sticky wicket. You say you want it for a cat or small dog. Get either, and you will want a large dog in short order. And then the dog door does not work.

If I had the luxury of making an opening for a dog door, I would size it for a large door and then put in a "plug" to size it for smaller.

One big thing, whereever you put a dog door expect a serious amount of dirt and dust. My dog door in LA is in my office. I am constantly picking dog hair out of the computers, and dealing with the dust that comes in.

Put a dog door somewhere out of the way.

One last thought, you might want the door to open into some sort of a dog run.

Carl

 

[PAGUY]

Obed - You may want to think twice about that when living so close to the woods. Critter like skunks and raccoons have been known to use them looking for food. Big enough and small skinny burglars can squeeze thru them and gain entry to your house.

Owning pets is a commitment that requires making sure you care for their personal needs no matter what time of day it is.

My neighbor installed one in his basement door and so far has been visited with a skunk and other neighbors cats helping themselves to his cat's food.