Our Home In The Woods!

[Country Geek]

Eddie, I didn't put anything in the attic... my house doesn't have any attics. The system is a split system, half outside and half under the house. Just had the ducts re-run so they come out in ceilings or walls near the ceilings. The lack of attic space in my house is one reason why I could only get about 1/2 the vents moved, btw.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Jack, here in Texas, you can buy land from about $5000/acre or more depending on how close to a large city.

The house costs about $900 per square meter or more depending on how nice you make the inside and outside.

So for about $150,000 to $250,000 you can have a nice place. It is standard to get a 30 year loan here.

 

[rustyshakelford]

I hate HVAC units in attics and found that when building my parents house, some refused to put it anywhere else. In my experience, you need to be able to inspect the unit every month just to know if there are any issues, plus pour bleach down the drain line and change the filter. If it's in the attic, it rarely gets checked until there is a leak in the ceiling under it. Framing is rarely added to support the weight and they usually place the unit where it's easy for them, and not supported by a wall or additional joists. Worse of all is that it's impossible to get to one in the attic and not disturb the insulation.

As for the bracing to support the roof, more is better and opening up areas in an attic requires trusses or beams, which means more money!!! For an attic and roof system to work properly, it should be left alone and not modified at any time. I make a lot of money fixing others modifications, and getting a house back to where it was before. If your framers know what they are doing, every board is there for a reason!!!

Why do you want space in your attic? If you are thinking of storage, will it be above the insulation or are you foaming the rafters and insulation the entire building? People tend to think of an attic as a great place to put stuff, but don't understand that they are adding a lot of weight on top of some 2x6 joists that are just strong enough to hold the sheetrock up on the ceiling and the insulation in place. You would never use 2x6's for floor joists with spans from wall to wall, yet they think that thousands of pounds of "stuff" is just fine up there.

And the worse place is over the garage, where the spans are the greatest. The bigger the span, the weaker it is in the middle of that span. If you are wanting that for a storage area, you need to let the framers know and spend the money to have to install the beams to support the weight of what you want up there. What will you attach the lift to? I'm hoping you are not thinking the rafters. There needs to be a beam that is supported by posts that go down to concrete for a concentrated load.

It's all doable, you just have to let those doing the building and calculating the design what it is you want to do, and then pay for what it takes to make that happen.

Eddie

Thanks for the input. It makes sense now it's explained. I wish we had has the forethought to add a staircase so we would have the ability down the road to finish out the upstairs. It's huge and just feels like a waste of space with how the joist supports are done. I hear you learn things from every house you build and this is definitely one of those things!

Brett

 

[rustyshakelford]

Pics from today.

Brett

 

[farmer2009]

Going to be a nice house. One thing I seen in your last pictures maybe it's just the angle. But your roof dormer is going to drain water right down the side of the chimney. That will be hard on the brick and I be leave it will cause you water issues.

 

[rustyshakelford]

Going to be a nice house. One thing I seen in your last pictures maybe it's just the angle. But your roof dormer is going to drain water right down the side of the chimney. That will be hard on the brick and I be leave it will cause you water issues.

They are very close to each other. I'll bring it up to the builder and find out his plan of action to ensure no water intrusion. Thanks for that input! When we went out yesterday they weren't taping the windows and just covered them up with siding. No telling what else they are going to try and pull when nobody is out there.

Brett

 

[Sigarms]

I hate HVAC units in attics and found that when building my parents house, some refused to put it anywhere else. In my experience, you need to be able to inspect the unit every month just to know if there are any issues, plus pour bleach down the drain line and change the filter.

No one ever seems to plan for HVAC systems.

Right now the biggest issue with units in the attic is width of the air handler and or furnace compared to SEER rating.

Most attics have a max of 21" in width on a drop stair case to work with to get equipment up there.

Next year, in 2015, the minimum SEER rating is going to be 14 SEER.

The higher the SEER usually means more surface area on the coil, which means a larger coil, which means larger equipment to go in the attic.

Long story short, people are having to do some major wood work to get equipment where it needs to go.

 

[bindian]

Thanks for the link Brett. Guess I'm gonna have to come over and see it now.
hugs, Brandi

 

[rustyshakelford]

Made some progress. Rough in plumbing is complete. Electrical and roofing started today. Beginning to look like a home. Getting excited to get some paint on the Hardi too. Framers put Hardi on places that were supposed to be rocked. That should be getting fixed soon!

Brett

 

[Pixguy]

Looking good Brett, what areas are getting rocked? (stucco I assume?)