At Home In The Woods

[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