Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[dave1949]

Probably a bad description. I'll post a pic later.

I think I can picture it.

There would be two lengths of angle iron, both parallel to the door rail. They would be bolted to the two trusses that bracket the end of the door rail. One of those angle irons would be directly above the rail, the second one would be offset outside the door rail by the length of the base of the triangle.

The vertical angle irons carrying the door rail would be attached--one to each ceiling bolted angle irons. The ceiling provides the third leg of that triangle.

 

[Gudor]

Gudor,
I can not say for sure how they did the finish but i THINK they just ran the power trowels on the floor more times then needed. Around here i know it as a "burnt" finish. I would say they ran the trowel about 2-3 more times after what you would think of as a normal finish. Also most guys have a set of rough blades and finish blades for there machines. Switching to the finish blades to give a better finish.Just remember the more times you run it the slicker the finish gets. Hope this helps.:drink:

Plus the over finish brings too much cream ( sand and concrete ) to the surface which is not very strong/durable.
Be sure to use sealer if this is done or you may get crumbling/spalling of the surface, even on inside floors.
Sealer is like paint, it has to be redone as time goes on.:thumbdown:

Thank you both, and Peter to for your response, I think I may ask for the 'burnt' or slightly over finish (show them a picture of Peter's and say, 'I want this.')...even if it is slick when wet, dangerous, maybe, but so much easier to keep clean. Makes sense it could get too weak from over-troweling...maybe I will throw some colorant/hardener down after the initial floating to help with that.

Thanks again, and Peter, yes, I would like to know the product they used if possible.

 

[MarkV]

Thank you both, and Peter to for your response, I think I may ask for the 'burnt' or slightly over finish (show them a picture of Peter's and say, 'I want this.')...even if it is slick when wet, dangerous, maybe, but so much easier to keep clean. Makes sense it could get too weak from over-troweling...maybe I will throw some colorant/hardener down after the initial floating to help with that.

Thanks again, and Peter, yes, I would like to know the product they used if possible.

My In Laws have a highly polished, best word I can think of, concrete car port and it is down right dangerous when damp from condensation. Reminds me of ice skating as a kid in Illinois. Being in Washington you might want to consider that.

MarkV

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I think I can picture it.

There would be two lengths of angle iron, both parallel to the door rail. They would be bolted to the two trusses that bracket the end of the door rail. One of those angle irons would be directly above the rail, the second one would be offset outside the door rail by the length of the base of the triangle.

The vertical angle irons carrying the door rail would be attached--one to each ceiling bolted angle irons. The ceiling provides the third leg of that triangle.

you could save a piece by lining them up better, but this is how I normally see it done.

 

[pclausen]

Just got back from overseeing the granite counter tops being installed. It was a mixed experience. Let me start with the "daytime" pics.

The full dumpster was removed this morning. Looks much better. The crew took it upon themselves to straw the area. Nothing wrong with that, but it will make it harder for me to rake it out and make it nice and level.

Grass continues to come in nicely. Had a lot of rain tonight, so the trend should continue.

They leveled the dirt in the corner of the parking area, but again, very roughly.

All the steps are filled with brown stone

Shot from under the chimney. The 2 red arrows point to 2x12s that extend from the inside

Here they are again from the inside

They added blocking to the railing posts, which made them much stiffer, but they are still attached with lag bolts.

Painters prepping the railing for painting. Not sure how well this is going to hold up...

Prepping inside for painting as well. I hope they are just getting started and this is not what they will paint over...

Closeup of exterior trim by the front door. Not sure any amount of caulking is going to make this look good...

These next pics are from my cell phone at around 10:30pm when the granite crew left. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out actually.

Red arrow is where the seam is.

The "bookshelf" wall. Shelves will go on top of the counter top, and an granite extension will be added below at 30".

The bad news is that the 19x19x10 sink for the mud room would not fit in the standard counter top depth, so a last minute call was made at 8:35 for the builder to run to Lowe's and pick up the next smaller size. He barely made it there before closing, and returned with a 14x14x6 bar sink. So that's what was cut out and installed. Not sure how useful that will be as a mud room sink. The other issue with this sink is that it is a 2 hole, not a 3 hole which is the Delta faucet that was purchased for this location. Hopefully the plumber will be able to cut the sink for 3 holes.

The granite in the bathrooms tuned out nice, but the issue here is that the drop in sinks are all 3 hole, and we got these nice single hole faucets. They do come with a cover plate for 3 hole installation, but it barely covers the outer holes, in fact it might be ever so slightly shy of doing so. It would have looked much cleaner to have single hole drop in sinks...

Plumber will be here 1st thing tomorrow, so there is little/no time to investigate if 1 hole versions of those sinks can be had. Real bad planning on the part of the builder if you ask me. I told him which faucets we wanted months ago. I even specifically told him they are single hole.

Oh well, I guess it will all work out in the end... Cutting over utilities and movers have already been scheduled at this point, so I guess we'll just have to make the best of it...

 

[srs]

They added blocking to the railing posts, which made them much stiffer, but they are still attached with lag bolts.

The posts need to be bolted. Bolt, then washer, wood, another washer, then the nut.

Painters prepping the railing for painting. Not sure how well this is going to hold up...

As I previously mentioned the railing needs to be reinforced to prevent serious injury should your mom, her friends, etc. lean against the railing and it separates from the posts. The railing is only attached to the posts by nails that are toe nailed to the posts. This is a very weak area and a disaster waiting to happen.

Closeup of exterior trim by the front door. Not sure any amount of caulking is going to make this look good...

Wow!

The bad news is that the 19x19x10 sink for the mud room would not fit in the standard counter top depth He barely made it there before closing, and returned with a 14x14x6 bar sink.

Oh well, I guess it will all work out in the end... Cutting over utilities and movers have already been scheduled at this point, so I guess we'll just have to make the best of it...

Here are two pics of our sink in the laundry room. A 14 x 14 BAR sink is useless for a mud room!

 

[pclausen]

Took some pics this morning of the mudroom and bath sink issues.

Bar sink in mud room

The faucet is way too big for it I think

This is the sink that was supposed to go here. It will fit in the cabinet fine, but the front edge of the granite would be too thin

The real fix would have been to make the granite counter top wider in the first place. There is plenty of room to have done that and the washer and dryer will come out further anyway. I'll see what mom has to say. They will likely need to go back and redo this after final.

3 hole vanity sink

Nice 1 hole faucet

Cover plate that will barely cover the outer holes

 

[pacerron]

While the garage door track won't move they way they did it, it looks terrible. They should have spanned the two nearest trusses with angle iron ran parallel to the track, then put the cross angle iron between those two, directly above the hole at the end of the track, then hang straight down.
Good job on moving the dumpster.

Buckeyefarmer,
Thanks for posting your picture last night.
My error, I was reading just the first part of your sentence which sounded like only one piece running parallel above the rail.
Your way is fine on an open ceiling.
I would probably still do it the other way as a fix to Peters hangers. To span the trusses and have holes
in the center of his 1-1/2" width trusses he would need 4 new lengths at least 25-1/2" or more of the angle, depending on whether the trusses are set right or not.
With plasterboard under the screws and the head of the bolt holding the down brackets on the ceiling side of the angle, the head would either hold the piece
in a sway with the ceiling or cut into the PB. In either case, if the nut ever needed tightening the piece would have to come down to get a wrench on it.
The way his is attached to the ceiling now, at least the angle against the ceiling has full support from the truss above it.
Thanks again for posting.
Ron

 

[srs]

Peter, I forgot to mention I would put down some cardboard, then perhaps a thin sheet of plywood, some leftover drywall, a heavy blanket, whatever you might have and cover the granite. That way when the upper cabinets are installed in the kitchen the granite and sink will be protected from damage in case a hammer, drill, etc. is accidentally dropped on it. Stanley

 

[jdonovan]

I really don't think that bar sink is going to cut it as a util room sink. If they need to re-do the granite to fit the right sink, then make them.

you can live without the util sink for a few weeks while they make it right.