Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[FairfaxStu]

Wow. Thanks for all of your replies. Seems like the consensus is that I need to add sophit vents. I just did a temperature check using my hand held infrared thermometer. The readings are as follows:

In attic: 134 degrees
In house: 79 degrees
Outside: 99 degrees

Note that these temp readings are most likely higher than reality but I wanted to use the same device to measure all of them. As such, the relative scale should be accurate. My ductwork is fully insulated with no leaks but it has to run through the +130 degree attic. I am thinking that if I can get the attic temp down by 10-20 degrees somehow, I would save a bunch of $$$. Are sophit vents the best way to start and then gable fans later or???
-Stu

 

[Dr Dave]

Add soffit vents and block off the gable vents, they will disrupt the natural airflow, from soffit to the ridge vents. There will he no need for the attic fan.

I reroofed my rental last winter and installed ridge vent, I had a roof fan, I left it in because it was only 6 months old. I covered all the other roof vents holes. The fan has only run a few times this season, it ran all afternoon and into the night last season. I did already have soffit vents.

When I was roofing at 30 to 45 degrees, the amount of heat that came out of the ridge vents was amazing. It was a noticeable air flow.

The ac has run much less and the renter turns it off , on days with lower humidity.

Dave

 

[Dr Dave]

Add soffit vents and block off the gable vents, they will disrupt the natural airflow, from soffit to the ridge vents. There will he no need for the attic fan.

I reroofed my rental last winter and installed ridge vent, I had a roof fan, I left it in because it was only 6 months old. I covered all the other roof vents holes. The fan has only run a few times this season, it ran all afternoon and into the night last season. I did already have soffit vents.

When I was roofing at 30 to 45 degrees, the amount of heat that came out of the ridge vents was amazing. It was a noticeable air flow.

The ac has run much less and the renter turns it off , on days with lower humidity.

Dave

 

[pacerron]

Stu,
The soffit vents will also be beneficial to your roofing system in the winter by helping eliminate frost and moisture damage to the inside of your roof sheathing. A lot of the newer roofing with the acclaimed 30-50 year life spans are very specific about proper ventilation and air flow under the roof.
As far as your statement, " I am thinking that if I can get the attic temp down by 10-20 degrees somehow, I would save a bunch of $$$"
You can conjecture that you will, but there are really too many variables in the weather from year to year and variables in household activity to prove it.
Do some readings with your IR thermometer while we are in this heat wave around your doors, windows, and outside wall electric outlets,
as well as a reading of the room your thermostat is in at ceiling and floor levels. If you want to save some $$$ on your AC bill seal the windows, doors, and outlets from outside air intrusion and close the blinds/drapes over windows/doors during the daytime during a heat spell.
Clean any leaves or debris from your outside unit and clean/replace the filter often on the inside air handler. Since your unit is in the ceiling the return duct probably has a filter above the grid.
Those of us who spend a lot of time outdoors really don't like it too cold in the house. What we appreciate is the low humidity for comfortable sleeping at night. We run our thermostat at 77 deg. with the variable speed air handler fan constantly on; which is plenty cold for us.
You have a consensus of TBN opinions so now it is time for you to take action, and for me to head out to mow another 10 acres in this 94 deg heat.
Ron

 

[FairfaxStu]

Thanks Dr. Dave and Ron.

Just to clarify, my unit is in a utility closet in my laundry room. Only my ductwork is in the attic, thank goodness. Ron you may remembering one of old posts where I said I used to have an oil furnace in the attic that worked fine except for when it really cold outside (i.e., when you really need it).

On the subject of sophit vents, consider me a total idiot. How are those typically retrofitted to a house that does not have them? My spophits plywood wrapped with vinyl. Obviously, a person would need to cut through both and shift the attic insulation to make it work. Would we be talking about removing the vinyl part, cutting holes and then replacing the vinyl with something vented or is there a more elaborate or better solution?
-Stu

 

[ljnelson109]

Thanks Dr. Dave and Ron.

Just to clarify, my unit is in a utility closet in my laundry room. Only my ductwork is in the attic, thank goodness. Ron you may remembering one of old posts where I said I used to have an oil furnace in the attic that worked fine except for when it really cold outside (i.e., when you really need it).

On the subject of sophit vents, consider me a total idiot. How are those typically retrofitted to a house that does not have them? My spophits plywood wrapped with vinyl. Obviously, a person would need to cut through both and shift the attic insulation to make it work. Would we be talking about removing the vinyl part, cutting holes and then replacing the vinyl with something vented or is there a more elaborate or better solution?
-Stu

I added them to a house once. I thought it would be a dreadful task. It turned out to be fairly easy they way I did it. I went to HD and found white aluminum vents. They were approximately 6 X 12. They had a integrated nylon mesh screen. Every few feet, I marked an opening a bit smaller than the screen. I used a speed bore bit on 2 corners and cut the opening with a sawsall. It really went fast. With an opening that large, it was fairly easy to reach up and push the insulation back. I used screws to attach the screens to the existing wood. In my case, the sophit was tongue and groove pine. I can't imagine that plywood would offer any more resistance. The finished product looked nice. I paid attention to the way I faced the louvers so that the opening was against the house. They really just disappeared into the sea of white that was already there. Also, I did not stress about hitting a rafter.

In that house, I did not have a ridge vent and was installing a forced fan near the peak. The fan had a rated intake area in square inches. I added attempted to install about 150% of the requested area since I knew I would lose some flow depending on how close I cut the openings and how well I moved the insulation. I your case, if you find a vent that you are willing to look at, I would buy a stack and start installing. Every one that you install will improve the situation. Sorry, no pictures, this was almost 20 years ago....

Lee

 

[GLyford]

If it already has vinyl, another way to do it would be to pop off the existing vinyl, and make 2 parallel rips down the length of the plywood, maybe 2 or 3" apart, then pry out the middle piece. Use the opening to push back the insulation. Then replace the vinyl using the perforated version. I could see color match being an issue. I also don't know if you'd have to do the whole length or could get away with doing about half or a third of area, and cutting larger openings in the ply.

When my house was reroofed last, they just used round "pop in" vents pushed into holesaw cutouts, but I'm thinking of changing them out for something else, as they used the smallest (cheapest) ones they could find. They make a continuous strip vent that screws into a 2" or maybe 1-1/2" slot, down the length of the soffit, but since you already have vinyl I suspect that would be much easier to change out, once you have some sort of opening behind it in the ply.

 

[pacerron]

Thanks Dr. Dave and Ron.

Just to clarify, my unit is in a utility closet in my laundry room. Only my ductwork is in the attic, thank goodness. Ron you may remembering one of old posts where I said I used to have an oil furnace in the attic that worked fine except for when it really cold outside (i.e., when you really need it).

On the subject of sophit vents, consider me a total idiot. How are those typically retrofitted to a house that does not have them? My spophits plywood wrapped with vinyl. Obviously, a person would need to cut through both and shift the attic insulation to make it work. Would we be talking about removing the vinyl part, cutting holes and then replacing the vinyl with something vented or is there a more elaborate or better solution?
-Stu

Stu,
I'm back already. I was getting a low diesel light on the tractor so that's my excuse. Headed back to the barn and put in 20 some gallon,
greased the mower, and headed for the shower. They say it feels like over 100 here so the field can wait till evening or even tomorrow
Nelson 109 is telling you how to do it. Go shopping to see what grids with screen backing are available. Get big ones that will fit your soffit depth and between the ceiling joist/trusses. The plywood soffit material was usually recessed up an inch or so depending on how wide the board is behind your spouting. There may be a gap between the plywood surface and the back of the added vinyl but that's not a problem. Just buy a grid and install it somewhere easy to see what is going on. You might have to buy longer screws. Just snug the grid up to the vinyl so it doesn't depress it. You could make a template out of a piece of scrap that goes back against the siding so you don't have to keep measuring for every grid.

We don't know the pitch of your roof, the color, or if it is in the concrete jungle or suburbs.
It would be interesting to have Peter do similar temperature readings above his mom's ceiling as a comparison in her rural environment. The way he likes data readouts he may even already have a remote sensor installed in her attic space. He does have a hatch, for sure, where he could lay a thermometer and close the hatch a few minutes before reading a thermometer.
Ron

 

[pacerron]

Thanks, Ron. I think my roof pitch is 12+/-6. I have attached an architectural drawing that they used when building the addition for further clarification. Basically, the goal was to match the ridge height to the original house.
-Stu

Stu,
Your house would be a good, above ceiling, temperature comparison with Peter's moms house.
You have a dark roof, some trees around the perimeter, and some suburb space with grass.
The little gable vents are too small and too high to do much good.
With your house front facing primarily north the heat gain through the windows should not be significant since it appears
you do use indoor shades
Soffit vents will be your best way to go IMO.
See my PM.
Ron

 

[FairfaxStu]

Thanks for keeping me honest, Ron. I followed your advice as per the PM.

I upgraded all of the windows and doors to the latest (at the time, about 10 years ago) most energy efficient that I could find. However the old part of the house still has little to no wall insulation for the most part. As you probably noted, my house does not have a basement but has a crawl space. It is a conditioned space meaning that it has insulation on the walls and several ducts for heating and cooling (no returns, however). The biggest advantage for that I have seen is in heating as it did dramatically drop the rate that my propane furnace runs. However, cooling is not so good. I guess I will have to give my contractor a call and give him a little bit of sh** for not doing this in the first place.

Just so we are all on the same page, I should comission him to create sophit vents and block off the gable vents, right?
-Stu

 

[s219]

Some good suggestions already, and I will add another option -- using a hole saw or chisel bit to drill holes in the soffit within each rafter cavity. You can then apply pre-fab vent grills or any other solutions to cover the holes. I think they even make round aluminum vent grilles that are made to pop into round soffit vent holes -- if you can find those and get a matching chisel bit, you're all set! Just drill your way down the soffit and pop the vents in the holes.

We have hidden "soffit" vents in my new house which has rafter tails exposed and no upper fascia or soffit. There are three or four 1-1/4" holes drilled into each rafter cavity through the lower fascia boards between rafter tails, with screen stapled over. Then cobra mesh placed over that and a trim board covers the mesh with 1/2" nailing spacers to maintain a gap. The actual inlet is then in a slot at the bottom of the fascia, right above the siding (which partially tucks in the slot).

So the soffit vents don't have to be huge individually. It's in the aggregate that you get flow going.

 

[Don87]

Stu, This is what they are talking about: S-168, White, Soffit Vent, With 1/8" Mesh, 58 SQIN Free Area. - product summary - Bing Shopping

This is just an example, as other styles are available(some as low as 4 bucks each), and super easy to install.

 

[pclausen]

Hi guys. Sorry for the long absence, but as Stu mentioned, things have been pretty slow lately due to rain, miserable hot and humid temps, and other work and family obligations.

The other issue is that the stone guy has been MIA for weeks now, so I decided to hang the gates myself so that the deer fence could be completed. I had to correct for the block columns not being plum in any directions. Turned out pretty well though. The gates are true to each other to about a 1/16".

I have clamps holding the top block on the right column until I put in rebar and fill the columns with cement.

A couple of shots from the inside looking out. The left column (in this shot), will be have some cap block added to match the height of the right column.

Part of the deer fence

Shed is done, just need ridge cap and paint at this point.

Started a little on the final landscaping using rocks from around the property.

Got my trailer cleaned up now that it's done with its logging duty for the time being. That little Ford 1700 was barely able to move it around, after all, that trailer weigh more than twice what it does, empty. I did make sure the GN was locked onto the 2 5/16" ball more moving it.

Before:

After:

 

[jdonovan]

if its a slow period and you have some time, it might be interesting to hear your reflections back over the whole of the project.

What you learned in the process, what you would do different, what came out just as expected etc...

 

[pacerron]

Peter,
It looks like the swing pin brackets are bolted through the gate frame so there is no vertical adjustment without drilling new holes?
What about frost-heave down there? Up here that would not be enough clearance from the gate to the gravel in the winter.
For security of the gate, itself, you might want to turn the top swing pin down on each side. That way the bad guys would have to
spend time unbolting the the brackets before grabbing the gate, which is a little deterrent.
Ron

 

[pclausen]

Ron, I though about turning the upper pins down, but it would have made adjustments a real pain. Besides, there is a pedestrian gate within 20 ft with no means of locking, so securing the main gate would not have added much deterrent effect anyway. Also, I'll likely add motion activate web cams at some point.

There is a slot and a hole on the brackets that mount on the gate. The is maybe 1/8" worth of play in the hole if needed down the road. Being aluminum, the gates are very light for their size.

Picked up the 52 bags yesterday

Unloading

A little more landscaping was also done yesterday

Both columns poured. You can just make out the rebar sticking out the top

Used 12" all-threads in the sides that was bent and inserted into the columns before the pour

Top of one of the columns. No point is filling the center. It should be plenty strong as is.

Had a few left over bags. That trusty Husky mixer is still going strong after what must be close to 1000 bags having been mixed in it at this point.

 

[mjarrels]

I'm just accross the mountion... stone work is not that hard. Brick lock type S. Just wait for a cooler day. A few sticks to hold stones in place until the cure. I did my entire basement and front/side of the house by myself. Probably saved $14.000 dollars. Worst part... nobody told me about coners stones.

mark

 

[pacerron]

Peter,
The security I was referring to was about keeping your 2k$ gates from being lifted off the pins and gone in a few seconds.

 

[FairfaxStu]

Peter,
The security I was referring to was about keeping your 2k$ gates from being lifted off the pins and gone in a few seconds.

Good point, Ron. Theft in that area is not really a problem, however.

Peter:

52 bags @80 lbs per bag is over 2 tons. That Silverado Duramax 3500 is a beast.:shocked:

 

[s219]

I put stone veneer on some columns the "hard" way, with mortar. It's not really hard, but a little slow and messy. One of my neighbors did it entirely with construction adhesive and it turned out very well, and was of course much easier and faster. I'll be curious to see how it holds up over the years, but right now it seems like a smart option.