Building our retirement home

[GPintheMitten]

I was thinking about concrete fill in the posts as well.

The turn buckle cable across the span was what I was talking about earlier in the thread. But I can understand wanting it to hold firm without adding a cable.

 

[farmer2009]

Now that's a really great idea! But .... you're thinking of spread in the wrong direction The spread concern is for the outward pressure on the porch corner posts. A single cable between these posts would most likely solve the problem. What I "want" to hear is .... 8" square tube, 1/4" wall, 20' steel posts, buried in 4 feet of concrete WILL NOT SPREAD. I have given some thought to core-filling the posts with cement as well.

Ok. I'd go inside and place some beams 4x4, or 4x6 inside the living area. Or cables. Depending upon the look your after. That would stop the spread without giving the birds a place to nest.

The post will be strong but you'll also be surprised at how much spring they'll have and how much weight will be on them. If you core fill them it'll help but be sure to get all the air out.

 

[tbrooks26]

I can't exactly envision what you are doing on the porch. I'm not sure why exactly you have spreading concern, if things are built properly and on a solid foundation, but some tension strapping could be an answer your looking for. All that extra concrete and steel may cause some settling issues down the road. Sometimes overkilling it can cause problems too, some strapping, cables, bolts, and a little engineering can sometimes out do the "its to big to fail" idea. I'm starting my first home (for myself). It's actually a total renovation with addition. When I'm done it will be slightly larger than your living room I'm a young family man on a tight budget doing everything myself. Not sure I like those trusses, I'm sure they're engineered well, but if it was me I would have probably used some 2x12's with some visible collar ties inside. Not sure if I could trust a truss like that to hold the roof tension. Sorry I just picked up the last 4 or 5 pages so I may have missed some things

 

[tbrooks26]

When I install fake stone, I like to use tile thinset mortar. It's more money, but the result is far superior. It sticks great and holds forever. I even use a half inch tile trowel for applying the thinset to the back of the stones. I've found that doing one stone at a time, and chimpping away at the corners of them to get them to fit works the best or me. I also use a diamond blade in my cordless saw and cut the backside of them. The blade only goes half way through, so when I break it off with my hammer, it looks natural. My favorite hammer to use on fake stone is my welding slag hammer.

I agree with that, and also want to add, make sure your rock is clean, that can cause the mysterious falling rocks later.

In the meantime, we're still shopping windows. Interesting how hard it is to get a push-out casement more than 36"x72". We finally found a company that makes up to 42"x90". I'm sure the cost will be A S T R O N O M I C A L but we really want big windows!

Our pre-building budget allocated about $12K for windows. Looks like we will easily double that. By the time framing is finished, I suspect we will be about $20K above our projections to that point. I may be starting a thread on affordable tranquilizers pretty soon

I agree with boggen, that I don't like casements. Although they are more energy efficient, they do hinder the air flow and do tend to have problems closing. I know because I have replaced many of them. That problem will be greatly amplified by larger windows, which is probably why you are having trouble finding them. Once the frame or the window moves slightly out of square (for whatever reason), they won't be so energy efficient. That being said alot of the ones I replace are in a condo complex, ~30 years old. Only used seasonally at most, and the panes/sash (whatever you wanna call the individual windows) are about 12x36.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

I agree with boggen, that I don't like casements. Although they are more energy efficient, they do hinder the air flow and do tend to have problems closing. I know because I have replaced many of them. That problem will be greatly amplified by larger windows, which is probably why you are having trouble finding them. Once the frame or the window moves slightly out of square (for whatever reason), they won't be so energy efficient. That being said alot of the ones I replace are in a condo complex, ~30 years old. Only used seasonally at most, and the panes/sash (whatever you wanna call the individual windows) are about 12x36.

We ended up with 9 "push-out" casements - 4 at 41"x78" and 5 at 32"x69". The 5 will have retractable screens but we couldn't get those for the larger windows. Being "push-outs", there will be no gears/handles.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

Looking forward to tomorrow morning .... Raising those trusses! I'll finally be able to get a real feel for the final product.

I met with the rock layer this afternoon to discuss the coverage and the amount of stone to be delivered. Still have to do some calculating before scheduling the delivery but his labor is $7 sq ft. I have no comparison for this cost, so would like to hear if it's a fair number.

Biggest concern is weather - with cold nights on the horizon. Not sure we can get this done before we see some freezing temps.

 

[jk96]

Mortar joint between stone or dry stacked? $7/sq foot seems dirt cheap if also running a mortar joint. The going rate around here is about $15 sq/ft for labor with mortar fill. As far as weather you want to make sure it stays above freezing overnight.

 

[GPintheMitten]

Your stone guy will probably have a plan for cold temps. Around here, they will be prepared to put up some plastic tent and Propane heater .

 

[KiotiKowboy]

Mortar joint between stone or dry stacked? $7/sq foot seems dirt cheap if also running a mortar joint. The going rate around here is about $15 sq/ft for labor with mortar fill. As far as weather you want to make sure it stays above freezing overnight.

It will be mortar joint. He started out at $8 but said, because he is a neighbor, he would do it for $7. Sounded liked a pretty good price to me.

This guy did our current house - about 20+ years ago. His work and reputation are good. His personality ... welllllllllllllllll ... it suc_s.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

Great Room trusses went up today. Not sure if we'll start on the porches before Thursday because a storm/wind is expected on Wednesday. Without the steel corner posts in place, it could be a little risky. The 2 pics here show about 1/2 of the room finished.



Just to keep things interesting, we've decided to proceed with converting some of the attic space into a usable room. We'll add a pair of dormers to the front of the house and wind up with something close to 20'x20'.

When this all started, we looked at our little 1600 sq ft home, decided we really liked it and just wanted to make it a bit larger. Well, we did that - LOL. With the additional space in the attic, we will be pushing 4000 sq ft. I am convinced we have both gone insane!