House II

[TAB]

Re: House II, Front Door

Rob MDF is easy to machine into various shapes to give you different profiles for your trim. The only drawback is that no matter how much you want to sand the machined edges they remain kind of fuzzy and don't take paint as smotthly and consistantly as the factory edges. I have seen guys prime and then fill the fuzzy edges with spackle by rubbing it on the whole edge and then resanding. This gives you a smoother edge and you don't notice the fuzz so much. I would definately see if you can find some MDF, machine it and put some paint on it before you ok it as your trim. If you like it great, if you don't you wouldn't want your whole house done before when you find out.

 

[RobS]

Re: House II, Front Door

You make an excellent point about the fuzzy edges Tom. I'll definitely play with it some more before committing. I also want the trim carpenter's opinion and I'll ask the painter as well. Thanks for the tip /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[RobS]

Re: House II, Front Door

Fantastic Michael! It is nice having the stairs, isn't it. Your framers are doing a great job, that stairway looks nice and crisp. Either that or I'm just used to ours which is now all trampled down with a couple of months worth of construction grime /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

Love that porch! What are you going to use for flooring? /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[kiphorn]

Re: mdf?

All shingles now have a fiberglass mat in them. The mat is a carrier for the asphalt. Years ago they used rag felt, but the rag didn't hold up as well. The fiberglass shingles have a much longer life expectancy than the old Organic Asphalt Shingles.

For those of you that are building new homes and signed contracts for shingles with a particular length warranty, here is some information that maybe interesting or of use to you. I hope you can follow my ramblings.

Last year Architectural Shingles had warranty terms of 25, 30 and 40 years. At the beginning of the year one manufacturer decided they would sell more shingles if their warrany was longer than the competition. /w3tcompact/icons/clever.gif So, they changed their warranties to 30, 40 and 50 years. The shingles didn't change a bit. Shortly there after all of the other manufacturer's followed along and increased the warranty terms.

If you house is spec'd out to have 30 year shingles and you agreed to this at the end of last year or the beginning of this year you will essentially be getting those old 25 year shingles in the new wrapper saying 30 years. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif Personally I believe that your shingle should be upgraded. I'm not convinced a new wrapper and brochure are going to increase the life of those shingles. (I know its based on history, but.........)

The price change was about $1/square (This was likely due to the oil prices). So if you builder had 30 year shingles in his quote from last year, it really won't cost him anymore to put the new 40 year shingles on your house.

One last word on shingles. 25 year shingles (now 30's) were running around $35/square. 30 year shingles (now 40's) were running around $50/square and 40 year shingles (now 50's) were running around $55/square. There was and still is a big jump from the 25(now 30) to 30(now 40) year shingles, but the jump up to the top line was relatively small. I always tried to encourage our customers to spend the extra $5/square to get the extra 10 years and upgrade to the longest warranty.

The prices I noted are based on GAF Timberline shingles. But, Tamko, Elk, Certainteed and the others are usually comparable in price. (At least they are in Central PA)

Kip

 

[MDNY]

Re: House II, Front Door

RobS,

The main stairs are temporary for the build, but they were just installed, wait a month or so and they won't look so crisp. Funny thing was I stopped out today (wife and I go tomorrow) and the place was cleaned up. I mean no garbage, no wood pieces etc the floors were swept and dust taken away.

They have a small burn pile going and they burned the last bunch, not they moved all the scrap over to be burned again. But the site is clean. I felt they would do so after they finished the phase. I am glad I gave them the chance rather than doing it myself and making them feel like I didn't think they would.

Kiphorn:

You are very right on the shingle issue. My builder explained it very much like you did but showed me the new "25YR Shingles". It appears they have a 3D architectural look but it is just different thicknesses to give that appearance. We originally had the true architecturals 25YR specified for our house, but with the changes, we moved to 30YR architectural that gives the two layer construction.

 

[DocHeb]

Re: House II, Front Door

The machined MDF edges remain fuzzy, and any countersunk nail leaves a small "mushroom" around it. If you try to sand it down, you get more fuzzies. It will show though any paint. I considered the MDF for our house under construction, but went with poplar instead (harder than pine, pretty close in cost, takes paint really well.

 

[RobS]

Re: House II, Porch Siding

A lot happening at the construction site lately, just not much photo-worthy. The siding guys have been concentrating on the lower areas in anticipation of a lift rental now scheduled for next week. It was delayed due to a few trim pieces that also need to go up high. Drywall is almost all hung, probably finish up tomorrow. The electric company came out and did the final hook up from the transformer to the house and various other bits and pieces. We will be priming porch floor boards and ceiling panels this weekend. I did a little grading of some ruts last weekend to help contractor access. In spite of it being quite dry, I was impressed with my box blade/scarifiers. Chewed things right up and leveled decently. We got the last of the driveway quotes so that should be scheduled soon as well. This shot is of the front porch with more siding up /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Metrologist]

Re: House II, Porch Siding

Forgive me if this was mentioned before, but where is your house wrap? Vinyl siding needs a protective layer underneath it. You get a hard, driving rain and your OSB will get wet and then delaminate. A little bit of prevention now will save dollars later. Plastic house wrap is good, but felt paper is better. Just my opinion.

 

[RobS]

Re: House II, Porch Siding

I had discussed house-wrap with the builder from the beginning and they talked us out of it. In fact, very few houses in this area use it. I also did some research through "Fine Homebuilding" and "Old House Journal" and found very mixed responses to the house wrap question. In the end, we chose to pocket that money /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[MDNY]

Re: House II, Porch Siding

RobS,

Well after a few days off (for me due to being sick) the builder was to begin again today. The roof trusses were supposed to be delivered. We have rain planned for Friday, so maybe they can finish the trusses by then. In a a few weeks I will have a nice roof all set up.

Then we go inside. Pics later this weekend when I get back out there.