New House Build in the Country!!!

[EddieWalker]

View attachment 456772View attachment 456773View attachment 456774

Two things jump out at me. First is that you can see in these pictures that the floor joists are already bowing different directions. Hoping to keep them lined up with just the plywood on top wont work. They need blocking in between them. This will add tremendous strength to the floor, and also prevent future movement of the joist as some of them will want to continue to turn on you. If you do not add the blocking, you will have issues. I don't know if you need one row of blocking down the middle, or two rows, or even three rows. That should have been determined by the engineer based on the type of wood uses and how long the span is of the joists. One row for sure!!!!

Second thing is how support of your joists on the beam. They did a very common thing with the lip found all the time on the perimeter sill plate when it's resting on solid concrete or block. Doing this across the span under your beams is what I'm not familiar with, and gives me a reason for concern. There will be a huge amount of weight on the lip in the center of it's span. What is keeping that lip in place under the beam? Did they just nail it in there? Screws? Or is there an engineered fastener designed to support the load? Seeing how they toenailed the floor josts to the beam also makes me wonder if they did that with the lip?

I'm also wondering what size nails are they using? A common trick to save money with roofers, deck builders and especially roofers, is to use small nails.

 

[EddieWalker]

The garage framing is looking great. One of my pet peaves is when osb is installed in pieces instead of installing it and cutting out the openings. Your really want the edges of each board to meet somewhere in the middle of the header. Beginners tend to cut it along the side of the window or door opening, then put another piece above and below the window. They lose all the strength of the OSB doing it this way. Installing whole sheets and then coming back and cutting out the openings gives you the most strength possible.

It's also nice seeing them use longer sheets to connect the sill plates to the top plates. This is HUGE in how much strength it adds to your building!!!!

 

[Woody65]

Very nice project.

I also am questioning the omission of center bracing in the floor joists. It is common here, actually code, to put blocking or metal strapping in an X over and under the joists to stiffen and prevent twisting. I am surprised that tecos weren't required at the attachment point between the joist and the girder to which they are attached. I see the lip under the girder that they are resting it on but cannot see what or how that is attached to the girder. Their craftsmanship looks very good, just questioning the building methods. I am sure that your architect specified what needs to be done. As long as they are following his requirements, it should be fine. Just a different method than I am used to.

 

[Gordon Gould]

It is all looking good to me. Looks like those guys have framed a few houses before.

Bridging or blocking between the joists is commonly applied after a couple rows of sub floor sheets are down. As you nail the sub floor sheets you pull each joist into place and nail it on the 16. That way they are straight and the plywood seam falls dead center on a joist. Then when you get to the bridging location with your plywood you nail in the tops before covering with plywood. It is a lot easier to nail in the blocking/bridging kneeling on some plywood.

gg

 

[justinramani]

Gordon,

Thanks for the insight. It sounds like they will be installing the blocking sometime next week. There is no question that it will stiffen things up quite a bit.

Does anyone viewing this thread have experience with propane tankless water heaters? We had an electric tankless in our last house that performed well. I would like to try propane, but I am a little unsure how the venting will work. If I mount in the crawl space can I use a ventless model that is designed for exterior applications, or will I still need to go with a direct vent model?

Here are the two that i'm looking at:

Ventless: Rinnai RL94eP Propane Tankless Water Heater, 9.4 Gallons Per Minute - - Amazon.com

Direct Vent: Rinnai RL94iP Propane Tankless Water Heater, 9.4 Gallons Per Minute - - Amazon.com

In addition to water heaters - I am also looking into options for fireplaces. I'm looking for a vented propane unit that will heat up the approx 400 sq ft living area. In our last house we had a ventless fireplace that worked almost too well, but we have decided that this one will be vented. Any suggestions??

 

[Billrog]

Good insight Gordon that's how I always did it because you could pull and tape and used the nailed plywood to hold the joist on center. They no longer require bridging or blocking here just a 1x4 strap on the bottom of the joist. Plumbers , heating men and electricians had a habit of knocking them out. Joist spans have been shortened to accommodate this and the important thing is to keep the joist vertical.

 

[EddieWalker]

I've never heard of trying to install the blocking at the same time you install the plywood sub floor. My understanding is that the blocking needs to be centered, or divided up into thirds or quarters depending on code or the blueprints. I guess it wouldn't hurt anything if it was off a couple feet one way or another, but it's not how I've ever done blocking.

The plywood should be tongue and groove, laid out so the length of it crosses the most joists with staggered ends. Glue should be used when installing it.

What worries me is if they will install the blocking? I've seen too many jobs where the crews gets ahead of themselves, or they just do it like they always do, and something like this isn't done.

Blocking does more then just keep the boards straight. It adds load bearing strength to the lumber. Every board has a span rating based on the type of wood, how far it spans a distance and the size of the board. When you add blocking to that board, the amount of load it can support increases.

 

[Billrog]

If you have a line snapped down the center of your joist span and your shting. gets close just lay the next row close so you have something to walk on and work from when you nail in your blocking. After the blocking you can nail the sht. in place. As there is not likely to be load bearing in the center of spans the main purpose it to reduce the amount of spring in the floor.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Adding blocking when you lay flooring allows you to adjust the position of the joist to be centered with the flooring ends. Lay 2 rows, then block, next 2 rows, then block.
I used simpson metal x blocking on my upstairs, wood x blocking down.

 

[justinramani]

Any thoughts on this???

Does anyone viewing this thread have experience with propane tankless water heaters? We had an electric tankless in our last house that performed well. I would like to try propane, but I am a little unsure how the venting will work. If I mount in the crawl space can I use a ventless model that is designed for exterior applications, or will I still need to go with a direct vent model?

Here are the two that i'm looking at:

Ventless: Rinnai RL94eP Propane Tankless Water Heater, 9.4 Gallons Per Minute - - Amazon.com

Direct Vent: Rinnai RL94iP Propane Tankless Water Heater, 9.4 Gallons Per Minute - - Amazon.com

In addition to water heaters - I am also looking into options for fireplaces. I'm looking for a vented propane unit that will heat up the approx 400 sq ft living area. In our last house we had a ventless fireplace that worked almost too well, but we have decided that this one will be vented. Any suggestions??