New House Build in WV

[TnWV]

Not much to report this week, had to straighten up the garage trusses due to a few getting nailed on wrong. Continued bracing after that. Also got the facia board up on the front of the garage and started doing the same on front of the house.

Hopefully the rest of the week and weekend shows more production, fixing mistakes always slow things down.

 

[TnWV]

Still slow going this week, but managed to get more facia boards up, and moved a bunch of dirt in the front. Had to get the front somewhat leveled out so I can set ladders up to finish the facia board.

Did some calculating and made some marks for the header and ridge beam for the dormer. It’s higher up than I have it credit for, so I’m headed to a friends in the morning to borrow some additional scaffolding, just no other way to safely get the header in place. Hope to make good progress on the dormer tomorrow.

Here’s a shot of the dirt work. Ranger in front gives some perspective on the size.

 

[EddieWalker]

It's always amazing how much time can go into getting an area ready to do the work!!! Sometimes that's the hardest part in bidding a job, and what clients fail to understand in why it costs what it costs to hire it done.

 

[TnWV]

No doubt about it. Scaffolding was only 5 minutes away, but going to get it, and setting it up took a lot of time.

I didn’t have any help to get the header and ridge beam for the dormer up once I had the scaffolding on place, so I finished framing the windows on the front garage wall and and put the zip sheeting up.

When my father in law got here, we put the header up and installed the ridge beam. I had a hard time figuring out the rafter, so I stopped before getting frustrated, and started moving dirt in preparation for building the back porch. Made good progress on that, but it was too dark for pictures when I quit for the night.

Here’s a picture of the ridge beam. It’s a 16’ board and I put the whole thing up and will cut it off once the end rafters are in place. I keep question whether I’m making the dormer big enough. It’s 16’ wide at the front. There will be 80 inches between the porch roof and the dormer peak. The 80” comes from 16’ wide and a 10/12 roof. I added the 30” front the top of the front wall to the top of the porch roof to get 110” for the ridge beam height. Any opinion on the size of the dormer? Did I make the height calculation correctly?

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Just found this thread. Unfortunately most of the pics has not shown up yet so must be my internet is slow. Based on the dates you are moving right along.

 

[TnWV]

Just found this thread. Unfortunately most of the pics has not shown up yet so must be my internet is slow. Based on the dates you are moving right along.

I’ve been following your build thread, you have a great looking house!

I guess it has moved pretty good considering we are doing it all ourselves, but sure wish it was going a bit faster!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I’ve been following your build thread, you have a great looking house!

I guess it has moved pretty good considering we are doing it all ourselves, but sure wish it was going a bit faster!

I finally got the pics to show, looking nice.
I filled my porch with dirt, which sat a long time and settled, then gravel was added before slab was poured. I also think that if I had taken the porch footer deeper it would have been nice to have used the space under the porch.

My next house will be like yours, basement then 1 story on top. I also prefer poured basements instead of block.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Used to have a good friend in hurricane, so have visited that area.

Concerning the front porch, my porch slab has rebar, and sits on 4” of the 8” front basement wall, so it will not settle.

 

[TnWV]

I finally got the pics to show, looking nice.
I filled my porch with dirt, which sat a long time and settled, then gravel was added before slab was poured. I also think that if I had taken the porch footer deeper it would have been nice to have used the space under the porch.

My next house will be like yours, basement then 1 story on top. I also prefer poured basements instead of block.

I wanted a cape code, just like yours, but wife refused to have stairs to go up and down everyday, so we settled on one story with a slightly bigger roof so I’d get close to the look I wanted. In the end, she was right on no upstairs. We will live here for the rest of our lives, and would regret the stairs later in life for sure.

Basement was happening no matter what, and I went back and forth on block vs poured. Poured wall contractor was the most responsive, and his price was within a few hundred of the cheapest block guy I could get a price from, so it was an easy choice. I’m really liking the look of the poured walls and get lots of compliments on them. Definitely happy with the choice.

 

[TnWV]

Used to have a good friend in hurricane, so have visited that area.

Concerning the front porch, my porch slab has rebar, and sits on 4” of the 8” front basement wall, so it will not settle.

Hurricane is our closest Walmart and there’s several restraints as well, so we are there often.

I didn’t think to leave a ledge for the concrete porch, but I have put 1/4” 4x4 angle the length of the porch for the concrete. Hoping that does the job. It would be several thousand in gravel to fill the porch, so I’m using metal panels.