Front of addition almost done!

Well, I guess the photos says it all. So far I've been able to do everything from ladders. Thought I'd need a scaffold or a platform/lift, but not yet. That'll come when the cedar shakes are to be added over bedroom/office.

First pieces of siding

Due to the fact that we are not doing just a "squarish" window trim (and caulking the hell out of it), it did take some time to get the trim in place, and then even longer to cut the first strip of siding (on the left side of the window). After that, it was fast to put up the remainder.

Notice that everything is screwed up with 305 stainless steel screws, and that makes it easy to adjust/move/replace pieces down the road. Hopefully not needed, but will the two runs of T&G siding (above and below the window), meet up at the same vertical line to the right of the window (so next full length strip will fit nicely)? This is of course the drawback with T&G compared to using a "board and batten" style of siding, where you can hide more or less any inconsistencies under the batten.
Wife wanted to have a "flat" siding, since she thought the "battens" made it look cheap (females sometimes have strange ideas...), and I really had no other option that to oblige... That "desire" does cost a bit in added installation time.


First section done


Notice the flashing and the angle on the top of the pieces that straddles the trim. Allows for water to shed, and also provides for a groove for the caulk (yes, I will caulk this horizontal section, but this is really the only one).
And possibly overkill, but I have pre-drilled all pieces of trim and siding. Prevents the screw from splitting the boards, and also for the (all visible) screw to nicely line up.


Double flashing over the windows

Asphalt paper and Cedar Breather

First installation of asphalt paper. Under the windows, the asphalt paper is slid up under the Tyvek, to ensure that water can properly "cascade" down the water resistant barrier. Like stated in earlier posts, I assume that water will end up behind the siding, but once there, will be "managed" to ensure that it does not do any harm. So, there are also sheets up "JumboTex" slid up under the Tyvek anywhere the Tyvek has been cut open to allow for installation of metal flashing.

The "mesh" is the famous Cedar Breather that I bought down in Atlanta (being penny wise and dollar foolish).


JumboTex has replaced Tyvek as our "sponsor"...


Close up of Cedar Breather


Cascading "sheets", although not "Style Sheets", which is probably more common to find on a web site...

Asphalt paper, metal flashing, and a Craigslist find!

Due to our Tyvek now been exposed to the elements so long time (20 months?) - and hence rendering this dwelling "the Tyvek House" - I felt it was best and prudent to complement the Tyvek with some good old traditional asphalt paper (60 minutes). And, some claim that Tyvek does not do well with Cedar siding, at least not when they touch. The tannins in the Cedar can break down the Tyvek.

DuPont sort of guarantees Tyvek for three months weather exposure, but even after 20 months no "ill" effects have been detected on our installation - apart from the Tyvek logos being bleached by the sun. No leakages, no rips, no tears. Seem to be holding up quite OK.

But since no one really knows how this Tyvek will perform in 40 years, traditional asphalt paper sort of clears up that issue. Been very thourogh and spent time on getting the new "paper" all the way up under the Tyvek and the flexible window flashing. If there ever will be water, at least it will shed/cascade down the membranes in the right order.

On top of that, the metal flashing under the windows also protrude up under the flexible flashing. Should add a little drawing to indicate how I solved it.

Tomorrow it is time to put up more paper, work on the flashing on top of the windows, and the staple up the "Cedar Breather". If all goes well, window trim should also come up, followed by the first pieces of "real" siding - a historic moment!

When running around for asphalt paper, also picked upo a bunch of 304 grade staineless steel screw at Tacoma Screw, with a handy location not far away from Fast Flashings. I like it when you can shop quality in the neighborhood!

And, instead of running to Lowe's or HomeDepot, I found a perfectly functional miter saw on Craigslist. Didn't even have to drive very far. Maybe not what you're looking at for making an elaborate China cabinet, but more than good enough for window trim and T&G siding.

Flashing maufactured and picked up

Thanks to Scott at Fast Flashings in Kirkland, I got all my pieces nicely manufactured, to my specs, and in my colors., to just about the same cost that it would have been to drive to a big-box store and picking up their (sub par) stock flashing.

Scott and team did an excellent job, cranking out 24 gauge pieces instead of the more common 26 guage.

When it is time to attack the deck and put proper flashing over the ledger board, I know where to go!

Siding delivered!

A tad early (no phone call alarting me, and I was having a nice cup of coffee, reading through the Sunday and Monday papers after a weekend "off-line out on the lake), the big yellow truck showed up with our new siding. Exciting to see how the color REALLY turned out. A small sample of only a foot does not provide any real guidance.

I had to move boat and trailer out of the way, but once those were gone, the truck had a very long boom on his lift, so he could place the package all the way up the drive way, just in front of one of the garage doors.

Spent the rest of the day sorting through the pile and matching lenghts, checking quality of the stain job, and moving everything inside the garage. Funny, the siding will see weather and water for the next 100 years, or how long the house now will stand, but it really should protected before it is "up there".

And the color - yes. Looks REALLY good. Semi-transparent "Redwood" stain is a winner, and with the green window trim, it'll also provide some character, far away from the oh so boring American middle of the road colors of "grey or creme". Colors that really does not stand out at all (no one likes them, no one dislikes them).

I just call them "bland"... Why are people so afraid of a little color?

And, when I must have had a moment of absence (coffee?), the UPS guy showed up cause when I opened the other garage door, two really gigantic boxes with my "cedar breather" had been delivered. The Atlanta effort finally paid off - even though it was more like "paid out"...
All said, UPS did a stellar job in packing these items - but they sure also charged for it, so it should be expected!


On drive way


Sorted and counted


Out of the weather, stacked in the garage according to length


Hmm, there's a lot of wood to be screwed up...


Cedar Breather - Big boxes of "just air"...

Flashings, small but needed inexpensive details

Flashings, small sheets of (normally) metal, that are helping direct the water away from the wall cavity, preventing it from entering where you have windows, doors, decks, trim details, etc. These small pieces of bent metal are often overlooked in even very expensive new construction and the builders instead rely on caulk. Caulk might be easy and cheap to apply, but it never really lasts, shown in a very large number of water damaged buildings just because they cut out a small piece of metal that might have cost $10...

Looking over the flashings at Plywood Supply (my cedar siding supplier), and not finding what I wanted/needed, I was happy yesterday to locate a company litterally up the street, Fast Flashings, that can bend my small pieces to protect the house from the dreaded water intrusion.

At some of the neighbring houses, decorative knee braces are a popular and nice addition to the design, but they are rarely supplied with a small flashing (roof) to protect the flat piece that sticks out in the weather. Regardless how these are treated, Cedar, Redwood, Oak, they will eventually start to rot simply because someone decided to skip on the little piece of bent sheet metal, providing the o so neede weather protection.

Anyway, time to run up the street and order my metal now...

Capillary Break, ventilation of cedar walls, Interstate Commerce, or how to tax a friendship...

I have an urge to do things right when it comes to construction. Only want to do it once, even if it takes some effort to do it "just right". Done right, a project, a construction, a design, will last a life time, and it is a good thing for me, for future owners, and for the environment we all live in as a whole.

Hence, I've seen far too many houses that have serious moisture and mold problems. All because they just been erected too hastily with little or no attention to water and moisture management. Water comes in two ways, from the outside in the form of rain (strait falling and wind driven), and trickier to manage, from the inside in the form of water vapor.

Every construction in a tempered/cold climate should have a vapor barrier on the inside of the wall cavity, to prevent the ever present vapor (=water) in the inside air to penetrate the wall cavity and condensate (form water) once it hits a cold spot somewhere in the wall cavity (happens of course mostly during the colder months when wall is cold from the outside, gradually getting warmer until you hit the nearly room tempered inside surface.

This is fairly simple stuff, but so often overlooked by shoddy construction, like believing that the paper on faced insulation actually will work. But no, you will need to install a properly laid out plastic sheet (no thinner than 4 mil) before putting up the drywall and also ensuring that you have sealed all electric boxes and - the worst culprits - bucket lights in the ceiling.

On the outside, people try to "seal up" the siding by applying liberal amounts of caulk in order to keep the water out. Good thinking, but most times it is really not necessary and it can also "seal" the outside, preventing it from being properly ventilated.

Instead of applying caulk all over the place, better is to allow the siding to "breathe", and correctly manage the water that happens to sneak by it. It is done by a water resistant (NOT water tight) barrier (Tyvek, felt, asphalt paper, etc) and flashing to ensure that water that gets behind the siding is allowed to "run off" in an orderly fashion, without ever getting a chance really "touching" the core of the wall cavity (the wood and insulation). Contrary to what many believe, the siding is not really the "water barrier", but instead the "weather barrier", there to protect (from sun and physical damage) the "real" water resistant barrier (normally not ever seen once a construction is finished).

In cases when you have a natural wood siding (Cedar, pine, fur, redwood, etc) it is always advisable to provide for a space (air gap, or capillary break) between the back of the siding and the water resistant barrier. Good installers use furring strips laid out on top sheathing (OSB or plywood) normally matching the location of the wall studs. This works relatively fine when you have the (dreaded) horizontal beveled siding. The vertical furring strips provide for an air cavity that both lets water run down and air to raise, drying the siding if/when it gets wet (actually, not if, but when, it always will).

If not providing for this air space, or "capillary break", there is always the chance that when the siding does get wet, moisture is trapped inside and behind the siding in such amount that it starts to overcome the water shedding capabilities of the water resistant barrier, Tyvek, felt, asphalt paper, etc. Remember, this barrier is NOT water proof, and when exposed to enough moisture, its water shedding capabilities are overcome and it will allow water to migrate from the outside to the inside. This is potentially a BIG problem if you used OSB boards instead of the (pricier) plywood for sheathing. OSB has so much end grain and it very easily (and happily) soaks up moisture, trapping it and eventually starts forming mold.

The drawback of the vertical furring strips can be that it may provide a chance for the siding to "buckle" since there is really no support between the (needed) furring strips. Buckling is however better than the alternative, a wet and soaked siding, allowing water to eventually get absorbed into the wall cavity, leading to moisture problems, and eventually mold and other nasty stuff.

A neat application of the siding, at a "real" distance from the "actual" wall cavity is referred to as "rain screen". Likely the best application since it provides for a true ventilated outer shell, but one sort of have to prepare/design for it from the get-go, and not everyone likes the style. It also can provide a haven for isnects and all type of critter to nest in the air space created between the rain screen and the sheathing.

When you are using vertical siding, furring strips can be used, but they will create horizontal cavities, really not ideal since water cannot freely run down, and air does not have the free space to raise as it gets heated.

There are a number of products on the market to battle this problem. One of them is Cedar Breather and Home Slicker from Benjamin Obdyke. Essentially a plastic "airy" mesh, that creates about a 1/4 inch air space behind the siding, allowing for water to run down and air to raise, thereby allowing for the siding to naturally dry out. For those who read this and are really picky, yes Home Slicker is for walls, and Cedar Breather is for roofs, but according to BO, Cedar Breather can also successfully be applied to walls (just not as pretty color...).

Now, this product is not cheap, it is probably cheaper to build a house with "true" water resistant plywood, than to apply the "mesh" (additional labor cost for the "mesh" not counted). But, in our case, the addition was already built using OSB, so there was little other choice - if wanting to do things "right", while using vertical siding. By the way, in my mind, vertical siding looks far better than the rather boring "beveled" siding and water sheds better when it is allowed to flow with the grain, instead of perpendicular to it.

I was happy to find a stock pile of Cedar Breather cheap at a building outlet store in the Atlanta area. Problem was, Atlanta is about 2,700 miles away. On the other hand, these "rolls" are mainly air so it cannot be that pricey to ship a few up to Seattle. Hence, here started an effort to investigate how to best (=cheapest) get "them rolls" from Atlanta to my project.

After looking for product specifications on-line once could find out that the rolls where about 10 lbs each, less than 45 inches long, and likely some 12 inches thick. 6 rolls would come in at less than 70 lbs, and that is really nothing when it comes to shipping. However, remember that these rolls are mainly "air" and therefore pretty bulky. Having suspicions, I checked with UPS on-line, I did go to the UPS store in Kirkland to inquire what the cost would be if one came in with 6 of these, asked them to be packaged and sent away. Cost estimate ranged from a shipping cost of about $40/roll to, roughly $100 if they were bundled together as one large (super large) package.

Still not too bad.

But, the store in Atlanta does not ship, so I needed a way to get these rolls from the store, to the UPS office less than two miles away. UPS would take care of it from there, package them, and more importantly, ship them to my garage. Had to get hold of some (friendly) friends in Atlanta that could do a little detour during their daily travails, pick up "some rolls" and drop them off at the nearest UPS office.

Tried a few of the past Ericsson friends and colleagues. All out of town on vacation, and some even out of the country. Why, is Atlanta that bad? After all they voluntarily moved from Seattle to Atlanta. Not really eager to ask, but into the picture comes a VERY dear and good friend, but I know she is busy, have tons to do with all her animals, and also a busy work schedule in the legal sector. In any case, I had not talked to her for a long time, so if nothing else, it was time for a call and a status update.

Long story short, she had no problems (at least she did not say so...) to swing by this store and drop off my "rolls" at the UPS store. By the way, this is TRUE friends. I sent her all the information and also before sending her out on a Saturday drive in Atlanta, I did call the UPS store where these "rolls" most likely would be dropped off and asked them (his name was Andrew) to double verify shipping costs. Even Andrew came up with reasonable cost, his idea was to package these rolls three to a package so I'd be looking at some $70/package for freight and under $30 for packaging material. Total cost about $200. Still not a bad deal, and after that I sent my friend on her way to pick up "them rolls".

But, even with a GPS she had some problems finding the store, and once at the store, she called me and said she was not sure she could get more than four rolls into her car (a Saturn Vue, so no skimpy sports car). I could be OK with four rolls, but of course six was even better. She promised to try and believed that she could get five rolls if she folded the front seatback. Hey, five is better than four...

I call her a while later to check on progress, and she is now at the UPS office where Andrew is helping her unload "them rolls". Upon being reminded on "Seattle" and "bulky" items, he did recall my call to him a few hours earlier. Good, he would not let me down, or more importantly, my friend with car-full of "rolls" she certainly had no use for. We ended the call and I went back to painting outside, something I'd been doing since early morning, and for the past week as well for that matter.

When I happen to be down in the garage to fill more paint in my pail, the phone rings. It is my friend, she really did not say much other then that I'd "better talk to Andrew directly". After having gotten the rolls out of her car (likely no small feat...) and into the UPS office, allowing for proper measurement and eyeing out proper UPS packaging, it turns out that these are becoming "massive". Weight wise it is still not much, but there's a lot of "air in there", maybe even bypassing the limit for size of package that UPS can accept on "UPS Ground" (UPS freight is not available on Saturdays). Andrew is estimating that the freight will be somewhere close to $700...

Yikes....

I ask my friend for a few minutes of "contemplation" before I'll call her back.

Now I have dear friend that stands at a UPS office in an unknown part of Atlanta with "some rolls" of mine, rolls that now are becoming so expensive that it might be better just to dump them "somewhere", and buy all new stuff up here. Bright idea; Wonder if the store will take them back? I call the discount store and of course the manager (Gary) who sold them is out and only a podunk (sorry, mean no disrespect, but you really were not able to provide any assistance) helper just keeps telling me to call back in "10 minutes" when Gary has returned.

Quick call to friend at UPS Store to briefly discuss ideas. She clearly remembers that "sales are final" and that the rolls cannot be brought back. And, although she does not say so, I know she has no intention/will to fight to get these rolls back into her car. Especially not with her bad back! Hugh, this is going to hurt, not her back but my already thin wallet...

I guess "Andrew" in the mean time has not been completely inactive and must have been fighting with "them rolls" and figuring out that 1) yes, they can be shipped UPS Ground, and 2) packaged in two large boxes, total shipping cost will end of somewhere closer to $550. OK, much better, but far from the "good deal" this was at the outset.

But, I have a friend in "dire", standing next to a lot of "air" of mine, so quick decisions are essential. It has already taken up much more time of her well deserved Saturday rest than (at least I ) planned for. Remember, a 20 minute drive to the store a 10 minute drive to UPS, drop "them rolls" off and away you go...

After biting the really sour apple (correction, I think it was grapes I had in the fridge), the only logical - and friendly - decision is to go ahead and ship these rolls the way UPS Andrew has advised. Out with the dear old credit card, let Andrew charge it all so he can get moving, on likely his best freight sale of the week, if not year, and more importantly, so my friend can get back home to house, hubby, and dogs (not necessarily in that order).

After a while, I get another call, he had missed a digit on my credit card, and I was also advised that I'd get a tracking number and invoice e-mailed to me. Good, this is finally on its way.

But, in an effort to save a few $$$ on a good deal, I ended up paying heavily for shipping and really taxing hard on a distant friendship.
Lessons learned:

1. Before engaging in Interstate Commerce, think twice

2. Before shipping UPS, have it all figured out in advance

3. Friends are great to have. Use them wisely and sparingly. You never know when they are needed for real...

"Not by name mentioned" friend in Atlanta - I owe you!

Chimney flashing bent and ready

In an effort to properly prep the old fascia boards, I did remove the gutters, as well as the flashing that was installed with the new roof in November. Big difference when you actually have proper access to the work area.

However, I noted there was a little where the fascia board touches the chimney, and time had left a few marks there. A nice little bracket flashing solved that and should keep any water away from there.

Gutters - albeit temporary - go back up tomorrow, sicne one never knows how long we can rely on thsi wonderful and sunny weather.

After priming, COLOR!

Priming literally sucked - big time.
The solid stain was fairlky easy to work with but in my case - primed white surface, required two coats to sort of make it look nice. Yes, maybe not the 100% correct product, but rather two applications of this, then working with something that would resemble Cabot's primer...

A little color (and a lot of elbow grease) makes for a dramatic change. Out with the boring neutral color and in with something bold!

Due to the unseasonal temperatures, painting has been reserved to very early mornings, and late evenings. Never apply paint to surfaces that are too worm, or in direct sun light.

Priming sucks

As great as the Cabot stain was to apply on new wood, as difficult is their "problem solver oil based primer.

And I thought scraping and sanding was "hell". No, applying this primer was likely worse. Tempted to dilute it to make it easier to work with, but it specifically states on the can "do not thin", so I decided to fight it out.

Luckliy, there is not THAT much that need to be done this year (south side and over old deck), but it is more than enough. Had I known that it'd be this tough, I would probably have ripped the old (very dense wood, good quality) fascia boards off, and replaced them with new cedar boards. It would not had been cheap (why does it feel like highway robbery to buy cedar, very abundant around here...), but in retrospect, I would only have had to stain the cedar and could have left the soffit, overhangs, and rafter tails in their old boring cream color.

OK, this will look better for sure.

Pressure washing, scraping, and sanding

For the past three days, I have been cleaning the old soffits, overhangs, and rafter tails. They've always been (American standard) a boring cream color, but sicne we have decided to have all our trim in an Evergreen color to match roof, these guys need to be painted/stained as well.

I guess there is just nothing as boring as scraping old paint and prepping it for a new coat, but everyone says that 95% of the success is in the prep work. I am just not in the mood to EVER do this again, so it'd better be done correct the first time.

Now it's done. Time for putting on a primer tomorrow.

New CATV cable

After having lived off Comcast's VERY old cable for eons (it has an unknown number of splices in the yard, reducing the signal strength once in the house), and now with the chimney gone, ethernet and coax cabling properly routed throughout the house, and ready to be terminated on the new patch/interconnect panel, it was time to call Comcast and have a technician come out and "pull some cable.

Should be fairly quick sicne I have a 1 and 1/4 inch conduit running in the yard, all the way from their pole, to my "connection" closet. Also left a pull string when I put in the conduit so it should be an easy task.

"Marcus" showed up on Friday afternoon, seemingly happy that I had prepared more or less everything. He did not have any cable lubricant, and knowing the size of the conduit, the few bends, neither of us though we needed it. While Marcus prepped the new coax, I crawled in under the new addition, ready to start pulling.

It is normally very nice and tempered under there, but this day, it was blistering hot, and not any better by a very stubborn coax. It likely took us 45 minutes to pull in that cable, a job that should have taken no more than 5 minutes with some cable grease applied. I pulled so hard I even got blisters on my right hand since that was the "prime" hand in pulling in the very tight space under the addition.

But, once in, and Marcus fed some ice cold coke and water, it was a qucik job for him to termiate the coaxes and connect them to their respective splitters.

The unsightly mess is now gone from the basement, and when we have a rainy day, I'm going to take 30 minutes and just dress the cables nicely. Everything looks much better, works much better (=error free) and it starts to resemble the 21st centutry.


One can see the traces of where things used to be...


At least it's a beginning - out of the way in a closet - with cables still to be dressed behind the panel

All fascia new boards stained

Since one never knows when the rain comes, decided it was time to stain all the new cedar fascia boards. Some are VERY high up, some are nicely placed over bushes and therefore hard to reach, but what they all have in common is that they are - thanks to our great weather - bone dry and therefore prime candidates for surface treatment.

Using only oil based products and a semi-solid stain from Cabot Stains. A great product that also is easy to apply, leaving a really nice "hue" to the wood.

At this run, I'll only do the fascia boards, even though it would make sense to also stain the plywood and rafter tails (ladders are in place), but I'd rather get the exposed fascia boards done while dry. The plywood and tails are well protected and can be treated even if it might mist a bit on a summer day.

Cedar siding ordered!

Finally ordered all the cedar siding, cedar window trim and currently looking at fastners. Will attach siding with 305 Stainless Steel screws, since I really don't trust naling into the OSB board where there are no 2x4 joists to anchor. Managed to find a few places on-line so cost for SS screws should still be below $200 for the entire project.

Ordering siding pre-stained and we should get the samples on Tuesday so we can finally get the process rolling. They "soak" the entire batch in a bath in order to get as perfect coverage as possible. It does add a bit to the price, but was not really eager to do that work here at home, or jump up and down on ladders/platforms, after the siding has been put up.

I am a firm beliver in letting building material "breathe", especially wood siding. Hence, initially I had planned to put up furring strips to allow for 1/4 air gap behind the sidng. But, since we are going with vertical siding, the furring strips would have prevented air (and water) to feely move behind the siding, so thinking of putting up a product called "Home Slicker". Anyone out there that has used it?

Chimney is gone!

Against the will of the wife, I did tackle the chimney removal today. She was not happy when coming home and seeing the basement full of crushed clay tiles and cinderblocks, but the tone changed when she got upstairs and realized I had finished up in the living area - and cleaned up everything.

Why remove the chimney? Well, first and foremost it was in a place upstairs we intend to open completely - removing the wall between living room and kitchen. Secondly, when we put on the new metal roof last fall, I was sort of about to keep the chimney, but it was clearly cracked (see earlier post).

With the chimney gone, cinderblocks out front to be used as hidden retaining walls later, one could see that the flashing had leaked. Water streaks on the inside of the drywall, but that was it. No mold, rot, or deterioration (space is always nicely heated and dries out quickly).

It was a dusty work, but still did not take a day, cleaning up included. With a new floor stud in place, the hole patched with plywood, we are at least ready to tackle the removal of the rest of the wall.

Added benefit is also that the entry to the basemnt will be much more :logical" and the basement area can one day maybe turn in to something else than "just" a basement.

And, with the chimney's gone, I can finally pull new coax and Cat5 cables the way they should have been the entire time (hidden agenda).

No photos on the mess in the basement, it was simply too dusty to even consider taking a camera out...

Prepping for tiling - Cement boards

Spent most of Saturday putting down cement boards and prepping the floor for ceramic tiles. Apart from the normal thinset, a screw every 8th inch is needed to ensure that the we get a stable base for for the tiles. About 400 screws later and over 50 lbs of thinset, we were almost done, but for sure done in for the night. Hard work getting all the screw to properly sink in.
Actually, had to take almost every one out on Sunday and counter sink them in order to get a proper surface - even though Hardie's instructions tells you not to, but I refuse having screw heads being clearly above the surface - makes setting tiles impossible!


At least some is done


Just like a pro - hard to find good workers these days

Fixed the "hidden" corner

Dad built this corner when he was here in April, but one can see his eye sight is not what it used to be (and, if that matters, neither is mine), so I decided to "straighten it up" and make it plumb before putting up the drywall.


Being plumb is important! Hidden corner with heating duct going down under the floor (in insulated box) to pop up under the large western windows.


Secret lines... (and mandatory temporary smoke detector, a tad low, but still better than nothing).


Yes, there is mastic underneath, and then the duct tape is secured with metal tie wraps to ensure it stays in place even it dries out over the years (cheap insurance).
Wires to three way light over stairs in background and control circuit to central vacuum haging down. In here (but hidden) is also Cat5 to a security camera, power to the same, wiring to a new alarm system keypad, and other goodies. Part of corner will eventually be an "odd" shelf, since there is room to "do something" with it.


Everything is sealed and nicely secured. Central vacuum pipes to be terminated as soon as drywall is up.


Home made weights work as well!

Heating and insulation underneath...

With the duct extended and now terminating in the crawl space, it was time to route it to where it was needed - a floor outlet under the big westerly windows. I could have routed an insulated flexibled duct, a quick install, but they really do not last, and the last space I want to have (heated) air leak out of a duct is outside the heatid living quarters (do not care as much is a duct is leaking inside there, the air still heats the house).

Routing the rigid duct and mounting it was not too tricky, after that we insulated it and built a box around it. Also added an electrical conduit for futre outside lights (easier to do it now than to put an ugly one on the outside).

With box finished, really left to do was to insulate the floor with R-30 fiberglass batts. With dad cutting batts outside, I pushed them into place and it did not take ling until the entire place actually also started to look good. Since this is going to be an "active" stiorage area, we covered it all up in OSB boards and could carry in all the stuff (mainly firewood and lumber) that we removed in order to be able to work there.

Upstairs, one could note a difference in that the floor no longer had that "canny" sound to it, but a more dampened "thump". Insulation is not "only" for energy efficiency...


BTW, also added a conduit for a fire alarm/heat detector here. Not needed by code, but it can be a cheap piece of mind since there is a lot of wood stored under here.



Duct from upstairs


Running under joists


Insulation, insulation


Cranky two-dimensional bend since I wanted the duct hidden up in between floor joists where possible.


Mastic underneath and notice the metal ties that secure the duct tape. No leaks here - ever!


Stringer anchored to the contrete wall. Notice how the batts are allowed to fully fill the cavities. OSB will be put up here as a "Celing" since this is after all a "working" storage area, and insulation needs to be protected.


Box is taking shape


See, bend is gone, hidden...

Wanting something to do...

Dad, visiting from Sweden, wanted something to do, so he was tasked with casing in the inside (hidden) corner. Sort of an odd design, but this is a remnant from the old (exterior) overhang. Earlier this was over the steps leading up to the front door, now it was at waist height inside the new addition.

After having pulled a new 6" heating duct, a new branch for the central vacuum, power, and alarm cables, it was time to close it up. Fairly simple task, but never the less needed.










Big saw for a small hole


Protection for the metal casing, and so no animals step on the sharp edges and cut up some paws (like in 2006...).

Taping and mudding...

With me having an inherited disgust for drywall, I realized that the "finishing" of said products was not really up for me.

In comes Ben, who some long time ago had promised to give me a hand with the taping and mudding. Clearly an expert and it looks like a "whole different place".

Ben was rewarded with some beer and promises for future help when he needs a hand with electrical, mechanical, or carpentry stuff (+wife tiling his bath room floor).


In action...


...from a different angle, different profession

Scaffolding gone - drywalling done!

With scaffolding gone, all of the T&G up in the ceiling, it was easy to work in a cleaned up area and put up the few remaining pieces of drywall. Sure, a lot of cutting around windows, but still not to bad.






Can't see it in this picture - and that is sort of by purpose - but did spend some considerable time ensuring that the vapor barriers seals as good as possible along each side of the ridge beam.

Painting - upside down

With all the strips in place, all the trim and fitting done, I put on two layers of clear polyurethane since the wood otherwise has a tendency to rapidly turn yellow. It will do that eventually, but it'll take longer time if treated.

I thought about doing this before the strips went up, but I really did not have time - or room - and it wasn't too hard to put on these two coats - working upside down.

With the ceiling completed, time to remove the scaffolding so the final sheets of drywall on the "walls" can be hung.

Vaulted ceiling completed

Wood is expensive in the US, and therefore most everyone use (the hated) drywall. Thought for a while to put up drywall in the ceiling, but I knew I could not do that myself (due to the sheer weight of the sheets and the tricky finishing) and I just do not like the look of it.

In comes knotty pine T&G. Not as cheap material wise as drywall, but it is sturdier, can be put up by myself, and it looks a lot better. Actually, adding all the finishing costs to a drywalled ceiling, wood problably still comes out ahead in this case.

After rigorous work with the vapor barrier to ensure as good as possibly moisture management, I started nailing up the T&G strips. Managed to get 16 footers, meaning they'd span the entire distance and no need for joints anywhere.
And, biggest help, apart from three small wooden strips with screws, came after a trip up to Harbor Freight and the purchaee of a cheap pneumatic brad gun (nail gun). W/o that one, this job would have been sheer hell, working alone (although still better than drywall).


This little piece of wood - and its two brothers - made solo hanging the 16 foot strips easy


No cheating on the vapor barrier!


Notice generous overlaps. Empty cavities will be filled with insulation.


Do not trust the "faced" batts, so a proper vapor barrier is to be added before the drywall goes up.


See the straight cuts!


Getting the ceiling up changed it all!