Prepping a house site and building a house

[Columbo]

Well, time for an update! I have all the roof sheathing on and the house is fully seam taped. I ran out of time to tape the garage before it got dark today. I still need to spread out the trusses in the single story mudroom connector between the house and garage. I’ve been holding off until on doing this since it will block my access to the garage gable for trim, etc.

Next up is the roofing. The best way we have found for a single person to put up asphalt shingles is with a boom man lift. It’s safe and relatively efficient, no carrying shingles up onto the roof either. Problem is, I’m told there is a boom lift shortage… One United Rentals office refused to even quote me a rental once they heard that I don’t have an existing commercial account. I’ve been on a waiting list through another United office for 3 weeks. Fortunately a local independent rental yard has a lift available at the end of the month, so that’s when I’ll start the roof. Until then it will be exterior roof trim and finishing up some of the drainage that I haven’t gotten to.

 

[skyking1]

Looking really fine. That order of operation is so important, regarding that back gable. It is too easy to box yourself into some difficult work.
I'd shoot a half pallet of roofing up with a telehandler and go unload it, but that is me.

 

[skyking1]

I do love that zip system and the tape. I'm really looking forward to using it on our place.

 

[CM1995]

Looking good!

X2 on the Zip System. I am a big believer in their Advantech subfloor sheets. Installed over 120K SF of it on a townhome project back in the 2000's.

Haven't heard of a boom lift shortage but we don't rent them very often. Might be a New England issue?

 

[Columbo]

I do love that zip system and the tape. I'm really looking forward to using it on our place.

Yeah this is my first time using it. So far I’m a fan! It’s being detailed to be my air control barrier as well as the moisture barrier. It’s this reason, and the fact it will be at least 6 months before I start siding, that I “speckled” all the nail holes with Zip’s liquid flashing compound.

 

[Columbo]

Looking good!

X2 on the Zip System. I am a big believer in their Advantech subfloor sheets. Installed over 120K SF of it on a townhome project back in the 2000's.

Haven't heard of a boom lift shortage but we don't rent them very often. Might be a New England issue?

Must be, because all of the rental yards had nothing available and most had no estimate when one would be available. I just got lucky that the one place has one coming off a long term rental and it was available for a week.

 

[Columbo]

Well, time for another update! I’ve got all the windows in the house and the roof is on. I used Boral for the gable trim and fascia. This was my first experience with this material and so far I’m impressed. It supposedly offers excellent paint adhesion, no water absorption and no thermal expansion/contraction. It’s similar in price to PVC.

I hope to have the exterior doors finished this long weekend. There are 3 standard doors and one large double opening french door. Garage windows need to be done too but that can wait a bit.

 

[Columbo]

Well, I’m going to try to sneak in one more outdoor project before winter really hits, and get the rock retaining wall done. My brother does landscaping/hardscapes professionally and has kindly offered to help me out. He’s between the fall cleanup rush and the plow season so now is a good time.

I had three loads of granite boulders delivered and weather permitting he’ll start the wall next week. Meanwhile I’m working on interior partitions and the stairs. Oh, and the garage windows and all exterior doors are done!

 

[skyking1]

do you have a clam for the hoe? I have thumbed a few walls up but I really want to have a go with a clam.

 

[Columbo]

do you have a clam for the hoe? I have thumbed a few walls up but I really want to have a go with a clam.

No clam bucket unfortunately. My excavator has a mechanical thumb and my bother’s mini has a hydraulic thumb. Seems like the guys who build rock walls professionally use a grapple on a rotator, sure makes it look easy!

 

[skyking1]

the ones I watch were using a clam, which swivels the same as the grapple and also picks up the bedding rock.
They would toss it out and lay it on the side when the bedding pile got slim, and could pick it up pretty clean that way. They got paid by the square foot. One guy was sighting the wall and guiding the operator. That seemed pretty efficient.

 

[materthegreater]

How did the wall turn out? Did you get a lot of rain last Monday?

 

[Columbo]

We were fortunate to escape the brunt of that last storm. It was wet but none of the flooding that other areas got. It was a good time for me to check my drainage and also to make sure none of the windows or doors leaked. My curtain drain was flowing nicely and none of the windows or doors had leaks.

The wall is almost done, my brother hopes to finish it this weekend. We had about a week of downtime waiting for the well drillers to move in and drill the well. Well ended up being 400’ deep with 4 gal/min replenish rate. It also is constantly overflowing so that’s a good sign. They set the pump and pressure tank in the house yesterday and I backfilled the trench just in time for more rain today. Now that the well is in the wall will pass in front of the well (the casing was set extra high to accommodate this change in grade).

Meanwhile, I’ve framed out all the necessary basement walls, basement stairs and I’m starting the first floor partition walls.

 

[Columbo]

Well, just like that the weather has finally caught up to us! I can’t complain, it’s been very mild thus far. We just finished the retaining wall in time! Yesterday I cleaned up in front of the wall as best I could given the frozen ground and then parked the excavator for the winter. I’ll pick up the site work again in the spring with more grading, extending the access road past the house towards to top of the lot, and the septic. Until then, I’ll keep this thread alive with updates on the interior construction where I can work with the woodstove going!

 

[CM1995]

I did not know Carhartt had dog clothes! Lucy's jealous.

Looking good. Is that where the wood stove is going permanently or just for winter construction?

 

[Columbo]

Haha, Tess loves her winter jacket!

That is where the woodstove will be permanently. Probably a different stove eventually and some sort of built in mantle around it.

 

[Columbo]

Well, over the past couple weekends I have gotten the second floor stairs installed and the zip sheathing on the second floor ceiling. The purpose of this zip sheathing ceiling is twofold- it acts as the air barrier and also will support the weight of the blown in cellulose to keep the drywall from sagging. There will be minimal penetrations through this zip into the attic and all will be air sealed.

Next up will be the second floor partitions and then we’ll get the electrical and plumbing subs in.

 

[CM1995]

Looking good!

Did you use pre-fab TJ stringers or cut them out of rim board?

 

[skyking1]

Moving right along. Thank you for your continued inspiration.

 

[Columbo]

Looking good!

Did you use pre-fab TJ stringers or cut them out of rim board?

I site-cut all of the stringers for the stairs (three different sets of stairs in total). This was my first time using the rim board material for stringers and I am completely sold. I would never go back to using regular dimensional lumber. The lumberyard stocks 1.25” rim board as a standard item but they ordered me 1.5” as they have found it to work better for stair stringers.