Finishing the Exterior

This is a big topic, one that deserves more than a single posting; but for now this will have to do. The siding and roofing have now been completed, gutters are installed, and we have passed our framing and mechanical rough in inspections. Siding installation took weeks longer than expected because the crew showed up only occasionally, but overall they did a great job. After talking to the Hardiplank siding sales rep, we ordered pre-painted siding expecting that if the crew was careful we could avoid having to paint the exterior of the house. Because some of the walls are35 feet high this is a big deal. We were not disappointed, and aside from some scuffing here and there that will have to be touched up, the paint looks great.

Weeks earlier I had allowed the plumbers to penetrate the roof with their vents expecting that the metal roof would be installed in short order. But since the siding guys had to not only get on the roof to do their thing, but actually had to tie into the roof with their scaffolding, roof installation could not begin until they were out of there. This meant that every time we got rain, water poured through the roof and puddled on the sub-floor. This made Flora very nervous and although she was continually placing buckets under the leaks, workers kept stealing the buckets and thwarting her efforts. Nobody was happier when the roof was finally watertight.

Another problem that resulted from jobs being done in the wrong sequence (my bad) was doing the finish grading before the gutters were on the house. Each time it rained the waterfalls of water pouring off the 35 foot roofs eroded the dirt below and washed it away. Gutters were installed today so now I can repair the back-filled areas that were damaged.

Next will be installation of insulation, then drywall. Tomorrow the cabinet people come to do the kitchen cabinet layout and the next day we will go to see more slabs of granite before we order our counter tops. We still have a lot to do, but things are moving quickly and we still hope to have the house complete by the end of the year.  

Back-filling the Trench

The residential building code requires an overdig of at least two feet around the outside of a basement wall to allow access for waterproofing and laying a foundation drain. Since I figured that too much access to the foundation was better than too little I chose to make the ditch around the basement walls about twice that wide. The implications were that while it would be easy to get in there and do what had to be done, it would also mean having to fill about twice as much material.

The foundation drain was placed before the walls were set in place and waterproofing had been completed on one of our typical 95 degree summer days. While I don't generally allow drinking of the jobsite, since no power tools were being used, I allowed an exception this time. So during the hottest part of the day we swilled ice cold beer and slapped on the tar with rollers.


















We could not backfill until the first-floor decking was built and attached. The top of the superior walls is bolted to this floor deck every four feet with large bolts and these bolts and the weight of the floor combine to strengthen the walls against the pressure of the soil as it is piled up against the outside of the walls. I chose to wait even longer until all of the framing was done but now was the time. I wanted to get on to our final grading and build our front steps that lead up to the deck and this required that the backfilling task be completed first.

I called multiple excavation companies and they all had waiting lists as long as a month, so because of my impatient nature I decided to take on the task myself instead of waiting.

Two large piles of dirt had been left when the basement was excavated to be used for backfill so it was a matter of moving about 80 cubic yards of the stuff one bucket at a time and dropping it into the hole. I had estimated that it would be a 4 hour task but in reality it required about twice that long.

My machine is old and it smokes and groans but ultimately Slowly the piles of soil were depleted and the trench was filled.

Framing (part 2)

The total framing job took less than four weeks and every day there were new changes to see. Really though, it was seeing the roof lines go up that was the most exciting of all. The roof in our great-room soars 27 feet above the floor and big beams are required to support those 24' long rafters. The ridge beam spans the top of the room and the rafters are nailed into it. This beam is 5 1/2" wide and 18" high and it is composed of three big LVLs that are nailed side-by-side. One end of this beam is held in place by the other roof but the front is supported by a post (see this connection in picture at right) that rests on the foundation 37 feet below. The ridge beam and the post are bolted together and several other large beams attach to them to support the roof load. There is also a 3 1/2" x 24" horizontal beam that attaches that is meant to stiffen the entire front wall to meet the 90 mph wind load requirement. This beam will provide a "plate shelf" that spans the entire front of the house.

The framers spent much of a day building a large scaffold and I was there early the next morning to watch and take pictures as the 6-man crew lifted the huge pieces into place. I guess I expected something dramatic but like the rest of the house, the roof took shape one piece at a time. Two rafters had been nailed in place the previous day for placement of the back end of the ridge beam and a post was put in place to hold the front end.  The crew lifted the 3 pieces that would make up the ridge beam into place first, assembled them together, and then began lifting and nailing in the rafters. Within a couple hours they had several of the members in  place and by the end of the day most of the rafters were nailed in. The next day the rest of the rafters were installed (pic at left shows the roof with a few rafters missing) and framing began on the big south-facing "wall of windows". After that, sheathing was added to the walls and roof and they were each covered by membranes in preparation for roofing and siding.


Indeed the frame is what makes the house what it is. After framing is done, windows and doors are added and then plumbers, electricians, and HVAC installers come in and chop holes in it all. Then the insulation crew caulks the holes and stuffs every nook and cranny with insulation so that the drywall guys can cover it all up in preparation for paint. The framing crew was there for a week and I really got used to their laughter and hammering. Things now are much quieter.

Framing (part 1)

This is the stage of building where the house finally begins to look like a house. Prior to this you don't really have much but a pile of concrete but then a framing crew begins to turn a big stack of lumber into walls, floors, and roofs and the shape of the house begins to appear. Naturally, in our house we had to finish the basement level first. Concrete walls were in place for all the places where soil would be back-filled against them but on the open parts of this level the walls would be built from wood. Multiple lumber deliveries were necessary before framing could begin.

Anchor bolts had been embedded in the edges of the concrete and the tops of the pre-poured walls had holes in them that would allow the first floor framing to be bolted to them. In concept framing seems simple enough but in reality it requires a lot of planning and calculations to make sure that each of the substructures that is built fits together with this rest of the structure when they are mated together. The door and window openings have to be the right size to fit doors and windows that will be coming later and must be located in exactly the right location with the wall. Many of the dimensions are not specified on the house drawings (for example, rafter lengths) so each of these must be calculated to ensure that every stick of lumber is right.  The framing crew has a lead framer who is responsible for this and for keeping each of the crew members busy and usually each of them is working on a different part of the structure so it is a lot to manage.

Our lead framer was named Ramon. The photo at the right show Ramon leveling a wall. He was very good at explaining the options each time I had another decision to make (and there were many of these every day). Things like the location of the kitchen window, which depended upon the kitchen layout (which was yet to be determined) needed to be established before the wall that holds that window could be built. The kitchen design was, in our opinion, the one weak link within our overall house design, which is to say, the way it appeared on the drawings was not going to totally meet our needs. We identified this deficiency early on and even tried to hire a kitchen designer to help us with the details, but by the time framing started we still did not have a revised kitchen plan.



The single window the was in the kitchen needed to be located above the main sink but we did not yet know exactly where the sink needed to be because we had not yet figured out the right location for the stove or cooktop (whichever we decided to install). I preferred to install a cooktop on an island opposite the sink, but the kitchen (as shown on the plans) was too narrow for an island. The kitchen was essentially U-shaped with one side against a wall and the other defined by a post that held up the second floor loft. Kitchen walkways should be a minimum of 36" wide and with one on each side of the island, we would have only 12" left for the island. With all these problems I hired a kitchen designer. I sent her a set of plans and a week later she came out and laid out a schedule, a set of deliverables, and a price that we quickly agreed to. To make a long story short, she left and never returned and we lost several weeks and still had no kitchen plan.

At that point I decided that I would have to take the kitchen design on myself and with the help of some Web sites I was able to move the side peninsula over and draw up a plan that I think we can live with. Once that was done we established the location of the kitchen window and provided it to the framers who by then were well on their way to completing the basement framing. The basement has 10 foot high ceilings and those walls, when completed, looked very tall. The floor deck above that was framed with 2x12s, which added another foot of height, so the floor of the main living space then is 11 feet above the basement floor, making it s long climb up those stairs. A floor framing inspection was performed, the floor was sheathed, and then the first floor walls were built. The photo above shows some of the first floor framing, including the 14 foot side walls that will support the front roof.

We were happy to have the first floor walls in place so that we could finally see the outline of our rooms in full scale rather than just on paper.

Finally some mud is poured

The most aggravating thing about being a contractor is trying to find reliable people. I guess that in that regard it is like running any other business, but somehow I expected it to be better than hiring individuals. When I ran my plant nursery in Florida I always had a tough time finding and keeping help but I was paying only barely over minimum wage and finding reliable and trainable people who want to work for low wages is never easy. In this case, supposedly the subcontractors I am hiring are business people who are running their businesses to make money and as such I would expect that most or many or at least some of them would return phone calls, show up when they promise, and do the job they are being paid to do. That doesn't sound like too much to ask does it?

My basement walls were installed in April (see a previous blog entry about that experience). A few weeks prior to that I had found a framing contractor who had built a house for a neighbor and had done what appeared to be a great job.  The neighbor could not say enough good things about the guy, so I called him and arranged a meeting. We got together and talked about my job and he left with a set of  my plans promising to call me with a framing bid by the end of the week. The week went by, then the weekend, and sometime in the middle of the next week I called him back and he told me he had not had time, had lots of jobs going, would get it done soon, blah, blah, blah. This was to become a common song and dance. A week or so later I called him again and got a similar story. After a third call I decided to look elsewhere for a framer; he never did get me that bid and as far as I know, he still has my set of plans.

While I was looking at the neighbor's house I also noticed what a nice job someone had done forming and finishing his concrete sidewalks, so I got the subcontractor's name and number. The same guy had been recommended to me by another general contractor so I thought this might be a good place to start. I called him and he said he was very busy but would fit my little job (about a 25 yard pouring my basement slab) into his schedule with no problem, just give him a call a week  or so before I was ready. I emailed him a set of plans and called him as he had requested when I was about ready. He finally got back to me about a week later and said he could come out to my job site in about a week. By then my basement walls were done and I was anxious to get on with the show. I had to call him a couple more times and he finally agreed to a meeting and he actually showed up. We walked around with a set of plans for about an hour and discussed how to attack the job; this was on a Thursday and he said that he could form and pour it the next week. The next week came and went and he again failed to return my calls. By then it was the end of yet another week with no progress and I was getting frustrated. While I was playing telephone tag with this guy I got a couple more leads and got three more bids from other concrete subs. Two were within a couple of hundred dollars of each other and the other one was about $2000 more for some reason. I decided to go with the guy who was based out of Chapel Hill; the other guy was from Raleigh, which is about 35 miles away.




It was a good weekend; I was finally going to get the job done, a month late but done nonetheless. His price was for labor only so I picked up two 48" x 100' rolls of 6" wire mesh, #4 rebar, 6 mil poly, and anchor bolts. He would bring the tie wire and the chairs that hold the rebar up off the ground, order the concrete (and get me his discounted price), and most importantly, his crew. His crew came out and leveled the stone that was in place, measured and formed the slab, put down the poly, mesh, and rebar and got ready for the next day's pour. It turned out that when the Superior walls crew had run their plate vibrator over the 1/4' stone base that those walls were to rest on, they had reduced the base height by nearly an inch. That meant that the 3/4" stone base that was to be under the slab was also an inch too high and all of that material had to be removed to maintain the correct final surface height. It was so hot that day that I allowed the contractor to use my skid steer to do the job and he completed it in about a half hour.

So when his guys rolled in to do the pour on May 31st it became clear that after a six week break, we were finally back in action. The whole job went smoothly. Temperatures were in the mid 90s and it was miserable out but the concrete finishers did a good job for the most part and now we can move on with framing, the part of this job that will make this concrete-lined hole in the ground into something with more resemblance to a house.

Choosing plumbing fixtures - Cooler than it sounds!

The dream of building my own house started a long time ago but who thinks that it will/can ever happen? I became enamored with timberframe homes a few years ago and even went so far as to buy an antique timberframe (on Ebay) and hired an architect to design a house around it. About that same time I bought a stack of books about home building, including one called The Owner Builder Book. The author explained and demonstrated throughout the book that anyone with a strong desire, some diversified experience, and half a brain can be his owner general contractor. That book also had associated with it a website with a forum and through that forum several of us formed a local owner/builder group, had a few meetings, and shared ideas. Several others from the group went on to complete their house but losing my job kind of put a damper on my own project.

A couple years later after watching the others complete their houses I reassessed my finances and decided that we really could build a downscaled version of our house with the same look and feel but sans timberframe. Last winter I looked through probably thousands of online house designs and Flora and I finally boiled it down to a single design that would give us everything we wanted. I found an engineer who would put our design into AutoCAD and give us a sealed set of drawings for a reasonable price and we started rolling.

We already owned our 3.6 acre lot so with a roughed out budget we set off knowing that we would eventually have to get a bank involved to provide further financing. Last week was the week we went to the bank to sign up for our construction loan and boy what an experience that was. Think about a job interview and an IRS audit rolled into one and that should give an indication of what it was like. I can't blame them for being careful since being able to qualify for a loan does not in itself mean that someone is qualified to build his own house. But what a stack of paperwork I had to fill out. One of the things I had to do was to get actual firm prices on all the things I had just estimated so today we went to a wholesale plumbing fixture company and spent about two hours making decisions about all of our fixtures. It was very helpful to have a knowledgeable person guiding us through the process and yet one more time I was reminded about what crappy service we come to expect in this Wal-mart/Home Depot world. The big box stores seem to have a motto "our service is crappy and so is our stuff but hey, trust us, our prices are low".

My rough budget had shown $4800 for fixtures and our total today came out to just under $4300 but I do still have a couple additional bathroom sinks to buy but still I was amazed that I was that close. I discussed the experience with Flora afterward and we both agreed that it was great fun being able to pick and choose exactly what every sink, stool, and faucet would be and we can hardly wait to use our new shower. Since we spend a lot of time in the kitchen we picked out some really cool things to use there including this faucet. It has not been that long ago that the only kitchen sink choices were porcelain-coated steel or stainless steel each in a couple of sizes. These days there are thousands of choices. We ended up with a big double stainless steel sink that is kind of restaurant style and with that great faucet who knows; maybe I will even do dishes from time to time!

Installing the Superior Walls

If you look at the prints for our house you will see that the basement walls that are embedded in the hillside are shown as concrete blocks filled with rebar and concrete. As long as these walls are totally filled with concrete they are waterproof and very strong. To complete such a wall you would to hire someone to layout the footers, a second crew to excavate the footers, a third crew to form and pour the footers, and then after they pass inspection, a crew of masons to lay the blocks. Since these are 10' walls, they would have to lay blocks to 5' high and then have a concrete truck come and fill them. After that concrete has hardened the second 5' section can be placed on top of them and then those are filled. So besides having to juggle a lot of different crews, an additional problem is that it is nearly impossible to be sure that all of the cells in the wall are actually filled with concrete; invariably there are some voids and these tend to weaken the wall and they often leak.

So we chose an alternative known as Superior Walls. These walls are produced in a factory, transported to the job site on a flatbed truck, erected with a crane, and bolted together. Since these walls are placed directly into a bed of compacted gravel, no poured footers are required. Additionally, the walls are guaranteed not to leak (although this county also requires that they be painted with waterproofing compound). Superior Walls are slightly more expensive but to me it was a no-brainer since it guaranteed a better foundation with a lot less subcontractors getting involved. Oh, and I forgot to mention that they come fully-insulated and with the studs in place, ready for drywall!

The Superior Walls crew was scheduled to arrive first thing Monday morning and I figured I had plenty of time for some last minute things at the job site on Friday. So at 6:15 AM on Friday I was awakened by the telephone and wondered who in the heck might be calling at such an hour. Not being a morning person I was sound asleep and in such a state there is no way I can get to the phone within 4 rings, so I rolled over and let the voice mail take care of it - that is why I pay for it right? A few minutes later it rang again. This time I was awake so I picked it up and the voice on the other end announced that he was waiting for me at my gate (which was locked) and that the crew would be there within a few minutes. The best laid plans right? By the time I was able to get dressed, pour myself some coffee, and get to the job site, my contact had left but I was at least able to get there before the trucks started rolling in.

It was my kind of job; everyone knew what he was doing and all I had to do was stand around with my hand in my pockets and watch. I just love watching work getting done! While Critch was extending and setting the outriggers on the crane truck, the rest of the crew was setting up lines and running a plate tamper over the gravel to ensure that it was level and well packed where the walls would go. It was not long before the first wall was attached to the crane and swung into place. A second wall was soon bolted to it and ensured that it could not fall over. While the crane swung back to hookup the third wall section, the two installers caulked both sides of the joint they had just assembled. The four man crew was a well-oiled machine and quickly completed the job. Within tow hours they were done and gone.  You can see the open ends with embedded wood for attaching the rest of the wall framing for the wooden walls that are not buried in the hillside.  

So the house build is off to a great start; now if I can only keep the momentum going!