Breaking into the bank

[scoutcub]

Floor is in. Went with the center drain. Now the kids have a place to ride bikes!

 

[Obed]

You're making progress scoutcub. Did you slope the floor toward the drain?

Our basement has 3 floor drains. We instructed the contractor to slope the concrete floor toward the drain around 2 of the floor drains; the slopes were even shown on the house plans. He didn't pass the word to the concrete sub so one of our drains didn't get a slope around it. That's one of the many reasons we didn't keep him around to through completion of the contract. My wife caught the issue before the cement around the last floor drain was poured and was able to get that spot sloped the way we wanted it. The floor drain that didn't get sloped is about 3 feet from our hot water heater. Now we may have to put the hot water heater in a drain pan and run a drain hose to the floor drain in the middle of the room.

Obed

 

[scoutcub]

Did you slope the floor toward the drain?



Obed

Obed - This was a concern of mine as well. I'm currently working overseas so at a disadvantage of not directly supervising the work - not the best scenario. However, I spoke at great lengths with my 2 subs (concrete and block) about what I wanted before I left.
The pictures don't show much slope, so I had the wife double check and they do slope in towards the drain. I'm fortunate the subs seem to have been doing a good job thus far to the specs we had discussed.
I just didn't want to waste a good month of building time while I'm away, I want to be in the garage before the snow flies!

 

[Obed]

Obed - This was a concern of mine as well. I'm currently working overseas so at a disadvantage of not directly supervising the work - not the best scenario. However, I spoke at great lengths with my 2 subs (concrete and block) about what I wanted before I left.
The pictures don't show much slope, so I had the wife double check and they do slope in towards the drain. I'm fortunate the subs seem to have been doing a good job thus far to the specs we had discussed.
I just didn't want to waste a good month of building time while I'm away, I want to be in the garage before the snow flies!

Yes, I can't imagine not being there to check on things. Hopefully your wife can be your eyes. Fortunately for me, my wife checks things pretty closely while our house is being built.

Also, I concur with your decision to put a door from the attic that opens to the grade. Making a ladder to the attic sounds like a smart way to conserve floor space; that's a common solution in barns. You might also consider using pull-down steps. We put them in our garage in order to access the attic above. That way the steps only temporarilly occupy floor space and even then the space needed is much less than real stairs would take. If you do the pull down steps, you'll need to space the trusses so that the steps will fit between the trusses. We spaced two of the trusses at 24" instead of the normal 19.2" so that our 24" wide pull down steps would fit between the trusses. Either way, you will need to make sure the trusses will accommodate pull down steps or the ladder that you mentioned.

Obed

 

[scoutcub]

Yes, I can't imagine not being there to check on things. Hopefully your wife can be your eyes. Fortunately for me, my wife checks things pretty closely while our house is being built.

Also, I concur with your decision to put a door from the attic that opens to the grade. Making a ladder to the attic sounds like a smart way to conserve floor space; that's a common solution in barns. You might also consider using pull-down steps. We put them in our garage in order to access the attic above. That way the steps only temporarilly occupy floor space and even then the space needed is much less than real stairs would take. If you do the pull down steps, you'll need to space the trusses so that the steps will fit between the trusses. We spaced two of the trusses at 24" instead of the normal 19.2" so that our 24" wide pull down steps would fit between the trusses. Either way, you will need to make sure the trusses will accommodate pull down steps or the ladder that you mentioned.

Obed

Obed -

Great idea, I had completely forgotten about the pull down steps. The last 2 houses I've owned, I've built steps into a "bonus room" above the garage, and a "catwalk storage" in my last garage. The ceiling height was 13', so I built a second level with 6' of clearance above.
For this garage, I think the pull down stairs would be the best. It will also seal the space for winter heating. What I've seen before is actually framing a box between the trusses to accommodate the stairs, do you think that would weaken the integrity of the trusses?
For the staggered truss spacing, that didn't introduce any other problems?

 

[rswyan]

Footer drains are already in, and gutter drains will be tied into same.

If you do this, make sure that the gutter drains are tied in downstream of the footer drains - otherwise you will potentially be injecting large amounts of surface water into the subsurface soils around your foundation.

Ideally, downspouts would run in their own "tightline" to daylight, so that there is no possibility of the above.

 

[scoutcub]

If you do this, make sure that the gutter drains are tied in downstream of the footer drains - otherwise you will potentially be injecting large amounts of surface water into the subsurface soils around your foundation.

Ideally, downspouts would run in their own "tightline" to daylight, so that there is no possibility of the above.

I'll check into this....good point!

 

[scoutcub]

Top cap is on....and front wall started.
Not very happy with Menard's....ordered trusses 3 weeks ago, 2 promised delivery dates ended up as no-show's.......including today....

 

[MacLawn]

scout, when I see those bottom plates, I'm wanting to frame it on up with walls! If foundation is strong enough, that would make a great two story place - maybe you already said you plan to do that in other thread on this post, but I might have missed it if you did.

 

[scoutcub]

scout, when I see those bottom plates, I'm wanting to frame it on up with walls! If foundation is strong enough, that would make a great two story place - maybe you already said you plan to do that in other thread on this post, but I might have missed it if you did.

Mac -

It's a great idea .. If only I had more $$$! I did spend more on the attic trusses, which will give me a 16' wide room overhead. And, they just finally arrived yesterday, pics are coming....

 

[Obed]

Obed -

Great idea, I had completely forgotten about the pull down steps. The last 2 houses I've owned, I've built steps into a "bonus room" above the garage, and a "catwalk storage" in my last garage. The ceiling height was 13', so I built a second level with 6' of clearance above.
For this garage, I think the pull down stairs would be the best. It will also seal the space for winter heating. What I've seen before is actually framing a box between the trusses to accommodate the stairs, do you think that would weaken the integrity of the trusses?
For the staggered truss spacing, that didn't introduce any other problems?

We had to get the truss designer from the building supply company to verify that we could spread two trusses far enough apart, 24" between the trusses, not 24" O.C., in order to fit the the 24" wide steps between them. We added some extra blocking between the two trusses where there is subfloor (not steps) for support because the subfloor was sitting on trusses more than 24" O.C. apart. I'm not concerned that we materially weakened the structural integrety.

Obed

 

[Obed]

If you do this, make sure that the gutter drains are tied in downstream of the footer drains - otherwise you will potentially be injecting large amounts of surface water into the subsurface soils around your foundation.

Ideally, downspouts would run in their own "tightline" to daylight, so that there is no possibility of the above.

Scoutcub,
I concur with rswyan. For our house, the footer drain pipes and gutter drain pipes are completely separate. I had thought about tying the drain pipes together but then considered what would happen if gutter debris clogged the common drain pipe. The next hard rain could very easily flood the basement. So we kept them separated. We are running the gutter drain pipes and footer drain pipes in the same trench with different pipes so there's not that much extra work and the pipes don't cost that much. The big effort is in digging the trench.

Obed

 

[scoutcub]

If you do this, make sure that the gutter drains are tied in downstream of the footer drains - otherwise you will potentially be injecting large amounts of surface water into the subsurface soils around your foundation.

Ideally, downspouts would run in their own "tightline" to daylight, so that there is no possibility of the above.

Great point. Fortunately the garage is sited on a decent slope, so even if I do tie in the gutter drains to the footer drains, it will be in the front of the garage, and we'll use either a 4" or 6" solid drain pipe heading downhill. I'll be trenching soon, and may just go with separate lines.

 

[scoutcub]

Trusses have arrived! Interesting how they were stacked upside down on a custom lumber trailer, and my steep driveway must've been fun for the driver!

 

[Obed]

Trusses have arrived! Interesting how they were stacked upside down on a custom lumber trailer, and my steep driveway must've been fun for the driver!

For us, getting the roof rafters, sheathing, and foofing felt on the house was a big milestone that came with some emotional relief. Looks like you're getting close to that point. Huray!

Obed

 

[scoutcub]

Trusses going up! Very glad I didn't transport my excavator back to the property, we used it to set trusses and I saved a $700.00 crane fee. Plus, some fun seat time.....

 

[scoutcub]

More trusses.....I kept waiting for the chain to slip.....fortunately it never did!

 

[scoutcub]

Trusses complete! No mishaps or incidents...

At first I was a bit uncomfortable with the slope, and getting the machine too close to the "hole" ....my sub at one point suggested perhaps we should get the crane.... so I kept at it till we could get the chain/truss in the center of the garage, and I quickly became comfortable with the slope and the operation.

 

[scoutcub]

Oops, forgot pics last post....

 

[Obed]

Frank,
That looks like a great use for the excavator. How is it that you own an excavator?
Obed