At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

You might look into a finer mesh to keep the wasps out? I live in blind happiness in a mobile home with no attic access. I could have 40 nest in my attic.

Kyle,
One of my regrets regarding building our house was how the ridge vents at the top of our roof were installed. Wasps can get through/around the ridge vents and get into the attic. If I could do it over I would have the installers put down screen material along the ridge of the roof before installing the ridge vents. It would be very easy to do and would help to keep wasps and hornets out of the attic. But there were so many things going on at that time, that's a detail I missed. Now I'll kick myself every spring and summer while I go around knocking down wasp nests. As long as I don't let the nests get big, it's not that hard to do. I spent about 45 minutes yesterday looking for nests and knocking them down. I assume springtime will be the worst time while the queens are looking for a place to make a home. I hope that new nests will taper off as the summer progresses. I'm also hoping that the queens will give up trying to build in our attic and go somewhere else when their nests keep getting knocked down.
Obed

 

[Obed]

Yesterday I said that I would take today off. However, there was a tree that had fallen across a 4 wheeler path where I would like the excavator to dump extra dirt. So I made three cuts on the tree and moved it out of the way. It sure is handy having a chainsaw.

 

[dstig1]

Unusual for ridge vents to not be screened well enough to stop insects - that's a key design parameter for them. Not sure which style you have - but if you use discrete vents, they have screen in them from the factory, and the continuous vent style is typically too small to allow insects access (especially larger ones like hornets/wasps).

I am sure it can be fixed if you can get a roofer up there to pull the vents and screen them properly. Might be worth it in the long run as you will fight this problem every year, forever. If you have leftover shingles, that will help a lot as those architectural shingle sure like to stick tight once they are down and see some sun.

 

[DAY]

Unless you use the attic intensively, or fear anaphylactic shock, wasps/hornets are usually a benign presence, and just one of many country critters (skunks, voles, deer, etc) it is best to develop a respect for, and tolerance of. Life is too short to fight battles neither side can win!

 

[Obed]

Excavation work has been happening slowly because of all the rain we've been having. We are taking down more trees. Some were too close to the house and some were just in the way.

We are going to rent a chipper for one day and chip as much of the trees as we can in that day. The chipper costs $500/day and will chip trees up to 12" in diameter. The trees have been partially cut and stacked in preparation for chipping them up. What we don't get chipped will get burned. The leftover logs will get stacked on our log pile. I'll eventually cut up the log pile for firewood or burn what I don't cut up.

The subcontractor didn't get the roots for these two trees near the house when he pushed them over with his high-lift. It doesn't look like he dug up the roots before he pushed the trees over. The trees just splintered and have left a mess. He had instructions to remove the trees roots and all for all the trees except for handful of exceptions. I suspect we will ask him to dig up the stumps at his cost. This are is where my wife intends to plant an herb garden beside the house. She likes to go out and get some fresh herbs when she is cooking so the herb garden needs to be close to the kitchen.

We are making a driveway to the basement. A new culvert has been installed where the driveway will go. My wife doesn't think she will like the looks of gravel on the basement driveway as it goes through the trees to the house. The contrasting silver color of the gravel really shows up through the trees. Seems like I have seen recycled shingles used for driveway materials and am wondering if we might want to try using recycled shingles on the basement driveway. The darker color of shingles them might look better than the bright gravel.

We removed a tree that was located near the end of the retaining wall on the uphill side. The tree was preventing us from being able to shape the dirt correctly to make rainwater drain away from the retaining wall.

We used to have a monster dirt pile at the end of the back porch and deck. Now we can see out into the woods instead of stare at a pile of red clay. I can't tell you how much difference removing the dirt pile has improved the view from the back porch. We used to not be able to see the house from the spot where this picture was taken because of the large dirt pile.

 

[Obed]

Unless you use the attic intensively, or fear anaphylactic shock, wasps/hornets are usually a benign presence, and just one of many country critters (skunks, voles, deer, etc) it is best to develop a respect for, and tolerance of. Life is too short to fight battles neither side can win!

Our attic is really more of an unfinished upstairs than what you typically think of an attic. Since we moved in, we have stuff stored up there and regularly go up there.

Obed

 

[Obed]

Unusual for ridge vents to not be screened well enough to stop insects - that's a key design parameter for them. Not sure which style you have - but if you use discrete vents, they have screen in them from the factory, and the continuous vent style is typically too small to allow insects access (especially larger ones like hornets/wasps).

I am sure it can be fixed if you can get a roofer up there to pull the vents and screen them properly. Might be worth it in the long run as you will fight this problem every year, forever. If you have leftover shingles, that will help a lot as those architectural shingle sure like to stick tight once they are down and see some sun.

Dave,

My wife seems to think that a wasp is too big to get through the slots in our roof vents. I'm not so sure. However, I'm sure that the installation of the roof vents was not done meticulously enough to prevent bugs from getting around them, even if they can't get through them. I'm going to wager that at the ends of the roof vents, the workers just cut the ends of the vents off to size and left the ends open. I was not very impressed with the roofer. I caught the workers trying to install a valley without ice and water shield because they had run out and didn't want to stop working. I made them stop and come back the next day when additional materials would be available.

I hadn't considered removing the vents, putting screens under them, and then re-installing. That's a pretty good suggestion. I had only thought about putting screens between the rafters from the inside but wasn't thrilled about doing that much work. The picture shows one of the dormers. If you look at the appex of the roof, you can see a dark area that is the bottom of a ridge vent. Putting screens between each rafter from the inside would be a monumental task; I would say we have about 150 feet of roof vents.

I guess I'll just see how much effort it takes me to knock down wasp nests. If I get really sick of doing it, I may have the roof vents removed and screened like you suggested. That's a great idea!

Obed

 

[DAY]

That looks like living space for future kids!
Is the roof insulated- can't tell from the photos. As someone said, screen the vents to keep out wasps. Probably the paper variety, mud daubers prefer cooler spots. If that's a six foot ladder, there's a lot of space up there.

 

[Obed]

That looks like living space for future kids!
Is the roof insulated- can't tell from the photos. As someone said, screen the vents to keep out wasps. Probably the paper variety, mud daubers prefer cooler spots. If that's a six foot ladder, there's a lot of space up there.

DAY,
The roof is not insulated. We blew insulation in the floor trusses below the upstairs subfloor in order to insulate the ma. It gets warm in the attic.

The upstairs would have 8 ft ceilings if finished. You're right, there is a lot of space in the upstairs. We went to some expense making the upstairs potential living space. The finished space in our house is currently 2100 SF, all on the first floor. However, our property is 30 acres. 2100 SF on a 30 acre lot here would be smaller than most new houses you would find on a large tract. If we ever needed to sell the house, we would finish the upstairs to add square footage and make the house more marketable. However, for just my wife, daughter, and me, 2100 SF is plenty. Keep in mind that our last house was 1040 SF and that we lived in a camper for 13+ years.

Obed

 

[Obed]

Today some of the drain lines for our gutter downspouts and foundation drain tiles got laid. The cost for the excavator to dig and lay the pipes was well worth it to me to have the subcontractor do them. We have about 8 trenches to dig. I believe the cost to dig each trench was $50. It would have taken me about 3 hours to dig each trench, probably more. About half of the drain lines were completed today.

At the back of the house, I ran the first section of thedrain pipes beside the HVAC unit on Labor Day last fall.

Today the workers had to hand dig to find the end of my drain pipes that I had covered with dirt. Those underground pipes were not being used. I just needed to complete that section of drain pipes before we installed the outside HVAC unit.

We used solid adapters to connect the downspouts to the drain piping. The disadvantage to this approach is I will have to get on the roof to run a snake if I need to clean out the drain pipe. If I find these pipes clog much, I might have to install cleanouts on the two downspouts for the 2 store gutters. I can reach the tops of the other 5 downspouts easily enough with a ladder.

I'm not certain what at the daylight end of the drain pipes. I can install grills on the ends of them to keep critters out of them. However, I'm afraid that the grills might prevent leaves and junk from leaving the pipes and cause the pipes to fill up with junk. Anybody have any experience here?

 

[dstig1]

You could give them some buffer space and make a cage around them with chicken wire, perhaps, so it doesn't plug up with a couple leaves. Might look redneck though.

You could bury them under rip rap, but then clean out would require moving rocks all the time.

You could just screen the ends and check and clean often.

Dig a dry well and put rocks in it, make a shroud over it with chicken wire so the water drains into the rocks and you only need to pull the cage to clean out.

Set a basket into the ground, like a sprinkler valve tub, dig drywell with rocks below it, let drain into the basket through cutouts in the side. Then pop the basket lid to get access for clean out.

Mostly I think you just need some buffer space so it doesn't plug too fast, but maintenance will be required in any case.

BTW - on the other end of this -
If you are going to go to the trouble to do this, on the upstream end, I'd put cleanouts in them right now. Why not save the hassle while you are doing it now?

 

[tony Cecil]

Hi Obed

In my case, I just left the ends alone and in twenty five years even with black ridged pipe have not had any problem, except where a large dump container gouged the end up when they were dropping it off the truck...No animals etc...I also, three years ago ,installed a leaf guard system on the back side of the house, and so far haven`t had any trouble with it...I don`t know why so many people complain about them...What leaves do accumulate on the exterior--in the fall-- blow away after they dry out.....Tony

 

[eepete]

I have 4" smooth PVC burried gutter drain pipes. I leave the ends open. When you get a birds nest in there, it will flush down and be able to flush out of the pipe. Use the widest sweeps you can.

There is enough of a gap where the gutter drain comes into the pipes that I could get a electrical fish tape in there if it clogged. So far, anything that makes it down to the bottom of the gutter drain flushes through.

Here is a picture of how the transition occurs. The wire is a ground on the drain, and I have a strap connecting the gutter to the metal roof on the house for lightning protection.

I tried gutter guards on our old house. Between some pine trees and other tree debris, the gutter slowly fills and every other year I have to take the guards off and clean them. I think success with gutter guards is a YMMV situation. I have no gutter guards on the new house, but went with 6" wide gutters. The goal is to have them self-clean. But the new house is out in a field so there are very few tree leaves that ever make it in. Far more problems with bird nests than leaves.

Anyway, I'd leave the far ends of the gutter drains open, put some rock down to avoid erosion and see what happens. I think the only critters that could get in the pipe and get on the roof could do so on the outside of the pipes. Indeed, at the old house I've found snake skins in the gutters.

Pete

 

[srs]

A friend of mine has this "wye" pipe connected to the downspout at ground level. He added a plastic cap on the end and it fits loosely so if he ever has to clean the underground pipe he just pulls off the cap. I think it's a good way to keep you from having to get on a ladder. Also I would leave the pipe open at the ends. One time at my house a bird fell into the gutter, I heard him making a racket, but eventually he just walked out to the bottom. Would have been funny except it was about 5 AM and scared the crap out of us!

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/images/products/pipe/400/31012p.jpg

 

[Obed]

A friend of mine has this "wye" pipe connected to the downspout at ground level. He added a plastic cap on the end and it fits loosely so if he ever has to clean the underground pipe he just pulls off the cap. I think it's a good way to keep you from having to get on a ladder. http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/images/products/pipe/400/31012p.jpg

Stanley,
I hadn't thought about using a 45 degree wye but that would probably work well. We have one more second storie gutter that needs the drains installed. I believe I will put a cleanout at the bottom of that downspout. I might consider cleanouts for all the rest of them. We'll have to see. Thanks for the suggestions.

Obed

 

[srs]

You are so welcome! Hopefully you won't need to use the clean-outs though.

 

[Obed]

Gutter Cleaning Part 2
Today we cleaned out the last gutter, the one on the 2 story part of the roof. I left this gutter for another day last week when I cleaned out the gutters that were just 1 story or 1 1/2 stories above the ground. At first I extended my extension ladder as high as it would go. I could just reach into the gutter and clean it out. However, my reach was very limited because our eaves are 2 feet deep. Few houses these days have 2 foot deep eaves but we wanted them for the many practical advantages to a deeper eave.

At first I really didn't like being up that high on the ladder. After the first little bit, I got used to it. I did make sure that my ladder was on a good level spot before climbing it.

My wife wanted to try putting on her rock climbing harness and getting on the roof and trying to clean it out while I belayed her with a rope. We've done some rock climbing so we have some experience with harnesses and ropes. When my wife got down to the edge of the 8/12 pitch roof, she realized she could not reach into the gutter in her squatting position. Lying on her stomach was not an option as she would just roll of the roof. She ended up using a broom handle to rake the gutter debris into piles. I then moved my ladder to each pile and removed the debris while standing on the ladder.

I believe that I'll invest in a taller and stronger ladder. My ladder is a 24' extension ladder that is 21' fully extended. The manufacturer euphamistically calls it a 24' ladder because each section is 12' long. The eave of our house is 22' above the ground so a 21' extended ladder doesn't cut it. It seems that all the gutter cleaning gadgets I read about and heard about don't really keep you off a ladder if you need to clean a gutter as tall as ours.

 

[Obed]

My wife installed an aluminum angle bracket support for the kitchen bar top. The countertop installers did not install a support at the end of the counter. I'm not sure why. I'm not sure if it was an oversight or if something was preventing them from doing it at the time. My wife may have told them not to install a support there because she wanted to have it done the way she would like it.

My wife didn't like how it would look by just installing an aluminum angle bracket so she fashioned a piece of moulding to go cover the angle bracket. I personally would have lived with the angle bracket but I'm not particularly attuned to aesthetics.

 

[Obed]

You could give them some buffer space and make a cage around them with chicken wire, perhaps, so it doesn't plug up with a couple leaves. Might look redneck though.

You could bury them under rip rap, but then clean out would require moving rocks all the time.

You could just screen the ends and check and clean often.

Dig a dry well and put rocks in it, make a shroud over it with chicken wire so the water drains into the rocks and you only need to pull the cage to clean out.

Set a basket into the ground, like a sprinkler valve tub, dig drywell with rocks below it, let drain into the basket through cutouts in the side. Then pop the basket lid to get access for clean out.

Mostly I think you just need some buffer space so it doesn't plug too fast, but maintenance will be required in any case.

BTW - on the other end of this -
If you are going to go to the trouble to do this, on the upstream end, I'd put cleanouts in them right now. Why not save the hassle while you are doing it now?

Dave,
Those are some good suggestions. I think I'll just leave the ends of the gutter drain pipes wide open. However, I believe I'll put grates on the ends of the two pipes that connect to the foundation drain tiles. Those pipes shouldn't have tons of water flowing out of them like, unlike the gutter drains. Thus, the drain tile pipes won't self clean out if critters build nests in them. However, unlike the gutter drains, the drain tile drains will not have a lot of leaves and hopefully very little other debris so I think that putting grates on the ends of them will be ok.

Obed

 

[Barton]

Obed, I think if you used a ladder stabilizer you may not have to buy a taller ladder. I use a simple one and it does make the ladder much more stable. The down side is that you have more weight on the top end. It will also keep your ladder of the gutters on your shorter walls. Look at the Louisville Adjustable Ladder Stand-off. I got my simple one at Lowes.

Bart