New Home Begins

tkappeler · Apr 23, 2013

Back on page 46, I was asking opinions for the lineals around the windows. The choices were pine/capped with aluminum, azek or similar but needs painting or vinyl. We settled for the maintenance free. After a slow start with one window, it came back to me. The second window took about 10 minutes, including cutting, miters, starter strips, etc. I am happy with that.

Sorry for the bad quality of the pics as they were taken with my phone, not camera.

dave1949 · Apr 23, 2013

It looks fine and maintenance free is always good. Life is too short for painting. I do appreciate the beauty of an old Victorian Lady all freshly painted, but I would never own one.

Dr Dave · Apr 24, 2013

I like the window trim you chose, what color is the siding going to be?

Dave

tkappeler · Apr 24, 2013

Dr Dave said:
I like the window trim you chose, what color is the siding going to be?

Dave

Dave,

Certainteed Monogram .046 thick vinyl, Spruce is the color. Some pics are back at this
post. The soffit and trim is Natural Clay, which is the color closest to the Andersen sandtone color.

tkappeler · Apr 29, 2013

About 1/2 of the siding is up in 8 nights and 1 weekend. Gable end, unvented soffits are up as we go. The vented soffits for the eaves are not up yet as the supplier had to transfer natural clay "F" channel from a different location and is not in yet. What do you think?

The porch and adjacent walls are not done since we are waiting for the concrete porch and garage to be poured so we can establish where the siding will go.

I will be pressure testing the water lines tomorrow and plugging the drains in preparation for the rough plumbing inspection later this week. HVAC next week.

I still have the gas lines to install over the weekend. That will be a combination of black pipe for running parallel to the joists and the corrogated stainless steel gas line for running through the joists. I may jump to 1" from 3/4" in the off chance that natural gas makes it way down the street, but we are told that will never happen. I have been told that 3/4" is plenty for propane.

Have a good night all.

Dr Dave · Apr 30, 2013

Nice job Tom! I looked back at your first post of your property, you have made great progress.

I think you will be fine with 3/4" gas pipe, most natural gas home services are 3/4", and propane requires more gas per BTU, than natural gas.

Dave

Obed · May 1, 2013

Great work Tom. I know it's a nice feeling the be getting the siding up. Obed

tkappeler · May 8, 2013

Big night last night. Rough plumbing inspection was slated for this morning. Since we have no well yet, we have no water to flood the drains to test for leaks and show the inspector. Pex lines have been holding 80 psi since Sunday so I was confident there. The jack of all trades excavator dropped off a trailer with a tank of 200 gallons of water for us to use. We plugged all drains and filled it up using a small pump and garden hoses. Unfortunately, we found one small leak in a 4" fitting to the master tub.

I made the trip to the big box store, drained the lines and cut out the offending piece.

Yeah, I know, it was not my best work. I replaced it last night and filled it this morning before the inspector arrived.

All went well this morning. I got to the house early and filled the lines. I had a slip joint drip in the tub overflow but I can fix that after the line is drained again. The inspector arrived and passed us. He said we did a really nice, tight job. He liked that we used the PEX expander fittings rather than the crimp kind as the crimp fittings reduce the diameter of flow. The expanded are a full 1/2" or 3/4" through the fittings.

HVAC installation begins tomorrow with the framing inspection next week some time.

edit: We will add additional supports tonight. We will put the gas lines this weekend.

Dr Dave · May 8, 2013

Congrats on passing the plumbing inspection! When is the well going in?

Dave

tkappeler · May 8, 2013

Dr Dave said:
Congrats on passing the plumbing inspection! When is the well going in?

Dave

The well is expected to go in next week or so. They have to call for utility mark out before they drill. I expect them to come out and review the site at the end of this week anyway. The septic won't go in until after the house has the drywall loaded into it. The septic guy wants to wait for the heavy trucks to be finished before putting in the field since it will be in front. The drywall should be the last one to get close to the house.

The garage and porch slabs are scheduled for next week also. They are going to put rebar horizontally into the superior walls around the perimeter and use the existing brackets on the back wall. He also suggested digging two or three holes down 3' - 4' in the middle to act as piers to support the middle.

We have put up 16 square of siding and have about 6.5 square left. I am considering attaching the ledgers for a future deck now so we can get that sealed properly. Vycor against the rim joist, LedgerLok screws per code, more Vycor extending down over the lip of the ledger and metal flashing on it. It seems easier to accommodate the ledger from the start rather than rip siding out later.

ENG18LT · May 8, 2013

Looking good Tom. How is the basement doing as far as water goes? The walls/joints seem to be staying water tight?

tkappeler · May 8, 2013

ENG18LT said:
Looking good Tom. How is the basement doing as far as water goes? The walls/joints seem to be staying water tight?

Completely watertight. The sump crocks are never more than 1/2 full when we turn the generator on.

ENG18LT · May 8, 2013

tkappeler said:
Completely watertight. The sump crocks are never more than 1/2 full when we turn the generator on.

Nice.

dstig1 · May 9, 2013

Congrats on the inspections!

mjncad · May 9, 2013

Good deal on passing the plumbing inspection. I'm sort of surprised that the HVAC didn't go in first as the ducts are the biggest thing to route. No matter, as long as it meets your approval, that's all that matters.

I agree, put up the ledger board now while it's easy to do.

tkappeler · May 9, 2013

mjncad said:
Good deal on passing the plumbing inspection. I'm sort of surprised that the HVAC didn't go in first as the ducts are the biggest thing to route. No matter, as long as it meets your approval, that's all that matters.

I agree, put up the ledger board now while it's easy to do.

I hear you about the HVAC first. Did the electric and plumbing ourselves out of pocket so did not have to worry about bank draw schedules. We had already done a site survey with the HVAC company so we knew where the trunks were going and kept that in mind when we ran everything so those "lanes" were clear.

The one tough part is that the trunks will have to drop down UNDER the beams on either side of the great room. There is no room to run them between the ijoists as they are 12" on center (7" in between) and solid blocking all along the beams so cant run through them. It makes me especially happy to have gone with the 9' basement ceilings.

mjncad · May 10, 2013

I sure wish Casa Lemon as I call our house had 9' ceilings in the basement. Good deal on coordinating with the HVAC company on routing and sizing. I've drawn up just enough HVAC ducts for commercial and industrial faculties to know all the contractor cares about is duct sizing, routing, and general location as they wing it from there.

tkappeler · May 10, 2013

Here are some pics of the HVAC work in progress. The pics were taken yesterday, during the work, so it's a bit of a mess. I will get better pics now that it's complete.

Monday is the HVAC inspection. I will be running the gas lines tomorrow and preparing for the framing inspection next week. We could be into insulation and drywall the week after!!.