At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

We finished filling the front porch today.

My wife and I are both tired. Cleaning up the brick, mortar, and concrete debris while we filled the porch added lots of time to the job, at least double. However, it is nice to clean up some of the debris; we either did it now or we would have to do it later. I'm pleased with the results and feel very satisfied with what we accomplished this weekend.

Now I just wish I had a day to rest before going back to my real job tomorrow. Going to work tired on Monday is not ideal. However, I'm glad that filling the porch is finished.

 

[Obed]

The hardwood flooring got delivered this week. There are stacks of flooring spread around the house. My wife bought a moisture detector off of E-Bay for $75. She made moisture measurements of the lumber the day it arrived.

 

[Obed]

Obed, I looked at your H&A pad beside your retaining wall and I think it is too close. I don't know anyone who doesn't allow room to get completely around an outside unit. On mine, that's where the service access is. Even if you turn it so the access is on one of the sides not facing the wall, you will need unrestricted airflow for the best heat transfer. I would allow a minimum of 18" behind the unit with 24" being better. I'm not a HVAC expert, but that was my immediate thought when I saw your pad. If I am wrong, surely there are experts here who will correct me.

Jim,
Our H&A guy told us to put the pad 1 foot from the retaining wall so that's where I put it.

Obed

 

[firefighter9208]

We finished filling the front porch today.

My wife and I are both tired. Cleaning up the brick, mortar, and concrete debris while we filled the porch added lots of time to the job, at least double. However, it is nice to clean up some of the debris; we either did it now or we would have to do it later. I'm pleased with the results and feel very satisfied with what we accomplished this weekend.

Now I just wish I had a day to rest before going back to my real job tomorrow. Going to work tired on Monday is not ideal. However, I'm glad that filling the porch is finished.

Obed,

I think your still going to have problems with the concrete porch settling. No matter how much you tamped the gravel it is still going to settle.

I think you only have two options.

1. drill into the bricks along the house and install rebar pins. Tie the rebar to rebar in the slab and hope that it doesn't settle.

2. Get a concrete contractor to pour the slab using channel decking Corrugated Metal Roofing, Siding Material, Metal Siding Systems . I can't tell from your photos if there is enough of a lip along the front of the house to set the decking on, but this is the proper way to pour this slab. Your brick masons should has used a step block there to set the decking on. I have included a link to the decking I am talking about. It is used all the time for this application. Look at the 2" composite and N decking on the link.

I have a friend that has an 8' wide by aprox 40' long concrete porch that is poured over the front part of his basement. He has a "safe room" under the porch that you can see the bottom of the steel decking. He has had no settling or "major" cracking in the 10 years he has lived in his house.

We have sidewalks here at school that were poured on top of fill that was tamped with a tamper. They installed rebar pins into the walls and one of the sidewalks has settled 2" in 10 years.

Chris

 

[brin]

" I have a friend that has an 8' wide by aprox 40' long concrete porch that is poured over the front part of his basement. He has a "safe room" under the porch that you can see the bottom of the steel decking. He has had no settling or "major" cracking in the 10 years he has lived in his house. "

firefighter...That is exactly what we did when we built our house...We have a safe room in our basement with a steel door and as you say the brick mason installed a ledge on the top course of brick or when the basement walls were poured they left a ledge for the steel decking to be placed on and then the cement is poured on top of it. Our porch is L shaped and 10 ft. wide by a total of 40 ft. long. It has been 5 yrs. now and it is great and so is the safe room below. That is the way to do it.

 

[jinman]

Jim,
Our H&A guy told us to put the pad 1 foot from the retaining wall so that's where I put it.

Obed

Photos can be deceiving. It looked much closer than 1' to me. I think 1' is still a bit close, but I'd also go with the H&A guy unless I had a special reason to not do that.

 

[dstig1]

Obed,

I think your still going to have problems with the concrete porch settling. No matter how much you tamped the gravel it is still going to settle.

I think you only have two options.

1. drill into the bricks along the house and install rebar pins. Tie the rebar to rebar in the slab and hope that it doesn't settle.

2. Get a concrete contractor to pour the slab using channel decking

Chris

I almost suggested Spancrete, but it's really too late for these solutions. Most of these things need to be engineered in at the beginning. Besides, Spancrete isn't readily available everywhere. I didn't think it was worth bringing up at this point as there isn't a lot that can be done.

Drilling into the brick facing is not really going to give you a structural attachment. You'd need to tie into the foundation, and it may not be possible if the block is not grouted solid where you need to attach.

You can always come back and mudjack it down the road if it sags enough to come to that.

-Dave

 

[charlz]

As for garage door openers. My in-laws house in Vegas had a belt drive installed when built. In about 6 years or so the belt was chewed up and I replaced the opener with a screw drive. My in-law's hated that, said it made too much noise in the room over the garage and, more of an issue for them, it was slower to open than a chain or belt drive unit.

I have 4 chain drive units in my house here and they are work very well 10 years later. Biggest issue I have had is the framers did not put good blocking in the walls to support the tracks (above the header on the sides). One of the tracks pulled out some causing binding and eventually wore out a plastic drive gear. $20 gear kit and some angle iron solved that problem.

 

[Obed]

Door Knob and Lock Questions
We are trying to decide what kind of doorknobs and locks to put on the doors, for both interior and exterior doors. Should we put a deadbolt on the door between the garage and kitchen? Should we have keyless locks anywhere? What's a good system for locking all the doors before we leave the house? We have 5 exterior doors plus a door between the garage and kitchen and a door going to the basement stairwell to consider. I really would hate to have to go down to the basement to check door locks before leaving the house every day. If we wanted to add a dead bolt to a door later, can we get a deadbolt lock that matches the key for the other locks? Should one key open all the doors or should we have some doors that use a different key?

Where does home automation and security system fit into the door locks?

Thanks in advance,
Obed

 

[Obed]

As for garage door openers. My in-laws house in Vegas had a belt drive installed when built. In about 6 years or so the belt was chewed up and I replaced the opener with a screw drive. My in-law's hated that, said it made too much noise in the room over the garage and, more of an issue for them, it was slower to open than a chain or belt drive unit.

I have 4 chain drive units in my house here and they are work very well 10 years later. Biggest issue I have had is the framers did not put good blocking in the walls to support the tracks (above the header on the sides). One of the tracks pulled out some causing binding and eventually wore out a plastic drive gear. $20 gear kit and some angle iron solved that problem.

Chain drive garage door openers seem to be the least expensive openers; I'm hearing some people on this thread prefer them. Is there any reason we would not get chain drive openers? Are their any drawbacks? Since our garage is not close to the bedrooms, I don't think noise is a major issue for us.

Obed