At Home In The Woods

[Pops15]

Obed,
I've used Rainflow on several houses including my Mom's. She has a huge maple tree that filled her gutters with seeds in the spring and leaves in the fall. I used to clean her gutters 2 and sometimes 3 times a year. We tried different types of screens. Most worked ok for leaves but none could keep the "helicopter" seeds out. So I'd have to pull the screens to clean the seeds out. I found that no screens were better than using the screens when it came to the maple seeds......until I found Rainflow. My gutter cleaning days are over. At least at my Mom's house. I haven't installed Rainflow in my gutters....yet. I'm going to replace my roof in the next year and I figure I'll install Rainflow then.
Pops

 

[Tororider]

Obed:

8/12 is a very steep roof pitch.

The roof will be slippery from water, wet leaves and possibly ice. Falling off will ruin your whole day.

Tying yourself to the chimney with a rope sounds like a way to re-enact an old-time hanging. At a minimum get a proper harness to wear.

I have seen and used gutter cleaners that are essentially long extensions for a leaf blower with a U-turn at the far end. You stay on the ground lift the end up into the gutter and blow out the leaves.

Needless to say the disadvantage is that you get a full & complete shower of all the stuff in the gutter coming down on you, but a rain slicker and a logger's hard hat will make it a lot easier to take than a fall from the roof.

Better yet, hire it done. In Grants Pass I can get a guy to clean my gutters for $100. I don't know what his technique is, and I have never watched him. But that is chump change for not having to take the chance of falling off the roof.

I agree with CurlyDave. I think if you have to tie yourself to something you should find another way to do it, and hiring it done may not be a bad deal. Just make sure whoever you hire is insured because as much as you falling from your roof can ruin your whole day, having someone else fall off your roof isn't far behind, especially if they aren't insured.

 

[mikefromnh]

Not the best website, but I like the 'Rain Handler'

Rainhandler Gutter self-cleaning dispersal system - The OFFICIAL Rainhandler Site

It is an alternative to gutters, simple to install, and it works.

 

[Ranger Rick]

Here is another gutter screen that I have read about and considered Gutterglove Gutterguard | The Worlds Most Powerful Gutter Protection System. I have tried the screen type that in your picture and the oak blossoms go right through it. They will sell direct to consumers if there is not anyone in the area that installs them.
Your house looks great. Rick

 

[Obed]

Cabinet Update

Thanks everybody for the responses to my cabinet questions. Nobody seemed to be thrilled about the metal drawers and neither was I but your comments helped us to decide.

We spoke to the most expensive cabinet maker this afternoon about some options we wanted that were not in his estimate. We told him we wanted dovetailed wood drawers, not the metal ones. He sent us a revised estimate that is $500 higher than his previous estimate. He said he likes to structure the payment schedule at 50/40/10 instead of 50/50 because sometimes there are long construction delays caused by other subs that delay him from being able to finish the job. He agreed to accept 50% down, 50% on completion payment schedule instead of the 50/40/10 plan if he gets the job.

He is $3500 higher than the next highest bid. I asked wife if she likes him $3500 more than her second choice cabinet maker. She is going to sleep on it.

We have a verbal agreement with the most expensive cabinet maker to give him the job; paperwork will be completed in the next day or two. The payment schedule will be 50% down, 40% on primary installation, and 10% upon completion. Primary installation is defined as the cabinet boxes are installed, all the hardware is installed, the doors and drawers are completed, but some minor things like a kickboard installation that is waiting on the H&A vent installation might not be installed.

 

[WBWI]

Obed, like you my home is in the woods. We thought we were doing ourselves a favor by having leaf guards installed. Great idea in theory but here in the upper midwest any water that melts on the roof during winter promptly refreezes on the aluminum guards and creates large ice dams. You won't have the winters like we have but it is still a concern. I'm trying to decided if I want to install deicing cables or just remove the guards completely.

 

[Obed]

The HVAC guy had to cut through the house wrap and sheeting to install the solid H&A ductwork in the trusses. He patched his holes using the same sheathing and house wrap pieces that he cut out.

Unfortunately, these patches were not be very water tight. He made 4 holes. The picture shows 2 of the holes.

So this evening I got some scrap house wrap pieces from the scrap pile and patched the house wrap to make sure everything overlapped for water protection.

 

[Obed]

Eyebrow Question

Brick will be laid from the footer to the eyebrow shown here. After the brick is laid, the vinyl soffit will be installed under the eyebrow. The vinyl soffit will be attached to the brick using J-channel. One of the vinyl subs said the horizonal ledger board that attaches the bottom of the eyebrow to the wall will cause a problem. The other two vinyl subs said they don't anticipate a problem with the ledger board. We don't intend to have a frieze board or any trim below the eyebrow soffit as we think it would look bad on our house.

Do you guys see this setup as a problem? Will we end up with a gap between the brick and the eyebrow soffit? What's the solution.

Thanks in advance,
Obed

 

[Ranger Rick]

Obed I was looking at your picture where you patched the house wrap. Do you have any house wrap tape? You really should tape those seams. The house wrap not only keeps out the water it keeps air from infiltrating the house. The tighter you can make the envelope the better off you will be when the wind blows.
Rick

 

[Obed]

I attached a couple of pictures that I hope will better explain what I am talking about... you know a thousand words...

nhkabotab7800,
It's been a while since you posted this message but it is coming in real handy now. We have picked the brick mason and are writing down some specifics about the brick job that we want to make sure he does. The deck ledgeboard flashing picture you provided is very helpful. I'm sure we wouldn't have gotten the flashing done that way if you hadn't provided the picture. It wouldn't have occurred to me to put flashing over the ledgerboard.

Thanks very much,
Obed

 

[nhkabotab7800]

Obed,

thanks for the kind words, I have enjoyed watching your progress and reading everyone's comments.

in regards to your eyebrow question...could you have the brick stop say an inch short of the ledger board ( lower if the vinal sub is going to use straping ) and have the soffit rest on top of the brick?

the devil is in the details and my experience is that subs will do things the easiest way for themselves and rarely make the extra effort to make it work better for the subs that come after them. it is a money thing...less labor more proffit... kudos to you for asking questions from people hear that have more experience than you, many people will not do that.

as far as the brickies go make sure you have good air circulation behind the brick ( honey comb vents at the top and bottom) and a way to let moisture (it will get behind the brick) get out.

brick tie ins should be attached to studs, not just put into the sheathing, easy to check of the drywall is not yet installed. when flashing overlaps ( asphault covered copper ) the overlap should be sealed.

looks good Obed really making some progress now. :thumbsup:

 

[ruralruss]

Hey obed, you sure are quiet!

Russ

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Obed, did you get much of that flood that hit Memphis?

 

[dcyrilc]

Obed, did you get much of that flood that hit Memphis?

He's fairly high up on top of that hill. If it affected him, I'm willing to bet we would hear a lot about it in the news.

 

[Obed]

Obed, did you get much of that flood that hit Memphis?

Some of the rain that hit Memphis and Nashville also reached here. We did not get nearly as much but we still go enough to cause me some extra work. We got 3 1/2 inches of heavy rain. I was working on this drain tile when the rain started and I had to stop. I was 15 minutes away from finishing. I had a steady stream of rain running down from the roof valley onto this spot and there was no way I could continue working. Unfortunately, my drain tile and gravel got filled with silt so I'm going to have to completely redo it including shoveling out all the gravel and replacing it with clean gravel.

The rain also washed mud, up to 2 inches deep in places, onto the footers that have to be cleaned off before the brick can be laid.

The good news is that the basement stayed dry. Plus, myy inconveniences are tiny compared to what the people in Nashville have been going through.

 

[Obed]

Retaining Wall Drains
Last weekend my wife rented a hammer drill. I used it to install some drains through the 12" poured concrete retaining walls. This thing was a monster. I had to be careful because the slip clutch didn't work reliably. Until I got used to the drill, the drill bit would catch and spin the drill out of my hands. If I wasn't careful as to how I held it, it could have broken a thumb or wrist.

This position about wore me out.

I finally found a position that didn't tire me out so much. I would put pressure on the end of the drill with my shin instead of using only my arms. When I noticed how much concrete dust the drill was causing, I put on a mask. While working, a pretty friend joined me for a visit.

I drilled 5 holes through the walls, three in this wall and two in the other wall. I hit rebar when drilling one of the holes so I had to move over a couple inches and drill again.

 

[Obed]

Wednesday evening after work I installed some drain pipes in the retaining wall holes I drilled on Saturday. I wrapped landscaping fabric around the end of the pipes then used some hydraulic cement to secure the pipes in the holes.

 

[Obed]

My mission in life the past couple weeks has been to prep the house for laying brick. I didn't spend much time on TBN because I was pretty busy. As I mentioned earlier, the construction manager had back filled over the footers and brick ledges in lots of places around the house. I spent several hours after work this week and today removing dirt and gravel from the footers and brick ledges. The brick mason has another job right now and should start laying our brick in a couple of weeks.

 

[Obed]

We had the brick mason come out and look around the house to see if we needed to do anything before he started working.

He said this porch is going to cause him a problem with his scaffolding. He asked us to have the framer provide some extra supports for this porch because the brick mason is going to have to place his scaffolding on top of the porch. I have to say that makes me a little nervous. The mason said that normally the brick goes on the house before a porch roof like this one would be built. That's something we didn't know about and the framer obviously didn't think about before the porch roof was built.

 

[Obed]

The brick mason said the eyebrows would not be a problem. He said that he will cut his brick and make sure that the brick goes all the way to the bottom of the eyebrows. That makes me happy. I don't want a gap between the soffits and the brick.