Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[pclausen]

I'm still not seeing the lip that the deck frame boards coming out from the wall are supposed to be sitting on, on the back of the house? For there to be a significant lip there the entire floor frame and back wall would have had to of been set back from the outer edge of the concrete or the plate on top of it. I don't see it in any of the pictures.
There is a small lip from the plate edge to the edge of the concrete before the flakeboard sheathing is put on but should be flush afterwards so the siding
won't bulge out at the bottom.

Ron, hopefully these pictures will help. Here is a corner as seen from the outside:

Same corner as seen from inside the basement. Note how all 6 2x12 board are fully resting on the basement walls.

Shot of one pair of the 2x12s along the rear walls, they are also fully resting on the beasement walls

The only area where the boards are not resting on the basement walls are in front of the master bedroom slider. In this closeup, you can see the "bolts" they used to attach the board to the wall. Hopefully they will back those out and drill holes for real 1/2" bolts when they add the hangers.

A shot of the pedestals.

 

[pclausen]

dstig beat me here - you can not vent in soffit. warm, moist air likes to "rise over cold" it just going to comeback up in the roof and cause you issues like mold, etc. I know you stated you going to talk to builder, but it HAS to be done.

Just got back from talking to the electricians who are there working today. They will re-route the exhaust from the fans to the closest rake wall, which will be facing up into the woods, so that is the perfect wall anyway.

I also talked to them about the ceiling cans. Each can has an external electrical box, so the wires do not create any leaks into the can area itself that is exposed to the living space.

 

[dave1949]

So, what is the best way to put flashing on the deck-wall connection? Will they spray foam in the basement behind the deck intrusions?

 

[pclausen]

With all the R value and foam sealing you are going to have ( in theory ) are you putting a fresh air exchange unit on the HVAC?
Might get a little low on O2 and high on petro-chem fumes if you don't.

You mean someting like this?

AccuExchange Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) - Fresh, Healthy Air - American Standard Air Heating and Air Conditioning

You're right. If the house is real airtight, one of those would be nice. I have one in my house.

Is the foam in the basement required to be covered with PB before occupancy?

If you are referring to the stuff that came already installed on the Superior Walls, I believe the answer is no.

Any foam sprayed above the sill plate between the floor joist is supposed to be covered with PB.

Right, the builder told me that when I asked about spraying the basement ceilings, so we plan to not do that, although I do want the holes sealed where the 2x12 boards for the deck protude and I can see daylight.

 

[srs]

Pete, a couple of items come to mind here.

1) Glad they will put bolts in the ledger board at the bedroom slider.

2) I would suggest that the rim joists covering the interior perimeter of the house be sprayed with foam (1/2" close cell). Why I say this is I happened to check that space in my basement when I was building some shelves and noticed the rim joist was frozen solid with a sheet of ice. Even though I had insulation there, with warm air on the inside and extremely cold air on the outside it acted like a glass filled with ice sitting on a table. I removed all the insulation batts on the perimeter rim joist, blew the dirt out with a blower and hired an insulation company to come out and spray 1/2 close cell foam. I repacked the batts for extra protection. Problem solved.

3) Don't know if you'll have this issue but my master bath is located next to an exterior wall. One time when it was very cold outside I noticed some drips coming from the exhaust fan located in the ceiling. This occurred (I think) because the area above the bathroom is an area without heat. The vent pipe (like you showed coming from the master bath) just sat on top of the insulation. What I did was wrap the vent pipe with several layers of insulation to prevent the cold glass syndrome. My suggestion to you is have the spray insulation guys give a shot of the foam surrounding your vent pipe. You could then later wrap/cover the pipe for added protection or tell the insulation guys to wrap the pipe with some batts.

4) Finally, everyone here already saw pictures of the Big Boss (your beautiful daughter). How about a shot of the construction crew? Ok, done for now Pete. Stanley

 

[pacerron]

Pete,
My old house was built according to the hype 20 years ago. 2 x 4 walls, PB, plastic vapor barrier, unfaced fiberglass ( best densitiy at the time), and then the thing that gives me almost as much combined R for the sandwich as you have, 1" thick foil covered on both sides "Polyisocyanurate" guessed spelling,
then siding. The windows, plug boxes, etc were foamed around too. The hype then was that the foil faced foam board stopped migration of heat or cold through the studs and the mass of headers above the windows and doors, since it outside of them. It works pretty good, but of course there are some leaks and the double glazed, double wide, double hung windows, the 3 sliding glass doors, other big stationary windows, other entry doors, vents etc. lower the real R value considerably.

Suit up and watch them spray the foam. Nit pick anywhere they miss.
The 1" to 1.5" that they are going to spray inside your 2x6 studs needs to be "closed cell" It has an R value of 6.5 per inch. Open cell is the same as fiberglass, 3.5R per inch and does not block moisture. They both block wind seepage but so does your house wrap. They will only be able to use 3.5" of fiberglass after the foam. If you compress it, it loses R value. They won't spray the foam to an exact thickness (1-1.5 they said ) so you may have some air space in the sandwich. It is important to have them split the fiberglass and put some behind the wall plug wires and some in front, rather than pinch it all behind or in front the wire.

All the above to get back to your humidity comfort statement..........
We have an aquarium with a waterfall pump, a large statuary fountain thing in the flower room to keep the orchids happy between watering, take 2-3 showers a day and have 2 bodies adding moisture to the air. We still need to run the humidifier to be comfortable at 72 degees inside and not hack and cough in the morning.

Your mom is only 1 person so she will not generate as much moisture.
At your house you have big fish tanks and big filter troughs in the basement that are bound to be adding humidity to your inside environment plus a wife and kids.
You will have to be the judge, but if he has to modify the trunk lines on the HVAC for fresh air and humidification, now would be the time to do it, as well as getting the programming set right for the system, rather than adding this stuff later and hoping it can be made to work properly.

 

[Obed]

Any recommendations for under cabinet LED lights? I spoke to the electrician about it, and he will wire in a single feed, so the plan is to get the kind that you can string together.

Pete,
Here are some pictures of our under cabinent lights. They are just simple flourescent lights. The fixtures have two brightness settings. We keep ours on the soft light setting. For our needs, LED lights wouldn't have worked and looked any better than the less expensive flourescent lamps. We have lights under 3 cabinets; one light switch on the wall turns them all on or off. Each fixture also has its own switch so, if we wanted, we could turn on each of the under cabinet lights individually. We always turn the all cabinet lights on or off together.



One thing to note, make sure the electrician installs the lights at the front of the cabinet like shown above our toaster over. The light beside our sink was installed toward the back of the cabinet close to the wall; it doesn't light the countertop as well as the other two cabinet lights.

Regards,
Obed

 

[Obed]

Pete,
Our garage slab has between 6" and 12" of #57 gravel under it. We made the subcontractor pack it with a vibrating compactor even though he resisted. The gravel settled a full inch as a result of compacting. Personally observing 6" of gravel settle a full inch after being compacted makes me question the "self compacting" claim. If you have rebar attached to the foundation at the slab edges and the gravel in the middle settles an inch after pouring the slab, you will definitely notice it. Maybe 6" of #57 uncompacted gravel won't ever settle a full inch sitting under a concrete slab but I have to wonder.

In most places the workmanship I am seeing in your project appears better than most. But nobody is perfect so all workers/subs/contractors need some oversight. This principle applies in all disciplines, not just the building trades.

I'm enjoying your thread. Thanks for posting your project.

Obed

 

[dave1949]

Just out of morbid curiosity I googled "compacting #57 stone" last night. It is a long-discussed topic in construction apparently. Sort of like R1's vs R4's :laughing:

In your case Obed, some would claim that the stone was not compacted, the soil beneath it was, and the stone was integrated into the soil surface. But, most believe a jumping jack is the correct tool to be used for soil compaction, not a plate vibrator.

Almost everyone agrees that #57 stone is 85% - 95% self-compacting. I take that to mean it will compact, but not enough to make a difference in typical residential construction. Once the slab is placed on top, there isn't enough force or vibration to make it settle. In that regard, Eddie's statement that it is a "feel good" step makes sense. Do it if it makes you feel good, but the end result won't differ.

They did plate compact the stone footing for the pre-cast walls in Pete's house. I guess technically, from the bit of reading I did, they should have used a jumping jack compactor on the soil first, then spread the stone and plate compacted that a bit. It does help level the stone and tighten it up.

People have run into problems with un-compacted #57 in commercial projects like highways, but that is a whole different environment and set of challenges.

Anyways, it is an interesting topic.

 

[pacerron]

Here's a summary of the 2012 IRC code changes and interpretation of what they mean. The real final 2012 IRC should be available at local libraries.
RIM joist insulation is one of the changes.
The foam didn't use to need covering for fire protection, I have read, unless it was more than 3.5" thick. Don't know now. All this stuff is subject to local code enforcement interpretation. We need to be responsible to protect ourselves and our loved ones when it comes to safety issues in our homes regardless of lack of codes. There have been many people injured or worse in situations where every code was met.
http://www.engr.psu.edu/phrc/training/2012 Sneak Peek Program_PBA.pdf