Window/door question

[CurlyDave]

Just putting the housewrap down under the shingles is NOT enough.

There shouldn't be housewrap under the shingles in any circumstance. Either roofing felt, or now there is a new product called something like "ice-guard". It is a very thick, rubbery membrane with adhesive, sort of like Scotch tape, but much heavier duty. The roofers put that on my house. I had asked for triple paper, but they claimed this would be better, and after looking it over, I had to agree.

I had expected valley flashing in the valleys like on the dormers in that picture, but these guys interleaved the shingles in a kind of a woven pattern. I was dubious at first, but I drove around the area here in Oregon and roughly 50% of the houses had that done, while the other 50% had valley flashing. The ones with the interleaved shingles were the higher-end houses. Based on that, I let it go, and after last winter's very heavy rains, I have to say it has held up well. In California, there would have been valley flashing on 95+ % of the houses.

I'm not as big on home inspectors though - found a lot of them who weren't that impressive. I'd pay a good contractor to come out and give his opinion.

I would get an inspector instead of another contractor. My experience is that no contractor will ever praise another one's work. Sort of like a continual p!$$ing contest. An inspector doesn't have any axe to grind and will give a more unbiased opinion. Also, the opinion of a licensed inspector has legal weight, which the opinion of a second contractor does not.

I am not really that all concerned about the upstairs not being wrapped at this point, as long as it gets done eventually. Wrap that is added now will properly overlap the lower level wrap.

As for the window, I think you need to fire your contractor and get someone else to re-install the windows.

 

[Wayne County Hose]

Builder has been fired, Trump style. He still doesn't think he did anything wrong. The whole world is wrong, the architect, me, the I-joist manufacturer, Andersen, etc. I am going to pull all the windows, re-wrap the house, then install the windows properly. I'm going to do this myself over the July 4th weekend, weather permitting.

The porch is set on 15" diameter concrete footers sunk 4' down. The 6"x6" pressure treated posts are set on the steel anchors as per code. I made sure everything there was good. Funny, the excavating contractor told the builder what he had to do, then the excavator told me.

Eddie, the 2nd floor windows are all exactly as you mentioned. He told me he didn't want to install the house wrap first because he would have to move the scaffolding around too many times. So, he cut strips and installed from the inside. Unfortunately for me, I was ignorant to the process and didn't know better. Now I do.

The roof was done by a different contractor. They are real dormers. There is step flashing from the dormers to the roof, and over 450' of ice and water shield on the whole roof, way above what code requires. I have no issues with the roof or the way it was done.

I am in the process of locating a home inspector. I will have have this work inspected. I am trying to find the same guy that inspected our original house 14 years ago when we bought it. He was very thorough and knowledgable.

I was going to take pics last night but I got busy here at the shop and couldn't make it over there. I am meeting the builder today at 5:30 so that he can get his stuff out of the house, I will take pics then.

I really can't thank you guys enough. And Eddie, don't worry about sending me on a goose chase or worrying me. I would rather be concerned now and have it right then have a problem later. Yes, I do have a lot of money in this house. 2"x12"x20' rafters ain't cheap. And no, he didn't leave an interior wall for waste plumbing to go down. He made all the interior walls 2x4's. We ended up running it thru a closet, which I will make into a chase so it's not a big deal anyway.

 

[Charlesaf3]

Curlydave - not my experience, but then I'm in the business so mine might be different. Most good contractors I know won't say anything bad about someone elses work unless they know you - don't want the hassles.

Home inspecting doesn't take much of a license, if there even is one. I've come into contact with many I wasn't impressed with. They have on online test for home inspectors which is ridiculously easy. If you look at what they inspect, they specifically leave out most stuff in the fine print.

Granted, I'm sure there are good ones out there, but my experience has been poor.

 

[aczlan]

And no, he didn't leave an interior wall for waste plumbing to go down. He made all the interior walls 2x4's. We ended up running it thru a closet, which I will make into a chase so it's not a big deal anyway.

while you are doing that chase, might I recommend adding a 2-4 inch pipe that goes from the basement to the attic either in the chase or a couple in the walls??? when I worked as an electrician we did that on all new houses, it makes life MUCH easier 5-10 months/years down the road when you need another circuit or want to run a wire for __________ to the upstairs. much easier than trying to fish wire through a chase.

Just my $0.02

Aaron Z

 

[tommu56]

I would suggest a second chase 4" just in case you end up with a radon problem at from the basment to the attic you would only have to add fan and the connection under the slab and through roof.

I had to rout one in for a neighbor andit was a mess just so he could get his house sold.

tommy

 

[Wayne County Hose]

He-he. Way ahead of you guys. My brother is an electrician and is handling all of that. He already told me he's installing one 4" and two 2" pieces of PVC pipe from the basement to the attic. All will be capped until needed. Fortunately, electric is the least of my worries.

 

[Wayne County Hose]

Okay, here's some pics. Note the extra lumber around some of the windows. The builder forgot how to use a tape measure. The window sizes matched the window schedule, he made the openings the wrong size. Questions and comments welcome. There's also a sideways pic of the porch post footer. And a pic of the cathedral ceiling from the dining/living room area. I had wanted a log home style post and vertical beam, he put in 2x10's. That's another thing I have to fix. Also note the neighborly pic below. On the pic of the back of the house, there is nothing wrong with the roof. I had to shade the sun to take the pic and it distorted the image.
Thanks, Andy.

 

[Charlesaf3]

funny pic.

Those windows actually don't look bad to me from what I see - just not done yet. Only thing I don't like is how he tucked the housewrap under the nailing flange on top, that's bad flashing. Can't tell if there is some sort of of flashing under the areas that are already wrapped - that's pretty important. Looks like the nailing flange is on the face of the flashing though.

You can take a razor knife and cleanly cut the housewrap back (so that you can put it back) from the windows to check. But I'm pretty sure there's no flashing there.

Which is unacceptable. But easy to fix. You can do it yourself pretty quickly if you want to.

Remember, there should be flashing at all openings under the housewrap (vycor or such) and incorporated into the siding. All going like shingles to direct water to the outside of the house. Let me know if that isn't clear and I'll try to come up with pics.

Not essential depending on wind loads in your area, but I'd want simpson ties at the top of the posts to the rim joist on the porch. Cheap insurance.

Take a look for the Journal of Light Construction details books - they'll be more useful than the code for you to double check things as they have pics. Can buy from amazon or JLC website.

 

[Wayne County Hose]

A couple more.

 

[Charlesaf3]

He's not a big believer in shimming windows is he? Which is fine, but you do have to do the foam for sure, you don't want the fins being all that hold them on.

I'd slap a level on the windows for plumb though.