The "holidays"... yeesh.

I'm done promising to follow any kind of regular posting schedule. Unfortunately, since this blog is just a sort of "hobby" for me, there are times when I just can't get enough time in to adhere to a schedule. Such has been the case for the last few weeks, owing to all the extra commitments that seem to be required at this time of year.

I laugh at myself a little for making these promises in the first place. I know that "real life" will always intervene in my good intentions, yet never has that knowledge stopped me from making promises to post regularly - until now. I do have a number of new posts in the works which I'm hoping to have ready in the new year, but in the meantime...

It's the time of year for building lebkuchen passivhauser.

Into Giants - Patrick Watson

"Coolth" storage.

Here in Northwest Ontario, we've had quite a mild fall. About a week or two ago the temperatures started to dip down to something closer to what would normally be expected for this time of year - daily highs in the vicinity of -5C and nightly lows down to -15C. But now, we're back to mild weather (it's 7C as I write this and our snow is melting fast). The other day, I was out in my barn and noticed something kind of neat (at least in my mind)...

The white stuff on the tire is a thick layer of ice crystals. Any guesses as to what's going on here? It might help to know that the tube inside this tire is filled with a solution of calcium chloride for extra weight. The answer is "below the fold".

Mountain Sound - Of Monsters and Men

Resurrecting some fun from the past.

I was doing some cleaning up on my computer and I came across a couple of old blog posts that I had written for another blog I had started years ago. I never really did much of anything with the old blog and I am in the process of deleting it, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to delete these posts. I thought I would give them a home on this blog instead.

Image from Wikimedia commons.

I Wanna Rob a Bank - Jason Collet

Windows - finally.

Despite the intensity of the experience, there have been very few times where I actually felt any anxiety about any particular aspect of this project. One of those aspects was not having a roof. Another was the lead-up to the installation of the trusses. And yet another was the installation of the big picture windows I ordered from Thermotech. The reason for this anxiety (mild though it was) was that the the largest windows are quite heavy and awkward - not to mention expensive - and we were to be working on scaffold 10' above the ground. My "Spidey senses" were tingling and I do well to pay attention.

Installing large windows is a team effort.

Time to Switch to Whiskey - Corb Lund

Team Typar!

I mentioned in my last post that one of the "real world" strategic difficulties I've had to deal with is how to go about insulating the wall one portion at a time, sometimes with weeks in between each portion. Part of my strategy was to use Roxul batts for insulation, the other part of my strategy has been to not install more insulation than I can cover over with Typar before the weather threatens precipitation. Successful execution of this strategy relies on keeping track of the weather forecast and also having a rough idea of how much time it will take to cover up the insulation.

That was a lot of work.

Cosmic Girl - Jamiroquai

The joy of insulating.

I've decided to take a break from posting on topics in [quasi] chronological order. To that end, I think I'll get into how I've been insulating the exterior walls of this house. Overall, I've been quite pleased with how the process has been going - it's always nice when things work out according to plan.

Knowing that I would be insulating with Roxul batts, the walls were built so that their dimensions would suit "off-the shelf" insulation - in this case, "ComfortBatt" for 2x4 walls at R14 per layer (three layers).

Joy of Cooking - Old Man Luedecke

Touchin' base.

I've been having a real tough time keeping up with my blogging duties lately - sorry about that. The good news is, however, that I have been busy making progress on this project. I had the last three weeks free from my "day job" and got quite a bit done including the installation of the biggest of the windows and much "stuffing" of insulation. So, now that things are cooling off again a little, I hope to get back to some semblance of regular posting!

What I like to do on my "holidays".

Treetop Flyer - Stephen Stills

So long neoprene.

My last post ended with a photo of some electrical conduit sticking out from a wall. My original plan for air sealing these types of penetrations was going to be to stretch a square of neoprene rubber around the conduit, then tape the neoprene to the plywood. Since this was the first piece of conduit to be installed, I let the neoprene sit around the conduit for a while before taping it down, to see what would happen - if anything...

That's about half an inch of conduit sticking out there.

Framing the sunroom - part 3.

Carrying on from my last post, this post will cover the remainder of the framing details for the sunroom.

Looking east over the roof joists towards the leafless trees of the Slate River Valley in May.

Framing the sunroom - part 2.

In part 1, I layed out the more important design considerations of the sunroom. Now, in part 2, I'll get on with some of the practical aspects. Back in spring, I was putting a "push on" to get the sunroom to a point where I would be able to leave it alone for a few weeks as we were planning to visit my family out west by the end of May. Since I was working hard to get things done, I unfortunately didn't remember to take as many pictures of the process as I would have liked. Apologies in advance.

Wall framing is all 2x6 24" o.c., while the roof joists are 2x8 24" o.c. for the short span over the door switching to 12" o.c. for the longer span on the east side. The window and door headers were set flush with the inside of the wall since the sheathing will be applied on the inside - as with the rest of the house. Overall, I don't intend to superinsulate the sunroom, nor do I intend to make much effort to reduce thermal bridging through the studs and joists. I am, however, committed to making the sunroom as "tight" as I can for durability reasons.

Framing the sunroom - part 1 revisted... again.

In the same vein as my last post, this post is in response to another new detail - at the sunroom [exterior] wall top and bottom plates.

Technical difficulties...

Just a note to say that I am having some issues with Blogger at the moment. After an unsucessful attempt at uploading a new detail, I managed to lose the other detail I uploaded last week...

Problem "solved" - I found a work-around. A new detail has been added on the "Details" page.

Long Tall Sally - Little Richard

Framing the sunroom - part 1 revisited.

I finally managed to add some sunroom details to the "details" section the other night so I thought it might be helpful to revisit "Framing the sunroom - part 1" and relate the new sketch to some of my earlier verbal descriptions.

The cistern - insulation and top access.

Since I still haven't had a chance to draw up the details I promised in "Framing the sunroom - part 1", I thought I'd take a little detour with this post and take another look at the cistern. Since I buried the tank last summer, I haven't thought about it much - briefly during the coldest part of last winter ("I wonder if the water has frozen?" - it never did) and then again this spring when I noticed that during an unusual spell of heavy rain, ground water backed up against the access lids and leaked into the tank. Ground water leakage counts as contamination so I thought I had better do something about it.

Here is what the cistern looked like last August after its burial. After some rough grading work, the tank was insulated near the surface and equipped with some basic treated wood retaining boxes.

Framing the sunroom - part 1.

The first major goal for the spring of 2012 was to frame the attached sunroom on the south wall of the house. There are a number of factors that led me to build the sunroom in the way that I have decided to proceed. This first part of a new series on the sunroom will set the stage by covering some of the important design considerations.

The attached sunroom in an early stage of construction during the spring. Spring was early this year so I had plenty of time to get'er done before we were due to leave on a trip to the west coast at the end of May.

Framing the exterior wall trusses - part 4 - the forgotten parts.

This is essentially the final part of my series of posts detailing the framing of the exterior wall trusses - there may be a few revisits of specific things in the future. Part 4 is a short post on how I framed the corners (which I almost forgot to mention) and how I air-sealed the corners of the rim board (which I did forget to mention in part 2).

Choosing a picture to go "above the fold" is sometimes tricky. I chose this one because it shows a missing corner but also because I found the snow a refreshing reminder of a time when it wasn't so hot...

Framing the exterior wall trusses - part 3.

In part 2, I described my approach to installing the secondary studs and the secondary top plate. In part 3 I am getting into how I framed the window and door openings into the secondary structure. Throughout this post I will drop the use of the term "secondary" since all the components discussed in this post belong in that category, but if some clarification is required I'll just insert the term "primary" where required. On with the show!

A completed opening photographed in dusky winter light. Plywood window bucks to be added at a later time.

I'm back.

I haven't posted much to this blog over the last month. In part I was too busy helping to get our garden going while also having to work a lot of overtime at my "day job". I was also away for a couple of weeks visiting my family on the west coast. Now that I'm back and the garden is in and growing, I'm hoping I'll have the time to resume regular posting. Next up, framing the exterior wall trusses - part 3.

Visiting Vancouver... Condos, condos, condos... welcome to Canada's biggest real estate bubble - but wait, it's not really a bubble, Vancouver's different...

Framing the exterior wall trusses - part 2.

In part 1 of this "mini-series" on framing the wall trusses, I covered the installation of the "secondary" bottom plates and the gussets - both of which are required to tie the secondary studs to the "primary" structure of the house. In this post I will go over the process of how I installed the secondary studs. In part 3, I will cover the process of how I framed the rough openings on the secondary side of the wall structure.

Fastening the secondary studs is easy but some care must be taken to make sure they all line up to make a straight wall.

Framing the exterior wall trusses - Part 1.

With the roof now able to keep my project dry and the load bearing structure of the house complete, it was time to turn my attention to "building out" the exterior walls. The extra thickness of these walls comes from the addition of exterior trusses and an interior service cavity. An advantage (in terms of "buildability") of the wall system I am using is that the wall trusses are essentially built "one stick at a time". This allowed me to "pick away" at the framing here and there by myself as time permitted. This post will cover the first steps in the process.

"Building out" the exterior walls was my winter project this year.

Sheathing the main floor walls.

Just a quick post on sheathing the walls. There is not much to say on the subject except that I used the same 1/2" t&g plywood on the walls as I did on the roof. The cost for this plywood over square edge is marginal and it makes for very robust wall sheathing. I'm sure it's been mentioned in several other places, but I installed the plywood on the inside face of the exterior walls for racking resistance, air barrier and vapour retarder. The seams will be taped at a later date to complete the air barrier.

The southeast corner of the main floor after installation of sheathing. The plywood extends right to the top of the walls for racking, even though the drop-ceiling that will be installed under the trusses will bring the air barrier down two feet from the top of these [10'] walls. When insulating above the ceiling, the extra plywood will serve to contain the loose fill cellulose around the perimeter of the attic.

Pretty Noose - Soundgarden

The roof - sheathing and cladding.

With the trusses up, the next step was to keep pushing towards getting a finished roof over my project which meant plywood sheathing, roofing felt, strapping, and finally steel roof panels. It was a lot of work. I was able to do most of it myself but needed help getting the first two rows of sheathing started - it just wasn't safe working with such awkward material that close to the edge of the roof.

By the middle of November I was entering the home stretch. I was in a race against time because I really didn't want to get caught by the first heavy snowfall of the season with the roof only partially covered with steel panels.

Up with the trusses.

Installing the roof trusses was a big job. I had installed trusses close to the same size as these before, and I had done those by hand, but that experience was under much different circumstances. I did consider how I might lift these trusses by hand, but in the end I decided that it would be less risky for the trusses, safer and easier to use a boom truck. Another unique challenge presented by this job was the need to organize a relatively large work party - so far, truss installation has been the only time I have needed more than just one or two helpers. Overall, it was good planning and organization that was the key to making this experience a smooth one.

It was a chilly, misty, late September morning when I was finally ready to put up the trusses. The plan was to use the boom truck to handle all the largest trusses and when that was done, to set a stack of smaller trusses on top of the walls. The stack of smaller trusses could later be set up by hand. By all accounts, this was a clean operation and everyone went home safe - mission accomplished.

Pre-truss post - or main floor walls revisited.

I thought I'd do a revisit of framing the main floor walls since the original post mostly focused on the air-sealing aspects while omitting some of the other odds and ends that had to be taken care of before the trusses could be installed:

• Install corner post and beams that support the roof over the main entry.
• Install second top plate.
• Fabricate and install staging for truss installation.
• Mark top plates for truss installation.

Doesn't sound like much, but it took about an extra week longer than I planned to get all these little things sorted out.

The view from a scaffold at the east wall just prior to installing the trusses.

Framing the floor deck.

This stage of construction takes us back to somewhere near the end of august 2011. I had completed framing the basement walls, and had put up the load bearing basement partition walls that support the floor framing. I used engineered I-joists, rim board and LVL beams, then 3/4" tongue and groove plywood as a subfloor. Never having built anything using engineered lumber before, I was impressed by how straight everything was and how well everything fit together - which I guess is the whole point. The entire floor structure was built on one plane, which is to say that the joists were fastened to the structural beams using hangers, creating a flat ceiling in the basement.

The completed floor deck. The poly in the center of the floor is covering the hole for future stairs and stovepipe. During assembly, I was careful to install the "smooth" side of the rim board to the exterior, so the airstop tape would stick (more on this in later posts). I waited on the application of the airstop tape to the rim board until the last possible moment so as to avoid unnecessary UV exposure.

Road map.

With my last post, we pretty much came to the end of the foundation work. I'm sure there will be a few revisits in the future, but now I'm looking forward to getting into all the other stuff. At a couple of points I had skipped ahead and made a few posts on some of the framing and airsealing work. In this post I wanted to start this new phase of the blog by laying out a "road map" - so as to show where I've been and where I'm going.

At various points throughout this project, I have had moments where the end goal seemed almost impossibly far away. During those moments I always found it useful to break the journey down into smaller pieces and simply focus on the next task - one task at a time and the next thing you know, you've made substantial progress.

"Wing" insulation, drainage and parging.

With the foundation insulation done, it was time to turn my attention to insulating the ground around the foundation. This insulation for the ground is sometimes called "wing" insulation and is an important part of the FPSF foundation design. The wing insulation effectively protects the shallow footings from frost heave by raising the frost line towards the surface. In my case the insulation plan called for R20 insulation extending outwards 4' from the footings but 6' at all corners (except where the footings were more than 6' below final grade).

The colder the climate, the higher the R value the wing insulation must provide to keep the earth below from freezing. Also, the colder the climate, the further the wing insulation must extend outwards from the foundation. When the underside of the slab and footings are insulated as well, the R value of the wing insulation must be increased more still since reduced heat loss from the underside of the foundation will contribute less towards keeping the earth under the footings from freezing.

Waterproofing and insulating the rest of the foundation.

I was very excited to be done with the concrete work - it was  a big job and I was really looking forward to setting my own pace with the rest of the project. Before I could do that, however, there was one last reason to bring out a couple of the concrete guys again - the "Blueskin". Applying the "Blueskin" waterproofing membrane wasn't terribly difficult, but I wouldn't want to try it single handed - it's too sticky, awkward and expensive.

4" rigid foam around the exterior wall makes a good capillary break but something more is required to fight hydrostatic pressure. We applied the "Blueskin" membrane only to within 12" of the top of the wall to save material - this stuff 'aint cheap. The black line around the top is a mastic "goo" that seals the edge of the membrane to the wall.

Strange, strange weather.

A recurring theme for those posts that have covered the work done during the summer of 2011 has been the extended periods of above average temperatures that really made everything just that much more of a challenge. Well, the heat was really only a fraction of the story. As I looked back over some of the photos I have from last summer, it occurred to me that last summer's weather was a bit of a story in itself.

A somewhat soggy June gave way to a dry July. Raging forest fires further north that forced the evacuation of numerous First Nations communities sent a pall of smoke to obscure this sunrise. After a week of breathing in this smoke, the wind finally turned and gave us some relief.

Last push - forming and pouring the concrete walls.

"Last push" is me tipping my hat to the effort that was required to keep everyone involved with this foundation project on task. After the slab had been poured, I didn't want a general sense of accomplishment to derail my timeline - my parting words to the contractor that day were something to the effect of "see you in a few days". And so, a few days later the concrete guys were back to deliver a stack of forms so that they could start in on forming the walls - I think they were all starting to look forward to the end of this project as much as I was since most of their other work was back in town.

Formwork and rebar work underway. It rained for the first time in a while that day. However, the guys didn't seem to have any trouble keeping their cigarettes going despite the rain.

Pouring the slab.

After much scurrying about in preparation, the day finally came when we poured the slab. This was the only job in which I was an observer only. After watching the process, I have come to the conclusion that pouring a large concrete slab is not a job that can be done either single handed or by a crew of amateurs. There is simply too much work to do all at the same time - placing the concrete, raking, screeding, trowelling...

Continuing with the theme of unusually hot weather last summer, by 9 or 10 am these guys were already being beaten down by the sun.

Pre-slab preparations - part 2.

I ended my last post about the foundation on the day that the rigid foam had been installed and the decision to omit the 10 mil poly was made. The following day was when the concrete guys were to come out and install the steel reinforcing for the slab, which proceeded as planned with no problems. For reinforcing, a 10 mm rebar grid was laid out on 12" centres and tied together. With hindsight, I know this is over-kill and if I were to do it again, I would have argued for lighter gauge reinforcing in my plans. My concrete contractor kept joking that if I ever needed any extra cash, I could open up my basement to do heavy-duty mechanic work since I would now be able to park a bulldozer or excavator on the slab. Live and learn.

Spinning my wheels.

Today I received a delivery of materials from the building centre I deal with. The driver and I spent half an hour unloading my stuff and another hour and a half getting his truck un-stuck from the deep and soft snow at the shoulders of the driveway.

My old IH 624, aka "Rusty Ron" - not that it's a very rusty tractor - comes to the rescue. Several times.

The Truck Got Stuck - Corb Lund

Pre-slab preparations - part 1.

With this post, I am jumping back to where I left off with my post on pouring the footings.

The footings had just been poured, the plumbing was roughed in and now it was time to fill the void. For fill, I used more of the same gravel that we had used for the pad. The form work that was left up around the exterior perimeter of the footings prevented us from driving a skid-steer over top of them. Instead we used the excavator that we had on hand to reach over and drop the fill in one scoop at a time. We then shoveled, raked, leveled and packed until the tamper bounced off the surface. The finished height of the gravel was three inches below the top of the footings to account for the thickness of the sub-slab insulation.

In this photo, my nephew Parker and I are finishing the gravel between my new footings. Parker did a lot of raking while I ran the packer. It was hard work but we had it all done in less than a day owing to the help I received. Even my mom pitched in - I warned her that the gravel was very heavy and hard to move but she replied "Don't worry Lucas, I'm a gardener."

Adding some extras - tangents that is.

I've been hammering away at my keyboard for the last couple of weeks trying to get my next post together amid all my other day-to-day responsibilities. I get frustrated because I would like to just keep feeding material into my blog but I can't because sometimes it takes quite a while to organize my thoughts and bring together the photos and graphics - never mind the drawings. Anyway, in the interest of keeping the "material feed" more consistent and to add a bit of flavour, I've decided to incorporate the occasional "off-topic" post.

I've also decided (for flavour) to include a link to a song or other audio that I like at the bottom of each new post. As a reader, you don't have to listen, but if you want just click the link to have some background "ambiance" while you read.

Ah, it feels good to finally hit the "publish" button on something. More on the foundation work coming soon.

Baby, I Won’t Do You No Harm - The Sheepdogs

Mr. Sun.

My last post was on getting my project ready for winter. A matter of equal importance is the effect of UV light on certain materials. Given that my project is taking place over a relatively long timescale, UV considerations dictated my construction agenda more than once and also demanded that some protective measures be taken. Here is a list of the materials I was/am mainly concerned with (if anyone can fill in the blanks in this list, please feel free to comment):

• Uponor hePEX - 30 days (unconfirmed)
• DOW Square Edge rigid insulation - Unknown
• #15 Asphalt felt (ASTM D4869) - Unknown but suspected to be about 30 days.
• 3M All weather flashing tape 8067 - 6 months (as per manufacturer's literature)
• Typar housewrap - 60 days

Winter is coming...

Or rather, "was coming" and some time was required to prepare. My first concern was the foundation. As mentioned in earlier posts, the foundation is fully wrapped in insulation and includes an insulated "skirt" around the perimeter. Additionally, the foundation was built on top of a thick layer of compacted gravel. These features make the foundation somewhat resilient against frost heave, which in some cases can easily crack footings (thick as they are) and leave the house to settle unevenly after the thaw. However, given that our winters can get very cold and that the basement would not be heated, I was not ready to "bet the farm" on these features keeping the frost out of the ground underneath the foundation without some heat loss through the slab.

Mud sills over concrete walls.

In my last post I talked a little about the mud sill assembly that over-lies the concrete basement walls. The installation of this portion of the mud sill was pretty simple but I think it's important to mention again that it is very important to make sure that time is taken to measure out the adjacent stick framed walls carefully so that the second top plate trasitions properly.