A proper chimney - part 1

I'm choosing the chimney as my starting point for getting back into more detailed construction-related posts since it seems to follow nicely from where I left off with a post about the air-tight ceiling, which I ended by showing a photo of two foam boards acting as a place-holder for my future chimney.
Installing the chimney was pretty straight-forward with the biggest consideration aforehand being careful measurement. A "proper chimney" should go straight up (without any bends), while all clearances to combustible materials (from bottom to top) are maintained, and while also having the chimney "land" where the stove is supposed to go.
Prepare for many a photo "below the fold".

The finished install: In this case the chimney had to land in just the right spot so that the stove could sit correctly on it's tiled pad next to the air-supply duct I roughed in oh-so-many years ago. There wasn't much wiggle-room to play with but fortunately luck was on my side here, and there happened to be just room enough to find a path through the roof framing. Measure thrice, cut once, I say.

Burning Down The House - Talking Heads

The christmas gift that keeps on giving - an airtight ceiling.

After the first week of December, Northwest Ontario was put in a deep-freeze (check out those daily mean temps). The early arrival of such extreme cold made the completion of the ceiling assembly in our house all the more timely. One morning I woke up to find the thermometer outside reading -39C. Taking a stroll to the house, I found the thermometer in the basement reading a balmy -2C. It seemed almost weird given that I was only occasionally firing a small propane construction heater in the basement for heat - the benefits of air-sealing, super-insulation and passive solar heat gain! A nice early Christmas present indeed.

It may not look it through the window but on this clear morning of December 31, it's -39C (-38.2F) and feels like a blistering -51C (-59.8F) in the wind. In this kind of weather, it is nice to be able to keep all the warm air trapped inside the house and then have the ventilation controlled either by HRV or by window if necessary. The advantages are many and include energy savings, durability and controlled clean air supply.

Echoes - The Wilderness Of Manitoba

Soffit work - or, why I've been having to see a chiropractor.

In an earlier post, I briefly discussed some of the work I had begun on the exterior soffit. I will now elaborate on that work "below the fold".

A section of completed soffit over the main entry. I did the soffit in two different ways - most of the perimeter of the roof has a "boxed-in" soffit (where the soffit meets the wall in perpendicular fashion), while over the main entry I opted to follow the rafter tails up from the eaves.

Reflektor - Arcade Fire

Flashing windows - don't worry, I keep my clothes on.

It was almost a full year ago that I described the installation of some of our windows in an earlier blog post. Well, I guess it's about time I described how I set up the window openings and flashing in preparation for the windows. For those of you who may not know, proper flashing of the window openings is a key durability issue since, eventually, all windows leak. When your windows begin to leak, you want that water to be able to find its way back to the outside where it can drain away - and definitely not down into the wooden assemblies within the wall where it may cause mold and rot.

Hard to believe but this scene took place almost exactly a year ago already... I remember how relieved I was after we safely installed all the big pictures windows - what a load off.

Ray LaMontange and the Pariah Dogs - Beg, Steal or Borrow

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Framing the basement walls.

As the title suggests, this post will cover construction of the stick-framed portion of the basement walls. I didn't take many pictures during this phase of the build - I was so eager to get started on the framing - so I'll use graphics to illustrate instead. The process was very similar to "Framing the main floor walls" but with a few added details. Over-all this is probably the most complicated part of framing this house because close attention to measurement must be kept in mind for several reasons I'll get into later.

Framing the main floor walls.

I'm skipping ahead with this post, as I will probably do now and again. This will be the first post that covers some of the practical aspects of air sealing this house. Just a reminder that all these "practical aspects of air sealing" are the application of what I have laid out in the "Details" section of this blog. Please note, this post doesn't cover the "building out" of the walls (ie: framing the truss wall) - that will be happening later. It's worth mentioning at this point that one big advantage I've found with the truss wall approach to framing the house is that since the exterior truss framing is all non-load bearing, a pretty straight line can be made to getting the roof on. It's just like platform framing any conventional house but with some added air sealing details. The truss wall can be "built out" at any time.