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From the above link, the porch siding will be Terra Brown and the horizontal beam wrap Tundra Gray. If we can't do a dark brown, I'm leaning toward Midnight Shadow for the posts. There's something about the lighter color posts that I don't like. The darker colors feel like they give the bottom some weight, while the lighter colors make it look a little top heavy.
Roofers showed up mid-morning after the frost had cleared from the roof. Like CCColts, we had Certainteed Landmark shingles to match the existing. There's a slight color difference due to the existing 15 year old shingles, but they folded in pretty well.
They got most of the decking installed and prepped for the picture frame border. After all the talk recently about a track saw, I watched them use one to cut the long outside edge. The Camo Lever system they used for the hidden fasteners was really neat. He lined up a dozen boards and fasteners all at the same time, then used the levers to get the spacing just right across all boards while measuring across them all, then used a long attachment to screw everything down in just about 2 minutes while standing.
One poor guy was cutting stringers all day long. After three, I thought he'd be done, then after 5 surely he was done, and finally after 7 he stopped. He said the Trex decking required a maximum 9" span on center, so 7 stringers were required. I went and looked that up, and while true for some of their product lines, the Trex Transcend we got can be a 12" span. I didn't have the heart to tell him he could have stopped at 5 stringers. I don't mind overbuilt and extra sturdy steps.
Looking good. Your shingles ended up matching your existing ones much better than mine did. You can tell it should match butt he sun damage from down here in the south is extremely noticeable on the front of my house compared to the back.
Love the hidden fasteners on the deck. I am torn on doing that or not. I was quoted almost double the price to do that vs the regular Trex like material with standard fasteners. I am headed to look at products next week and get detailed quotes for both. Did you consider both options or were hidden fasteners a definite want?
Looking good. Your shingles ended up matching your existing ones much better than mine did. You can tell it should match butt he sun damage from down here in the south is extremely noticeable on the front of my house compared to the back.
Love the hidden fasteners on the deck. I am torn on doing that or not. I was quoted almost double the price to do that vs the regular Trex like material with standard fasteners. I am headed to look at products next week and get detailed quotes for both. Did you consider both options or were hidden fasteners a definite want?
We really wanted the hidden fasteners, and with such a small area (8 x14), it wasn't that impactful to the project's overall cost. More expensive on the materials, but a lot less labor cost, so it almost evened out.
For the picture frame border, they used screws with plugs, which may be something for you to consider. This picture makes it more obvious than it is with the naked eye at a glance.
I don't think I specified a picture frame board so likely an oversite on my part there on the overall project. I am only doing a 6x12 on the deck so maybe the materials difference will be less than I think. I didn't think about labor being cheaper. That is an interesting piece of information to have.
I don't think I specified a picture frame board so likely an oversite on my part there on the overall project. I am only doing a 6x12 on the deck so maybe the materials difference will be less than I think. I didn't think about labor being cheaper. That is an interesting piece of information to have.
I wasn't necessarily suggesting the picture frame border, but more pointing out that if you decide on going with screws, you could think about plugging them. It looks pretty decent and hides the screws well.
Additional interior wall framing, stairs, stairs post, decking
The day was mostly a bust due to rain, but there was some progress. They put in the post under the stairs. The project manager wants them to picture frame the steps, so instead of placing boards between the stringers, it was easier and faster to just put in step boards. This ended up being another reason why they didn't need all those stringers. These stairs are now way over built.
Finished the picture frame border around the deck, looks good, and the screw plugs they used are a nice touch.
The company gives everyone the week between Christmas and New Years off, so no additional work until January 2nd.
As they finished up some of the interior framing on Friday, one of the window sashes was broken. It's not so much the break that frustrates me, but what it exposed. The sashes aren't tempered, which without a railing, windows need to be for the first 20 inches off the floor. The sliders have "Tempered" stickers on them, and when the windows were delivered, I assumed that meant all the window elements or at least part of them. It now appears like the actual windows that are tempered are just the ones with the stickers. In this case, the upper sliders.
They're now trying to figure out if the order was placed wrong or fulfilled wrong. It was supposed to be that the sashes were tempered and the sliders were not. Looks like that got reversed. Either way, it needs to be fixed.
I'm sure the sashes can be swapped out independently from the sliders, but it sucks. I probably don't need to, but I worry about that causing potential future air leaks/gaps, marring the frame, etc.. In early discussions with the PM about resolution, he mentioned that there's a window film that will satisfy code. I'm not at all interested in a window film. Will it peel, cloud, bubble, etc. over the years? No way I'm doing that.
All this happened in the afternoon on Friday before the company shut down for a week between holidays. Won't really know the approach until January.
Electrical, install steps, put the golf sim back together.
The steps presented an unexpected, and so far unresolved, problem. The temps were cold enough that they were having a very hard time counter sinking the screws so they could be plugged. The screws themselves are normal up to the last 3/4" near the head where the threads reverse. This is done so the screws don't back out, but it also makes it very hard to screw in, especially when the composite decking is hard from the cold. What started to happen was that in trying to countersink, the screws weren't going down far enough before the wood was stripping. The work around for now was to use color matched screw heads on the outer edges of the boards and screw them in flush, which will mostly be obscured by the railing, and leave the center of the steps with no screws until it warms up a bit. The hope is that in warmed weather they'll be able to countersink the center screws and maybe counter sink the outer screws. We'll see. The pictures make it stand out more than it does in casual looking.
The second problem was that with the horizontal board under the steps, water would collect in the center of the picture frame step. The solution was to drill drainage holes in the gap. We'll see how well this actually works. I think it's just going to collect a bunch of debris that will be hard to remove. Time will tell.
Rafter vents were installed from the soffit all the way to the ridge vent. After putting up the plastic on the bottom of the rafters, they blew the entire cavity completely full. What bit of wall there is was, has vapor barrier installed. In the one pic above the sliding door where you see a gap by the old roof line, they did come back and spray foam that area and cover it with plastic.
Under the porch was tarped off and sprayed with 6-7" of closed cell foam. The joists are all 10" and low spots all measure to 4". The target was 5", so I'm happy with the result. They had a had a heater running down there and it cured as expected. Saturday evening when I first checked, it was all cured and hard.
Looking good. Love the picture frame look to the decking.
I forgot are you doing a drink rail on your railing? I am leaning towards doing one on mine since the porch will be on the smaller size on the garage in case there is one of two people standing outside once and a while.
Looking good. Love the picture frame look to the decking.
I forgot are you doing a drink rail on your railing? I am leaning towards doing one on mine since the porch will be on the smaller size on the garage in case there is one of two people standing outside once and a while.
We aren't. My wife said from the start that she wanted the railing to be as minimal as possible, so you didn't notice it when on the porch. I like the idea of a drink railing for when you're entertaining, but there probably won't ever be too many people on the deck itself. Just a small bistro table and couple of chairs and whatever I decide to do in terms of a grill. (Watching Breezy's question on the other thread with a lot of interest.).
Enclosed the bottom of the porch, started on the shiplap inside the porch
Monday the 15th was my first experience seeing just how much the insulation matters. The high on 1/5 here was 4. It was sunny, so the south side of the porch took some good sun for half of the day. The heat vents were still closed off to the porch, but it got up to 54 inside the porch. This means I'm going to need to find window shades sooner than expected. Without them, the summers might be unbearable out there, even with the AC running.
Install more shiplap, additional framing in ceiling for beams
It's too bad the shiplap only comes in 12' lengths. That means there will be roughly 4 seams per wall. They did a really good job mating the ends, and the little bit that the seam shows doesn't bother me. They say they'll be able to get it even better with a bit of touchup paint. We're having faux wood beams installed on the ceiling. There will be one large beam running the entire peak, and then 4 smaller beams running perpendicular to the main beam down to the wall. Those side beams will be centered between the windows.
If you ever watch an episode of their show, they have to have shiplap in every project! She is the queen of shiplap.
Got it. Hopefully it all looks good when it's done. Little worried it'll be a big white box, but with so much window space, maybe it won't be so bad. Plus the furniture and decorations will add some color. The rest of the house is colored walls and warmer woods, so this is a big departure from that.
One of the big overall goals was to make the space as bright and open as possible. For the long grey winters up here, have a spot where you can still go where it isn't dark or depressing (although in this room we might feel institutionalized ).
I know the people, but not the reference. Are they big shiplap people?
They are solely responsible for bringing shiplap to the masses. Before they came very few even knew what it was.
Originally Posted by Gryphon
Got it. Hopefully it all looks good when it's done. Little worried it'll be a big white box, but with so much window space, maybe it won't be so bad. Plus the furniture and decorations will add some color. The rest of the house is colored walls and warmer woods, so this is a big departure from that.
One of the big overall goals was to make the space as bright and open as possible. For the long grey winters up here, have a spot where you can still go where it isn't dark or depressing (although in this room we might feel institutionalized ).
Hang some shit on the walls and put up some window shades (bonus points for electric ones) and you'll be fine.
Siding crew showed up mid-morning when it was still about 3 degrees outside and got to it. Don't know how they moved with everything they had on, I would have waited for the 30's on Monday.
There really isn't enough face space for traditional vinyl or steel siding, so everything is board. We went with LP Smartside, which is like an MDF with textured and painted cap. It's supposed to have better expansion and contraction properties over a cement board like Hardie. The gaps in these pics will eventually be filled with caulk.
The framers didn't build a boxed end eaves, so the siders will do that before putting up the soffit and fascia.
The existing house eaves don't come out straight, they're angled down, so this will present a challenge when joining up the new soffit above the door.
Another window sash bit the dust on Friday. Guessing with the cold temps combined with a bump on the frame resulted in a new crack.
The builder will be replacing all sashes with tempered glass (via a window company). The process involves removing clips on the frame on the outside of the window, cutting through the sealant and removing the double-pane assembly. The replacement window will be a sealed, dual-pane, argon filled unit that gets placed in with sealant and then the outer frame is reinstalled. They need a 40+ degree days in order to do the work, so this may not happen until spring. I'm holding final payment until this work is complete. They won't be able to pass inspection anyway, so I doubt it'll be a concern.
I wasn't prepared for how much the floor would change the feel of the room. That evening was the first time I said to my wife that it felt like a real room.
12-28-2023, 08:38 AM
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