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TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
I spent over six hours on the roof today, and got ten bundles put in. My left foot is numb, my arms are covered in scratches, and my back is going to hurt tomorrow, but the roof is all but completed!





The above shot shows the reason for the "all but". Not only do I still need to add shingles over the skylight flashing, there's also some exposed nails near the ridge on this side of the roof (you can see the white nailing line towards the back of the shot). This is what I get for having a ridge that's not quite parallel to the walls; that last course is straight but it gets progressively more exposed as it goes along. Of course I didn't realize this until I was halfway done putting the ridge caps on, and I'm flat out of shingles (that last course was finished off with scraps; good thing it's pretty thoroughly redundant and only really there to hide some nail heads).

Once I get one last bundle of shingles, I figure I can trim some of them, slide them in underneath the ridge cap, and hold them in place with construction adhesive. It won't look fantastic but this part of the roof isn't really visible anyway. Probably use adhesive for the shingles covering the skylight flashing too, since I don't want exposed nails there.

And speaking of exposed nails, the very last piece of the ridge cap has two nails that aren't covered. I guess I can either seal those with some kind of cement, or remove the last piece and replace it with one that's held in place with more adhesive. Thoughts?

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Mr. Mambold
Feb 13, 2011

Aha. Nice post.



Fun stuff toting 9 squares up a ladder, huh.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

Mr. Mambold posted:

Fun stuff toting 9 squares up a ladder, huh.

Fortunately just six squares. I learned halfway through the first day that it's not worth trying to take an entire bundle up in one trip. Much easier/safer to take a half-bundle at a time, which is still about 30-40 pounds' worth of shingles. But yeah, carrying heavy poo poo up a ladder is the cause of a fair bit of my sore back right now.

EDIT: ahhh ha ha ha ha ha ha ha it started raining today. In under the buzzer!

TooMuchAbstraction fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Nov 2, 2015

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Last weekend I finished off the last ~2% of the roof shingling. It should be pretty secure against leaks now, at least as well as I'm able to as an amateur roofer. I also painted the workshop door.



Annoyingly, the door no longer closes, as a result of the extra width created by the paint. Lesson learned: don't fit your door exactly to the frame. I'm going to have to take part of the frame down and run it through my thickness planer before I'll be able to close the door again.

Next steps are probably to figure out trim for the doorway (and related flashing) and to start figuring out who to get vinyl siding from. I also need to start reading the book I bought on electrical wiring, as a pre-requisite to installing the cables and outlets and so on.

thespaceinvader
Mar 30, 2011

The slightest touch from a Gol-Shogeg will result in Instant Death!
Do you have a power sander? Open the door and sand off some of the thickness maybe.

But when you do, don't forget the thickness you're going to ADD when you finish the frame.

Also, it would probably be easier to rip (or joint, or split-fence router table) a thin strip off the edge of the door than to dismantle the entire frame in order to make it wider.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

thespaceinvader posted:

Do you have a power sander? Open the door and sand off some of the thickness maybe.

But when you do, don't forget the thickness you're going to ADD when you finish the frame.

Also, it would probably be easier to rip (or joint, or split-fence router table) a thin strip off the edge of the door than to dismantle the entire frame in order to make it wider.

Ah, no, I didn't fully explain here. There's a .75"-thick bit of, uh, trim I guess (it's a 1x6 that's mostly there to support the doorstop) in the doorframe; that's what I would reduce. It's just nailed onto the framing of the structure, so I can pop it off with a prybar, remove the nails, run it through my planer, and then put it back on. Granted, right now I'm wishing I hadn't used the framing nails to attach it, but it's still not a big deal. Worst case, I replace the entire thing.

I'd rather not reduce the door because then I'd have to take it off its hinges, reduce it, repaint it, and then put it back up, and that sucker is heavy. A lot easier to reduce the other piece.

Slanderer
May 6, 2007

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

Last weekend I finished off the last ~2% of the roof shingling. It should be pretty secure against leaks now, at least as well as I'm able to as an amateur roofer. I also painted the workshop door.



Annoyingly, the door no longer closes, as a result of the extra width created by the paint. Lesson learned: don't fit your door exactly to the frame. I'm going to have to take part of the frame down and run it through my thickness planer before I'll be able to close the door again.

Next steps are probably to figure out trim for the doorway (and related flashing) and to start figuring out who to get vinyl siding from. I also need to start reading the book I bought on electrical wiring, as a pre-requisite to installing the cables and outlets and so on.

Did you account for expansion too? You'll just end up scraping the paint off if the door gets stuck when the weather changes.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

Slanderer posted:

Did you account for expansion too? You'll just end up scraping the paint off if the door gets stuck when the weather changes.

Right, that's another reason why making the door exactly to fit was a dumb idea. It should have plenty of clearance on the top and bottom now; it's just the side where the knob will go that needs more space.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
This is mostly just a bump to keep this thread out of archives. I have done...nothing, really, since the last update. Work plus winter plus holidays plus an unusually pernicious cold slowed me way down. At the moment I'm trying to figure out what kind of siding to put up. I finally found a source for vinyl siding, which is what I'd originally specced on the plans, and I'm waiting on them for a quote. Meanwhile I have a quote for hardieboard (cement board) siding coming in at around $1400 (for ~800 square feet of siding, some trim for the corners, and a forklift for the delivery). More than I was hoping to pay, I'll be honest, but part of this project is learning how expensive construction materials are. T1-11 plywood siding of course would be cheaper, but IMO it looks like poo poo.

Goldguy27
Sep 16, 2003
The Man with the Plan Kinahan
Keep up the good work, it's been very interesting to follow.

I need to buy a house...

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Oh yeah. Got the quote for vinyl siding; it's about $100 more expensive than the cement board -- but I'd need to buy a special blade for cutting the cement board (vinyl can be cut with a plywood sawblade, which I already have, or with a utility knife), plus of course cement board needs to be painted. On the other hand, the fact that cement board can be painted means I can make it any color I want, instead of being stuck with what the vinyl supply company has in stock (currently, just "Colonial White").

The impression I've gotten from my research on installing the two types of siding is that vinyl is more fiddly, but cement board is more labor (in the "lifting heavy things" and "doing repetitive actions" sense). Of course the caveat with vinyl is that if I screw anything up then ordering replacement materials is going to be more difficult, as the supplier's located in Washington, not California. So I'm leaning towards the cement board.

angryrobots
Mar 31, 2005

Cement board looks way way better. Vinyl looks really cheap IMO.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Installed some trim around one of my windows on Sunday. I had a tough time getting the silicone caulk out of the tube, but didn't think too much about it. Come today and the caulk still hasn't dried, so something about that caulk was hosed up. Guess I'm wiping it off and trying again with a fresh tube.

Also did a little painting of the eaves and fascias, but nothing worth taking a picture of yet.

Archives
Nov 23, 2008
Both silicone and acrylic have minimum application temperatures.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

Archives posted:

Both silicone and acrylic have minimum application temperatures.

That was not a problem; in the Bay Area it hardly ever gets below 40, and on the day I applied it it was in the 70's. I'm pretty sure I just somehow got some bad silicone.

EDIT: yeah, some Googling indicates that a) silicone does eventually go bad, and b) it goes bad faster if exposed to extreme temperatures. About the worst that this stuff could have seen after I bought it is maybe 90°F, but most likely it was just expired.

TooMuchAbstraction fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Feb 17, 2016

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Finally, some serious progress! Today I took delivery of the siding I'll be installing, some ~2000 pounds' worth of Hardie board (cement fiber board). I've taken delivery of heavier materials, like .75" 4x8 plywood sheets and 16'-long 2x8s, but these things were still the most aggravating to unload. They're 12' long but only 5/16" thick, so they flop all over the place while you're trying to carry them on-edge so they don't just snap in half.



I took one of said snapped-in-half boards and ripped a strip to use as a starting strip, using these shears. Which work great, except that they keep slipping off the chuck of my drill. I have a keyless drill chuck, which makes it hard to get the thing super-tight; I guess the shears just put an ungodly amount of torque on the thing, which leads to slippage. Not sure what to do about that; for now I just have to stop periodically and re-tighten the chuck.

I also got some brackets for supporting the siding boards while I'm installing them. Kind of expensive for a bent piece of sheet metal, but they're making my life a lot easier, so I can't complain.



This is as much as I got done before stopping for the day:



Hopefully the good weather will hold and I'll be able to continue working on this on the weekend.

HERAK
Dec 1, 2004
Nice to see some more progress. Have you thought about getting a different chuck for your drill? It should be possible or at least i know it is possible on my makita. The other option is a nice new drill with a different chuck, possibly a corded one.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

HERAK posted:

Nice to see some more progress. Have you thought about getting a different chuck for your drill? It should be possible or at least i know it is possible on my makita. The other option is a nice new drill with a different chuck, possibly a corded one.

A replacement chuck may be an option; there may also be some way I can get extra tightening out of the keyless chuck I have now. I'll have to think on it. Thanks for the recommendation.

I don't want to buy a new drill if I can avoid it, though, since the one I have works just fine for everything else I need to do.

Antifreeze Head
Jun 6, 2005

It begins
Pillbug
You can get a corded drill for like $30 at Home Depot. You could probably even hit up a pawn shop or Craigslist and get one for half that. They are handy things to have because they are considerably more powerful than a cordless.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
One wall done, three to go.



The building department required me to add exterior-rated drywall on the undersides of the eaves/soffits, so behold my lovely drywall mudding job. I'm not too worried about the drywall degrading; it's in a very sheltered location and it'll have plenty of paint protecting it.

This is one of those jobs where I would have heavily benefited from a second worker, especially when I got to the pieces of siding that needed tapered cuts to fit in under the eaves. I spent a lot of time measuring, cutting pieces, bringing them out to try to fit them, measuring again, taking the pieces back into the workshop to re-cut, etc, so the last six rows took about as long as the first ten did.

Oh, I figured out how to get the shears to behave themselves: I had the drill going backwards. Zero indication in the shears' instructions that the drill was supposed to go counterclockwise, but what the hell, it works now.

This wall isn't done done -- I still need to caulk the ends where the siding meets the trim, caulk over a few exposed nail heads near the top, and of course paint the thing.

babyeatingpsychopath
Oct 28, 2000
Forum Veteran

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

This wall isn't done done -- I still need to caulk the ends where the siding meets the trim, caulk over a few exposed nail heads near the top, and of course paint the thing.

I can't recommend a paint sprayer enough for a job like this. It would seriously be worth your time and money even if you used it precisely once for the whole building then threw it away. Even the absolute cheapest, crappiest sprayer will work for long enough to get a small area like that done.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

babyeatingpsychopath posted:

I can't recommend a paint sprayer enough for a job like this. It would seriously be worth your time and money even if you used it precisely once for the whole building then threw it away. Even the absolute cheapest, crappiest sprayer will work for long enough to get a small area like that done.

So noted! Thanks for the recommendation.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Something that has belatedly occurred to me: I'm probably going to need to vent the soffits. However, I have no idea how much venting is required. The entire interior space is "connected" -- air can flow over the blocking between rafters into the soffit space (and I have no plans to put a ceiling into the workshop, so the entire area from the ceiling joists on up is exposed to the main area). But the gables especially are not exactly going to have good airflow if I don't put some vents in.

I don't get freezing weather or especially humid weather, but we do get plenty of fog (which is like humidity, I guess). Any suggestions for how I should go about venting the soffits? Like, can I just stick a couple of circular vents at the peak of the gable soffits, or do I need more? How much more? My research has only turned up information about non-outbuildings, with their conditioned spaces and insulation and so on; it's not clear if or how the rules are different for an outbuilding like the one I'm building.

The Gardenator
May 4, 2007


Yams Fan
I'm surprised the building inspectors didn't mention it when they wanted you to put exterior drywall under the soffits. Usually, you buy strips of soffit vent or strips and place it into premeasured opening that fit the strip perfectly. I've seen them in 8' - 12' pieces

Or you could have gotten all in one soffits built into a panel like hardibacker sells:
https://www.jameshardie.com/Products/HardieSoffit-Panels

The small circular vents are crap imo.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
The inspectors haven't passed comment on this. I suppose it'd be worth contacting the building department and asking, though. So you still think it's necessary to vent the soffits even when their "airspace" or whatever is connected to the rest of the interior?

The Gardenator
May 4, 2007


Yams Fan
If it's not required, I would consider something like two gable vents maybe with a fan exhaust for when you are working inside. My house has a few ~2" hole vents every few feet and they are not adequate in hot weather.

Zhentar
Sep 28, 2003

Brilliant Master Genius

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

So you still think it's necessary to vent the soffits even when their "airspace" or whatever is connected to the rest of the interior?

Soffit vents aren't for the sake of the soffit space; they're for ventilating the rest of the space under the roof. There's no functional need for venting in an uninsulated, unconditioned structure, although you may end up wanting to do something (venting or a radiant barrier) to control heat on hot, sunny days.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
^ Awesome, thanks. Still gonna call the building department to confirm when I get a chance, but I thought that venting was kind of a silly idea when the entire structure is one big open space anyway. I guess if some later owner wants to come along and turn it into an inlaw apartment then they can deal with adding venting.

Finished putting up siding on another wall. That's both "blank" walls finished now; the other two have windows and doors, which makes them more fiddly.

Got halfway through putting up the drywall for the soffit on the newly-sided wall, got sick of dealing with drywall, and quit for the day. Drywall is probably my least favorite material: heavy, fragile, and comes in big sheets. And I have the added "bonus" of having to install it upside-down, which means one hand to hold the sheet in place, another to hold my drill, and a third to put the screw on the drillbit...what? I mean, you can pre-start the screw into the material and then hold it above your head with one hand while the other drills the screw in, so it's not literally a three-handed job. Still a pain in the rear end though.

Got some trim installed around the doorway, and I have the rest of the wood I need to put trim around all the windows. I'm pretty sure I have all the material I need to finish the building -- except for paint and the electrical work.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Siding siding siding.

This was done last weekend:



And this was done today:


(The white spots on the door and window trim are primer over the nail heads, waiting to be covered by the trim paint)

So far, so good. Still plenty of drywall work left for me to look forward to though. :(

Incidentally, we have lots of snails around here. Snails love to climb up into tight quarters. Every time I start a new wall, the first thing I have to do is try to pull out as many snails as possible from underneath the Tyvek. The rest get smashed. Next time I housewrap a building, I'm putting so many staples along the bottom of the housewrap.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
It's been a slow few weeks, between sickness, bad weather, and work bullshit, but I finally got a good stretch of time yesterday to work on things, and the siding is nearly done:



Once that's done, I need to finish putting in the drywall enclosing the soffits, which is a pain in the rear end -- drywall is heavy and fragile, and I have to install that poo poo upside-down. But that should be the last bit of structural work on the workshop! Once that's done and I've painted it, all I'll have left is electrifying the building.

...I say that like it's a small project. Step 1: dig a 24"-deep trench for the conduit run from the house...

Cannon_Fodder
Jul 17, 2007

"Hey, where did Steve go?"
Design by Kamoc
You're killing it. The shop looks amazing, thanks for keeping us in the loop. Once I become a land-owning citizen of repute, I would love to follow in your footsteps.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Not a whole lot of progress this weekend, as I was busy playing four water polo games instead. But I did get a lock installed on the door!



It's just a lovely Masterlock deadbolt, and honestly its main function right now is just allowing me to latch the door, so it'll stay closed. I've been using a bar clamp for this purpose for months now, and while it mostly works, in high winds the clamp sometimes slips off and lets the door open.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Took the day off work today, because I really needed a rest day. So of course I spend the morning putting up siding. And the siding's done!



Now I just need to finish enclosing the soffits, and everything will be ready to be painted.

I should probably clean up the interior at some point.



And find something to do with all the leftover siding. I ordered more than I needed (I calculated my requirements as if there were no doors or windows), plus they gave me extra because they were finishing off a bundle with my order. D'you think they'd be willing to buy back the remainder? There's 28 complete boards there (almost 200 square feet), with a list price of about $250...but of course they'd have to send a truck out to pick 'em up. I guess it might be worth keeping a few around in case I need to patch the siding in the future, kind of like how you should keep extra floorboards if you redo your floors so you can match style in the future.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Drywall installation is done! No more holding a sheet of lovely heavy fragile plaster up above my head with one hand while grabbing a drill, loading it with a screw, and driving said screw with the other, while up a ladder!

Man, gently caress drywall.


(Apologies for dirty camera lens)

The structure is now fully-enclosed; all I have left before I can start painting is taping/mudding the drywall (a much less intimidating prospect, especially since I'm not too picky about getting a smooth surface), and a bit of trim and caulk work. I think I want to put in some 1x4 trim along the top of the walls, just under the drywall, to cover the top of the siding a bit. Any suggestions for the best way to adhere this siding? I'm thinking finishing nails and a bit of construction adhesive, then caulk the edges.

Weird thing about exterior drywall -- from what I've read, while it's water-resistant, you're still supposed to cover it with siding, plywood, or some other material. But the building department specifically wanted the drywall to be on the outside of the structure, with nothing over it. :shrug:

Tim Thomas
Feb 12, 2008
breakdancin the night away
What in the gently caress? I thought that's what unvented soffit is for?

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
I'm sorry, I don't understand the question.

Tim Thomas
Feb 12, 2008
breakdancin the night away
Where the drywall is located is a soffit. I understand the point about a fire barrier, but usually you'd cover that up with soffit covering, which would be vinyl or wood plank.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Finally started painting. A family friend got me an unused, 30+-year-old paint sprayer, which was invaluable, once I figured out how to get the damned thing to stop sputtering (the manual wasn't a whole lot of help).


(Painted side on the right)

Outdoor painting in the sunshine is great -- you start at one end of the wall, and by the time you reach the other end, the bits you painted first are already dry and ready for their second coat. I got in two coats on this wall and one coat on a second wall before calling it quits.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Painting's all done except for a little touch-up work.





Next step: I really do need to finish up the doorway. After that, it'll be time to start planning the electrical work. Anyone know the best way to dig a 2'-deep, 9'-long trench when there's concrete at both ends?

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Laminator
Jan 18, 2004

You up for some serious plastic surgery?
Looks nice.

Honestly a trenching spade, pick/maddock, and wheelbarrow isn't a bad way to dig a trench that size. I dug a 20' x 1' trench and it only took about afternoon of work, but dunno what your soil's like.

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