|
88h88 posted:Why do Americans not use bricks to build things? I mean I like wood and everything but brick seems to last one hell of a lot longer, my house is a Victorian era brick build so from about 1850-1900 and the only thing wrong with it is a bit of plaster crumbling. Brick does not handle earthquakes with anything resembling grace. Thus on the west coast of the US (a.k.a. "earthquake territory") you'll see bricks used for chimneys and the occasional facade, but nothing load-bearing. Well, assuming the house is built to code anyway. In the rest of the country, sure, there's brick all over the place.
|
#
¿
Oct 20, 2014 16:49
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 09:54 |
|
|
Okay, I'm impressed. How much assistance did you have for beam wrangling? I can't imagine that thing was light.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 26, 2014 15:34
|
|
|
Wait, what IRC channel? Is there an SA DIY channel somewhere I should be lurking in?
|
|
#
¿
Nov 12, 2014 00:30
|
|
|
Motronic posted:If it hasn't BLEVE'd after tonight I'm sure your home free on this pour. For the laymen among us, what does BLEVE mean? Google has nothing.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2015 03:31
|
|
|
kastein posted:First sheet of sheathing is up. Wrestling that into place alone sucked. I hear that. How thick is your sheathing? Congrats on finishing the wall and getting that corner properly supported.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 5, 2015 03:00
|
|
|
kastein posted:I use 3/4 CDX or PT CDX for basically everything, including subflooring and sheathing. I used 3/4 PT CDX there because I am not sure how long it will be before I finish and get housewrap or siding on it. Okay, then the same stuff I'm using for my workshop, and yeah, it's a bitch to maneuver. If you have to put any more up on walls, you might consider doing it widthwise (or for small areas like this one, just cutting the sheet in half). That way when you put the lower sheet up you can clamp it to the studs (and then the upper sheet is typically not difficult). It's still really awkward, but it's better than trying to get an 8'-tall sheet up with nothing to temporarily secure it against.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 5, 2015 04:43
|
|
|
Cripes. Good luck with the new wall! That's a heck of a project to do in two days. How much of this stuff has to get inspected by the city? Or are you far enough out in the boonies that they don't really care about ensuring you're up to code? Obviously you're going way above and beyond what the code requires here.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 13, 2015 22:10
|
|
|
kastein posted:Inspection is an interesting question with an equally interesting answer. Thanks for sharing this! I'm not really surprised that the inspectors basically give a free pass to people they trust. It streamlines things immensely if you don't have to stop every few days/weeks to get the inspector out to look things over and the city doesn't generally want to discourage construction, just crappy construction. Must be nice to have earned the inspector's trust though.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 14, 2015 15:36
|
|
|
Every stud is also a bridge for heat to move out of the insulated area without having to pass through insulation. You lose a lot more heat through the studs than you do through the insulated sections of the wall even though the studs make up a comparatively small amount of the wall's area. If you really want a strongly-insulated wall then you can do things like have a 2x8 sole plate and 2x6 studs, where the odd studs are flush with the interior edge of the plate, and the even studs are flush with the exterior. That way no stud reaches all the way across the plate to form that bridge, and you can have insulation covering the entire wall (except for openings of course).
|
|
#
¿
Nov 10, 2015 17:32
|
|
|
kastein posted:Also, I finished the sheathing last night. Once I read the window installation instructions I'll be putting the window in tonight hopefully. Good luck getting that window up the ladder!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 18, 2015 17:13
|
|
|
Geirskogul posted:Bring the window up inside the house and pull it in using suction cup handles? Honestly, bringing the window up through the indoors, then pushing it out diagonally through the window, with someone on a ladder outside to help maneuver it, is probably a decent way to get the window up to the second floor. Saves you from trying to carry the window up the ladder, anyway. I wouldn't want to try a window that large with only one person, certainly.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 18, 2015 20:20
|
|
|
My only opinion on flooring is to not get floating tongue-and-groove engineered hardwood. You have to glue each individual piece to the others and it's a pain in the rear end (and takes forever).
|
|
#
¿
Feb 4, 2016 18:49
|
|
|
Leperflesh posted:Again I do not know how credible this website is, but I submit it for your own judgement. Looking at it, I honestly feel like it's meant to be negative advertising, if for no other reason than that all of the comments appear to have proper grammar (or very nearly proper; there are a few typos but no "post with all lowercase letters" kinds of things). But yeah, never installed bamboo floors myself. The only bad thing I'd heard about them is that they splinter easily when you cut them.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 4, 2016 20:44
|
|
|
Beach Bum posted:Now I'm wondering how much magnetism you would need to pull nails out of wood. Also I need to know just what kind of effect this would have on the surrounding area. How powerful can you make a magnet before it starts scrambling the human nervous system? How far away would you have to put your hard drives? Considering that MRI machines are known for being ridiculously powerful in terms of yanking metal around, and yet humans get inserted directly into them and routinely work near them (nurses), I don't think stationary magnetic fields are a huge problem for people. As long as they don't have any magnetizable material in them, anyway.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2016 22:27
|
|
|
Leperflesh posted:I am totally unprepared to do the math, but I suspect that an electromagnet powerful enough to extract nails consistently would be larger than your kitchen doorways, and cost like a hundred grand. I got curious, and this page says that a 16d box nail in a Douglas fir 2x4 has 33 pounds of pullout force. That's a fairly large amount, certainly, but you should be able to achieve that much force using a (moderately large) rare earth magnet. Of course, since rare earth magnets can't be switched off, you'd then be left with the problem of how to remove your nail from your magnet...
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2016 22:47
|
|
|
Ripping out the lovely old shed in the backyard is a rite of passage for new homeowners. When I removed mine, I had help from my neighbor. He helpfully dropped a wall on me. Fortunately a) I caught it, and b) it was a small wall.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 20, 2016 04:35
|
|
|
MrYenko posted:As a Florida native accustomed to houses built directly on concrete slabs, essentially every picture of the inside of your house is a cross between a treehouse and a nightmare, to me. Are Florida homes all only one story as well? Or do you have an elevated slab for the second floor? 
|
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2016 05:12
|
|
|
angryrobots posted:Goddammit, next you'll be hanging curtains. At least they'll be curtains made out of welded metal and old engine blocks.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 8, 2016 23:16
|
|
|
kastein posted:I always wondered how people avoid a repetitive "wood" pattern, guess the answer is they don't really. You can take steps to make it less obvious, by being careful about which boards you use where and by cutting boards to offset them.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 15, 2016 17:59
|
|
|
Are you having to heat that PVC any to get it to bend in that tight of a radius?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 8, 2016 01:40
|
|
|
Oh, duh. That makes a lot more sense than PVC would.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 8, 2016 05:57
|
|
|
What's so great about them? I'm always on the lookout for better fasteners.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 20, 2016 03:34
|
|
|
How are you going to get insulation in behind the vapor barrier? Blown cellulose?
|
|
#
¿
Nov 7, 2016 18:48
|
|
|
beep-beep car is go posted:This is looking really cool, I wish I was half as handy! Construction isn't magic; everything's documented and not really hard to understand. Anyone can do it so long as they take their time and learn about the correct procedures and designs. Case in point: prior to starting construction on my workshop my "handyman experience" was limited to painting, installing floorboards, and some very basic carpentry. If there's a project you would like to do, I strongly encourage you to start researching actually doing it.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 13, 2017 17:27
|
|
|
Nice. Man, gently caress installing drywall, especially upside-down. How hard was it to get the lift around those joists?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 17, 2017 05:05
|
|
|
What are those open junction boxes for? Did you branch the circuit there (and if so, why?) or are you intending to put some non-outlet receptacle there?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 24, 2017 17:22
|
|
|
kastein posted:I put them on every wall of every room for data/network/telecom/low voltage/fiber/whatever the hell I decide I need to run there in the future, without blowing holes in my new drywall to do it. They're 4-11/16" square boxes with duplex mud rings and 1" EMT to either the attic or the basement, depending on what floor the room is on. It's been covered somewhere way back in this thread, but I'll be damned if I'm going to spend time looking for it either Aha, that's smart. I doubt most people would notice or care about a couple of junction box covers in each room, but they'll make your life so much easier once you decide what to put in them, I'm sure.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 24, 2017 17:36
|
|
|
Looking good. I'm guessing you'll be adding jack studs in later? Right now your header's only supported by some nails, if I understand the photo correctly.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 18, 2017 04:01
|
|
|
How're you connecting those braces at the ends? I don't see any brackets; are they just toenailed in?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2017 01:26
|
|
|
kastein posted:it's way better to find out before I, say, cut the tops off half my joists to change the filter... DIY is never going to let that guy live that down, and it is glorious.
|
|
#
¿
May 3, 2017 15:45
|
|
|
The Locator posted:As a reference point, the minimum allowable SEER rating for a new A/C unit in Arizona is 13. So if the law there is the same, the unit you are looking at is the least efficient unit that is legal to sell currently. Also the cheapest, since as that number increases, so does the price! I would expect Arizona to have possibly the most strict AC efficiency requirements in the country, though. Maybe behind California.
|
|
#
¿
May 3, 2017 20:42
|
|
|
kastein posted:I'll still never buy a house someone else built again though. Building from scratch next time. Do you mean building from scratch as in "you will personally nail every board into place" or as in "you will be the GC of the build"? I really want to do the former, but I just don't see how I'd find the kind of time required. Even if I could take a leave of absence from my job, three months' worth of labor at 8 hours a day wouldn't be enough to build a house solo, I'm pretty confident. That files this project firmly under the "when I have gently caress-you money" category.
|
|
#
¿
May 9, 2017 21:51
|
|
|
Sign me up for more photos of your land. How many acres do you have? And what all are you going to do in Washington besides build there? Are you gonna work remotely?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2018 04:59
|
|
|
I was gonna ask how badly you'd sliced yourself up doing all this sheet metal work, then I saw you mention the blood. I've only ever worked with aluminum flashing and it's still extracted a good price from my hide.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 6, 2018 01:26
|
|
|
What the hell are you using ipe for?  Now I'm imagining a house built entirely of ipe. And all the contractors swearing at it as they're unable to drill through the studs or hammer nails into it and their sawblades keep burning out.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 7, 2018 02:55
|
|
|
Dagen H posted:Structural adhesive, spax screws every 3 inches. 1/8" steel bar used for drywall tape.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 19, 2018 17:45
|
|
|
Please do post some photos of the tree planting, if it's not too much work to get them.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 12, 2019 02:26
|
|
|
Goddamn, that looks like a pain in the rear end to navigate. I'd love to see it when the blackberry bushes are bearing though. Thanks for the pictures, and for letting me vicariously experience a much more open life. I went to a local beekeepers meeting yesterday; some dude was handing out bare-root bigleaf maple trees for free. I thought of taking one and then looked them up online -- grows up to 150 feet tall, and not in a nicely compact way either, they spread all over the place. My lot is 5000 square feet. I'd be shading the entire neighborhood if I planted one of those things. On your land it'd be barely a blip.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 12, 2019 04:39
|
|
|
Speaking of my 5000 square-foot lot, it had a row of Leyland cedars along the back fence when I moved in. They grow super-fast; I don't know how old they were when I got the place but I'd guess they went from around 15' tall to well over 30' tall in 5-6 years. But somehow they did that without establishing much of a root system, so when a big windstorm came through they started to tip over and lean against the fence (that they were planted like a foot away from). I had to get them all cut down and removed before they could destroy the fence. I guess what I'm saying is, I wouldn't plant the cedars immediately next to the road, lest they fall over and block it. I assume you're planning to build your house well back from the road anyway, so you should have plenty of room for a buffer around your privacy trees.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 14, 2019 16:15
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 09:54 |
|
|
Are you designing the new house (on the land you bought) yourself, as well as building it? If so, how are you going about the design? I'm curious about your process here, including deciding how big the place should be, what if any outbuildings you want. Basically anything you want to share about that process.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2019 05:11
|
|