The new Stabila rotary laser is the cat's meow. Not only is it rugged, but the grade stick is nice and light with a bubble to help you keep it plumb but the detector tells you how far away from level you in in 1/16“ increments.
Makes for easy one man operation.
Time to set up footings.
We are checking to see how square the hole is and set up our setbacks. It is hard to see, but we've got a string streched on the right side that defines the right side of the footing.
We had it built and staked in by 11:30 lunch. Not bad for framers considering we didn't start forming until about 9.
Kyle is always ready to show off his triceps!!
Steel looks nice and clean.
All set and ready for concrete. Tomorrow at 1 is the plan.
This shot is of the template and the 1“ all-thread for the ILevel Shear Brace. The template is actually for the top of the stem wall and stays in the concrete, but it makes it a lot easier to place the all-thread in the footing. We ran drylines to locate the front corners of the garage. I never trust the footings.
This shot is just to show how the template works. The all-thread will not be sitting on the dirt when we pour. All the hardware is included in the box with the all thread.
This just gets buried in the footing and extends up through the stemwall. It wasn't much hassle at all installing these things.
Gordon, the line pump master, does a lot of the work. Bryan is letting him get far enough, then he'll screed. Kyle comes behind and trowels the top.
A line of piers staked in. If we have extra concrete, we'll pour as many piers as we have concrete.
Dirt guys showed up to move the excavator.
All poured. Just had enough concrete to finish the footings. I figured it a little tigher than I had planned.
We like to snap lines and set clips while the concrete is soft enough to stick a nail through the clip. It makes setting panels a lot easier and if the lines wash away, the clips are set.
Kyle's pencil is strong enough to score concrete :-)
Bryan has the “dumb” end of the tape. He is cutting 1' so that we can get accurate layout off the dryline.
Bryan is setting clips every 16-24“, then we'll come back behind him and put a 1 1/2” Teco nail through the clip.
Today was supposed to be miserable. Rainy, windy and cold. It wasn't bad at all. While Bryan and Kyle packed up the forms to bring over, I tied the rebar.
One row of rebar about 3“ up and the other at the top of the verts.
And here comes the guys with the forms. Our yard is just down the road so Kyle drove the forklift over, but we didn't use it today.
Form packing time. We scatter panels roughly how we'll set them before we start forming.
All formed and now I'm shooting grade. The grade stick that came with the Stabila kit is so light that I just use that. We used to use a 1x2 wood stake that is about 18“ long.
Just adjust the stick until the detector beeps solid and put a mark.
What I love about the detector is that it'll tell you how far away you are from level. You can see here that I need to move up 1/2“.
For the 45 walls I just cut 1 1/8“ plywood. We don't like to cut the forms and because these are so often custom numbers that we won't see again for quite awhile, the plywood works.
3D finish nails that we use as “grade nails”.
Kyle is snapping a line from the marks I made shooting grade. We put marks every 25' or less so there won't be any sag in the string.
I'm tacking the nails about every 12-16“. We will pour right up to the nails.
We have a number of large piers to catch the point loads coming down from the roof. They were spec'd 3' square x 12“ deep. We built them out of 2x12 from the last job. There is also a footing for the shearwall in the crawlspace. On top of the floor above this footing is a shearwall at the stairs.
All formed up and just about cleaned up. I started at 8 tieing bar, and the guys showed up about 10ish and we were formed a couple of hours later. This shot was about 2:45pm. Not too bad when you have great weather. We really dodged a bullet on the weather today.
Inspection Monday morning and if we pass, pour at 1pm. Strip Tuesay and by next Friday we might be framing here.
Started pouring concrete a little after 8. Somehow we got good weather again, so its good that we had to cancel yesterday.
Bryan is using the back of his hands to flatten out the concrete and tamp down any rocks. The mix we are using through line pump is nice and easy to work with.
He'll flatten it out and make sure its level with the grade nails. I'll come back through with a trowel and smooth it out.
We are about 1/2 way through. The first truck is cleaning out and we are just waiting for him to move.
Mudsill anchors are in and the concrete trowelled.
Two of the piers to catch point loads. They are filled 1/2 way up and then the grid of steel is dropped in and then the rest of the pier is filled.
You can see the concrete is level with the grade nails.
Here Kyle and Bryan (photographer) pull a string through the piers so we can set the post bases in the right spot.
I'm just setting them so they centered and level.
This side we tied the all thread to keep it in the right spot.
The template for the ILevel Shear Braces can stay in the concrete. But I'll pop it out because I put it in upside down. I just got in a hurry.
Stripping the foundation and scraping the panels as we go. We nearly had a blow out yesterday. You can see the panel there to the bottome left in the garage. The panel started to buckle but held. Later in the morning today when I pulled it off, it broke in half.
We usually oil the forms as we stack them on the truck so it'll soak well. You can see here that the only concrete that is sticking to the form is at the grade line.
I'm going through with a scraper to smooth out any irregularities from troweling. You can see some of them in the previous picture.
All cleaned up.
Ready to bring the forms back to the yard. Then we'll roll pipe for the downspouts.
Nice and flat.
The wall is nice and straight and. . . .
. . .level
The walls are nice and smooth.
Almost backfilled. We snapped lines today since it was dry. Now it doesn't matter if it rains we are ready to set sill Monday or Tuesday.
Yup.
This is a really badly stitched photo (from 3), but it shows the footprint.
First floor load.
Bryan is nailing the Simpson MASA mudsill anchors. We shoot all the mudsill down with a Hilti PAF gun and then shoot the hardware on. We love these anchors because you never have to worry about joists landing on a bolt or washer.
Kyle is using the Stabila LaserBob to plumb perfect layout for the interior shearwall. A level works well on short heights like this as well.
You can get layout to the 1/32nd if you wanted to, the dot is nice and small.
First row of girders is up. I've a piece of treated nailed against the stem wall for the interior shearwall.
I've got a 2x6 nailed to the girder, then I just measure up the depth of the floor joist minus the double top plates. I like to frame the shearwalls about 1/16th to 1/8" low and then put a lot of glue on top of the top plates then nail the sheathing into the wall. I just caught the mudsill with one of the J-bolts, so we added a Simpson Titan bolt to center the washer on the plate.
Tie a string from stud to stud to get the stud heights.
Kyle is working on a shear wall that is perpendicular to the joists, mine is parallel and extends to the underside of the floor sheathing. Bryan is working on setting the smaller girders.
We made it most of the day before it started raining. We decided to rim the sides and back and then run the joists to the rim. We'll snap a line at the front walls and cut the joists in place. I really like nailing the LSL rim from ILevel. It doesn't split and we only have to drag 16' lengths around.
Kyle snapped a line and cut he joists in place, then rolled them and nailed them to the back rim. Now he is nailing the front rim to the joists and the joists to the mudsill.
My approach to scattering I-Joists is to go in order of what is on the forklift. So the longest joists are 39' and 38' so that is where we are starting this morning.
Kyle is cutting the 34' lengths in place. This is much easier and faster than pulling a tape on joists that long.
Kyle is nailing off the rim and nailing the rim to joists, and Bryan is nailing the joists to layout over the girder. The footing under the shear wall is widened for a point load from the hip over the master bedroom.
All "joisted" and cleaned up.
We are shooting down the sublfoor with screw shank nails.
The nailing guide on the Advantech cuts way down on missed nails. This cuts way way down on squeaks. You can see the glue on top of the shear wall.
It misted most of the time we were sheathing the floor, but Bryan blew off the standing water and by the time we are were finished the deck was dry enough to snap lines. We are using the PLS90e to shoot square. We do this at every stage of the project.
We use a nylon clad steel tape for layout. It will not stretch and is much faster to wind.
All sheathed and lines snapped. The black chalk will not wash off, so we are good for layout from here on out.
4x9 and quite a bit of 4x8 Zip Wall.
I used an older Tajima chalk
Gorgeous sunrise this morning.
The upper story sheathing will catch the blocks in this wall. I ordered material by wall to minimize the Zip scrap. Oh and Bryan . . . nevermind . . .
Just a shot showing how we are set up today. The headers are all the cart, plates are on sawhorses and window packs are stacked near the last wall that we'll frame.
Kyle is J rolling the tape. We are using the Huber J-roller and it is so much better than the one we were using. This one is designed to activate the tape. I think we'll get a wood pole for it so we don't have to bend over.
You can see the pattern from the J-Roller. What I like about this system is that the inspector can still check the nailing pattern and the field is not covered so he can still see those nails.
The rakewall is just about finished.
Final step is just screwing in the 2x4s to anchor in the strap.
Oh yeah.
To give it some scale, Kyle is 6'5" (which he says is average) :-)
Bryan just picked it up and will drive it over to set it just right.
We plumb and nail braces to the side. We'll let the machine stay where its at too. We know a 30,000lb machine isn't going to be tipped over by a small wall like this.
He sees his reflection in the lens I think.
Tall wall framed and then the rake portion too. A hip will dive into the corner there by the rake. We'll build the overhangs before we lift it and put the soffits on.
It started raining lightly while we sheathed the floor, so I just blew the water off the seams. The blower dried it off and Bryan and Kyle installed the tape.
We will build this wall to the top of the rafters. But I prefer to layout the wall to the rafters than monkey around with a tape and hope the wall is right. This way the wall IS right, every time. Kyle is marking the top of the rafters, which will be the top of the rake double top plate. You can see too that we have the plans laminated. Otherwise they don't last. My first floor plan already turned to tissue paper.
The pile on the right are California corners and king stud/trimmers for the windows.
While I'm nailing, someone is filling in scrap on the right and then will route the sheathing along the rake.
All sheathed and taped. Next will be the overhangs and soffits and then we'll lift it in place. I stitched this photo from 2 vertical shots. It is a pretty decent stitch but if you zoom in on the middle of the wall, you can see where the 2 pictures overlap.
Took yesterday off, so first thing we started this morning was the closed soffit.
I layed the king common on the plate, and then pulled 24" off that for the cripple framing. This way the tails on the jacks will land right beside the cripples in the soffit.
It is tough to see, but the framing is 2x6, but the plate nailed the wall is 2x4. I did this so we don't have to rip the tails on the jacks.
The soffit is all framed, and ready for the LP SmartSide Soffit.
We frame the soffits 16 1/4" so that we have a little bit of room. The soffit comes 16" wide.
TimberLok screws by FastenMaster. We love these things.
Bryan and Kyle are screwing a 2x6 to the top of the wall to hold the strap.
You can see the water puddled on the Zip.
This wall will be a little tougher to lift because we need to lift and drive at the same time. So the best driver on the jobsite (guess who?) will do the driving (me if you didn't know :-)
There goes the water.
Nice and stiff. The soffit really helps to keep the wall stiff and having the right pick points for the strap.
Just about there.
Laser is 2" off the wall at the bottom. . . .
2" off the stud as well. Dead plumb.
A gorgeous day to be framing.
I need solid material behind the hold down straps, so I ripped a 6x6 to get two pieces 22.5 for the corners. I ran 1 pass with the Ridgid saw, then one with the Big Foot and then flipped it over and noe pass with the Ridgid.
We are creating a bit of a mess with all the tall walls.
Last task of the day, tape the few seams on the wall and call it a week. Monday will be fun because we'll lift all those walls and put them together to define the great room.
Doing a little clean up before framing the last tall wall.
I was going to jump through the window . . . not really a good idea.
Ready to set all the walls, so I just leaned up the back wall against the tree.
Some interior wall framing.
We are using the laser to double check the concrete and get our stud heights for the garage.
Here Kyle is putting a level mark on the stud. From there we will measure up the stud whatever the reference was off the already built walls.
Bryan has the screwdriver in the slot in the nut and lightly taps with his hammer to turn the nut.
It is a little bit of a hassle but not bad to spin those nuts. The rule is finger tight plus 1/8 turn (45 degrees). ILevel thought ahead and put those slots so you can spin it with a screwdriver.
I'm just checking it for plumb and it is very close. The nice thing about these walls is that you are supposed to leave the template in the concrete. This makes it very easy to trowel the concrete level.
The walls come with a sticker showing where and what size the walls can be drilled. We put the sticker on the inside of the wall.
The garage wall all framed minus the window framing. We don't want this wall too heavy. Bryan is stealing Kyle's hammer.
All the outside sheathing is on and taped.
We just need to add straps and lag screw the wall to the header.
2nd floor pack.
The LVLs were cupped, so Kyle use the super quick clamps to get them as tight as possible, then uses the FastenMaster lags to screw them together.
Ready to start framing the floor.
We rimmed the back and sides, and put up all the beams and anything special. Now its time to start scattering joists.
No the house isn't out of level, it is just another stitched photo. Most of the joists are rolled over the house. We'll probably sheathe this section before we set the garage joists. Depends on how icy the plates are tomorrow.
Bryan is attaching the Shear Brace to the header with TimberLok screws.
Started building the stairs while the guys sheathed the floor.
I cut all 3 with the Big Foot .
I take the top stringer off and then finish the cuts with a jigsaw on the remaining two stringers.
The Big Foot cut nice and square.
Stairs are all framed. Bryan is just putting a nail through the back of the riser into the tread to tighten the glue joint.
Kyle is cutting the blocking for the rakewall at the plates by eye.
Ready to rig. We hung the sheathing down so it would catch the garage header.
It has been really cold here. 10-14° in the morning. We started at 10am this morning.
Lumber for the roof.
Setting ceiling joists over the great room.
Ready to place.
Just starting to set the ridge beam over the great room.
My camera quit today, so this is a screen capture.
We were soaked by 9, but made it until about noon. I wanted to get the broken hip in and the valleys on the other side.
Another shot of the broken hip and then the valley. There is one other valley that we put in to lock in the upper ridge. Tomorrow we'll fill that all in and work to the front bedrooms.
Nailing in the last hip to valley jack.
We started the day framing a staging area over the master side of the house. The height of the ridge to the floor is 29' 10 1/2".
Once that was done, we set the hips.
Time for the backside. These jacks were longer because there is a 6' difference in wall height.
The longest rafters were cut out of 28' Doug Fir. They weren't as heavy as I thought they'd be. This section of roof has 28' and 26' rafters. Tthe 26' were KD, so they were a lot lighter.
I stitched 8 photos to get this shot. I was standing right over the stairs.
I'm standing on the GR ridge to get this shot. It is way up here.
Starting the fascia then we'll sheathe the roof and then build the cricket between the two gables.
Last piece and we can take lunch.
We use the cutoffs from cutting rafters for the blocking. Kyle is installing it verticallyin the rafter bays.
We cut a notch for the vent holes and smash them out as we go.
The closed soffit framing was done with the wall on the ground, so after the rafter bays are blocked, Kyle is nailing through the subfasica into the tail.
Then a couple of nails through the cripples into the tail. This makes the soffit framing super strong. You can stand up on the subfascia and bounce around and it won't move. Once the sheathing is nailed into it, it is bombproof.
This side is nice and frost free. The other side of the roof shows how frozen everything was.
The roof was dead flat.
This shot better shows the self-gapping edge of the Zip Roof panels.
Not much sheathing left to do.
The last thing to do is frame the cricket.
The cricket is all framed. It worked out to be a 5 1/16"-12. I made it match the ridge to the right to simplify the valley lines.
These were 66° cuts. They were 25 1/2" long!
The roof is all sheathed.
The master bedroom has two shearwalls that extend all the way to the roof and sit on shearwalls in the crawlspace. The wall on the right is about 25' tall!
We framed the barrel vault in two sections to leave room for the paddle fan. We used to build these complete and struggle to lift them, but we are getting smarter :-).
We can get a lot more mileage out of a sheet of Ply if we cut the arches like shown. This was John Kirkpatrick's suggestion and it makes a very big difference in assembly. If the barrel was longer, we'd put the purlins on edge.
We made it the whole winter with no snow. It has been fairly warm and not too rainy. But we got it today for a bit. Not enough to stick, but enough to get some pictures.
Here I am taping over the holddown straps and rolling it. You can see too that the metal over the vents is taped.
Here the window has been taped with shorter pieces, and now Kyle is starting to install the arched trim.
First a piece of lap, then shingles over that. This Bostitch gun is setting the nails perfectly.
We installed sheets of Hardie over the Zip and then 1x3 battens. I'll build a gable vent later and install it.
We install the shingles right up to the soffit, then cover it with a 1x8 for shadow fascia. We used to use 5/4x8 and install it first, but then you had to caulk it all, and it didn't look good later. This way we get a nice shadow line and avoid caulking, which is a homeowner maintenance item.
The vent is about 5' long and I spent the day building 4 of those. The sun was out and everyone was feeling good.
I built the gable vents using Joe Bartok's formulas for the miter & bevel of the "purlins" (slats).
Installing the 1x8 over the shingles gives a nice uniform shadow line. We "milled" the arched window trim onsite using a rough trammel and the little Bosch colt router.
Master bath ceiling
Master ceiling, same size barrel as the bathroom barrel.
Bonus room over the garage. The 14" ILevel I-Joists are stiff as can be. A nice flat stiff floor.
We ripped the corner boards out of 5/4x10 LP trim which is perfect material. It won't cup, check, split, warp etc. We used the DeWalt saw and the new guide they designed for it and it worked perfectly. We ripped these at 22.5 and they are nice and tight. You can zoom in to look closely, they really finished nicely.
