Sterling Road Frame

[Tim Uhler]

We started a new frame today. It'll be a fun one, so I thought I'd do a photo documentary thread like they do over at Breaktime, except I'll post links, not pics in the thread. Photo album here.

It is easier to just post a link to the photo album, than a million links here.

Today we got all our stuff out to the job and didn't make it too far. The foundation is stepped 1', and it should have been 9 1/2" for the 2x10 joists. The back gets hangered and the front the joists sit on the foundation. So we have to add 2x6 + 5/4 x 6 to make up the difference in height. Since we have to hanger the back, I ordered 2x8 Borate treaded mudsill.

This thing is so cut up that it took awhile to get layout snapped. We checked our lines for square on either end of the foundation and the PLS90 had us within 1/8".

The garage is at 45 to the house and it seems easier to me to snap out the garage after the floor is sheathed to get more accurate layout.


I would normally say all comments welcome, but things are different on the forums than they used to be.

So all comments specifically about framing welcome. I'm always looking to improve, so if anyone has advice at any point, please post it. :-)

EDIT: Anyone know of a way to prevent pictures from being saved off the album? So it couldn't be right clicked and saved? Also, a decent program to batch resize? I really hate doing that one at a time.

[sbebuilders]

Re: Sterling Road Frame

Tim, Good idea about doing a photo documentary on this house. Maybe you can sell it back to the company that supplied the plans. Bernies house version 1.

1:Snap lines. That way they don't wash away. We use cement die in our caulk lines.

2: The head outs in the foundation seems to be for foundation vents. Aren't they a little to close to finish grade?

3: What's up with the interior cement girder bearing piers. How come their so big. How do you attach the girder post to the cement pier?

4: How deep are these cement piers?

5: On your shear wall schedule, it looks like it says 15/32" APA Rated SHEETS. Do the plans call out CDX or OSB? Who makes this call? The company that sells the plans, or your structural engineer? Is there a structural engineer for this house. If not, why not?

We have to space our piers 3 time the diameter of the pier. With a 12" diameter pier that mean the piers are no closer than 3*12 = 36.

Just curious about what's required in other states.



Sim

[David Meiland]

Re: Sterling Road Frame

Tim, a couple of comments/questions:

1. We use clear upside down lacquer spray to protect snapped lines. It works beautifully.

2. You mention that the house is board and batten and that you install windows while the walls are flat. What's the reasoning? Do you install blocking in the walls for board and batten nailing? Here's a photo of what we're doing right now, you can see some of the horizontal blocking for siding (it's 2x3 at 24" OC and yes it's tedious to install).

[Tim Uhler]

Re: Sterling Road Frame

Tim, Good idea about doing a photo documentary on this house. Maybe you can sell it back to the company that supplied the plans. Bernies house version 1.

1:Snap lines. That way they don't wash away. We use cement die in our caulk lines.

2: The head outs in the foundation seems to be for foundation vents. Aren't they a little to close to finish grade?

3: What's up with the interior cement girder bearing piers. How come their so big. How do you attach the girder post to the cement pier?

4: How deep are these cement piers?

5: On your shear wall schedule, it looks like it says 15/32" APA Rated SHEETS. Do the plans call out CDX or OSB? Who makes this call? The company that sells the plans, or your structural engineer? Is there a structural engineer for this house. If not, why not?

We have to space our piers 3 time the diameter of the pier. With a 12" diameter pier that mean the piers are no closer than 3*12 = 36.

Just curious about what's required in other states.



Sim

Sim,

They aren't head outs, they are just 8" x ?" vents. Finished grade will be below them a couple of inches. Those interior cement beams are called out on the shear wall schedule. There are times when we'd either have to build wood framed shearwalls in the crawlspace, or just have concrete poured. Wherever those are, there are shearwalls above. If you ask me, it seems excessive, but I'm not an engineer.

The piers are 24" diameter and about 8-10" deep. Now that I think about it, you were talking about the piers, not stemwalls. We'll shoot A23? (I forgot the number off the top of my head) into the concrete and nailed into the posts. Normally we would have straps embedded in the concrete like the MA straps and then nail them to the posts. But the concrete guy forgot them.

Normally, I think the oc spacing for the piers is 6' here, but this plan is engineered, so whatever is spec'd, is what it is. By the way, those piers aren't that big. Sometimes for point loads we have to have 3'x3'x12" deep piers. In my photo album, the lot 46 job had some peirs added that were point loads for the roof. One of them was around 48" wide if I remember, with #5 bar in them.

Hope that answered your questions. If not let me know.

[Tim Uhler]

Re: Sterling Road Frame

Tim, a couple of comments/questions:

1. We use clear upside down lacquer spray to protect snapped lines. It works beautifully.

2. You mention that the house is board and batten and that you install windows while the walls are flat. What's the reasoning? Do you install blocking in the walls for board and batten nailing? Here's a photo of what we're doing right now, you can see some of the horizontal blocking for siding (it's 2x3 at 24" OC and yes it's tedious to install).

Dave,

We'll sheathe the walls with 7/16" LP siding 4x10 sheets. Then 1x3 batts over the studs. Originally the plan called for batts every 12" I think, and we are going 16". The look will be similar to this one. It isn't true board and batten.

So we hang the window, and cut the sheathing around the windows, and do the trim at the same time.

Nice picture. Was that the one you wanted us to frame?

By the way, I know the lacquer trick works well, but this black chalk is pretty amazing too. We can snap lines, have it get super wet, then when the floor gets vacuumed right before carpet, you can see the lines. That is through the overspray from the texturing/painting inside. I've gone back to screw off the floors and you can see all the layout snapped.

[kpatrix]

Re: Sterling Road Frame

Tim,

I'm looking forward to the the roof framing part of this. There's a lot that can be learned on those offset valleys.

I'm interested in how you'll calculate your jacks.

[David Meiland]

Re: Sterling Road Frame

Yeah, it would have been great if you framed it, but lacking that it forced me to put together a crew for it and we're having a lot of fun. The siding is 1x10 boards and 1x3 battens and it needs all that blocking. I've seen a lot of faux B&B and always wondered if the plywood won't rot out under the battens pretty quick.

[Lavrans]

Re: Sterling Road Frame

Looks like it'll be a fun job.

What do you think about the straps? I've never used them- never had them called out. How adjustable are they (seems like their placement is a little more critical than bolts would be?)?

[NW Architect]

Re: Sterling Road Frame

EDIT: Anyone know of a way to prevent pictures from being saved off the album? So it couldn't be right clicked and saved? Also, a decent program to batch resize? I really hate doing that one at a time.

Look into Thumbs Plus 7.
Google it.
Lots of customizeable batch routines. It won't eliminate copying from an online album, but it should be able to add a watermark to the photos.
Fully functional x-day trial is available.

[KLyons]

Re: Sterling Road Frame

So as I understand it is single wall construction? I have not do one in many years, but have a possible addition that way. I was thinking of making the kings corners and blocking under the window sills. My thinking is that would make it easier for house wrap and then have a solid surface to apply skicky tape? Waste of time? Water issues on single wall make me nervous.

Ken

[Tim Uhler]

Re: Sterling Road Frame

So as I understand it is single wall construction? I have not do one in many years, but have a possible addition that way. I was thinking of making the kings corners and blocking under the window sills. My thinking is that would make it easier for house wrap and then have a solid surface to apply skicky tape? Waste of time? Water issues on single wall make me nervous.

Ken

Is this still considered single wall? I understand what you are saying about water issues. This house will have 2' overhangs so the tops of all the windows get covered at least, plus the window gets calked and set, then the siding gets caulked, then the trim gets caulked. I'm not too worried about moisture problems.

I've seen a lot of faux B&B and always wondered if the plywood won't rot out under the battens pretty quick.

We've done this before. I'm not sure it will rot behind there. I could go next door to the office and pull a batt back and look. We built that back in early 2000 and its the same material. I'm guessing it looks just fine though.

I'm looking forward to the the roof framing part of this. There's a lot that can be learned on those offset valleys.

I'm interested in how you'll calculate your jacks.

I originally figured up the materials so that we wouldn't have to build walls under them, but we'll probably follow the plan and used 2x8's and frame supporting walls under them. We are trying to do this as inexpensively as possible, so that means less materials (2x8 instead of 2x12) but more labor. But we don't really care because that will be inside work for wet days :-)

I'm looking forward to the roof. The last two jobs have been 12-12 and really high up in the air, so this one will be easier. Plus handling 2x8 will be a lot easier than handling 24' and 26' 2x12 :-)

What do you think about the straps? I've never used them- never had them called out. How adjustable are they (seems like their placement is a little more critical than bolts would be?)?.

We've used straps for the last year and love them. It took us about an hour yesterday to get all that sill set and shot on with the Hilti and me nailling behind the guys. Laying sill goes extremely fast. These new straps are great because they require less nails, than the last strap we used, plus the tabs are on the outside of the walls, so they aren't in the way when we snap lines.

The Simpson catalog showed every 5' I think, but it seemed like they were put about every 4'. I like using the straps because it is easy to get the mudsill shot right on the line everywhere. Matt talked to the Simpson rep at JLC LIVE last week and he said more and more people are switching because the 3" square washers are always in the way and its a hassle to notch the rim around them. If the concrete guys get the bolts too close, its a real pain to set rim. Those washers we are required to use are 3/16" thick x 3" across.

[dmwyatt]

Re: Sterling Road Frame

EDIT: Anyone know of a way to prevent pictures from being saved off the album? So it couldn't be right clicked and saved? Also, a decent program to batch resize? I really hate doing that one at a time.

If a person can view it in a web browser it can be saved.

If you use Picasa to upload to Picasa Web Albums it will resize them automatically.

I like this idea of a photo documentary. Keep it up!

[clydewater]

Re: Sterling Road Frame

Hi Tim,
Great work as always and many "Thank" for all the pictures you post.

Are crawl spaces common in your part of the country? Around here most homes have full basements since the footings are required to go to 3' below grade anyway. Might as well get more usable space with a basement.

I would like to know what other buiders use aound the country for foundation systems.
Thanks
Dick Owen
PS Did not mean to hijack Tim's thread with my question. So if I did, I will start a new one.

[Joe Carola]

Re: Sterling Road Frame

Dick Owen
PS Did not mean to hijack Tim's thread with my question. So if I did, I will start a new one.

Dick,

I see your causing trouble again like you did at Mike Sloggat's road show when I met you there..............;-)

Staying out of trouble?

[framer]

Re: Sterling Road Frame

tim,
do you guys put any kind of vapor barrior in the crawl space?
how do you gain access underneath later on?

do people build full basements there? or house on slab?

also, when you nail all those hangers to the green plate, what do you do if the plate splits along the nails? is there a better way of doing that? maybe rip a piece of 3/4 advatech and attach that to the top of the green plate, and then put on the hangers, nailing through the hanger, 3/4 advantech, and then the plate.