We were greeted this morning with trucks bearing gifts! Structural Insulated Panels to be precise. Today we set all the first floor panels, I yelled at Brian Greenborne (from Wilburn Hardware who has been working diligently with me to make sure I don't screw things up too bad), had a serious heart to heart with the guy who runs the block crew, framing crew, sheetrock crew, and roofing crew, stayed on site all day making sure the lead carpenter was reading the panel diagram correctly (rather I was reading correctly trying to catch his mistakes...and I caught most of them), and I got a sunburn.
Remember a couple of posts ago when I mentioned that the surveyor had nailed the brick line not the block line? Well this is how we had to make up for it. The connection between these two panels should have been one 2x4. Instead you can see the edge of 2 2x4's on each side with 2 more 2x4's in the middle. Eventually we will cover this over with OSB plywood so the surface will all match before the sheetrock goes on.
Here's a shot with the panels in place and the interior framing underway. Remember this morning there was nothing but subfloor decking.
We got our panels for this project from FischerSIPS. They are easy to work with and their price includes a day of onsite consultation...and it was the low bid to boot!
The three 2x4's sticking up there will be cut off as they will provide support for a LVL beam used to support stuff on the second floor. Why didn't they cut them the right size to begin with so they don't have to go back and cut them later? I don't know...I'm not a carpenter (they probably just do it so the rest of us will ask why...carpenter humor I suppose?)
This is a close-up of a SIPS (Structural Insulated Panel). The hole in the middle is to run wire through for electrical outlets, switches, etc. The vertical slot from the bottom of the EPS (Expanded PolyStyrene) to the wire channel is made by a hot wire that is used to make the channel. The slot is made when they lift the hot wire out of the EPS.
Now the details.... So why did I yell at Brian? Because the block crew didn't lay the block right (which is why I had the heart to heart with the head crew dude) and when I told him they were coming back tomorrow to lay more he made the mistake of indicating they shouldn't do that as it would make the door of the garage very low (five feet is what he said). So I went a bit ballistic (keep in mind this is me...ballistic really isn't too bad...but I was yelling). So he ignores me and starts calling the truss company to make sure everything will pan out. So our garage will only have an eight and a half (8.5') high ceiling instead of the traditional ten (10') high ceiling. Which means that our garage door will probably only be seven (7') feet high. Guess what? I don't care if I have a garage that is only 8.5 ' high. The garage door on our current garage is 7' high and looks normal...and all the hardware for the garage door opener is mounted below 8.5'. Anyway...I lost it and then had to apologize.
And about this serious heart to heart with Alberto (they guy with all the crews). I had specifically told him (and Brian, and the guy who drew the plans, the lead block layer, and pretty much everyone else I could think of that I wanted a zero degree entry from the garage to the house. What that means is that the floor of the garage is on the same level as the floor of the house. Now go back and look at the photos from yesterday's post. The block work ends 16" lower than the subfloor!! So I had to remind Alberto that I had told him and his block crew lead of my desire to have the garage floor on the same level as the house. So...tomorrow...the block crew will be back out here carefully tearing off the "L" block; replacing it with a course of normal 8" block, setting another course of 8" block, and then placing the "L" block back on the top.
Then there was the whole...I was on site all day. Don't I have a job? Yes I do! (thanks LeaAnn for being flexible with me!) I was scheduled to take half a day, but I took a whole and its a good thing I did. SIPS panels have been around since the 1940's or 50's, but they never have been in very wide use. This was the first SIPS job for me and for the crew. It was very important to follow the drawings...especially since we knew we had to deviate from the drawings. Beam pockets, window spacing, etc would be impacted if we didn't make our corrections (for the house being wider and longer than it was supposed to be) in the right places. However, I couldn't get the guy to take the plans seriously. Every time I turned around a few pages would be back in his truck or everything would be rolled up and tossed on the floor. If it was open to look at it would be on one stack of panels one minute on the floor the next minute or on a different stack the next.
The dude was very disorganized. I caught at least 3 or 4 panels from being installed wrong side up (the wire chases for electric go a the bottom). How many times does it take to remember that? They weren't drilling out the splines for the electric chases, weren't using enough glue, didn't have all their sill plates half an inch in from the outside edge of the floor decking (some of that I didn't know when we first started either...to be fair).... He botched the first corner (which...come to think of it we didn't ever fix), tried to skip the second corner and go straight to the third corner. If I wasn't there...maybe they would have figured it out when all was said and done, but it felt like I was herding cats most of the day.
All that...and I got a sunburn.
It was a frustrating and somehow satisfying day at the same time. Marta watched Andrew and Abigail all day. They came over to see the site a couple of times. Andrew pitched several fits because he woke up early and was really tired all day. For instance when we were unloading the trucks and the skylift started up...tantrum...I guess it scared him. Bottom line, Marta did a great job with kids, letting Andrew feel included, but keeping him out of the way at the same time. Thanks Honey!!
No comments:
Post a Comment