Assembling Our SIP Wall
We had a several tasks going in parallel today with one delayed until tomorrow. The tasks on the critical path were progressing as planned, so our overall timeline remains intact.
The one task that was delayed was picking up the beams from Watsonville. The beams could not be ready by noon today, as planned. Fortunately, Bryan was able to reschedule the pickup by Dave Merchant for tomorrow morning at 8:00 am. It will be an early start to the day.
Removing the Temporary Steel Beams
Pete Janovich was on site with two members of his team and they set to work unbolting and moving the steel beams clear of the existing West and East walls. As well, they removed part of the concrete haunches to provide more access to the existing walls.
The steel beam on the West is now clear and ready to be removed by the crane next Wednesday. Pete’s team will complete the work on the East side tomorrow. This task is on the critical path and is progressing as planned.
The temporary steel beam that was supporting the existing wall on the West side is not detached and moved clear of the existing wall.
Scott Heeschen Comes by for PEX Training
Our friend, Scott Heeschen, who is building a house in Campbell dropped by for training on how to connect PEX tubing. Matt Jung (88HVAC) trained Bryan in November and, since Scott is putting in PEX plumbing, Bryan offered to train Scott on how to connect PEX tubing.
Scott Heeschen takes a full tour of the house. He was impressed with the scale of our project.
Bryan showed Scott how to connect PEX to fittings. And, how to disconnect the PEX and remove kinks.
Receiving More FSC-Certified Lumber
Our small lumber order was delivered today. We need lumber to complete the structural framing on the ground floor before we start framing the SIP roofs. Another task stroked of ‘the list’.
Our small lumber order arrived and was dropped at our site. This FSC-certified lumber is required to complete our structural framing so we can stage the SIPs on the West side of the house next week.
It is always nice to order #1 or better and receive Structural Select, which is better than #1. Note that all the lumber in our house is FSC-certified.
Assembling Our SIP Wall
Since we retained the existing East and West walls, and the North Wall is either concrete, sliding glass or Hardy-Frames, the only wall that we could build using SIPs was the south wall. This is the wall facing Via Sereno.
After preparing the wall plate, assembling our SIP wall went quickly. The following photos show how the SIP wall was assembled with some of the connection details.
Given the probability of rain tomorrow, Dave Edwards’ team covered all the SIPs to protect them from the rain.
It was a long, but good, day today.
There is a 3/4-inch pressure treated plywood plate against the concrete, with a 2x6 mud sill on top of the plywood plate. This assembly is anchored to the foundation with longer holddowns extending above the plate. The 6.5-inch SIP walls will go on top of this assembly and be nailed into the 2x6 plate.
The SIP wall sits on top of the plate assembly and has insulated splines between each panel.
The SIP wall will go at the end of the stud wall, and be placed over the plate assembly on the concrete foundation.
The panel has sealing mastic on the inside of the OSB and foam, and the plate assembly is cleaned of dirt and debris with an air hose.
Interior view of the completed SIP wall in place.
We used Simpson Stong Tie HTT22s for hold downs for our shear wall. There are 16 rows of 2 nails per row attaching the HTT22 to this 6x6 post. The hold down is a Simpson Strong Tie SSTB24, which is embedded more than 20 inches into the concrete foundation.
Exteior view of the completed SIP wall at the front of the house. There are two window openings, then the front door and garage door. The garage door header will be delivered on Wednesday with our three other beams.
Given the forecast is for rain tomorrow, we buttoned up the site and covered our SIP walls and framing lumber with tarps and plastic.
Tags: Framing, FSC certified lumber, Matt Jung 88HVAC, Pete Janovich, Scott Heeschen, SIPs
