We completed several tasks on our critical path to completing our SIP roof today.  An important task was to have all of the beams on site so they could be graded.  Having our beams is critical so the structural framing can be completed on the ground floor so we can move the SIPs onto the roof with the crane on Wednesday.

Picking Up Our Reclaimed Beams After Milling in Watsonville

Dave Merchant, from Out of the Woods, loaded the three beams that we milled to size on Tuesday at his site in Bonny Doon.  Dave met Bryan in Watsonville at Jackel Enterprises, where we loaded the remainder of the beams that were being milled.  From there, Bryan followed Dave up Highway #1 and over the hill to our project site.  There, our framing crew unloaded the beams by hand and staged them for grading.

Charlie Jourdain, from Redwood Inspection Service in Pleasant Hill, arrived on our site as planned and the beams were ready for him.  Charlie examined and graded each beam, then stamped the end of each beam.  He will be sending us a certificate stating the grade of each beam.  Note that Redwood Inspection Service is a division of California Redwood Association, of which Charlie is the President.

Loading our recently milled reclaimed Douglas Fir beams in Watsonville. The beams on the truck were milled by Dave Merchant in Bonny Doon.

Bryan followed Dave's truck back from Watsonville. Dave is going up Winchester Boulevard with our reclaimed beams.

Dave backed the trailer into our site so it could be unloaded quickly and easily.

Charlie Jourdain, President of California Redwood Association, came to our job site and graded our reclaimed beams. Charlie is measuring the grain of the wood as the grain runs diagonally in this beam.

Charlie measured and graded all of our beams on site, which were just delivered a few hours ago.

Making Insulated Headers

On the West side of our house we have two bathrooms.  The beams that support the SIP roof at the front and back of the house extend through the building.  However, we have two bathrooms on the West side and, even with exhaust fans, these bathrooms will have a high moisture content.

To provide greater protection from condensation, our durability plan requires insulated headers to keep keep the surfaces of the exposed beams warmer and prevent condensation from occuring. 

From two of the reclaimed Douglas Fir beams, we had Jackel Enterprises cut two 1-3/4 inch wide planks.  Using these planks, we sandwiched 2 inches of rigid R-10 insulation.  Thus, we end up with an insulated header that is 5-1/2 inches wide and over 19 ft long.  This insulated header will be over the windows in the two bathrooms.

Similarly, we require a small insulated header on the East side of the house, above the exterior Kitchen door.

Francisco makes the insulated headers by sandwiching 2 inches of rigid insulation between two planks, cut from our reclaimed Douglas Fir beams.

Completed insulated header. The two pieces of reclaimed Douglas Fir are held together by a number of 4-1/2 inch galvanized Simpson Strong Tie SDS screws, countersunk into the planks.

Moving the Temporary Steel Beams

The temporary steel beams supporting the existing East and West walls of our house were moved clear of the structure today.  Several inches of the concrete haunches were removed so the existing walls are now free and clear, and are entirely supported by the house once again.

We’re ready to remove the temporary steel beams from the site on Wednesday, February 24.

Reducing Construction Waste

Renovation and construction projects can generate a tremendous amount of waste that goes to landfill sites.  According to the LEED for Homes Reference Guide, ‘Construction and demolition wastes constitute about 40% of the total solid waste stream in the United States.’  For our project, we are targeting to create as little construction waste as possible.  When our Green Rater, Darrel Kelly, came to our project site on Tuesday, February 16, he was surprised, and delighted, to see how little waste we were generating as we were using three 35 gallon garbage bins to hold our framing debris.

Earth Bound Homes delivered a trailer to our job site today that will be used for all the framing debris.  All the framing waste on our job site was dumped into the trailer as it will be taken for recycling.  We will obtain tags on the debris removed with the trailer.

This is the trailer from Earth Bound Homes, which contains all of our framing debris to date. Note that a number of the pieces in trailer are reclaimed wood, which would otherwise be landfill. This debris will be taken for recycling, not landfill. Reduce, reuse and recycle (redirect).

Overview and Inspection of Progress this Week

Given the days are longer now, Jo-Anne was able to drop by the job site at the end of the day today to inspect our progress. 

Our first major shear wall is in place in Kate’s bedroom (formerly the Master Bedroom).  Having the shear wall in place prior to Jo-Anne’s inspection showed significant progress. 

In line with that shear wall is another shear wall adjacent to the Atrium.  Scott Andersen, who did the conceptual design of the remodel, specified during his most recent job site progress review that we include recessed art niches in the wall behind the glass bridge to the Master Suite.  Three recessed art niches were framed in today and the plywood will be nailed in place next week.

Jo-Anne walked the property and was smiling as she was pleased with our progress this week.

Completed SIP walls on either side of our doorway at the front of the house.

Same view of the foyer, taken on September 29, 2008 when the roof was being deconstructed. Note the diagonal brace on the temporary site fence through the door - it is the same diagonal brace in the photo above. Way cool.

Three art niches that are framed in the shear wall behind the glass bridge facing the Atrium.

Example of recessed art niches (not in a contemporary style house).

Example of recessed art niches on a large exposed wall.

Plywood 2x6 shear wall between the Living Room and Kate's Bedroom.

Jo-Anne, standing in Kate's Bedroom, smiles as she walks the property inspecting our progress this week.

Our flag is flying and our Insulspan sign is posted. The site is buttoned up, ready for the rain that is forecasted through the weekend.

We love wood and want our house to have some history to it.  Accordingly, we’re looking for old wood that we can remill to use in the house.

Using reclaimed wood is good for the environment, it looks beautiful, and it gets us some LEED points.  The only problems are that it is difficult to find and, when you do find it, the wood is expensive.

Bryan set off to visit a ranch near Livermore to see some 50+ year old lumber.  He liked it but didn’t buy any.

Barn north of Livermore where wood is covered by the white tarp.

2x Redwood lumber that is more than 50 years old. This would clean up nicely.

The Douglas Fir beams were too short and didn't meet our requirements.

Measuring the 4x beams. We need 6x beams and have reclaimed 4x beams from the original house.

If we need more 2x Redwood decking, this is where we will get it from.

Measuring the SIPs

We need to put lumber into the SIPs so we can attach the roof panels to the flat decking and attached the roof panels to the pony walls.  The foam will need to be removed in the roof panels, just like the pony wall panels.

Bryan measured the actual dimensions so we can order the LVL and other 2x materials.

The SIPs are under a tarp, so they are all dry.

The SIP pony walls and other components are all individually numbered.

The 45 degree roof SIP requires a 16-1/2 inch LVL.

Looks like the pony walls will require a 2x10 to attach to the 45 degree roof SIPs.

Given the forecast, Bryan got some addtional tarps and cords. 

Jim O’Brien and Doug McNeil helped Bryan button up the site and prepare for the rain storms.

Doug McNeil in at the back of the property. Our SIPs are secure for the forecasted rains.

Bryan, feeling much better now that our SIPs are secure, at the front of our property.

Since there was rain forecasted, we got some tarps to cover our SIPs. 

We need to keep the SIPs dry so the OSB (Oriented Strand Board) doesn’t get soaked and expand.

We covered our SIPs and need some ropes and cords to hold the tarps in place.

Protecting our SIPs from rain.

Bryan received a call today from Bill Edwards of Insulspan.  Bill apologized for interrupting our tool shopping on ’Black Friday’ (we bought an air compressor and a DeWalt miter saw) as he wanted to advise us that our SIPs will arrive at our job site on Wednesday morning (12/02/09) at 8:00 am.

Shipping Our SIPs

Bill explained that there will be three trucks; two truckloads full of SIPs and the third truck will have the remaining SIPs and all the hardware.  He sent the photos below to show us what to expect.

We need to ensure we have a crane ready and waiting, and that we have space to store the SIPs until we can place the SIPs on the structural framing.

Once we have the SIPs, the house should come together quickly.

Our SIPs in Delta, BC (Vancouver) loaded and ready to go on Friday, 11/27/09.

Back of the truck. Note the reference numbers on each panel.

Truck #2, with more SIPs.

Front of truck #2.

The Walters Visit Our Site

It was a great Thanksgiving dinner last night and, yes, we discussed our project several times.  Worth and Lena Walters were at the dinner with their two sons, Bjorn and Andreas.  Everyone, except Bjorn, has visited our project site and, during a lull in their Black Friday shopping, they called and said they would drop by.

Jo-Anne wanted to verify the progress so she joined us, too.

The Walters inspecting progress since their last visit.

The lower level is looking fine - we need to pour concrete!

The entire roof of our house and the front wall are made from SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels) that are manufactured in Canada by Insulspan.

Dave Stevenson called us to let us know the SIPs are ready to be shipped from their plant in Delta, British Columbia.  We need to have the main floor concrete and structural framing ready to receive the SIPs.  The manufacturing of the panels is complete, so that item is off the critical path.

Now, we need to focus on concrete.

SIPs from Insulspan

We had several alternative SIP manufacturers and chose Insulspan for a number of reasons.  The team at Insulspan included Dave Stevenson, Lorne Shepert and Nancy Yao.  It was great to be working with Canadians on our project here in California.

Today, Dave had one of his colleagues, Bill Edwards, take photos of our completed SIPs.  Each panel is numbered and will be assembled at our job site.  The SIPs have chases cut for our electrical wiring, so the wiring should go in nicely. We planned for rigid conduit to go through the SIPs that will carry the DC wires from our solar panels through to the inverters in the East Mechanical Room. 

Our engineers of record, Innovative Structural Engineering, reviewed the shop drawings for the SIPs and wet-signed two copies of those shop drawings.  We will file the shop drawings with the City of Monte Sereno.

All photo credits to Bill Edwards.

Our roof SIPs, waiting patiently in Delta, BC for shipping to California.

Each SIP is unique and numbered so it can be assembed at our job site. These are all roof panels and are 12¼ inches thick, resulting in an R47 roof.

These are the gable roof panels. Our roof will have a 12:12 pitch, resulting in a 90 degree angle at the top of the roof.

You can see the splines in these roof panels. These splines are similar to an I-beam, with a thin web between the top and bottom flanges. The thin web reduces the thermal bridging.

Here are our wall and pony wall SIPs. The front wall of our house will be made from 6½ inch SIPs as will the pony walls on our flat roof. In this stack, you can see the 45 degree angle pony walls that will support the gable roofs.