Metal Roofing

So we've finally put a real roof on the house!  It was about time, as I don't think a heavy snow would have been good for our tar-paper roof.  This is a stainless steel roof, and will hopefully outlast the headaches that it's caused me.  There are companies that make stainless steel roofing (Follansbee comes to mind), but they were a bit beyond our price range.  Instead, we bought two giant coils (2500# each) of stainless directly from the mill and had a local roofing send it through their machine to create the standing seam profile.  The headache came from first estimating the roofing required, then converting to square feet of flat metal and finally converting this into pounds of material.  Mostly I worried that I would make a mistake and end up 200 square feet short and have to put asphalt shingles on the back side of the carport, for example.

Here's the breezeway again, but finally with a roof overhead.  We used the same 1/2" clear polycarbonate for the roof that we've used elsewhere on the walls.  Beyond the simple satisfaction of forward progress, it makes a nice protected work area.  The black rods at the top of the image are 3/4" steel with turnbuckles at the center to prevent the base of the roof from spreading under load.

That's Brian on the ridge, placing clips to attach the ridge cap.  Here you can see the transition from the metal roof of the carport to the clear polycarbonate and back to metal.

And a closeup of that transition...  Needless to say, this roof is slippery - especially when it gets wet.  There was no way to stand on it while we installed the metal.  Everything had to be done from ladders with hooks that caught the ridge.  We would install a piece of roofing, climb to the ridge, move the ladder 16" and climb back down for the next piece.

The view from the north again.  The roof makes the house look much larger than it actually is.  I've never liked huge houses, and I find myself on the defensive when people come to visit the job site.  The house is just over 2000 square feet.  But we've installed over 5000 square feet of roofing (metal and poly combined).  The pitch of the roof, the deep overhangs and the breezeway / carport, together make the house appear much larger.

The Breezeway

Seems like we've been mired down in details a lot lately, but we have made some progress.  Tar paper now covers the walls, we've completed the rooftop insulation and we've framed the breezeway roof.  We chose tar paper over modern house wraps for a few different reasons.  First, it's time-tested and second, it actually becomes more vapor-permeable when it gets wet.  House-wrap manufacturers are still trying to work that one out.  On the roof, we went with 1 1/2" polyisocyanurate insulation.  We've got 4 loooong valleys, so typical roof ventilation would only cover about half the roof surface.  We decided instead to create an un-vented roof system, and insulate above the deck to prevent condensation from forming on the plywood.  It also worked really well with some of our trim details - the 1 1/2" insulation planes perfectly with our 2x4 purlins over the breezeway.

There are a couple conventional houses under construction not far down the road that I drive past almost every day.  The first broke ground about the same time as we did last winter, and the homeowners moved in a month or so ago.  The second began in late September and it looks like they've just about caught up with us.  I just drive by, grit my teeth, and get back to work.

In the photo below, I'm standing in our newly minted breezeway, looking toward the main entry.  Yes, the rafters are blue (greenish blue really).  It's a tradition down south to paint the porch ceiling pale blue, to resemble the sky.  The word is that this keeps bugs away, but I can't back this up from personal experience.  Any way, we'll paint our porch ceilings blue, because I like the color, and these rafters will be the ceiling of the breezeway.  So that's why they're blue.

We've also put up some of the polycarbonate siding.  It's clear, but also insulating, and it comes in sheets up to 6'x12'.  It's an inexpensive way to bring in lots of daylight without building a wall of custom windows, and I like the quality of the light that comes through.  I'll get a better closeup soon.

Looking back toward the house from the carport...

And around the back side of the carport...

Another thing that's slowed our progress lately is our finish carpentry framing.  Typically, most framing is covered by wall, ceiling and floor finishes, but in our house, much of this framing will be exposed.  We spent about a week, for example, sanding and staining the rafter tails beneath the roof overhang.  It was tedious, but had to be done before the roof.  Otherwise, we would have had overspray all OVER the roof.

I don't think I've shown this view before.  It's the view from where our pond will ultimately be, right about water level, in fact.  That's some more polycarbonate going up in the two gables, and copper flashing covering the band above the first floor.

This is our library terrace, which will be just below the dam.  We'll have 3 wide steps up to the library and 3 steps more up to the front porch.  The doors into the living roof will be sliding pocket doors that will be concealed within the exterior wall when open.

And here's the view from the garden.  This shows the roof insulation a little better.  All those spots are 3" washers to hold the material down to the deck.  We should have our roofing on site early next week and the forecast looks great.  With any luck, we'll have a finished roof before the next rain.

The Carport

Framing's too exciting to take a break for the finished roof, so we just kept framing.  We finally (almost) finished up the concrete work, pouring a terrace below the library, the carport slab, the breezeway between the house and carport, and the back porch.  You can now begin to make out the carport taking shape on the left.

Here's the view from the house, looking back toward the carport, and the root cellar underneath.  The stair up to the carport will be on the right side, against the taller concrete block wall.  The block wall on the left will be a low seating wall. 

This is our view from the carport itself, looking back toward the house.  We'll back-fill to bring grade up to the level of the carport after we strip the forms.  You can't help but notice the maze of scaffolding we had to set up to frame this roof.  Keep in mind that on the other side of the carport slab, there's a 9' drop to the breezeway slab, so the ridge is 26' above concrete at that point.

Here's how things are looking from the north...  That's the small back porch slab we poured, outside the kitchen.  At the ridge of the carport is a 50' x 14" LVL ridge beam that we placed by hand, as with every other stick of wood in this house.  It was nerve-wracking, but honestly not as difficult as I expected when the day finally came.  The two lower beams are 4x12 fir, spanning 28' until we get our columns in place.  Stay tuned...

I like this shot through the trees as you pull into the carport.  You can really get a sense of how close we are on some of the clearances.  It was threading a needle to place this house on the site without losing the trees that made it so special to us.

Interior Framing

These photos are mostly just interesting to me.  It will all be covered, of course, by our finished ceiling, but in the meantime, I can enjoy it.  This is the main intersection, where the two ridges and the four valleys come together.  The ridges are narrower - single 14" LVL's, and the valleys are thicker - double 14" LVL's, as they carry a greater load.  I love to see the skeleton of a house, before it's all muddied over with insulation and finishes.  So here it is:

And from the first floor...

The view toward the north gable, with collar ties in place

Looking north again, but from further back this time, to see the complete form of the roof.

One more, looking toward the carport and the breezeway...

And finally, looking south this time.

The House Takes Shape

Here's the view from the place where people will park.  That's the guest bedroom looming over the entry porch and the library.  Beyond, with bare studs, is our bedroom over the screened porch / living room.  One of our finest hickory trees is in the foreground.  From the early planning / siting stages, we worried about getting too close to this tree, but it gives me faith in the survey that the 4' roof overhang wound up 2 feet away.  And yes, it's a 4' overhang ALL the way around.  Our current tiny cabin has almost no overhang at all, and the rain just runs down the siding.

This is the view from the garden.  The master bedroom is on the second floor, with the screened porch / living room below.  I say that because the walls of the living room will slide (almost) completely open 6 months of the year to become a screened porch.  We're not installing air-conditioning, so the cool night air will cool our house.  Our future pond will be between the garden and the house from this view, so we'll be able to fish from the living room.  How's that for fresh?  The kitchen is to the right, with the narrow band of windows.

We still haven't framed the carport, but the slab is ready to pour.  That's a tight grid of rebar over metal decking, which is supported by 5 steel beams below.  You can see the toe-boards on the roof, and that's really all they are - just enough to catch a toe and hold you on the roof.  There's a 2x10 walk board at the bottom, so hopefully that would break your slide before you hit the ground.  I'm not a hold-the-ladder architect -- I've spent as much time on this roof as anyone.  The first day was a bit shaky, but I'm getting my roof legs.

Here's the back side of the house, with my son's room upstairs and our back porch below.  The small windows on the lower level are in the half bathroom and mudroom.  Those horizontal boards on the gable are just temporary collar-ties, to keep the roof from 'squalling', as my builder buddies would say.  They'll be replaced by 3/4" steel rods, which will do the same thing, but not be so obtrusive.

And this is the front door!  Or at least the front opening.  Here's where all the odd geometry comes together.  That's the guest bedroom upstairs on the right, our bedroom in the distance straight ahead and my son's bedroom upstairs on the left.  Downstairs, it's the library on the right, 32" below the main slab, the living room straight ahead and the kitchen to the left.  I was sitting in the basement below the carport as I took this photo. Now to further complicate the matter, all the walls covered with plywood will receive slate siding.  All the open stud walls will receive clear, insulated polycarbonate, inside and out, so they'll be translucent.  Think of it as a clear north-south gable form, intersecting an opaque northeast-southwest gable form.  That's the organizing principle of this design.

Got it?

Forgot to mention, that's just plastic and wire mesh on the ground, getting ready for the breezeway slab between the house and the carport.

FRAMING

I love framing!  Over the course of a month or so, the house goes from a flat slab to its finished form.  I've got lots of pictures, but it seems like you can never get enough.  By the end of the week, the whole project has changed.  This is a broad view from the garden, with most of the first floor walls stood up and most of the plywood sheathing in place.  We're going to use slate siding (yes, on the walls) that was removed from the roof of a nearby church, so we've used beefy 5/8" plywood for all the sheathing.

Now the second floor is even beginning to take shape.  This is a view from the main entry, looking out across the creek to the garden.  On the right is the sunken living room.

And here's a view from the carport, with a now relatively dry basement underneath.  You're looking at the metal decking, before the concrete slab is poured on top.

We're going for a vintage industrial look with these timber connections, with lots of exposed steel brackets and bolts.  These are 6x12 fir beams, framing into an 8x12 girder.



































This is a blowup of our custom steel brackets.  It's essentially a 'T' section, welded from 1/2" steel plate.  The bracket is first bolted to the girder, and then the slotted beam slides (or gets beaten) into place and is bolted tight.  We do most of our own welding on-site, but these brackets had to be built by a certified shop.  Those are 6  5/8" grade 8 bolts making the connection, by the way, and 6 more bolt through the girder.

Here's a more general view, from the corner of our water room, looking back toward the kitchen.

We really weren't excited about any of the off-the-shelf hardware that we could find for heavy timber brackets, so we made these post bases ourselves.  These get covered by a brick coping, so they're welded stainless steel.  Each post sits on 4 vertical angles which makes a cruciform stand that's slotted into the cedar post.  Here we've used 5/8" stainless steel bolts to secure the post to the base to prevent staining the cedar.

And at the top of the post, it's another steel bracket, this time holding the posts to the LVL's above.

Flat-work

After a long delay, we've finally poured the slabs.  Another 20+ yards of concrete, this time thankfully less stressful than pouring the walls.  An observant reader might notice that the time frame of my posting does not necessarily correspond to the time frame of the work on the house.  I'll try to keep it in chronological order at least.  The shot below is from the garden across the creek.  The wood supports you see were to keep the edge of the slab vertical where it overhangs the poured concrete wall below.  The carport / basement is in the background.

Here you can see, in the foreground, the sunken living room and, in the background, the main slab.  We've got 2" of rigid foam beneath the slab, and a 15 mil vapor barrier to keep any ground moisture from rising up into the concrete.  This is just a rough slab, for construction, and will ultimately be covered by a 2 1/2" topping slab full of radiant floor piping.

And the view from the carport.  This is the southwest to northeast axis, intersecting the north - south axis of the main house.  Under the carport will be our only real basement area, and it will serve as our staging area for construction.  We'll use 5 steel beams to span the basement walls, with metal deck and a concrete slab on top to create the floor of the carport.  You can also make out the vertical waterproofing on the outside of the block walls below grade.  We first parged the block, then gave it a thick coat of 'Black Mammie' as it's known around here, and finally stuck black plastic in the still-wet bituminous waterproofing.  It was messy, but should be a good barrier against ground moisture.

THE WALL

So the house is on a creek, and we mean to flood the creek right up against the house.  Hence the name of this blog.  We felt that concrete would create a much better dam than concrete block, so the entire east side of the foundation, above the helical piers, is 12" poured concrete.  We also used a water-impermeable admixture called Hycrete to prevent infiltration over time.
With the wall finally formed and braced off, we began the pour.  Every bit of concrete in this house had to be pumped.  We also filled the cells of most of the concrete block with the leftover concrete from the poured wall.

Foundations

We struggled with the weather.  First it was a late snow, then just a relentlessly wet spring...

That last is our tiny cabin in the snow.  Our family of three has spent the last 3 years in here.  Finally, after weeks of waiting, we began the foundation work.  Our first surprise was poor soils near the creek.  We sank 14 helical piles under the footings, each rated at 50-75000 pounds capacity, before pouring footings on top.  Finally, after a break in the weather, we began laying block... 

That's our basement under the carport in the background, and our sunken living room in the foreground.