Week 21: March 20 - 26

Week 21, the first picture above is of our dormer mock up. Not too much progress made at the moment, this week was a testing week so we were busy with other things. But we did make it as far as getting all the gable end studs up.

I wanted to talk a little bit about some of the different types of house wraps we're using. Featured above, from left to right, is HydroGap and Blueskin VP100. HydroGap has a built in drainage plane feature. This means that furring is technically unnecessary, as the amount of space required for water to shed behind any type of siding is already built in.

Blueskin is a self-adhering house wrap. It comes in 4", 6", 9", 12" and 48" roll width sizes, lengths of 100'. This product is interesting, because it allows application of the product without additional penetration of the building envelope (with fastners). It creates a completely air and water tight seal, although in the literature it does state that it is a vapor permeable barrier... It comes with a 12 month warranty, but only if the product is truly defective. 

Here I have one picture of all of the corner boards that have gone up on the sheds. I haven't had a personal hand in constructing these, but I was noting in the picture the notching that needed to happen up at the soffit, so that the corner board looks like a complete assembly. The corner boards are furred out 3/8 - 1/2", dependent on what type of siding will be used. The corner boards are kreg drilled and glued together, with the front facing board being the full width, and the side board (of the complete assembly) being it's width minus the thickness of the adjoining board.

And here, in the later part of the week, I was working on installing a window. Pictured above is the window RO (Rough Opening), with the correct window to be installed positioned below. I first cut the Typar House wrap out of the window opening, and cut the top at 45 degree angles away from the window opening, so that the flap could be lifted up and taped down over the window once it is installed.

Here I have a shingle cut to the RO width. This will aid in water drainage (in the correct direction: OUT), angling and trapped water out and away from the house. Water penetration is the biggest issue to combat when making any hole in the building envelope.

And here I have the window caulked and tacked in place (with galvanized roofing nails = no rust). Underneath the window, you can see the Grace Vycor Plus that I used to flash the window. When flashing, I cut 'bow ties', or angled strips that sealed the lower corners of the window RO first. Then a 34" strip was cut for the complete lower panel flashing. 24" for the RO, + 5" for each side. The extra on each side was run up the inside of the window RO. Slits were cut 3" deep in the roll and 5" in, allowing us to bend the Vycor down and over the window furring and housewrap.

Week 20 March 6 - 12

Catching up here on some things from Week 19, painting the exterior trim of our 10 x 12 shed.

Here I am laying out the rafters on the top plate of our wall.

Cutting the rafter pattern with the miter saw so that we would have the straightest, truest cuts to trace onto all of the other rafters.

Finish cutting out the rafter tails with my handsaw.

Using my skill saw to notch out the end of the rafters, for the fascia to sit below the crown molding.

And finally, the beginning of week 20 here. The 10 x 12 shed is completely wrapped in Typar house wrap. I will post pictures of the other types of house wraps in the next weeks post.

Here I have bracing inside or our dormer mock up shed. This will make it easier for us to do sheathing and all of our exterior work, without having to worry about anything being in the way. We also used this bracing to shift the ridge so it would be plumb.

The LSL lumber we are using to frame the window openings.

Notch cutting for the gable end studs. 1 1/2" deep with a roughly 45 degree angle.

And finally the back wall of the shed with all of the gable stud framing in place! Happy Spring Break!

Week 19: February 28 - March 5

Week 19 I am laying out rafter tails in the design drawings above. These rafter tails vary away from the common rafters we have been practicing frequently, and even the hip and valley rafters we spent a considerable amount of time on. What we're trying to accomplish, with all of these different pieces shown, is a rafter tail that will support crown molding.

The 5/8" plywood on top (top referring to rafter orientation, the plywood is actually all the way to the left) is standing in as a mockup for the roof deck that would be on top of these rafters once assembled. The thin piece of a block that lies flat represents the crown molding. The thicker block that lies just below that represents the fascia.

The dormer mock up shed we're working on, This shed has an 11/12 pitch roof and will have a dormer framed on either side. In This picture we have the rafters and ridge board installed, as well as some bracing to keep the whole system from racking back and forth.

A picture of our rafter tails. I was getting a lot of questions in class as to why the tails looked so weird, but again, referring to the pictures above of the sheathing, crown molding and fascia system, this is the way that the system presents on the end of the rafter tail. The first almost 90 degree (to the rafter tail itself) run downward supports the crown molding. The v cut in the center (the lower portion) will support the fascia, while there will be sheathing above and below the rafter tails we will place the soffit.

Here I am using a bar clamp to pull this rafter back down, so it will be firmly seated on the plate. With it clamped in place, I was able to re screw the birds mouth in place.