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.