Hi all:
Since the summer of 1997, I have been building a cabin and house on our 1/2 acre lot here. Before I dive into that part, I am going to show a few photos to set the stage a bit. We are remote here. No services of any kind, except that which we provide for ourselves. So don't expect to see any paved roads with big trucks delivering any materials.
We live at the head of a small bay, which is both a blessing and a curse.
When the tide goes out, we have to clamber over hundreds of yards of rocks to get to our boat. When it is in, I can float logs right up to my little railway to move them onto the log deck. Well, not any more, but more about that later.
This is the bay in front of us.
I would use the framing of the walls as the window frames. The beauty of polycarbonate is two fold. Firstly you can cut it with a saw so it is easy to fit to whatever space you have. Secondly it is very light weight and highly resistant to breakage. So things like hail won't do any damage.
The clerestory windows would be quadruple glazed (two layers of the double polycarb) with the extra possibility of using fitted foam boards in the event of extreme cold. You know, the kind they get down in Hastings, Nebraska.
Polycarb also comes in either clear or several different tints. And to top it off it is less expensive than using glass. Seems to me like a win-win-win situation.
Well, you know, I'll need to give that some serious thought. Of course, the greenhouse isn't a take out type store, so Bud might not need to do the drive through thing.
Maybe a moat outside and a drawbridge, a few big concrete blocks, definitely none of that useless foam stuff.
YES...I've been following along. AND...I have a tiny bone to pick with Keith. I noticed (a couple of pages back) that Keith was using one of his newly-tiled counter tops for a work bench.:furious: I gotta tell ya Keith; if you keep doing [that], I'm going to have to put you in time-out and there won't be any more cookies at bedtime.:no:
Surely you must have a "proper work bench" you could be using!:laughing:
I guess this means that you will be most unhappy to hear that I'm using ALL the kitchen counters as workbenches. Well, more as assembly benches I guess.
My REAL workbench is out in the studio where the temperature is just about right for making ice cubes. So until it warms up out there, which will be sometime in August, I'm afraid I'm stuck with playing in the kitchen. But they sure do make nice worktops though, don't they?
Here are the trusses as made for the model as it sits now.
The real McCoy may be quite different, but as I mentioned earlier, some testing will be in order before it gets determined what type will go in. Whichever it is will be about 16 1/2" deep to handle three layers of R-22 Roxul.
While I don't expect that the house itself will need double top plates on the back walls, the model gets them because I made the end of the outside walls a bit too high. Tsk, tsk.
That is really nice Keith, it is looking sharp. One thing is for sure, you don't let any grass grow under your feet. Thanks for the sunset photos, beautiful.
You're welcome for the sunset pics Jim. We've had a couple nice ones in the last two days.
As for the little house, it's basically two shed roofed buildings facing each other. The house portion has one building inside the other, with a complete layer of insulation separating the two, except for the floor of course.
I'm still trying to see if there is a way to do two separate layers in the roof as well. But if not, it won't matter much as the foam board on top will give me the thermal break I want.
Making the model has already shown a couple of places where it can be improved.
One thing that won't be made on the model is an airlock entrance to the house on the east side, and very likely one for the greenhouse entrance as well. Opening an outside door in wintertime wastes a massive amount of heat. Not to mention that doors are typically ridiculously low in the R-value department.
I expect the house airlock will contain the batteries etc. for the solar system, and I will use the greenhouse airlock to store needed tools for greenhouse use.
Received an email yesterday from a flooring forum site in the UK which I made a few posts on over a year ago.
One of their less educated members took a poke at me which I took offense to. So, not taking kindly to that, I poked back. No trouble with him since.
But one of the more decent folks there asked how I made out with installing carpet on the curved stairs here, and could I post a pic. Well, you've all seen the top flight of stairs carpeted, but I failed to get around to doing the bottom stairs.
Everything is more or less ready to go, except that I still need to make a half elliptic shape of bullnose for the oddball outside part of the bottom step.
The easiest way is to rip a batch of thin strips and use the step itself as a mold. I have the pieces sitting in a clamp and I'll leave them there for a few days so the wood takes a set. It should glue up more easily that way.
Keith, I was fascinated how you used the flat clamp..which I have never seen..because I can;t do wood..to make a perfect bend to the size and 'bend'..you wanted..very cool! I once bent a hardwood 'set' of gunnels for the top of my 17.5 canoe, in Prince George, in winter (-40 F..same C) by 'pegging the wood to the sundeck where I was renting..and pouring boiling water on it evryday..and 'moving' it a little more..and by Spring..I had the shape I needed..only problem..I made it out of Oak..and it was a ***** to portage on trips!
Cheers Scoggy:thumbsup:
Keith, I was fascinated how you used the flat clamp..which I have never seen..because I can;t do wood..to make a perfect bend to the size and 'bend'..you wanted..very cool! I once bent a hardwood 'set' of gunnels for the top of my 17.5 canoe, in Prince George, in winter (-40 F..same C) by 'pegging the wood to the sundeck where I was renting..and pouring boiling water on it evryday..and 'moving' it a little more..and by Spring..I had the shape I needed..only problem..I made it out of Oak..and it was a ***** to portage on trips!
Cheers Scoggy:thumbsup:
Here's the latest in roof trusses...one you've never seen before.
The criteria for the build were that it had to be:
1. Easy to build.
2. Reasonably priced.
3. Light weight.
4. Able to have very high R-value insulation.
5. Easy to install, i.e. less than 5 minutes each.
6. Provide built in summer shading.
7. Provide fall/winter sun ingress.
8. Have very high loading capability.
9. No need for bracing once installed.
10. No need to be vented.
11. C'mon...isn't that enough?
This is a 1/4 scale model primarily designed to see whether or not it would actually work. It would be subjected to a load test to exceed any possible field load that might arise. It will be the cube of the size, 4 x 4 x 4, or 64, that governs the numbers.
To explain that a little, the actual volume of this truss is 1/64 of the full size truss. Therefore, weight tests may reasonably be multiplied by 64 to arrive at real world numbers.
On a finished roof, using the case of the current plans, the outer roof skin will be 5/8" T & G plywood, and the inner skin 7/16" OSB. This will effectively turn the roof into a giant box beam which will increase the load bearing capacity by a factor of at least 2.
I took the truss outside and set it up in about the same position as it would be on a building, which will be at a 4/12 pitch. I used a plastic bucket to carry the top of the truss...like so.
Excuse all the dirt on the bucket...it's been sitting outside full of water for ages.
Here's the bottom of the truss sitting on a sawhorse. There are two screws, one on either side at the bottom to prevent any possible slipping. They don't actually hold the truss in any way.
Outside the loaded area of the truss I attached a piece of wood to prevent the truss from falling sideways while I was adding all the weight for the test.
A bucket was hung from the center of the truss and two screws were put in the top of the truss to prevent it sliding down.
You can see that the bucket doesn't rest on anything here. Now if I had had a scantily clad assistant to wave those fancy handkerchiefs and hoops around, you could see I wasn't kidding.
I didn't think that water alone was going to be heavy enough for a good test, so I put in a good pile of cut concrete pavers and tile first, then filled the bucket with water.
The truss was designed and built with a small upcurve in it, which I anticipated would straighten out once it was loaded. Not so, the curve remained...not sure if it is clearly visible here or not. Kind of an awkward pic to take.
The weight was left there for some time, and since nothing untoward seemed to be happening - other than the weather started closing in - I took the bucket off and weighed it. Fifty-six pounds!
The construction of the full size truss will have 2 x 4 top and bottom chords, 4 foot long sections of 7/16" OSB applied alternately to each side. An overlap of 1 1/2 between the two sides will allow for the installation of a vertical 2 x 4 to connect the ends of each section of OSB, thus helping to maintain load continuity and stability.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
DIY Home Improvement Forum
3.1M posts
319.6K members
Since 2003
A forum community dedicated to Do it yourself-ers and home improvement enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about tools, projects, builds, styles, scales, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more! Helping You to Do It Yourself!