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870K views 136 replies 14 participants last post by  handyman_squire 
#1 ·
This thread is a follow-up to my first thread on this site, Seeking advice on framing plan, in which I received a lot of help fixing up the plans for the screenhouse I’m building at my parent’s cottage. (Mom’s had to mostly give up walking due to nerve damage, so I’m building this for her so she can spend time out in the woods again like she used to.)

Anyway, I’ve just returned from a two week stint at the cottage - unfortunately there’s no internet access, but I kept track of what I was up to on my laptop so I’ll try to get it all posted in the next day or two.
 
#38 · (Edited)
Saturday (Sept 4)

Well, Earl was not as bad as had been feared here on the South Shore. Although it made landfall very close by, it had weakened considerably with sustained winds of only 120 kph (75 mph), so not much worse than a winter nor’easter.

There were some heavy gusts, and loads of tropical rain, but it was moving fast so the whole business was over by the afternoon.

The screen house sustained no damage whatsoever - looked exactly the same as it had the evening before, expect for the channel the water had carved out leading away from my make-shift down spout.


I spent the rest of the day employed in fitting diagonal braces in the back section of each side wall - they look good even if the frame didn't appear to need any added bracing in this particular dimension.




With regards to wracking, by throwing my weight around on the posts so as to trigger oscillations I’ve discovered that the structure won’t shift (straight) laterally in any direction; however, the roof can be made to rotate slightly with respect to the ground.

I’m not sure what to do about this potential for rotational oscillation - but I suspect that preventing it would require the addition of some large, ugly, window-obscuring braces to the front and sides. Perhaps nothing even needs to be done about it, since no amount of encouragement can get the roof to rotated more than a degree or so, at which point it springs right back. I’d welcome your thoughts on this subject.
 
#40 ·
By the time you get finished with the wall structure, what do you think the chances are of rain getting at your floor?

I'm asking because I don't think we know yet what sort of screens you will be using. Thanks.
 
#41 ·
I'd say the chances of rain getting on the floor are 100%. Not only are the windows going to be all screen, but the knee wall formed by the railings will be screened in too. However, it rains a lot less here than on the "wet" coast, so the floor will spend most of its time dry.

I also plan on coming up with way to winterize the place to limit the amount of snow and ice that get in. The only difficulty is it's got to be a system that mom can handle on her own - I'm thinking of making the screen panels removable so that they can be taken down, stuck into poly "bags", and then just put back up again.
 
#43 ·
I actually haven't made any provisions for water getting off the floor other than by evaporation. I'd initially planned on sloping the floor, providing weep holes and the whole nine yards, but quickly realized that any water on the floor would stay put due to surface tension unless we got a truly massive deluge (combined with an unfavourable wind direction) or I really pitched the heck out of the floor.

And stubborn doesn't began to describe some of the boards I dealt with - I had one that turned itself into an 's' shape lol. Luckily there wasn't much cracking to deal with - it's local Black Spruce, which prefers to twist and bend rather than crack, so I could afford to get pretty aggressive about forcing it into place.

It's unfortunate that I don't have a portable mill - there's some old Douglass Fir in my parent's woodlot that would have made stellar rift-sawn floor boards. It pains me to see dad using it for fire wood (though not quite as much at is pains me to see him burning ancient burled apple trunks).
 
#45 ·
Well, the problem is they're kinda heavy.

And a little large.

On the bright side there doesn't appear to be any shortage of old burled apples on the property, so if I ever do get my hands on a saw mill . . .
 
#46 ·
Sunday - Tuesday (Sept 5-7)

Okay, so by the end of Tuesday I had the flooring almost done (there’s just one piece to be fitted in at the very back).




And I also had all the toe boards installed (one is missing due to my having sawn it too short - you know what they say, it’s easier to saw more off . . . ).





Detail showing how the toe boards are raised above the level of the floor (to make it easier to replace floor boards in the future). I stapled a ‘V’ of screen to the underside of each toe board before installing it to keep bugs from flying in through this gap.

 
#48 ·
I forget who I stole that screen idea from - probably someone from contractor talk. I've ruthlessly stalked the good folks on that site in order to acquire their trade secrets :shifty:.
 
#52 ·
Mom didn't actually believe that I'd actually manage it when I first proposed building this for her last fall lol. She's pretty excited about it now though - I just hope I can get it finished this fall so she can enjoy it next spring.
 
#51 · (Edited)
Wednesday-Thursday (Sept 8-9)

Due to the limited board sizes available here, I wound up needing to rip quite a few of the trim boards I’ll be using, so I decided to prepare the trim up at the cottage where I have the luxury of a power saw. If the trim winds up not fitting perfectly due to being prepared off-site, oh well, that’s what caulk is for right? :cool:

I got all the trim pieces cut out, sanded with 80 grit to take off any mill glaze, and started painting the first batch. Painting will be pretty tedious - I’m painting all six sides, and each piece will get two coats of Ben Moore exterior oil primer, which requires 12 hours or more between coats (this means it actually takes two days to do one coat, since I have to wait at least 12 hours before flipping the boards and doing the other side). After that I’ll hit the boards with two coats of Ben Moore premium exterior latex. I’ve started by doing several of the larger pieces of trim since by the time I manage to get back here again it may be too cold to cure paint outside.

I’ll spare you pictures of the paint drying on the trim - it’s about as interesting as watching . . . well, you get the idea.

Here’s a nice picture of one half of a 1x6 that I ripped at 15° for drip edge though (the other half is an identical piece of drip edge). Note the lovely notch also ripped at 15°, on what will be the underside of the drip edge, to shed water - a thing of beauty I tell you.




I also finally got around to fixing a lingering problem with the roof. In previous pictures you may have noticed that the ends of my roof sheathing are just butted up against each other in space - they don’t line up with my rafters like they should (they were originally supposed to, but I wound up increasing the width of the roof by a few inches which threw everything off).

As a second-best to situating the butt joints on the rafters, I installed solid blocking between the rafters half-way up each butt joint (there are only 4 such joints, on alternating sides, but I put matching blocks on the non-jointed sides because it looked better that way).

 
#53 · (Edited)
Friday (Sept 10)

Today I installed window headers - I decided to add these so that all the main screen panels will be square, so that I can use common aluminum screen rail to put the panels together.




And we now have a fully operational down spout - too late for Earl, but there’ll be other hurricanes. (This instillation is only temporary, I'll eventually have to take it down in order to put up the trim.)




I also started adding blocking strips to make all the framing around the door and windows come out flush.






And I started to add 2x2 nailing blocks for attaching siding around the back (the trim will cover the posts, and the studs on the side walls, so I can’t nail the siding to them directly).

 
#55 ·
Hey! What's with the easy chair!?!?! Ain't no sittin' down on the job this late in the season. :wink: :thumbsup:

Seriously.... have you slept out there yet?
 
#57 ·
:tt2:

Mom was impatient to start enjoying the screen house - she started using it pretty much the minute I had half a floor down. (So perhaps she doesn't really need screens lol)
 
#56 ·
Last update post - as of now you guys are fully caught up on my progress.

Saturday (Sept 11)

Saturday was a short work day due to having to head back to town, but I did manage to get a few things done, such as putting felt on the outside corners of all the posts so as to provide a path for water to escape should any happen to make it in behind trim.

I also finished painting the first batch of trim this morning - luckily the weather has been very cooperative, despite the temperature having gone back down to more seasonal values (so not much curing goes on at night). I didn’t have enough time to hang the trim before leaving, but you can see two pieces of it sitting on the railing of the screen house (there’s wax paper under it to keep the soft paint from attaching to the railing). It was very frustrating to have to leave without hanging that trim now that it’s all ready to go.

The colour mom choose for the trim is Ben Moore’s “rapture” - it’s dark, and very, very red. I expect to have to put on at least another top coat or two once the trim is hung in order to even out the colour.




I also got a set of stairs assembled (you can see them sitting upside down on the rock to the right). I was going to build a ramp, but mom decided she’d rather have shallow stairs for now. I can always replace them with a ramp later.
 
#58 ·
Who could blame her? Pretty darn nice setting.

Jules, I don't know if this works on your computer, but the º sign...option key plus 0. That's a zero not an OH.
 
#59 ·
Wow, I am totally impressed to say the least. That is a tough job but by yourself and no electricity is just amazing. Way way back when I was much younger I built a free standing carport by myself and it was a trick.

Your mom must be awfully proud of you and just knowing she will treasure her time there is just wonderful. We can't wait to see what you do next. Fantastic job!!!

My stars is all of Canada as beautiful as what we have had the privilege to see in this forum?

Just a quick question and maybe a suggestion. Would your mom use the porch in cool weather when the wind is blowing a little? If so maybe you could make lexan windows that would block the colder wind and could be removed when the weather got warmer. Just a thought.

Thank you for allowing us to share your project.
 
#61 ·
Q

Thanks!

Why, yes, all of Canada is that beautiful - expect for that boring middle area from Quebec to Alberta. :whistling2:

I love the idea of adding lexan windows, but for now that's way out of budget - a possible future upgrade though.
 
#64 · (Edited)
The ascii codes for degree (ALT+ 0176, 0237, or 248) often won't work with xml authors of most forums.
If it is important to you, and you are on a newer operating system composing with MS Word 2007, you can go to the toolbar, select the <INSERT> tab, SYMBOLS / MORE SYMBOLS / SUPERSCRIPTS & SUBSCRIPTS, and you should find the DEGREE Symbol about 6 or 8 rows down on that chart. (should be in the center of the 7th row from the top)

Once you have done that, you should find any symbols you've selected right there in the first dropdown box from now on..... thus eliminating a couple of the steps listed above.


Of course, on this particular forum, we are fortunate..............................

All you have to do here is, while holding down the ALT key, (using only the number pad on the right of your keyboard) type in 0176. Then release the ALT key.

************************

Yes, I know many of you know how to enter ascii codes, but this explanation was for those experiencing it for the first time.
 
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#65 ·
The asci codes for degree (ALT+ 0176, 0237, or 248) often won't work with xml authors of most forums.
If it is important to you, and you are on a newer operating system composing with MS Word 2007, you can go to the toolbar, select <INSERT> tab, SYMBOLS / MORE SYMBOLS / SUPERSCRIPTS & SUBSCRIPTS, and you should find the DEGREE Symbol about 6 or 8 rows down on that chart. (should be in the center of the 7th row from the top)

Once you have done that, you should find any symbols you've selected right there in the first dropdown box from now on..... thus eliminating a couple of the steps listed above.


Of course, on this particular forum, we are fortunate..............................

All you have to do here is, while holding down the ALT key, (using only the number pad on the right of your keyboard) type in 0176. Then release the ALT key.
:eek: My stars, where in the world do you learn all of that stuff? I haven't even scratched the surface with computers yet.
 
#78 · (Edited)
I just realized I have no real idea how I should construct the door sill or attach the stairs.

I've attached a picture of what I came up with this morning - what do you think?

Is the flashing a good idea, or will that just trap water against the floor (considering water on the floor could wick under the flashing from the back)?

Edit: To clarify the drawing, the threshold will be ripped to 3" wide.

Edit 2: I've added a second image showing the sill with a bevelled nosing - I think this is a better design than the 1st image.
 

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#82 ·
....aaaaahhh you guys run rings (ºººººº) around me with all this magic computer stuff.

OK, on the question at hand, Jules it looks like in your drawing (something else I can't do) is that the bottom of your door butts up against the inside taper of the sill. OK, I know you will remove that anyway.

You could cut yourself a sill from the 2 x 6 like so.

First, have the door come over the top of the sill. Where the outside face of the door reaches - likely about 1 1/2" +- from the inside edge of the sill - mark a line.

From there, add your 15º (there it is again) taper to the sill which you can have run beyond the outside of any floor member.

If you add the "thing of beauty" drip edge on the bottom side, you should be OK.

But I have to wonder with all the water which may blow inside if it will make that much difference. It will certainly look nice.

I think I might be inclined to use yellow cedar for that as it would last a lot longer than any spruce. I expect you will treat the spruce anyway, but spruce isn't the strongest wood on the planet and might wear somewhat.

Your other option might be to buy some sort of woman made product (forget this man made stuff, it never seems to last) which is resistant to the elements. :)
 
#83 ·
OK, on the question at hand, Jules it looks like in your drawing (something else I can't do)
I'd never done it myself before this summer, but SketchUp has proved an invaluable aid in designing the screenhouse - it's a fabulous tool for discovering problems with a design (and much easier to edit than a scale model).

If you use the tutorials it's actually really easy to learn to use too, and it's available for free!
You could cut yourself a sill from the 2 x 6 like so.

First, have the door come over the top of the sill. Where the outside face of the door reaches - likely about 1 1/2" +- from the inside edge of the sill - mark a line.

From there, add your 15º (there it is again) taper to the sill which you can have run beyond the outside of any floor member.
I hadn't though of exending the threshold beyond the floor - that's a good idea, I could rabbit it so that functioned as the nosing too.

If you add the "thing of beauty" drip edge on the bottom side, you should be OK.
Unfortunately there isn't room for it with the stair treads.

I think I might be inclined to use yellow cedar for that as it would last a lot longer than any spruce. I expect you will treat the spruce anyway, but spruce isn't the strongest wood on the planet and might wear somewhat.
Spoken like someone who can't step out the door without tripping over old growth ceder logs. :glare:

The only ceder I can get locally is Eastern Ceder, and even that I'd have to special order (and would probably be all sapwood anyway). So crappy black spruce it is! I'll just make sure the threshold isn't to hard to remove for replacement when it gets worn.

Your other option might be to buy some sort of woman made product (forget this man made stuff, it never seems to last) which is resistant to the elements. :)
lol
 
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