A White Christmas in Williams

Most years I would think that a white Christmas would be kind of a nice touch to get one into the holiday spirit. Not this year.

There was about three inches of snow covering everything when we arrived late Friday afternoon. My son and I got right to work getting the slab shoveled off. We ended up getting the majority of the snow shoveled off by dark.

I was up long before sunrise trying to get the SIPs shoveled off on the second floor. We are using them to stand ladders up on temporarily until we get some sheeting put down. By sunrise I had most of the snow shoveled off of everything up there, as well as the SIPs on the ground.

Our first project was to put back together the platform I had made this past week for hoisting 12 ft. pieces of sheet rock. I made it so it broke down to fit in the truck to transport up to Williams.

The middle has an arm that swings down and then a piece of sheet rock can lay on the platform and then the arm is swung back up into place to hold the piece while it is lifted into position.

I had hoped to have a picture of us setting a piece in place , but it was a little breezy while we were working with the sheet rock so there was not a lot of spare moments to stop and take pictures. Hopefully next week I will get a shot of the platform in action.

I must say it worked great and sure saves a lot of time and aggravation trying to man handle 12 ft pieces of sheet rock and getting them into place on the second floor.

After getting the lifting platform together we got to work moving the scaffolding to the South side of the house and adding two more sections to it. This should save on a lot of time moving ladders into place and make the whole process easier. By the time this was completed the remainder of the snow on the timbers was melting off, and was making things feel more like it was raining out with water dripping on us in spots and the ground starting to get rather muddy. Fortunately it sounds like we are in for above normal temps so the snow will probably be short lived.


I can't say it was an overly productive day but we got a lot of little things done and ready to go for this next week after Christmas when we will be spending the whole week trying to make a dent in getting the SIPs up.

May all of you have A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Weather was not on our Side

Listening to the forecast for this past weekend it did not sound too good for installing SIP panels. Unfortunately the forecast held true.

Although it was not a complete wash out it sure seemed to slow things up. We were fortunate enough to arrive a little earlier than usual so we were able to get a start before sunset on Friday. As it ended up, we worked past dark but managed to get the 20 foot panel that we had stood temporarily in place to support the sheet rock last week permanently in place.

We new that the wind was supposed to pick up on Saturday so we got an early start on the next tall panel, which was a 21 foot panel. By the time we had the panels that we were going to need for the day and also rearranged some sheet rock to get to the moisture resistant sheet rock that we were going to need, and got the panel measured out and cut, the wind was already starting to pick up. Fortunately, we got it into place before it really started to blow. Even with the wind we had, the panel was very difficult to handle. The rest of the day was spent putting up sheet rock and somewhat shorter SIPs.

One thing I was finally able to test out this weekend was the Prazi saw attachment that I had purchased a couple of months ago.

I had thought I would give it a try on cutting the SIP's. It would mean making one single cut versus cutting one side and then flipping it and cutting the opposite side.

I was leery at first thinking that it would make a very jagged cut along the edge of the OSB. As it turned out it worked flawless. It made a very clean cut in one single pass. The only down side is it creates a pretty good cloud of Styrofoam beads when cutting the SIP.

I had spent this past week cutting Styrofoam splines that are placed in between the SIP's to act as a spline to interlock the SIP's and also as added insulation at that point. They really seem to work well. We put the splines in place with the mastic supplied by the SIP company prior to raising it and setting it in place.

This next week will be spent coming up with a platform to lay the 12' pieces of sheet rock onto so we can raise them in an upright position and screw them into place on the frame. I was pondering this early this morning, as it seems we have a relatively good way of hoisting the larger SIP's into place. Hoisting 12' sheets of sheet rock into place by hand will not only be time consuming but will probably result in a few getting away from us, not to mention any kind of wind factor that we may have to deal with.

I think I have come up with a pretty simple and relatively inexpensive design which will allow us to use the platform and the Skytrack to get the sheet rock into place, especially on the second floor areas. I will post my results as soon as I have it constructed.

I have also included some overall pictures of the frame which we never had a chance to get last weekend. As you can see, along with the windy weather on Saturday we received a light dusting of snow over night.

Starting the SIPs

The dust hadn't even settled from the frame raising and my wife and I were out putting down the pressure treated sill plate and sill seal to get ready for installing the SIPs.

We decided to start on the West bump out of the house which was custom cut by Enercept. Starting here insured that the custom cut panels would match up nicely with the frame panels.

The custom cut panels we soon found were really the way to go. They fit together like a glove and dimensions worked out perfectly. We were very careful to keep all directions of the panels plumb and make sure they were seated well down on the plate.

Prior to installing a SIP on the plate, two beads of caulk sealant were put on the sill, and on the connecting vertical edge of the SIP.

By mid morning on Saturday we were well underway on the bump out SIPs. A friend of mine came up from Phoenix to give us a hand installing the SIPs. Once we gave him a tour of the newly constructed frame we got down to business. By early afternoon we had all of the custom SIP panels up and in place.
We then turned our attention to getting started setting the 20' panels on the South side of the house.

This required going down with the Skytrak and bringing the 20' panels up to the house and prepping them.

Also prior to installing the SIP, sheetrock needed to be installed first, then we would set the panel, level it and attach it to the frame then finish attaching the sheetrock to the panel.

Here is where we ran into a glitch. The panels to my understanding were ordered to be flush fit on the vertical edge of the SIP. I had not really given it too much thought until it came time for installation. Enercept had plowed out 3/4" on each side of the SIP for a 2x6 spline. This is really not needed due to the fact that the frame SIP's do not require any structural integrity.

So we backed up and put our heads together to come up with a solution. We had already hung the sheetrock and it was starting to get late in the afternoon. We had planned on heading back down to Phoenix in the early morning, and on top of that we were supposed to get some light precipitation as well as some gustier winds on Sunday.

We ended up installing 2x6 splines on the vertical edges of the SIP, hoisting it up into position with the Skytrak and tacking it onto the frame.

This SIP also needed to be cut to size, but our thoughts were to just get things covered for the upcoming week and come up with a permanent solution and then go from there.

I spoke with Enercept today regarding the mix up. I was not trying to point fingers at anyone regarding the situation, I just wanted to come up with the right solution.

My friend that had come up to give us a hand came up with the best, and as it turns out, final solution. Instead of using dimensional lumber as the spline I purchased 15 sheets of 2 lb. 1 1/2" Styrofoam that we will cut into 5 1/2" strips and we will use it as the spline. This does two things for us. It gives us full insulation at the point of attachment, and gives us a locking joint at the seam where the two panels come together.

The strips I can cut down here in Phoenix and have them ready to install as we prep each panel prior to installation. So, all in all, I am very happy with the solution.

We have a lot of panels to go, and are still going through a bit of a learning curve on how best to handle the panels and set the larger ones in place. But I think once we get a method down we should have all of the wall panels up relatively soon

What a week to remember

Our frame is up and things could not have gone better.

First off, I will say that up until this past week I had lost all hope that there was anybody left that truly cared about craftsmanship and really showed and had a love for their trade. I can honestly say that I saw this all week long with Alan and his crew of timber framers from Windriver Timberframes What a great crew and what great attention to detail and craftsmanship!

The trucks had been loaded Friday and Saturday at Alan's shop in Colorado and they showed up early Monday morning. I had gotten to our place Sunday morning to finish up a few things prior to Alan's arrival so I met the trucks early Monday morning and started to unload.

When Alan and his crew arrived I had about half of the second truck left to unload so they took over from there and started frame assembly almost immediately. I will also say that I was lucky enough to have Alan's permission to help out as much as possible. This made the whole week even better.




By the end of the day on Monday we had two bents assembled on the pad. Most of Alan's crew camped out on site. Low's at night were in the low 20's but that did not seem to faze them one bit. They had a campsite that looked just like home and seemed to be very comfortable for them.

Tuesday was a full day of assembly. All of the main bents of the house were assembled on the pad and stacked on top of one another, in the order in which they would be raised up by the crane. The detail of the joinery, drawings, and cataloging of each piece made assembly go smoothly and quickly.














Wednesday 8:00 AM the crane showed up. Like clock work Alan and his crew had things set up and ready for the first bent to be be raised.
















By the end of the day on Wednesday the six main bents of the house were raised as well as the majority of the beams that formed the second floor deck. Also, the shed dormer on the west side of the house was well underway. All but the last ridge beam was in place tying bent 5 and 6 together.

By mid morning on Thursday the main frame was completed and work on the East dormers were underway. These, just like everything else, went together smooth as could be.
Thursday afternoon after the 2 East dormers were complete bents 7 and 8, which are hammer beams, were being prepared to be flown in. Hammer beam 7 was put in place first.
By mid afternoon after bent 7 was completed, the last bent hammer beam 8 was flown in. It was getting to be late afternoon and the air was cooling down fast.
Being up on the frame in between beams being flown in by the crane it was starting to get chilly, but you could feel the momentum of everybody that we would be placing the ceremonial pine bough on top of the frame by days end.
At 5:00 PM on Thursday afternoon I was appointed to place the pine bough on the topped out frame. What a great feeling!!!!
Here are a couple of pictures of Alan and his crew just after the topping out of the frame. That is me on the left. Thursday night we celebrated one of the crew members 40th birthday in Williams where Alan treated all of us to a great meal!!

Friday was pretty much finishing up small details on the frame and Alan and his crew breaking down camp. It was a great experience working with people who really care about their work. We had many visitors during the raising, most of whom are perspective home owners who are looking at building a timber frame home, or are already in the process of a near future raising.

Thanks to you Alan and your great crew. You have made this stage of our Timber frame home project, from start to finish of the frame, an enjoyable one. I have included some random pictures as well. We started on the SIPs on Saturday, I will go into that on a separate post so as to get this one posted yet today.

SIPs, SIPs and more SIPs

It seems all we have done for the last two days is unload SIPs!!! But I am glad they arrived without a hitch and that we have all of them unloaded and up near the house.

My son and I went up early on Friday to meet the first truck. As it turned out the truck hauling the SIPs was delayed but the Skytrak lift had arrived. So we spent a little time familiarizing ourselves with it before the truck arrived.

Being as we had a few hours before the truck arrived we started to do some more work on the deck. We managed to get all but a dozen joist left to put in place and then we will put some temporary sheeting over it.

The first truck arrived about 1:00 PM. It was a couple from ND that had driven it down. They had been driving together for 7 years. She said that she was sick and tired of always hearing the stories that her husband would share with her the little time that he was home. So she said with a lot of patience he taught her how to drive truck and then have been traveling together ever since.

To my surprise there were no spacers separating the stacks of SIPs. I could not figure out why they would do this. It made for a lot more work unloading due to the fact that you could not just slip the forks underneath the stacks of SIPs. Well after thinking about it for a while the reason is height. They were just a few inches under the the height restrictions as it was. Spacers would have put them to high.

Thankfully they helped us unload. It took about two hours to get the truck unloaded and that was only setting the SIPs along side the road. By the end of the day we had a couple of loads moved up to the house. We had received word earlier in the day that the second truck would be arriving early Saturday morning.

Sure enough, about 5:30 AM the second truck arrived. I told him that I would be down with the forklift when it got light enough to start unloading. He said he would work at getting the tarp removed during that time.

This load was mostly roof SIPs as well as all of the dimensional lumber, screws, mastic and foam. We did a little better on this truck, taking about a hour and half to get it unloaded, again just by the side of the road.

The rest of the day was used to get all of the panels up near the house. 139 panels in all, and it seemed like we hauled each one individually up the driveway. By 4:30 in the afternoon we took our last load up.















One thing for sure is it will be hard to return the Skytrak which we used to unload the trucks, and will be used to unload the timbers once they arrive next week. What a great piece of equipment to have on a project like this. It is very easy to run, and will more than handle the wait of the SIPs. The boom extension really comes in handy for handling the SIPs as well as the other material we will be dealing with.