East Side of Roof Under Way

This weekend found us getting well under way with the east side of the roof.

We started off by getting more of the Aspen in place prior to starting any more SIP's. I will have to admit, there are some areas on this side of the roof where it is getting rather tricky to find a place to stand and install Aspen.

I think to solve this problem though we will be relocating the scaffolding into the great room and adding a third section before applying more Aspen.

We started applying SIP's to the east side of the balcony area. Some more wiring will have to take place this week before we can go too much further with SIP's

My wife took some time out this weekend to start marking out the location and size of some of the windows prior to ordering them. This will also help serve as a bit of a reminder while doing some wiring before cutting the windows in.

Next weekend will find us starting some of the more tricky valley cuts on the roof SIP's. Hopefully, we will have warmer weather to work in.

West Side SIP's Complete

We've completed the SIP's on the west side of the house and, as of this weekend, we have this portion of the roof over the house dried in with Grace Ice and Water Shield. We have also started work on the east side with quite a bit of the Aspen already put up.

The Grace Ice and Water shield gave us a little difficulty at first but after about the the third strip we got a technique down and things progressed well. That was until Sunday morning while putting more of it up the wind decided to pick up (which is a huge understatement). We managed to get it all up but ended up having to tack down boards to hold it down. The adhesive stuck to itself well but wind would get underneath it and start to pick it up off of the roof.

We had a couple of times when we thought it may all get peeled off of the roof but managed to get it all tacked down before that happened. The thought of that happening was a sick feeling, given the cost of the product.

As I mentioned earlier, work on installing Aspen on the east side of the roof is well under way. We have the entire balcony/ front deck area covered, as well as the dining room small dormer.

Also, this weekend, we have finished the Aspen on the majority of the north side of the great room. My thoughts now are to get the right half of this side of the roof covered with Aspen and then start installing the SIP's. Although some wiring will have to take place prior to this as well.

Roof Update

Work continues on the roof with the west side of it nearing completion.

I was able to make a long weekend of it and managed to accomplish quite a bit. We are learning more and more every time we make headway on the roof. This weekend was making the cuts on the SIPs where the two different roof lines come together.

I don't know if it is pure luck or we have some idea what we are doing but things sure have been coming together well with little or no messing around after the initial cut. This is a good confidence booster which will be needed once work begins on the East side of the roof where many valley cuts await us!!!

We also picked up eight rolls of Grace Ice and Water shield which will be enough to get the West side covered once it is finished and inspected. Although it is considerably more expensive than standard felt, it buys us some time on getting the roof covered with what ever we decide to put on as a permanent roof, and with all the reading I have done on the product it looks like it is a very good roof underlayment.

T&G Continues.......

....Along with SIP's on the main house.

The weekend found us getting quite a bit accomplish-ed. We finished the west side of the house with T&G Aspen and got started installing SIP's over it. With some wet weather predicted we wanted to get as much of the exposed Aspen covered as possible.
My plans currently are to cover what Aspen that is still exposed with Tyvek, which will be used to wrap the house eventually, but will also work well in this case to keep moisture off of the Aspen.

Fortunately, it looks as though the SkyTrak will be able to set all roof SIP's. I had concerns that it may not have quite the reach needed.
Our first attempt at roof valleys was done Sunday. It took a little experiment-ing with some scrap lumber to get the angle of the valley correct, but when both pieces were set in place we had a good fit!!

Also, during the week, I managed to run some of the wiring for the upstairs lights and fans, prior to installing roof SIP's. We got one of the wires dropped through the beam into one of the upstairs bedrooms. The wiring for the loft fans and lights will come next weekend.

Spring Has Sprung!!!

It seems like overnight we have gone from winter to summer time temps. Although the moisture is badly needed, it has been great weather for working on the house.

We finished the bump out roof panels. This only amounted to about installing 2 1/2 panels. We then went to work getting all of the Aspen that had been finished moved out to the house. We also did some rearranging to make room for the chop saw and to make the work flow more smoothly.

We then went to work starting to install Aspen on the roof. Our first row, obviously, was the hardest making sure that the Aspen ran square to the oak timbers.

Once that was competed it really went quite fast. My wife was in charge of the chop saw and I was up on the roof installing it. The finish nailer was a huge time saver!!

Although we feel really exposed to the weather right now, long range forecasts show dry weather. We also plan to finish this side up to the peak and then once some wiring is installed for ceiling fans and lights, we will start getting panels down on top of the Aspen on this side.

We have been leaving spaces between the Aspen boards to form a chase for wiring. These, along with the vertical chases in the SIP's, should make wiring for the fans and lights relatively easy.

Up On The Roof Top!!!

Work has begun on the roof!!!

This weekend got started by getting a 2x12 cleat attached to the house to support the roof on the bump out on the west side of the house. Also, the plate on top of the walls was put in place to support the roof panels.

We ripped the cleat at a 15 degree angle so the OSB on the SIP would fit flush to the cleat once in place. It was nailed and then screwed on from the back side of the wall with 7" screws.


The Roof SIP's are 12" thick. Unfortunate-ly, this just puts the Prazi beam saw out of reach for cutting them. So each cut has to be made twice and then the Styrofoam that remains is hand cut. Also, each end needs to plowed out for the sub fascia and also to accept the cleat on the house. We received a 6" and a 11" iron with the SIP's. They really work well for plowing out Styrofoam although, especially with the 11" iron, it can get rather smokey at times.

We also had to come up with a different system hooking the SIP's up to set them in place. We ended up with a three point pick system using the same type of connection as we did with the wall SIP's.














We ended up with getting four roof panels in place. We have about 2 1/2 panels left to complete
the west side bump out, then we move on to installing the Aspen on the main house prior to installing those SIP's . As I mentioned in my last post, we continue to apply Land Ark on the Aspen. Although it seems like we have a lot of it sealed, I am sure that will be used up quickly once we get started.

On February 25th at Exactly 10:51 A.M..........

We finished putting the last wall SIP into place!!!

Technically, there are the dormer sides and the peak SIP on the great room, but they will not be put into place until stick framing is all but complete on the east wall of the great room. Much of the aspen will need to be in place prior to installing the dormer SIP's.

It took us 11 weeks to get this far, but only about 19 days of actual work went on in those 11 weeks. And a total of 63 panels were put in place.

Also, this weekend, we spent time going over windows for the great room. We are not necessarily ready to order them but we need the rough opening dimensions to start framing the great room wall. My wife has come up with the best combination of windows thus far. In fact, her design is what we will probably end up using.

We even managed to get started on installing plate material for the bump out roof. In addition, we got the roof SIP's for this area hauled up to the house and ready to start prepping them.

We also have found some homes in the area that have siding and metal roofs that we are possibly going to go with.

This siding is ship lap cedar siding and comes pre-stained. We like the weathered look of

this stain, and also the fact that it comes pre-stained which will help save time.

We have been really struggling with roof material. We both very much would like to go with a slate roof but cost is very high as well as installation time would be lengthy. Another house nearby has a metal roof that we may consider. We both really like the color and we would like to go with a standing seam style roof. Also, the added snow fence is a nice added feature for saving the rain gutters in a heavy snow.
We continue sealing the T&G aspen which we will soon be starting to apply. We have about four hundred boards completed thus far, with several hundred left.

So now we start the roof SIP's. That count....71!!

We are Closing In !!

We're on the final wall SIP's!

Another good weekend weather wise, and again a lot was accomplish-ed. This, after a week that brought a six inch snow fall to the area, however not much of that even remains.

We finally got the kitchen corner closed up this weekend. We had to do a little bit of shimming on the SIP's at the corner. This went extremely well but was time consuming; along with the usual lengthy prep on the SIP's (cutting around the floor joist beams and dropping them in from the top.)

Approximately five more wall SIP's remain. As I mentioned earlier, the opening for the front entrance and the upstairs balcony will have some stick framing in conjunction with the SIP's.

Next weekend our hopes are to finish the wall SIP's as well as confirm window sizes for the east side of the great room so that stick framing for this wall can begin.

We also hope to get under way with some of the roofing components. Our current plan is to start installing the roof on the bump out on the west side of the house. This was the area that had the custom cut SIP's.

Here are a few more photos from this past weekend.

We Have Started the Front!

Another productive weekend along with warmer weather made things really go well this weekend.

We finished the last panel on the great room right away Saturday morning and then turned our attention to the front of the house. I have not really been looking forward to this part due to the fact that there are a lot of obstacles to contend with.

First off, my initial concern was that I would not have enough lift with the Skytrak to get the panels raised high enough over the front bent and drop the panels in from the top. Fortunately, I think we will be OK and have the needed height.

Second, there is a fair amount of prep work needed on the SIP's themselves to sit over the oak floor joists that help tie the very front bent to the second bent, as well as the angle cut for the roof. It is nothing complicated, just a lot of time consuming steps for each panel. But I can honestly say we got a very good start, and it seems to be going very smoothly.

On my wife's suggestion, we plan on handling the upper SIP's a little different than we had originally thought. We more than likely will have French doors leading out to the balcony on the front. At this time, we are thinking of eliminating the two vertical SIP's that would basically be wasted to fill this spot, leave enough room to stick frame the rough opening for the doors, and run a couple of SIP's horizontally to fill the remaining area to the peak above the French doors. This will more than likely save us a couple of SIP's that may be used later on for a small pump house for the water pump and pressure tank.

Work also now can begin on stick framing the east face of the great room now that the final SIP on the north wall has been put into place. We still need to get the rough openings for these windows, but I think we have it pretty well nailed down as to the size and location of these windows.

As I had mentioned, the plan here is to also use a couple of SIP's and place them horizontally to fill in the upper portion of the bent. The thought here was with all of the windows, and their large size on this side, SIP material would just go to waste.

After this week with what we have accomplished as well as the minor changes that we made , I think we have fallen below the ten SIP mark!!!

A Productive Weekend

Nice weather and the fact that I think we are finally getting a rhythm down made for what we thought was a very productive weekend.

We worked on the corner SIP's for the great room and dining room right away Saturday morning. This required us first to put down a sill plate for the north wall of the great room. Again, as on all of the inside corners, we needed to back cut a panel forming a pocket so the adjoining SIP could fit into it. I must say, we have been having good luck on our corners coming out nice and tight, with very little if any messing around with fitting the SIP into place.





Our countdown continues with 15 wall SIP's left. We are down to one panel on the north side of the great room wall. The open part of the great room which you can see in the picture will be stick framed due to all of the windows that will be installed on this wall.

I also included some early morning pictures. Although it is getting lighter a little bit earlier we generally are started long before the sun is up on the weekends.

Although our stacks of wall SIP's are dwindling, this photo shows just some of what awaits us as far as roof SIP's.

In my last post I mentioned that I had been training to repel down into the Grand Canyon. I managed to get some of the photos of us training about a week and a half ago. Although it is far from repelling off a canyon wall it gives us a chance to check our rigging, technique, and equipment.