Recent content by someguy11

Little Tidbit. We've done a lot of work with the A300 since I got it. On my property, we cleaned up the back yard, resloped it, removed 3 trees, and put in a bunch of drainage around the house. At my mother in laws, we removed 2 truckloads of dirt and debris and put in 70 feet of retaining...

Quick update: the development permit was granted this spring. The city is happy with the plan. There were no big issues once I met with them and explained the goals and usage of the space. I stalled on providing some drawings and materials over winter so that the permit would be dated this...

The clay base and the patio itself has a slope of 4" in 20 feet - 1/5" per foot. We are also going to put weeping tile into the surface of the clay, beneath any sand we use to try to keep it dry. Having said that, the undisturbed soil is pretty stable, even when wet. I forgot to mention...

The entire pad is encased down to the original grade by curbs or retaining walls. Weeping tile is strategically placed under the pad. Why am I even trying to use clay ? Why don't I use a sandy soil with some clay in it ? It will be easier to place, drain well and won't swell if it does...

I'm building a 20x45 foot patio in front of my house. The patio surface will be paver blocks or something similar, ie not concrete. I need to increase the elevation of the area by about 1 foot to reach the proper grade for the patio. The main floor of the house sits about 2 feet above grade...

From the article: "If you want to install a combination of closed-cell spray-foam on the underside of the roof sheathing and air-permeable insulation between your rafters — an approach sometimes called “flash and batt” — the building code requires that spray foam (or, arguably, rigid foam...

From the article: "A vented cathedral ceiling only makes sense if the geometry of your roof is simple. You need a straight shot from the soffits to the ridge." I don't have that.

Our roof is almost impossible to vent because the sloped portions do not meet at the ridge. I'd have to build a volume at the top of the sections that somehow met and vent that. Hmmm.... This sounds like a lot of work, but our family has 8 bicycles that take up about 40 ft^2 of floor space...

Wow. I knew there were special issues with insulating a cathedral ceiling, thus the question to the forum. That is a great article. I need to give this a bit more thought. Had I known it was that complicated, I might not have removed the stringers. Having said that, I love having the extra...

I met with the engineer that designed the roof for the garage and the stringers between the wall and the roof trusses were strictly for holding up drywall. They did not play any role in the roof structure. FWIW, I had the very same question before we removed them. The trusses alone are...

My garage has sloped roof ends. We put a loft in the attic where the regular rafters are. At the ends, I removed the stringers between the end walls and the regular rafters and created a mini cathedral ceiling. We plan to hang bikes up in that space, hoisted up there by winches. How do I...

Talk to a window supplier about what drafts and uninsulated spaces around wooden window frames do to the wood. It is not good. This effort was as much about helping the window frames live as improving the infiltration of the home. I didn't realize that when we started.

Nobody recommended it. It is probably just overkill, but we had the trim off and it only takes 10 minutes to do.

We are using Great Stuff for Doors and Windows.

I did the first one, so I know how it is done. I value my time at more than $20/hr.