More house building

Friday a week ago, work recommenced on my sister & Bro-in-law’s house, and it seems as if the extended holiday has infused the guys with superhuman qualities. Here is a pic from that Friday afternoon, all the internal wall-studs had been installed and half of the TJI engineered-joists were put in place. The TJI joists we are using are also called ‘Silent-floor’ and are manufactured by a company named ‘I-Level’ and sourced from Miami. These joists are a little more expensive than 2″ x 12″ lumber joists, but are lighter, can span greater distances and are more uniform in shape, resulting in a stronger floor with less occurrence of ‘bounce’ and squeaks.

Two days later, the exterior walls had been rendered, and the remainder of the joists had been placed. Unfortunately, the people in Miami had sent us the wrong size metal hangers for the joists, so the guys had to ‘Carib-engineer’ a temporary method of support for them until the proper size hangers arrive [hopefully early this week.]

Once the plywood sub-floor had been installed on the joists, they began ’stick-framing’ the roof. This is a practice that is all but extinct in home building today, many builders now prefer the convenience of using pre-manufactured roofing truss’ which are made-to-order at the factory and delivered to site, where they are set into place using a crane. The factories design  their trussed to withstand certain wind-loads and other criteria, but I personally believe that they cannot compare to a well built and reinforced hand-framed roof.

By Friday gone, the window openings had been ‘dressed’ to the correct sizes and the 5/8″ CDX plywood sheathing was installed over most of the roof surface. The Facia board [2" x 10" Pressure treated lumber] on the roof had also been primed and installed.

The next pic shows a detail of where the rafters meet the belting of the house. Double Heta20 hurricane strapps are folded over the rafter and fastened to it with approximately a shitpile of special 1 1/4″ reinforced nails. The shiny stuff is Radiant Barrier Insulation, it is placed between the plywood sheathing and the rafters. This is the most critical type of insulation here in the tropics, as the majority of heat transferred into our homes is via radiant energy from the sun. This double layer of reflective foil with a ‘bubble-wrap’ air filling, blocks between 70-90% of this radiant energy so that the regular fiberglass insulation can do it’s job more efficiently. The result? Lower electrical bills.

Here’s a closeup of the TJI joists, there is a double 2″ x 12″ hanger-board supporting them that is fixed to the wall using 1/2″ x 8″ compression bolts staggered every 16″.

This is the dormer window in the rear being framed out. The 3′ x 6′ window that will be installed in this dormer will bring natural light into the second floor loft area, and my plan is to build a cosy reading nook in there. The loft area is approximately 800 square feet, and there are no immediate plans to finish it with the rest of the house. It is basically going to be a design-as-we-go weekend project for me and my bro-in-law… Like I need more weekend projects.