Whitehall

BWC rented a hydraulic truck crane for the house assembly from WO Grubb . They specified a 50 ton crane, but Grubb didn't have one available. Instead, they sent an 80 ton crane. It has five stabilizing pads, including one that's under the front of the truck. The counterweight consists of four big pieces of steel that weight 4000 or 6000 lb each. The crane looked very well maintained. We had two operators over the course of the 14 days of the crane operation, Mike and Charlie. They both were excellent. 80 Ton Crane The picture may not convey the size of the vehicle. On the side of the crane is a dimension chart. We had already used the crane dimensions to locate where the center pin would go, allowing for clearance of the counterweight to swing 360 degrees. This label also has lifting and counterweight information. Crane Dimensions I had done crane work in the past, but never with a boom crane, so there were some new hand signals to learn. For example, "Boom down,

With the building under roof, we shifted our attention to the interior by framing the interior walls. First Floor Framing Turning Empty Spaces... Into Framed Rooms We would like to get some heat into the structure, so Keith and I worked on the wood stove hearth and have it ready for tile, which has to be ordered. The wall behind the wood stove will be finished in the same stone that we're going to use around the entry and on the visible parts of the foundation. Technically, the hearth doesn't need anything other than a non-combustible surface if we use the heat shield. However, we feel better about using a 1/2 inch layer of Micore 300 on the subflooring, covered by a 1/4 inch layer of Durock fiber-cement board. Thin-set cement will hold the tile to the Durock. Wood Stove Hearth Underlayment We cut 45 degree angles on the hearth to eliminate the corner trip hazard. The hearth will be slightly higher than the surrounding floor, so we will frame the hearth

Wednesday, 1/17/18 Today is the last day of the house assembly. The Bensonwood crew is finalizing all the sealing and doing a blower door test  ( DoE article on blower door tests ) to check for air leaks. The test uses a fan in a doorway to pull a vacuum on the house. We then walk around to feel and look for air leaks. A thermal camera may be useful when looking for leaks. We found two, which we quickly closed. Philip Sets Up Blower Door Test The blower door test was very successful. Bensonwood is known for tight buildings, with blower door tests that register less than 1 air change per hour at 50 pascals. (Pascals is a measure of pressure. 50 Pascals is .00725 psi, so it isn't very much pressure.) Our house registered .6 ACH50 (air changes per hour at 50 Pascals), which is the threshold for the  PassivHaus standard. (The actual measurement was 600 CFM50 at 50 Pascals, then the ACH50 figure was calculated, based on the interior volume. An interesting article about blower

Tuesday, 1/16/18 Today will be busy. Roofers arrive at 7:30 (a bunch of them were there at 7am). The wood stove flue installer from Bay Stoves will arrive at 8am. The Bensonwood team will be replacing the compromised electrical wire that we discovered last night (see prior post). And the Lundberg team will be installing doors. (Unfortunately, my GoPro camera became unplugged from the big battery pack that supplies power all day. So I have a few hours of time lapse and didn't get all of the roofing or of the master bedroom door being set. I was a bit distracted this morning, with all the planned activity, and somehow missed that it had become unplugged or that I hadn't fully connected it when I installed it in the container at the end of my extension pole.) The roofers impressed everyone. They had a 46 square roof finished in less than a day. There must have been three or four teams working on the roof and another one or two fellows working around the edges to set the d

Monday, 1/15/18 Cold temperatures have returned, with the thermometer about 20F in the morning. It's hard to decide if it is better to be cold or better to walk around in sloppy, muddy conditions. Temperature about 30F is actually not too bad if we're properly dressed and it keeps our boots from getting muddy. Today was dedicated to getting the roof sealed. The Bensonwood team spent most of the day on the roof, installing screws, foaming the gaps between roof panels, and taping seams. The roofers arrive tomorrow morning about 7:30am and we need to be ready. At 5pm, I tested the four electrical wires for the fans in the four upstairs rooms and found one of them had ground shorted to black (hot). Not good. We quickly identified that a screw near the bottom (down roof) of one panel had penetrated the wire. We considered options and talked with some folks at Bensonwood. The resolution was to get a long electrical drill and an extension (they come in 5ft lengths) and drill a ho

Sunday, 1/14/18 We took the day off. It's been nearly two weeks of solid work, often in very cold conditions. It was time for a day of rest.

Saturday, 1/13/18 The rain stopped overnight, so we're able to get going with the crane again. Today, we fly all the porch parts into place. Some of the beams are of a size that we can handle by hand on the ground. But the porch roofs need the crane to handle safely. The GoPro camera that I use to record the time lapse videos didn't want to stay in one place and kept falling over, even if I clipped it to a tree. So I placed it on the front of the Genie boom lift to get a video of the screened porch roof assembly.  All the timbers are numbered and marked with an arrow to indicate their orientation for assembly. It is just like following the directions for assembling a big doll house ("tab A goes into slot B"). Porch Timbers with Identification Numbers (H5 and H6 in this case) Places where screws are used to tie timbers together are marked to identify the type and length of screw to use. Screws have also evolved. I'm familiar with lag screws, which are

Friday, 1/12/18 Today was a literally a washout. It rained most of the day, sometimes rather hard. We had the roof on from yesterday, which helped. We were able to do some work inside. I think we all wound up pretty wet by the end of the day, with the high humidity, warm temperatures, and rain. The Bensonwood crew had arranged for the crane operator to skip today because of the rain. We wouldn't have been able to do much if he had been there. It would have been too dangerous to work on the roof in the rain. I didn't get any pictures today. How many people are interested in pictures of a bunch of wet construction workers?

Day 9 House Assembly (Thursday, 1/11/18) The roof panels went on today. Just in time for it to rain tomorrow. We also took advantage of the crane and the open roof to lift the claw foot tub into the second floor. At least we won't have to carry it up the stairs. I was able to get some time-lapse from both the driveway and the waterfront side of the house. In a few of the waterfront time lapse pictures you can see the use of come-a-longs to pull a panel in the right position. This is because everything is designed to fit tightly together, minimizing air leaks, which is one of the largest causes of high energy costs in a house. To help avoid air leakage, many seams are initially sealed with caulk and/or foam, then all seams are taped with Zip tape, a super-sticky tape (beats duct tape). The time lapse (below) shows Li taping some roof seams. Roof Panel Construction The roof panels are technically a Structural Insulated Panel (SIP). SIP construction consists of a l

Day 8 of House Assembly (Wednesday, 1/10/18) We're now officially more than a week into the project. Progress is actually looking pretty good. The weather today was cloudy with temperatures in the mid 30s. By the end of the day, we had all the roof joists set and all the walls up. The last (and fifth) truck delivered the last of the Bensonwood order. Fortunately, the ground is still deeply frozen so the truck didn't get stuck. It has warmed up enough that there is now a thin layer of mud everywhere. But I think we all agree that dealing with some mud is better than the exceedingly low temperatures we experienced last week. There were many large parts in today's truck shipment, which required a bit of planning-on-the-fly to find a place to put everything. I moved the GoPro to the driveway side of the house today to get a view of the crane operation. Unfortunately, the wide angle camera lens makes everything look small. I couldn't safely get the camera any clos

Day 7 House Assembly (Tuesday, 1/9/18) The weather cooperated today, with temperatures above freezing and sunny most of the day. We had ice from a little rain and freezing temperatures overnight. The ice had melted by 11am. But for the first few hours, the house subflooring was an ice rink. Everyone was extra careful and we made it through. The fourth truck arrived today. The ground was still mostly frozen, so there was little chance of getting stuck. It will be different for tomorrow's truck. Today's truck contained the two big window walls for the water view from the living room and they were quickly lifted into place. We're looking forward to the day when the covers come off those windows. We also have a bundle that contains several of the second floor, driveway side panels. They will get lifted into place tomorrow. It looks like we may have roof panels on Friday, but that may depend on the weather. Rain is forecast to start Thursday night and continue all day Friday

Day 6 (Monday 1/8/18) We're back at it early today. I was at the house at 6:30am, when it is still dark, with just a hint of sunrise to the east. I had some things to do on the computer, so sunrise had happened by the time I got the GoPro camera mounted. I have mounted the GoPro on the end of a long, extendable paint roller pole. So I added another clip for the pole and extended it to the full height. The result is a little better view of the inside of the house as it is framed. Even still, the work we did today behind the closest wall was not visible. That's where we initially put the big beams together before raising them. Fortunately, most of our work is visible in the video. Day 6 Time Lapse: We made good progress today. We've installed all the wall panels and spent the day assembling a good portion of the timber framing. It is looking very nice. The fourth tractor trailer truck arrives tomorrow, carrying the two big window wall panels that fill the empty spots

Day 5 (Sunday 1/7/18) Yes, we even worked some on Sunday. Today was mostly cleaning up a few things, so we only worked a few hours. No time lapse today since it would only be a video showing us moving around the house as we took care of things.

Day 4 (Saturday 1/6/18) Yes, we worked the weekends. The wind abated, but the temperatures are still cold, 10F in the morning when we started. The crane operator was willing to work, so we were making up time we lost when the wind stopped us on Wednesday. We started assembling some timbers today. Many of the wall panels are now installed - we only have a few left. And the trucks that were scheduled to deliver the additional panels were all delayed by the snow storm, especially up in New Hampshire, where the panels are made. We use wall braces and come-alongs to brace the structure so it doesn't get blown over or fall on someone. It is very interesting to watch and participate in lifting the big floor panels by crane. It sure makes the assembly go quickly. The Lundberg crew, Robert and Kyle, both seem to be enjoying the different construction method. Day 4 Time Lapse Here is our progress at the end of the day. Day 4 End of the Day

Day 3 (Friday, 1/5/18) As with most other days, we start in the dark and work til nearly dark. Sometimes the weather influences our start and end times. This week is incredibly cold for Maryland - temperatures in the morning are below 20F and one day we started work with the temperature at 7F. The temperature isn't too bad if the wind doesn't blow, but today is forecast to still be windy. The combination of temperature and wind makes it a challenge to stay warm. Even the New Hampshire fellows from Bensonwood were commenting on the cold wind penetrating their clothing. The wind was a bit lighter than yesterday and we were able to "fly" building panels. The time-lapse video shows our progress. Day 3 Time Lapse And we now have parts of the first floor walls installed. End of Day 3

Helping the Truck Day 2 (Thursday 1/4/18) A major winter storm blew in last night, Jan 2-3, 2018. Temps were around 25F all day and the wind started at about 15-20 knots but soon built to 20-35kts (34kts is gale force wind). There was 1-2 inches of snow but since the ground was quite cold from the past week of low temperatures, it all stuck and wasn't going to melt. The good thing is that it was easy to sweep off the house decking and panels. The third truck arrived this morning and quickly became stuck on a neighbor's driveway. There was just enough slope and enough snow that it couldn't get traction to back up the hill. A four-wheel pickup connected to the trailer with straps was enough to solve the problem, but it did take almost an hour to get the truck backed to the construction site where we could unload it. First Panel Today We were able to set three panels before the wind made us stop. The second panel had to be lifted over the garage and it swung around

It's Day 1 of House Assembly. The BensonWood crew arrived yesterday and started the assembly. Two trucks arrived today. Amazingly, the trucks were able to make the turns to get to the house. Fortunately, it has turned cold and the ground is hard, allowing them to run on the grass without getting stuck. The wall panels are starting to go up. We only made it to two panels because there were a lot of bundles on the trucks, which the crane was busy unloading. Three timbers were assembled before the end of the day, left lying on the deck for now. The first two panels go up - Dining room to the left and kitchen to the right The time lapse video of today's work: We’re finally on our way to a new house!