Construction update week 44: wood floor fiasco

They looked so good :(

I’m finally able to write about week 44. We had trouble with our hardwood floors. 

We bought white ash, 5” solid wood planks from the Wood Source. They were sitting in our house, acclimatizing for a couple weeks. The kitchen was all lined up for install the following week (week 45) and the floor was to be laid prior-to. Our lead carpenter, Graham, installed the floors with Mark’s help. They looked spectacular. But when walked on, they creaked. Not good. They were laid on top of waxed paper, and used staples every 12–16”. A bit more context on the situation: the subfloor is ¾” plywood glued and screwed on open web joists on 12” centres. The subfloor seemed good prior to installing the hardwood, with no squeaks or detectable movement, and moisture content within 5% of the hardwood. So what could the problem be?

That same day, they ripped them up, and re-installed. Second time around, they used waxed paper, 2” cleats every 4–6”, and glued the tongue and grooves together. Still, they creaked. At this stage, I was so ready to just screw the floors down to the subfloor and live with screws all over our new kitchen floor. But Mark, bless him, was not down with this. Again, they ripped up the floors. This time the glue destroyed the tongue and groove as they pulled it up, and this along with all the nails made the wood unsalvageable. Sniff.

We delayed the kitchen install while Graham and Mark consulted the Wood Source and multiple installers to try and troubleshoot the creaking. No one was able to provide any clear direction forward. With all the uncertainty, we decided to proceed with the kitchen install, which happened this past week (week 46), despite having no floors. 

We wanted the floors laid first, so the island could sit on top of them, at the right height. And because it makes for a much finickier install around the island. But it is what it is, we couldn’t delay our kitchen install any longer.

This was incredibly frustrating. It actually still is. We have some ideas on what to try next, but we’re not confident and therefore and continue to consult other installers and wood flooring companies. I want to be sure that when we install them for a third time, we won’t run into the same problem again. And if we do, we can confidently identify the culprit and get compensated for any loss. Fingers crossed. Any suggestions are welcomed.

Kitchen install is well underway

Construction week 43

The scaffolding is coming down! The Hardie panel on the front, and along the south side still needs finishing, but otherwise – the siding will be finished this week. Major excitement. The drywall will also be finished this week, including the first layer of primer.

Over the weekend, Mark and I worked away on the house. My mom was in town to facilitate this, helping to watch our girls. It’s extremely satisfying to get out and swing a hammer, so to speak. We made great progress as well. We did a massive cleanup of the job site. We’ll be returning unused lumber and selling or giving away the rest on Kijiji. It’s starting to look less like a job site with all the construction material cleaned up and scaffolding mostly down.

We filled another waste bin to the max. The amount of waste our build has generated is something I’m struggling with. Even though most of the materials came from the earth (wood and gypsum), it doesn’t feel good throwing them back in a landfill. There’s a lot of embodied energy in our dumpster. Our friend Gary told me that according to CMHC, the average waste produced by a new home is 2.5 tonnes. That’s about one and a half dumpsters the size we’ve been using. We’ve already filled two and have ordered another one… Our house is no average house, on the other hand. There's a lot more material inside our walls. Considering our walls are two feet thick, and a standard house maybe 8". This is a case for building for the long term. That helps to put me at ease.

Over the weekend we also started laying the subfloor for our tile guy, who will be starting later this week. We also started on our wood ceiling. Wood ceiling you say? Why yes. We’ve decided to build a slatted wood ceiling. This will add to the sense of discovery we’re hoping to create throughout the house. And will enable us to get clever with our lighting solutions, and hide the mounting tracks. 

Tons of coordination efforts this week. Things are shaping up.

Preview of our wood ceiling

Tidy piles of extra construction material

House adornments -- pigeon scaring tactics seen to be working!

Construction update week 42

The final façade well underway.

It’s been awhile since my last construction update hasn’t it? In honest, there hasn’t been a whole lot to report. Not that work hasn’t been progressing, it’s just been the same old. Siding and drywall. And of course, many-a-things happening in the background: gathering quotes, scheduling, moving money around, ordering materials, pep-talks amongst the two of us — the list goes on, and seemingly never ends...

Siding

Graham’s crew has been working OT on the siding. Making up for some major squaring issues we discovered with the shell. We’re on the final facade – the front. They’ve finished the cedar and now just have the ‘eyebrow’ detail, as we’re calling it, over the doorway and canopy to finish up next week. They also need to add the hardie to our rooftop, and the west and south sides of the house. Hopefully the siding will be finished up next week. We can take the scaffolding down. Clean up the yard and start to have a finished-looking house in the works. Cannot begin to tell you how excited I am for this. 

Drywall

With the delay in starting, Mark’s bro Brian, who flew in to help with the drywall, couldn’t finish the job. But he left us in good shape to have a new crew take over. He also encountered the slow downs of having to remedy unsquare walls, but did a bang up job hanging drywall throughout the house in spite of this setback. He also managed to tape and mud all the rooms on the second floor. This upcoming week we have the new crew starting. We hope it goes quickly and will be finished up next week as well. They have to do the taping, mudding and corner beads for the remainder of the house. Minus the basement suite. Mark and I will finish that on our own time and our own dime after we’ve settled in. 

Mission control centre

Finishing decisions

Most of the big decisions have been made by now. We’re putting together ‘moodboards’ for all our finishes. Real life samples of our tiles, woods, cabinets, paint chips, etc. It helps us qualify our decision making. This is the fun part for me. All the wall and building stuff is incredible, important, and fascinating, but I’m totally under qualified to have any input there. The purely aesthetic, surface-level finishes is more my jam. Here’s a little update on the finishing decisions. (I’ll post a pic of our sample moodboard later this week.)

• We’re ordering all our tile from Ceragres. In the bathroom, we’re doing big white ones on the walls and small black ones on the floor. On the main floor and entries, a 24” x 24” and 12” x 24” jumbo porcelain tile combo in a darker ‘licorice’ colour. We’re decided on an installer as well. Mark was contemplating DIY’ing the tile with the help of Gary, but since he already has a million odd jobs to tackle, this was one we decided to leave to the pros.
• We’re getting wood for the rest of the floors from the Wood Source. White ash in 5” boards that will be site-finished by Graham and his Vessel wood crew. We haven’t decided on a finish for them yet. Stain or oil. No idea. 
• Going with Caesarstone for the island counter top. Not sure if we’re going light or dark yet, however. For the window sill come countertop in the kitchen, we’re going with a maple butcher block. Really looking forward to chopping things in that lovely window.
• I’ve got some paint samples I’ve been playing with on the walls. Looking to find the perfect white for our house. Mark’s business partner Rebecca swears by an untinted, straight from the can, titanium/gesso white. I’m not sure if I want the house to have gallery walls or if I want a slight bit of warmth or grey to them. All signs point to titanium.

Next up

At this stage, our MVP is aimed at occupancy permit. That’s what our focus is — the minimum required for move-in. Things like the basement, doors and trim, we will finish up on our own. Once the drywall is complete, with the first coat of primer – a Benjamin Moore vapour retardant primer – we’ll get a painter in (might go by the name of Meghan or Mark), and get the floors started. The big deadline pushing things forward at the moment is our kitchen install, which is scheduled for July 10th.. We still enjoy telling people we’ll move in at the end of July. But I’m definitely not holding my breath on this one.

House tour video (in case you missed it)

Here are the videos from our Periscope house tour from June 2nd.

Construction updates are minimal: drywall and siding! The whole house has been boarded now. We're moving on to plastering. And the siding on the South side will be up this week. Feeling the time/money squeeze! 

Construction weeks 37 & 38: electrical rough-ins and drywall

Drywall is getting hung, son!

Mark is full-time at the house these days, including weekends, and it will likely continue this way until move in. I’m pulling double-duty with the rest of life, so all I can muster today is a point-form update. Words, sentences and all the things are feeling difficult. Please forgive me.

• Mark finished running the flex ducting throughout the house.
• Graham and Sebastian continue to install siding. And continue to do an outstanding job of it.
• Yves, started and finished all the electrical rough-ins. Since he has a stellar reputation with the ESA (Electrical Service Authority), we quickly passed the inspection over email.
• Prepared for drywalling, with the help of Brian Rosen, Gary and Alex Sharp.
  • Carried 40 sheets of 12’ long drywall boards up stairs and between rooms.
  • Moved and re-installed our construction stairs away from the wall so the drywall could run past.
  • Since the house is going to be so quiet (outside noises disappear with our thick walls), that means we’ll be extra sensitive to any inside noises. To counter this, we've taken a couple additional steps.
    • Installed resilient channels on ceilings. These are metal strips that the drywall gets screwed into. They reduce foot step noise from floors above by reducing the contact surface area between the drywall and wood structure.
    • Added extra Roxul to our ceilings to further buffer any sound between floors.
• Started hanging drywall! Ceilings throughout the house and the girl’ bedrooms are finished.
• Added structural blocking for our floating stairs — the top two staircases. Some extra structure was added between existing studs to anchor the metal brackets that will hold the treads.
• Ordered custom metal for the interior of the house. Including a metal screen, which will support the other end of the stair treads, and our bridge that spans the open space over the dining room. Both will be powder-coated white.
  • The metal screen will span the height of the main space and frame the stair cases. As you wander through the house, it offers glimpses of the void and of our tall vertical window flanking the opposite side. We’ll hang pants off the screen, and transform it into a bit of a greenwall to breathe more life into the main space.
• Nathan installed 1 of 2 bathtubs. The master bath is going to be a tricky one. The space is tight and looks like we may have been sent an incorrect part.
• Mark ran another air test to the same result of 0.4 air changes per hour. He was hoping to improve upon our last result having filled some known gaps. But with new gaps made for electrical and plumbing, even though there were properly sealed, they may have balanced each other out. Or it might be the OSB that’s ‘leaky’ — it is a construction grade material after all, so at this level of tightness, maybe it just doesn’t stand up 100%. We’re hopeful that after drywall, our result may improve. However, Mark’s not holding his breath. He warned me that even though, in a typical build, an air-test post-drywall can improve 20–30%, it’s unlikely our will because we’re already dealing with such small numbers, and there’s little room for such impressive movement. Still keeping our fingers crossed.

That’s the gist of it. We’re managing many moving parts at the moment, but it’s finally starting to feel like we’re getting close to the home-stretch. The building inspector won’t be returning until it’s final occupancy time. Mostly finishing from here on out.

One more thing before my head hits the pillow: don’t miss Mark’s virtual tour this upcoming Thursday. We’ll post the video on the blog afterwards, in case you miss it. Oh, and check out the photos below.

Drywall on the ceilings.

First board goes up.

Flex ducting complete.

Kids bathtub (concreted added beneath the tub since this photo was taken).

Marvelous Eastern white cedar.

Hardie board too.

Window sill details.

The roof!

Quick screen grab I got Mark to take of his Sketch-up model to show the stair screen and the bridge that floats in front. 

Upcoming Periscope House Tour: June 2 @ 11 am

For anyone who missed our last tour, and for those geographically challenged, Mark will be live-streaming this upcoming Thursday (June 2) at 11 am EST. You'll have to download the Periscope App to tune-in. Follow @marktrosen. Highly recommend you do so because you can ask him questions and interact as he walks you through the house. 

Weeks 35 & 36: siding, ducts & open house tour

Our daughter Josie turned two today. It was a reminder that over two years ago, our house-building adventure began. The wheels were set in motion when we found out we were pregnant with #2 and knew we would inevitably outgrow our little house. We purchased the lot across the street from us and so it began. It feels like we’re finally hitting the home stretch. With the house and the trying baby-rearing days. The baby days are over. Sniff. I very much look forward to the many adventures in our new house, however. Move-in day can’t come soon enough, which should only be a couple months off.

Scaffolding up on the north wall.

A glimpse at the cedar behind the scaffolding. C'est magnifique!

One of the most exciting site-visits for me came last week, when I saw some of the cedar siding up on our North wall. It looks fantastic! The strapping went a bit slower than we had hoped because the shell of our house is actually a lot less square than we had hoped/thought it was. Graham and crew from Vessel woods are doing a bang-up job resurrecting the issue. I cannot wait to see the siding across the rest of the house. Should take a few more weeks of work. They will tackle the front façade last, so I’ll have to hold my breath until then. At least I have our amazing blue doors to tide me over. The Hermann’s were back on site last week to install them.

The Sentinel

Our house ducts

Mark finished installing the Zehnder flex ducts throughout the house. At the moment, it looks like the sentinel robot from the Matrix has taken up residence in our walls. The install went pretty smoothly. However, in sorting out the layout for our mechanical room, Mark realized he ordered the Heat Exchanger in the wrong orientation. So we’ll have to swap it out before it gets installed.

Mark was also busy taking deliveries, making decisions, juggling a million moving parts and covering for me on the home front while I was away in NYC for work (and play). Busy is the understatement of the century. His brother Brian is in town now to help out. He’s mostly here to help with drywalling, but that’s not set to begin for another week or so. We’ll find plenty to keep him busy with in the meantime. Including hang-time with his two little nieces. Brian watched the girls on Saturday so Mark and I could both be present at the open house tour.

We had a great turnout and lots of great questions. Thank you to all who made it out, it was a really exciting day for us to meet and talk to people interested in this kind of stuff.

A few people have been surprised that we’re opening our house up to tours like this. And I guess it’s not really a normal thing to do. But then again, nothing about our house is ‘normal’. The more I learn about building, the more I believe that we should pay attention to how our houses get built and what goes into our walls. When the drywall goes up, all is hidden. When the siding goes up, all is hidden. How can you tell the difference between our house and another new build going in down the street? You can’t. Unless you look at the drawings or look for a certification like Passive House. What better opportunity to see what’s inside a wall than to see it under construction? So I guess that’s why we’ve been opening our house up the way we have been and will continue to do so.

The next open house tour will likely be when the house is complete. It will be a house like any other at this stage, albeit fantastically comfortable and incredibly beautiful. The house won’t feel like a science experiment, and all the thought, cost and planning that went into our walls happened because it’s simply the way it ought to be.

Btw, if you missed out on the open house tour, but are still interested, post a comment or send us a message. We both realized, in hindsight, that we totally should have Periscoped (web streamed) the tour. If we give another any time soon, we’ll be sure to press record and/or pass along an invite.

May 14th - Open House and Tour 10am-3pm

Our new blue doors will be open for all this coming Saturday!

We are planning to have an open door tour day this coming Saturday, May 14th. Our doors will be open from 10am until 3pm, and I'll be giving a walkthrough tour at 12pm.

Please come by and check out our Passive House build! This will be the last chance to tour the house before drywall starts. It's a great opportunity to see into the walls and mechanical systems. There's no need to sign up in advance, please just come by at your convenience.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in a week!

What: Wander House open doors tour day (Passive House infill project)

Who: Mark and Meghan Rosen will be on site all day to answer your questions and show you around. Mark is the Architect, Passive House Designer, Owner (with Meghan), and Builder on this project. Check out plotnonplot.ca and beinc.ca for more information on Mark's architecture and consulting firms.

When: Saturday, May 14th 2016, 10am-3pm (tour at 12pm)

Where: 105 Bayswater Avenue, Ottawa, ON