My current huge project

In June and July this summer [2009], I decided that it was time for me to stop putting up with my falling apart, marginally built north section of my house. This portion of the house was comprised of four or five older additions, that had been combined together with a common roof. These old additions were mostly old woodsheds or lean-to sheds added to each other.

This part of the house sat on a very shallow 'foundation', basily a shallow trench with a few fieldstones to rest the building on, with only a few inches of 'crawlspace' between the floor joists and the dirt. When the ground froze in the winter, the house squirmed from the frost lifting the sections of the house, doors would jam, walls crack, and heat leaked to the outdoors in large quantities. I believe that at least half of my coal/heat use was in this part of my house.

So I drew up a few plans, got a few estimates on materials and located some labor and work crews, and finally decided to get started in August. I first had a large japanese maple tree moved from in front of the house to the back yard near the pond.





The two story part of the house stays, the story and half section is to be demolished.




More in next post.

Greg L

Sounds like a good decision to start from scratch on that section. Thanks for the pics. Keep em coming!

Wow Greg, you could have had the house raized, and a full basement/foundation built under it. Unless you were doing the demolition to add sq footage living space?
Nice tree, glad you kept it....

Here you can see the wonderful crawlspace and foundation under the demolished sections of the house




And dug a nice deep hole for a 9' walled basement



And poured a new basement attached to the old fieldstone walls of the old basement



Installed hot water heat pipes in the basement floor



More to come in next post

Greg L

I now have a wonderful new basement, with heated floor, and the old cellar is now the 'utility room'.


Now comes the fun part, putting up the new structure:


Second story rising




Roof trusses finally


More to come.

Greg L

WOW! Nice!!

Your living my dream right now. Someday I want that to happen to my entire house!

I'll bet the heat is on at Greg's right now. The 260 is chugging away, lovin' it's new home. It won't take 48 tons to keep this well built, well insulated update, warm this winter. Hopefully the weather has been with you out there also.
Water tight, and heated are the key works in construction......along with: 'here's your check, thanks for bustin' you hump'!

Thanks for taking the time to post the photos Greg. I'd be happy just to see the aluminum siding gone off this place and new clapboards installed.

Big project and looks great.

With the tusses up, the roof goes on, the urgent goal to keep the weather out.. I did have some minor water damage to the floor plywood, but easily repaired.



The new structure will have a two-story foyer, with a stairway to the second floor, and a balcony around the perimeter of the foyer. My master bedroom will have french doors opening onto the balcony, overlooking the stairs and foyer. The old kitchen overlooked the back yard and pond, with only one window, the old family/TV room overlooked the driveway.. These have been reversed in the new structure, the family room will open onto a 32'x20' deck overlooking the back yard. The new kitchen will be in the 12'x21' 'pop-out' adjacent to the driveway.

The whole new structure is built on virtually the same footprint of the old house. The added living space is mostly the upstairs which will be a library and a 2nd story laundry.

The new structure will have R27 walls and R50+ ceilings. The heat will be hot water heated floors, the main floor a 1.5" 'suspended slab' with Pex tubing on 6" spacing. The second floor will have sub floor pex tubing on 12" centers, I am not expecting to need much added heat upstairs. The flooring on the main level will be 75% natural slate, and the remainder 1/2" engineered, prefinished wood. Both of these flooring products will be installed on the concrete suspended slab.







I have been working [flying] a lot, so I've had to just rig up an extension cord to run the circulator, and a thermostat to trigger the primary pump to keep the water up to temp. So far I'm keeping the main level at 55*, the heated floor seems to be at about 60-65* to accomplish this, depending on outside temps and winds.. the building only has 1" of foam on the walls, only R7 insulation for now. There are no ceilings, the rooms are open to the ridge peaks, and the eaves and peaks are vented, so the house is not 'air tight' yet.. But it is amazing that the main floor is comfortable with the floor at ~60*.
I can't wait till I have the time to wire the ceiling lighting, and get drywall on the ceilings.. then the house will warm up considerably.

More to come.

Greg L

Hey is this the next "This Old House" episodes ? Wow what an undertaking. Pics are great! Will you be opening a Bed and Breakfast ? Ya did a good thing ya did! Can ya do mine next?

With the heat finally keeping the structure at least warm, I've had time to plan and engineer the wrap-around front porch modifications.. and bring the porch roof around the west side of the house, and over the main entrance.

I am VERY pleased with the appearance of the house with the wrap-around porch. I have been visualizing this porch for years on the old house, and knew that it would look good, especially on the new rebuilt structure. But WOW,, I'm really amazed how well the porch tied the old and new together, making it look like it was always built that way. Even though the old is dated as being built in 1849, and the new, well, last month.

The siding is going on, all the windows and doors are installed, I have a lot of wiring, plumbing, and drywall work to do. The adjoining wall between the old and new sections will require a lot of new doors, and engineering to join the old and new,

WOW Greg - Nice change from the original space you had! What are you going to use for ridge vents and what is that finger like material beneath the ridge on the rafters? Sure looks toasty

VigIIPeaBurner wrote:WOW Greg - Nice change from the original space you had! What are you going to use for ridge vents and what is that finger like material beneath the ridge on the rafters? Sure looks toasty

Dave,
I think your seeing the Truss connectors? Flat sheets of perforated galvanized steel, that is manufactured (Squeezed around the framing to make the trusses.
Looks like they are preparing for a raised-vented ridgeline. Those work great, but don't trust them to remove all the built-up heat in the summertime. Go ahead and install a couple fans/vents.

Greg, are you going to do that spray foam insulation inside, or just regular fiberglass? That foam is like an R7 per inch - I was going to do my drafty 2nd floor with the stuff.