Lulu said, "Please please build me a boat house." Finale

In the last blog on the boat house I wrote about the savings I enjoyed by wiring the boat house myself.   For this blog I am happy to report that I am finally finished with the boat house project.  The speed at which I finished the boat house is on par with a snail or sloth.  My construction services are kind of like that restaurant I went to in Alaska called Fast Eddies where it took a whole hour to eat a meal there and the service was anything but fast.

The first lumber delivery was on December 5, 2014.

 

What I originally had in the back yard was a nice 20' dock built by dad and I. 

Now it is October 24, 2016, 1 year 10 months  later and now the back yard has this in it.

 

 

 

Of course the boat house will still have to pass inspection.  It will be interesting to see what they say when the inspector looks at the plans and it calls for a hip roof and what I built was a gable roof.  I have also blown a zoning requirement.   The structure is a little bigger than 600 square feet.  However the inspection will have to wait until I finish the driveway which is the last task to do before my two permits are complete.

The last part of construction for the boat house involved putting the planking and the shingles on.   The planking took about 26 hours and the shingling took about 17 hours.   Seeing as I started this effort in July and its now October it seems I didn't accomplish much for 3 to 4 months.  Truth is I did slow down because it was so hot.  I avoided the peak sun hours and worked no more than three hours a day and usually only on weekends

Besides the planking and shingles I also accomplished installing the electrical for the boat house. the swail in the back yard, the sprinklers and the planting of the grass seed. I also decided to take a detour in life and do other things besides construction and work.  So I devoted some of my attention to running and then I switched to comedy.  That's right I took a 6 week stand up comedy class.  It was perhaps the funnest class I have ever taken.  Each class was filled with the teacher and the students cracking jokes and roasting each other.  We attended comedy shows and at the end of the class each student in the class performed a five minute act in front of a live audience.

The comedy I came up with certainly wasn't appropriate for the corporate work environment but definitely would be considered appropriate on a construction site.  In the spirit of having a fun in the middle of a a serious project, I will place a few jokes I know through this blog.

Like this one:
I went to a restaurant on mars and the food was great but there was no atmosphere.

Since I had finished the roof framing, the planking was next.  For this I used 2" x 8" treated lumber.  I could have used plywood sheathing but I figured it would be easier for me haul planks up the ladder rather than large sheets of plywood.  Also with planking the roof nails would not pop through and show like they would with plywood.  Nails popping through the underside of the roof seems unsightly to me.

Unlike the cedar porch planking I decided not to use lap joints.  The cedar porch lumber actually shrunk a lot so that there are quarter inch gaps in the seams.  Lapping is a good idea but since the planking is covered with peel and stick and shingles and there is no chance of day light passing through the joints it is unnecessary.  The only thing I did to the lumber was bevel the edge with a router bit so that a V groove was formed at the seam.

To put the planking on I used 3.25" galvanized ring shank framing nails to attach them to the rafters.   I usually put four nails in per rafter.  The trickiest part of placing the planking is getting the first row straight.  To ensure that I did I clamped short pieces of lumber on the facia so that the first plank could butt up against it.   Once this was done the next rows went on straight.  However, since the wood was not perfectly straight I used pipe clamps to press the plank rows together before I nailed them and I staggered the joints.

Below are some pictures of the process where I put planks on and covered them with peel and stick.

 

 

 

In the above pictures I have shown the top side of the planking.  But the whole reason why I put in planks in the first place was so that nails would pop through when I put shingles on the roof.  It is also a lot prettier to look at then sheathing.  Below is a picture that shows how well the planking idea looks.  This picture is after the shingles were put on.....no nails!

Time for another joke:
Did you hear about the kidnapping at school? 
He's ok now he woke up.

When installing the planks safety was my number one priority.   The first thing I did to help out is I wired the ladder to the boat house with 9 wire.  The ladder sliding to the side and then falling to the ground as a worker gets on and off is a common issue.   The second thing I did is I put on most of the planking from inside the rafter structure instead of standing on the roof.  I was able to do this because I had a good scaffolding system.  In fact all the planks went on this way except the last two rows.

I also put on the peel and stick as I installed the planks.   This I thought would ensure the slippery wood surface would be covered with a material that has good traction.  However, the peel and stick material has a time limit (45 days) for exposure to UV / hot sun and I exceeded it by about 30 days for some it.  So maybe I should have waited until all the planking was done before I placed it on.  Some of it became covered with loose particles that broke away from the material and made it slippery.  Some of it didn't and I think that is because of the different brands that I used during the process.  Finally when working on the roof I use a safety harness.

Time for another joke.
They named a road after Chuck Norris but they had to change the name....Do you know why?
No one would cross Chuck Norris.

The next step was to add the drip edge.  By code the drip edge has to be spaced out 1/2" from the facia so that the water coming off it does not interact with the facia. To speed up the process I cut all my spacers and predrilled the holes for the nails ahead of time.  Drilling the holes was quick because I used my harbor freight drill press.  On the gable end of the roof the spacer is just a 1/2 inch thick by 1.5" thick strip of wood.  However on the eaves the spacer has a 22.5 degree angle in it so that the plumb cut vertical facia would match with it.

One issue I had with the drip edge installation the vertical facia and roof make an angle was 111.5 degrees and  the drip edge I had purchased was 90 degrees.  I had to squash the drip edge.  I tired putting it on  the ground and stepping on it but this creased the drip edge and ruined it.  Instead I came up with a solution that worked very well.

The spacer I had used for the drip edge on the plump cut side of the roof had angle in it and since I had some extra left over. I used it as guide when I spread the drip edge wider with my hands.   See photo below.

I put the drip edge on in about 2 hours.  The nail spacing I used was 4 inches which is code for hurricanes and the over lap for the drip edge is 6 inches.  The corners where the facia transitions form 111.5 degrees to 90 didn't seem quite right but it looks good.  I think that special factory made facia should be made for this transition.

 

Time for another joke:
Two antennas met on the roof.   They got to know each other and really hit it off.  They fell in love and got married.   The ceremony wasn't that great but the reception was excellent.

After the drip edge was installed it was time to install the shingles.  In my previous blog I  have detailed about the shingle installation process.  To summarize, I put roof cement on the drip edge and covered the seems and the nails.  By code the width of the roof cement seam has to be a minimum width.  I forget what the dimension is but I exceeded a 8" wide seam.  Then the starter shingles go on.  Below the picture shows half a row of starter shingles and the roof cement seam.

 

The next step was to put on the shingles.  There are directions on each shingle pack.  It basically says to never have your shingle seems line up.  The first row requires nothing special and the shingles are laid down and nailed to the roof.  The second row starts off with a 6" shingle.  The third a 11" shingle.  The fourth starts off with the left over shingle from the 6" part that was cut off it.  The fifth row starts with the shingle that is left over from the 11" cut off it.  Then repeat the process over again for the remaining rows.

It is important to nail the shingles 6 times.   My neighbors boat house roof shingles were blown off by hurricane Mathew because they used 4 nails.   My house shingles that used 6 did not.   It is also important to make sure the edges are stuck down.  That's why the starter shingle is used and also tar from a caulking gun is placed under the roof perimeter edges with a caulking gun.  What I'm told happens is once the first edge shingle goes from high wind then all the rest of them in that row go.

The professional who looked at the neighbors boat house roof which is the same size as mine said it was done so bad that it needed a whole new roof job at a price of 1900 dollars.   My cost was $800 (57% savings) for materials with a labor time of 34 hours to complete peel and stick, drip edge and shingle job.  The labor rate then is $32 an hour.  Their price includes tear down which I did not have to do since I had a new roof.

However I have to say that I am super envious of the short time it takes these professionals to do the work.  My neighbors entire house roof was removed and the dried in in one day.  However now they are waiting for the inspector to look at it.   Or are they?  Because of hurricane Mathew there are a lot of roof jobs now.  I wonder if they are playing the game of starting as many projects as they can and when the work dies down they will get back to my neighbors.  Because they started the job my neighbor is stuck using them now.

It is important to get the shingles on straight.  I use one chalk line for every two rows to help.   Below is picture when I'm about 1/3 of the way done on the shingle task.

And here is an aerial view of the finished roof.

See my other roofing project at this blog for more information roofing.

In addition to the shingles I installed an owl with rotating head to keep the birds away.  They leave a nasty mess.  And it does not seem to be working.   What shall I try next?

Time for another classic joke:
A woman could never get her husband to do anything around the house. He would come home from work, sit in front of the tv, eat dinner, and sit some more -- would never do those little household repairs that most husbands take care of. This frustrated the woman quite a bit.

One day the toilet stopped up. When her husband got home, she said sweetly, "Honey, the toilet is clogged. Would you look at it?" Her husband snarled, "What do I look like? The tidy-bowl man?" and sat down on the sofa. 

The next day, the garbage disposal wouldn't work. When her husband got home, she said, very nicely, "Honey, the disposal won't work. Would you try to fix it for me?" Once again, he growled, "What do I look like? Mr. Plumber?" 

The next day, the washing machine was on the blink. When her husband got home, she steeled her courage and said, "Honey, the washer isn't running. Would you check on it?" And again was met with a snarl, "What do I look like? The Maytag repairman?" 

Finally, she had had enough. The next morning, the woman called three repairmen to fix the toilet, the garbage disposal, and the washer. When her husband got home, she said, "Honey, I had the repairmen out today." He frowned, "Well, how much is that going to cost?" "Well, honey, they all said I could pay them by baking them a cake or having sex with them." "Well, what kind of cakes did you bake them?" he asked. She smiled. "What do I look like? Betty Crocker?"

An older couple were walking on a beach when the husband tripped over a bottle and a genie came out. “You can each have one wish,” said the genie. The wife made her wish first “I would like to travel around the world, with my husband,”. Suddenly there appeared in her hand two tickets for travel around the world. Now it was the husbands turn, “Well” said the husband, with a naughty look on his face “I wish I can have a younger companion,” . The words were barely out of his mouth when poof, he aged 20 years!

Read more at:

So now that the boat house is complete the question is would it have been cheaper for a contractor to have done the job?

In this case it is an emphatic no.

For a similar boat house that was built in a neighborhood the contractor charged $ 32,000.   In my case I worked on the boat house for 411 hours and my cost in materials and minimal hired help was $14,716.

My savings was a whopping $17,284 or 54%.   Cue the cash register sound.

Happy Building

The Dr.

PS. Still yet another joke:

A man runs into the vet's office carrying his dog, screaming for help. The vet rushes him back to an examination room and has him put his dog down on the examination table. The vet examines the still, limp body and after a few moments tells the man that his dog, regrettably, is dead.

The man, clearly agitated and not willing to accept this, demands a second opinion. The vet goes into the back room and comes out with a cat and puts the cat down next to the dog's body. The cat sniffs the body, walks from head to tail poking and sniffing the dog's body and finally looks at the vet and meows. The vet looks at the man and says, "I'm sorry, but the cat thinks that your dog is dead too."

The man is still unwilling to accept that his dog is dead. The vet brings in a black Labrador. The lab sniffs the body, walks from head to tail, and finally looks at the vet and barks. The vet looks at the man and says, "I'm sorry, but the lab thinks your dog is dead too."

The man, finally resigned to the diagnosis, thanks the vet and asks how much he owes. The vet answers, "$650." "$650 to tell me my dog is dead?" exclaimed the man.... "Well," the vet replies, "I would only have charged you $50 for my initial diagnosis. The additional $600 was for the cat scan and lab tests."

Hurricane Mathew Strikes the House

In the last blog I indicated that there was a cat 5 hurricane down in the Caribbean coming our way and I had hoped that it would not hit here.   Well the eye actually passed by my city only 30 miles away.  Luckily it had down graded itself to a cat 3.   However we did get subjected to 110 Mph winds, rain, power outages and the storm surge.  The question is, how did my construction hold up?  From a previous blog where I discussed the shingles I installed on the roof I said the following:

"the code requires that the shingles be wind rated for 150 Mph on my street.  One street over its 160 Mph....go figure.  The shingles I chose are CetainTeed silver birch shingles which will easily handle these wind speeds according to the manufacturer ratings  ASTM3161 D F......(I'll believe it when I see it and right now I'm skeptical as they are asphalt shingles and this material is pretty weak)" 

And then there is the cedar porch which I talked about in the blog in this link.  I think I mentioned in one of the cedar porch blogs that we had a little argument with the designer.  He felt that the porch needed diagonal bracing and would not stand up to a hurricane if it didn't have it.  Dad on the other hand said based on his experience as a structural engineer that it did not need it.  I chose to ignore the designer and listen to my dad.  Was this the right decision?

This is a picture of the porch before the storm.

 

Don't forget the boat house which I had deviated from what the professional engineer signed off on in the plans.  I had put on a gable roof I designed myself instead of a hip roof in the plans as discussed in this link.  Furthermore,  I had decided to leave the 2 to 3 thousand pound boat in the lift and let it ride out the storm there.   Were these good decisions worthy of withstanding the hurricane force winds?  

See picture below of how the boat was left in the boat house before the storm.  Basically I lifted it higher than I thought the storm surge would be and I tied it off at the four corners to cleats on the pilings.   I also used chain links with nuts on them instead of hooks so that there was no way the boat could get loose from the cables on the lift.

There is also the expanded garage addition, where I had mistakenly left off two major Simpson brackets responsible for holding the roof on.  Luckily, the inspector caught it and it was corrected.  Had I screwed anything else up or did the inspector miss anything else?

Before I show the damage that was incurred by the hurricane to my construction, I will show you the damage in the neighborhood.

Below is a picture of the shingles missing from a neighbors house:

 

As can be seen from the photo many shingles are missing.  The house to the left was newly built a year ago and fared better.  However, it had many shingles missing as well.

Below is a picture of a neighbors dock.  The piling is broken in two.  Probably rotten but the forces were so great that the dock was lifted up.

 

Below is picture of a neighbors tree that fell over.

 

Below the picture shows the huge screened in porch taken down by the hurricane.

 

Fence knocked down in neighborhood.

 

A power line down in the neighborhood.

A community center had this damage,

 

At a  Friendly's restaurant a light pole had been knocked down and the bricks on the corner of the building had fallen.

So the above pictures are some of the worse damage in my local area that I could find.  

And now for the damage that occurred to my construction.  I didn't have any except a little erosion on the dirt that I placed in the back yard.  The dirt placement is discussed in this link.   The grass had not grown yet so there was nothing to hold the dirt in place.  All the additions that I had constructed were still standing and looked as if they took the pounding easily.   What was completely surprising to me though was that not a single shingle came off my roof.  Those are some good shingles! 

The damage I had was the AC got fried due to the power surges.  (I should have flipped the main breaker before I left) and the freon leaked out of the AC.

The erosion is shown below.  In the picture you can see the water had risen above the wall and the floating dock landed itself on top of the fixed dock.

 

I did have damage to the boat.  A cleat ripped off but the wood holding the cleat was rotten.  The boat must have really rocked and rolled in the wind.  I'm glad I removed the hooks from the lift and used 1/2 " links instead so that the boat did not get loose.

 

I would say that although the neighborhood did have damage we fared pretty well and it could of been a lot worse.  We are so lucky.  Other countries in the path of the hurricane did not do as well.  In Haiti the destruction is devastating and the death toll has reached 900  link .  

Let us pray for them.

In the coming weeks I hope to put the shingles on the boat house.  It should not take long.  But then again I thought this whole project would only take 3 months.

Happy Building,

The Dr.

Mowing the Lawn is fun again

As a continuation of improving the landscaping for the house I finally broke down after not mowing the lawn for two years and bought a lawn mower.   This is quite amazing actually because I had developed a hatred of mowing lawns.

My dislike for mowing the lawns stemmed from the time I made a living from mowing lawns.   It was back in 2002 when I was laid off from my job for 2 years.

In order to mow lawns I had to get customers.  This meant that I had to walk around the neighborhood and put flyers on peoples doors.   I ended up with 12 customers doing this but being out in Florida heat walking miles through neighborhoods getting all sweaty discouraged me from getting any more.  I also had a small 21 inch self propelled mower to work with and that meant it would usually take me an hour to mow, edge and weed eat a yard.  Needless to say I ended up tired, hot and thirsty all for $20 a lawn.

My payment structure was all wrong too.   I charged by the cut where most services charge by the month.   This just felt more ethical to me.  So when winter came around or when the grass didn't grow much my income went down.  The customers I had were good although some of them were quite the character.  One customer wanted me to mow the lawn in a particular pattern and always complained about the job I had done.  I quit after the third time he complained and told him to hire someone else.  I admit lawn care was not my forte.   One time I destroyed 4 sprinklers in one mowing.   The owner charged me for fixing them and then docked my pay.  I quit because I figured it would happen again and I wouldn't make much money.

Another reason mowing lawns was its no fun starting and maintaining the engines.   Its such a hassle pulling on that cord to start and engine in 100 degree heat especially if it wont start.  And then there is the weed eater line that runs out or stops spooling.

Anyway,  after the lawn mowing service experience I swore that I would never mow lawns again.  I hired a service for $70 a month and they took care of it.  It was great. Getting someone else to mow my lawn freed me up to do creative things.   I mostly ignored it when they destroyed my plants.  The weed eater guy removed the protection I had around my orange tree and took the bark off the tree and then it died.   The lawn mower guy obliterated my favorite one of kind African Aloe plant.  It always bothered me when I could hear the string of the weed eater bang against my new garage door.  However, no matter how hard he tried the Wayne Dalton garage door finish never showed a mark.

But the time I had for creativity was the lawn service's worst enemy.  I made plans for a cedar covered porch, a garage expansion and a new boat lift. Once construction started the yard became too dangerous for them to mow.  It looked like a mine field as I have outlined in my previous blog.

Anyway after going for 2 years without a lawn service it really began to sink in as to how much I had saved by not having them.  Over two years it would have been about $1700.  It became  obvious to me that if I would buy a lawn mower then saving by not having a lawn service would pay for it.  This also meant that I could justify buying a really nice lawn mower.

Because of my dislike of mowing lawns,  I decided to buy a lawn mower that would enable me to mow the lawn quickly and efficiently.  Because I had a slope in my yard a riding lawn mower was not the best choice because it could tip over and end up on top of me in the canal.  Some really good information on dangers of riding lawn mower roll overs can be found at this link.  In my case the best lawn mower for my sloped yard is a self propelled walk behind.

The lawn mower I bought is the Toro Time master 30" lawn mower with electric start.  It is by far the best lawn mower I have ever used and it took down the tall grass in my yard effortlessly.

 

Since it is 30" wide and has a top speed of 5.2 MPH it easily cuts the lawn way quicker than the 21" mower I used for the lawn service.   Here is a video of some of the features of the lawn mower.  One thing alluded to in the video is the handle folds for easy storage.  However they don't show the other position of the handle which makes it easy to put in a vehicle.  The handle actually folds flat over the engine reducing the lawn mowers height.  Also not mentioned is the lawn mower comes with a charger.

Anyway, I will add to this blog if any problems occur with the lawn mower.

In case your wondering, after two years of being laid off I did land a job.  It paid half the price of what an engineer should make.   However, after mowing lawns I found myself sitting in a cool office not sweating behind a desk using my brain and knowledge.  I remember feeling that this was the way it should be for me.

As for the construction project, the boat house is coming to a close.   I expect to turn my attention to the shingles this week.  There might be about 15 hours of work left on the boat house.  However, there is a category 5 hurricane (Mathew) near Jamaica making its way up the coast of Florida.   I hope it doesn't hit my home.  I know I will get high winds and their will be a large surf.  I really want to get this project done before having it all torn down by a hurricane.  Crossing my fingers.


Happy Building!

The Dr.