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.

You might be a red neck if your yard looks like mine.

During construction of my additions, which includes the expansion of a single car garage to a two car garage, the building of a cedar covered porch and the building of a boat house, my yard has gone through various states of disrepair.  I just want to say right up front, that  I have the best neighbors in the world as they never complained to me about its unsightliness.  And even when one did mention it to my next door neighbor my next door neighbor defended me by telling them I am too busy to mow my lawn and we (the community) like people that fix up their houses and do things themselves. 

On the other hand since I don't belong to a home owners association there was really nothing they could do about it.  To encourage people to keep their lawns nice we do have the lawn of the month award in our neighborhood and through the 30 years that my parents and I have owned the house we have never had the the lawn of the month sign on our property.  

I live in a cul-de-sac and the sign appears in various neighboring properties all around the cul-de-sac mocking us.   But as you will see, this non lawn of the month status of my property over the last two years is completely understandable.   I probably should have put a "Not the Lawn of the Month" sign in my yard.  I might actually be a redneck because my lawn looked like this.

  

 

 

I did a search on google for redneck and yard and I found the following sentence at this link

"You  might be a redneck if you mow the front yard and find a car."

This was the case for me.  I actually did have my sisters car in the front lawn for awhile when I was trying to sell it for her and it was surrounded by two foot tall grass.  I have mowed the grass maybe two times over the last two years.   The thing that usually gets me to mow the lawn with the weed eater is when I discover I'm about to step on a snake.  They are harmless but they usually scare the shit out me due to the surprise.  Besides the tall grass, there are craters and mounds in the yard which make it look like a war zone.

I do not have picture of the car on the front lawn but here it is when my sister dropped it off.

 

My lawn also had an outboard motor laying in it for awhile.   This motor was a 1998 9.9 Hp Mercury 4 stroke that had been made by Yamaha.   It usually started on the first pull but had the problem of stalling and then getting flooded.  I put a lot of work into the motor including putting on a new timing belt, impeller and overhauling the carburetor.  At one point water which cools the motor stopped coming out of the engine.  That is when dad and I over hauled the cooling system for the motor.   Unfortunately, I found out that a lot of parts were obsolete including the gaskets I needed.  But I was lucky and found the last complete gasket set in existence for for the motor on ebay and bought it for $60.

Dad and I got the motor working perfectly.  But then I let the motor sit for a month and it ended up doing the same flooding thing it always does.  So I bought a nice new Yamaha 9.9 hp and threw the old motor in the lawn.  And it stayed there for 5 months.  I did eventually put the motor on Craigslist and listed it along with the gas tank, shop manual and gasket set for $500 dollars.  Someone came by and offered me $400, I negotiated the price down to $300 and we had a deal.  Below is a picture of the motor being repaired and when it was on the boat.  The Mercury is almost as big as 50 hp 2 stroke Yamaha on the boat.

In addition to the outboard motor in the lawn there was a serious amount of scrap lumber scattered all over the yard.  There was lumber of all shapes and sizes.  There was yellow pine, oak, walnut, cedar, pressure treated lumber, plywood, particle board...you name it was in the lawn and sometimes had nails poking out of it or rattle snakes as my dad likes to call them.  I got bit on the foot twice.  There was so much lumber that when I cleaned the yard up I filled a 10 yard Dumpster and there was still a huge pile left over.

Aside from the lumber lets not forget the 28 foot boat trailer in the front yard, the kayaks, water pump and junk pile in the back yard and the dirt driveway which all added to the red neck ambience of my house.

And if your still not convinced that my yard was neglected, consider this fact.   The police sent me a card in the mail telling me that they found something of mine and wished to return it.   Well it was my boat trailer license plate.  But when I looked at the paper work it said that they tried to deliver it but the house was abandoned.   I guess its time to buy a lawn mower.

Anyway,  having almost finished the boat house, I decided to switch gears and spruce the place up a bit by doing some landscaping.

What I wanted to do was to put dirt in behind the new retaining wall in the backyard and put in the swail.  I  estimated it would take five 18 yard dump truck loads to complete the job.  Dirt around here is a little scarce  so each dump truck is $180.  I also found out that it would cost me $600 to rent a skid steer.   So that would be $1500 total.

After coming up with the estimate I wondered how much I would save by doing this task myself.   When I got  a quote from a contractor I got my answer.  -$150.  This turned out to be one of the few times when the contractor was cheaper than what I could do by myself.   The reason being is that their is little labor involved, the price of renting the skid steer is high and the contractor had a cheap dirt source.

I let the contractor do the job.  I'm glad I did because the contractor almost flipped his skid steer into the canal.  I can only imagine what would happen if I did that.  Would the rental company make me pay 25 thousand dollars to replace the skid steer?  Luckily one of my trees saved him from ending up in the canal.  They got a truck over here to right the skid steer and everything was ok.  Here is the picture of the backyard with the new fill and 5' x 64' by 3" deep swail.

 

 

Once the fill was in the back yard I was highly motivated to plant the grass seed.  Planting grass seed was where I could save money because it cost about $1500 to $3000 to sod 1500 sq ft of yard but the Pensacola Bahia Grass seed cost me $56 dollars for 2000 sq ft.  My existing grass is Floratam (St. Augustine) which is for the most part buried under the dirt but will eventually come poking through.  It will be interesting to see which grass wins out.

However before I could seed the yard I had to put the new sprinklers in because I had completely buried the old zone and the new seed needed to be constantly wet.   To do this I consulted this link and this link for a background in sprinkler design. Those links make sprinkler design seem complicated but since I had already had a zone before in the backyard my system was already really designed.

 In any case the design information assured me my pressure drop would not be too much and that my flow rate was adequate for the number of sprinklers I had to use.  In my case my pump was capable of 62 GPM and the 11 sprinklers I used would need a maximum of 30 GPM.  It also taught me to place the sprinklers head to head or in other words the water from one sprinkler should reach the head of the adjacent sprinkler.  I was not to strict in following this rule because if it was inadequate I could always put in another one at a later date.  I also followed the suggestion of the links and drew the plans out on graph paper (Visio).

The pump that I had was a 1.5 Hp Flotec that is about 20 years old and had been sitting without use for 2 years.  When I applied power it didn't work.  So I went to Ace Hardware to get a pump and as I was kneeling in the aisle someone walked by and said, "no praying."  I replied,  "lord please make my sprinkler system work."   We both laughed.  I bought the pump and I went back home.   I got to work uninstalling the old pump.  However, before cutting the pipes I decided to unbolt the motor.  The motor would only come out a 1/2 inch so I decided to push it back in and turn it on.   It worked!   So I bolted it all back together and tested it again.   The pump pushed water into the old zone.  Prayer answered!

I returned the pump and proceeded to install the sprinklers.  The hardest part about installing sprinklers is digging the trench.   They make a machine for this which makes quick work of it but I thought since I had soft dirt in the ground it would be no problem.   Wrong!  It was still quite the work out and there was a lot of sticks in the fill dirt.  I used a narrow shovel and pick to dig the trench and it took me about 7 hours to finish the job.  The laying of the pipe and assembling of the sprinklers took about an hour.

The sprinkler I chose is the Torro  570 Z Pro Series Sprinkler which I liked because the spray radius and flow rate in GPM are right on the label.   Also the sprinkler is adjustable from 0 degrees spray to 360 degrees of spray.   You never know what may end up in the lawn and so its nice to be able to redirect the sprinkler away from it or shut it of entirely.  I used the adjustment to turn all the sprinklers off and pressure test the zone.  I only found one leak in a Teflon taped fitting.

The sprinklers are 4 inch pop ups so that there is plenty of height to get above the grass.   In addition to control the height of the sprinkler, I used funny pipe which is flexible tubing that attaches to the rigid PVC 1.25"  pipe I used to convey the water to the sprinklers.  To attach the funny pipe to the sprinkler and the PVC, I used the threaded fittings  with heavy duty (grey) Teflon tape (three wraps).   The assembly of the fittings is shown below.

Since I had 1.25" PVC to cut I use a PVC ratcheting cutter tool I obtained at ace hardware which saved a lot of time and allowed me to cut the pipe at the installation location. 

There is another advantage to using funny pipe besides controlling the height of the sprinkler.  I found that I had to cut the 10' PVC pipe very rarely because the funny pipe would take the sprinkler to the right location.  Below is and example where I have the funny pipe fitting set up so that I could bring the sprinkler to the right location beyond the elbow.  I had yet to install the funny pipe and sprinkler in the picture.

 

In videos I have seen people use radiator clamps to attach the funny pipe to the fittings but I did not use a clamp since when it is pushed on to the fitting it is already tight.  This passed the pressure test.  I have doubts that the radiator clamp would last in the salty wet environment.

After attaching all the sprinklers and burying them, the 11 sprinkler head zone worked great.   There seems to be plenty of coverage from the sprinklers.   Since the system is new I have had to clean the sprinkler filters of dirt even though I flushed the whole system out before I installed the sprinklers.  I expect I will have to do this less and less.  One sprinkler working is shown below.

Since I decided on planting grass seed and it is slow to grow I discovered that erosion is a problem.  It didn't help either that a tropical storm dropped by out of nowhere and dumped a ton of rain on us.  So much water in fact that it filled up the swail.  This meant at the lowest point the water went over the side of the swail and then carved the grand canyon in to my property. 

Well maybe I exaggerate a little....four wheel barrows full of dirt was removed to be more precise.  To combat this I put in a temporary gutter at the overflow point.

I was not able to beat out the contractor on the fill dirt installation.  In fact it would have been more expensive for me to do it.  

I was however able to save money by installing my own sprinkler zone.   Homewyse.com prices the job at $800 to $1200 for 1500 square feet.   It took me 11 hours (not including the trips to the store) to finish the zone and I spent $219.  I saved about $581 or 72 %.

I also saved money by making a wise decision to use grass seed instead of sod potentially saving up to $3000. 

Cue the cash register sound.

Happy Building!

The Dr. 

Lulu said, "Please please build me a boat house." Part 5

For the previous blog I wrote about the roof framing for the boat house.  For this blog I will focus on the electrical installation.

The electrical installation wasn't too bad.  Luckily I have a Ph.D. in electrical engineering so that I understand how to work with electricity.  However,  they didn't teach me anything about residential wiring in school.   So I had to figure out how to do the outdoor wiring by myself and I did this by studying the building code which is online, looking at what electrical devices that were available at the building stores, asking questions, looking at examples in the neighborhood and watching youtube.

The electrical project involved putting in a light, a receptacle and power to the boat lift motor.  The first problem I encounter was that the motor came with a long 30' flexible plastic sheathed cable bundle that connects to the lift control box.  I'm not sure but I don't think the inspector would like the cable bundle to be out in the elements exposed.   So I had to figure out how to put the cable in schedule 80 electrical conduit.  After looking at the neighbors installation I decided to use a gray flexible plastic conduit to interface with the motor.  See picture below.

 

Below is view of the flexible conduit coming from the motor and attaching to the rigid pvc conduit which then finds it way to the control box down by the dock.

 

In addition to the motor switch I also installed some out door lights on boat house.  I actually attempted this first before the motor wiring.  I first fastened the gray conduit with two 90 degree pull elbows and the light fixture to the boat lift.  Then I attempted to pull the wire through using my brand new fish tape.    I had to pull on the fish tape with all my might.   In fact I had just barely got the wire through before the fish tape broke free of the wire.  My fish tape real was all distorted and bent and almost got ruined by this wire pull attempt,  Needless to say I was very worried about the 50' wire pull I was going to have to do to get the wire to the house from the boat lift.

I knew I was doing something wrong so I started looking on youtube about wire pulling.  I found nothing but after talking with my dad he had mentioned when he was working in construction he saw the electrical guys apply white grease to the wire before pulling it.  It was pretty hard to find the grease as no one in the store knew what I was talking about but I did find it an it is known as wire pulling lubricant which is at Lowes.  With the lubricant pulling the wire from the dock to the house was very easy even with the two 90 degree pull elbows.

Here is a picture of the light fixture I used.  I installed green lights which are easier on the night vision.

 

The end result for the boat lift control, receptacle and light switch is shown below.   The receptacle and light switch are hidden underneath the waterproof flaps of the outdoor box.  To operate the boat lift,  the idea is to plug the short flexible wire (its black in the picture) coming from the lift control into the receptacle when it needs to be powered.  I think the inspector will be ok with approach as the wire is short.  If not I can always use flexible conduit to get the wire to the power source.

In the above picture some pvc cement can be seen on the conduit.  This is the high strength glue for sprinkler applications which I neglected to wipe off.  The building stores sell a special kind of pvc glue especially for electrical work.  I tried it and it is nice that the glue does not dry as fast and can be wiped off a long time after the joint is made but I think I like the stronger sprinkler application glue better.

Once the light fixture was installed.   I dug a trench about 2' deep from the dock to the house.  Digging the trench took about 6 hours but was a good work out and gave me an excuse to jump in the ocean afterwords.   So refreshing!

However I had a challenge to overcome.  I had to slip electrical conduit under 10' of patio slab and then I had to route the conduit up the wall on the inside of the garage.  I did not want to bust up the patio if I did not have to.  After consulting youtube, I found an easy method of placing the conduit under the slab.  The method uses the walkway tunnel kit which is a jet nozzle that is glued on end of the pipe and a hose attachment which is glued on the other end.  If I had not run into a rock the first time I tried it I would have had the conduit placed in less than minute under the patio. Luckily, I was successful on my second try by directing the conduit through a slightly different route.  A video the walkway tunnel kit in action is available at this link.

I did however have to bust a hole in the garage foundation with my harbor freight jack hammer so that I could find the conduit end and route it up the wall in the garage.  Here are a few pictures showing what was involved in this process.

Below is the water nozzle with conduit attached inside the hole in the garage foundation

Below is the hose fitting end outside the garage after the hose has been detached and the pipe has been inserted under the slab.

Below is a picture of the conduit in the trench and attached to the conduit under the slab.  The slab is kind of visible and is buried under the ladders.

Be careful when using the walkway tunnel kit.  I recommend not tunneling a pipe to close to the cement slab.  The tunnel kit washes dirt out and makes a cavern.  It may cause the walkway to crack.  Deeper is better.  Also the quicker the pipe is installed and the water is turned off the better.

Once the pipe was placed under the patio I then prepared it so that could go up along the wall.  This meant putting a 90 degree pull elbow on the pipe and chiseling out the wall footer so the conduit would run up flat against the wall.  See picture below.

 

Below is picture of the wire being pulled through with the fish tape.  Some white grease is visible on the wire.  To attach the fish tape to the electrical wire I cut all the wires off except the ground wire.  I then looped the wire around the fish tape and used several wraps of electrical tape to secure it.  It is important that the taped up joint is not any fatter than the actual wire.

After the wire was pulled, I routed it through conduit to the electrical panel and attached it to a GFI breaker.  For more about GFI breakers see my previous blog

Once the electrical was finished for the boat house I gave it a trial test. It worked perfectly!

So the question is how much was saved by doing project myself?

I spent 20 hours doing this task.  At $50 an hour that would be $1000 dollars for labor.  An alternate estimate for the amount that a contractor would have charged for the work is about $900 dollars.   I arrive at this from talking with my neighbor next store and he said his electrical installation for wiring up his boat lift was $600.  For me I had the additional work of adding the light and interfacing the conduit to the motor.  Usually the interface to the motor is taken care of by the boat lift contractor.  So I added and extra $300 for this.  My only cost was for electrical supplies and was $294.

That's means a whopping $606 or 67% was saved.  Cue the cash register sound.

Stay tuned for the next blog where I discuss the finishing of the boat house and if it would have been better from a financial perspective to have let the contractors do the work.

Happy Building!

The Dr.