The Dolly Varden Are Jumping… Just Not Onto My Hook!

The SIPS will be here in a week or two. They are structural insulating panels we’ll be using for the roof – not the actual metal roof, and they’re going to be built in roughly a few dozen pieces.

We’ll use the crane to lift them up, put them on and put acoustical caulking in the joints to cinch them together, making them airtight. Acoustic caulking has a property that doesn’t dry but stays pliable for years. I just did a reno on the house we’re living in now and we used acoustical caulking 27 years ago and it’s still pliable. We pulled it apart and it’s still sticky. That’s what you want because you’re trying to get an airtight seal between the membranes so you don’t want it to dry out and crack but to stay malleable. There is slight movement in structures as they expand and contract, so the caulking provides a bonding agent without that total adhesive quality that would dry out. It’s becoming the way of the future because you can build it in a controlled environment, a factory, rather than on site. This not only ensures quality control, but will speed up our project to a significant extent. Three to four weeks of construction time is going to be done in one day!

Ceilings, particularly vaulted ceilings, are more difficult to sprayfoam because you’re upside down and basically spraying upwards.The insulators charge a premium for that, so we want to avoid it. When we figured out the cost for the SIPS, it was about the same. We have to rent a crane to lift them into position, so we’re looking at a couple thousand dollars for the crane as an extra cost, but the benefit is that we can control the quality.

The structural framing is nearly done. There are a couple of beams to put in when the crane comes. There’s a ridge beam weighing 1,700 lbs. that goes down the centre of the house and will go up at that time too.

As for the weather, you can see how nice it’s been, but the days are getting very hot now and it’s harder to work up there, so it’s a good thing we’re by the lake! Every once and a while we jump out in the canoe and fish for an hour, which we did last Wednesday, but no bites. There are about six different species in the lake and the fish that are jumping right now are Dolly Varden. So not this go around…but maybe next time I’ll get lucky!

Framing, Framing and More Framing!

I just returned from another visit to the site. There’s been quite a bit of progress, just not any of the significant energy features yet. The weather was good but then again it’s always good. It’ll be raining in Vancouver and sunny up there but that’s because it’s a dryer area, right on the edge of the Okanagan desert. What I can’t get over is how remote it is! Even though it’s only nine kilometers off the highway it feels like you’re a 100 miles into the bush.

Another reason I like the location so much is because it’s only about 20 minutes from one of the best golf courses in BC, Big Sky. That golf course is amazing. Pemberton is fairly flat – at about 1,000 feet and then there’s Mount Currie at 8,400 feet… so the landscape turns from flat to straight up a rock cliff. It’s spectacular country. When I look down the lake from my windows I’m looking at the backside of Mount Currie. In fact, the guys who are working for me will go heli-skiing up there from time to time. The crew of builders and tradesmen has been great, they’re really very receptive and knowledgeable.

As for the work on the house, the framing itself is on track. We’re starting to see some of the framed openings for the windows. You can see how many windows there are and why we want to use high-performance glass. The basement has now been completely framed in and the second floor is almost complete. What I’ve been surprised by at this point is the amount of lumber being used. I did plan this but now I’m looking at the walls and realizing how much wood is in there, which is why we’re using Cladmate, an exterior insulation.

Most people don’t use exterior insulation but because there’s so much lumber the exterior insulation creates a thermal stop to the bridging of the heat going out through the wood. The wood is used for structuring the house and because we have an open plan it requires more supporting structure which means a lot of studs. There are a whole pile of studs in the way so there’s no R-Value in those areas of the exterior walls (we’re using high R-Value Icynene inside). So, adding insulation to the outside of the wall adds that R-Value to the wood, making the Cladmate obviously very valuable to this project.

We’ve ordered the SIPS so that’s supposed to come around the end of the third week in May. The next three weeks are just framing detail and clean-up. We may start building the dock. The next large project around the corner will be putting on the roof. We’re going to have to get a crane in for that. They’re scheduling to do this on a Saturday but I have a hunch it may take longer. I hope I can be up there when the crane’s there, it’ll be pretty cool to see.