Thursday, December 13, 2007

"As Long As He Keeps Using His Finger, We're Fine"



Barry the builder on the left, Ted the architect on the right, sketching out a detail for the cedar siding. "Detailing" is where the design rubber meets the execution road, and you want your architect and builder to meet, both physically and mentally.

As Pete and Shawn blocked the roof joists, Ted and Barry figured out some alternatives for the lapped cedar siding, which will cover the framed walls (including the green part on the right of the picture). Based on these discussions (I shot photos of the snow drawings so Ted could document them in a little more permanent media), Barry's going to mock up the different options so everyone can make an informed decision and Barry's crew will know exactly how to execute it for real.

The objective here is to warm up the structure with the cedar, but keep it modern. So the shape of the groove between the boards is key (square-ish, not a V, some slope on the bottom to let the water run off), the finish of the boards is important (smooth as a baby's butt, not furry), as are the corner details (a little aluminum edge sticking out at the miter just to give that "machine" look (that's a Ted-ism).

Thursday, December 06, 2007

The Manger is Ready for Christmas




Now that the steel is all up and the roof joists installed, Barry and his crew have put down the first layers of the roof over the dining/living room and master bedroom. So the finished ceiling there is done.
"Huh? How does that work? You haven't even installed the standing seam galvalume yet."

Well, this is no ordinary roof, it's an Arctic Hot Roof. If you have an attic, you probably have a cold roof design, where the space in the attic is unconditioned and insulated from the living area. In the winter, it's cold in the attic, and therefore the roof itself is cold, preventing snow from melting on the roof and getting water into the house. It's a good system, but it's not perfect (the space has to be vented, which creates opportunities for moisture and critters to get in there, moisture can seep up from the conditioned space, the moisture can turn to frost in really cold climates, and so on.)


The Arctic Hot Roof, perfected in Canada and other cold climates, focuses all its insulation (6" of continuous rigid foam) and waterproofing efforts on the roof structure itself, and doesn't require an attic. All the air under the roof plane is heated (hence the "hot roof"). That's very helpful for this design, which has a massive shed roof (thanks to the covenants and restrictions that required a pitched roof). It also means that the maple veneer plywood ceiling panels were the first layer on top of the roof joists. I hope I like them....


The windows finally got ordered (the window company is very nervous), so the manger won't be one for long.