Photo-journal of a custom home

[Phydeaux]

The job i'm on now is definitely the largest single-family residential home i've ever been involved in. Located in West Linn Oregon, the home will have around 10,000 sq ft. of living space (guestimate as the plans do not specify).
This post will be an attempt to document the progress in a photo-journal/open ended post. The project actually began with the demolition of a very livable 1800sq ft. house that was on the property. Unfortunately i don't have any pics of this previous house or its demolition. That took place in late December with excavation and foundation beginning in January. The grading of the site is very extensive and continues to this day (more on that later). I began taking pictures of the site after the foundation had been poured and was approaching the framing phase (early April).
Pics to come shortly. looks like i'll have to host them myself and link.

[mjpliv]

I have tons of webspace if you need any. Just say the word!

[Rich]

Same goes for me.. plenty of space. If you let me know how big the pictures are I can increase the allowable size.

[mjpliv]

lets use up Rich's first 8)

[Rich]

LOL

[Phydeaux]

ok, I've spent some time resizing/organizing/uploading the pics I have and I will definitely need to come up with another storage solution soon, the offers are much appreciated, keep in mind this job will take about a year to complete.

With any luck I can get the homeowner and my boss to join the forum and add their comments as well.

This post is going to be a big one to get caught up to the present state of the job so bear with me :)

A view of the foundation and the first clue as to the size of the house, the front corner of the foundation marks roughly where the previous house was.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn036.JPG

inside the foundation; the lumber locates where the basement walls will eventually be to aid the plumbers in locating their pipes
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn033.JPG

basement pad has been poured and frame up has officially begun, I think my entire house could fit in one wing of this foundation.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn037.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn027.jpg

a pic of the nearby stables.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn039.jpg

looking toward the front entrance from inside the garage, note the pit in front of the house will eventually be pond spanned by a bridge to the entrance. I guess you could call it a moat.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn031.JPG

basement walls nearing completion, note all the foundation walls are being firred in with those in the back yet to be done. This part of the job was much more involved than it may appear. Wall heights were kind of a nightmare due to the variety of TJI dimentions being used (14.75, 11.75 & 9.5), the dropped floor on the main floor varying from 2" in the entry (for the stone foyer) to 24" in the living room, not to mention building off a slab-on-grade pad meant individual studs within a wall varied. By the way, the concrete guys did an excellent job on this foundation, it isn't often you'll see walls of this size and shape come out as plumb and square as these did.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn012.jpg

[Phydeaux]

First floor TJIs
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn016.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn015.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/0016.jpg

and every framers favorite material, the back-breaking 1 1/8" T & G decking.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn017.jpg

meanwhile, work begins on the stables, that large wall is 12'x50'
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn021.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn023.jpg

First floor framing walls going up, we're using LVLs (think 5 1/2" parallams) for studs here, strong and perfectly flat. Note in the first pic you can see Mt. Hood in the distance
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/0024.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/0026.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/0027.jpg

Well, thats just about where we're at. I finished the back wall of the stables on Friday so it will be the first wall to be tipped up monday morning. We should see alot of changes take place this week and start to see the home take shape.

[mjpliv]

Prestty impressive house! Good fit and finish on the rough framing as well.

Its hard to get used to seeing the wall sheathing installed vertically. Is this the norm south of the border?

[Rich]

It's becoming the norm quickly. My 22k sf project (house) is the same way. I had them show me the local requirements before I let them do it :)
Looks good Phydeaux

[Phydeaux]

Yes, installing sheathing vertically is the norm here. I'm not an engineer but wouldn't a wall that was sheeted with a single sheet that went from top plate to bottom plate have more shear strength than one that had a seam in the middle? Our local code would reqire an extra row of blocking at the 4' seam if we were to install it horizontally.
Also, vertical sheets have more plys running perpendicular to the shear direction than horizontal sheets. In my mind, this is would be the preferred orientation.

[Tom R]

Phydeaux,

Great pictures, and appreciate the 'narration'.

Personally, I prefer to sheathe 'horizontally'. I don't doubt there's more 'shear power' as you say, but I don't know that it's all that necessary. I would think that a horizontal application would give more of a 'locked-in' lateral power, and give more of an allowance for any slight 'framing error'. Around here in Jersey I've seen it done both ways, but 'horizontal' seems to be preferred. Admittedly, my opinion is based more on 'habit' than 'theory', I would be interested to hear more 'opinions''/'facts'. Anyone? (Sounds like a job for Rich or mjpliv). Anyway, looking forward to watching the 'progression' of this project. Thanks!

[Rich]

I also prefer to sheet horizontally - although it does increase in-wall blocking to a course every 4'.
From an engineering standpoint there are 2 ways to look at this.. take a square representing a framed wall. The bottom is considered fixed and the top will be a moveable connection.. this movement is called drift.. drift imposes a force on the wall which we need to counteract - aka shear.
Conventionally - horizontal sheathing has a very long axis from lower to opposite upper corner - which allows it to counteract more shear in that direction... simple vector addition.
Now look at a vertically sheathed wall. The differences are seen when you look at the whole wall. The vertically sheathed wall has more stud face "locked" in to account for shear. In other words we get the full length of the studs (in most cases) all locked together the full 8' high and the next piece of plywood also locks together along the full 8' length - with the horizontally sheared we have a shear "gap" every 4' vertically and only have locking faces in 4' lengths. This is in my own terminology which I'm sure is not conventional - but you can get the just of what I'm saying.
Again I've always sheeted horizontally until I moved to CO.. even MT is starting to change codes to sheet vertically. I couldn't tell you the true engineering behind it or if it was somebody's idea to save on blocking every 4' or what. I just know that many codes require vertical sheathing and I have to do it that way. mjpliv probably has a better explanation with more of an engineering background.

[mjpliv]

We sheath the walls horizontally because -

1/2" ply has less tendency to cup/bow between studs when the outside veneers of the plywood are 90 degrees to the studs.

We gap our sheets to allow the studs room to shrink without binding the sheets. This is even more important when using OSB sheathing.

We typically do not block our exterior walls (8' or 9').

I will have to ask an engineer if there are any other reasons for it.

[Tom R]

We don't 'block' the walls, either. That sounds like it would be a 'nightmare' if you wanted to add any electrical work down the road. It would be interesting to hear an 'engineering' viewpoint.

[Rich]

Our local codes require us to block at any horizontal seam. You should see the nailing pattern for edge of plywood on the shear walls on my current project... the stud ends up looking like a broomstick. 3" o.c. where we overlap a second story. Luckily there aren't too many places that we have to cross over.

[Phydeaux]

Code reqirements here in the NW are pretty extensive, particularly regarding shear walls. All shearwalls have some method of holddown in addition to the standard PT holddown bolts. Shearwall also have a specific nailing schedule that must be met. In the two longest walls on the stables, there are a total of 22 HDs. The nailing schedule for these walls call for nails every 3" around the perimeter of a sheet and 12" in the field when using 12d shearnails.

First issue is to get the wall up. With a crew of only four framers, this is how we prefer lifting larger walls. The cable chokers at the heel of each fork are just barely visible in this pic.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn040.jpg

The raised wall, note the 4x6 blocking used. A 2x6 block might split with 3" perimeter nailing. also note the PHD-2s near the bottom plate. The reason you don't see any headers in this wall is because the roof design incorporates a post & beam style roof which requires a continuous header spanning the entire length of the wall, which will go on top of the top plate
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn043.jpg

a closer look at the HDs. The HD8-A on the left uses 3-7/8" bolts and must be fastened to a 4X6 min., the PHD-2 on the right uses 10 small lagscrews and must be fastened to a double 2X6 min.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn041.jpg

The filesizes for my pics seem unusually high, between 250 & 300kb for a 480x640 pic. I see others in the gallery section of comprable dimensions that are much smaller... Looking into a way of keeping them under the 256kb attachment cap.

[Rich]

In this particular location we don't have a seismic requirement for HD's. Everything else though is about exactly the same.
Here's what we use for setting walls :)
We have about 5-6 of them in our yard most times.

[Phydeaux]

We don't 'block' the walls, either. That sounds like it would be a 'nightmare' if you wanted to add any electrical work down the road. It would be interesting to hear an 'engineering' viewpoint.

I believe our local code only requires blocking in walls that are designated shearwalls, however we usually do it anyway (which may explain our preference for vertical sheathing) . An acceptable alternative to blocking in shearwalls that are less than 10' high is to use 10' plywood sheathing. Our local code requires a row of fireblocking every 10' in all tall walls (shear or not) to prevent fires from spreading between floors.

Regarding vertical vs. horizontal sheathing, as long as they were properly blocked, I'd be willing to bet that both methods have shear-resistance capacities that are very close and either will meet code requirements.

[Phydeaux]

Rich, only 4 or 5 of those?! It's a wonder you guys get any work done at all! <kidding> :P

[Rich]

HAHA.. that's just in this district. We have 4 other districts at this time. That's a small one only 50 ton. You should see some of the tower cranes we put up.. pretty cool to get up top on a critical lift.

[mjpliv]

Here is a free utility called Thumbnail Generator that I use a lot when I have a lot of pictures to prepare for uploading. It requires no istallation. Just unzip it and add it to your desktop or your programs list. It will also run off a floppy or CD.

http://www.buildersmatrix.com/info/TNGen-0.4.zip

Just point it at the directory containing the pictures you want to size, set the maximum size you want for thumbs and pictures then step through the resizing processes. This utility does not change the original picture files but creats a new sub-directory in the working directory with all the thumbs, resized pics and a small HTML file that opens a contact sheet to navigate the pictures with the thumbnails.

[mjpliv]

Rich, in the picture with the small crane (I not showing that one to our framers - we would have revolt on our hands) there is a series of inverted triangles on some sort of rod running along the safety rail. What are they?

[mjpliv]

I am guessing they are some type of uplift anchor???

[Rich]

Nope.. they are rebar caps. Part of our safety program. They just go over the ends and prevent impalement from someone falling on them.

[mjpliv]

Homegrown or commercialy available?

[Phydeaux]

Rich, actually I have had the opportunity to ride in a tower crane when I was building midrise apartments in the union. Things sure look different from up there. What suprised me the most about them is how much the cab sways during a lift. With the trolley fully extended, picking up a unit of plywood, I was convinced we were goin' down. They make standing on a scissor-lift feel like you're on solid ground.

[Rich]

Commercially available. They are about 3"x3" plastic caps with the bottom part that can go up to a #9 bar.

[Phydeaux]

The following pics were taken last week:
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn049.JPG
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn052.JPG
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn053.JPG

We got the last of the exterior walls stood yesterday and are almost done with interiors, also got the garage header up and a few other beams in place.
Tomorrow - finish interior walls, plumb & line, more beams. I'll be sure to take some shots and get them uploaded as the house is actually further along than is shown here.
Last one, taken today out of a bay window:
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn_009.jpg

[Rich]

Right on Phydeaux - looks great. And I just noticed I didn't respond to your earlier post about the tower crane... they are definately scary when they are turning and come to a stop and you are looking down the tower only to see it twisting about a 1/4 turn :shock:

[woodall83]

That is an amazing view. What a great place to put a house! Looking forward to more updates.

[CurtisS]

I am sure you can see more than just Mt. Hood from this house. Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Jefferson, the Sisters, etc...

Regarding sheer walls in the NW, I know that where I live (Kitsap County, Washington) vertical sheathing is code for seismic requirements. Those mountains we have around here are the result. :shock:

[icthrooyou]

That is an amazing view. What a great place to put a house!

And I was thinking...what a beautiful place to put a snow-capped mountain! :lol: God is SOOO Awesome!

[Phydeaux]

OK, sorry for the extended hiatus, This will be another catch-up post.

When I last posted we had just finished 1st floor interior walls, here's a pic of some of the GLBs that are in. If I recall the three beams are each 5 1/8"x 24 1/4". We needed the help of a dozer, using the shovel to keep the back of the forklift on the ground when lifting these into place.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/westlinn055.jpg

The wrapped beams are hand-selected 6x8s that were re-run through the mill to give them a roughsawn surface. They're not part of the engineering aside from pinning the TJIs to them to keep them straight.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/westlinn060.JPG

Whenever work slows down on the main house (as it did while we were waiting for the architectural beams to arrive) we hop onto the stables. The scissor trusses on the left will be the only trusses used on the job, the rest of the roof will be hand cut.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/westlinn063.JPG

A pic of the 2nd floor TJIs, just a few more to cut (lower-right corner) and it's ready to cover.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/westlinn066.JPG

..from the other side.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/westlinn068.JPG

Some pics of the 2nd floor exterior walls going up, note in the first pic we got the beams wrapped and decked over just in time. :wink:
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/westlinn071.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/westlinn074.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/westlinn078.jpg

Some pics of the landscaping rock being placed around a path leading from the house.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/westlinn082.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/westlinn083.jpg

The following pics were all taken today.
The first pic is of one of the gable-end walls in the bonus room over the garage and is typical of all the gable walls in the house.
The holes in the rafters are for 6x6 outriggers to be added later. The short post in the top-center of the wall will support a 5 1/8"x 16" GLB ridge. (This wall took me a day and a half to frame up.)
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/westlinn085.jpg

At some point (after the first floor was built) the decision was made to tyvek the walls before lifting them. Previously we would wait until the house was finished to do this. The tyvek is folded back on the corners so we can add plywood to lock the corners together, this will happen ASAP but until then it makes the walls look kind of messy. The jury's still out on whether or not this was a time-saver.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/westlinn090.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/westlinn091.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/westlinn093.jpg

Thats it for now! Again, sorry for the long pause between posts, I've been meaning to get to this for several weeks.

[Rich]

Looking great Phydeaux - coming right along.

[Cole]

Looks Good!!!! :D

[Phydeaux]

This topic has recieved quite a positive response from both my employer and the homeowner so I'd like to forward the sentiment along to Rich, the forum administrator, whose work on the site makes it possible. Thank you for hosting this forum, it has gotten great reviews!
Thanks also to everyone who have posted their comments here, it means a lot to hear words of encouragement coming from others in the industry.

I've finally addressed the filesize issue that I have had with the pictures, this has freed up a lot of space and those of you using dial-up should notice the images will load much faster from now on.

Work continues on the roof with more ridge beams...
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn_019.jpg

...and rafters being cut and rolled into place.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn_022.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn_023.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn_024.jpg

All of the exposed components of the roof (and there are alot of them) are stained prior to installation.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn_029.jpg

Most of the 6x6 outriggers have been placed but pinned only to the gable rafter (2x12 directly above the wall) at the moment. After the barge rafters are placed, we'll fasten them to the remaining rafters.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn_026.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn_025.jpg

Insert shameless self-endorsement here______. :D
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/rla_inc.jpg

The stonemason came by a few weeks ago and made this sample of the work to be done, every time I see this guys work I am totally amazed.
This isn't that fake 'cultured stone', it's the real thing. Picking up a piece of this stone I'm guessing that it weighs at least twice as much as a comparably sized brick.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/westlinn_016.jpg

I asked him how long he thought this job would take him, he said if his guys worked on it steady, about 6 months!
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/westlinn_030.jpg

Tomorrow we have a crane coming in to place the ridge beams for the main span of the house so more pictures are soon to follow!

[dnm]

thats looks like an awesome place!

[Rich]

I appreciate the comments Phydeaux. If there's anything you need just let me know. The house is coming along very nicely. In the 3rd image down (current post) I see double raked top plates - is that an architectural thing for the thickness of the wall or some other reason?
There is no comparison between real stone and fake is there? Nice work on that stone.

[mjpliv]

Rich, those look like party walls to me. Looks like they are going to do some soundproofing.

Phydeaux, awesome shack man! I am impressed with the fit and finish. Are you using finish carpenters for the rough framing? :shock:

[Rich]

That very well could be mj.

[Phydeaux]

Rich, you're absolutely right, there are two pairs of rake walls on either side of an open balcony over the entry. Between the walls on the 2nd floor, the hallway will overlook the foyer. Each pair of walls are a total of 12" thick, as per the plan. Each pair of walls do hold a 5 1/8" x 7 1/2" post to support 3 massive 7 1/2" x 23 1/2" ridge beams (see following post). 2x6 walls would have been enough to enclose these beams however, so yes, it's purely architectural. If you look closely you'll see that each of these walls have a large portico in them, also overlooking the foyer.

Phydeaux, awesome shack man! I am impressed with the fit and finish. Are you using finish carpenters for the rough framing? :shock:

Thank you! This is probably the best compliment anyone could have given. I guess the correct answer is yes... kinda'. Once the rough-in is finished, we'll will install the windows, do the siding, and finally move inside and do most of the finish trim although there are some things that are best left to specialists. Things like raised panel wainscoting, curved or arched mouldings and, of course, custom cabinets will be subbed out.
Mike (my boss) has a talented finish contractor that he often uses for various projects like a personal library, home-office or wine cellar. The more mundane things like case, base, crown, and (usually) handrail we'll do in-house.

Stay tuned, I have a few more images that were taken today that I'll post tonight.

[Phydeaux]

beams were originally supposed to show up Wednesday afternoon, the crane truck at 10AM on Thursday. The supplier called and said if he couldn't get the beams to us on time they would be there at 7AM the following day. No problem, that still gave us 3 hours to unload and cut them before the crane truck arrives. That was what was supposed to happen. What happened was the beams showed up around 9:30. The last scrap of beam hit the ground as the crane was pulling into the lot.

Even with a beam saw it took 2 passes to cut these beams.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn_039.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn_040.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn_042.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn_047.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn_049.jpg

A closer look at the rafter tails, note these are also rough-sawn.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn_033.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn_034.jpg

[Rich]

Nice looking DF beams. Damn that's going to be a nice looking place.

[dnm]

Just curious, whats the estimated final cost for this place gonna be?

[Phydeaux]

No clue to be honest. I don't think anyone knows for sure until it's finished.
The property is around 20 acres I think, with a view like that and, as I mentioned earlier, it originally had a very livable 1800 sq. ft. house on it so I'd imagine $2-3 million (dead reckoning) before we even started work.
The immediate area is still primarily rural farmland but you can see other high-end customs sprinkled in everywhere.

[Phydeaux]

Another quick update...
Taken around noon today,all front-side common rafters are in place, there are also 6"x 8" exposed "timbers" which are hanging below the 2"x 12" rafters on a 3 foot layout. (The crooked rafter on the right is waiting for bolts in the nearby beam saddle :wink: )
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/westlinn_053.jpg

Some reasons for using false tails rather than just ripping them from longer rafters: It would be impractical to use rough-sawn 2 x 12s, also the bottom edge of a ripped tail would not be rough-sawn and wouldn't take stain as well, staining these short false tails was much easier. Really the only way to get the desired look was to use false tails.
http://home.comcast.net/~phy-deaux/work/westlinn_054.jpg

[dnm]

I wouldve figured the land alone to be almost 1 million with the view and size of the lot!

[crimeSTAR]

I wouldve figured the land alone to be almost 1 million with the view and size of the lot!

Not to mention the huge size of the home. How many people will be living there, anyway? I'd hate to be the person who has to keep that place clean.