My wife & I are undertaking a very ambitious project. We are building our own home – and actually doing a large portion of the labor ourselves as well. Our goal is to have the project completed w/i five years debt free. Last summer & fall, I installed our on-site septic, ran water (no small feat since we are 800 ft from the road) electric, phone & hooked up our temporary trailer (which we are living in right now). In march we hired an excavator to dig out the foundation & had a Superior Walls foundation put in. May & June was spent framing the floor. Now I’m getting ready to put the walls together (Did I mention that I have zero spare time these days).
Anyway, since we are trying to do this mortgage free, we end up buying the materials we can afford & then while I’m putting them together, we save up until we can purchase more materials. Needless to say this is slow going, so I wanted to know what you guys do to protect partially framed houses from the elements during construction delays? I’m using dimensional lumber for all framing (didn’t have the $$ for stuctured I joists) & Advantec for subfloor, siding & roof panels (since they resist delanmination due to rain).
A friend of mine is a painter & I got a bunch of leftover exterior paint from him thinking that this would help resist moisture.
How long can the framing be exposed before I should be really concerned with long term damage?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. We live in Southern New Jersey approximately 20 miles from the ocean. It gets fairly humid during the summer but is pretty dry in the winter (I know that climate would definitely have an affect on the best answers)
Edited 6/29/2005 3:47 pm ET by Johnny
Replies
we usually go like the hammers of hell to get the thing built, probably because the people want to move in by october.
Who's insuring this project, I mean, who is your carrier? , for fire, wind and lightning? Most don't want to insure owner-built houses that take five years. ( lloyds of london might take you)
My policy is through Lloyds.
Johnny,
Good on ya for being so ambitious. I hope it all works out for you as planned. Debt-free is a wonderful thing. (I heard anyway)
Asking how long your framing can be exposed is tough to answer. I'd have to ask you how many times you think it will rain or snow until you're dried in. You can't really answer that, right?
So I will ask, how long do you think it will be until you are dried in? Framed, sheathed, housewrap installed, and roof shingles on?
Good call with the Advantek. Paper your walls as you build them. Use the Advantek on the subfloor. When you get your roof framed, consider upgrading from felt as an underlayment to something like Roof Top Guard II. It's a little more money but can take the weather for a lot longer than felt. And you also won't be climbing back up there twice a week to replace the wind-torn pieces.
Also, paper right over your window openings to help keep the weather out until you can spring for the glass. As I'm sure you know, the glass is gonna set you back pretty good for awhile.
Been there, done that. And good for you and your wife.
Get your house dried in as soon as possible. Tarp it until you can. Advantech was a good choice, but don't leave it out in the weather for more than a year if you can help it.
Regular OSB sheathing will last--unwrapped--for at least a year. But I'd wrap it if I could. Advantech wall and roof sheathing, you say? No sweat.
But, again, get the roof on as soon as possible.
You'll be fine. My out of pocket house took 5 years...almost to the day. From clearing the lot (myself, by hand), to backfilling the foundation (ditto), to all phases of construction and finishing, working on my off-time and at evenings and EVERY weekend. I pounded the last nail and had a buyer 3 days later. Never got to enjoy it.
Good luck.
First of all, let me start by assuring you that I'm not following you around the forum tonight to pick you apart, BUT....
Regular OSB sheathing will last--unwrapped--for at least a year
Where the heck do you live? The Mojave?
Seriously, I'm in MA and regular OSB starts to delaminate around cut edges, like window openings, after about two rainfalls unless it's wrapped. Maybe we just get lousy OSB?
I suspect that it will PAY in the long rum for him to barrow enough to get the frame up with roof and papered in. Then he can wait awhile to pay that back and start buying windows, doors, siding, and shingles.
Don't know about your OSB, Diesel, but where I lived in AK (NJ climate close, but no cigar?) I saw houses that stayed OSB sheik for 10 years or more! Probably some delamming here and there, some mold, but apparantly holding up.But it's sheathing. A little delamanation at the margins won't destroy its integrity. Still, I'd wrap the house if possible, like I said. For me, some portions of my house stayed OSB to the wind, unwrapped, for at least 4 years. Absolutely no delamming, no mold, no problems..North side at that. That's my experience.
Would it make sense to leave the wall sheathing off (I'd stabilize the walls with let in bracing) until the roof was covered? This would make sure it all had a chance to air out in the event of a rain storm.
Once the roof is in place (which would keep rain out), I could go ahead & close the rest of it up.
As of now, I keep all the basement windows open & there is pretty good air flow (even without fans we get some good breezes through there) so it everything usually dries out pretty quickly once the sun comes out.
If you're going to use sheathing, don't bother letting in the diagonal bracing. Just nail 1x4 or whatever to the face of the studs.
As long as there arte no windows installed, it should air out enough.
I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it done the right way.
That's true, I could just tack some bracing on the interior face & remove it when I get ready to put up drywall.
As far as windows go, I was planning to sheath right over the windows & then cut it out when I was ready to actually install them.
Thanks to all for your responses. Extremely helpfull.
I just had a thought last night & wanted to run this by the forum:
Do you see any benefit to spraying the framing with a borax solution (I could mix in some boric acid as well if pH is an issue)? Borax is handy in controlling all kinds of organisms, fungus, insects, etc.
When I set up our temporary trailer, the plumbing had all kinds of leaks (which I didn't know about until I turned on the water - apparently the previous owner didn't empty the lines before vacating in the winter) & we ended up with soaked carpets, subflooring, etc.
I ended up spreading borax all over the wet areas for about two weeks (we hadn't moved into it yet) and then vaccuumed up the excess - no mold, mildew or anything.
I figure if I mixed up a solution & put it in a sprayer, it would soak into the wood & protect it.
Another vote for using Typar house wrap for it's ability to resist the elements for a longer period of time. For example, if you read the instructions for Tyvek the manufacturer recommends that it be covered within 90 days or the sun's UV rays start to degrade the material and it's effectives. If you want to use tar paper rather than house wrap, look into Builder's Select - it is more durable than regular felt. Personally, I can't get more than about 60 days out of regular felt (on a roof application) without the sun and elements turning it into a sive(sp?). Either way, use button cap nails liberally for the installation of the wrap and roof underlayment.
RE the borax solution, I may be mistaken but I believe that although effective, it is not a long term solution since it is so water soluble so continued rewetting would wash it away.
My vote is to frame the entire house and then sheath the roof, apply roofing underlayment, and then the shingles. Wall sheathing after that. Really though, framing is a 2 man (min) job.
Weather you like it or not though, your overall project quality is going to suffer a bit from the extended construction schedule.
Matt
I've seen osb last more than 5 years on sidewalls without any appreciable delamination, just turned gray is all.I built a packing shed for a farmer, that he was going to side himself. He did side it, 5 or 6 years after I built it.Not even felt paper was installed, till he sided the packing shed.
mike
Ditto on the advantech, I used it for subfloor which got good and soaked several times before dry-in...no swelling etc/ Also left a few offcuts of advantech, exterior plywood, and some OSB sitting our over the winter. advantech remarkably intact, with noticable swelling, delamination etc on the OSB and plywood.
Also check into Typar reather than Tyvek...I believ it's rated for much longer exposure.
I'd save up until I had enough money to put it under roof at least.
"I'd save up until I had enough money to put it under roof at least"
The only issue there is that I need to keep moving in order to maintain my permit. If I stop construction for six months, I have to re-apply pay more fees, possibly re-do work if there were code changes in the mean time. However, as long as I keep doing a little at a time I can keep it active.
I would have waited to start until I had more saved up, except that my municipality requires you to have the permit for your final structure before granting a permit for the temp trailer.
Anyway, I check every day after rains & it appears to dry out pretty well (I was a little concerned after last week because we had about 4 days of rain), but it all looks pretty dry right now.
As far as it being a two man job, once I get the walls framed, I plan to have a barbeque & some buddies will help me stand them up.
I plan to have a barbeque
Well, there's the next Fest location.
You might consider going to HD-Lowes and buying mis-mixed paint, and spray/roll that on the sheathing and flooring as an added layer of protection.
I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it done the right way.
"You might consider going to HD-Lowes and buying mis-mixed paint, and spray/roll that on the sheathing and flooring as an added layer of protection."
A buddy of mine is a painter & he gave me a bunch of leftover exterior paint for just that purpose...