Working Adventure in the Canadian Arctic
user-132743
| Posted in Help/Work Wanted on
I am looking for a builder who is interested in a working adventure in the Canadian Arctic. I am building my family home and need the assistance of a builder who is competent in SIP and post/beam construction methods. You will be working alongside a crew with extensive home building experience. I am looking to start the foundation in May of this year. Travel, room, board and access to some of the best fishing and untouched wilderness in North America will be provided. Come see the Canadian far North on me!
Replies
Can't help you, Mark Henry, but when I saw SIPs and the cold North I thought that you might want to keep your eye on an ongoing discussion concerning SIPs used at the roof level and the possibility of moisture causing damage to your roofing material, whatever it might be. The discussion is: 84748.1 Also headed up under:
SIP Roof - Shingles buckling along joint
Cheers,
Ken
"They don't build 'em like they used to" And as my Dad always added... "Thank God!"
Thanks GWNG,<!----><!----><!---->
I read through this discussion and it is inline with a recently constructed SIP home here. You can see the snow melt along the seems of the panel. I am giving consideration to a more conventional roofing method. Thanks for your insight.
GreatWhiteNorthGuy
If you look there is no vapor barrier installed as the instructions clearly call for. I know some think that the foam acts as a vapor barrier and that should be enough. That is a mistake as clearly demonstrated..
a few bucks worth of plastic and all the benefits of sips are retained..
As I suggested if panels are laid horizontally then the weight of each panel above bears down on the lower panels and aids in sealing. With the superior sealing of horizontal placement there are other gains as well.
Bump.
I don't think I'd be able to take off to the Arctic right now, but I'm tempted. I want to see this go somewhere. . . photo blog thread, maybe?
Where are you, anyway?
zak
"When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone." --John Ruskin
"so it goes"
Cripes, Zak. The arctic in May?? Ya don't need a skid-steer or a backhoe; the skeeters and black flies are big and numerous enough to be considered a serious source of energy....
...but I'm tempted too. Can't, but might have to. Too bad I know buttkiss about SIPS....Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
What I know about SIPs is what I've read. Never touched one of the things. I'm ok with post and beam stuff.
I imagine artic bugs would be miserable. I'm a sucker for job related adventure, though, and I've got the resume to prove it.zak
"When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone." --John Ruskin
"so it goes"
I'm a sucker, too. Came up here in '80 for 10 days, and here I still am 26 years later....Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
The bugs I could probably handle. I'm one who can stand almost nekid and only get 2-3 bites while other fully clothed people are jumping around slapping and swatting and raising welts on themselves from 50+ bites....But I don't know much about his materials and methods either.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Speakin' of bugs, I've noticed that whenever I get seriously on Atkins diet and cut out sweets and simple carbs ENTIRELY, I get many fewer mosquito bites. Not sure why.
Forrest
i've read that the thing that attracts them is carbon dioxide vapour. So an efficient system operating on more complex food sources will exude less of it through the skin. I've never enjoyed sweets all that much.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Gotta' be it.
Forrest
or maybe it's the leeks and garlic...;)
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
The three things bugs sense are (in order of precedence): CO²; heat; and the scent of blood.
Eating certain foods (leeks, garlic, onions, or other similar veggies) and vitamins (B-2, IIRC) is reported to help mask the smell of both CO² and blood; exhaling used tobacco smoke along with your spent breathing air also masks the CO² content in it and fools 'em fairly effectively. In the bad bug season here, I have been known to chain-smoke cheap cigars (wait--isn't that an oxymoron?) as a defensive measure. Does kinda kill the enjoyment I get outta my tobacco habit, tho....
But the two repellants that actually work best for almost everybody are DEET and citronella oil. I use citronella; it doesn't last as long as DEET--especially if you're sweating hard--but has less chemical issues attached to its use in contact with the human bod....
Still, in the arctic, there are so many bugs it is beyond most people's conceptual ability. The arctic peoples themselves learned centuries ago how to deal with the bugs; most visitors find this the most difficult part of adapting to the environment. For 'southerners' on their first jaunt up north, it's a learn-or-leave situation. Most leave.
You should try to find a copy of the movie, "The Snow Walker" (based on a Farley Mowat book) if you want to get a good idea of how devastating the insects in an arctic spring/summer can be. (Beyond that, it's a wonderful movie, well worth seeing for the incredible scenery, good story, and exquisitely beautiful and talented leading actress.)Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
Seen the movie - good one - and read most of Farley Mowatt. Same for Jack London.And I have been in swqarms of skeeters so thick you could hardly breathe and STILL don't get that many bites. Must be my personal exudates.but I'll take a bath for you before this summers fest!;)
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
LoL....Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
View Image ?SamT
Guys that don't do things correctly the first time.....then argue that they did nothing wrong.....if made to agree to fix the problem, rarely put the time and effort into truely doing it properly. they'll just look for the quickest fix to appease you and get their money. JDRHI <!----><!----> 84310.51
Yeah, that's her. Annabella Piugattuk. She's even more appealing in traditional garb. Paris Match did a feature on her a while back which had some beautiful photos of her; the one you picked off the web is okay but doesn't do her justice.
The 'special features' on the DVD included a whole mini-movie on her and how she had had a traditional upbringing and learned all the skills as a young girl that her character was supposed to know in the film.
But what bugged me was that she didn't get top billing in the movie credits; as far as I was concerned, she was the star...but the guy who played the boorish bush-pilot whom she had to save from his own ignorance and stupidity is the one who got the lead credit.
Of course, I can't even remember his name, heh, heh, heh....Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
Gee Mark it's very tempting. I have no experince in what you mentioned but I'd like to learn new things. As for the weather, I'm used to Canadian weather and the worse it can offer as I live in Newfoundland.
Paul
Hi Paul,
It is good to hear you are interested. Do you have a residential construction background? I am looking for someone with the ability to guide the building process. I will be building it with my father and brothers and we need a contractor who can lead the process. We have built a number of homes as a family in the past with the use of builder to facilitate the process.
PS. thanks for not talking about the bugs. I don't live on the tundra so they aren't that bad!