Latest house update.
Friday late afternoon the window people came to help pick up the windows at my storage facility about 3.5 miles away. They brought 2 pickups and we picked up most of the windows but they left the big oversized ones as they wouldn't safely fit in the back of their pickup. We tried to find a trailer that evening but ended the day without one lined up. Saturday morning the window people looked around and finally found a friend with a trail they could use that could hold the oversized windows safely.
Friday they had gone around and measured the window frame to make sure they matched the plans (and the windows were built to the plans) and found 2 windows that were slightly undersized vertically, and then the big window over the garage was undersized width wise by about 2 inches... Arghh.
Saturday morning, while they were looking for a trailer, I went and tried to cut the nails that were holding the side LVL frame to the top and bottom. My battery powered reciprocating saw wasn't getting the job done so I went and bough a powerful corded one and longer blades. My brotehr in law was in town and offered to come help so after I got the reciprocating saw he met me at the house and we started cutting the screws that held the window frame together.
We tried to knock the vertical piece out with a sledge hammer since the screws tended to snap when hit but that didn't work.
Meanwhile the window people called me that they had a trailer and to meet them at the storage. So I met them there and they were able to get all the windows except the patio ones we are not installing right now and we went back to the house. By the time they had gotten all the oversized windows into the house they said they had forgotten their suction cups and my Harbor Freight ones were too small. I was hoping they would start installing the normal sized windows -- it was between 1 and 2 pm -- but with the heavily overcast sky and the forecast for rain they didn't want to start so we agreed they would come this coming Saturday and if they had a slow day or got off a job early they would come by during the week to get started. In the end, it cleared up and didn't get stormy until 7pm, but the forecast showed rain during the afternoon, so we didn't get any windows installed, but they are all at the house...
My brotehr in law and I got the side pieces cut out bu using our circular saws and cutting the wood through about every 12" or so and using a hand sledge hammer and a crobar to get them off the wall. Where there was no screen coming in from the concrete we were able to just hit them off eventually. When originally installing them we had screwed large screwed into the backside of each wood piece and the concrete would envelope the screw so that the wood was held in place to the concrete by more than just the surface tension. So where those screws were we had to pry the pieces of wood off in the 12" long chunks. But we eventually got both sides off.
my BIL and I went for lunch and to home depot. I wanted a sheet of 1/2" plywood but didn't want the crap 2-3 ply softwood. I bought a more expensive sheet of "birch" that was around 7 ply IIRC, as even though I intend to screw the window brackets through into the concrete, we will start by screwing them into the wood and then drilling into the concrete once we have the brackets in place and I want the screws to get a good bite in the wood.
I though the 1/2" ply might be a little thick as we wanted about a 114" wide opening for the 113.25" window casing to give ebough room for support blocks and shims. And with teh 1/2" ply replacing the 1.75" LVL, it came to about 113 1/2". But we then actually measured the window (the big triple window in the above pics) and it was only 112.5" approximately wide, which was less than the work order/invoice from the window company had said it would be, which was 113.25. It is listed as 3x 37.75" windows in one casing but the work order had an overall width as I mentioned above also shown as well. So our end with teh 1/2" ply s plenty or room for support blocks and shims.
We glued the ply onto the concrete using Gorilla Construction Adhesive. I bought that as it was clear and looked like I could spread it a little compared to the peanut butter consistency of most of the construction adhesives I'd used up tp now. And it was true. We used one tube per sheet to make sure it was stuck really well even if in the end we'll use tapcon screws to screw the window through the wood and into the concrete on the sides. The top and bottom will screw into the LVL. (The windows have brackets that get installed 4" from every corner on each side plus one bracket every 20-24" along each side and these are what get screwed in and hold the windows in place.
I used Gorilla tape, as its what I had, to hold the ply in place while it dried . (Today I stopped by to pick up a bag of plums I had accidentally left at the house yesterda and removed the tape while I was there -- my BIL had stayed at my mom's place with his wife (my sister) Friday night and my mom had sent the plums from her tree. I had totally forgotten them until this evening.
So the big window opening got a couple inches wider over the weekend. Still need to foam in any gaps between the new ply sides and the wall openings (foam walls) and then apply some SEMCO waterproofing liquid membrane to the sides and outside foam as extra protection for the wood and the wood/foam border area.
I still have to take 1/2" or 3/4" off either the top or bottom LVL in two windows to increase their opening height (don't know how they got off but they did for some reason). We'll probably just use the circular saw to drill slots every inch or so across it all along the length (slots front to back) and just chip it out and then sand the final result to smooth it out.
It turns out that yesterday (Saturday) when I got to the house, the roofing crew was back. Even though they didn't have all the steel they needed due to the issues I explained earlier, and the steel people won't be back until this week that is now upon us, it turns out they had enough steel cut to the right lengths to do a bunch more of the work and they spent the day almost finishing the top roof -- probably 20-25' short, and doing 2/3 of the porch as well...
It was fun to be in the house when the downpour started. The sound of the rain on the roof is fun. Once the house is finished you won't hear much as there will be 3" of spray in high density closed cell foam insulation and a 12" batt of R38 fiberglass, plus ceiling drywall etc.
Here is a pic of the house as it stands right now that I took this evening (before I removed the tape from the window opening we fixed above, that we did yesterday -- I originally stopped at the house to take a few pics and move a "no trespassing" sign off the dumpster, which should be picked up tomorrow if the dumpster people don't screw up). Then after I drove away I remembered the plums and went back and into the house.
So we didn't get the windows installed as planned, as we need to fix a few frames and the weather was threatening, but we did get all the windows moved, which was a chore, and we got the big frame fixed. And the roofers got a lot more done. So the weekend was successful.
