Black Top

I was hoping to hear from the art glass shop this past week regarding the stained glass window. Probably next week.

To my surprise, at 10:00 am on this Saturday morning, a crew of four showed up in an unmarked white panel van and told me they were going to apply roofing felt to the garage. They were fast, completing the job and gone by 11:30 am. No rain had fallen yet, so as long as we don't have any strong winds, it will probably stay in place and provide some protection to the garage roof plywood. Spenser and I toured the area after they had departed. There were roofing nails everywhere, including out in the alley. Spenser was so disgusted he refused to help me clear them out of the alley.

I found it interesting that yesterday, before they quit for the day, Mike put down felt on the sunroom 1x6 roof boards they had installed, but they did not cover the top row of boards. Therefore, not only will that row be rained/snowed upon, the rain will also get underneath the paper. Oh well, I am sure Mike knows what he is doing. He left a lot of select-grade pine board remnants all over the back yard. Most of these are not very long, but it is really nice wood (essentially knot-free). Spenser and I collected probably a total of 20 feet of these remnants and took them to the basement. We will find a use for them.

Sunroom Roofing Begins

It has turned out to be a beautiful day. Clear, sunny, little or no wind but cool with the high around 40F. Forecast for the weekend wet and cold with the chance of rain on Saturday now 40%. Still a 90% chance of snow (1"-3") on Sunday. Next week still forecast to be cold but dry.

"Our" Mike, "Little" Mike and Nate were back this morning and started installing the 1x6 boards on the sunroom roof.

Mike is cutting the grooves in the boards for the biscuits and handing them up to Mike and Nate who are gluing the biscuits into the grooves and positioning the boards. I did ask Mike why he decided to use the biscuit joints as opposed to dowels. He said the main reasons were that it was fast and we don't really need the additional strength that dowels would provide.

Cutting the Groove

Biscuit

Groove

Biscuit in Groove

They finished for the day by putting down some tar paper over the boards.

I sent a quote request to a cupola manufacturer in Salt Lake City. This is the company that Mike had originally brought to our attention. I need to consult with T about the specific style she had selected, but I am guessing it was something like the "Estate" style I show below. It is a louvered hexagonal design with a copper hip style roof. The have many different roof styles, materials of construction and colors.

The standard sizes they offer go up to 48" wide. The 36" proposed by Tyler for the sunroom is a standard size. I am thinking we will be interested in a 60" for the garage. This is not a standard size, hence my quote request. Based on the width/height relationship of their standard sizes, I suggested the height of the 60" wide would be 84". The height is measured from the lowest point of the base to the top of the roof. Taking our 9/12 roof slope, I calculate the cupola would extend 61" above the garage roof ridge line. Considering that roof ridge line is 21 feet above the ground, a 5 foot tall cupola does not seem out of proportion. Below I try show both the original 36" wide (58" tall) cupola and then the proposed 60" wide (84" tall) cupola on the garage.

I think the 60" is more in proper proportion. What do you think?

False Spring

The weather over the past couple of weeks has been very nice indeed. Cool (bordering on chilly) but, for mid-winter and compared to last year at this time, you cannot complain. As opposed to what was accomplished in December, when the weather was even nicer, we are actually getting some work accomplished in January.

Today, the weather turned cooler and completely overcast with the high in the low 40's and a gusty wind out of the south. Starting to look like winter again. Current forecast is for rain (70%) on Saturday and snow (90% up to 3") on Sunday. Next week is supposed to be dry but very cool with the high no higher than 24F on a couple of days and up to the mid-40's on other days.

T took off for Texas yesterday afternoon, spending the night in the Creek Nation (Muskogee, OK). I sent a note to John (solar) this morning asking if he had any input on the potential of enlarging the cupola on the garage. The current solar design calls for a 9 kW-30 panel system, but that premises a 36" cupola. I have little doubt the size of the cupola will either increase or we will add a second one. Looking at the proposed panel layout, it seems that the 30 panel option we have chosen would allow for a much larger cupola. On the Option 2 shown below, I am showing a cupola that runs 60" along the roof line. This size would be in-line with the guidelines we have seen from cupola manufacturers. John responded that the best thing to do would be for Tyler (architect) to send them a new roof drawing showing the new cupola and they would evaluate it. Again, it does not seem to me that it will be a problem.

"Our" Mike, "Little" Mike and Nate showed up today, as promised, for a second day of work this week. Today represents a total of 4.5 days of activity since December 10. They finished the fascia and soffits on the garage and installed the roof vents for the two garage wet bars. They then turned their attention to the sunroom, starting on the fascias. They put in a good days work, which they always do, when they show up. No word on whether they will return tomorrow. Earlier in the day, I asked Mike if he ever sent the final dimensions to Jim (glass roof), which he said he would do last week. He said he had not, but assured me he would do so. It will be nice to get that aspect of the project going again.

Emerald Green

"Our" Mike, "Little" Mike and Nate showed up this morning and worked throughout the day on the garage roof, in anticipation of having the shingles installed. Mike said he thought it would take him a week to prepare the sunroom for shingling. The garage is starting to look like a roof.

The supply company delivered the foam insulation for the sunroom along with the retaining hardware. We had the 1x6 pine boards and thermal barrier boards delivered last week. Since we decided not to use the tongue-in-groove siding that Mike originally suggested, he has decided to install biscuit joints on the exposed sunroom roof boards to keep them from deflecting and gaping due to the distances between the sunroom trusses (32"). Sounds like a good idea as opposed to just hoping for the best. The other option would be to install dowels. Not sure why he chose the biscuits versus the dowels. From what I can find, the dowels provide a stronger joint, but are more expensive. We may not be needing a strong joint, but one that just keeps the boards aligned. The sunroom roof will consist of a internal layer of 1x6 pine board with two 2" layers of foam and a 1/2" thick thermal barrier board. All of this secured with 7" screws to the trusses. The asphalt shingles will go on top of the thermal board. We don't know what the "R" value of the sunroom roof will be, but I assume it will be higher than the windows.

Thermal Barrier Board

Foam

With the shingle installation coming soon, it was necessary to make a final decision on the color. T was leaving for a week long trip to Texas this afternoon, so we traveled over to the supply company before she left to verify which color of asphalt shingle we would put on the new roofs as well as on the main house. T selected the GAF Slateline Emerald Green. She also confirmed she was OK with the samples of the slate provided to us a couple of weeks ago on the new gables and for needed repairs on the main house gables. I relayed all of this in an email to Mike and he acknowledge receiving it.

We are deferring the final selection of the cupolas for now. We believe we will want to go with a larger size on the garage than what Tyler had premised. Tyler had premised a 36" cupola on both the sunroom and the garage. This may be OK for the sunroom, but seems too small for the garage. The rule of thumb seems to be that the cupola should be 1-1/4" to 1-1/2" per foot of unbroken roof line. With the 40 foot garage roof line, that would mean a cupola between 50" and 60". It has also suggested that we could consider putting two cupolas on the garage. We need to be careful about getting carried away with this as, at some point, it may impact the number of solar panels we can put on the garage roof. While we are deferring the decision for now, we need to make it soon so that the solar portion of the project is not delayed.

We have also been exploring the best approach for installing forced ventilation through the cupolas. I have received several responses to the inquiries I sent out last week about installing a fan in manufactured cupolas. The responses have ranged from "it cannot be done" to "sure, no problem, for a price". One of the most interesting was one which suggested installing a normal exhaust fan on the roof and then mounting the cupola over it. Interestingly, Mike told me that he had talk with Frank (HVAC) and Frank had recommended the same approach. Something to explore.

Mike said he would be back tomorrow to continue work. I know he would like to get the roofs on and shingled over the next week or so. The forecast for the upcoming week is much cooler than we have had for the past two weeks. Other than a chance of rain this weekend, the chance of precipitation during the work week remains low.