Half of Garage Shingled

We were pleasantly surprised to find the roofers had shown up this morning to begin the shingle installation. I noticed that they had parked three trucks in the alley. I went out to let them know that they needed to allow for my neighbors to navigate through the alley. The first two workmen did not speak English. The third one did not seem to be too concerned about blocking the alley until I told him that the police might be called if the alley was blocked. I noticed that this got his attention and they quickly moved their vehicles.

We were also surprised when, contrary to what Mike had told us to expect, they started working on the garage roof. I called Mike to let him know the roofers were here. He said he knew they would be and he knew that they were going to start on the garage. After the garage is finished, Mike said they will then do the main house before doing the sunroom.

While we were not surprised when they ran out of shingles, it was surprising that they did so after completing only one-half of the garage roof (the north facing half). The four man crew worked about three hours and left. They even did a cursory clean up before departing. I was impressed. The shingles on the north side of the garage look good. I also noticed the felt that they applied to the south side of the garage three weeks ago is starting to tear and flap in the wind.

Don't know when they will be back to finish the job. Since they had just enough shingles to do the one side of the garage, we are going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume this was the plan all along. Why?? Who knows!

After the roofers had left, Tyler (architect) dropped by. We chatted about the ventilation issue. Tyler said he got my note and was going to formally respond on Monday. Bottom line is that he does not believe the code requirements (mentioned by Bob) applied to our specific application. He also said that the premise was that the cupola fan would not be operated unless a window was open. I told him that, while that was a reasonable assumption, it involved human intervention and therefore was unreliable. I also told him that we were leaning toward having the fan automatically start on high humidity. I mentioned that I was leaning toward an exhaust fan independent of the cupola and my biggest question was on air intake. I pointed out to Tyler the notion T and I had discussed of putting a vented soffit at each corner of the glass roof. Tyler thought that might work, though it would be even better if there was a louver that would close if the fan was not running. Tyler also mentioned that his office just had representatives of Panasonic in for a demonstration of their exhaust fans. He said they were extremely quiet and came in a range of capacities. He said he would send me some information including a contact.

Spenser and I did enjoy sitting in the shell of our new sunroom Saturday afternoon. Spenser seemed to me looking for the new bar.

Prelude

A beautiful day. Bright, calm, relatively warm with the high in the mid 40's. Forecast is for a warm week ahead. Upper 50's to mid 60's with no forecast of rain until next Friday (another Friday the 13th).

While "Our" Mike cautioned me yesterday not to be overly optimistic about anything being done next week, we were encouraged that shingles were delivered today for the roof work.

The shingles are the proper type and color (Slateline and emerald green), but it does not appear that there is nearly enough to do the addition plus the garage, let alone the main house. There were thirty containers of, what appears to be 10-12 shingles per container. Mike told me yesterday that the plan was to do the main house first. We'll see, maybe more will show up next week. They also dropped off what looks to be much more valley and eave protective film than is needed just for the addition and garage. This makes me hopeful this was only a partial delivery.

When they put the felt on the sunroom a couple of weeks ago, they told me that they needed a couple of days with the temperature in the 40's. They will have better than that all of next week.

I got another message from my HVAC friend Bob. He said he could stop by after work next Monday or Tuesday to visit with us about the sunroom ventilation issue. I responded that we would appreciate his visit whenever was convenient for him. In response to my statement yesterday, that there are no ventilation provisions in the current sunroom design, Bob commented that per code, there had to be ventilation provided. This reminded me of a comment that Mike made yesterday when he said that any fan would create a negative pressure in the sunroom. Mike also said that he was aware that some window manufactures may void their warranty if the room is not vented properly and their windows are exposed to negative pressure. This also concerns us with respect to the impact of negative room pressure on the stained glass window we will have mounted above the south entry door. I have presented this question to our architect (Tyler). The original design has no air makeup provisions (other than manually opening a window or door), but did contain a fan in the cupola. In that note I stated that we will make whatever changes are required to eliminate the potential for an inadvertent negative pressure developing in the sunroom. We will not rely on wishful thinking or reliance upon people remembering to open windows when the fan is operating, which may start automatically if, as intended, we have it activated when the humidity reaches a specific point.

During lunch today, T and I were talking and at least I am leaning toward just putting a decorative, non-functional, windowed cupola on the sunroom and putting a ventilation fan on the north facing sunroom roof. Prior to going out for lunch, T and I confirmed that a roof mounted fan on the north facing roof surface would not be visible from the exterior except from the extreme northeast corner of the back yard. It would be very visible however from the second and third story windows on the back of the main house. If we can paint the visible portion of the fan housing so that it blends in with the roofing shingles, it would be OK. As for makeup air provisions, I believe it would be simple to install a small section(s) of perforated soffits, similar to what has been installed on the garage. We thought the right place to put these might be at the northwest and southwest corners of the sunroom, where the glass roof connects to the west gable. If the roof ventilation fan was centered along the east-west roof line, the positioning of these vented soffit sections would essentially draft humid air from the hot tub area. This evaluation of the ventilation is definitely not finalized yet.

Ventilation

The day is sunny but still cold. Snow is mostly gone, but the water puddles are really ice. Spenser lost his footing several times on our walk this morning.

Yesterday we got a return call from Bobbe (hot tub). I told her that we were seeking some guidance on the amount of ventilation we needed in the sunroom. Bobbe said no one has ever before asked that question (amazing!!!). Her initial response was that no ventilation was needed. However, very quickly, she cautioned that she was not an authority on the matter and suggested I call someone who builds sunrooms. I did not bother to tell her that my HVAC contractor ("expert") suggested we contact her for guidance. So much for those resources.

Thankfully, I got a response from my friend Bob. Bob is a professional mechanical engineer who specializes in commercial and industrial HVAC system design. Bob and I worked together when I was a supervisor at an engineering firm here in town. Bob is now a senior engineer at a different engineering firm in town. Based on the very brief introductory information I gave to Bob, he said it sounded like a complicated application but "not too bad". Bob asked about the AC system we intend to install, the wood that is going to be used in the room and what provisions have been made for makeup air. He also opined, based on the information I provided, that "just an exhaust fan won't work". I replied to Bob with information he requested and suggested that we would be happy to have him stop by and/or review the drawings we could supply to him. We'll see how he responds.

Next week is supposed to be dry and in the 60's. I spoke with Mike this morning and he cautioned that, despite the warmer weather, the ground may be too frozen to permit leveling. I offered to go out and hand dig the ground, but I took his comment to mean that we should not expect anything to happen next week.

I told Mike that I was consulting with a ME on the ventilation question. Mike seemed very supportive. I confirmed with Mike that the current design does not include any air makeup provisions into the sunroom and included this in the additional information sent to Bob. Therefore, any exhaust ventilation would potentially create a negative room pressure. Mike expressed his "hope" that the size of the exhaust fan he was proposing would not create an unacceptable amount of negative pressure. I sent an email to both Mike and Tyler (architect) that I am consulting a professional mechanical engineer about the ventilation issue and would keep them informed. I have a lot of confidence in Bob's ability, at least a lot more on this issue than anyone I have consulted to date.

ADEQUATE VENTILATION IS AN ISSUE THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN INCORPORATED INTO THE ORIGINAL DESIGN!

Despite our expressed concerns about ventilation at the outset of the project, other than just drawing a fan on a piece of paper, this issue was not truly addressed in the design. Despite this failure to properly evaluate, we will drive this to a conclusion that we are comfortable with, or we will not proceed.

Despite my increasing disappointment with the original architectural effort and on-going architectural support, I have authorized payment of the payment of the next 25% of construction support to the architectural firm. I did this after my talk with Mike. He thought that (after seven months into the construction that should have been completed in four months) we were approaching the 50% point in the construction.

Today I got a response from Jim (glass roof) regarding the fabrication schedule. He said that "they do not have you with a definitive “week of” yet. Best estimate is currently end of March".

More Snow

We got about five inches of snow over the weekend and may get more tonight and tomorrow. While I am not getting my hopes up, next week is supposed to be dry with temperatures in the 60's. No work since the roofer put down the felt on the sunroom last week.

Yesterday, Mike forwarded the quote from the roofer. Not surprisingly, the quote for the main house was about twice what I had been led to believe. I am not too surprised since the number that Mike gave me verbally was absurdly low. This quote was more reasonable while still be a little better than those I had received last summer from several other companies. I called Mike to ensure he had reviewed the quote and found it acceptable. Subsequently, I signed off on the quote which included installation of ridge vents on the main house and garage, and arranged for the down payment to be made.

I asked Mike about the status of the ventilation issue. He said he had talked with Frank (HVAC) and Frank had agreed with Mike's assessment that a couple of bath room ventilators would be sufficient. I suggested that I call Frank to discuss it with him, which I subsequently did. After a very convoluted discussion, it became obvious that Frank did not know how the ventilation requirements were going to be impacted by the existence of the hot tub. I tried to keep it simple and suggested, as a starting point that Frank forget about the hot tub and give me his minimum and maximum fan capacity for a room of this size. Frank said that Mike had sent to him my drawings with the room volume calculations. Frank said he would not install anything less than 170 cfm or more than 500 cfm. Based on my volumetric calculations, this range would equate to air turnover rates between 1.2/hr and 3.5/hr. He did not elaborate on why he specified these particular rates. Frank said he would suggest a fan made by Broan. Frank agreed with me that it would be far worse to install too little capacity than too much, assuming we could include some turn down capability. Frank shared my concern that too little capacity could/would result in mold and condensation issues. Frank suggested I contact the hot tub manufacturer to see if they had any recommendations concerning the ventilation requirements.

After talking with Frank, I sent a note to both Mike and Tyler, telling them that Frank (our expert) essentially punted on the ventilation question, but suggested a capacity range (without a hot tub) above what Mike was suggesting.

Today, I called the hot tub store. Our salesperson (Bobbi) is off today but I was assured she would call me back tomorrow. I also did more internet research, focusing on the question of ventilation of enclosed pools and spas. I have found recommendations ranging from 1 air turnover per hour to 20 per hour. There was a broad consensus that this ventilation is critical and must be done correctly. I also found some guidance on fans themselves. The guidance was to not to just go down to the local Home Depot and pickup a bathroom exhaust fan which can be expected to be cheap, short lived, noisy and prone to rust. The rust issue could lead to staining of adjacent surfaces. I our application, those adjacent surfaces would be our stained pine ceiling panels.

I also sent a note to a mechanical engineer (Bob) who worked with me when I was with an engineering firm several years ago. Bob specializes in commercial and industrial HVAC design. If he responds, he might at least point me to someone who could advise us on our residential application.

We got an invoice from Tyler (architect) today for the second 25% payment of the construction phase consulting support they are providing. I will respond that since the last invoice for the first 25%, only about one week of work has been accomplished and I do not believe we are anywhere near 50% complete. I will suggest that we agree upon a 50% point being the point at which all of the windows and doors (including the glass roof) have been installed. Except for the glass roof, all the windows and doors are in town awaiting installation. I sent a note to Jim (glass roof) to find out if he has an estimate on fabrication of the glass roof. Once I get a response, I will send my response to Tyler.