My table saw needs more table.

I didn't really get much done yesterday, I was at a picnic and didn't leave early enough.  Today was sweltering and I ran out of water by noon, despite bringing two water bottles and a quart of powerade. 

For starters, the table on the table saw is waaaay too small for plywood.  Fortunately the tailgate of my truck is slick and almost perfectly matched for height.


Without a support for the other end though, I wasn't able to push it all the way through.


I ended up using a chair.  It kinda sorta worked.  It wasn't slick enough though, and one of them turned a little as I was cutting it and had to touch it up by hand with the circular saw.  The cuts from the table saw are factory quality though, which is really nice.


It took me a little bit to figure out how to get it in, But the first piece dryfitted almost perfectly.  Due to the walls not being perfectly square, the first piece took a little longer to get right.


Some mistakes were made getting it installed.  I will need to touch up the insulation, some of it got ripped.  These things are a real pain in the ass to install by yourself.  I might try to bribe Matt with some steak when the rest are ready to go in.


I got the first two sheets installed.  I wanted to get the third piece installed, but had long since run out of beverage and was starting to get a headache from dehydration, so I called it a day. 


The heat is supposed to be even worse tomorrow, but break afterwards.  I did a jump test, and it didn't squeak at all.  The edge over by the wheel wells still squeaks a little, but in general it is really solid.  I used both liquid nails and screws.  I ended up using BC grade plywood, generally AC grade plywood is preferred, but Home Depot doesn't carry it.  It still looks pretty nice, and the surface is decent.  It should be good enough that I don't need a underlay.  On the whole though, it will be really nice to have space to work again.  Almost a third of the floor is laid.

Another small update

I have been working late most of the week, but still managed to get up there.  I got up to the property at quarter of 7, but still managed to reorganize the inside a little bit and I finally got the hose line zip tied in. 


I left with a little bit of daylight left so that I could head to the parts store and get a new bulb for the truck.  It wasn't the filaments that burned out, but the socket was scorched and the base was burnt.  Hopefully that isn't a sign of more painful electrical issues coming down the road.  The new bulb is in and working though.


I have been foiled twice this week on getting the flooring and the next roll of insulation, since I don't want it to get wet.  The weekend is looking promising on that front, though the heat starts up next week.

Road crews are busy.

I didn't get much done today, just some cleaning in preparation for more floor insulation, but I noted that the town had been by.  The end of my driveway had been smoothed out.  Based on the tracks in the driveway, it looks like they parked some equipment there during the day.


They also took care of a bunch of the Japanese Knotweed.  Curiously, they filled in a large chunk of the trench, and just dug out a little deeper around the culvert that they were replacing.  Interesting at any rate.

Ready for some flooring

I went and picked up the remaining z flashing from Ace, since Home Depot hasn't had any in stock for almost a month.  I should have waited. The stuff they had at ace was barely stronger than aluminum foil.  It is easy to see with them side by side.


It didn't take long before I thumped it with the the drill.  I didn't even hit it with the pointy end of a screw, the screw fell out and the torx bit on the drill hit the flashing.  That was it.


There was another problem with it too.  It was shorter than the Home Depot stuff.  This means in places where the siding didn't perfectly line up, I had an issue.  Thankfully I only had one instance of this, and took a small piece of scrap of the Home Depot stuff and slid that in behind it. 


Despite that though, the z-flashing is now complete all the way around.




After that I turned my attention to the flooring inside.  I started with the spray foam pest block.  There was a little more in the corners and around the pipe to do.




I also braced the pipe since I know the foam like to push things around. 


For reference this is how much a single roll of insulation covers.  Not as much as I had hoped. 


I completed the first two pieces of flooring.  I am not going to bother with another layer to fill in the joists, I don't think it is worth the time or money to ludicrously overinsulate the floor. 


I cut the remaining part of the second roll into batts, since I was at the point of needing to remove the temporary plywood floor.  I got lucky and the length was a perfect number of batts.


I got abnormally ambitious and decided to complete as much as I could.  I actually used the entire second roll.  I don't have quite enough done to be able to cover the wheels, but it is getting pretty close.


Unfortunately though, there was a casualty.  It's arm is off.


When I plugged the bug zapper back in, there was a giant butterfly on it.  Not sure what type.


I also went up and looked at a dishwasher this morning, but decided against it.  There was a rather strong odor of mildew and mold in it. 

I need to finish the plumbing work before I get too much further.  I haven't completed any of the copper, or done any pressure testing.  In an odd turn of events, the floor insulation is going much faster than anticipated.  I think I might get the plywood flooring in for at least the first two sheets though, since I no longer have any place to work inside with the large piece of plywood gone. 

Insulation and cleanup.

I did a lot of cleanup today, since I needed to move everything around inside.  I got the various piles sorted into boxes.  I brought them home to sort through them to see what I need to finish. The rest I will pack away and get it out of my hair.


I got the big sheet of plywood cleaned off.  When I get the gas lines done, I will be removing it.  If I decide to do the insulation first, it might not even make it that long.


I also dry fitted the copper.  Everything lined up as expected.  I didn't get the fittings soldered, I forgot my torch and stuff at home. 




I also got the first round of insulation installed. 


It was pretty easy considering they had scores along the 16" boundaries to easily snap it.  I need 64" so it worked out pretty well. 


At that point, I needed to install the hose spicket before I could lay down the next chunk.  So I did that.  I couldn't find my zip ties, so I will have to snarf a few from work to tie it to the cross-beam.


I wanted to install it in the siding, but would have to put it at an angle and drill through the floor bracing to do so.


I decided to finish off the day by mowing.  Despite a rude awakening, so I gave them a surprise.

Finally got something checked off.

The day started off real hot, but cooled down towards the end.  I started off doing the last set of fittings.  Apparently the plugs take less solder, so the first one has a bit of a blob on it, but for the most part they look nice.  The overheating wasn't as bad on these as it was on the last set.


I did make a Home Depot run today on my way up.  It was busy, but it didn't take an hour to checkout.  Cinching this down was interesting, but it made it up to the property with minimal damage to the foam board and without anything blowing around.


Next up was doing a little underbelly work.  I repaired the front, and put another strip on the side under the door, where the wood had become exposed from the house wrap crinkling a little when I installed the z-flashing.  I am now completely done with the underbelly stuff.




I then decided to complete the sewage line.  It gave me a harder time than I thought.  The original plan didn't work out, I couldn't get the brackets into the underbelly.  Round two didn't fair much better.  I got it in, but not where it needed to go, the uprights needed to be on the other side of the metal crossbeam.


Third time was a charm though.  The brace for the plumbing is installed. 


I then decided to drive the task to completion for a change. To make my life a little easier, I decided to chop down all the stuff near there.  It was good to make sure the weed wacker was running too.  This is actually the first time I have run it twice and it didn't break.  Hopefully the start of a trend.  I ran out of gas, but got the important parts done.  It still has a problem with overheating, but runs well enough for what I want to use it for.  I think it needs its carb cleaned, it doesn't run with no choke on, so I leave it half on, which might be causing the overheating since it makes it run rich.


The next piece of pipe is installed.  This completes the rough-in for the PVC lines.  I still want to test them before I button up the floor, but everything is installed.


I also did some prep work for tomorrow, I got the piece of plywood moved around and cleaned off.


I also got the materials moved in.


I also got the main copper run installed, though I apparently didn't take a picture of it.  You can see it if you zoom in on the weed wacking picture.

Something that I realized is that I am going to have borderline ludicrous amounts of insulation in the floor.  I have the XPS (R5), a layer of 2x6 unfaced on top of that to fill the cavity for the trailer frame (R19) and another 2x6 layer (R19) in the joists themselves.  It almost makes me wonder if the last round in the joists themselves is even necessary.  The DOE recommendation for the northern zones is R25 to R30.  I will have R24 before adding the last layer.  I also intend to put up skirting of some sort (assuming I can find any...) around the outside, which helps a lot.  I am thinking I might save a little money and more importantly (at this point) time and skip it.  It will be a royal pain to change later though, since it would require removing the floor.

I finally got another item off the checklist.  It is kind of said I had to dig back three sets of posts on blogspot to find it, but there was finally a change.  It looks like I was a little out of date on it though.

1. Fix ruts in driveway.
2. Put lights on the plow.
3. Get the oil changed in the tractor.
4. Get the tire chains installed and a weight installed on the back.
5. Get the plastic installed
6. Get the truck oil undercoated.
7. Fix leaky underbelly.
8. Get skirting installed.
9. Find a way to run power that won't be damaged by snow/plow/snowblower.
10. Find a way to prevent the snow pushing on the shed.
11. Finish clearing off the slab.
12. Run the rough plumbing. (includes gas line for stove)
1. Venting and Drainage
2. Water supply
3. Gas lines
13. Install wall insulation.
14. *Install flooring.  *12
1. Install foam board 
2. Install blanket.
3. Install floor insulation.
4. install plywood.
15. Install light fixtures.
16. Install ceiling and attic insulation. *19
17. *Install paneling  *13, 14
18. *Install interior wall *14
19. *Complete electrical and plumbing.  *17, 18
20. *Install final flooring (carpet/linoleum).  *18, 19
21. Install interior fixtures.  When I get here, I will likely create a new list for the interior work.

Long week at work. Lots of copper.

I didn't realize that I had forgotten to post my last update, so this will be a long one.

I did most of the main supply soldering at my apartment, where I could do it without getting eaten alive by bugs.  My soldering setup.


Other side.  The black cloth is welding cloth, it is extremely flame retardent.  I might need to get another one once I start working inside the trailer though.  I also intend to investigate cold soldering, though I haven't had a chance to do that yet.  I could theoretically just use flare fittings, but those too are expensive and kind of a pain.


The early joints were pretty fugly.  Too much solder (by a lot) and that was largely due to the fact that it didn't flow and suck worth a damn.


They got better though.  By the end I had figured out the proper way to apply the flux, clean the ends, etc.  My biggest problem was how I was heating the joint.  I preheated the pipe (good), then tried to heat the joint evenly (bad).  You are supposed to heat the joint from the opposite side you are applying solder, so that you are guaranteed the whole joint is hot enough to melt the solder.  Still not excellent, the discoloration indicates that I overheated it, even though I only heated it enough to melt the solder.  Not sure how to fix that, but it is a lesser concern.


Once the main supply line was complete, I headed up.  Turns out the corner insulation didn't work out as planned.  I will have to come up with a way to fix this.  This by the way, is precisely why it says on the can not to use it to fill cavities...


Got the unnecessary brace out of the way.  Maybe I should use the same approach on the foam insulation... :p 


Turns out I made an oops.  The line is the correct length, but the final elbow will be inside the tire in the current configuration. D'oh!


I at least got the PVC done while I was there.  The sewage is now outside of the underbelly.  I have one more piece that I will put on, and that will be it before the septic is done.  As it is, I can probably install the flooring as it is, though it would make it a little more difficult to install the next piece if I did.  The brace required a little modification, but should work ifne.


I also picked up some recessed lighting from a coworker.  Got 2 of them.  I was concerned that they wouldn't actually fit between the ceiling joists and the roof, but they seem to fit reasonably well.


Tonight I finished up the next round of dry-fitting.  Nibco copper fittings aren't what they used to be, whatever they used to cut the end did a piss poor job. 


The elbows and the two plugs are ready.  The one elbow that has a second piece in it is for the stove to raise it up and over the tire.  It will be inside the cabinet, so it isn't a big deal.  I am almost out of copper, though I am pretty much done with the 3/4 (I think).


I was looking at tankless water heaters, and the cheaper ones have terrible reviews, so I will definitely need to do more digging.  The cheaper ones are only 2-3GPM at 60F rise, which means in the winter I will be running pure hot for a shower, since the water from the ground will be a little under 40, and showers are normally 95-105 degrees.  The biggest problem with the cheaper ones though is the fact that they take almost a gallon per minute flow to even kick on.  This is why you hear horror stories of dishwashers that run straight cold water, or ones that never actually start because the water never heats up and those kinds of things.  At a gallon per minute, the only way a regular faucet would kick it on is if the the hot is full blast.  To get to a nicer one means going from a 250 dollar unit to a 850 dollar unit though.  Something to ponder for sure.

I am not sure I am going to check off the PVC from the checklist until I get the other piece installed, which I will likely do this weekend.