Back wall repair
Left: A supposed forecast of the weather that
may or may not be anywhere near correct.
The big year is finally here! Weather forecast: 55 degrees, partly cloudy. The lumber for the entire year's worth of work is being delivered on April 13th from Lowes. The handyman is going to be here on April 15th to remove the cement blocks, replace and insulate the back wall. It's the first time I'm spending a full 5 days at the shack and it's something that I've been looking forward to for the past 20 years - finally making the Shack a tiny home with the addition of an addition to the tune of 144 square feet. Enough for a bathroom, a real closet, a kitchen and a dinette area. A nice little off grid home that you can actually spend extended time at. When you have a connection to a piece of land, it's something special.
So I get to the Shack on April 12th so I can get everything ready for the big lumber delivery. Of course, I drove through rain the entire 240 miles only to find out after I got there and checked the weather that the partly cloudy and 55 degree weather is now......SNOW. SLEET, SNOW and up to an inch of the white stuff. Highs will be 35, lows in the 20s. Perfect. Next Sasquatch and UFOs are going to show up just because (apparently) that's the way things go at the Shack.
Despite the array of total BS weather (which according to my mother) has made the news downstate because of how late it's snowing. Perfect.
Well, on the 13th right on time (!), the Lowes semi shows up with two pallets (yes, my lumber order consisted of two pallets) and everything is dropped off exactly where I want it. The way they deliver is so cool - they have a forklift that goes sideways to get real wide lumber through narrow spaces like my driveway. Excellent. Took out the brand new 20 foot by 16 foot tarp and got it all covered up.
Below: The Lowes truck with the pallets of material for the Shack along with the sweet mule they use to move the pallets. It goes sideways to get long product down driveways.
Below: Here is the loot on the tarp ready to be covered up due to the snow and rain that was on it's way. We've got 16 foot 4 x 4s, 2 x 4s, exterior plywood, 10 rolls of Reflectix, way more fiberglass insulation than we needed, my sweet new ladder and all the paneling/wallboard for the interior.
The ladder at the Shack is old. Like 50 plus years old. I have it held together with 2 x 4s because all the rungs are broken. It wobbles, it sways and at times it seems to enjoy trying to kill me. But another item came with the lumber order from Lowes....my new ladder. You should see this thing, it's the Mercedes Benz of ladders, a Little Giant Ladders Leveler Aluminum 22-ft.
It can be a step ladder, it can be put on stairs, it can be put on uneven ground, it's got wheels for rolling it around, it becomes a magical 24 foot tall ladder, it can be a scaffold frame. I love my new ladder. It's a work of art made out of metal. Don't you love a tool that's well engineered?
Excitement builds as the wall replacement day approaches! Well, not so much.
The 14th dawned with the promise of more snow. And it did snow. All day. Snowed for hours and hours. The good thing is that the ground is thawed so none of it stuck to the ground but it did snow.
I texted Kevin the handyman to get this thoughts on the whole debacle. He's good with working in the rain and snow so we're on like Donkey Kong for the 15th. Let me tell you something about the handyman that I found on Craig's List. First, Kevin is native American. Second he reminds me a lot of my ex-brother in law, Kurt. Kurt was a world class contractor. He built me garages, decks and porches. Kurt was able to get approved to build a home on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan on the shore. That's an impossible permit to get. Kurt was the only contractor in the United States licensed to build on Isle Royale in Lake Michigan for the National Park Service.
Left: Here is the wall with most of the sheathing removed along with my super ladder and Kevin surveying the insanity that he's about to make heads or tails of.
Kevin, the native American handyman reminds me so much of Kurt. Bing, bang, boom rebuild an entire wall? What are we going to do after lunch? Doing it fast is one thing, doing it RIGHT while doing it fast is a step above average. That's right, three hours of total work time doing the wall. This is taking down two layers of cement blocks, removing the old wall, adding new 2 x 4s, making a couple 'O repairs, insulating the wall, putting up new sheathing, adding some fancy pants weather proofing shingle roll stuff. Keep in mind my spine and joints are pretty much done, out for the count, if you see me you'll see the fork stuck in my back 'cause it's done so I can appreciate good work because I can't do it any more. My spinal problems are due to being an athlete - I was a ultra-marthon runner which ruined some of my vertabre. I don't have feeling in my right leg other than feeling pressure, which is handy because otherwise I wouldn't be walking. There are times when it's okay but on these days at the cabin it's anything but okay.
Here's some photos of the work - I'm sure this isn't the most complicated job Kevin has ever done but he not only did it quickly but did it very well. And he didn't have to do it, Johannesburg is out of the way for him. After 20 years since I last saw Kurt, it was very nice to work with someone like him.
Below: We insulated the wall with R13 insulation. Since this is the north wall, I'll also be insulating the interior wall as well.
Below: It's been 20 years since this wall was last done. Since the Shack was once a porch, the back wall (which butted up against the old trailer that was where Kevin is standing), had a gap at the top where the roof met the wall which is why that blue tarp is up there to help waterproof it - it's been under shingles which is why it's not degraded.
Below: Here is the wall with all the sheathing taken off. You can see that when I did the original work 20 years ago, I added supports between the 2 x 6 studs. Kevin added more support at the top along the entire wall. Before he did this work, the wall rested on the old cement block partial wall (which was a superhighway for mice). We busted up that block wall and then put outdoor 2 x 4s on the concrete pad and then installed the sheathing.
Below: Here is what I mentioned in the above description. This is the old block wall that the old trailer was resting on. All of these blocks for 38 feet needed to be broken off with a sledge hammer. And this is after I already had removed the top layer. You can see how the bottom of the old wall was rotted from resting on the cement blocks for 20 years. All those issues have been solved by the removal of the blocks.
Below: This is a product called Reflectix which is an insulating product used for radiant floors, ceilings and whatnot. What we did here was this. There is a gap between the block footer in front of the wall. The wall is on the concrete pad. We stuffed the Reflectix in that gap so that it's doubled up. This will stop any drafts in it's tracks. More about the product as we start working on the inside of the Shack.
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Below: Here is the wall all done with the polymer-modified bitumen on the top where the wall meets the roof which is an ice and snow shield used in northern climates. This stuff is like your shingles in that when it's heated by the sun, it becomes bonded to the surface. The near end where you see the screen door is where the new additon will be which will go down to where the Mercedes Benz of ladders is in this photo.
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Those contractor/handymen are out there and it's a joy to find one willing to take on one of my off the wall projects. The thing that I've been discovering here in northern Michigan is that it's so hard to find reliable contractors or handymen to do SMALL projects like at the Shack. Apparently, they don't realize that the backbone of America is the individual homeowner to takes pride in their home and just wants some help to do projects not building a 4,000 square foot home so they can invade the pristine forests on northern Michigan with their Bloomfield Hills lifestyle. But let me tell you what I really think......
Finishing the Back Wall
The big year of construction is rolling on with the second trip to the Shack. This time, I'm having all the debris from the old cement blocks removed and a lot of other junk removed at the same time.
This time, the plan is to begin mounting the 4 x 4s that the addiion will sit on. The reason for raising the addition an additional 4 inches is to there is enough room to install and maintain the plumbing system under the addition. Which means that the addition will have nearly a 1 foot crawl space under it. I'll be using exterior sheathing plywood to build out the walls of the crawl space once the addition is on the foundation.
The other big project will be to paint the new back wall. This part of the project intails a few different steps.
- Using a self curing sealant at the bottom of the wall where it meets the concrete pad called "Flex Seal" spray. It sprays on like paint and cures to a flexible rubber like coating.
- Caulking the entire outside edge of the wall which is 8 feet tall and 32 feet long. I've got 5 tubes of caulk to do the job but it may require more.
- Painting the wall with a new Wagner Flexio 590 HVLP sprayer. This particular sprayer will spray latex paint with no thinning. I expect to paint the wall with about an hours worth of work.
- Fill in the openings of the existing cement block foundation with quikcrete to prevent water from getting in them causing damage to the foundation.
Starting the Interior Rebuild
After the back wall is painted, the inside is next up on the path of destruction. The current ceiling in the living room area of the Shack is ceiling panels. These I installed a decade ago to help insulate the ceiling. Money was tight back then so it was the best solution I had at the time.
What I'm doing first is removing all the ceiling tiles and using Reflectix to insulate the roof and walls. The thing with Reflectix is that it's a low R value insulation. It's good for heated floors and the like where most of the time it's used to suppliment fiberglass. However, Reflectix says that if you use two layers with an airgap between the layers, you'll have R-21 insulation!
So the plan is, between the rafters, attaching the Reflectix by stapling it to the underside of the roof. Then taking another layer and applying it lengthwise (at a 90 degree angle to the rafters) to get that airgap. This will be done on the outside walls as well. Then the wallboard will be attached and the walls and roof will be done.
This will give us an R-21 level of insulation on all the walls and ceiling with R-13 on the back wall.
The addtion will be a totally different animal but will be insulated the same way.
