Chapter 4: If We Squint We Can See the Light!
One month ago, we were touring framing progress on the 2nd floor. What a difference a month makes! Over the past four weeks, we completed rough-in of major utilities, as well as framing, roofing and insulation.
For seasoned professionals, all of this infrastructure work is where the rubber hits the road, so to speak. Lighting, power, heating and cooling, and plumbing coordination is at its highest, to ensure final device and equipment locations match the design considering field conditions. Framing work comes to an end, save for minor details associated with things like custom millwork. Building and trade inspections take place to allow for the next step: insulation and drywall. The project is many steps closer to completion once rough-in has wound down.
In the case of the MEGA project, many of my details that seemed insignificant or arbitrary on paper have been brought to life and it’s all starting to make sense. I’ve dealt with many complex renovation / rehabilitation projects in my career, but I really have put my skills to the test with the addition of not one, but three floors, all woven into our existing house at strategic entry points. I did a lot of 3-d visualization, but there’s just so much that goes between a ‘thought’ that a concept will work, and actually proofing it out. But I digress…
Following are pics of the progress, as well as roofing and insulation work. And here are some stats for the rough-in phase:
1 month of schedule
6 trades
15 individual contractors on site at any one time
3 inspections complete
Roof, rough-in and insulation now under wraps
Boom.
Above images of the Basement, 1st and 2nd Floor of the addition - roughed and ready for insulation. You can see the areas of acoustic separation as well as the white netting of the blown-in cellulose we will use on the exterior walls and between floors.
When we reviewed the exterior wall sections for R-value, we ended up sticking with a 4" wood stud cavity instead of moving up to a 6" stud wall. With rigid foam panels on the exterior, and cellulose on the interior cavity, we've been able to exceed code. I did not design the house for net zero energy or anything like that (way too much money) but, with the final design we will have a well-insulated house able to withstand the harsh New England climate. As far as the acoustic isolation goes, we specified Roxul, but went with Owens Corning Thermafiber due to supply issues. Same R-value, same performance. We will not install putty pads or anything really technical, but a layer of insulation between sleeping rooms, laundry and entertaining spaces should get us what we need.
An important note: what you do not see in the photos is the final tie-in of the existing with new. I realize that makes it difficult to visualize the final product. But, that should also keep you excited for the next share, which will include a video tour of all floors!
There’s a really good reason we haven’t fully broken through the existing structure on the 1st and 2nd floors: drywall. Drywall, mud and tape are arguably the messiest activities on a construction job. Two exceptions might be underground utility and concrete work, especially saw cutting, and perhaps asbestos removal. Those are also terrible. However, because drywall and joint compound dust are impossible to contain, they are just awful stages of a project. So, working with our GC on phasing, we both came to the conclusion that boarding up the interiors of the addition nearly completely before we broke through to connect spaces, would be the best approach to contain dust as much as possible.
And now, here comes the roofing!! Within the hour, our old roof was gone.
Below are the during and after of two day's work. Roofers always amaze me, making such light work of what is really a daunting physical task.
