Low E Vinyl Window from Lowes

Thereabouts nine or so years ago, a couple of kids on the next street put a golf ball through the original single pane plate glass window in the front of my Dallas house.  I didn't notice the hole when I was in the house (wasn't cold yet) but one day soon after the event, I was backing out of the drive and there it was as big as life!  I found the golf ball inside on the living room floor.

I called the insurance company to see what if anything they could do.  Did you know that most insurance policies DON'T cover glass?  BUT.....my policy would cover to have the carpet replaced because of the glass shards!  Well, heck!  I could do that myself with a vacuum.   I passed on their generous offer.  What I probably could have done was to have them give me cash for the carpet and then spend it on the windows.  Eh....too much trouble!

Anyway, after much consideration I replaced the entire front window set up myself with three single hung, dual pane, low E, vinyl windows.  You'd never know it originally had a plate glass window in there!  And once fully installed and sealed, I could really feel the difference in insulated performance over old style single pane aluminum framed glass.  I was impressed.  So much so, I'm having the same windows installed on this house.  Lowes came out today to take measurements and check things out.

The Great Room
For the Great Room, replacements will cover the two floor to ceiling picture windows between the two sliding glass doors, the sliding glass doors themselves and finally, a completely new 3'x5' picture window in the new kitchen.  The Lowes installer indicated all of the floor framing would have to be replaced since there was evidence of wood rot.  I had been thinking about it anyway, I opted to go ahead and have the two center windows shortened by about 20" with new taller framing underneath.  The only view I'd be losing is that of the concrete patio so no harm, no foul.  

I also asked for a secondary estimate for the installation of outward opening french doors in-lieu of sliding glass doors.  My concern there is that I might be losing a lot of glass area due to the wider door frames.  If it's not a killer amount, I'll give he french doors serious thought.

The Bedrooms
In the bedrooms, to reclaim some wall space (and because I have a thing about placing furniture directly in front of a window), I'm having shorter single hung windows installed.

I'll cover the newly framed walls below each window and the ones in the Great Room with a stack stoned veneer down to the foundation.

I'll get word of the damages later this week!  I can hardly wait.....

The tree guy returns

Back on May 23, I contracted to have a big old tree  removed out front as it looked perilously close to being dead.  I didn't want it falling on my carport and it's soon to be new roof so it needed to go.

The tree service took it down in two days leaving the stump for a later day.  Seems it's their normal practice to save up the stump grinding, rent a machine, and spend the day(s) taking them all out in one fell swoop.  It was OK by me....as long as they returned.

They did.  Apparently today was the day for my stump.  They showed up unannounced and with loud clank woke me from a slight siesta.

 Yours truly and the tree guy's dog.

AC Deck Completed

I finally completed work on the AC/Systems deck.  As mentioned earlier, since I'm replacing them anyway, I'm relocating the AC/Heating and hot water systems up into this unused space to free up some closet space downstairs.

Now I have to start the search for an AC systems contractor.  I'm also in the hunt for a spray foam insulation contractor (more on that later).

It's truly amazing the number of forums and blogs out there so getting an advance education on the products and the like is really wonderful.  I've been browsing spray foam insulation sites as well as HVAC sites.  The downside is that you MUST make and take the necessary time to wade through the minutiae of available data.  You have to develop a knack for reading between the lines so that you can be an informed consumer.

Being educated is an important part of the renovation process.

Breaker Box cleanup completed

Time to make a move!!  I figured I stared at the breaker panel long enough and launched into the dreaded rewire.  Actually, it wasn’t that bad.  The biggest stumbling block was the fear of a lightening bolt coming down from the big bad power company striking me down for daring to cut their meter box security tag.  I had visions of the now automated meter sending out a distress signal to home base as soon as I pulled it out.  Unfortunately, the only way to cut power to the house is to remove the meter.  

Nothing ventured......., nothing gained.  Gulp!

I started some of the work the other day by pulling the extended wires from the old box that were leading to the new box.  Not pretty.

 

Once the power was cut I removed all of the breakers leaving them attached to the lines leading to them.  I unscrewed the two 100amp main lines and pulled them out of both boxes and removed them from the wall studs they were screwed to.  

The big panel was moved up and reattached to the studs.

It took about 3 sweltering hours (no fan) total to insure everything was properly back in place.  I still have two wires to the water heater and dryer to attached but I’m still configuring that floor space so not yet ready to do that.  

Not pictured here are the two 6-0 cables for both the AC and the electric range.  Since range is being relocated to the other side of the kitchen, the original cable is no longer going to reach.  For safety reasons, I want to replace the range cable with an uninterrupted cable run (no interim junction box) from the breaker panel to the new plug.  Now that will be a spendy run of wire!  

Glad that’s done and out of the way.

Spaghetti bowl electrics

Monday - 6/20/11

I was taking another look at the spaghetti bowl electrical panel today.

It drives me nutz to see something unnecessarily messy as this (not to mention dangerous) and likely because someone didn't want to (or couldn't) spend the money to have it done right in the first place so I’m getting closer to taking the plunge and redoing it myself the way it should have been done.  

Electrical work is actually rather easy.....if (and not necessarily in this order) you posses a good sense of logic, have done your homework on the do's and don'ts, have a healthy respect for the fact that it can kill you if you're not careful, investigated everything that needs to be done, have full and open access to all the walls to simplify the tracing back of wires if there was ever the need, and most importantly, knowing where to turn the power OFF before beginning work.

Wiring breakers is easy as well….black to the breaker switch, white to the neutral bar in the box.  Unless you’re working with 240v lines in which case….well, never mind.  Anyway, overall it’s a piece of cake…..unless someone’s done some jury rigging in which case you need to be triple careful in deciphering what was done. 

I’ve heard stories from the guys at work about people doing things on the cheap and risking major calamity to save a few bucks.  Well, I’m all for saving a few bucks….. but not at the risk of life, limb, or the roof over my head.

WOW...See what I mean?!

So I'm browsing the electrical box to see how difficult it would be to start working on it (as said, not very).  I was finger tracing recognized cables to the logical spot in the box when I noticed this one 60amp breaker switch with heavy wire that seem to go OUT of the house through the same conduit that the power lines come in through.  

I scratched my head for a minute or two wondering why that was and then got to thinking about a stretch of conduit that comes out of the outside meter box, drops down and over to the opening in the concrete for the water tap and disappears down into the ground going…somewhere.  

Going....somewhere.....

As I was standing there contemplating where that wire might be going, I got to thinking of the capped off water line that comes up out of the ground where the old shed used to be.  Next to it, I spied the same a piece of PVC pipe sticking up out of the ground that I had been kicking at and pulling on the other day...

Wholly crap!!   I didn't look closely the other day but It's the other end of the heavy wire that comes out of the power panel!!   That could have been nasty had it been live when I was playing with it!  


Just goes to show you gotta be extremely careful when dealing with things other people have messed with!   I shall endeavor to do so with greater care moving forward!

Interim Projects

While the roofing dilemma had been somewhat of a distraction, I did continue working on other things while waiting for that to come to it's eventual conclusion.  Most notably has been the opening of the remaining closets, the installation of the hallway skylight, and the relocation of various electrical cables, plugs, and switches.

Closets
I cut back the framing on the bedroom closets to maximize access to them.  They were the old style 30" door types from decades past.  I plan to have custom cabinetry installed so eliminate the need for bureau/dresser furniture.

The new AC/Systems deck
Sometimes when it's not practical to expand sideways, it's better to expand upwards.  There was a tremendous amount of wasted unused space above the entry halls and bathrooms.  I removed the artificially low ceilings in most areas so the vaulted roof above was now the new ceiling.

I left the ceiling in the central hall directly above what will be the laundry area at the original 7'4" height as that seemed to be the perfect place to relocate the new AC system and hot water heater.  They would be up and out of the way thus freeing up two additional closets just behind and on either side of the fireplace wall.

Repurposed 'attic', now the AC/Systems deck

All of the existing electrical cables originating at the breaker box panel and crisscrossing that space to the other side of the house, and in some cases back again, had to be moved out of the way.

Speedway from the panel....

Across the AC/Systems deck....

To the other side.....somewhere.

The most practical of solutions was to install a series of junction boxes mounted on two newly installed panels on either side of the deck area above the lower entry hall.  That would allow for partial use of the existing 12-2 cable and the addition of new 12-2 cable sufficient in length to go up and around the upper perimeter of the deck area.

All nicely labeled for the next guy!

As of today, with the exception of one lone cable, the deck has been cleared pending installation of the deck final floor panel.

Additional cables will to be run for added and future features.  I'm working on those now.  ALL of the electrical has to be completed and firmly in place BEFORE the expanding spray foam insulation is installed in both the ceiling and the walls.  After that, it will be a messy proposition should I suddenly decide to add more wiring.

No Leaks!

We had a storm cell pass over head this morning resulting in a good but brief downpour.  It was sufficient to validate that there were no leaks in the new roof.

I'm a happy (and relieved) camper!!

Today is a good day!

I had an appointment this morning with the Henderson County Appraisal District to dispute (a civil responsibility) the $60k assessment they wanted to place on the property.  I took my HUD Settlement documents with me and in very short order they lowered the assessment down to $32k.  That drops the annual tax rate down to only $630.  Once it's homesteaded, that will cap the ability to indiscriminately raising the taxes every year.

An excellent start of the day!

Roofing setback resolved...Phew!

The roofing company showed up on Saturday morning and started peeling back the newly installed roof to lay the missing underlayment and screws.  They worked through the weekend finally finishing the whole thing by 8:30pm Sunday evening.

I was supposed to work on Sunday but I was feeling intense pressure to be onsite for the day so requested the day off.  Fortunately my boss was very understanding (and likely due to it being a slow weekend) and authorized the day off....naturally without pay (tack that to the cost of the roof)!

I'm glad I was onsite to see the work as it progressed and to feel confident the roof was installed the way it was intended and that care was exercised to insure the four newly installed skylights as well as other potential leak points were properly flashed and sealed against the often nasty torrential downpours and hail storms the state of Texas serves up from time to time.

By 830pm I was ready for them to be gone!!  It was a long day!

Curved surfaces require creative flashing!

The skylights are flashed, the roof is flashed, I feel good.....bring on the rain!!!

Roofing Setback

Sorry for being a bit behind.  Had a roofing set back that got me off track a bit!  Also, I have some pics on my iPhone but can not load them on this PC.  Will open another blog page in the next day or so and post them there!


Monday - 5/30/11
Roofing work started on Saturday and proceeded through the start of Monday but by Sunday afternoon I was having serious misgivings about HOW the roof was being installed.

Most metal roofing installers want to leave the original roofing behind to, in their words ,"add a layer of protection" during bad weather.  What they're really wanting is to not have to strip the roof and haul away the debris and pay to drop it in a landfill somewhere.  Since my roof had only one layer of shingles, I didn't have a problem with that scenario.  The additional layered coverage was OK with me.

Before I go on, there's a moral to this particular blog entry:  Review all contracts and supporting documents provided by any contractor, PAY ATTENTION to the details, and be on site while the work is underway, and most of all, pay attention to your intuition.

The contract called for several majors things to occur:

1. Install three skylights with flashing
2. Lay down a GAF product called Shingle-Mate over the existing roof shingles to provide a clean fresh layer of water protection
3. Use 1-1/2" screws when laying down the 1x4" firing strips that the sheetmetal was to be screwed down to.
4. Use 1-1/2" screws when attaching the sheetmetal to the firing strips
5. Use a GAF product called StormGuard to seal all potential points of water intrusion.

Items 2-5 were outlined in the 'installation process' documents the contractor provided as well as during their verbal presentation when selling me on their service.  I liked the idea of the roof being screwed down through the roof decking as screws provide exponentially stronger holding power over nails in high winds.

As mentioned previously, the roofing crew showed up unexpectedly on a Saturday morning.  Had I had advance notice as to when the work was to commence, I would have selected any Monday through Friday.  As it was, it was too short notice to even consider taking a day off at work.  I had to go to work!  So I came back on my lunch hour to check the progress as well as when getting of work.

My first intuitive warning that I didn't pay attention to was that the crew chief had not been informed about the installation of the skylights.  When I told him there were three, he became slightly flustered but said they would do it.  I showed him where they were to be installed.

On Sunday afternoon I stopped by during my lunch to take a quick look at the progress.  I became concerned about how they were going about installing two of the three skylights I had provided.  The holes were properly located but they stripped all of the factory flashing off the skylights.  I started questioning why they would do that given you can't really get a better seal that what the factory provides.  Also, they pulled back all of the original shingles and underlayment at the top end of the skylight opening exposing the decking below it and were about to lay the sheetmetal down without any protecting underlayment.  Given the sheetmetal has high ridges, I couldn't see how they were going to deflect the water from above around the skylight.  The crew boss assured me they would seal everything up.  Alarm bells started to sound in my head.

When I came home Sunday evening, I climbed up on the roof to take stock of the work done thus far.  I started to notice a couple of things I hadn't noticed the day before (hence my advice to pay attention!).  I went back through the supporting sales literature and contract again and found several items I had missed that were crucial to the install process that had not been done properly.

There was no black felt waterproofing underlayment.  They failed to lay it out.  Neither did they screw down the 1x4 firing strips.  They used a power nailer.  I could see the smooth nail heads through the decking...but I could not see any screws.  The 1-1/2" screws for the metal decking should have been clearly visible through the decking and I couldn't see those either.  I did find a box of 1" screws suggesting the sheetmetal was screwed down to only the 1-4" strips and not the roof deck itself.  So essentially there was only a series of smooth nails holding the roof down....and as anyone knows, high winds have incredible forces and could very well lift the roof right off the building.

At 5:00am on Monday morning I woke up in a sweat consumed about the status of the project.  With the roof 3/4 installed correcting any of it had the makings of a major nightmare.  No contractor wants to undo something that's that far along.  I sat down at my computer and drafted in writing (for legal purposes) an email articulating my areas of concern.  I sent that off to Ron, the salesman, and the owner about 7:00am and then at 8:30am called Ron on his cell phone and expressed my serious misgivings about the work done so far.  He said he would come right out.

I informed Antonio, the crew chief, that the Ron was coming out to take a look at the roof.  When I explained to him why Ron was coming, Antonio got a little defensive saying that he was not told he needed to do those things.  Not to get bogged down in the literal conversation, it struck me that if Antonio had a long term relationship with the roofing company, how could he not know that those certain things I outlined were a "standard" for the roof that was being installed.  It set me thinking about the possibility of there being other homeowners out there who got the same roof and the same sales spiel but did not get the added protections they thought they were purchasing.
 
To his credit, Ron did come out immediately.  I showed him my areas of concern and I could tell by looking at him that he recognized the problem.  Also to his credit, he immediately agreed there was a problem with how it was installed, and that it was a communications issue on their end and that he accepted full responsibility for what had transpired.  After reviewing everything, Ron surprised me by asking me what I thought needed to be done.....  My answer to that was that I did not want to wonder every single time it rained if the roof was going to leak.  It was pretty obvious to both of us what needed to occur, I think he was just hoping I would say something to get him off the hook.

The ONLY resolution was that the entire roof would have to be removed and redone the way they were selling it.  Ron knew it and finally said it out loud.  He assured me that it would be done and that I would be satisfied.  Well, words can sound great but you have to follow that up with action.

I had to get to work so I left him at the house with him giving me assurances that the roof would be removed and redone correctly.  I did see the owner driving up the street as I was leaving so I know he was on sight.

Wednesday - 6/1/11
I was driving by the the roofing contractors place of business Wednesday morning just as the owner was pulling into the parking lot so I whipped a U-turn and when back to the shop.  I introduced myself.  He knew immediately who I was and invited me into his office.  He acknowledged that the roof was not installed properly and again apologized for the turn of events.  He assured me they would remove and reinstall the roof the proper way.  I was relieved that he did not try to evade the truth of the situation and openly admitted to the problem.  I've heard horror stories about roofing contractors so while the platitudes were nice to hear, I'm still left holding my breath in limbo land until the work actually occurs.

Friday - 6/3/11
I placed a followup call to the Ron to find out when they would be returning to complete the work.  He said "absolutely" they would be removing the incorrectly installed roof, lay the proper foundation for it and reinstalling it.  We talked about scheduling and I was relieved again to hear him say it out loud again, but again, those are just words.   I'm still caught in the unenviable limbo land between their assurances that they will redo the work and the work actually being completed correctly.

Sunday - 6/5/11
Still hadn't heard from the Ron.  I was starting to get annoyed but also starting to formulate a plan B to get the roof redone even if it meant hiring another company.  I also shot off another documenting email.

Monday - 6/6/11
Ron called me back profusely apologetic that he had not called back as promised and again reassured me they would be coming out this next Saturday and Sunday as it was the only time slot open.  He advised he would be onsite the entire time to make sure it got done right and since I had to work those days, offered to take pics for me so that I could be assured it was being done right.  I felt better about the turn of events and feel he's being sincere but then again he's still one of those dreaded "roofing contractors" so until I see the work completed satisfactorily, I'm still stressing.