sawing out a house

[Magicman]

Looks like you're about ready to start on the roof.  Gonna use metal?

[campy]

Recently I read and article about the Amish:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2009/11/29/maine_town_quickly_embraces_new_amish_neighbors/

On the top of the second page the townfolk were amazed at how quickly they built their houses.

I am paying a 30 year mortgage and the wheels are turning in my head.

Your financial advice to your children is very sound.  
NO DEBT !

Without getting political, it makes no sense to work and pay interest.
A 30 year mortgage of $100,000 at 7% has interest payments totaling $139,508.90.
So, total payback is $239,508.90!

I should have lived in a trailer while I built my house.
It is never too late to learn and my children will be able to stand on my/our shoulders.


Thanks for the barn photos.
You have a lot of courage.

[MrMoo]

I sawed out all the lumber for my barn. It involved having a plan and material list for the barn and then being meticulous about keeping records everyday of what you sawed out to know exactly where you are concerning your inventory vs the material list.
It was a lot of work but very satisfying.
The pitfalls are that the plan for the building changes while you are sawing. You need to figure out pretty sure what the building will be and make little to no changes.

[Planman1954]

Magicman:  I know it's probably nuts, but I'm going to try to cut some pine wood shingles. That way, all I have is time in it, which I have, and enjoy doing. I considered using Ondura from Lowes, but was not very impressed with comments about it I found on the internet. I don't want to use metal because I don't want to cut my hands up. Remember I'm by myself doing this. So, I've already started sawing 1x3's and wood shingles.
I plan on stripping it out with the 1x3's over the rafters, then applying felt, and then placing the wood shingles over that. That will give me a small air gap running through the shingles so they won't mold (I hope.) Then I'll still have a vapor barrier up there.

Oh, and one more thing...I'm sawing the lumber as I go, putting it up green (mainly the framing lumber I'm speaking of.) I'll prepaint my lap siding so that when it moves, you won't be able to tell. The siding I've already cut will be drying for quite a while anyway before I use the solid color stain on it to match my house.
Planman

[sawthemlogs]

a great idea go for it..you get thesatisfaction of knowing you accomplished this..your lumber your time ..nothing better..when i was young teenager dad and us young boys built their own ranch style house..all the framing lumber was cut off the farm and sawed on his brothers circular sawmill..floorjoist where full2x12 oak....heavy  ,ceilingjoist2x10 pine rafters 2x6 pine and 2x4 studs.. off course the circle saw wasnt that precise as store bought...the floor joist was just cut down with circular saw using a guide cut to 111/2 in. abou foot on each end so when it rested on sill plate tops wher even and excess hung below.studs where just ripped through table saw for correct width,..  most was done while lumber still green   ..good thing as far as oak was concerned.  evryone nows how hard it is to nail once dry.. electrician didnt like it  when he started drilling hole for wiring...    anyways with band mills today your lumber can be sawed wih greater accuracy...not saying circular saw cant do the same ..depends on the sawyer...me i still have a lot to learn.. dont want to rattle but that was 35 years ago dad is 84 know still resides there and the hous still looks the day it was fineshed..no mager warping .twisting.etc...thanks all great place to be here...happy logging

[Magicman]

Magicman:  I know it's probably nuts, but I'm going to try to cut some pine wood shingles.  Planman

Well, yes I do think it's nuts.  I try to stay away from telling/suggesting what other folks should do, but you said that "it's probably nuts".

#1.  Pine is probably the last species that I would use.  Heart cypress or maybe heart ERC would be my choice.
#2.  Do you have a jig that will allow you to cut tapered shingles.
#3.  Your rafters look to be on 2' centers.  A 1X3 across them for lathing doesn't give much support.  Around here
        folks generally use a full 1X6 oak for lathing.
#4.   What's going to support the felt between the rafters?

I'm not trying to knock you down....just trying to understand.

[paul case]

MrMoo how do you do?
when i ,we, built the add on to my house, we knew the plan but we also used nearly 2x as many studs as i thought andi fund myself making a list of what exactly we needed to finish the stage we were on.(walls trusses decking paneling) sometimes i would saw the boards in the evening and put them up the next morning. we had to quit one time to go get more logs.
plannman,
sounds like you got a plan,but will it be strong enough to walk on? how thick are those shingles gong to be and how far apart art the runners? i wouldnt want you to fall through. it looks like a long way down!  pc

[Planman1954]

You guys are great! All good questions. First to pine vs. cypress. It is very hard to get heart cypress, and the source I have for pine is costing me next to nuthin. I thought exactly the same thing about using pine...but once I got on the internet, they are all over the place... yeah...pine shingles! Some of the pine roofs are over 100 years old.So keep the comments coming... I want to hear all the negatives. I ain't 100% bound to it yet.

Second...1x3 vs. 2x4 for stripping. Well, the deal is they are going to be spaced @ 8" oc. That leaves 5" between each one. I was going to use 2x, but I thought that 1" (a full 1") would be enough support for me after the thickness of shingles was applied. My second floor decking is all 1", and it's fine. If I'm wrong..tell me...please. I'm about to start cutting the stripping. You may be right tho, cause my floor joists are 16" oc.

Last, I tried one homemade jig the other day, and it was really slow. I've got a new bright idea to make 12 shingles at one pass using 4 troughs..all different widths. I'll take photos if the idea works...I've put a LOT of thought into it to make it fast. If it flops, well, there will be no photos. Ha. Thanks for reading.

Oh, one more thing...about the felt. After I have the stripping on, I'll place the felt over them. That way it'll be easy to put on. Then the first piece of lap siding on the edges, followed by the first course of shingles, then the next. As the next shingle up goes over the one below it, an angled gap will then exist beteen the bottom of the shingle and the felt giving it a small air space to breathe.

Planman

[Traditional Toolworks]

It is my experience that nail guns do not works so well in hardwood.

You just need a larger air compressor. Most of my nailing has been in softwood, I have knotty pine on the inside of my home office.

The other option is to do joinery so you don't need nails!

Cheers,
Alan

[Planman1954]

I forgot to say that once the pine shingles were applied, I would spray them with semi-transparent cedar stain ...Olympic or Lowes brand. I've use them in the past...they fade after a couple of years, but at least it would be a fast application, and not too expensive to do with a spray gun. It does give a uniform look to it that'll last a while.

[Radar67]

Contact member pineywoods, he is in Marion, LA and cuts and dries a lot of cypress.

[Chuck White]

Magicman:  I know it's probably nuts, but I'm going to try to cut some pine wood shingles. That way, all I have is time in it, which I have, and enjoy doing. I considered using Ondura from Lowes, but was not very impressed with comments about it I found on the internet. I don't want to use metal because I don't want to cut my hands up. Remember I'm by myself doing this. So, I've already started sawing 1x3's and wood shingles.
I plan on stripping it out with the 1x3's over the rafters, then applying felt, and then placing the wood shingles over that. That will give me a small air gap running through the shingles so they won't mold (I hope.) Then I'll still have a vapor barrier up there.

Oh, and one more thing...I'm sawing the lumber as I go, putting it up green (mainly the framing lumber I'm speaking of.) I'll prepaint my lap siding so that when it moves, you won't be able to tell. The siding I've already cut will be drying for quite a while anyway before I use the solid color stain on it to match my house.
Planman

With a good finish on them, I think pine would hold up pretty well.
I think a good use for "less durable" woods would be to cut your shingles and use them on the walls that had a roof over them, like on porches, breezeways, etc.

[Magicman]

yeah...pine shingles! Some of the pine roofs are over 100 years old    Planman

Woooa,  You're talking about old growth heart pine ("over 100 years old")shingles.  Not today's pine.  It's not the same.  Same thing with cypress.  Today's cypress will rot if exposed to the elements.  In my post, I said heart cypress.  It's hard to find.  I cut a lot of cypress, and very little of it is heart that would stand up to an outside environment.

Simply spraying pine shingles with a stain, will not preserve them.  You would have to have something deep penetrating that included UV inhibitors.  You're talking about a huge roof and high maintenance roofing.

[Tom]

See that rug laying under the giblets of lumber?  That's pretty much just like the one that was in my Granddaddy's house, in front of the fireplace.  Charlie and I used to play marbles on it.  It already had the ring drawn.  The fun was that it wasn't round.  We had to be pretty creative when it came to rules. 



'Course ours was bigger.....  and different colors...... and...

[Larry]

I would start with a small and simple to build house.  Just to make sure you and your spouse have suitable temperaments for a longer term project.  Maybe work on a Habitat house to gain experience.  Make sure your finances are such that the house can be completed with little or no financing...I did a couple where I built as the money came in...took a long time...to long.

Building my fourth at present.  Framing lumber is a very small cost in the overall scheme of things...that’s why I don’t mill it.  Hardwoods for floors, trim, paneling, cabinets, (especially cabinets), and deck lumber are big ticket...I’m almost there.
 



The HVAC crew will get a check tomorrow for more than I spent on framing lumber.

And lets see...in the left garage door you can barely make out a stickered stack of ERC...and right next to it is another stack...and a stack in the house.  The HVAC crew say my house is the best smelling ever.

[Planman1954]

Tom:

That rug is a small microexample of why I'm building such a large storage area in the loft of the barn. Too much junk just laying around!

Magicman: I'm listening to you...thinking about it....

Also, I found an old motherearthnews article about spacing 1x3 @ small ctrs. like I was talking about for wood shingles. When you put your weight on it, you'll be standing on 2 at the same time. I think it'll be ok.

[ellmoe]

Planman you could pressure treat the shingles. There was (is) alot of work done on PT Pine shingles. I was looking at that 20 odd years ago. I believe most of the research was being done in Texas. I'm with Majicman on the plane pine shingles though, I think you'd be replacing them before two years were out.

Mark

[ljmathias]

Nice picture, Larry; in fact, looks a lot like the house I'm building right now.  Only problem with yours: half the house is upside down!  You're going to have to fix that before you put the siding on...

(the tyvek    )

Lj

[D Hagens]

 As long as your drainage grooves on Tyvek are vertical it don't matter if you can read the writing or not.

[Planman1954]

Thanks to all for the input. OK, so what if I still used the SYP shingles, and dipped them as many old timers did ...about 2/3 of the way into some type of preservative. And the next question is, is there any way to make my own concoction at home to dip them in? I hope ya'll don't think I'm hard headed. It's just if I can't use the pine, I'm going back to Ondura from Lowes...and I've read some posts about it that aren't too positive.