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New house is almost done: lap siding from the mill

Started by ljmathias, May 18, 2010, 08:38:16 PM

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ljmathias

I think I've mentioned a time or twenty that I'm just finishing up the house for my youngest son and his family- in fact, went swimming with them in the pond this afternoon after it got too hot to work.  Anyways, the house really came together on the inside and the outside.  Won't show the inside- nothing all that novel 'cept for a few additions here and there using wood from the mill.  The outside, though, turned out way better than I'd hoped: I love it, and so does the rest of the family.  Made some mistakes but not too bad or too noticible, and I guess that's the best I'll ever be ever to say about my house building.  Anyway- a few pictures around the outside, and yes, you'll probably notice that the east wall is darker then north or south: haven't put the finish coat on the latter two sides yet- got hung up in Iowa for a couple days and off to South Africa tomorrow- I'll get pictures of trees there.





















And as Daffy Duck used to say at the end of the movie cartoon, "That's all, Folks!"

Lj
LT40, Long tractor with FEL and backhoe, lots of TF tools, beautiful wife of 50 years plus 4 kids, 5 grandsons AND TWO GRANDDAUGHTERS all healthy plus too many ideas and plans and not enough time and energy

ljmathias

LT40, Long tractor with FEL and backhoe, lots of TF tools, beautiful wife of 50 years plus 4 kids, 5 grandsons AND TWO GRANDDAUGHTERS all healthy plus too many ideas and plans and not enough time and energy

Hilltop366

I think it was Porky Pig but that doesn't matter much, nice job on the siding!

ljmathias

Thanks and thanks; yeah, memory is the second or third thing to go, or maybe the fourth? Fifth?

Lj
LT40, Long tractor with FEL and backhoe, lots of TF tools, beautiful wife of 50 years plus 4 kids, 5 grandsons AND TWO GRANDDAUGHTERS all healthy plus too many ideas and plans and not enough time and energy

Magicman

Hey Lon....Super nice.  I like.    :)  Those "live edges" give it a real sawyer's touch.    ;)
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

WDH

It is unique, one of a kind, not a cookie cutter like you see in the sub-divided neighborhoods.  You did a great job!
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

fishpharmer

lj, nice job.  I am gonna have to stop in and see it in person.  Did you saw all the framing lumber as well as the siding?  That must be a great feeling of accomplishment.  Like I said before you have lucky kids and grandkids.
Built my own band mill with the help of Forestry Forum. 
Lucas 618 with 50" slabber
WoodmizerLT-40 Super Hydraulic
Deere 5065E mfwd w/553 loader

The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work. --Tom A. Edison

ljmathias

Thanks, all.  Fish: no didn't saw the framing lumber, wasn't confident enough in my ability to get it uniform and dry enough.  Am now and have already started sawing the frame for my oldest son's house plus pecan for steps and flooring.  Will be quite an adventure, sawing and building at the same time- gonna be a hot, humid summer to boot, but that's why God invented water.

Lj
LT40, Long tractor with FEL and backhoe, lots of TF tools, beautiful wife of 50 years plus 4 kids, 5 grandsons AND TWO GRANDDAUGHTERS all healthy plus too many ideas and plans and not enough time and energy

KyTreeFarmer

Lj
Great job, good looking house. I like it!
KTF
Woodmizer LT15G
Belsaw from Sears & Roebucks
8N Ford
87 Kubota 2550 W/FEL

jander3

Nice.  I really like the live-edge siding.  Looks great.

brdmkr

I really like to live-edge as well.  I have never actually seen it on a building.  Only in pictures at this site.  It sure looks good.  Good job.
Lucas 618  Mahindra 4110, FEL and pallet forks, some cant hooks, and a dose of want-to

ljmathias

Doing live edge is easy if you remember to:
-use a story pole and mark your tyvek house wrap accurately
-put your boards exactly on the marks
-use screws rather than nails if you're like me: wife only had me move or replace a couple of boards; easy
-treat both sides of the siding before it goes up (harder to do once it's up)
-make sure your boards are wide enough: I cheated on a couple, thought it wouldn't matter; turns out, because they didn't go all the way up to the mark, the angle they made with the board under them made a gap
-use really long boards if you can get them: minimize joints
-seal around all openings; I used clear paintable caulk
-make sure your edge trim is wide and thick enough: started first wall with corner and window trim that was too thin: bottom edges of siding stuck out past the trim- not good

Questions unanswered:
-to plane or not to plane; Arky planed his and it took up less sealant.  I compared a few and that's true.  Other side of that coin is that planed takes up less sealant, doesn't penetrate as well: bad?  I went with unplaned for two reasons: no industrial size planer, and I liked the look of the unplaned better.
-how thick is thick enough?  I went with 4/4 and it looks great, seems to be holding its shape well.  Others report using thinner with good success, although I'd worry more about warpage with thinner, and with splitting using screws or thicker nails.
-screws vs nails: screws work great for me- go up fast enough though not as fast as a nail gun; used colored deck screws that almost matched the color of the stained and sealed wood, and this was good for some boards that bowed a little- used face screws to tighten them up; they show but not much.
-butt joints vs angled: I used butt, left a gap and caulked to allow for expansion/contraction but same would work as well I think with a little caulk
-cut your siding with the end in mind; I know everyone says to do this, but I had to cut a lot of logs just to get them cut over the last few years, and that meant I just had to guess at end use.  Turns out that was good and bad- had most of the wood cut but I had to find it first; got half a dozen stacks air drying outside and more under roof.  In my hurry to get it cut, I mixed thicknesses and type of wood- bad idea as you have to unstack and restack.  I'm going to do that real soon now, but found that it was easier to go ahead and just cut new boards just for this purpose.  In hindsight, and in foresight to build the next house, we'll just cut as we need it and put it up as is, either dry (from Katrina logs in the pole barn) or fresh from trees we log as we need them.

Biggest problem with having your own mill and the flexibility it gives you is that you end up doing just-in-time felling, bucking and milling.  If you buy your lumber, why you just drive on down and pick it up- no muss no fuss (except in the old wallet).

Didn't mean to bore you. I tend to be long-winded, I guess.

Lj
LT40, Long tractor with FEL and backhoe, lots of TF tools, beautiful wife of 50 years plus 4 kids, 5 grandsons AND TWO GRANDDAUGHTERS all healthy plus too many ideas and plans and not enough time and energy

Raider Bill

I like this! I have been wracking my brain trying to decide what to do on the ends of my house. Live edge maybe the answer.

How are you using the story pole vertically?
The First 70 years of childhood is always the hardest.

ljmathias

I nailed a strip of treated 1X2 to the bottom of each outside wall, at the base of the sheating- you need this for the angle for the first row of siding.  I wasn't as careful at this as I should have been- would have been better, in hindsight, to measure down an integer number of units from the very top of the horizontal siding and just leave an inch or so overlap on the bottom layer.  Either way, the story pole was marked taking into account the bottom layer overlap, and then resting the bottom of the story pole on the strip nailed on- easy then to move across and mark each row top with a permanent marker.  I tried a chalkline, but rain and dew washed that off the first night   :D

It also helps if you can line up your rows to match windows and door frames, especially on the bottom.  On the tops at the frames, best is to have just an inch or so that has to be cut from the siding just above the frames.  I lucked out with about this amount but through no foresight on my part.  Bottoms are a bear, too- you don't want too much trimming on the siding coming up on the bottoms or you'll have gaps to fill behind that row under the frames- think about it and if that's not clear, I'll try again.  Best would be no trimming at all and the row of siding under the window frames butting up solid to the underside of the frames; under the door frame, this isn't so much of a problem.   ;)

I used a 6" spacing with boards more or less 8" wide- inch on top to be covered, inch on bottom to overlap row there.  More doesn't hurt; less does (of whatever spacing you pick).

Planning is crucial, something I don't do well.  I'm a strong practitioner of the General Custer creed from the second "Night in the Museum" movie (we have lots of grandkids but I loved the movie, too): "Plan?  We're Americans!  We don't plan, we DO!"

Lj
LT40, Long tractor with FEL and backhoe, lots of TF tools, beautiful wife of 50 years plus 4 kids, 5 grandsons AND TWO GRANDDAUGHTERS all healthy plus too many ideas and plans and not enough time and energy

stonebroke

Up here we would call that Adirondack siding.


Stonebroke

Magicman

Quote from: stonebroke on May 21, 2010, 04:00:19 AM
Up here we would call that Adirondack siding.  Stonebroke 

Wonder where that name came from  ???  Down here we could call it "Redneck" siding...... :D
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

stonebroke

From the world famous(maybe) Adirondack Mountains. I think it really orginates anyplace people figure out that it is wasted effort to square up your siding.

Stonebroke

r.man

They say there is no such thing as a dumb question so here goes. Is the top edge of your siding "live" as well or has it been edged?
Life is too short or my list is too long, not sure which. Dec 2014

DeepWoods

Don't know how others do it, but I have live edge on my garage, and the top is edged.  Think it would make for an easier installation, and each course would be more consistent.
Norwood LM2000 with 23 HP Briggs and 21 foot track, Hand Built Logging Arch, Cooks Cat Claw Sharpener and Setter. 48" Xtreme Duty Logrite Cant Hook.

ljmathias

Mine is edged- you need a square surface so that the next board on top lays flat with as few places for bugs to get in as possible.  An uneven surface means the top board would lay on the highest point, leaving gaps where the lower parts are in the board underneath.  Make sense?

Lj
LT40, Long tractor with FEL and backhoe, lots of TF tools, beautiful wife of 50 years plus 4 kids, 5 grandsons AND TWO GRANDDAUGHTERS all healthy plus too many ideas and plans and not enough time and energy

r.man

Thanks LJ. makes perfect sense and does seem obvious once you know. Saw some siding yesterday that looked like live edge but was very regular. Don't know how they do it but they are able to make a slightly irregular bottom edge that looks natural until you notice that the board above is exactly the same about three feet farther down the wall and so on. Your son's house turned out great looking and I hope you enjoy the new one as much. Will you have any problem with the building department about using your own material?
Life is too short or my list is too long, not sure which. Dec 2014

ljmathias

Thanks, r.man, but I should make note of the fact that I live out in the country in Mississippi.  When we got ready to build our first house 12 years ago on the land, I called the county courthouse and asked the clerk who I should see about getting permits.  Her reply: 'You want us to give you permission to build a house?'  I let that one drop and moved on to my second question: How many inspections do I need and who does them?  "You want us to come WATCH you build your house?"  The whole matter died there.  Problem now is, there have been enough unscrupulous builders building shoddy houses for sale that the county has actually implemented new rules: now I have to get any new septic field installations inspected, which is fine with me- sure wouldn't want the neighbors crap running onto our place- they live up the hill and you know what they say about crap...

Lj
LT40, Long tractor with FEL and backhoe, lots of TF tools, beautiful wife of 50 years plus 4 kids, 5 grandsons AND TWO GRANDDAUGHTERS all healthy plus too many ideas and plans and not enough time and energy

Larry

Quote from: ljmathias on May 24, 2010, 03:48:17 PM
Problem now is, there have been enough unscrupulous builders building shoddy houses for sale that the county has actually implemented new rules: now I have to get any new septic field installations inspected, which is fine with me- sure wouldn't want the neighbors crap running onto our place- they live up the hill and you know what they say about crap...

Lj

You can thank the Feds with the Clean Water Act for that one.  I like clean water just as much as anybody but some of the rules don't make sense to a hillbilly.  First had to pay a P.E. to look at my dirt.  Than I had to put this stupid brown paper over my laterals before back filling.  Now they want new septic tanks pressure tested to insure they don't leak. ??? ??? ???
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

Magicman

Quote from: Larry on May 24, 2010, 04:31:20 PM
  Now they want new septic tanks pressure tested to insure they don't leak. ??? ??? ???


Now that is a stinking thinking man's idea.  :-\
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

ScottAR

How does one pressure test a concrete poop tank? 
Afterall, the lid just sets on top with gravity and dirt holding it down.
Scott
"There is much that I need to do, even more that I want to do, and even less that I can do."
[Magicman]

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