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Nyyen posted:Not entirely sure if this is the right thread for this, but here it is anyway. Something far worse than that other house that shall remain unmentioned... Aw, I was just coming here to post this. (I saw it on Contractor Talk but I think it's been posted on Reddit now) Everyone interested in construction needs to go and marvel at the pics, they're truly amazing. It's like this guy has seen a picture of framing once and decided to construct the entire shed from memory. And he also doesn't appear to own a saw so things are slapped up where they might fit. I hope the OP keep updating.
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Apr 3, 2013 01:49
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Holy hell I get referrals from friends but half the time they don't know what to look for either. The guy that did my inspection when I bought my house seemed pretty competent (and steered me away from a different house that had some major problems) but missed that none of my bathroom plumbing had traps (that weird smell? sewer gas). When I hired someone to put in a new exterior door for me (not replace an existing, frame a whole new opening), I wound up firing them when a quick google check revealed that they had no idea what they were doing and the framing was completely wrong. Recently, I've been taking classes at the local community college in woodworking and building construction technology (siding, framing, drywall, etc) so I know what to look for. Most of the guys in my classes are nice guys (mostly ex-military) but the prevailing attitude is "can't see it from my house". I don't think they'd intentionally screw someone over but they'd do a sloppy job to get it done faster. I don't trust anyone anymore.
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Apr 6, 2013 23:21
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Reading this thread makes me never want to own property. If you buy something older, it's probably full of tiny death/poop traps. If you buy a new one, it's probably cheaply made AND could still be full of deathtraps. If you have your own built, you have to breathe down the neck of every guy who comes through there to keep them from doing dumb poo poo. This is probably too far off topic but how the hell do you find a good contractor/inspector?
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I found these pics via a blog post. Something looks off here:     Beyond that this is all obviously unpermitted work, Austin has a "heritage trees" ordinance that's really strict about not building within a certain distance of trees over a certain trunk size. This whole thing is probably a tear down and you wouldn't be permitted to remove the tree and rebuild in the same location which might make the lot undevelopable.
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Jul 28, 2013 00:32
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Munin posted:On a different note, I came across this and it definitely belongs here: Eh, I haven't read the whole blog but that's the gable end, those 2x4s are there so you have something to nail the siding to, they don't really carry any load.
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Feb 10, 2014 02:31
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kastein posted:Honestly, I just cut back till I run out of insect damage, then continue till I run out of water damage, then cut a little more for good measure and that's that. I'll just throw this out there, I was at a meeting hall that had this construction with some firefighters and they said they are scared to death of that type of construction. It tends to fail catastrophically in a fire, collapsing the roof and killing firefighters.
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Feb 17, 2014 05:19
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Semi-relevant: I thought this video showing a burn test between a wood truss roof and a conventionally framed roof was pretty impressive. You can see how the truss fails catastrophically by coming apart when the gusset plates melt. By comparison, the stick framed roof doesn't fail until the members start to burn through. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo5ZtBXJiHo
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Feb 17, 2014 16:13
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Nitrox posted:
That is exactly why the required pedestrians loads for design are so high, 100 psf for commercial use. The news report said 24 people where involved, if it's 23 in the group posing and they average 150 a person, that's 3500 lb in a really concentrated area. The live load for residential decks is only 40 psf, think of that the next time you have a large group over for a party.
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Mar 18, 2014 06:15
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Remulak posted:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Chicago_balcony_collapse Yeah, we had a bad balcony collapse in Austin a few years back; no one died but a bunch were injured. Here's a pic:  If you can't figure it out, you're looking at the bottom of the balcony. Basically it was just attached to the wall with screws, no lag bolts through the ledger board, and it just popped off the wall and flipped over.
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Mar 20, 2014 03:44
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Bad Munki posted:
I honestly can't remember what the outcome of that case was although I know building permits hadn't been pulled. It was a condo owned as a rental by an absentee landlord but I don't know if he was held responsible or if they even found the builder to go after him. Here's another Austin one that is taught as a liability test case: Pretty new balcony, even has some supports and isn't simply cantilevered.  But wait, it still fell?    This was designed by a locally famous architect. He correctly spec'd lag bolts, the builder used 3 1/2" nails. However, locally famous architect took an extra fee to to help the owners guard against "defects and deficiencies." He claims that he was just there to make sure the building generally looked right, not to actually inspect construction. The owners said WTF, that's not what we thought we were paying you for. Architect was found to be 10% liable in a lawsuit by the woman that was paralyzed for life by the collapse. (long article)
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Mar 20, 2014 04:11
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I think they're probably concrete tiles which aren't nailed in, just laid out. The weight is fine to keep them down. But, yeah, some rebar in the column would've helped.
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Mar 22, 2014 03:21
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From the schadenfreude thread:   No way this was anywhere close to code tho' at first I thought it was all timber, looking closely the arch is maybe rolled steel? So maybe it was the anchoring that failed, not the member.
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Apr 11, 2014 21:56
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I probably should have posted my last workshop-design question here instead of in the "Fix it fast" thread, oh well. Anyway, got the soffits worked out for my workshop plans, and now I'm trying to figure out how the overhangs at the ends of the building should work. Here's what I have right now: I'm unclear if you're question is about the outriggers that support the overhang or the bird boxes at the soffits. The barge rafter (end rafter on a gable roof) is usually supported by 2x4s (either vertically or horizontally depending on overhang depth) that run over the gable end and are attached to the first rafter past the gable end and bird boxes give the soffit something to be nailed to. Bird boxes and outriggers are pretty standard roof framing, you might pick up a basic framing book for details.
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May 26, 2014 07:33
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krysmopompas posted:There may be a trap under the concrete, since this was once upon a time a shower/restroom area for a factory, and the builder was probably lazy and reused the existing plumbing. However it stinks like sewer gas, but that might be because it's been vacant for over a year and all the water has evaporated. My house was built in 1925 as a working man's shack: 20x20 box, four rooms and as far as I can tell no plumbing. The only bathroom is a 10x10 addition off to the side with a roof that slopes down to six feet. When I moved in (and before I learned much about construction), I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get rid of that that horrible smell. Sure enough, nothing in this house has traps. I've had one added to the tub and replaced all the bathroom plumbing with PEX. My house has all sorts of crappy construction I should document. It was actually maintained pretty well for most of it's history but then the flipper I bought it from got a hold of it. On the inside, he never met a problem quarter round couldn't solve. To add a bedroom, he closed in the garage, put in a floor which is supported but 4x4's resting on the slab, and ran the T1-11 siding down to the dirt. Then he trimmed out the exterior with MDF which is starting to swell. I rip it off as it looks bad but I really need to replace all the siding which is old T1-11 over brittle board and batten. Or very old vinyl on the gables. But while I'm doing that I should also replace the windows which are single paned aluminum from the 70s. And maybe get the foundation which is cinder blocks and shims replaced. And fix the skirting which is a combination of cement backer board and hardie soffit. At least the 50+ year old metal roof is still good. (:no jinx:)
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Nov 10, 2014 16:20
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Motronic posted:There's probably no reason to remove the T1-11. Just cut it up from the ground as appropriate and leave the rest to use it as your sheathing. It's just plywood with grooves in it....so no need to start from scratch. Just put some housewrap over it and add new siding. I've considered it although some of the T1-11 is a little rotten at the bottom. And the old board and batten is really crispy. I want to restore the house to board and batten and it'll mean really thick walls: board & batten, felt, T1-11, wrap, furring strips, new boards. But if I'm doing windows and the front door at the same time, I can adjust the trim too. I've spent the weekend reframing an opening for a new wall a/c and here's a pic of the inside of the wall. (the old a/c had dripped into the wall so I tore out the damp drywall and insulation) Doing anything to old houses always takes four times as long as it should, nothing is standard and everything was cobbled together with an assortment of screws and nails. 
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Nov 10, 2014 19:47
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You guys will enjoy this thread: http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49785 Found it when I was looking for tips on building my garage. Craftsman style garage with an apartment above, lots of great construction photos. And I wish I had pics of my woodshop teacher's workshop/house. It's out in the Hill Country of Central Texas and he built it entirelly himself. The workshop is below and he built a two bedroom living space above for him and his family. The floor in his bedroom is recycled hard maple from an old gym floor and he used birds eye maple for the stairs. The kitchen cabinets are solid wood, furniture grade as is the plank ceiling. He never got around to finished the other floors which are still plywood but it totally works in the space. You can see a little of the shop on his website: http://www.michaelcolca.com/ (that's his deck in the front page photo)
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Dec 27, 2014 21:25
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Nitrox posted:What a minimum effort job. They are relying on paint and caulk to keep water out of joints and wood surfaces. Metal roof plates directly on plywood. Non vented soffits and all around. And why they poured the concrete floors after painting the walls? Also, metal roof panel wainscoting, lol. Didn't see a single picture as to where main plumbing drain is connected to, it's sure not visible in any foundation build photos. I see a total of zero permit stickers anywhere. Sorry if some of those issues were explained, I skimmed most of the text. With regards to the roof, are you talking about the apparent lack of felt or the lack of purlins? I think he's using a synthetic underlayment instead of tar paper and I didn't think you needed purlins if you used plywood decking, only if you didn't or were installing over an existing roof.
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Dec 27, 2014 22:50
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Do you know exactly where your property lines are? I couldn't find my markers and wound up just paying a surveyor to mark the setbacks for me. Added a bit to my budget but I didn't have too worry about an expensive bust. Also, my concrete guy was the one to worry about height from grade, I just gave him the plans.
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Jan 20, 2015 17:53
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