|
Chimney sweeping sounds like hard, dirty work, and very foreign to me. Where I grew up, the only chimneys were in fancy houses and hotels at higher elevations. How often would you need to go up and do maintenance? Additionally, how much does cost of living in the country compare to, say, living in Helsinki?
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 16:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 3, 2024 09:47 |
|
|
kinmik posted:Chimney sweeping sounds like hard, dirty work, and very foreign to me. Where I grew up, the only chimneys were in fancy houses and hotels at higher elevations. How often would you need to go up and do maintenance? I don't know about Finland, but I grew up in a house with a wood-burning stove in Canada, and it's generally recommended to have your chimney swept once per year to eliminate the buildup of combustible material that can cause chimney fires. I don't know of anyone that does it themselves; everyone I know just pays a chimney sweeper to come to their house and do it. I can't recall any houses with a built-in ladder either. It's interesting seeing the differences between Finland and Canada, especially because the climate and geography are reasonably similar.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 17:52
|
|
|
Troubadour posted:He's talking about a 2x4 (inches), i.e. the girth measurements of the standard wooden plank used in US housing construction. The UNFINISHED measurements. A delivered 2x4 is actually 1.5" x 3.5". As far as dimensional lumber I've run across in metric-speaking countries, they seem to have mostly gone with 25mm to the inch for standard sizes (so slightly larger than the imperial versions). So your tubafer is gonna be about 50x100. Also, as anyone who has built anything of substance knows: it's all about the sheet stock. Everything you do in planning and framing is about not having to cut or waste too much of the sheet stock that will be covering it. In that regard, what I've seen is everything working on 60 cm increments. Where we build on 16 or 24" centers and have 4x8,12,or 16 foot sheet stock, they build on 60 cm increments and have things like 60 x 240, 60 x 300, or 120 x 300 cm sheet stock. I'm not terribly familiar with "metric building", but I figured I drop in what I know here and hopefully someone can add/correct as necessary.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 18:21
|
|
|
60 does make sense, easiest to divide into parts. All hail Babylonians.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 19:20
|
|
|
Sheets will probably be 1200x2400. 2400 is standard floor-to-ceiling height. And yes, a lot of measurements are almost the same as in America, but with 1 inch = 25 mm for prettier numbers. People sometimes still use feet and inches in conversation for some purposes even though all documentation is in metric, eg. you would go to the hardware store and ask for a box of four-inch nails rather than the 100 mm it says on the box.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 21:34
|
|
|
Motronic posted:Also, as anyone who has built anything of substance knows: it's all about the sheet stock. Everything you do in planning and framing is about not having to cut or waste too much of the sheet stock that will be covering it. In that regard, what I've seen is everything working on 60 cm increments. Where we build on 16 or 24" centers and have 4x8,12,or 16 foot sheet stock, they build on 60 cm increments and have things like 60 x 240, 60 x 300, or 120 x 300 cm sheet stock. This is correct, spacing is usually a multiple of 60 cm.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 22:08
|
|
|
PT6A posted:I don't know about Finland, but I grew up in a house with a wood-burning stove in Canada, and it's generally recommended to have your chimney swept once per year to eliminate the buildup of combustible material that can cause chimney fires. I don't know of anyone that does it themselves; everyone I know just pays a chimney sweeper to come to their house and do it. I can't recall any houses with a built-in ladder either. I've not built a house here but I'm a Finnish house-owner and I can say it's almost the same here - they have the residential areas divided into territories (at least here in the countryside) and we get a call every spring from our chimney sweeper. The chimney sweeper is required to visit once a year at least to check the result even if you swept it yourself, so in practice no one does it themselves. The built-in ladder is pretty much mandatory since the sweeper doesn't bring his own and isn't required to accept unsafe installations.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2013 22:28
|
|
|
I'm looking at some of the plans here for the rafters and they include dimensions on the materials, they all seem to be 42x something, such as 42x98, 42x123, 42x73 and 42x148. I assume they're in millimeters and it indicates width and height if I understood it correctly, it mixes english and finnish this bloody thing when using abbreviations. There is also a specification of "strenght" of the lumber which according to wikipedia follows a standard. All the lumber listed here is grade C30. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumber I see others have covered the topic of the finnish ladder theory quite nicely.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 13:30
|
|
|
I'll be definitely watching this thread! As a Finn who bought an old house 10 months ago, this will be very interesting to follow. We toyed with the idea of building our house from the scratch, but happened to stumble upon a house that pretty much fit our requirements and was a steal. Ahh, 73k euros for a house, thank you Kymenlaakso.  Sure, it needs some work here and there, but it's mostly cosmetic.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 15:25
|
|
|
Valiantman posted:The chimney sweeper is required to visit once a year at least to check the result even if you swept it yourself, so in practice no one does it themselves. There's also the fact that sweeping the chimney yourself if you are not a qualified professional would get you into trouble with your insurance in case of fire.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 15:36
|
|
|
Valiantman posted:I've not built a house here but I'm a Finnish house-owner and I can say it's almost the same here - they have the residential areas divided into territories (at least here in the countryside) and we get a call every spring from our chimney sweeper. The chimney sweeper is required to visit once a year at least to check the result even if you swept it yourself, so in practice no one does it themselves. The built-in ladder is pretty much mandatory since the sweeper doesn't bring his own and isn't required to accept unsafe installations. Interesting. There's no requirement to have the chimney-sweeper visit in Canada, as far as I know (but you may be required to show records if you have a chimney fire), and every chimney sweeper I've ever seen brings their own ladder wherever they go. Frankly, having a built-in ladder sounds like a much better idea. Do you guys have "chimney sweeping logs?" Apparently you can buy them here and if you burn them in the fireplace they clean the chimney for you. I've seen them advertised, but I'm not willing to risk the house catching on fire just to save a bit of money on a chimney sweeper.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 18:09
|
|
|
PT6A posted:Interesting. There's no requirement to have the chimney-sweeper visit in Canada Your property insurance company may disagree with that as a condition of your coverage. Mine does in the states (but there is no governmental requirement on chimney sweeping). PT6A posted:Do you guys have "chimney sweeping logs?" Apparently you can buy them here and if you burn them in the fireplace they clean the chimney for you. I've seen them advertised, but I'm not willing to risk the house catching on fire just to save a bit of money on a chimney sweeper. They don't really sweep your chimney. It's not a bad thing to use, but it's no substitute. Chimneys needs to be swept for two main reasons: creosote buildup and damage inspection. Creosote is sticky tar-like crap that goes up your chimney (and some sticks) when you are burning wood. It will catch on fire and burn if it gets hot enough - that's what a chimney fire is. If you run "sweeping logs" on a regular basis you are creating a hot enough fire to burn off the hopefully small amounts of creosote in your chimney which is a good thing. But it doesn't actually clean the entire thing to an acceptable level and obviously nobody is inspecting the chimney for damage, so they are a maintenance item that you can use rather than a substitute for a proper annual (or more frequent) sweep. It's a good idea to use them if you are burning wood that isn't well seasoned, as that causes increased creosote buildup. Motronic fucked around with this message at 18:26 on Oct 29, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 18:24
|
|
|
Motronic posted:Your property insurance company may disagree with that as a condition of your coverage. Mine does in the states (but there is no governmental requirement on chimney sweeping). Oh, definitely. I imagine your insurance company wouldn't cover fire damage caused by a chimney fire unless you can show a record of having your chimney swept/inspected. They don't really sweep your chimney. It's not a bad thing to use, but it's no substitute. quote:Chimneys needs to be swept for two main reasons: creosote buildup and damage inspection. Creosote is sticky tar-like crap that goes up your chimney (and some sticks) when you are burning wood. It will catch on fire and burn if it gets hot enough - that's what a chimney fire is. If you run "sweeping logs" on a regular basis you are creating a hot enough fire to burn off the hopefully small amounts of creosote in your chimney which is a good thing. But it doesn't actually clean the entire thing to an acceptable level and obviously nobody is inspecting the chimney for damage, so they are a maintenance item that you can use rather than a substitute for a proper annual (or more frequent) sweep. I figured this was the case. I wonder how many people end up using it as a substitute for having their chimney professionally swept?
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 18:31
|
|
|
PT6A posted:I figured this was the case. I wonder how many people end up using it as a substitute for having their chimney professionally swept? Based on 2 decades of fire service experience I can say that it's a smaller number than people who do NOTHING AT ALL to maintain their chimney. Which seems to be the bulk of people, but I'm sure that's just selection bias on my part (as I'm the one who shows up when things go pear shaped).
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 20:32
|
|
|
iv46vi posted:Cool, that'll be interesting to know, especially what's a tuba-foh equivalent in metric. first google result, 50 x 100 mm or 40 x 90 mm. e: whoops, didnt realise we were on a second page.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 22:16
|
|
|
cubicle gangster posted:first google result, 50 x 100 mm or 40 x 90 mm. As in direct conversion of units or the most common size used in framing?
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2013 01:54
|
|
|
Another minor update. The structure is slowly getting more complete, they put up a plastic layer on the roof now so it won't actually rain in. Also got a delivery of insulation. Looks like standard stone wool.   I believe someone wanted a close up on this kinda stuff?  Noticed they used 90x3.1mm nails if that's of any interest? Next week on tuesday another company should come and drill the borehole for the heating system, it'll be interesting to know if we'll get any water out of the borehole and how deep it'll be (anywhere from 120-180 meters I believe).
|
|
#
?
Nov 1, 2013 09:46
|
|
|
Very nice. So this is going to be metal roofing? The plastic layer appears to be bubble "insulation" (which is really more of a vapor barrier) and the boards placed across it (purlins) are typically the setup for metal roofing. That bubble layer is pretty good for keeping the condensation from under your metal roof from soaking your insulation (which will be installed later). We use "double bubble" (2 layers manufactured into a single sheet with a shiny metal foil on the side you install upwards) in my climate, as it does a pretty good job of rejecting heat in the summertime. I'd imagine you would want all the thermal gain you can get so single layer/no foil bubble would be used for your climate. Also, on your last picture: gusset plates. They're a necessary evil of engineered trusses due to cost and how everyone manufacturers them now, but they still make me shudder as a fire fighter. In an attic fire they start to twist and warp and fall off, leaving the roof ready to collapse. Makes it a tough call on whether you can send guys in to stop an attic fire safely or if it's already progressed too far. Motronic fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Nov 1, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 1, 2013 15:21
|
|
|
Sorry about the late reply, bit of a busy weekend. It's going to be a metal roof yes, red tile looking style, like the example house shown in the first post.
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2013 12:59
|
|
|
His Divine Shadow posted:Sorry about the late reply, bit of a busy weekend. It's going to be a metal roof yes, red tile looking style, like the example house shown in the first post. Yeah, I saw that in the first post but it didn't immediately strike me as being a metal roof. It's quite good looking for metal and not a style I've seen near me.
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2013 16:36
|
|
|
It's getting darker and darker earlier and earlier nowadays so I have problems getting photos with proper light, so here are some flash enhanced ones:  Went there last night and covered up all the building material with tarps. I had left tarps and other plastic materials for covering up the material and I told the building company of it. I had just assumed if things needed protection the builders at the site would know and put them over if needed. That was too much to expect it seems. The builders on site won't do a single thing beyond building the house, they'll throw junk anywhere and I clean up after them, they won't cover up or protect the materials after they're done either. So I didn't even know it needed covering until I heard it in a roundabout way from their office that I should cover up the materials. TBH I'm getting a bit pissed at their lousy way of informing me of what I should do or not, it's not the first time we've had snags due to lack of information. Plumber showed up too, pipes have been laid down here and there. I dunno what all of them to aside from the obvious sewer pipes.  This is also a problem:  That's the main waterline and an extra pipe I will use to connect the house and garage later on. It comes up out of the ground where a door will be and that's no good. My dad and I will go there on saturday and try and dig down as deep as we can and try and move the pipe so it sticks up next to the door instead. This is another one of those things I am pissed about as when I asked how exact we had to be with the placement of pipes and stuff the guy who answered said "just in the general area, as long as it's inside the house it's good". Didn't have any detailed enough plans sent to us in time either to be able to notice this. EDIT: Oh yeah another company was there this week and drilled the borehole for the heating system, doesn't look very impressive, just a pipe in the ground with a lot of mud: 
His Divine Shadow fucked around with this message at 10:06 on Nov 8, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2013 10:03
|
|
|
His Divine Shadow posted:This is also a problem: Why would you fix the plumbers screw up as opposed to calling them up and ripping them a new rear end in a top hat until it's fixed?
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2013 13:51
|
|
|
It was I and another guy who laid down all the pipes and stuff on the yard and it was us who placed it in that place. According to the contract we're responsible for all the prepwork required and have to have it done before the company starts building anything. The plumbers job is to hook it and all other stuff up inside the house, but no actual plumber has been involved in laying down the waterline, that was all us. Though as I said I felt we where given inadequate information to do the job properly.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2013 14:39
|
|
|
Well we did the moving of the pipes and it wasn't that hard, physical labor aside. Dug down a good meter or more and then it was easy to shift the pipes to their new location and fill it back up. This better be good enough or they can do it themselves. Cell phone pics only today. So this is the corner in which the water comes in and is heated, you can see the blue pipes which go through the ground to various places in the house. And they finally got the garage roof struts up, once they get a roof on there we can start using it for storage of building materials.  Here's a daylight picture of the house as well, there's still two more windows not yet cut out but it's moving fast I think. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2013 17:50
|
|
|
I didn't realise energy performance certificates were Europe-wide! My house, being a Grade 2 listed cottage built in 1730, rates at about a G 
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2013 19:47
|
|
|
His Divine Shadow posted:Well, to get access to the roof for whatever reason. Mainly chimney sweeping I guess. Shoveling snow off roofs is rarely something that is needed. Retrieving frisbees is probably more likely. It seems odd to have a ladder up onto the roof for chimney sweeping, we don't go on the roof when we sweep our chimney. I had no idea finland had such a big frisbee problem, my sympathies finnish dudes.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2013 21:45
|
|
|
The lack of support for the roof past the house might cause some sagging later on. On the last house we built we solved this by having the two rafters that come on the side one 2x4 lower than the rest, then building them higher and to the sides to even it out.  The last bit is at the same height as the rest of them as you can probably see in that picture. From the two next to the edge you cut one wood length off from the end and extend a 2x4 to the side to provide structural support for the corner of the roof. I think in your later picture this is done only from the edge of the second one. We did that on one side accidentally but in an inspection had to rip it out and do it properly, else it wouldn't pass.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2013 17:51
|
|
|
Those are sub-fascia boards called "lookouts" and will be installed later. Otherwise there would be nothing to attach the fascia trim to. Until they attach the front sub-fascia board there will be nothing there for them to attach this lookout sub-fascia board.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2013 18:36
|
|
|
feedmegin posted:I didn't realise energy performance certificates were Europe-wide! The certificate is european union wide, implementation differs per country so there is really no way to compare countries.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2013 19:39
|
|
|
kinmik posted:Additionally, how much does cost of living in the country compare to, say, living in Helsinki? This is an older question I missed, but I don't really know what the costs are for living in helsinki. I know the rents and prices for buying apartments are all atrocious though. At the moment we pay 420 euros a month for this place we're renting, which is 60 square meters in size. Maybe someone from Helsinki can chime in on what a similar place would cost in Helsinki. In addition to that there's gas which used to be 250 euros a month, if I didn't have to drive into the city every day to the hospital I would effectively halve my gasolline(diesel) consumption. Electricity is maybe 30 euros a month. If I worked in Vaasa rather than even further out in the country where no busses go, I could get a monthly bus card and just take the bus everywhere for 70 euros a month. Food costs is maybe 70-130 euros a week depending on what we buy. We could stand to shave this down and eat cheaper. Anyway on the house front, they've put up the insulation in the walls of the house now and left quite a mess. I'm gonna try and reclaim as much as I can of the larger pieces so I can reuse them on the garage as it won't be insulated, but I am gonna insulate and heat one small hobby room. Construction is stopping for the moment util friday when the county inspector will come and look over the progress of the house and make sure everything is up to code. Concrete has been ordered for the 25th of november as well.  
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2013 06:36
|
|
|
What is that exterior layer? With American construction, it's generally plywood, but I've heard that Europe doesn't really go for that. Also, what latitude are you at/how much snow do you accumulate? I'm living at 65 N and have worked construction in an area where the accumulation is measured in meters.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2013 00:52
|
|
|
petecas posted:What is that exterior layer? With American construction, it's generally plywood, but I've heard that Europe doesn't really go for that. It's mold resistant and probably even insulated sheetrock (you can see the "Gyproc" band name on it). And also, nobody uses plywood in "American construction" anymore. If it's anything even smelling like plywood it's likely to be OSB (oriented strand board.....wood chips pasted together). The big problem with that stuff is that it doesn't stand up to water nearly as well as proper plywood. While gypsum board type products fell out of out of favor in the US for a time, they are definitely back. The latest and greatest (and even cheaper than OSB) are thing like ZIP boards. ZIP in particular has a fantastic warranty when covered (30 or 40 years) and allows for up to SIX MONTHS uncovered without voiding the warranty (as long as it's properly installed and taped).
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2013 03:06
|
|
|
Did the county inspector have good news?  And looking at that pile of debris, you weren't exaggerating about the mess left by the builders.
|
|
#
?
Nov 18, 2013 03:13
|
|
|
Wow this looks really cool. I plan on moving to Sweden/Finland/Norway in a few years (I know, three different countries) since I have some family that moved over there already, and this is interesting. It seems fairly expensive to either build or buy a house but I guess nurses are always in demand, so I can handle it. I'm really excited to move to a different country and especially see the landscape around there. Keep us updated, seeing all the work that goes into this is cool. SSJ_naruto_2003 fucked around with this message at 04:07 on Nov 18, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 18, 2013 04:04
|
|
|
Groly posted:Did the county inspector have good news? They didn't find anything to complain about but we got more problems that we found ourselves anyway. Turns out the water main has a fold in it, that's no good and there's not enough surplus to cut it and have enough. So we're considering either: 1. making a join inside the house. 2. digging up a hole outside the house where the protective hose ends and join it there instead. That way if there's a future leak, it'll be outside the house. A bit wary of putting a join even if it's supposed to be very good at a level that will put it in the concrete slab (albeit inside a protective hose). Option 2 is more expensive and more involved but it's safer in the long term. We also had a storm this weekend, spent the weekend in the hospital with the boys and two trees had fallen over outside. Visited on sunday and the storm had thrown tarps free and strewn poo poo all over the construction site. Also tore free stuff from the house, plastic moisture barriers and such. I assume the builders will put it back up. Spent a few hours cleaning the place up. Two more trees had also fallen over there, not on our yard fortunately, but right next to it, and it fell right over a small playground, right on the jungle gym. Went and checked it out and saw lots of old trash (plastic and styrofoam) from the construction site there, the kids apparently pilfer junk from our yard and play with it. No pictures because I was dead tired and forgot.
|
|
#
?
Nov 18, 2013 07:40
|
|
|
Looks like we went for option 2 anyway. Welded the water line outside the house while taking it from 40mm to 32mm instead (still sufficient for a households needs). Here's the pit they dug, the yellow pipes are for fiber optic cable, TV, phone, etc. The "water central", the new pipe is more than long enough now.  The builders meanwhile have been busy and I guess they're pretty done with all the pipes and are now putting down rebar and the hoses for the hydronic floor heating. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2013 17:02
|
|
|
This thread is my favourite on the forum at the moment. My dream has always been to buy land and build my own house. So to see someone doing it and posting their story is pretty awesome. Congrats
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2013 17:18
|
|
|
Thanks, stuff like that makes it all the more motivating 
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2013 17:28
|
|
|
Looks good so far! I would've installed the hot and cold manifolds first, before the pipes. Makes it a hell of a lot easier to connect  But please do post more plumbing, ventilation pics when you got them. Always interested to see how other people build them
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2013 20:24
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 3, 2024 09:47 |
|
|
You, you are the fucker moving out from the city ruining my countryside with your suv and or holier than thou economy car. Or you cant take care of your dogs so when ours protects its house you get mad. Or you cause rezoning of traffic signs making stuff stupider cause off course this big new development is more important for ease of traffic. And your kids are hooligans too with their mopeds and vandalising But seriously, you seem to be going well! Having your own House is best and last i visited Maalahti it was really beautiful. I lived in the countryside aswell in a different municipality where i encountered all that.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 11:38
|
|
