Soaring to new heights - but what a Pane!

Wow, I can hardly believe it has been 3 weeks since the last post.  A lot has been happening.

When I last left you, we were working on the window surround preparations and hoping to be done by the 21st.  Well I actually did finish detailing the majority of the openings by the 20th and started the prep for the window delivery, including bracing the area under two roofs that I was going to have the crane lift up the window carrying A-Frames onto, so that we did not have to manually lift them up a floor level.  As the heaviest of the window units was over 450 lbs, this was important.

As promised, attached is the guide I came up with for installing flangless windows with external insulation.  https://www.theenclosure.ca/WindowFlashingBestPractice.pdf  Thanks to my mentors at RDH for their continued support.

I also spent way too much time on the window shipment itself.  This was a $30K+ value shipment and I wanted to make sure it was insured. And I quickly remembered (from my logistics days), how difficult it was to get freight insurance coverage. The trucking companies only cover $2/lb, which in my case would have come out to just over $7000 or less than 25% of the shipment value.  I next tried my home insurance with no luck.  Because I am with BCAA, and they do not do commercial work, they do not have a typical course of construction coverage.  But at a yearly cost of only $800 for the building insurance, and with standard course of construction insurance costing $4000+ per MONTH, I could hardly complain.

I ended up going with an online broker (http://www.freightshippingcenter.com) that seemed to have a good reputation.  But then when they saw the goods were not crated, they were going to cancel.  But after some convincing, in the end they covered damage due to a vehicle accident or theft for a $500 premium, which I was happy with, but the whole process took about 12 hours of daytime hours to set up!

During the week of Jan 23-26, I also started to work on the roof fascias. They are made up of stacked 2×8’s and 2×10’s, faced with 1/2″ plywood, and back supported where the assembly rises above the roof deck by multiple layers of 2×3, with everything screwed into place with #12×4″ wood screws. This will create a hidden gutter that will be sealed with the 2-Ply SBS torch on membrane I am using for the roofing.

To aid in this installation by making the process faster and safer, I rented a magic carpet, otherwise known as a Genie.  I cannot tell you that I have enjoyed its use.  While I do feel ‘safe’ (there is no way I could work off a ladder at between 22 and 30 feet off the ground), the feeling of bobbing around at the end of a very long stick is disconcerting and left me with ‘sea legs’ at the end of every day.  Even when not retracting or raising, the boom is constantly moving in all three axis. I even had some twigs of sea sickness on a few occasions.  I am now into my second week of rental and it is speeding up the process, but still taking a lot longer than hoped as I manoeuvre the machine around very tight quarters.  Didn’t help that the machine would malfunction regularly by allowing me to rotate basket to get into corner, but then not rotating back to get out of the corner and lower back to the ground. Fortunately a service man came out yesterday and repaired while I was at a seminar.  And now today’ snow fall is again slowing me down as the machine gets stuck or I have to work around a tarp that is weighted down by the snow.  I have finished the north and west elevation and hope to finish the south elevation tomorrow.

But the major milestone was the installation of almost all of the window package on Jan 27th.  I hired four labourers from Embers (thanks to Aaron, Steve, Thomas, Anoop) and was thankful for the extra muscle.  They did all the hard work while I would be on the outside of the window on the Genie, helping guide the window into place over th eback dam, keeping the sill membrane out of the way, and telling them when plumb so they could secure.  It was a full day, but by the end we had installed 17 of the 22 windows leaving me the small clerestory windows, a small bathroom window I will videotape installation of, and a small window on the first floor.  I also still need to water and air seal around all of the windows.

I am extremely pleased with the quality and look of the Cascadia 300 Series windows and doors.  They feel and look like quality and the operable lights operate smoothly and quietly.  And when the sun was out, the solar gain through them was awesome!

So, that catches you up.  I hope to finish the fascias by mid next week and then will start on the top floor internal walls.  Lets see what surprises and delays are in for me next 🙂

Thanks for visiting.

“Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn’t know it so it goes on flying anyway. ” —Mary Kay Ash (1908-2001) Entrepreneur

“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”
—John R. Wooden (1910-2010) Basketball Coach, Author

“Motivation is when your dreams put on work clothes.” —Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) Politician, Writer, Scientist