Windy day

Super-productive day. Although we broke our promise of Wednesday and indulged in coffee and danish again with Dad, we still made it up to the prop at a decent hour, face masks and eye goggles in tow. We set up the table saw and began ripping the rest of the insulation - and however dusty and gross you can imagine it, it was. We attempted to duct-tape a plastic bag over the exhaust hole on the saw, but it was a joke. With super high wind gusts, it was an interesting day.

We made it about half way through the pile of insulation sheets, simply ripping them into two 22.5" wide pieces. This left us a three inch x 8 foot long strip of waste. I hate waste, but these pieces made excellent jousting material for the times when Erin was out of line. Our task then turned to blocking. We decided to place 2x4 scrap flat-ways on the sub joists to help us space the insulation properly.

2" thick insulation + 1.5" thick 2x4s = 3.5" 2x4s. This brings us to an interesting topic that has plagued me throughout this project.

Why, when deciding upon the dimensions of a 2x4, did the lumber people think that 1.5" by 3.5" would be better than just making it 2x4? Every piece of lumber is like this. 2x8s are, in actuality, 1.5x7.5. 4x8s are 3.5x7.5. A 20 foot long piece of lumber is really 20'.5". And so on, and so forth.

Blocking is a major part of construction. It seems that every phase of this project has required additional blocking or bracing. But nevermind - I'm becoming quite handy with the impact driver and my 5 quart bucket of star drive screws. I also ended up having to cut down at least 3 additional 2x4s to create enough blocking for each row of insulation.

So, you can obviously see that the top of the insulation is going to be flush with the tops of the 2x4s, and with the bottom of the plywood subfloor. This is so there are no pockets of air that could potentially collect condensation and rot. Erin followed me with the big sheets and fit them perfectly in, scoring from underneath and then cutting to fit with the handsaw. We did a great job, and finished the whole floor in just under 6 hours.

That is some serious custom fitting

Ambient air temperature when standing next
to the foil insulation was about 15 degrees warmer

At one point, the wind picked up so quickly and strongly, it launched 4 or 5 huge pieces of rigid insulation off the deck, and they went flying across the jobsite. Luckily each piece only weighs about 5 pounds, but it wouldn't take much to snap one in half, I suppose. I regret I do not have a photo of the entire floor covered in this highly reflective foil insulation. It looked pretty cool, but we had it covered up with two gigantic tarps for the night before I remembered to get out the camera.

We are learning that there are many different opinions floating around out there as to what's "right" in construction. Factors such as soil, temperature, moisture, rain, snow, earthquakes, personal experience, personal opinion, etc. all play a roll in what each builder deems appropriate for each job. It's been trying at times, but also fun to realize that there's nothing "wrong" with different ideas or suggestions - it's a melting pot of individual decisions and we end up with a finished project!

And..... The rafters are on their way!!! I just got a call from FedEx saying they'll be ready for delivery on Wednesday. So that will give us just the right amount of time to put down the plywood subfloor, and hopefully, the bamboo flooring we've ordered from Anderson's Alternatives. Today, we rest.