My Big Fat Renovation

[67ChevyRedneck]

Thanks!

I tried to get some of the tedious stuff done before the siding arrives (hopefully this week). The back of the house has by far the most utilities and stuff to "go around." The previous installer thought that just nailing/screwing stuff over the siding or cutting holes around it was sufficient

I went around and did all the lights, outlets, hose outlet, cable box, A/C power supply, etc all just nailed to the siding. They all were installed on pedestals or were mounted to the wall and will have J channel around them.

Half ass way and then the right way

[67ChevyRedneck]

I got more siding off, the soffit up, and the fascia trim on. And most importantly I got a huge mess cleaned up. It was also cold with a nasty drizzle most of the weekend. It apparently refused to actually rain, but instead drizzle all day.

I'm excited to see the new color soon!

[notsolo]

Clean crisp work as usuall, was the rubber flashing from Lowes? I also do my own work, couple things I like Titanium synthetic roof paper, 100sq... $140.00 1 roll equal to 10 rolls of 15lb felt. We stumbled on a solid Pvc patio door at HD a couple yrs ago, it is much better than any I have ever seen....Also if you need custom flashing or fascia made and don't have a metal brake, the local rental store will let me bend metal at the store for $10.00....Siding color is awesome, great taste on all the interior colors too...keep up the good work....Ed.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Thanks!

Yea, its the stuff from lowes, it's in the roofing area. I buy the slightly more expensive one now, it has a more rubber like backing whereas the other one they carry (right next to it) has more of an aluminum foil type backing. I think it's $35 for 100 foot roll.

It works great in temps 60* and above, but found out it's not very sticky anymore when it's cold out. I also staple it around the outside edge now. It sticks very well to plastic, vinyl, 2x4, and "finished" plywood. It does not like to stick all that great to pressed plywood, especially if it's dirty, so I staple the outside edges now.

On the flashing, I don't have a fear of heights, but I do have a fear of death. My current conundrum is that I have $1,600 to replace all of my gutters and downspouts from hail damage (insurance money). Awesome, right? Except with the new siding, roof, and gutters my fascia is looking like poop. It's coming apart in a couple places and has even had some of the paint flake off in the past few years. My problem is that I'm getting estimates of $7-9 PER FOOT to replace it! I have a couple hundred feet that need to be done. I've debated doing at least the lower half (garage/front deck) myself. I can order the special prebent panels I need for about $1/ft, a contractor would just make it off a roll off their truck. I need the ones that have a 45* bend at the top because my roof is older and has the bend on the flashing instead of drip edge. Decisions... decisions....

[notsolo]

Safety 1st, I use a safety belt, still no garantee it will save you. And it's a pita to work around. Finding a person / company to do a quality job? Getting Facia strait, laying flat without wrinkle, depends how good the roof edge is also sub facia....special order coil stock, colors are $80.00 ...100sq ft...2'x 50' You'll figure it out, the rest of the house looks great....Definitely helps in the resale, when we lived in Charlotte, realtor had to use better neighborhood for price comparision....

[67ChevyRedneck]

Color!

It would be so nice if all I had to do was remove the old stuff and install the new, but no. Almost every sheet of sheeting was "loose". I could have gotten more done if it wasn't for that. And it also takes a long time to get the wrap installed.

I decided to start with the front because I wanted to fill all the nail holes and paint the trim around the new doors on the back before installing the J-channel, and I wanted to get started, so I took the front apart

I think I'm going to do the bottom floor around the entire house as getting everything started and making cuts around all the utilities, ect is time consuming to get the gap right. The under porch area also has a ton of pieces, cuts, etc so getting that knocked out will be nice too.

I did install it at about the optimal temp +/-55* so hopefully cutting the panels +/-1/2" short and centering them worked. Being it's my house, I took the time to make sure all my staples went in correctly and that every panel could still slide side to side. I've seen so many warped siding jobs around here (because it gets stupid hot) I don't want mine to be one of them

[Russell Ashley]

Lot's of nice work you've done, and the colors look great. Your work is first class, I don't think the original builder's quality was up to yours.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Thanks!

It's supposed to be beautiful this weekend (mid 60's and sunny). I hope to get the first level of the garage completely sided along with the first level on the back of the house. I have a week off for Christmas and I still have enough time to take a couple friday's off, so I hope to make a lot happen over the next month.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Couple more "really" moments! lol.

Apparently, my house was supposed to have a much larger door. My guess was that the original plan was for a door that had glass over the top too. The full proper header was there, then the scabbed in stuff you see under it. I was going to leave it until I saw through the hole there wasn't any insulation so I pulled it out and insulated it. There was insulation on the sides and above.

[67ChevyRedneck]

And a proper outside GFI, oh wait... (It's been replaced with a proper GFI and nice cover/surround).

And just a pic I miss of front stripped.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I'm sure this trick is "out there", but I hadn't seen it yet. I noticed when I put my new cut piece above the garage it was really floppy and crappy looking. It was at the fatter part of the siding, so I figured I'd cut out the bottom and use it as a spacer behind it. You just have to make sure it's shorter than the angle piece behind it. Or I guess you could flip it backwards.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Thanks to daylight savings this is all I got done. I also didn't get to leave work at noon on Friday like I'm supposed to, so I lost Friday afternoon :/

I spent some time kinda making sure my siding would line up around the house. I think I have it marked out ok? We'll see! I also painted the door jams on the back of the house so I can finally put the J channel around the doors/deck, etc. and haul butt on the siding, until I get really slowed down by going "up."

[69CST4x4SWB]

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

5. Floors cleaned up, cracks filled, and screwed down tight. This floor was squeak free too when finished.

What did you use to quiet the floor? Sheetrock screws? I have one spot in my upstairs hallway that drives me nuts! Probably about a 2 foot square area. I'm thinking if I locate the joists and cut a couple tiny slits in my carpet centered on the area, I could run some Sheetrock screws in to tighten things up and still not be able to see where I did it. What ya think?

[69CST4x4SWB]

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

I spent some time kinda making sure my siding would line up around the house. I think I have it marked out ok? We'll see!

Lookin good so far! I paid (ouch), to have mine resided last year! Worth every penny!!!

[67ChevyRedneck]

Originally Posted by 72_GMC_Sierra_Grande

What did you use to quiet the floor? Sheetrock screws? I have one spot in my upstairs hallway that drives me nuts! Probably about a 2 foot square area. I'm thinking if I locate the joists and cut a couple tiny slits in my carpet centered on the area, I could run some Sheetrock screws in to tighten things up and still not be able to see where I did it. What ya think?

Sheet rock screws are kinda skinny. I used $$ exterior deck screws on the entire floors upstairs. I did that like 9? years ago and for the most part, our floors are still nearly squeak free.

I don't think I'd cut the carpet though, with the weird backing they use, once you slit that backing all the carpet fibers along the edge want to fall off or pull up.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Originally Posted by 72_GMC_Sierra_Grande

Lookin good so far! I paid (ouch), to have mine resided last year! Worth every penny!!!

I wish I could, but with wanting to redo the siding, the soffit and trim (doing that as well) securing my sheeting, and adding the house wrap, the price would have been nuts. I want to build a shop in the spring and if I want to do that I need to finish this project and do it myself.

I also need to stop using my crappy phone's camera... I was only able to work on one day this weekend... we got rain/snow on friday and saturday.

I'm going to finish the back on the bottom and then switch to redoing the soffits where the gutters are and get that done. I have $1600 to have the gutters redone and paid for by insurance, but that runs out in March (2 years has flown by), so I want to get that scheduled and done before time is up.

I think I got the bottom all string leveled out so the siding will match up around the house and be somewhat level. It was definitely a bit off the way it was done before, but you couldn't tell because each corner had a down spout along it.

[notsolo]

Under sill trim in the J-channel above windows, I also found 2 sizes of J-channel, 1 is more like 5/8 instead of the 3/4 stuff. Less slop in the groove. May not be available depends on the product line....Looking Good.....https://www.millwork.com/105-1-2-l-u...feet-moss.html

[67ChevyRedneck]

My windows are really cool, they were 100% USA made here in Greenville, SC by Taylors Windows. The windows have a built in channel with a "brick molding" style surround. Really nice looking windows.

Only 1.5 more days and I'm off until Jan 2nd Unfortunately it looks like I'm going to get 4-5 days of rain It's been dry for months... Hopefully its a night rain or just scattered.

There's a couple more surround thingys not in the pic, but this area took a long time to do. I also might have redone a couple pieces... ooops. Siding is cheap, right?

I hid as many wires as I could. They used to just be shoved into the j-channel. They're now stapled to the wall behind. Everything you see that is on a white box thingy was previously just screwed to siding and looked cheap. Looks a lot better now.

Just off to the side, you can see the dryer style vent going over the A/C lines that go upstairs... and I found how critters were getting in. I made the hole a lot smaller and stuffed all the spaces with tube foam insulation. They might still get in, but at least I'll be able so see. I didn't want to do anything permanent there that would make fixing/removing lines a PIA.

I also had to show you my zip tie moment

[67ChevyRedneck]

The most frustrating thing for me is daylight. The days are way too short. I'm fine working outside 12-14 hours/day, but I just can't get out there when it's 25* at 7:30AM. It's usually up to the 40's by 9:30-10am, then it's dark at 5:15PM. Only a few more days and the days start getting longer. If I had until 8PM each night I'd have A LOT more done.

Anyway, this weekends progress. I'm off after tomorrow and hope to have the entire first floor around the house done by sunday afternoon.

Aside from the fireplace kick out, the North side of my house is all wall with one window.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I've been off work since Thursday and have kept busy! And COLD! I'm making sure to leave plenty of length for panel stretch and all nails/staples are in the center and I check that every piece can easily slide when it's done.

It's slow but coming along. I'm not current with pics, but I have all of the "bottom floor" done now and hope to have the garage and it's eaves completely done by Thursday evening. My tin order came in today. I ordered it from TinBender.com. I was skeptical but the stuff is a VERY nice gauge (I think it's a tad thicker than what's on the house) has a very nice fake grain to it and didn't get a mark on them during shipping.

[67ChevyRedneck]

It was taking way too long to continually walk around the fence to get tools/siding, etc... so I made a hole. The fence is crap anyway. I want to move it back a few feet to be inline with the back of the house next year.

[67ChevyRedneck]

This side is massive. Just. Lots. Of. Siding...

I hope this side is more mold resistant with the new stuff. Estimates to pressure wash my house (from a few places) ranged from $900-1,400! I'd be happy if it could go 2-3 years.

[67ChevyRedneck]

The weather has been VERY dynamic this week. I'm off from 12/21/17 to 1/2/18 (one week for Christmas and I used 2 vac. days). On 12/20 the weather was showing at least 4-5 days of rain. So far, it's only rained one day and it didn't start until +/-2PM so I worked on the porch. I've left the left side of the porch unfinished for a "rain day" but now it looks like I'm going to have dry weather until I go back to work. Cold (highs of 45-50).

[67ChevyRedneck]

Again, I apologize for the blurry photos. The camera lens on my phone is scratched all to crap. I'll take some good ones with my Canon soon.

This thing bugged me. Of course it was sagging down because there was like 4 nails in it. I nailed it to all the joists, wrapped it, and covered it in siding. Hardly anyone will ever see it, but I know it's there

[Advanced Design]

Nice work, wow that side looks big! Appreciate your quality work!