Pool House Expansion Project, Day 61 - 16/12/15

Plastering and Gutters

Day Sixty-One, 16 December, 2015

First thing I noticed this morning was the nice blue paint on the corner column. It matches perfectly.

Blue Paint Matches Roof

Turns out today was going to be a very busy day. Mitch came out to do some final adjusting of the bathroom pocket door, as you can see below.

Mitch Final Adjusting Bathroom Pocket Door

While that was going on, the regular crew was busy smooth plastering the closet above, and in the photo below, doing the same in the living room.

Smooth Plastering the Living Room

Along about 10:15 AM, or so, Aaron, the technician from Capital Factory, came by to adjust the kitchen rollup door. When it was rolling up, it worked fine, stopping where it was supposed to. The past couple of weeks, however, on the downward run, it was trying to unroll more than it should. Aaron knew just where to tweek it to get it to behave.

Aaron Working on Kitchen Rollup Door

Mitch also brought his new compressor to try out the sandblaster that Carl had borrowed.

Mitc Watching Gauges on His Compressor

This is the sandblaster kit - a major disappointment. It's more of a hobby-type sandblaster. Whatever it was designed for, it certainly wasn't up to the task we wanted it to do, which was to remove the terra cotta paint from the textured walls.

Sandblaster kit

Omar, appropriately kitted out with goggles and mask, tries out the sandblaster. Pretty poor performance was the result.

Omar Using the Sandblaster

As you can see here, it would have taken a few days to knock the paint off the wall.

Sandblaster in Action

It even came with instructions, but still was inadequate for what we needed it to do.

Sandblaster Instructions

Next up, Omar tried my chisel gun, which unfortunately, worked at about par with the sandblaster. That too, was disappointing.

Trying My Air Chisel Gun

Here's George finishing the cubby above the closet. Not a lot of working space up there.

George Finishing the Closet Cubby

Finally, as a last resort, Omar resorted to the tried and true methods of removing a lot of the texture. He even tried a heavy wire wheel on the grinder - That removed the paint, but caused the primer underneath to burn. Not a desired result.

The last thing he tried was a diamond wheel on the grinder, which, in concert with the bar, did the job.

Omar Doing It Old School

A little after 2:00 PM, Denver Koop, showed up from Spanish Lookout with his gutter (evestrough) forming machine, to make seamless gutters for the new addition. We used Denver and his machine about seven or eight years ago to do the gutters on the Mennonite house. Those gutters have performed flawlessly, so it was natural to use him again.

Denver Koop and His Gutter Forming Machine

Once they feed the sheet metal into the machine, a series of rollers force it through the shaping die and out comes the formed gutter. It comes out fast too.

Here It Comes From the Die

And more is coming. I had to move quickly to keep up with photographing it.

And it's Coming

And yet more.

More Coming

Finally, thirty-eight feet of seamless gutter. A built-in guillotine cleanly chops it off at the die.

The Whole Thing

Here's the rollers I mentioned. They progressively form the sheet as it moves through until it fits in the die.

Series of Rollers Inside the Box

The end-caps come preformed and are forced on the end and then they use a special crimping tool to secure them to the gutter.

Putting the End-caps On

It's a two-handed operation to crimp the pieces together.

Using the Crimping Tool On the End-cap

After crimping, a shot of silicone caulk is applied to the inside of the gutter, ensuring a leak-free assembly.

Silicone Caulk on the Inside

Then comes, cutting the opening for the down-spout. That's done with circle-cutting shears.

Marking the Down-Spout Opening

Denver is showing how easy cutting that opening is done.

Denver Cutting the Down-Spout Circle

After that, the actual down-spout piece, also preformed, is siliconed and fitted through the gutter and secured from the bottom with screws.

Fastening the Down-Spout

Then, Denver and his helper carry the gutters down to the house and get ready to install them.

Bringing the Gutter Into Place

After prying out the drip-rail of the roof, the gutter is fitted behind that and a few screws used to hold the gutter in place for the next step.

It's Going Up

They determine the proper slope for the gutter using a laser level, which you can see in the background on its tripod.

Using the Laser Level to Determine Gutter Slope

Once the slope is marked on the fascia, it's a simple matter to screw the gutter in place.

Bringing the Gutter Up

While all that was going on, work was going on inside. Here, Omar is knocking a hole in the wall to find the edge of the column of the existing pool house, to help determine where they'll be knocking out the wall for the dining room.

Omar Finding the Edge of the Column

The wall of the utility room that will be staying in place (confusing, I know) is being plastered. This is in the office. The utility room is just on the other side of that wall.

Spreading Plaster on the Wall

Hard to tell that there was ever a window in that spot where Errol is plastering.

Errol Plastering Office Wall From Utility Room

Back to the Gutter. Denver's helper is applying the brackets, which fit inside the gutters and are spaced about every three or four feet, down the length of the gutter.

Positioning Gutter Brackets

Then the brackets get screwed into the fascia and the job is done. The only thing left is for our crew to actually hook up the down-spout to the drain pipe and get that all hooked up on both sides.

Last Step of the Process

This is a good shot of Denver and Carl literally talking shop. They were trading tips on roofing techniques and talking about some new 'raised seam' high-end roofing that has no exposed screws holding it to the roof. And that's the end of a busy day.

Denver and Carl Talking shop

There's many more photos than appear in each posting. You can see all the photos of the construction project on Flickr at: https://www.flickr.com/gp/winjama/0wVc3s. There will be new photos added each day of the project.    

Pool House Expansion Project, Day 57 - 60 - 11-15/12/15

Working on the pocket doors.

Day Fifty-Seven - Sixty, 11 - 15 December, 2015

No photos on Friday, the 11th.

For the 12th, Saturday, we have a few. The pocket doors have been framed out for a few days. Now they're actually being fitted and finished. While they were installing the doors, they took off one side of the frame on each door to ease working on the door and the track.

Bedroom Pocket Door Hung

The frames, all home-built, were already quite strong. Omar wanted to add brackets to them to make them even stronger and more rigid.

Adding Strengthening Brackets to Pocket Door Frame

Of course, each of the brackets had to be individually trimmed to fit, so it's even more a custom installation.

Marking Brackets For Trimming

While work on the pocket door has been going on, work on finishing the gable ends has as well. Below, they have about one more piece to install, some final varnishing and the south gable end willl be completed.

Adding Last Pieces to South Gable

On the north gable, it's a little more complicated because of the join with the original pool house roof and transition with the new part. There's also a bit more caulking that will have to occur near the bottom to ensure no water infiltration.

North Gable Almost Done

Monday brought mor work on the gable ends, and that means cutting siding to size on the fly. Here they're doing just that.

Trimming Gable Siding

Here's the bedroom pocket door inside its frame. the PlyCem, or cement board simply is cut to size and screwed to the frame.

Bathroom Pocket Door Hung

As in the photo below. Once that's all done, then comes the initial texture plastering of the whole wall, which should really hide the fact that there's a pocket door there.

Bedroom Pocket Door With PlyCem Attached

From the living room side, you can see the PlyCem already fastened to the pocket coor frame.

Living Room Side of Pocket Door

So you get the idea, here's the bedroom pocket door closed, giving you the idea of what it will look like in its finished state.

From the Bedroom Side

And the same thing from the living room side. There will be wood finishing trim added at the top to hide the rail at top and to finish the surface where the door disappears inside.

How It Looks With Door Closed

This has turned out to be a nice looking gable end. The two coats of Helmsman Spar Varnish, a durable, UV-resistant varnish, means it will last all of a year or two before it has to be done again. We've found that for the first year, getting a full year out of the initial application of varnish is a good thing. It really doesn't pay to go cheap in this regard. The cheaper stuff just won't last.

South Gable Done Except Screen

The north gable end is more complicated. As you can see below, there's still pieces of the siding that have to be applied, along with caulking to prevent water infiltration. We'll also have to re-apply some rubberized waterproofing to the row of blocks to prevent seepage. And of course, screening is yet to be applied at either end.

North Gable Still in Progress

Tuesdaymorning was a surprise to me when I looked in the house. I hadn't realized that the guys had applied an initial coat of plaster to the PlyCem on Monday. It looks pretty cool.

Bedroom Pocket Door Near Completion

Here's the view looking toward the bathroom pocket door.

Bathroom Pocket Door Near Completion

Now, They're plastering the bedroom and probably the reverse side of the bathroom pocket door and the living room side of the bedroom door. That part always seems to move fast.

Reverse Side of Bedroom Pocket Door

Yesterday, I spent a fair amount of time online looking at ceiling fans and bathroom lights. We've had pretty good luck ordering things from Lowes, and that continues. as the photo below shows.

We ordered three of the double fan on top of the photo. One will be in the living room, the next in the bedroom, and the last on the veranda as part of the living room. Combined, it has a seventy-four inch coverage. Pretty good. I've also ordered twelve-inch downrods for each of the ceiling fans as the four-inch ones that are included are simply inadequate.

The middle fan will be used in the office and in the bathroom. It has a fifty-four inch coverage, so we aren't messing around with tiny little fans here. Air movement is key to comfort.

And since we're going to have an eight-foot vanity in the bathroom, we decided to order a large seven light fixture to go above the vanity, as shown in the bottom of the photo.

Fans and Lights

After lunch, I snuck into the construction zone and captured these images of smooth plastering in the bedroom.

Smooth All the Way Around

You can still tell where the pocket door framing is because of different drying rates from the PlyCem to the concrete block. I'll bet by morning, there's no difference.

Smooth Plaster Applied

Final bit of touching up here and there, along with a little cleanup, and the room will probably be ready for the color coat tomorrow.

Finishing Smooth Plaster

Late this afternoon, Mitch showed up with the closet doors. Here they're bringing them in. We're running out of storage room .

Bringing In Clost Doors

The upper part of the closet gets a set of doors as well.

One of the Upper Closet Doors

Here's the inside of one of the main closet doors. The holes are for the hidden hinges that will be applied.

Closet Door Inside

Here's the other door facing right side out.

Second Closet Door Outside

There's many more photos than appear in each posting. You can see all the photos of the construction project on Flickr at: https://www.flickr.com/gp/winjama/0wVc3s. There will be new photos added each day of the project.