This Old Farmhouse

The This Old Farm House which almost wasn't anymore...

2010-07-08T08:00:00.006-04:00

A few years ago, one of the first projects we completed at ThisOldFarmHouse was the installation of an electric tankless hot water heater.

The heating system in the house is a hybrid hydro-air system, where a hot water boiler pipes hot water into a nearby air handler and the air handler converts to forced hot air, which is used to heat the first floor via a series of ducts.

Off the furnace was a stand-alone tankless hot water unit, running on a closed loop back to the boiler. While this configuration is just dandy in the winter when the boiler is running all the time anyway to heat the house, it is less than optimal during the April thru November timeframe when, frankly, heating the house is completely unnecessary. Those friends of mine who read this infrequent blog know, the miser I am, I turn the heat off on April 1st and don't turn it on again until sometime in November. Furthermore only Koren and I in the house, so it is rather silly to run the furnance 24x7x365 to support a tankless hot water system which is, at best, used a couple times a day for a shower. (The doggies don't count since they have coats and don't take showers).

After conducting a fair amount of research, I opted to install an electric "on-demand" hot water heater. These units only heat water when hot water is called for, similar to tankless units which run off a boiler, but you don't have to run the boiler all the time to provide the heat exchange source. You turn on the hot water faucet, they heat water, faucet off, they shut off. There are two principle types -- ones that run off natural gas (or propane) and others that run off electric. I didn't want a propane/natural gas unit, as you have to deal with the CO2 issue and they have to be properly vented. Our chimney had issues (other project to deal with later on) so electric seemed to be the logical choice.

There is still a lot of debate whether or not these units save money -- the increased cost of the electric (most expensive fuel source) to heat the water may or may not offset the actual cost of maintaining the boiler on all the time to provide tankless hot water on demand. Another alternative was a separate stand-alone hot water tank (so we could shut the boiler off in the warmer months), but again, with just the two of us in the house and our actual hot water usage being so small, on the face of it I didn't think the standby loss would offset the "higher" cost of using an on-demand unit.

This blog entry is two years after the fact... What I can say about the cost savings is this: Our first year in ThisOldFarmHouse we used the boiler for our hot water, and over the summer we used an entire tank (250+ gals) of oil to provide our heating source for the hot water. After installing the electric tankless hot water unit, we saw our electric bill increase an average of $20 per month (however, it is important to note that with all the construction going on, a lot of electric usage was due to power tools, compressors, etc, so I feel the $20/mo is an overestimate). Though, even at $20/mo, that's still $240/yr, which is at the going rate for oil, roughly 80 gallons... so clearly the unit is a real cost saver in terms of oil-cost vs. electric cost.

However, I digress...

I settled on installation of a Stiebel-Eltron Tempra 36. I selected this unit because a) Stiebel-Eltron is based in Massachusetts, and b) of all the units I looked at, this unit had the most capacity in terms of GPM, so it was suitable as a "whole house unit" (meaning, one unit for the whole house rather than several units spersed thruout). From the writeups I found online it seemed to have a good reputation. The only real competitor was a lessor unit from Bosch, but that unit wasn't really a "whole house" unit but was instead designed for point-of-presence (such as a single unit providing hot water for a bathroom).

Before installing the unit, it was first necessary to have the electrical service at the house upgraded. As you can imagine the house was originally wired for fuses, but had been updated to a small 100-amp panel several decades earlier. Because the electrical demands of the Tempra 36 called for 3 60-amp breakers, our puny 100amp panel wouldn't handle the load. We hired a local electrican who reviewed everything we were planning to do, and upgraded us to a 225-amp panel with upgraded wiring from the pole. The entire electrical upgrade ended up costing $2500, but this was reasonable given we had a lot of other expansion plans for the home which would result in increased electrical demands anyway.

We had the Stiebel-Eltron unit plumbed in such a way that we could switch, via a series of ball valves, from the boiler-based tankless unit to the electric unit whenever we wanted to. Our rationale was quite simple: since we're running the furnace anyway in the winter, why not use it for hot water, and turn off the Tempra-36? Turn some ball valves, turn off the 60-amp breakers, depressurize the lines going to the Tempra, and voila -- we're running off the boiler system for the winter... and come the warm months, when we shut off the boiler... reverse the process, and we're once again on the Tempra unit.

This plan worked flawlessly for the first year. The Tempra unit was installed, and we ran of the unit without a hitch. Switched over to the boiler system in the winter.

The second year we started to have problems with the Tempra. In the middle of showering, the unit would randomly shut off (running the tub always had unlimited hot water). We spent a lot of time diagnosing the problem (Koren watching the unit while I showered). The unit would just seem to randomly power off in the middle of a shower. Eventually, the unit stopped working completely when using the sink faucet for hot water. Talking to Stiebel Eltron's tech support wasn't helpful -- they had me remove and clean out the pressure switches to make sure they weren't clogged. The unit requires at least .7gpm draw to 'detect' hot water usage -- which, for a 2.5gpm shower head, you would think shouldn't be a problem.

This problem was "solved" to a limited degree by changing out our well pressure tank. Koren had mentioned that it seemed our water pressure had decreased since moving in (personally I really never noticed) so I inspected the well's pressure tank and switch. The Well-XTrol pressure tank was close to 15 years old, and while it didn't seem to be water logged, I opted to rip it out and install a new one, along with a new check valve and pressure switch. The total cost of this "repair" was $300 thanks to Lowes, which had all the necessary items, and it took about an hour. I do not know what the old pressure switch (wasn't documented on the tank like it is supposed to be) was set to, but I installed a 30/50psi switch and adjusted the tank pre-charge to match the pressure switch. Upon doing this, the Tempra operated a lot better, but still from time to time one of the heating units would shut off in the middle of use (resulting in luke-warm water rather than cold water).

Fast forward thru another winter of switch-over to the boiler, and switch-back to the Tempra in April of this year.

The Tempra hadn't seen a lot of use over the past few months, for a couple of reasons. First, when we did the kitchen remodel, I opted to install a small Bosch Powerstar tankless electric heater under the sink to provide hot water to the kitchen. This saved me the hassle of running an additional hot water line from somewhere in the basement, I was able to snake a single 1/2" PEX cold water line to the kitchen and generate my own hot water there. That unit uses a single 50-amp circuit, which I tied in from the new kitchen electrical panel.

Second, the latter part of April and thruout May we opted to remodel the downstairs bathroom (having finished the upstairs bathroom as part of the dormer project, which will be featured in an upcoming blog entry)... and, again, the upstairs bathroom was powered by its own Bosch Powerstar AE125 unit (saving the hassle of attempting to snake a hot water line from the basement all the way to the upstairs bathroom).

We started "regular" use of the Tempra unit this season in late May, when bathroom remodeling was finished. The Tempra-36 unit at this point only provided hot water to the downstairs bathroom and nowhere else -- the kitchen and upstairs bath have their own hot water heaters, and our washer only has a cold-water line running to it. So, the only time the unit gets (got) used at this point were daily showers in the downstairs bathroom.

All of this brings us to the point of this blog entry... Yesterday, when not in use, the Tempra-36 unit literally exploded in fire.

I kid you not about this... If it were not for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ himself (and I'm not a religious guy at all), This Old Farm House would have been no longer of this world.

Wednesday is Koren's day off from work. Only a few moments earlier, she returned from doing some errands in town, and went downstairs to work on laundy. While putting laundy in the dryer (the Tempra was mounted on the wall next to the dryer) she heard a snap and POP, and smoke started pouring out from the unit.

She immediately turned off the 3 60-amp breakers running to the unit, but smoke continued to pour out of the unit. Fortunately, due to all the issues we had with the unit the year before, we did not have the cover to the unit screwed on (merely placed on securely), so she was able to race upstairs, grab a fire extinguisher, and fling off the cover. Red and blue flames shooting everywhere, she doused the unit throughly with our commercial-grade fire extinguisher.

If it had not been Wednesday... had she stopped somewhere else on the way home... had she been delayed at a traffic light for an additional 3 minutes... the house would have rapidly become engulfed in flames and would have been a complete, total loss.

Such is the risk you run living in a 300 year old timberbox constructed entirely of wood -- wood walls, wood ceilings and wood floors. However, it really makes you realize that life is full of chance circumstances, isn't it? Or... is it intelligent design? I'll leave that argument for T's blog :)

A post-mortem of the Tempra shows the following damage (click to see full-size pics):

The fire appears to have started in the circuit board of the right-most heating element. A closer look:

Upon closer inspection, it actually appears that the fire started underneath this circuit board. So, looking under this circuit board, there is another circuit board which handles power distribution from the input block to the heating elements of the unit itself:

Sure enough, that's where the fire actually started. Moving the upper circuit board away for a closer look, we see the complete destruction:

Without further disassembly, it is difficult to tell for sure whether the fire started on the upper or lower portion of this circuit board. However, the entire circuit board at the "base" (which would be the left-side towards the TRIACS) is completely destroyed, with the wires running to the top of the heating element (see picture #1 above) completely melted. I'm not sure we'll ever really know "where" it started... We're only lucky that Koren was home at the time and was able to put it out.

All this happened about 4pm yesterday. Of course Koren immediately called me (I was at work) and told me what happened. While women tend to be hysterical, Koren's pretty level headed, but she was pretty shaken up by the whole thing, especially given the implications if she hadn't been home. I rushed home to assess the damage and to inspect things further. During my 45 minute drive home, I called Stiebel Eltron's technical support department.

Their Tech Support department indicated such a fire was virtually impossible in their unit and that the unit had to have been wired incorrectly. Furthermore, the unit is "UL approved". There are several problems with this theory:

First, the unit was wired corrected with 6ga wire on 3 independent 60amp circuits and correctly grounded per the specifications.

Second, the unit had worked "flawlessly" (except for the water heating issue, which who knows, maybe it was related?) for the past two years... if the unit had been wired incorrectly, I would suspect that it would have experienced an electrical failure a lot sooner.

Finally, looking at another picture:

Electrical power is provided to the unit at the wiring lugs labelled 'L' on the wiring block. If there was going to be an electrical failure due to improper wiring (such as the wrong gauge wire, or arcing due to improper or loose connections), then the wiring block would have been the point of failure. However, as you can clearly see, the wiring block is completely intact. Actually, even the electrical connections on the output side of the block running to the power board are remarkably intact with no melting, so it is clear to me the failure was strictly related to what I refer to as the power distribution circuit board.

Stiebel Eltron is standing by the unit. During my call yesterday, they said they were going to immediately send me a replacement unit... in fact, a 'newer' unit (the Tempra-36 Plus)... which apparently only has a single flow sensor (compared to my unit which has 3) -- and that I can return the damaged unit to them at no cost via a UPS call tag.

While I certainly find it comforting to know that Stiebel Eltron is a company that will stand by its product and provide a replacement... I am extremely hestitant to install the replacement unit at this point in time. I am seriously considering installing another PowerStar AE125 in the downstairs bathroom (which requires 3 40-amp circuits w/ 8-2 wire and a ground) and re-plumb the downstairs bathroom to run off the PowerStar. The only "downside" to this is I wouldn't be able to switch to the boiler-based hot water system during the winter (in fact, I'd probably rip it out entirely and remove all the old copper hot water lines which infest the basement).

I spent time last nite googling tankless hot water heater fires, and wasn't able to come up with anything, other than other people hearing similar stories. I guess we'll see what happens. Maybe I need to install a halon system next to the Tempra if I do decide to install the new one.

A "Modern" Kitchen For An "Antique" Home...

2009-12-01T09:49:00.002-05:00

We're assembling this BLOG entry, complete with before, during, and after photographs, now that the kitchen project is 99% finished. Check back in a day or two after we've had a chance to post it!

The Sunroom project

2009-07-09T11:34:00.003-04:00

Taking an old broken down concrete pad and turning it into something spectacular.

Here are some photos of the project... Stay tuned for additional pictures along with a narrative of what we had to do!

Vapor barrier and sleeper studs over old concrete pad

Subflooring down

Beginning Roof Framing

Roof Framed

Exterior Walls Studded Out

Starting french doors

Starting exterior finish work

Rough interior finished

Finished shiplap walls

Another view

Starting flooring

Southern Yellow Pine flooring

Finished Product!

Check back again soon!

The Wooden Storm Window Project

2007-10-23T11:59:00.000-04:00

When we removed the wood sashes for rehab, we had to remove several storm windows from the house. The storm windows were in really tough shape. Even though they were only 10 years old (from dates found written on them) most of them were completely useless -- the glass panes were inoperable (stuck) and the screen material had ripped. In short, they were a complete bust.

We decided at the same time we worked on the wood windows that we would have to replace the storms at the same time. There were no storm windows on the front (south) side of the house, and these were the sashes that were in the roughest condition. Thus, not only did we end up deciding to replace the storms on the north side which we had to remove as part of the rehab, we also had to install storms facing the south (which is the side facing the street).

Similar to the wood windows, we had several concerns with replacement. First, we didn't want something that would detract from the value of the home -- and let's face it, ugly silver aluminum storms do exactly that on a 300 year old farmhouse. Second, we needed something that was going to be relatively inexpensive, because we didn't want to invest a lot in storms if ultimately we decide to replace the windows entirely at some later point.

We took external measurements for each of the windows, and did some online research. The Cambridge Historical Society recommends 'Harvey'triple-track aluminum storms (1 upper fixed glass pane, and 1 lower glass pane interchangeable with a screen) for people who need to install traditional storms. Unfortunately Harvey windows are only available from contractors, homeowners cannot buy them direct. With some research we found Boston Building Materials Corporation, a co-op in Boston, allows homeowners to buy them direct. Unfortunately, they ran just over $100 per window, which meant the total project would be over $700, and we would have those ugly aluminum storms. Definitely not an option we wanted to choose.

We did a little shopping around. A similar aluminum storm windows would run $80 each at Home Cheapo for 'Larson' windows. This would put the project at just over $550, which was a little more palatable. Unfortunately, we simply couldn't get over the 'ugly' aspect of these aluminum storms, so we decided to look for another option and instead choose this only as an absolute 'last resort'.

Visiting a few other historic homes in the area, I noticed many of them had a wooden structure with a 2nd pane of glass in front of the double-hung unit. When I did research online, I found that these 'wooden storm windows' are fairly common on older homes, but have fallen out of favor due to their higher maintenance requirements. I found a local company, Smith Restoration Sash, which manufactures custom wooden storms (keep in mind this project was ongoing at the same time as our sash rehab project). Unfortunately, Smith Restoration Sash charges $185 per window in the dimension we were looking for, so this priced this option outside our budget entirely.

Checking around some more, we saw on several windows what we ultimately determined was an aluminum 'picture storm'. A picture storm window is simply an aluminum frame with a single large pane of glass that mounts in the frame. In the summer, you change out the glass pane and install a pane containing a screen.

We really loved the idea of a picture storm. We were really hoping our rehab project would turn out well, and we wanted to implement a storm window solution that would allow us to enjoy the full look of our rehabbed windows without ugly cross-braces you find on the triple-tracks. An aluminum 'picture storm' seemed like the ideal solution!

That was, unfortunately, until we did some investigation on the price. Inquiring about Harvey picture storms, we found the price was going to be in excess of $200 per window! Larson makes a picture storm we could purchase at Home Cheapo, but even their prices were going to be in excess of $140 per storm window. Both options completely outside our price-range for the project.

I gave this a little thought, and I thought I could construct my own picture storm windows, out of wood, using existing tools that I already owned. I also estimated the cost should be about the same or less than what I would pay for the Larson Triple-Track storms from Home Cheapo -- or roughly $500.

I was correct. In total the project ran a little over $400. Lumber to construct the windows cost $125. Glass for the 8 windows I constructed cost $190. The hangers for the windows ran another $20, and I spent another $50 on felt insulation and silicon caulking compound. I also had to buy a router bit that ran $30.

Building frames is fairly simple. I opted to use a mortise and tenon setup for the frames, with an inner 1/2" rabbet. I had all the tools already to manufacture these frames -- a table saw, tenoning jig, and dedicated mortising station. The remaining of this blog entry will discuss the steps we undertook to manufacture the storms.

Step 01: Cut boards to length

Weekend One. I donned my newest plaid shirt, and went to the barn sans workshop to begin the project.

For our choice of lumber, we opted to use popular, which is an extremely stable wood with good milling properties. We purchased 8 1x6x8' pieces at a local lumberyard -- Home Cheapo doesn't carry this size of board, and we wanted a higher quality than what you normally find at the local discount shops. The total price (with tax) was just over $125, which was $1.89 a board foot.

Using the measurements we previously made, we cut each board to length, to make the rails and stiles.

Step 02: Rip boards in half

Oncethe pieces were cut to length, we ripped each board in half, resulting in the rails and stiles being exactly 2.75" wide. You may ask "why not simply buy 1x3 popular and use that instead?" Our main reason for using wide popular boards is by cutting a 1x6 to length and then ripping in half with the table saw, we had two board which were exactly the same length. Had we used 1x3 boards, there would be minute variations for each cut and each rail and stile would be slightly different in length, resulting in an out-of-square frame. Although this step required some addition work on our part, it helped insure we would have a square frame.

Step 03: Make shallow cuts

After ripping the boards in half, we adjusted the table saw to make shallow cuts 2 inches from the edge. Each cut is a quarter inch deep. This will form the end of the cheek cuts and leave a 1/4" tenon in the center of the board.

Step 04: Edge cut for blind tenon

In addition to the horizontal cheek cuts, we made an additional vertical 1/2" cut 2 inches from the edge. This is to form what is known as a blind tenon. The edge of the tenon on the rails will not show through the top or bottom of the stiles. This was accomplished by simply adjusting the blade height to 1/2" and running the board thru vertically.

Step 05: Complete Cheek cuts

Using my tenoning jig, I completed the cheek cuts on the table saw. The cheek cuts are simple with this jig, which runs slightly over $100 at Home Cheapo and works with virtually every Delta table saw. The wood is held securely against the jig, the jig adjusted to the left to ensure the cut only takes out the material it is supposed to. Two passes are necessary, one for each side, simply rotate the piece 180 degrees and pass thru again. Also, because I made blind tenons, it was necessary to adjust the jig a 3rd time and run each piece thru after rotating the wood 90 degrees, to remove the 1/2" of material for the blind tenon.

Step 06: Finished tenon

Here we have a picture of the completed tenon. Notice the tapered end. This is done automatically by the jig by holding it at a slight angle to the saw blade. This taper ensure the piece fits smoothly into the mortise.

Step 06(b): Finished tenon showing blind cut

Here is another angle of the same cut, showing the blind tenon. This cut ensures that the tenon does not appear along the top or bottom edge of the stile. This helps ensure the joint is a lot stronger and will not prone to crack and break over time.

Step 07: Setup Mortise station for mortises

After all the rails were milled with their tenons, our attention turned to making the mortises in all the stiles. To do this, we broke our our dedicated mortising station. This is a truely wonderful tool, which both drills and chisels the mortises at the same time. If you do not have one of these tools, which run about $250 via special order at Home Depot, then you can use a relatively inexpensive forstner bit and a drill press (or hand drill) with a sharp chisel to accomplish the same thing.

Step 08: Set depth to 2"

The first step in making the mortise is to mark where the mortise is going to be located. Notice the stop and start lines on the wood, and how the stop line is 1/2" from the edge of the board. This will form a mortise to house the "blind tenon" we previously made with the tenoning jig.

Step 09: Make mortices

The dedicating mortising machine makes short work of the mortises. Simply press down, let the drill and chisel do the work, and then lift the handle, adjust the wood, and repeat.

Step 10: Clean out mortices

Under the classification of "things norm never tells you", while the mortising machine is quick, it does leave quite a bit of compacted material at the bottom of the mortise. The only way to get it out is to use a small screwdriver, chisel, etc, to dig the material out.

Step 11: Finished Mortice

And there you have it, a completed mortise, ready to accept a tenon.

Step 12: Setup for Plug cutter

Before we do any setup and gluing, I needed to cut some dowels to use as plugs. I used a special polyurathane glue which foams as it cures. The side-effect of this is it will "push" the tenon out of the mortise as it foams and expands. To prevent this from happening, you are supposed to clamp the frame. Unfortunately, I don't have enough clamps to simultaneously manufacture 8 frames, so instead once the frame is built I intend to drill and plug each tenon joint with a dowel. Using a special plug-cutting bit on my drill press, and some spare popular, I made 32 dowels -- four for each frame, one for each corner.

Step 13: Finished dowels

Here are the finished plugs cut from the spare popular. Pretty, aren't they?

Step 14: Glue and Assemble frame

Frames are now ready for assembly. I used a special waterproof glue which foams when it cures. To use this glue, you moisten both pieces you intend to join together, apply some of the glue, and then attach the pieces together. The water activates the glue chemically and it starts to "foam and cure almost instantly. Unfortunately, no pictures of this step, just insert the tenons into the mortises and use a rubber mallet to tap into place.

Step 15: Check for Square

I moved the assembled frame to my workbench to complete installation. Once assembled I have about 5 minutes of 'work time' before the glue starts to foam and set up. I need to pin the joints with a dowel before this happens, but before I do this, I need to check the frame for square. A simple way to do this is to use a tape measure to measure corner-to-corner. If the diagonals are equal, the frame is square. If the frame isn't, I made a few adjustments either left or right to square it.

Step 16: Drill for dowels

With the frame square, I drilled for the dowels. Put a small piece of scrap wood underneath the joint to prevent blow-out and drill all the way thru. The idea here is once the dowel is inserted in place, the tenon will not be able to back out of the mortise as the glue foams and cures.

Step 17: Tap in dowels

Dunk the dowels in water and then spread some glue on them. Tap the dowels into place so they are flush with the surface. If you do not have a drill press or plug cutters, you can buy pre-made dowels at Home Depot in the Tools section.

Step 18: Set frame aside to dry

Put the assembled frame aside to dry. It takes 24 to 48 hours for the glue to cure, depending on humidity. In my case, I was working on the windows at the same time, so these sat in the barn over the week until the following weekend.

Step 20: Scrape off Glue

Weekend Two.

Pull the frames from the wall, and start cleaning them up for the next phase of work. When the glue foams it makes a mess as it comes out the joints. Use a paint scraper to remove all easy stuff.

Step 21: Sand joints smooth

Use a sander to sand the edges smooth. There are always minute variations when you make the mortises and tenons, so there is usually a small edge. A random-orbit sander is an excellent choice for this, but in my case I had my handy belt-sander to do it for me.

Step 22: Remove glue from inner corners

A chisel or razor knife helps clean out any foamed glue which is inside the joint on the frame.

Step 23: Prepare Chamfer bit

Now that all the glue is cleaned up, it is time to break out the router to make the rabbets and edge details. First I used a 45 degree chamfer bit to create a small chamfer on both the inside and outside front edge.

Step 24: Route front inner edge

To make the inside chamfer, I wanted to insure I had enough "meat" on the back of the frame to support the rabbet, so I adjusted the depth of the chamfer cut to slightly less than a quarter inch, and ran the router along the inside edge.

Step 25: Inner Edge Detail

A picture of the completed inner chamfer cut. This cut is necessary because you want an angle where the frame meets the glass so any water that hits the glass will run down and off the wood, and not pool on the wood, or worse, work its way behind the glass and onto the inside of the frame.

Step 26: Repeat on outer edge

Repeat the process on the outside edge. This isn't strictly necessary, but it creates a raised panel / shadowbox effect which looks neat and professional.

Step 27: Prepare rabbeting bit

Now that the chamfers are done, it is time to route the rabbets into the frame. I had to purchase a 1/2" rabbeting bit at Home Depot. I had a 1/4" bit but I wanted to create a slightly deeper rabbet. A Porter-Cable 1/2" rabbeting bit costs $30, but they are worth every penny with their carbide cutting surfaces.

Step 28: Rabbet inner back edge

Run the router along the inside of the frame. With a rabbet this deep it is best to do it as two steps -- first with the 1/4" bit and then with the 1/2" bit. This helps with removing material as the larger bit has to work less. I didn't do this this time, but it is a "lesson learned" for the next time I manufacture these frames.

Step 29: Completed Rabbet

Here's a photo of the completed rabbet. Unfortunately the router does not leave us with square corners, so we have some additional work to do.

Step 30: Chisel corners

You can use a regular chisel to square off the edges, but I have a set of edge chisels sitting around. Pulling out the 1/2" edge chisel, I'm ready to go.

Step 31: Rubber mallet to complete corners

Tap the edge chisel gently into the corner with a rubber mallet. Don't whack it too hard, otherwise, the chisel will blow thru to the other side and I'll have a completely ruined frame!

Step 32: Complete with chisel

After removing 99% of the material, I had to use a regular chisel to clean up the edges.

Step 33: Completed corner

There's a completed corner. Repeat the process for the remaining 3 corners, for 7 additional frames.

Step 34: Measure Sill Angle

The sills on This Old Farmhouse have a taper. This taper has to be transferred to the bottom of the storm window frame to help insure an accurate fit. Using a angle gauge, I obtained the angle from the window...

Step 35: Transfer to circular saw

...and transferred it to my circular saw, which I used to make the cut. Working with a frame this large means the table-saw was out as an option, it would simply be too unwieldy to make the cut accurate, without building a special jig to run the pieces thru the saw. Too much work, I had a more elegant solution with the circular saw.

Step 36: Measure out for sill cut

The blade on the circular saw is 1.5" from the edge. With the angle removing some material, I determined I needed to set a straight-edge 2" from the bottom of the frame. Clamp the straight edge to the frame at each end.

Step 37: Make sill cut with circular saw

No pictures of the actual saw process, hard to operate a circular saw and take a picture at the same time :) Suffice to saw, simply turn on the saw and use the straightedge to guide the cut. You end up with a smooth, straight cut, at the corrent angle thanks to correctly transferring the angle to the circular saw.

Step 38: Prepare for weep holes

The final step in this phase of assembly is to drill some weep holes for any moisture to work its way out from behind the window. This is a common mistake in old wooden storms, they do not have any way for the accumulated moisture to work its way out. Without weep holes, moisture collects and eventually rots the frame (or the sill). To drill the weep holes, I used a 1/4" forstner bit and my hand drill

Step 39: Drill Weep holes

Place the bit against the wood at the appropriate angle, a simple eyeball measurement suffices...

Step 40: Drilled weep hole

...and complete the drill process. I also placed a piece of scrap wood against the back of the frame to prevent blow-out as I drilled the hole.

Step 41: Clean up edges with chisel

A chisel makes quick cleanup. Then, use a piece of sandpaper and run it over all the sides of the frame to clean up any loose sawdust or fibers which need to be cleaned off. A quick coat of linseed oil to prepare the frame for painting, and put them aside for the remainder of the day.

That's it. Weekend Two is complete.

Step 42: Primed and Painted frame

Starting Week 3, we applied two coats of linseed oil, a coat of primer, and two coats of finish latex paint to match the trim, giving a day or two between coats for the paint to cure, depending on humidity. Our parlor was briefly transformed into storage as we lined the windows along the wall to dry.

Step 43: Mounting Hardware

Figuring out how to hang the storms was problematic. You would think this wouldn't be a problem, but finding screen and storm hardware for hanging windows is nearly impossible at local hardware stores. After all, nobody uses this type of hardware any longer.

At first I was going to use "turn buttons", but this would have required I mount additional strips of wood to the existing trim to hold the storms in place. This wasn't a viable option since it would require additional priming and painting outside, and the nights are getting too cold now for painting.

After some intensive research online (thanks Google!) I discovered Stanley made 'kits' which consisted of two hangers, eyehooks, and screws to mount a storm or screen window. The kits ran $2.39 each plus shipping (averaging $3 total per kit w/ shipping) from a vendor via Amazon.com.

Step 44: Install hangers

Normally you would mortise the hangers into the frame, but in this case because I'm putting on insulation anyway, it really doesn't matter if they are not mortised. Simple flush mount will work.

Step 45: Silicon Rabbets

Once the hangers are on, we were ready to install the glass. Our glass sheets were 28"x53", double-strength glass. Even with double-strength glass it took both of us to manipulate the sheets. We started by first placing a small bead of silicon along the inside of the rabbets. This provides for a waterproof seal once the glass is in place.

Step 46: Install glazing points

To provide some extra strength, we placed glazing points at regular intervals along the inside of the frame after the glass was in place. Then we ran an additional bead of silicon along the frame and glass to seal the glass in place. Unlike our wooden windows, these panes of glass have the rabbet facing inward, not outward, so we really didn't feel like using glazing compound (nor did we see the need to, the silicon is hidden 'inside'.

Step 47: Frame with glass installed

Here's a picture of a glazed frame. You can't even see the glass. Truly wonderful.

Step 48: Install insulation

To help provide an airtight seal around the window, we added some felt insulation around three edges (top and sides). The idea behind a storm window is you create an airspace between the storm window and the house window to provide a form of "airlock", which helps provide some insulating value (plus helps keep the weather off the main windows, prolonging their lives.)

Step 49: Insulate sill

We also insulated the bottom of the frame where it will sit on the sill. The felt insulation will allow any moisture behind the window to wick thru the felt.

Step 50: Notch weep holes

Naturally, we also needed to notch out the insulation from the weep-holes, to help aid any moisture in getting out from the backside of the window.

Step 51: Frame ready for installation

Finally, our storm windows were ready for installation.

Step 52: Install mount points

Weekend Four is upon us. Installation outside is really simple. Center the storm window where you want it to live on the sill, and mark where to install the hangers above the window on the trim. Then drill and install screws.

Step 53: Mount points on Trim

The mounted hangers look like this. By purchasing a few extra sets of hangers, we'll be able to make wooden screen windows in the spring and simply swap the storm windows for screen windows when the temperature gets back to a comfortable level outside.

Step 54: Tilt and install frame

To install the window, simply tilt it against the hangers and slide them into place. An audible "click" lets you know they're in place.

Step 55: Fit frame to sill

Set the bottom of the storm window on the sill. If we measured correctly (which we did!) then there is a little resistance from the felt insulation. However, a little push and the bottom slides into place nicely.

Step 56: Drill pilot holes

To keep the storm frame from flapping around in bad weather, and to help secure it against the sill trim, Stanley includes eyehooks to fasten the bottom.A pilot hole with a drill is necessary here to keep the wood from splitting.

Step 57: Attach securing latches

We screwed in the eyehooks and their cooresponding secure points on the sills.

Step 58: Secured frame

And finally, the frame is secured. The window is done!

Step 99: Finished Project!

And there you go. A completed wooden storm window. Notice we painted the bottom rail of the storm window black to match the windows. This helps "hide" the storm window. From 10 or 15 feet away, you cannot even tell they are there, they blend so well with the rest of the home!

This was a really positive project. We are absolutely thrilled with the way these windows came out. We are really happy with their appearance and utility.The sound-deadening effect is dramatic. Of course, we can't attest to their utility in keeping drafts and whatnot out of the house, we'll have to post a followup to this blog entry in the spring.

There are a few things we would have done differently (and may go back and do before winter hits anyway.)First, the felt insulation really wasn't suitable for this application. It doesn't seal very well against the trim of the house. During installation of the windows we noticed some 'gaps' between the insulation and the felt. I think we're going to have to scrap the felt insulation and install install the foam-rubber self-adhesive insulation. The foam rubber insulation is more spongy and we believe will provide a much better insulating seal.

We're also not happy with the eyehook mounts provided by Stanley. We'd like to find some other type of securing system which we can use interchangably with the screen windows when we manufacture them in the spring. Next time we're at home depot we intend to look around the hardware section and perhaps experiment with different options.

Finally, I have to give special thanks to my mentor, without his knowledge, this project would have never have been successful!

Thanks Norm!

The Window Restoration Project

2007-10-22T12:03:00.000-04:00

When we purchased This Old Farmhouse, we knew that we were going to have to undertake a window restoration project. Walking around the house, we saw many sashes with missing glazing compound, cracked glass and even in some cases even rotting or splitting sashes.

Not including our "3 season room" (easterly room with only a wood stove for heating), we have a total of 13 windows. The kitchen has two picture windows, one southerly and one northerly, which we didn't intend to work on this year, because we're contemplating replacing them with some type of period-correct bow and garden-style window, respectively, as funding allows. However, the 11 windows on the main portion of the house we decided to tackle.

The question we first had to answer was: exactly what should we do? Should we install 'replacement windows'? Should we 're-hab' the existing windows? Or how about something in-between, such as removing the old sashes and frames and installing 'new construction' windows (windows including the frame and all)? Another possibility was to contract the services of an outside company, like Smith Restoration Sash (google them) to manufacture replacement sashes but continue to use our existing frames. To determine our course of action, we examined the pros and cons of each option available to us.

At first, using replacement windows seemed like a really good option. However, we quickly found this was cost ineffective for us. While vinyl replacement windows are pretty inexpensive, to get "quality" replacement windows like Pella quickly runs into the $700 price range per window if you install them yourself, and over $1000 per window if you have Pella install them. Even replacement windows from Home Depot (Andersen) were no bargain -- heck, the price quote from Home Depot for Andersen windows actually cost more money than windows from Pella. Frankly, I didn't have $5000 laying around to spend on windows.

Getting a quality window was important to us, because we did not want to ruin the 'period authenticity' of our home. Naturally there is only so much you can do with modern construction materials to restore a 300 year old home, but we really wanted to keep it as close as we could. This is why vinyl windows were not an option, and the other replacement options from Pella/Andersen were so expensive, as we would need to have a wood interior, 3-over-2 simulated divided light windows, and aluminum-clad exterior. Sure, you can buy a vinyl replacement window for $200, but exercising this option would actually take value away from our home as we would 'ruin' the historic feel of the property.

'New Construction' windows were also eliminated as choices, due to the same constraints. Although (oddly) a new window with the same constraints containing a full frame from Pella/Andersen actually costs less money than one of their 'replacement' windows. Go figure, I can't. I would think a 'new' window would cost more money, since you're getting effectively the 'replacement' window with a full frame. Also for us to exercise this option would require us to provide 'rough opening' sizes, which could mean guessing and then later trying to make them fit. It would also involve removing the old trim, old frames, and potentially old cedar shingle siding to property install. This meant a lot of work we were not willing to get ourselves involved with at this time. However, we may revisit this option when we re-side the house next year.

Purchasing replacement sashes was a serious option we considered (and may do so in the future). Smith Restoration Sash can build us replacement sashes for $200 per sash ($400/window). This was also outside our price range for this project, but is also an option for the future. The window frames on the first floor are in pretty decent shape with no major sill rot, although many of them will require the trim to be replaced in the near future. Two of them could use some repair work to the exterior sill where they have deteriorated over time, but they're still very usable.

After examining all the options, we decided that would would simply rehab our existing sashes, and get some additional life out of them. We determined we could do this for a nominal amount of money, only a few hundred dollars in paint and other materials. Then, in the future, when we are doing other work on the house (we need to re-side the home next year as many of the cedar shingles have deteriorated, and we would like to add blow-in insulation in the walls from the exterior at the same time) we can plan if funding allows to either buy

First off we had to wait until the barn was finished, since we needed space to work and tools which were at my old home in Glocester that I couldn't bring to Rehoboth until I had a place to store them on-site. We started this project immediately upon completion of the barn. Once the barn was finished, a quick trip to Glocester with the truck and trailer to grab all the necessary tools, and we were ready to go.

We also had to squash plans to work on the 2nd floor windows. With that bastard Joe purposely breaking his ankle to get out of doing any work, Koren and I opted instead to concentrate on the 8 first floor windows. The 3 windows on the 2nd floor at the gable ends can wait until Joe is back in service and he can help.

Of the 8 first floor windows, one (the bathroom window) is a single non-removable sash window (casement-style) which we didn't have to remove to work on. The remaining 7 windows are your typical double-hung single-pane windows with sash cords connecting to pulleys and iron weights as a counterbalance for opening and closing.

Step 01: Remove Sashes from Frame

The first step in this project was to remove all 14 sashes from their frames. Most of the windows on the exterior of the home appeared similar to above, where some time ago (roughly a decade, from the dates we found on the aluminum frame) the previous owners had installed aluminum storm windows. I won't bore you with the tedious details on how to disassemble one of these windows to remove the sash -- you'll see the reassembly instructions later on in this blog entry. What we did was remove the aluminum storm window (screwed into the frame) and took them to the dump. Amazingly in 10 years these storm windows had become worthless -- the glass was broken, the tracks didn't work, and so on.

To remove the sashes, we removed the inner stop, took off the counterweights, removed the parting bead, and repeated the process on the outer sash. The process of removing each of the windows took roughly two hours. We started this project the week of September 9th.

Step 02: Prime/Repaint Old Sills and Trim

Fortunately at This Old Farmhouse we have shutters on all interior windows (compared to shades or blinds) which allow us to close off the window and keep the bugs out. Once the windows were removed, we closed the interior shutters (and it still got damn cold at night!) and started work on the frame.

Step 02(a): Double Windows

The window frames really didn't need a great deal of work. We applied a coat of primer (5 gallon pail from Home Depot, $55) and two coats of Behr exterior semi-gloss latex paint ($25/ea gallon) to each window. We painted the inside of the sill and the frame (which you can't see in this picture) 'Beluga' --a black color -- while we kept the exterior trim an off-white (total outlay $75 for 3 gallons of paint). Both of the colors we used were readily available in colonial times, so at this point we are keeping true to our desire to maintain as much 'period authenticity' as we possibly can. We applied a coat of primer and two coats of finish, with several days in-between for the coats to dry. In total, to paint the sills and frames took 5 hours.

Step 03: Remove all old glazing compound, glass, sand

Once the frames were complete, we could turn our attention to the individual sashes. This was, honestly, one of the most time-consuming projects we've ever undertaken. Each sash required a minimum of two hours of work to remove all the old glazing. Every sash had at least one (if not several) broken panes of glass. We decided we would remove every pane of glass and attempt to consolidate the removed panes into the sashes on the front of the house, since many of the panes had that 'wavy' texture common to old glass and we felt these would look nice in the front of the house.

To remove the glazing, we had to use a heat gun to get the old putty off. In some cases I swear the previous owners used 'plastic wood' rather than glazing compound to glaze the windows, the stuff was so hard. Unfortunately, heat guns have the side-effect of cracking glass, and we ended up experiencing a 50% loss rate on the glass.

Once the glass was removed, Koren used a dremel to sand out the remaining glazing compound and clean the rabbets. A dust mask was a necessity as we were sure the windows contained lead paint, and more than likely asbestos in the old glazing compound. We spent another $20 for miscellaneous supplies (sanding drums, etc.) to complete this step.

Step 04: Unglazed Windows

Once all the glazing was removed, we had to perform rehab on each individual sash. Some sashes were in good condition and required next to no rehab work. Others required more extensive rehab, including gluing and pinning of loose stiles and rails. On one window one of the rails had actually cracked and cupped along the growth rings of the wood, some wood glue, clamps, and brad nails helped cure this problem.

Using a paint scraper we cleaned off all loose paint. We used a light sandpaper to prepare the surfaces to accept some primer. Once this was complete, we applied two coats of boiled linseed oil to each frame, both interior and exterior, as a waterproofing measure. Then the sashes sat for several days to let the linseed oil "cure". Linseed oil ran us $15 for a gallon container, and we have plenty to spare for years to come.

Step 05: Bed new glazing

Once the linseed oil cured, we started the process of reglazing the windows. This took another hour per sash. A small layer of glazing compound is required along the rabbets for the new glass panes to rest on. Although we attempted to save as many panes of glass as possible, it was necessary for us to order 50 8x12 replacement panes (single-strength window glass) at $1.89/ea.

Step 06: Replace glass and replace glazing compound

After laying a new bed of glazing compound and placing the window in the opening, we laid a "bead" of glazing compound around the outside edge of the window. Then, using a glazing tool, we "cut" the glazing back to form a nice edge. We used one large container of glazing compound per 5 sashes, at a rough cost of $7 per container, or about $21 total.

Step 07: Wash icky hands

The best way to use glazing compound is to keep a constant ball in your hand that you kneed like dough. Then it becomes soft and pliable for easily spreading along the rabbet. The side-effect though is you end up with a hand that looks like a giant yeast infection. With the oils in the glazing compound, this stuff is hard to get completely off too. We found dishwashing liquid with a degreasing ingredient worked best.

Step 08: Prime Windows

The glazing compound has to set several days before you can paint. Even then, we found that the oils in the glazing did not let primer adhere well. Next year we're going to have to return to each window and do "touch-up" work along the edges. As you can see we didn't much care if we overran the edges of the glass, since a little time with a razor knife once everything was reinstalled would be less time-consuming than taping off each window.

Step 09: Let dry

Global warming is our friend. For a while towards the beginning of October things got pretty cold, and it took quite a while for the paint on these sashes to fully set up. Finally, the weather broke and we were able to finish painting.

Each bottom sash we painted 4 out of the 6 sides (the bottom of the lower stile and the sides of the two rails which meet the window frame), and each top sash we painted 5 of the 6 sides (every side except the inner face). We did this in an attempt to "seal" the wood and hopefully prevent future water damage if there is any water ingress.

However, all this painting had to be done in stages, since first we had to paint the exterior, and then the sides, and in some cases (like the top sashes) it took 3 stages since you can't paint all sides at the same time easily.

Keep in mind all this time we are sitting around the house with no windows, just plastic nailed up along the trim boards to prevent rain from getting into the house.

Step 10: Finish Coat

This was the final color of the sashes, "Beluga" as referred to by Behr (no comments about my lousy paint job, I already told ya we're going back later with a razor knife to scrape off the glass :P ) We put two coats of finish on each window, the first seemed to have a lot of "bleed thru" from the primer coat underneath.

All interior-facing components of the window remained unpainted (which you'll see in a few steps later). All exterior-facing components which see whether received two finish coats.

With 14 sashes, time to dry between each coat, etc. this entire process took us two weeks to complete.

Step 11: Buy Weather-stripping

No rehab process would be complete on windows without side type of weather-stripping. Old windows are drafty, prone to rattling in the wind, and are a huge source of heat-loss to a house.

The weather-stripping options, though, are fairly limited. The foam-rubber weather-stripping with the adhesive backing is useless for this application, since moving the window up and down within the frame would shred the weather-stripping.

There is another option available via mail order which allows you to use a router to cut a groove into the sash where you insert a felt-like strip (similar to the weather-stripping you see on aluminum windows.) At $2.50 per foot (and the fact I would need 5' per window, I didn't feel like spending $100 on weather-stripping.

That leaves the old felt weather-stripping stand-by. Actually, this option is an excellent choice for old wood windows. It comes in 17' rolls that are 1.25" thick, which is exactly the width of an old wooden sash. It is pretty thin, and does compress slightly, so it will usually "tighten up" those old windows without making them too difficult to open and close.

Some people may find they have to use a jointer to remove about a 16th of an inch of material from each window edge meeting the frame in order to get a proper fit where the window isn't "too tight". If the window is too tight then in the summer when the frame expands due to humidity, you may get one of more panes of glass that crack.

Unfortunately, I do not own a jointer (yet, they're about $450) but I'm probably going to have to do this in the spring. As I'll mentioned later in this blog entry, some of the sashes were really tight when reinstalled, and if I don't remove some material from the edges I'll probably get cracking in my new glass when summer arrives.

Step 12: Thumbtack as runner

Attaching the felt weather-stripping is fairly simple. You can staple it to the frame, although I do not recommend this since the staples can drag along the wooden frame, causing damage. Instead, we bought thumbtacks and placed then along the sides at regular intervals. The thumbtacks with their smooth top act as a 'runner' which allows the window sash to glide in the frame.

Step 13: Trim to Fit

The process of installing the weather-stripping took about 15 minutes per window. Simply attach, cut to fit, and tack in place. If I had more time I might have investigated some form of double-back sticky tape, but the thumbtack mechanism seemed to work well once it was actually implemented.

Step 14: Prepped Window

At Last! One 'prepped' window ready to reinstall. Only 13 more sashes to go! Yeah, it looks messy, but a little razor knife work and degreaser will clean that right up. This particular window needed an additional finish coat of Beluga paint, as you can still see the underlying primer streaks thru the paint.

Step 15: Finish coat inside window

After all the paint was dry, we started the process of reinstalling the windows. Here's a picture of what we we living with for a month -- an open window frame with only a measly sheet of plastic between us and the elements. Bbbbbbbrrrrrrrrr... it was COLD some nites too! Thank god for electric blankies!

Notice in the window frame the Beluga paint along the interior of the frame, and you can see where the off-white is on the outer portion of the frame. This window is all ready to reinstall.

Step 16: Cut new sash cord and fit to pulley

As part of the rehab process, we had to replace all of the sash cords. A 100' roll of sash cord (real cotton sash cord) ran us $12.50. We invested for two rolls, which turned out to be perfect, since 1 roll was exactly enough to complete the 7 windows we rehabbed.

After removing the pulleys from the windows to clean them, we cut 28 equal lengths of sash cord -- roughly 2.5' each in length. Each window has four counterweights, 2 top and two bottom, which have to be installed. A knot at one end of the cord is needed to keep it from falling thru (and attaches to the sash.)

Step 17: Replace pulley

After cutting the 28 pieces of sash cord, we reinstalled each of the pulleys in the frame with the new cord. Another time-consuming process that took two hours with all the screws, needing to use a razor-knife to trim some of the paint out of the mortise in the frame, etc.

Step 18: Replace weight

The second part of the pulley installation is to replace the weight. A simple double-knot takes care of this perfectly.

Step 19: Prepare Sash cord

With the pulleys and weights back in place, we were ready to install the top sash. Reassembly of the windows is the reverse order of disassembly, so the top sash goes in first.

Along each side of a wood window is a plough and bore (which is covered here by the weatherstripping. The plough is a shallow "trench" which the sash cord sits in. The "bore" is a round hole where you insert the knot. The principle of operation is pretty simple, the knot is larger than the plough so once inserted it cannot fall "out" (or "up" in this case). Using a razor knife, slice the weather-stripping open to allow for insertion of the sash cord into the plough and bore.

Step 20: Cord both Sides

Here's the same window with the sash-cord inserted. The weather-stripping hides the top part (and will hide the bottom portion) of the sash cord once we "dig it out" from behind the sash cord. Its hard to hold one of these in place and do this :)

Step 21: Tilt and place window in frame

With the sash cord in place, the sash goes back into the frame by simply tilting the window and sliding it up into place against the blind stop on the outside of the frame. With the felt-weather-stripping this can get a little tricky, since the window is now a little "thicker" than it was when we removed it.

Step 22: Completed Upper Sash

However, once the sash was resting against the blind stop, it slides up and down very nicely with no binding. Those brass thumbtacks work wonders!

Notice here the thin line of felt along the bottom of the sash. This is known as a "check rail". The check rail is where the top and bottom sash meet, and is a common location where people forget to weather-strip. There is a fair amount of heat loss and air infiltration that takes place at this location, and by placing a piece of weather-stripping along the check rail, when the top rail of the inner sash meets the bottom rail of the outer sash, you'll have a nice tight fit.

Step 23: Replace parting bead

Between the sashes is a thin strip of wood known as a "parting bead. This prevents the two sashes from rubbing against one another, except at the check-rail where they are designed to meet. This thin piece of wood (usually 3/8ths of an inch thick, but running the entire length of the window frame) is easy to replace and just tap into a pre-existing groove.

Step 24: Replace access panels

Also before replacing the inner sash it is necessary to put the access panels to the weight wells back into place. Its a good idea to leave them off until this step, in case you have any problems with the top sash moving and need to see inside the wells to figure out if the pulleys are working. These access panels are held in place with two wood screws flush against the frame.

Step 25: Lower Sash complete

Repeat the installation process mentioned previously for the bottom sash. Tilt in, and slide along the parting bead, slowly into place.

Step 26: Top plate

Replace the top-plate, not much else to say here. You may notice that there are no pulleys on this window -- as it turned out, we had several pulleys that were broken and beyond repair. Due to the inclimate weather we opted to reinstall the windows, using all the good pulleys on the outer sashes. Once we get replacement pulleys in, we can remove the lower sash easily and put the pulleys in place.

Step 27: Inner Stops

The final step of reassembly is the inner stop, which rests along the inner side of the inside sash.

Step 28: Completed Reassembly

Voila. Completed reinstallation. This whole process takes about 45 minutes per window. We were able to reinstall all 7 windows in a little over 5 hours. Some go easier than others. We found some of the windows very tight, we will need to go back to those this spring and use a jointer to remove some material to make them fit better.

Step 29: Outside appearance

Here is the raw product on the outside. Notice the differences in the sills. We couldn't decide if we should paint the sills to match the window color or the trim color. Thus, we decided to do one of each to see how they would look finished, with the intention of returning next year (since we have to do more painting anyway) to change the one we don't like to the "other" color.

Which looks better, the black sill or the white sill? Email us and let us know. Personally, I like the black sill with the white trim, but Koren likes the white sill.

Step 30: Trim overpaint

When the weather warmed up a little, we went outside to use a razor knife to clean up each of the windows and prepare them for our picture storms (which is another upcoming blog entry.) This process takes about a half-hour per window, but goes fairly smoothly with some music in the background.

Step 99: Finished Product!

Voila! There you go, our finished windows. Personally, we love how the black window sashes makes the window "disappear" , in a type of shadow-box appearance. Heck, it almost looks like the windows aren't even there -- after they were not for a long time!

The total time to complete this project was astronomical. If we had to really measure the time, I would say it took us well over 200 hours of work combined over 6 weeks. There was a lot of down-time as we had to wait for paint to dry, etc.

Total cost of the project ran under $400 between the paint and all the supplies we had to buy. That's less than the cost of one replacement window.

The Barn Interior

2007-10-20T20:40:00.001-04:00

Finally got around this weekend to organizing the interior of the barn. Took a few photos to share the "finished product". It may look small in the pictures, but it is actually quite roomy.

South-East Corner

The south-east corner is used to store our livestock. Currently we only have two hogs, but there is lots of room for at least 6 more!

South-West Corner

In the south-west corner, we have shelving set up for storage of a variety of items that don't fit somewhere else.

North-West Corner

The north-west corner contains our workbench, currently with drill-press, dedicated mortising station, and router station. The bench is a 8 feet long. Below the bench is a pull-out work table on casters which we actually use the workworking accessories on.

North-East Corner

The north-east corner contains another workbench which is 13 feet long, a table saw, and various other wordworking accessories.

The Barn Project

2007-10-06T10:53:00.000-04:00

I can't motivate this morning. I have wooden storm windows to build, a barn to organize, window sashes to paint... and all I want to do is lay around and veg. Well, I can paint later, and I can build the windows tommorrow.

The barn. I think I'll veg and transcribe a blog entry about the barn.

This was my first 'project' at This Old Farmhouse. A farmhouse should have a barn, shouldn't it? Unfortunately, mine didn't come with one. Over the years, barns have come and gone on the property.

The previous owners had a 2-car 'garage' on the property which fell into disrepair and they later tore it down, replacing it with a small utility shed. The 24x20 concrete pad still existed (also in a state of disrepair, mind you) where they had the shed.

A utility shed will not 'cut it' for me, so the first project I knew I had to undertake was building a barn. I actually knew this when I bought the home, and adjusted my purchase price accordingly.

I figured a 36x24 barn would do everything I needed, and then some. Yes, that sounds large, but it really isn't. Its only 864 sq ft.

I took a trip to Home Cheapo, wrote down lumber prices, and constructed an Excel spreadsheet, thinking in my head all the pieces I would need to construct a barn that size. I had to make a few 'guessitmates'. I came up with a price of $9500. That is, naturally, with me doing all the labor myself.

Early June, 2007. Step 1: Draw building plans and get a building permit. This process took several steps to the building inspector's office. My first trip I met with the building inspector and asked exactly what he wanted in the way of building plans. Thankfully, he was willing to accept plans drawn on regular 8.5"x11" paper, rather than those huge sheets you get from an architect's office.

Here I also encountered my first "problem". My Home Cheapo estimate was based putting in a full foundation and concrete slab. By full foundation I mean I have to dig a minimum 42" below grade, pour an 18x12" keyed concrete footing, and then either poured concrete walls, or (legal, but he didn't like it) concrete block foundation with concrete-filled voids.

I really wanted a way to get the $9500 cost down, so I could take some of the funds and buy insulation -- as somewhat expected, there is absolutely zero insulation in This Old Farmhouse. I also needed to do some immediate repairs on the windows to prep them for winter, so even though I stocked $12.5k in my project 'kitty', I wanted to see if I could save some additional funds.

Plus, a full foundation is a *lot* of work. I calculated out I would use close to 600 blocks. So first I would have to hire an excavator, dig the trenches, pour the footing, and THEN I would have to manually carry and place 600 blocks (then rebar, then fill them with concrete) to "build" a foundation. My buddy Joe did it for his 18x24 garage, so it is doable.

A far better solution, though is to build what is referred to as a pole barn. With a pole barn, you place the entire structure on sonotubes which are sunk 48" into the ground. You then use a 6x6 sill "beam" between the sonotubes to distribute the building weight.

We've built tons of these in Ohio, they work well, and they have the added benefit of going up fast. With a post-hole digger you can easily drill the holes for the tubes in a few hours. Then sheath the hole with the sonotube, and pour the concrete. Voila, done. Not only could I save a ton of money (when I crunched the numbers, I came up with roughly a $1000 savings) I would save a ton of time.

The building inspector wasn't too keen on letting me build a pole barn. While I could build a building with a 'regular' foundation with no special building plans, a pole barn would require me to hire a civil engineer to stamp a foundation plan.

I left the BI's office somewhat discouraged. Getting an architect involved means spending money on something which IMO is a complete waste, and it would certainly involve more than the $1k savings. I mulled it around for a day, and figured since I would be spending the $1k either way, it would make sense to spend the $1k and save time.

I asked around at work (I work with a bunch of scientists some of whom are PEs) and eventually I hooked up with a guy in RI who charged me $600 "cash" to stamp a pole-barn foundation plan. Gotta love New England, everyone gets their graft.

Back to the BI's office I go, plans in hand. Ka-Ching. Another $210 for a building permit.

It is now the end of June, and off to Home Cheapo I go. The foundation plan by the engineer calls for a sonotube every 4 feet along the building perimeter. This is overkill again, IMO, since in Ohio we built these every 8' "on center". It also effectively doubled my materials cost from my original savings estimate -- with the additional concrete and sonotubes, there really is zero savings at this point. Oh, and I have to buy rebar, and put rebar in the concrete piers (again something we never did in Ohio). Another $125 expense.

Naturally, Home Cheapo doesn't have everything in stock. I leave with a partial order (June 27th) and an estimated delivery date of a week on the remaining materials. The week comes and goes. And goes.. And goes... Finally, I get the remaining material I need in the middle of July.

The interim wait wasn't without benefit, though. I now have 24 piers I had to place in the ground, and I had to build a rebar 'cage' for each pier. This involved a fair amount of welding -- 14 hours in total over the course of two days, to create 24 4'x8"x8" rebar cages out of 96 4' pieces of #3 rebar and 384 8" pieces. Thank god for tack-welds.

I also had to arrange for removal of the old concrete slab. It was pretty beat. In addition, the Title V septic work on the home required access to the back of the lot, which the contractors decided was easiest if they simply drove over the slab with all their heavy equipment -- effectively pulverizing it further.

First I had Joe come over with a flat-bed trailer, and we were able to drag the 10x12 utility shed onto the flat bed, and move it 15 feet to the north. The barn would be my domain, the utility shed Koren can use to do all her gardening and girly stuff.

One day when the septic folks were here with an excavator, I asked for a price to remove the slab. The site foreman couldn't give me a price, so I gave him my cell number and asked for him to call me with a quote. I never received a call, but 12 hours later when I got home I found the slab had been removed. "Wow," I thought to myself, "they did it for free."

After the septic people removed the old concrete pad, Joe and I rented one of those gas-powered augers to dig the post holes. This was an experiment which ended in abject failure. Every time we attempted to dig a hole, we ran into a rock the size of a softball. After wrestling with the auger for 2 hours, and digging exactly 1 hole, we gave up (if you look close towards the bottom right of the slab, there's the one hole we managed to dig with the auger.)

I needed another plan. I let my fingers do the walking. I found a local guy with a backhoe who did small jobs, "Hire A Hoe". Since all dudes need to hire a ho from time to time, I gave him a call. He came out and quoted me $300 to trench a square for me, and i could then put in the sonotubes and backfill myself. However, he wouldn't be able to 2 weeks. That put me out to the beginning of August.

Hire-A-Hoe shows up on 8/4 at 8am. Previously I had sprayed with landscape paint where I wanted him to dig. He started digging, and 15 minutes later I hear a knock at my door. Can't do it, he says. Takes me out to where he was digging, and bolders the size of a yugo were in the ground. "Glacial Till", he says, "if you want this excavated out, you'll have to hire a large excavator. You'll have to pull all this out, and then truck in clean fill to backfill, because you're not going to be able to backfill with these".

Great. His estimate (he doesn't do it, mind you, he is just a guy with a small hoe) is a minimum of $5k to do what I would need to do. Even if I wanted to go back to my full foundation plan, I'd have the same problem. I wouldn't be able to backfill with what I would pull out, so I would have to excavate out the large stone and then bring in fill, after doing the foundation work.

Nix that idea. Back to the drawing board.

I go back to the building inspector, and sit down with him one nite. My conversation basically started off like this: "You gotta help me out. I need a barn. I can't build one with a pole barn foundation, nor would it be cost effective for me to do a full foundation. So we gotta come up with a different plan, otherwise, I'm just going to call this company in Worcester and have 3 40' shipping containers dumped in my yard, at a cost of $2200/ea. I'm sure my neighbors would just love to see that, but hey, its legal and doesn't require a foundation, since they're temporary structures".

I wasn't kidding either. An 8'x8.5'x40' shipping container costs $2200 delivered to your door. For $6600, I could end up with a 24x40 "structure", putting them side-by-side, for less than what I was intending to pay to build the barn. Oh, they're ugly as sin, mind you, since they're containers retired from active shipping service, surplus from companies that have gone out of business, etc. But they're waterproof, and you can actually work inside them, although the 8' width makes it a little difficult, and once you get more than 20' into one, you start to feel like you're in a tin-can.

"How about 2 20x20 structures instead?" he suggests. As it turns out, the maximum size of a structure you can build without putting in a full foundation is 400 sq ft according to the building code. Up to 400 sq ft you can put on a floating concrete slab.

I leave with a new plan: build 1 20x20 "utility shed" this year, and next year build another one right behind it. Then I effectively end up with an 800 sq ft building(s). A little less than my original 864 sq ft, but heck, I can deal with it. Besides, my work tends to be compartmentalized anyway, the "front" building I can use for working on my vehicles, while the "back" structure I can use for other hobbies.

A week later (now mid August) I return with revised drawings I put together myself. My revisions are approved, and on I go.

Since no foundation is involved, it was recommended (although not required) that I put in a base of crushed stone for drainage, and then pour fiber-reinforced concrete to aid in crack prevention.

First I squared off a 20x20 foundation with 2x6's, and then had 5 tons of crushed stone trucked in as a base. This ended up costing me $40 more than I expected ($200 total) because normally I deal in "yards" whereas stone is delivered in "tons". When I ordered the stone, I told the dispatcher I needed enough to cover "2 yards", which they translated as "2 tons". Suffice to say, I was short, and had to order another 3 yards (and another $40 delivery fee) to finish leveling off the grade.

After the stone was complete, I ordered 7 yards of concrete. I actually needed a little over 6, so I knew I would have some extra, which was fine, I could build a little ramp in the front. I didn't take any pictures of the concrete. Honestly, I've never done anything so exhausting in all my life.

I built a 24' "screed board" out of some 2x6's. The concrete truck driver did a pretty good job of dumping the concrete fairly evenly within the forms, however, I needed to screed the concrete to make it even. This meant using a little shovel to take concrete from "here" and put it "there" where the level was a little low, or simply take off the high levels and dump it over the side.

Joe on one end, Koren on the other, and me in the middle (in the concrete), we slid the screed board from side to side, back to front, dragging it across the tops of the concrete forms to make the concrete "level" with the forms.

This process took us about an hour, with several "passes". I honestly don't know how people do it for a living... It was utterly exhausting work. The end result was a 20x20 pad with a little "ramp" in front, to make driving vehicles in and out easier.

Pause for a week... Concrete has to cure. Although you can walk on a slab the next day, you're supposed to keep it wet for a week to prevent excessive hydration, the chemical process which strengthens the concrete as it dries out.

The following week, I start framing work. On Saturday while Koren is at work, I frame all four walls on the ground, so Sunday when she's home she can help me lift them into place and secure them. Turns out I opted to do this on the hottest weekend in August. I consumed many gallons of pink lemonade.

With Koren's help, I was able to lift the four walls into place, square the structure, and brace them. I placed a few pieces of T-111 on the outer walls to provide additional stability while I continued to frame the roof.

The roof consists of 2x8 construction. I constructed a ridge beam by sandwiching a 1/2" piece of ply between two 20' 2x8's. With a 5/12 pitch, I calculated the height of the ridge beam above the top sill, and created two 4x4 "posts" which I mounted at each gable end, so that I could lift the ridge beam into place.

Prior to doing this, I attached joist-hangers every 24" O.C. on the ridge beam, to make it easier to attach the rafters. I also pre-cut the rafters to make assembly of the roof go easier.

Construction of the roof framing actually went fairly well. Joe and I were able to lift the beam into place, using some construction staging he owns. Then, we were able to get all the rafters into place fairly quickly. All told we had the roof framed in under 3 hours.

At the end of the day, disaster struck. While cutting some 2x4's to stud out the gable roof ends for sheathing in T-111 siding, we were on the very LAST cripple stud when Joe fell off the ladder, breaking his ankle. Ouch. He's been in a cast now for 2 months! (I think he intentionally did it to get out of doing any more construction!)

While Joe was at the hospital, I had to drill and place galvanized lag-screws every 4' along the perimeter of the barn to anchor it to the concrete slab.

Joe's inconsideration for my needs meant Koren and I had to finish all the work ourselves, which meant taking her off other important projects which would have to be delayed, and instead have her help me finish shealthing and shinging the roof, finish the T-111 siding, build the barn door, and finally hang the interior collar-ties on all the rafters.

During the week, when I come home from work, I spend the evenings finishing my T-111 sheathing all around the outside of the structure, including the gable ends. Fortunately all of this work I can do myself, even though manipulating a 5/8ths sheet of T-111 is a cumbersome task.

It is now Labor Day weekend. Koren works on Saturday, so I spend the day ripping lumber on the table saw and putting on all the pine trim. We're going to start working on the roof Sunday and Monday. Rather than putting on trim pieces on the rafter ends, I instead put a 1x3 on the edge with a slight overhang, to catch the pieces of OSB we have to lift into place.

OSB (oriented strand board) is the latest construction trend. Google it. It is cheap, but, it weighs a TON. Using the staging equipment, on Sunday we were able to lift 6 4x8 and 3 4x4 sheets of 23/32 OSB into place on the north side, nail it down with the framing nailer, and tack down several strips of 15# felt to prevent water damage in the event of rain.

This is where I know that bastard Joe broke his ankle on purpose. Lifting that damn OSB was almost as much work as screeding the concrete. I stuck Koren on the roof, and I carried the OSB from the lumber stack and lifted it up to her. As each row went up, we had to nail "dead man" blocks into key pivot points so we could manipulate the boards ourselves and "slide" them over the roof into their place.

We really needed a third person, and had one of the dead-man blocks fail I would have been a dead man as a 4x8 sheet of OSB would slide off the roof, slamming into me in the process -- or worse, knock her off the roof.

Monday she had to work a 1/2 day in the morning, so I worked on the south side while she was at work. By the time she got home at 2pm, I had the first row of sheathing done on the south side of the roof. I was able to accomplish this by lifting the OSB onto the staging in such a way that once I stood on the staging I could lift and slide the OSB sheets onto the rafters. The lip I created with the 1x3's prevented the OSB from sliding off the end.

I had just started the 2nd row (there are 3 rows total) when she got home, so the two of us were able to finish lifting the remaining OSB into place, and then felt it.

The remainder of the roofing process went fairly normally. Other than carrying 17 80 pound bundles of roofing shingles up there, that is. Once again, its all that bastard Joe's fault for making me do all the work by myself.

I installed drip-edge along all the sides, a starter course of shingles (upside down) and then another 30 courses on each side, all the way to the top.

Thank god for pneumatic nailers. Koren did all the nailing, I did all the lifting and positioning of the shingles. Overall it went fairly smoothly.

Structure is done. All that remains is putting on the barn door. Try finding hardware to mount a barn door. Lowes? Home Cheapo? They look at you like a deer in the headlights when you say you want a sliding door track and trollies.

Fortunately, living in the "Right To Farm" community has some benefits. I stopped at the local grain and feed shop, asked where they bought their barn door hardware, and voila. An hour (and $150) later I had my galvanized steel track and a set of trollies to mount the door.

Framing the door is simple: Just build a 2x4 wall, sheath it with some T-111, and mount the trollies. Then, mount the steel track, put the trollies in the track, add a stop at both ends, a door handle and a lock. Finito! One completed barn door.

That's it. It is pretty much a done deal. Next year, I can "extend" the barn out by building another 20x20 building "behind" this one.

I managed to keep this project, despite all the cost overruns, under budget. I waited until "Tax Free Day" in Massachusetts to buy all my building materials. In addition, Home Cheapo had a "open a new account and get a 15% discount" deal. I always over-buy on building materials -- I spent $3000 that one day alone on all my lumber, roofing materials, etc.

Couple this with the concrete costs ($750), the aborted foundation building plan ($600), building permit ($210), rebar ($125) and crushed stone ($200), the total cost came in at $4885. Might as well round it up to an even $5k since I'm sure there are things I've forgotten in there.

Figuring I won't have to buy the rebar nor foundation plan for the "2nd half" next summer, that would put my cost at just over $4k for "part deux". I'll have to wait for "tax free" day again, and I'll have to use one of those "10% off" coupons to get the cost down, but it'll definitely be workable. This would put my total cost at just around $9k.

Soon I'll follow this blog posting with an article on the interior work, once I get it cleaned and organized. Right now, it is an organizational disaster and everything I use for projects are laying all over the place (as you'll see in my next blog posting on the window project.)

Welcome

2007-10-05T12:23:00.000-04:00

I hate blogging. I honestly feel people who blog have an overinflated opinion of their self-worth, sort of like those people who walk around with a "Lt. Uhura" earpience surgically attached to their head. After all, who really cares what random, anonymous people on the internet have to say (or write)?

On May 31st I bought my 3rd home -- a 300 year old farmhouse. Ok, technically it isn't 300 years old. That's just what the realtor said, and what do realtors know? Realtors are slightly higher than lawyers and used-car salesmen on the scum scale.

The reality is we really don't know exactly how old it is. We can guess at the exact age, and some research into the title history of the property has yielded some clues. Additionally, the home has been visited by several 'experts' on colonial homes and the have given rough approximations as to the date of the home.

The approximate build date? 1740, according to Fred Morth, a town resident who is the local 'expert' on antique homes. This seems to coorespond (thusfar) with some of our own research.

In 1738, the property was purchased by an Abiah Luther from Samuel Peck. Abiah Luther went on to have several children before moving, ironically enough, to Glocester, RI, which is the town I moved to Rehoboth, MA from.

Perhaps I am one of Abiah's children reincarnated, and the home called to me. If you believe in that sort of stuff.

Since we're not likely to spend several thousand dollars on a dendrochronology study, we'll simply accept the 1738 date as an approximate "build date" until I can spend some additional time at the Blanding Library to research the property further. When that happens, you all will be the first to know.

However, I digress.

Why have I started a blog when I despise people who blog?

The reality is I have numerous restoration projects ongoing on This Old Farmhouse, and numerous friends and family members have asked me for pictures, updates, etc. Koren's mom in Florida, my friend Joe who is in East Providence nursing a broken ankle he received when the ghost of Captain Macomber pushed him off the ladder, and so on.

I do not have the time, nor inclination, to repeat my ramblings over and over again each time someone asks me for an update. So, I have created this blog.

These blog entries will be somewhat unlike other blogs, though. Certain projects I will post as a single entry, going back to edit it over time as the project progresses, while others I will post as a single entry (such as the Barn Project). Yet others will follow the traditional blog with periodic updates.

Over the next several months, perhaps years, I will post updates on my restoration projects. I'll provide an update on my research into the home's past, and hopefully, this way, every time a friend or family member asks me how this-or-that project is coming along, I can just tell them... visit the blog!