Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Exterior Foam Started!

Finally, the exterior foam work has begun. Rigid closed cell foil faced foam (called Iko Enerfoil) arrived the 1st week of April and Scott's crew has moved quickly to begin the process of attaching the foam to the house.


Virtually all the shingles have been stripped and 2 layers of foam have been installed, with the seams taped and each layer staggered to ensure a more effective air barrier.

Remaining is some of the detailed air sealing work that will need to fill in all the gaps by the windows, doors, at the bottom and top of the foam. Scott Sorensen (contractor) and Olaf Vollertsent (architect) have had many conversations about where to spray foam, how to seal the foam at the corners, what screws to use to attach the foam and then the strapping, etc. etc. Complicated stuff but necessary.

More to follow on some of those details, but the photos here show some of the early foam work.






Construction Continues


Construction has moved quickly so that by late March/early April,, virtually all of the exterior framing and construction has been completed.
The top front dormer was completely demolished and then rebuilt with a new roof and entirely new framing and sheathing (see photos).
It's starting to look like it's supposed to, and even thought our exterior footprint is only slightly larger than our original house, it seems much larger both inside and out.

Scott and his crew work incredibly quickly, rebuilding the dormer in just a week. The site is kept incredibly clean at the end of each day and the work seems solid. We're especially pleased with some of the attention to details that have replicated the period roof and eaves.
The windows on the top dormer are especially large, primarily because of code issues and required opening height for emergency egress.




Our almost 4 year old son continues to call this our green house, and although I'd like to believe he understands what we are doing, I think it's just because the sheating is green. :)