"Stairway to Heaven"

Good Day,

It has been a very busy 3 weeks. My drywalling contractor, Bill McGonegal (Mountain City Drywall/Gyro Construction & Renovations) has worked diligently and completed the drywall task earlier this last week - a total of just over the 5 working weeks he predicted. This was despite being down to just himself and his son Dan over the last two weeks when his other crew member (Mike) was hospitalised after falling and breaking his hip.  (I hasten to add this was in his own weekend time and not a second injury on my build site).  Coming to the end of this task, the dust that arises during the taping, mudding and sanding process was just awful, and the house looked quite a dust bowl, but Bill's wife and niece did a good two day clean up.  That said, I face the fact that for some time I will continue to be plagued by drywall dust seeping out of every nook and cranny. But in this clean up Bill has surpassed any of my other contractors except perhaps Dwight Hulbert, as all who knew from the outset that part of the deal with me was that I required them to remove all their own detritus - and all had to be constantly reminded that was the way it was to be as I write the cheques!

Internally, with two exceptions (stair installation and the build of the first of my Schlüter showers) I have tried to ensure Bill has his working space without too much interruption from other contractors or myself working in the same areas of the house.  So a part of my focus has been on working outside, clearing, cutting up and stacking all those piled up off-cuts of the post and beam and roof timbers, framing lumber, and siding timbers that were discarded at the time of that contractors work and now litter the site, so that I can use them next winter as kindling or actual fire burning wood in my forthcoming log burner (I anticipate this being installed next month once I have tiled that floor area). Considering the amount of this material just lying in great piles I have achieved about 30% of the clear up I need to do.  Note I did tell those trades they could just pile it up rather than take it away, as it was to be my winter fuel.  I also did the day trip to Creston to pick up some kiln dried timbers for subsequent dressing out of those two exposed yellow load bearing LVL (Laminated Veneer Lumber) beams in the Great Room and basement walkout family room. I have also continued, with intermittent success, to research the options for bathroom floor and wall tiling, floor tiling for the daylight walkout basement family room and two bedrooms, wood flooring for my open plan main floor, timber for internal window frame finishing, plus materials with which to build shelves and hanging spaces in my loft walk-in-closet and kitchen pantry.  I have ordered where I have achieved success in terms of what I want for quality and fit to my budget - other areas continue to occupy my mind.  The daylight walkout basement flooring tiles in particular proved something of a merry-go-round, as having made a choice and then ordered, on delivery by the manufacturer to Home Depot I found they did not match the sample on display in their showroom - a small case of misrepresentation and Home Depot a little on the back foot with this customer! But after more time spent, a solution has been agreed. Home Hardware (as opposed to Home Depot) delivered my bathroom tiling this last week, and Home Depot will be delivering my daylight walkout basement main family room and bedroom tiling middle of this coming week. I also reached a decision on my main floor engineered wood flooring (engineered so it can handle the in floor heating) and ordered approx 1200 sq ft for that task. I am still to decide on what route to chose for my loft gallery and bedroom flooring.  Also, after many persuasive phone calls to the concreting contractor that did my over garage concrete deck and main floor slab, he came up to discuss the options for my walkout patio and garage aprons. I had a quote from him early last year but my spec for this task has changed, so I need an update. Some two weeks later I am still waiting for his quote! I am about to push him again, but if still no result I will cast the net out further for other contractors - no rush as this external work does not delay my actually being able to move into the house and so I can delay while shopping around for other contractors if he doesn't provide a satisfactory quote.

The stairwell was already painted and ready for installation of the stair system, as reported in my last update.  Drywalling of the rest of the house complete, much of last week and a few days of this next week are dedicated to the painting of both the open plan main floor (Great Room/Kitchen/Diner) and daylight walkout basement, in advance of the forthcoming fitting out of cabinetry and flooring. My aim in the next two months is to get these two areas completed to a sufficiently basic level for me to move in, then finish the final cosmetic work on these two floors, and later in the loft master suite. As in my update of three weeks ago I gave readers a visual walk round to show the drywall in place and and nearly ready for taping, mudding and sanding, I won't give another visual look of that further work today, but intend to wait until my next update, as by then I hope to have more to show in terms of a finished look with kitchen cabinetry and floor tiling in place.

To that effect I have just two areas to show you in this update - the build of my stair system, and the build of one Schlüter shower in one of the two basement bathrooms.

For whatever reason, as it really bears no relevance to my stairs height, Led Zeppelin's classic "Stairway to Heaven" has been turning through my brain while this work was taking place, hence the title of this update.

"There's a lady who's sure

All that glitters is gold

And she's buying a stairway to heaven

When she gets there she knows

If the stores are all closed

With a word she can get what she came for

Oh oh oh oh and she's buying a stairway to heaven

As I say, absolutely no relevance, but such is the churning of a brain that grew up on 70's type music!

Back to the detail.  The stair system was always planned to be another bespoke heavy timber feature of this house, rather than being a merely typical and uninteresting means of getting between floors. The entrance lobby and stair well sits between the main house living areas and the garage, and is internally 12 ft wide, with the stairs being four half flights of 5 ft wide treads and a 2ft gap space between each half flight. As the first two half flights between front of house ground level and the main floor have a storage space behind the first half flight and a half bathroom under the second half flight, these are enclosed with kick backs, while the next two half flights between the main floor and the loft have open backs. This open back design as well as the 2 ft gap between all four half flights was partly for visual effect but also to help air flow ventilation. Some readers may remember from when I started this blog in April 2017, that I presented an outline of the house design and explained that the high level of insulation plus the layout of the building is aimed to make use of the natural breezes, significant diurnal range between summer high but dry daytime heat versus cooling night temperatures at this altitude (nearly 3,000 ft), plus the overhanging front prow roof to limit solar gain in summer but maximise the same when the sun has a lower trajectory in winter. All in the hope is that I do not need air conditioning (AC) - notwithstanding the fact I have had the loft master suite fitted with the power supplies for a split AC unit if I have got it wrong - what is known in my past career terminology as FFBNW (Fitted For But Not With).

While Bob Damstrom (Damstrom Log & Timber Homes - http://www.damstrom.com) has inevitably undertaken a lot of work in his yard to cut, prepare and stain my stair timbers, on site work came to about 4 working days for two people. Here is a guided tour of the result.

First, the current view from the main entrance. A half flight of stairs and a mid landing, and then to the right you can see through the door of the half bathroom (cloakroom or loo to UK readers) the underside of the next flight up to the main floor. The whole system is built using 3" Fir timbers. The first landing is built on top of the already framed landing and stud wall that was installed last year by Jason Olesen's team as part of the internal wall and sub floor framing. (To explain, that landing is an extension of the mechanical room at the back of the house, providing a half height storage space)

This next photo is the first landing just mentioned (a bit dusty from drywall sanding that day), between the entrance lobby and main floor ...

... and then the next half flight to the concrete covered main level sub floor with its in floor heating.

Now, in order to give you some perspective, before we go up the next two half flights from the main floor to the loft, this next photo is taken back down at entrance lobby level looking up, and shows the second half landing, mid way between the main floor and loft. Again built of 3" thick fir timbers, this landing appears to hang in space. It is bolted on the right hand side to the concrete ICF wall between the house and garage, using three concrete anchor bolts, with a total sheer strength exceeding 9,000 lbs (approx 4½ tons). On the opposite framed lumber load bearing wall this landing is fixed into the studs using long GRK fastening screws, and using six rather than three GRK screws achieves a similar load bearing strength - far beyond the weight of the landing and any realistic or excessive number of occupants. The platform is also similarly screwed with GRK's for added stability into the rear wall that separates the stairwell from the laundry area.

Having explained that anchoring plan in order to achieve the landing hanging in space design, the next photo is the half flight from the main floor to that interim landing. As mentioned earlier, you'll notice these are open back stairs.

In the next photo we are looking back down from that half landing to the main floor.  The concrete floor area below is 10' deep by 12' wide and will serve as both a landing and an office space. The current thought is to build the desk and a tall filing cabinet in similar matching timbers to the stair system - but probably not until next early winter, long after moving into the house.

In the next two pictures we are looking at the last half flight up to the loft level ...

... and in the next photo we are looking at the top landing immediately before stepping onto the loft gallery walkway to the master bedroom suite ...

Readers may recall that the beams supporting this last landing were installed just prior to my last update. From an earlier photo taken before the fit of the stair treads, you can see at the internal end these beams are bolted via hangers into the LVL beam that sits astride that internal loft load bearing wall ...

... and, as shown below, at the other end they are supported in the concrete wall by beam pockets, but in order to achieve a symmetrical visual balance I have installed the same hangars as on the other side, even though structurally they add nothing more to the equation. In this photo we are looking from the loft gallery to the top half landing and the two beams beyond which will remain visual in an open space.

Just three more photos below to add visual perspective. First, gazing up into the vaulted roof, and then ...

... looking down from the top. (You will seen that without a moment to spare, as soon as the stairs were installed I fitted floor protecting cardboard onto the treads so that contractors don't then grind dust and debris into the timbers, and taped this cardboard down with painters tape, which in theory should not leave a glue residue on the timbers. Just as quickly I removed the ladders that had been providing access to each floor - and which had filled me with worries ever since one of the plumbers lads had his fall last November).

The final stair photo below shows the half landing between the main floor and loft as well as the framed ceiling top over the laundry area.  My plans are still evolving how to finish this area off, but in spite of some suggestions I could frame a wall here and use this as a storage space, the weight of opinion is I should leave it open and floor it in similar fir timbers in order to maintain the visual effect when looking up into the vaulted ceiling.  To be decided, and no rush.  

While there have been times when the working relationship between Bob Damstrom and myself has been a little taught, notably with regard to extensive delay in the supporting deck structure and subsequently the quality of the timbers supplied for my deck treads, overall I love the majority of his big timber work in this house in the post and beam roof system, and his more recent work on the stairs has certainly pleased me.  We will see if I remain as content with the subsequent installation of the guard/handrails for the stairs and gallery. Bob is currently working in his yard to complete construction of those guard/hand rails, and I have asked for them to be fitted, along with some final staining touch up of the new stair system, week commencing 21 May.  This allows me to de-conflict with some of the ceiling and wall painting work that is being currently undertaken both on the main floor and walk out basement ground floor. I hope to show guard/handrails in place in my next post.

The other piece of work I wanted to show you was the build of the Schlüter shower in one of the two bedrooms. Schlüter is a German company offering a number of build systems for showers, wet rooms and under floor heating, etc, etc. In terms of shower design (https://www.schluter.ca/schluter-ca/en_CA/showers) this "vorsprung durch technik" design offers several advantages:

• First, Schlüter®-KERDI waterproofing membranes that provide a complete waterproofing system between tiling and drywall and the shower plumbing fixtures. It's a common misapprehension that tiles are 100% waterproof - they aren't. 
• Second, in the case of my downstairs shower it was the only way I could determine to build a solid mortar shower base, as I refuse to consider a plastic shower tray as my sore experience in all my previous English houses is these eventually flex and allow moisture into the framed wall and sub floor, with consequent rot. 
•  Third, particularly for my master shower, the Schlüter system enables a bespoke shower design and size. 

Now a quick tour. Not trusting my practical skill-set to get this first one right, I once again enlisted the help of my landlord, friend and building mentor, Chris Walch, who built two showers using the Schlüter system while building his log house where I currently reside down the road. In basic terms you prepare and place a thin layer of unmodified thin set mortar to the walls ...

... to which you then apply the Schlüter Kerdi waterproofing orange coloured membrane ...

As shown below, Schlüter offer a number of sized sloped hard polystyrene shower trays, of which you chose the nearest size and then cut to fit, placing over another bed of mortar, plus a drain system and a shower kerb edge.  (The drain proved something of a hassle to fit due to the fact we had difficulty cutting down the fixed plumbing within the concrete slab to make the join to the Schlüter drain). 

Then, pouring another bed of mortar over the shower tray, the waterproofing membrane was then placed along with additional preformed waterproofing corners in all four corners of the basin and two on the kerb, all as extra belts and braces protection. A total of 10 hours work over two days (to allow mortar to dry below the shower tray before final installation of the extra waterproofing layers) ...

... and now the shower is ready for tiling - something I hope to start on week after next and show in my next update.

All in all a productive three weeks, even if I haven't shown you the finished drywalling and now nearly finished painting on two floors.  As I said earlier hopefully I'll be able to show you that along with fitting of kitchen cabinetry and some floor tiling in my next update.  My plan (possibly, maybe, Inshallah) is to transmit my next update during the weekend of 2-3 June.

Until then, toodle-pip.