11. Mechanical Roughs

Rough mechanicals includes your plumbing top-out, your electrical rough, your a/c rough and all of your low voltage wiring. As we discussed before their is a logical sequence as to the order of things. I have seen things get out of sequence and things never seemed to operate correctly in that house. The first thing your builder will do is get the plumber started. The plumber will run all of his water lines, drain lines and vent pipes. He will have to drill through some studs and top plates. He should never over drill holes for his pipes. You need to remember that drain lines work by gravity some there will be enough room in his bores for the pipe to 'fall'. During this phase your plumber might have to adjust some of his in slab plumbing lines and/or drains. To make these adjustments they will have to use a chipping hammer. A chipping hammer is a small jack hammer. All water lines that run in exterior walls or in the attic should be insulated at this time. Depending on the size and how your plumber is organized he might and he might not install his tubs and shower pans at this time. Your HVAC contractor can start the same day as the plumber if the home is large enough for both crews. If the home can only handle one at a time, let the HVAC guy go first. He will probably be in and out in half a day. Why do you let HVAC go first? Well the plumber needs to hook up your primary A/C drain and you want your A/C duct work and return airs run with the fewest restrictions as possible and the easiest way to ensure that is to have it installed first. All other contractors need to go around them. The only thing to check is the space for the water heater in the attic or the utility closet. the plumber can take any where from one day to almost a week depending on what is required of him. The electrical contractor should not even get started until the plumber is complete. He needs to ensure that none of his wires are touching any of the plumbers water lines. He also needs to be able to identify water areas for the placement of his GFCI's. His wiring should be bundled together and not run wildly through your studs and joist. All light fixtures should have boxes and be secured for fixture installation. Smoke detectors are placed in required locations. Weather proof boxes are installed where required. Ceiling fans are blocked and wired. This is the time to add separate switches for light kit and fan operation. Appliances should be determined by now so the proper wiring can be installed. Your furnaces are installed and A/C locations determined because your roughs are complete so the proper wiring can be run to them. Breaker box locations should have been identified prior to the electrician getting started. Don't forget to add a switch for your dishwasher. There is nothing like a two or three year old pushing buttons on the front of them. When your electrician is done you can have your low voltage wiring installed. I like to have them start on the last day when the electrician is stripping and rolling his wires in the boxes for inspection. Low voltage wiring includes; security, intercom, speaker wiring, any and all computer wiring, and/or any type of home entertainment centers. On 'Q' is also considered low voltage. Low voltage wiring is not as thick as electrical wiring and you want to make sure it does not get damaged. Just in case you need an extra electrical outlet you want the electrical contractor on the job, that is why you get your low voltage guys going on the last day he is in the home. If your plumber has not installed your tubs and shower pans, now is the time. Now you are ready to have the framer and cornice man come back and finish their punch for inspection. Seal holes in sheathing, check for bowed studs, see if anything has been knocked loose. Maybe a few studs need to added, there might be some extra blocking needed. Something bracing gets beat around or even knocked out. You need to check you soffits if you had Christmas plugs installed in them. At this point you should get the home primed and painted, if you live in a windy climate or have an all siding home. If you live in a climate where the painters are competent at 'Top Coating' after the masonry is complete - wait. Once the paint is done (to the extent that it is going to be completed) you should get the home shingled. Once the shingles are complete stage three is complete. Your home is ready for inspections.

10. Cornice - Window and Exterior Doors

Cornice is what seals up your home. It is the installation of doors, windows, siding, fascia and soffit. Let's get started. The first thing your cornice crew is going to do is install your windows. After all of your windows are installed they should run your sheathing. There are several types of sheathing, you have deny board, Styrofoam, and some people will use O.S.B. covered with Tyvek are a similar material. Basic things to look for in window installation are the margins inside. From the inside of the home look at the distance from the wood framing and the edge of the window. The distance on the sides and top should be about the same. You don't have to worry about the bottom, because the trim carpenter will adjust for margin when he installs the window sill. the reason for installing windows prior to sheathing is that you want the sheathing to cover the window flanges to eliminate window leaks. Window leaks in masonry are especially troublesome . You end up with an eye sore masonry repair where your mortar and brick might not match. Some builders tape their flanges prior to installing their sheathing and others use deny board to insure they do not get leaks. During your pre-drywall walk you can ask what technique they used if it is not obvious. Your exterior doors are installed at this stage. construction doors might be used to protect your finished door. The door jamb will be your finished jamb. When installing exteriors doors there are several things you want to look for. You want to know what type of material is butting up to your door. Doors have different trim for different material. You have brick mold for brick and if it is siding you are going to have 1x4, are some type of trim with some width to cover the ends of the siding. Doors should never, I want to say that again - doors should never be butted up to the header cripple/stud. Doors should be tripled blocked on both sides. Exterior doors should be blocked at the hinges and the keeper. Exterior doors come with 3" screws attached to the jamb. These screws are to replace one screw in each hinge on the jamb. this will ensure that the door has an attachment through the blocks into the door header cripple. These blocks should not be continuous. these blocks allow for the vibrations that doors will get from opening and closing. I would recommend that your siding, fascia, soffit and all trim material be made of cement fiber board, Hardi is a well known brand. All soffit an fascia should be installed prior to your roof sheathing (called roof decking in some parts of the country) being installed. The reason for this is that you can not level and plumb your fascia correctly or with ease after the roof deck is installed. I know you are going to have someone tell you that they can, but I want you to know that if you look at homes done after deck you will notice the problem. Real quick, your rafter tails are at different lengths and need to be cut. You take a string line to the top of them and mark them so they are the same length. Now when I nail my sub-fascia to the ends they are already the same length and are nailed solidly to the rafter end, if I have the deck on I have cut my tails from the bottom and my deck is not even at the edges. To make my fascia straight I have to go to each rafter and pry my sub-fascia in and out if I go back at all. If you are using shingle mold now is the time to install. Shingle mold is usually a 1x2 attached at the top of your fascia. Some builders use shingle mold and some use Drip Edge. I personally prefer shingle mold for the look. Drip edge is metal and after time paint flakes off. When the cornice and roof is installed your home should be dry. When it rains, you should get no water inside the home with the exception of exterior door thresholds, if the threshold is not part of the door unit. After windows, exterior doors and your cornice is complete the home is ready for the roof sheathing installation. Depending on your part of the country you want to have the decker (roof sheathing installer) to cut deck for ridge vents. Your roofer will cut out for air hocs, roof vents and power vents. Generally your Construction Manager will claim a stage two (2) on his construction status report at this point in the process. Next - Rough Mechanicals

9. Framing - Roof, Stick -vs- Truss

There are a couple types of roofs, Trusses and Stick Frame. Truss roofs are easy to install and were almost exclusively used in apartments, town homes and condominiums. In the last decade or so they have made inroads into single family construction. They function well and do save money on the construction of production homes. When you have repeat floor plans and elevations once the roof is engineered, that cost is split by the number of times the home is built. What are the negatives of trusses? Generally it renders your attic unusable. Most truss designs utilizes a design where the bottom cord is also your ceiling joist. Being that most joist are made of 2x4 construction they can not carry a lot of weight if any. The web construction also can limit head space in the attic if you could put weight on the bottom cord. Stick framed roofs offer you more flexibility. Ceiling joist can be sized for storage space. Stick framing also lends itself to remodeling. With a stick framed roof you can convert your attic to storage space by doubling your joist adding sub floor or sheathing, also depending on your pitch a lot of attics have been converted to living space. Now, if you plan for it, trusses can be designed to meet those requirements. You can remodel attics that are trussed. Anything can be changed/remodeled, it just depends on how much you are willing to do, and pay. If you are building your home for life, and know this is where you want to be, I would say stick build the roof. Most of your custom builders stick build their roofs anyway so this might not even be a conversation for you. As you can see, there are a lot of things to consider when you are building the 'American Dream', your new home. Remember, there are no dumb questions. This is possibly the largest investment of your life. Next we need to talk about 'Cornice'. This is where we install windows, doors, soffit and fascia.