Garage Doors - December 2014

Today seemed like a good day to write a house blog post, since we were in the middle of a blizzard.  So in-between shoveling and playing in the snow, I wrote all about garage doors.  It's may not sound like the most exciting topic, but I decided to dedicate an entire post to this since there is a story that goes along with this project.  

The photo above is the finished product, but it took a long time to get there.  We ordered our doors from an American Overhead Door company on September 19th, and our garage doors were not completed until the beginning of December.  We were told we would have them in two weeks, but it took triple that amount of time!

As you can see in the above photo, we have two oversized garage door openings.  The car bay on the left fits two vehicles and is 18' wide x 9' tall.  The service bay on the right is 10' wide by 10' tall.  We ordered the garage doors custom to the size needed and with our choice of options.

To get ready for the garage door installation, the doors needed to be trimmed.  This was started about a week before we expected the doors to be arriving.

We decided that the most cost effective way to do matching trim would be with aluminum.  Aluminum coil is a versatile product that can be used to trim out windows, doors, fascia and other exterior areas on a home.  Using it to trim out the garage doors allowed us to match this trim with the rest of the house.   We used Harvey Trim Coil Aluminum.

Aluminum trim work requires skill, experience and the right tools.  Luckily, we were able to borrow the right tools!  An aluminum brake is used to bend the trim coil.  Below is a photo of the aluminum brake that we were able to borrow from a friend to use for this project as well as for the rest of the trim on the house.

Every piece of aluminum trim must be cut to fit, and bent to fit around the opening.  Decorative ribs can also be added to the trim, which provides some style and makes the trim even stronger.  Steve added some ribs along the garage door trim.  Here are some photos of Steve using the aluminum brake.

Cutting the aluminum.

Using the brake to bend the aluminum.

Repositioning for another bend.

Done!

Below are some close-up photos of the aluminum trim after being installed around the garage door openings.  It was not an easy piece of trim, and although Steve doesn't have a lot of experience with this (yet), it came out great!

Once the trim was completed, the garage door openings were ready for doors… except, there was an issue with our door order.  The garage door manufacturer did not actually receive our order until weeks after we ordered it.  They did not realize this until after my multiple persistent phone calls.  So, this caused a significant delay in making the garage doors.  We were not pleased, but at least we figured out why there was a delay.

As you can imagine, we were excited when we received confirmation on a delivery date.  However, about a week before delivery we were notified by the manufacturer that BOTH doors were inadvertently not made to the correct specifications.  So, they had to start again, and make a second set of doors for us… another delay.

We ended up having our "wrong" doors installed as temporary doors, about a month after our initial door order.  As you can see from the photo below, the doors are not the same color, and the door on the left does not have the correct panels.  Regardless, we were happy to have doors to close up the garage.

Despite the issue with the doors, we were pleased with the quality of the doors.  We decided to go with Clopay Garage Doors because they offered the most insulated garage door we could find and a wood grain finish.  They have a lot of really nice options and styles; we choose the Gallery Collection carriage house style with insulation.  The link is below.

http://www.clopaydoor.com/gallerysteel

We choose the Ultra Grain Dark finish, which has a wood pattern, even though it's a steel garage door. The door is a 3-layer construction and has 2" of insulation providing an R-value of 18.4.  An insulated garage door was important because we plan to heat the garage.  The windows in the doors are also double pane insulated.  In comparison, traditional garage doors have minimal or no insulation.

Final garage doors installed.

About two weeks after the "temporary" doors, our final doors arrived.  Finally, after six weeks, our long-awaited garage doors arrived and were installed!  Now that we have them, we are really happy with the doors!  Below is a close up of the big garage door.

As they say… when building, expect everything to take longer than you want it to.  This pretty much sums it up.

Next for doors… front door, side garage door and garage to house door.  Hopefully these will come in without any issues!

Spray Foam Magic - January 2015

Our home is now insulated with spray foam!

Since energy efficiency is a priority for our our home, we choose to go with spray foam insulation versus traditional fiberglass insulation.  It made sense to choose this type of insulation because our ICF walls provide a high level of insulation, and we wanted to make sure that our roof was just as insulated.  More than 40% of a typical home's energy loss is through the roof, walls and floors due to air leakage.  We wanted to minimize this as much as possible, and spray foam was the best way to achieve this.      

Spray Foam Blob!

The spray foam happend to be scheduled during the coldest week so far this winter.  Temperatures were in the single digits in the morning.  Since spray foam needs to be a certain temperature to cure properly, the chemicals and the equipment needed to be warmed up before being able to spray.  The trucks are temperature controlled, however the truck needed about 30 minutes to warm up to the proper temperature.  We also turned on the propane heater in an attempt to warm up the house before they started.

Hose from two big barrels in the truck going through our temporary front door.

Icyene spray foam works by stopping conditioned air from leaving the home.  It basically provides a water and vapor barrier.  For example, spray foam is like your house wearing a warm rain jacket, and traditional, fiberglass insulation is like your house wearing a sweater.  Fiberglass provides insulation, but it still lets in air.  Other benefits of spray foam include less dust and pollen coming into the home, and little creatures and bugs don't like to make nests out of it!

Spray foaming a portion of the garage wall.

The foam is applied as a liquid, using a nozzle and hose.  It looks like paint right after it's sprayed, and then it expands.

The large hose houses two smaller hoses and when the foam is sprayed, the nozzle mixes the two components and it forms the expanding foam.  For the technical chemist people out there, the two-component mixture is composed of isocyanate and polyol resin.  

I call this spray foam magic.  It is unbelievable how quickly the foam expands… within a matter of seconds… and it expands up to 100 times it's size!  As a result, it is able to fill vacant air gaps and it can also expand and contract with the building.  Check out this video of the foam being sprayed in a small section of the garage, and see for yourself how cool this stuff is!

The lousy part of spray foam is that it's pretty nasty to install.  As you probably saw in the video, as the spray foam cures, it emits a gas.  Nicely put, it's described as an irritant, but really it's toxic stuff.  The installers have to wear full face and body protection, as well as respiratory protection.  Once the spray foam is cured, it is non-toxic.

Filling in the gaps with a special nozzle.

The photos below show the spray foam done in the ceilings.  It is super thick.  The thicker the foam, the more insulation it provides.  Spray foam has an R-Value of around R-5 to R-6 per inch.  In comparison, blown fiberglass typically has an R-Value of R-2 to R-4 per inch.  We requested a total insulation value of R-50 for our roof.

Dining room ceiling.

Looking up at the ceiling.

Since the ICF Blocks provide all of the insulation in the walls, we only needed to spray form the roof.

Living room ceiling.

Above the master bedroom.

It took two and a half days to complete the spray foam job.  They finished on January 10, 2015.

Icynene is the name of the product that was used in this application.  This brand guarantees their product to perform as specified for the life of the building.  They definitely stand by their product, so we hope it works as good as it's supposed to!

One more step in the house project is complete!  And now, the house will stay much warmer and more comfortable to work in, which is definitely needed in the cold weather.

It's all about the… WINDOWS! December 20, 2014

Our Christmas present this year was WINDOWS!  The windows arrived 9 weeks after we ordered them from Anderson (of course they took a bit longer than anticipated), but nevertheless, we were sooooo excited to have the windows arrive!

We had covered all the openings with plastic a couple of weeks before the windows arrived so that the duct work for the heating system could be installed.  This also kept the house much dryer, especially with all the rain we had been getting.

Putting up plastic during a rain storm.

Our lovely plastic windows.

We decided to order the windows from Home Depot.  After pricing out several places, their price quote blew away the competitors, so it was not a difficult decision, even though we would have rather supported a local lumber yard.  Ordering through Home Depot turned out to take multiple trips to the store, and many hours, so we were relieved once they were ordered.  We ordered the windows mid-October.

The windows arrived on December 18th and as soon as they were off-loaded, the installation began.  Nine windows, plus the bedroom slider and the patio door were installed on the first day of installation.  On the second day, we had a crew ready to go, which included family and friends, who were ready to help with the rest of the windows.  They started with the heaviest window in the house - the dining room window, which is 6 windows mulled together.  It was all hands on deck to carry and place the window, even with 5 out of 6 glass panels removed.    

The dining room window.

Re-installing the panes after the window was set.

All of our windows came factory mulled, which means that individual window units are affixed together at the factory, instead of in the field.  This makes installation easier, and yields a more precise result.  It also means that the windows are much heavier to install!  To make it easier, the glass was removed on the non-fixed windows before installation, and then replaced after the window was placed in the opening.

Window with two glass panels removed before installation.

Here are some photos of the second dining room window being installed.

The window was handed out through the opening to Steve and Kevin who were on the scaffold, ready to place and install the window.

Next, was the big wall of windows… eight windows total and mulled in pairs of two.  We installed the trapezoid windows on the top first.  It was a big sigh of relief after we were sure they were going to fit! (The trapezoid windows were custom windows with multiple revisions with Anderson on the dimensions).

First trapezoid window going in!

Thanks to our friend Mike, we were able to use his scaffold pump jack system and planks to install the windows; without this, it wouldn't really be possible or safe to install.  This type of scaffold moves up and down with a foot pump, so we were able to raise the windows up to the opening, and then install them.  Thank you Mike!

Kevin and Steve on the scaffolding installing the trapezoid windows.

View of the Pump Jack scaffold set-up during the window installation.

After the dining room and living room windows, the rest of the installation moved along quickly.  In fact, they were done by 2:00 in the afternoon!  Wow!!  The windows were installed in two days!  The goal was three days (or less), so we accomplished that with flying colors, thanks to help from friends and family!  

Installation of slider in lower level.

We choose Anderson A-Series Windows with an oak interior, dark bronze exterior and black traditional folding hardware.  We researched a few types and brands, and we decided on these because of the quality of build, style, options available, and the Anderson warranty.  We also choose a high performance, Low-E4 SmartSun glass, which provides their best overall thermal performance.  It has an exceptional U-Value, which means that the window does a good job at keeping the warm air inside and cold air outside, or vice versa.  The U-Value is .27 and energy star requires .30 or less, so our windows exceed energy star guidelines.  Windows were a really important feature for us, so we decided that a higher quality window was worth the the higher cost.  In the long run, it will help save money with heating and cooling, and we are extremely happy with the quality thus far.

All the windows installed!

View from the back - master bedroom/bath windows, patio and dining room.

View of the dining room.

View from the main entrance.

 Thank you to our window installation crew!

L to R- Alain, Kevin, Phil, Steve, Mike.

And to top it off, the day after we finished the window installation, on December 20th, some special visitors brought a gift… our first Christmas Tree, fully decorated!  Thank you to Steve's Tante Denise and Mom for spreading some Christmas cheer to us and our home to be!  We thought we weren't going to have a Christmas Tree this year, but the Joly's wouldn't let that happen!  What a wonderful surprise!

Enjoying the Christmas Tree with Mike, Marie, Denise & David.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!