The Stickhouse Studio BUILD

No problem -- it's one of those things that a lot of people just take as a "given" but others might miss. :) In fact, Luftweg is considering framing almost entirely with pressure treated lumber in his basement project, due to the "possibility of disaster" in terms of flooding. Be aware that you must use hot dipped galvanized or stainless steel nails and fasteners with pressure treated lumber -- otherwise, the chemicals will cause major corrosion. --Keith :mrgreen:

So, Sven the HVAC guy was here working on the cans for the second ceiling. Looks like he didn't quite finish. Jeff said the hot-mop guy isn't available until the 7th, so unless we can get the siding ordered and here soon we'll have a little gap in the action. And my snakes got a little delayed, but they should still get here before we're wanting to close up the walls. Not much more to report.

camistan wrote:

It simply AMAZES me the difference in code from state to state...county to county...city to city. I don't believe that's required here ...

I know it's required in Mass.; all contact with concrete must be with PT wood.... K

sharward wrote:

Be aware that you must use hot dipped galvanized or stainless steel nails and fasteners with pressure treated lumber -- otherwise, the chemicals will cause major corrosion. --Keith :mrgreen:

YES, I guess many people overlook the fasteners being corrosion resistant; if/when the PT gets wet, the chemicals form an electrolytic solution which degrades the metal of the fastener (if the wood stays dry, I think it is less of an issue)... I was just wondering Keith? Are your PT baseplates incised like that picture you posted above? I say this because here we only seem to have Southern yellow pine PT; apparently this is one of the few woods that does not have to be incised for pressure-treatment... I don't really remember seeing any PT lumber around here that has been incised, or any PT that did not appear to be SYP.... http://www.southernpine.com/whatisptlumber.shtml Btw, the only real problem with doing the entire framing in PT SYP would be the changes in dimensions and potential for twists/warps as it dries out; to help prevent problems from this, I might buy the lumber ahead of time and have it dry further in the basement under a bit of dehumidification -- it 'should' come from the lumber yard already under 19 percent moisture, but my P.E. doubts the stamps that claim this... of course, I guess you could get the KDAT stuff if available (don't know about price difference). K

Glad you mentioned the SYP, K, I was just getting ready to caution you about using PT lumber for framing; in the NW, most PT lumber seems to be Hemlock (wimpy crap) and can't come close to the structural strength of Doug fir; so we only use PT for sill plates, not studs or caps or joists or rafters or purlins or dwangs or..... Steve

I checked into the pressure treated lumber issue (in my county) and was told only the wood on the outside perimiter of the house is required to be pressure treated. The wood used for inner walls isn't required to be PT. The construction foreman in my area also told me that the basement slabs here are made with a moisture barrier when the concrete slab is made to help retard moisture from coming through. A while ago I did a "moisture test" by placing some Saran wrap on my basement floor, and sealing around it with tape so there would be no air leaks. I watched for any condensation that would occur under the Saran wrap for 2 days but never saw any. Hopefully that "barrier" the construction forman spoke about was doing it's job. BTW...sorry Stick for the PT lumber overrun... All that was worth checking into for peace of mind...

Did your local building department tell you this? Remember, codes can vary from one side of a street to another, and they change all the time. --Keith :mrgreen:

camistan wrote:

...I checked into the pressure treated lumber issue (in my county) and was told only the wood on the outside perimiter of the house is required to be pressure treated. The wood used for inner walls isn't required to be PT...

I think in some areas here, PT is also required when wood is to be within certain distances of soil, either bare or with concrete over it... (distances of requirement appear to be larger if there is no concrete). Hmmm, I don't think that I would be required to have PT for the wall frames (firstly, because I wasn't told this by the B.A. or my P.E.; was only told about the baseplates/sills) -- even though the soil behind the wall might be within 18 inches -- because there will be a space between the framing and the wall (for dead air space of course, and for room for the perimeter drain). Yet, since the PT here IS SYP, not incised, and not all that expensive either, and not restricted from indoor use (ACQ treated) as long as moisture is below 19 percent, I think it would be wise idea to use it in case all my 'fail-safe' redundant measures to prevent a basement flood are circumvented, AND if we get that hurricane that some are promising... it can't hurt... can it?

camistan wrote:

...I did a "moisture test" by placing some Saran wrap on my basement floor, and sealing around it with tape so there would be no air leaks. I watched for any condensation that would occur under the Saran wrap for 2 days but never saw any...

I think with that test what you are checking for is seepage, and not condensation, no? Condensation, I believe, comes when warmer, humid air comes in contact with cold concrete floors and walls... You could have no seepage and lots of condensation (humid air, cold floors/walls and not dehumidifier), or no condensation and lots of seepage (maybe usually be the case when dehumidifiers are used inside, and the ground below is wet and coming through), or both. Interestingly enough, from what I'm led to understand, a high humidity in the basement will actually slow any seepage to some extent (opposes the vapor pressure); so, a high level of dehumidification will actually 'pull' water through the concrete... This, I think though, does NOT account for much when there are substantial leaks through a floor, or if the hydrostatic pressure of the soil is high behind/beneath the concrete... But I myself wouldn't forgo the dehudification for the sake of slowing the vapor coming through the floor -- plus, there probably is a 'limit' in the increased rate of water vapor coming through the concrete (i.e., it can only allow so much through, based on the restrictions in the pororsity?). K

Luftweg wrote:

it can't hurt... can it?

It might. Remember, it often isn't as strong as the regular stuff. Ask your local building department to see if they have any restrictions on its use. --Keith :mrgreen:

sharward wrote:

... Remember, it often isn't as strong as the regular stuff.

Keith: Actually, I think the SYP is somewhat stronger than SPF, Hem-Fir, or Doug-Fir... It is definitely harder too (although this doesn't matter for the framing; note that it is used in some finished flooring)... And if you notice, all span values for a given size/grade lumber are larger than those for the other woods (although NORTHERN Hem-Fir ties it)... PT-ing it does not affect the strength, unless it has been incised, but SYP is not incised.

sharward wrote:

...Ask your local building department to see if they have any restrictions on its use...

No apparent restrictions excepting that it be dry enough and not have CCA as the treatment (CCA seems to be unavailable except for industrial purposes anyway), and there are no preclusions that forbid it (the PE would have told me, since knowing well about my intentions)... thanx, K

OK, that's cool. At least it's documented here for those of us in areas where the pressure treated stuff isn't as strong. :) --Keith :mrgreen:

Keith asked...

Did your local building department tell you this? Remember, codes can vary from one side of a street to another, and they change all the time.

I got the info from a building supervisor. However, I "DID" decide to call the Planning/Zoning commission here. I talked directly to a building inspector. He stated that the outside perimeter must definately be pressure treated. HOWEVER...he DID say that the baseplate on all the inner frames should be pressure treated. Man, this kinda stuff "heats" me up real good :x Keith, had you not asked did I hear this from my local building department, I DEFINATELY would have used regular lumber for building the whole studio. Even the construction supervisor for the home builder in this area told me using PT lumber WASN'T necessary!! Still, I will use PT lumber for my baseplates. I'll just do the best I can and ask questions where it's indicated. I guess the Planning commission secretary, some of the inspectors and myself will all know each other on 1st name basis by the time I'm done... :roll:

Ok, so here's the proof of the 1st NorCal Studio Congress. Thanks for coming up and checking the progress Dan and Keith. This week is going to be a little slow here. Waiting for a few little details before our next inspection, hopefully we'll be able to do it on Friday.

camistan wrote:

Keith asked...

Did your local building department tell you this? Remember, codes can vary from one side of a street to another, and they change all the time.

I got the info from a building supervisor. However, I "DID" decide to call the Planning/Zoning commission here. I talked directly to a building inspector. He stated that the outside perimeter must definately be pressure treated. HOWEVER...he DID say that the baseplate on all the inner frames should be pressure treated. Man, this kinda stuff "heats" me up real good :x Keith, had you not asked did I hear this from my local building department, I DEFINATELY would have used regular lumber for building the whole studio. Even the construction supervisor for the home builder in this area told me using PT lumber WASN'T necessary!!

Awesome -- I'm glad you got the "real deal" from the "real source." It just goes to show how there's no substitute for getting on the horn with or (better) visiting the service counter at the building department when you want the truth. People often don't want to admit that they don't know something -- egos get in the way. (I too am guilty of this at times.) Just always keep in mind that if the "unofficial" person informs you incorrectly, he's not the one who will redo the work -- you will be! ;-) And be aware, too, that sometimes different people at the building department will answer the same question differently -- so always get the code number and ask to see the language yourself. There are sometimes exceptions and footnotes that might apply (or specifically not apply) to your specific situation. --Keith :mrgreen:

the 3 st... uds? :lol: :roll: nice!

So, I've done a little trim staining. We ended up going with the off-the-shelf Hardie cement-fiber trim that you can pick up at Lowes. It comes as 1 x 4 x10'. We needed 34 pieces, which they recommend painting or staining before you install. We wanted the look of wood, so I found a product called Woodperfect Series Coating. It specially designed for this exact application... on cement fiber siding. We're using the Mahogany color, and it's not turning out as dark, even after three coats, but I really like the reddish color we're getting with it. I took a pic with an un-stained board next to one coat, and then another after the three coats. Hopefully the siding will show up today (though not likely) and I can start in on staining it over the weekend. I also found a rockwool supplier and got enough to put some good bass trapping in my car. (see pic below) No, actually it's to do the "beef wall". The guy said to me on the phone it would fit in the back seat of my car no problem... then he calls me when I'm on the way and says... "uh, actually, it's 3 bundles... but you can probably still get it in your car." Well, as you can see, I did manage to get it in, but it sure would've been easier with the truck. That's all for now. Monday is the hot mop and touchups for the inspection next week.

Do you have your inspection scheduled yet? A few days ago you were hoping it would be done on Friday, which is today. Did that shower pan get hot mopped yet?

Yeah, I had the day wrong in my head on the hot mop... it's Monday. Probably inspection on Tuesday.

Hot mop. Door install. Couple HVAC can tweaks. Mowed the grass. Tomorrow we start the exterior trim, and get the next inspection.

Beautiful work -- including the mowing job! 8) Good luck on your inspection! I've got one this week too, so with a little luck we'll both have sign-offs! :D --Keith :mrgreen:

Sorry for the delay... things have been a little crazy since I last wrote. In the midst of building, I'm trying to mix a record over at a buddy's studio. Not a lot of time left over for posting, I'm afraid. Since the last update, we had some plumbing issues with the shower that manifested itself when we went to fill the whole system with water for the inspection. We had a waterfall under the bathroom from the shower drain. Oops. We're guessing that the drain just wasn't put on quite good enough. But, that meant that the hot mop guy had to come back, cut out the middle of his job, fix the drain, and then patch the hot mop. He was nice about it, and only charged me $50 since it clearly wasn't his fault. The audio snakes arrived in time to run before putting in the insulation. We ran the long one under the house from the piano in the house to the studio. And I put in the snake from the Tracking Room to the Machine Room, though it'll end up going to the rack in the Control Room. The next day we had the insulation inspection, at which point the inspector started asking about our insulation minimums, and when he realized what we had going on, he quit looking around and said, "ok, where do I sign off". We'd already started fixing up the front of the house in prep for the siding, so we just finished off the day doing that. The ugly rock is under the big picture window, and I'm afraid of taking it off, as it looks like the window is supported to some degree by the rock. So, we're going to build a little wall to support siding in front of it. Oh, we did put up the first layer on the lid in the Tracking Room. Tuesday we did layer #1 in the Control Room. We decided that we'd be doing good if we could do a layer a day in there. We did it, but was a long day. We'll be a little faster on #2, as we messed around building a plywood stool thing for screwing in the ceiling during #1. It helped a lot. On a ladder or stepstool, you can really only reach one screw. But on this stool thing, I can do a whole joist across the sheet. Much faster than all the up and down. Then I was out doing this mix for a couple days, and I'm going back this afternoon for a bit. Tomorrow is Sunday, so after church I'm hoping to get a little siding staining done. Though, I might have to bail on that and watch the final round of the PGA Championship. The staining is going to take a while... 110 12' planks. And I think the best way I've come up with to do it is 8 boards at a time. If I lay out more than that, I can't reach everything. And it takes 3 coats of the stain to get it to the darkness we want. Good times.

Stick wrote:

. . . we messed around building a plywood stool thing for screwing in the ceiling during #1. It helped a lot. On a ladder or stepstool, you can really only reach one screw. But on this stool thing, I can do a whole joist across the sheet. Much faster than all the up and down.

Got a picture of that? I'm intrigued! 8) --Keith :mrgreen:

Brian - Wow! You're really making progress! We appreciate the pictures, especially after being there and seeing first hand what you're doing. I love this site - I can offer "advice"!!! How about including the "little people" in your studio shots?

Everyone, Mom and Dad... Mom and Dad, meet everyone! Glad to see you guys on here. Typical grandparents... it's not about the studio, but it's the grand kids. :wink: News for the day: Tiger wins his 12th major championship. Oh, and I did 2 of 3 coats on 10 of the 110 siding boards. 4 are already done, so after I slap on one more coat in the morning, on 96 more to go! UGH! Tomorrow is drywall layer #2 in the control room. The pressure is on though... I talked with my friend who's record I'll be mixing in a few weeks. It sure would be cool to have the control room operational by then... not sure it's possible though. I'll talk it over with Jeff and see what he thinks tomorrow.

Hi, Stick's Mom & Dad! :D How cool is that? 8) Perhaps they missed this pic from page 4... --Keith :mrgreen: