| It is late October. This month was a busy
one and we got a lot accomplished. One of our carpenters, Jimmy, also
does a fine job roofing. He and his helpers came out on weekends and
evenings to get out roof on. The metal on the long south side of the
house was done while I was out of town. The roofing on the master
bedroom tower part with the curved areas came next. Photo is of
Jimmy and his helper, Roy.
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We have used a roof material made of GALVALUME®, an internationally recognized trademark of BIEC International Inc., and some of its licensed producers.
The product is a 55% aluminum-45% zinc alloy coated sheet steel developed by Bethlehem Steel and sold commercially under the trademark Galvalume®, starting in June 1972. Bethlehem Steel later licensed other major steel companies to produce and sell the product using its patents and technology.
It looks like galvanized steel but has a shiny, plastic like
coating.
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We are going into our second month of
man-lift rental now. It is expensive, but is so useful.  |
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We had a big, all day rain a
few days ago. Work was suspended on the project and the house got really
wet. We found that unlike our 5 yr old guesthouse, our grout took
in water. Our
friend w/ a Dac-Art house down the road had it sealed on the exterior w/ a
HydroStop product. So now we are faced with having to seal our house.
The HydroStop was real expensive, I don't think I want to go that
direction.
Since I had recently done sealing and testing on my
cement
tile, I had on hand various brands of masonry sealers. These products
can be really expensive. At least the good ones. I sectioned off several
text places on the west side of the house and tried two ArmorAll
products and Miracle 511 Impregnator. I was hoping that one of the
ArmorAll products would work well since they are about 1/4 as expensive
as the Miracle stone and tile sealer.
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The ArmorAll sealant in the white plastic
bottle was really hard to apply, it tended to want to roll up and fall
off the wall. It also made bad streaks that remained even when really
dry, several days later. But the worst was that it did not waterproof
the wall. |
 The ArmorAll sealant in the metal can (not sold
in all states) went on a lot better, it did not streak or want to run
off the wall as it was applied, but the only area that seemed to
waterproof is where I applied a second coat (the dark, wet
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The area to which I applied the Miracle product
proved to be very water proof when we did our testing with a hose the
next day. As you can see in this photo on right, the area above the test sections
is soaking up some water but the middle section, treated w/ Miracle 511
remains dry. |
So now we are going to lightly pressure wash
the exterior this weekend, and apply the Miracle 511 product using a
small pump-sprayer. We did a test yesterday to be sure that the pressure
wash would not harm the finish on our blocks. I did a test with the pump
sprayer to see if using it or rolling the sealant on w/ a foam paint
roller would be best. This stuff is so expensive that we don't want to
waste a single drop.
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| Agrrrr....While doing a walk-thru with
Dan Z. and Jim the electrician, I realized that the electric boxes for
sconce lighting in the master bedroom were never installed. There should
have been two per wall on the three DacArt walls. At first we thought
the block stackers had overlooked including the openings as they stacked
the walls. Then we looked on the plans and there were no lighting
fixtures on them in that room. Oh well....We could still add a connection
box overhead for a come-later central chandelier. We also decided on the
spot to add 3 sconces to the only wood wall which is the wall w/ the
clothes closets and door to the hall. The electrician is going to have
to cut into the studs near the door to squeeze in the required on-off switch.
What I will probably do is surface mount the sconces at a later date and
just use Wiremold or one of those brass wire covers that come with wall
mounted reading lamps to cover the wire from receptacle to fixture.
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 This
window in the photo still needs to be trimmed out on the interior. |
| Our Hurd
windows and doors are now installed. They look fabulous. Windows and
doors are one of the biggest expense in building a house. It is a huge
decision. These windows and doors are white painted aluminum extrusion
clad on the outside and primed wood on the interior. The glass is Dade
County approved impact glass, like windshields are made of. |
We had a problem with the kitchen window.
It came in too big to fit our opening. Come to find out, the mechanism
that opens and closes the window needs a minimum of space and our size
was too small to accommodate the mechanics, so the window company just
made the window larger ! This might be a smaller deal in a wood stick
built house, but for us it meant sawing out about 3 inches of concrete
12 " thick. The Hurd Co. allowed us a $250 allowance for the labor
and blades to make the cut in the wall. |
| You have to pay a lot of
attention when your windows are ordered and delivered. Even with Hurd
window rep, Patty C's careful measurements over and over, we ended up
with one extra window, one too large (read above) and one with a bowed
part on it that has to be replaced.
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