What I've been up to.

[Thomas-in-Kentucky]

here ya go...  there are 4 more bridge pics in my gallery.  I used 24" tall beams (4 of them - overkill) bridge is 16 feet wide and 38 feet long.   I bought the i-beams at a salvage yard for less than half the price of new.   the beams were removed from a school building and had spent all of their existence inside and were already painted (primered?).  Bridge was going to be 40 feet long, but 38 foot ibeams is what I found at the right price.  (Proprietor of the scrap yard seriously offered to weld another two feet on to the beams - I said no thanks!)  Good thing only one footer was poured when I found the ibeams!  I think we poured the deck 8" thick with a double mat of #5 rebar.  The concrete guard rails have #3 rebar in them and are 6" thick.    The deck, without I beams would probably support moderate car traffic, as most county and state bridges here are now built w/o I-beams - most from precast (with pretensioned steel) slabs.  You might seriously want to look into buying a precast deck if your bridge is not very long.  Pour the abutments yourself and save some $.  A crane would be required for placing the precast slabs, but that is still probably cheaper than a deck from scratch like we did.

I would have been happy to drive through the creek to the house site for a few years (or across a half baked bridge), but one of the best pieces of advice I ever got (and listened to) was to build a proper bridge before starting on the house.  Now... if the road leading from the bridge to the house was just worth a dime!!! 

Oh, one more piece of advice - ask the old timers what is the highest they've ever seen the water.  This little trickle can get high enough to easily wash cars away.  It only happens every few years, but that's usually the year right after someone has built their bridge too low.  I lost 3 bee hives the year after we moved here.  My father in law just smiled - he knew they were going to eventually get washed away when I set them up a good 10 feet above that trickle of water.

[Radar67]

Anyone have any idea on how long you can leave felt paper exposed before it starts breaking down?

Well, I have the answer to my own question...15# paper has been exposed almost three years and I just made my first repair a few weeks ago. The siding is mostly cut, just waiting to dry some. Don K is getting the last of it cut now. In about a month, I'll be nailing it up.

[Don K]

Yea, if that woman named Ida doesn't come up here messing with things, I'll finish this week while I am off. 

Don

[Radar67]

I hope Ida just loses her grit and fads on out.

[WDH]

I went to Cape Hatteras to do some surf fishing this week, and we had to leave early because Highway 12 was washing out from the storm surge.  Don, hopefully you fared better with the sawing.

[Don K]

No sawing last week in the 5 inches of rain and I am off today only. Got 5 night shifts ahead of me. Hope to finish Terry's wood next week.

Don

[Radar67]

We got a little rain out of Ida, nothing like what Don got. I now have power at my house site, but I am rebuilding the road for the third time. The power company is now officially banned from driving on my property. >:(

[Radar67]

Well, I finally got around to putting clothes on my shed. I picked up the last of the siding a few weeks ago from Don K over in Alabama. There is still some work left to do, but here is a picture of the start.



Still got the gables to cut and nail up and 2/3 of the other short wall. The rain kept me from nailing that section up today. I'll have a go at her tomorrow if the weather holds. I still have all of the battens and trim to do, been working right by my lonesome, in the heat, so progress is good in my book.

[fishpharmer]

Looking good.  Are you using battens?

Did you get much rain today? We did.

[ljmathias]

I'd say that's great progress for a man who's 144 years old- keep at it!  All things good come to those who live long enough... :D

Lj

[Raider Bill]

Stew,
Why so few windows?

[WDH]

Did you get much rain today? We did.

Rain?  What is that  ?

Terry, looking good!

[kenkayak]

Hi Stew, I've nearly finished harvesting and sawing large blow-downs [hemlock/pine on a N.E.Forestry foundation lot in Wiscasset Me./enough for a house. I no nothing of building but I can see that your approach] standing the 4/4s on end is an idea I can understand and do. Now I'm sorry for doing so many 6/6s. Thanks for the idea. Kenneth

[Don K]

See ya got some good blue stain going on. Looking good. Sorry about the lonesome. I know how it feels. :(

Don

[Radar67]

Fish, I will be using battens if I can force myself to cut up all those perfectly good 1x12s Don cut for me. ;) I got rained out yesterday, 6th, but none today.

Bill, the building is for storage, with a possibility of becoming a guest house later. Because of the remote location, I didn't want to make it easy for anyone who didn't need access to get it.

I have a rule about working by myself in the heat, I take a gallon of water with me, wait until 2 or after to go out there. When the water or material runs out, or it gets dark, it's time to go. I finished the other wall today, so have the gables to finish now.

Welcome to the forum Ken, there is alot of good information here and plenty of people willing to answer questions.

[Magicman]

DonK, at least you now know that those trusses will hold up roofing.   

Looking good Terry.   ;)

[Brad_bb]

Educate me, why roofing felt as opposed to housewrap?

[Hilltop366]

I can't answer for Radar67 (nice shed by the way!) but about 11 years ago we had just finished putting 5000+ lft of pine siding on a new 6 unit apartment building when it was anounced that some kinds of house wrap would cause wood siding and exterior sheathing to rot from the inside if the siding is put on directly over the wrap, and now requires a space between the wrap and siding. I think this had more to do with rotting condos on the west coast with a cedar or redwood siding.

Not only that but that 9' long roll of house wrap is a pain in the ... to handle with 2 or 3 people and full staging.

No sign of rot yet on the apartment house.

[Radar67]

My reason for using felt was cost, convenience, ease of handling by myself, and it has been used in these parts for years with no problems as mentioned by Hilltop. I started out in the construction industry back in the late 70s and it is what we always used.