Life in Alaska

[AKwelder]

5 holes, four corners of the building and center. set instruments to monitor and away we go

so now we wait and see how the ground is, if is frozen or unstable, since its 40 foot from the house I sure hope its good. if the results allow we can move towards constructing a shop in the next few years.

[TroyDairy]

Sweet!  Had lingcod for supper at a dinner i went to tonight.  Was great, super tender/flaky

[New Englander]

Can you elaborate on the ground issues?

My shop is built on what has been called a floating slab that’s supposed to be designed for less than stable ground. Heavily reinforced perimeter with rebar and wire/fiberglass reinforced floor with no frost wall. I used it to economize on the concrete rather than any issues with frozen ground. It’s performed well and I saved enough money on it to construct the approach ramps for the doors. No cracks except at the bottom of the score lines where it should.

The downside:

I should have spent the money for a frost wall construction. The slab must be dead level so unlike a frost wall construction you can’t pitch the floors to drain out the doors. Consequently all the snow and ice that comes in on the vehicles and melts in the heated shop pools and has to be squeegeed out. 28X42 shop with 12 foot ceilings heats on less than 300 gal/yr with a Miller mobile home furnace on a cottage base.  2X6 walls and clear span I-joists make for lots of insulation room.

[AKwelder]

The hill I live on has scattered permafrost that consists mainly of ice pockets with very little or no soil. Some of it can be very deep. Here down to 30+ feet. My other lot at the bottom of the hill that I have been clearing for more flowers is frozen and full of ice.  Where the permafrost has melted there are gullies that have formed from the soil reconsolidating.  If you build near one of these pockets the ice will begin to melt and the ground will settle, sometimes quit a bit. My road has holes on it, one hole/gully is about 20 foot wide, spans the road, and is better than 10 foot wide. The road sinks a foot a year now a days, so the keep hauling in more fill and recapping it

 

to compound the issues we have only glacier silt for soil, which is best described as rock dust as fine as talcum powder. It does not allow water to percolate, and when it becomes water logged it will turn into an almost jello. 

 

The driller bored holes, made a boring log, sampled the soil so he could classify the soil and take moisture readings, and put down PVC tubes for a string of thermistors that record temperature. He will come back in about 5 days after the temperature has stabilized and start recording the temperatures. The readings will be in ohms and this will be s met off to the engineer.  The engineer will review the data and supposedly can tell me if there is any permafrost on my building site. 

Last fall the lot next door came up for sale, and we bought it, so we really want to know if it is acceptable to build on or just a nice green break between us and the neighbors. I was actually surprised how good the ground was, now we need to wait and see how the instrumentation comes back

[AKwelder]

8 hours ago, TroyDairy said:

Sweet!  Had lingcod for supper at a dinner i went to tonight.  Was great, super tender/flaky

You are one up on me, I haven't had it yet.  

 

Soon i hope

[AKwelder]

This just ain't right

 

 

leaves falling in the yard

 

and the geese grouping up and headed south?

ITS AUGUST FOR GOODNESS SAKE

[poor farmer/logger]

Sure sign of what's to come. Stuck in a rainy season here now that is starting to hold harvest back a tiny bit. Things are ready to go but with the weather playing tricks every day it's hard to know what to do. Got crop that could be swathed but scared to put it down on the ground yet.

[TroyDairy]

I know, today was 80s then by 8pm a comfy 65.  Feels fallish, and football started....

 

I think some trees have some color but am pretending not to see it.

[AKwelder]

Been a busy week.  Last winter we had some water come in, so time to for a new roof.  Let the work begin! Side one

 

scaffold up, and less strip two layers with staples

 

Bright and sunny

 

 

some ice and water shield and cover it up for the night

 

 

i will catch up soon, I am tired and the weatherman changed the forecast to something about a flat rock, we are soaked, at least the plastic kept the roof dry

[new guy]

Looks like a fun project. Fly me up tuesday. Shingle it wednesday. Take me fishing thursday and fly me home friday. No charge...just airfare and food...i like to eat....a lot.

At least you can stand on your roof. Did mine from a 60' lift sitting in the bucket..except for the highest ridge i had to shimmy up to the top to put the ridge cap on. Lift wouldnt reach it. Next time it needs roofing i am watching....

[AKwelder]

8 hours ago, new guy said:

Looks like a fun project. Fly me up tuesday. Shingle it wednesday. Take me fishing thursday and fly me home friday. No charge...just airfare and food...i like to eat....a lot.

At least you can stand on your roof. Did mine from a 60' lift sitting in the bucket..except for the highest ridge i had to shimmy up to the top to put the ridge cap on. Lift wouldnt reach it. Next time it needs roofing i am watching....

man that would be a red power get together, fly to Alaska, roof a house, go fishing, take on a few extra calories, and go home with a full tummy, a ful, camera, and a job well done!

 

thanks for the offer, but when your ready to come up lets skip the work and just go fishing

[AKwelder]

Suns trying to come out, we moved the scaffold in the monsoon yesterday, the front of the house is about 5 courses from the peak, the rear is stripped, the debris is hauled to the dump (6 loads) all the shingles are on the roof, and I am having a morning coffee before getting started.

i will get more pictures leter

[AKwelder]

Front

 

 

back in process and rain

 

 

not that high, but when your help is your 70 year old FIL and a 66 yo uncle with bad ankles you make a good work platform, so I am scaffolding it as we go

[new guy]

Looking good. Bummer about my free round trip to alaska for fishing and driving that super c while watching someone else shingle. Maybe next time....

[TroyDairy]

I am with new guy.  Here it literally is cheaper to watch.  And they did my home in a flat 12 hrs.  Full tear off and re roof.  Tear off 1 day re roof next.  Brothers house......whole nother story

[mader656]

I'm of the opinion do it once and do metal, my roof is hailed out but still solid.

[AKwelder]

My uncle shingling away

Buttoned up for the night, 

 

we will work one more afternoon and then start doing all the little things, like the ridge and caulking the jacks

[AKwelder]

49 minutes ago, TroyDairy said:

I am with new guy.  Here it literally is cheaper to watch.  And they did my home in a flat 12 hrs.  Full tear off and re roof.  Tear off 1 day re roof next.  Brothers house......whole nother story

I got 3 bids, 4K in materials and 4-5 k in labor, then any extras. I had a vent that was needing replaced, and a previous idiot had botched the facia replacement on the back so there were other charges coming. Also I wanted it re-nailed. I was really undecided about the cost and my family came forward and offered to help.  

[AKwelder]

12 minutes ago, mader656 said:

I'm of the opinion do it once and do metal, my roof is hailed out but still solid.

I was very interested in putting a metal roof on so I talked with my uncle in the picture, he had a small contracting company for 40 years and is good at the money and pros/cons of these things. Metal roofs are great, but they have certain limits, first the deck and garage door are under the eve, so any snow will shed right down in front of the door and onto the door on the deck (we sometimes get enough snow to require shoveling the roof so putting lips up to hold it also have drawbacks). The other issue was the three roof penitrations in a row, they would have been hard to make water tight. 

 

[TroyDairy]

I get you.  That is spendy for here.  Iirc my entire thing was 3k for a 2000sq ft house.  Materials i got a feeling are little bit spendy up thare

[AKwelder]

Just now, TroyDairy said:

I get you.  That is spendy for here.  Iirc my entire thing was 3k for a 2000sq ft house.  Materials i got a feeling are little bit spendy up thare

For that price I would have bought a new lounge and watched myself. 

 

And my my house is 1800 sq/ft.   My ridge is 46 foot and each side is 17 foot

[BOBSIH856]

I'll have to take some pictures and share them. We are getting a new roof put on the house and barn the roofing crew has been working for 2 weeks on this project.

[AKwelder]

On August 23, 2016 at 8:35 AM, BOBSIH856 said:

I'll have to take some pictures and share them. We are getting a new roof put on the house and barn the roofing crew has been working for 2 weeks on this project.

Do it. Would be nice to see. I debated ordering tucked/tied shingles like on grandpas barn. They go 50 years

[AKwelder]

in neighbors driveway, calf ran in front of me

[BOBSIH856]

Here is a picture of the barn roof getting shingled.