Garage Mahal Update
by Jake on Oct.20, 2011, under Garage Mahal
БогородицаIt’s no secret I stay pretty busy – this time of year is crazy. However, I have managed to clear a couple of weekends lately to dedicate myself to the garage and progress is being made…the list of major items is down to 1.5 (run compressed air distribution lines and button up the heat pump installation). I have a dream to be in the upstairs portion by 2012. This will be a quick update on a couple of projects that are completed or nearly completed.
I had left the old shop opening a little rough from the old days when I cut the window opening down to the floor before anything was built of the garage. This opening was pretty rough and slightly too narrow for the door I had planned to install here. The opening where the window was also turned out not be plumb and so I had to cut an inch out and square up the opening…that is SUCH a messy job since the block in this structure is real cinder block that used coal cinders as filler in the concrete…the dust is black as night. I also had left the block at the top of the opening to support the top plate and ceiling joists and gable end of the roof structure and that needed to be removed so the top of the opening could be made higher and the support structure more permanent. Strangely, my ceiling joists are running in the wrong direction over the workshop – parallel to the ridge line in the roof. I needed to be conservative with the bracing to make sure nothing moved because I couldn’t really depend on what was and what wasn’t load bearing since it was screwy. The interior of the shop also has a stucco finish so I had to learn a little about that too:
p style=text-align: center;a title=DSC_1932 by Team Seacats, on Flickr href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamseacats/4869847234/img src=http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4073/4869847234_d24b34b114.jpg alt=DSC_1932 width=500 height=333 //a
Old picture showing the first cutting of the new opening/p
p style=text-align: center;a title=DSC_2999 by Team Seacats, on Flickr href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamseacats/6264929221/img src=http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6236/6264929221_fcdaba8d35.jpg alt=DSC_2999 width=333 height=500 //a
the new header installed and braced. I had to install bracing in a series of successive steps (prior to this, the braces were on the interior of the shop to the ceiling to carry the joist load)./p
p style=text-align: center;a title=DSC_3003 by Team Seacats, on Flickr href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamseacats/6264930849/img src=http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6218/6264930849_ae100910c1.jpg alt=DSC_3003 width=500 height=333 //a
the new stucco. I stapled wire mesh to the face of the wood header and troweled two layers of morter mix / stucco. The texture is a little different than the original walls – but it’s plenty close enough./p
p style=text-align: left;I eventually decided to forgo the use of a door here and will just trim out the opening as a pass through. The shop is pretty small and it would be inconvenient to have this door in place. However, I had kinda liked the thought of having the compressor behind a closed door so you could have a conversation while it ran. Maybe I can box it in and insulate it if I can give it some good ventilation with a fan on a relay or something. Or, perhaps, I’ll change my mind and put that door in later./p
Up next was some more work on the heat pumps. I had several insulation contractors provide quotes and one of them got pretty uppity with me about my self-installation heat pumps. I later discovered that his company also does heat/air – so he was apparently taking my degree of do-it-myself personally. He also quizzed me relentlessly on the sizing of the units…who did your load calcs, how many people did you include in your calcs…or did you ignore the fact that people affect the loads?, etc. etc. I was genuinely getting close to asking him to leave but I kept my cool because I didn’t want to do insulation and he seemed to come from a pretty successful outfit. I explained that I used a high end software package to calculate heat loss and so forth…he continued to try to poke holes in my efforts. I walked him around the side of the building and showed him the installation of the outdoor units and his attitude shifted pretty quickly and he started asking me details about my installation, not out of spite this time, but (I think) genuine interest. I sensed him reverting back to a diminutive tone when he grinned sheepishly and started to ask what I planned to do with two dryer vents (insert sarcastic tone) – but before he finished the last word, his voice trailed off as it dawned on him that I was using those to cleanly snake the linesets into the interior wall structure and I think he was genuinely impressed. I probably should have asked him to leave anyway – his quote was 3 times the price of the three others I got and he refused to insulate the floor between the garage and upstairs and kept repeating that I didn’t need to insulate that. I guess he wasn’t listening to me when I kept repeating that the downstairs area will not be heated and cooled all the time.
Through all that, however, he did make me start to question my load calcs so I ran through them again later. I had about 12% capacity remaining with the outdoor temps at 95 degrees…and it happened to be over 100 for several days at that time. I started to think that perhaps I had gotten a little overzealous with trying to size the units exactly right and didn’t include enough safety factor…a dirty air filter or anything that might cause a slight loss of efficiency might leave me with a cooling/heating system that can’t keep up. For the garage, I had accepted that the heating system would not be able to overcome the heat loss through the slab with and indoor temp at 74 when the outdoor temperature was below freezing (which would be fine…I just plan for the system to dust off the cold downstairs)…but if I was going to start making changes, I might as well be warm (or cool) everywhere I might possibly want to be…..so I bought two new 1.5 ton heat pumps – this time with a 21.5 SEER rating (just shy of the best efficiency you can get). Thankfully, they mounted to my existing mounts with only a minor adjustment.
p style=text-align: center;a title=DSC_2774 by Team Seacats, on Flickr href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamseacats/6265471762/img src=http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6213/6265471762_6c7d190ba1.jpg alt=DSC_2774 width=333 height=500 //a
one of the line sets prior to wrapping with vinyl bundling tape (yes…all 50 feet of it – and all I could find was 2 bundling tape!)/p
p style=text-align: center;a title=DSC_2776 by Team Seacats, on Flickr href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamseacats/6265472730/img src=http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6177/6265472730_ffc99bf166.jpg alt=DSC_2776 width=500 height=333 //a
the openings in the top plate to get the linesets into the floor structure/p
p style=text-align: center;a title=DSC_3014 by Team Seacats, on Flickr href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamseacats/6264945339/img src=http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6240/6264945339_0b1b899f69.jpg alt=DSC_3014 width=333 height=500 //a
Linesets in the wall and snaked to their end destinations in the attic over the old shop!/p
p style=text-align: center;a title=DSC_3020 by Team Seacats, on Flickr href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamseacats/6264947077/img src=http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6234/6264947077_4559eed11d.jpg alt=DSC_3020 width=500 height=333 //a
The new 1.5ton heat pumps with linesets ready to flare and attach/p
p style=text-align: center;a title=DSC_3021 by Team Seacats, on Flickr href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamseacats/6264947691/img src=http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6091/6264947691_eda1d6f663.jpg alt=DSC_3021 width=500 height=333 //a
Hey man, nice flare….where’s you nut? Uhhh, errrr…that was a practice flare….yeah./p
p style=text-align: center;a title=DSC_3025 by Team Seacats, on Flickr href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamseacats/6265477880/img src=http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6234/6265477880_5a5ae8309e.jpg alt=DSC_3025 width=500 height=333 //a
Another good looking flare (with the nut pre-installed this time)./p
p style=text-align: center;a title=DSC_3027 by Team Seacats, on Flickr href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamseacats/6264949893/img src=http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6100/6264949893_dfcf2bf843.jpg alt=DSC_3027 width=500 height=333 //a
Installation finished with aluminum tape to protect the foam line insulation from the UV / weather (and it looks all cryogenic and stuff). I still need to finish up the upper unit and we’ll be finished out here./p
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Sanding my Crack
by Jake on Aug.29, 2011, under Composite Works
It takes about three years for me to forget how much sanding is involved with regelcoating the bottom of a catamaran hull to get a good finish and fair bottom. It’s a lot. A whole lot. At this point, most of the doing is done and I finally have something to admire! After filling the void and incision I made in the hull, I built it back up using 2.5oz S-glass fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin. I then sanded that smooth and fair(ish) using my hand held, homemade, long board. I then faired with epoxy and micro-balloons and later with bondo professional filler to finish out the surface and fill pin holes.
I also fixed and faired out several dents and chips elsewhere on the hull – including the road rash we acquired somewhere.
The daggerboards on this boat had some pretty serious vertical scratches from sand and other debris in the daggerboard wells – and just from general use. I attacked them with a palm sander and then checking that I had sanded away the scratches by spraying on some dark sandable primer and sanding it away. I was surprised that I still had quite some distance to go to remove the scratches. I ended up getting almost all the way through the gelcoat on one side of each board…so I was going to have to gelcoat more than just the tips. One board had also seen a pretty bad impact and about four inches of the tip was previously repaired but left raw with epoxy and carbon showing. I reshaped that tip and filled / faired it as well.
Everything was then masked and protected. I put brown paper down on the major areas of the garage floor to protect it (I plan on coating it with epoxy when the garage is finished).
It’s go-time for gelcoat! I didn’t have time to take progress photos here because A) I had gloves on with nasty nasty chemicals and b) gelcoat was on it’s way to curing in my HVLP paint gun. Of note, I did purchase a new HVLP gun from Northerntool for about $40 (a href=http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200319459_200319459LINK/a). It has a larger tip at 2.3mm and it sprayed the gelcoat quite well. Even with the gelcoat un-thinned, it sprayed pretty well. It could have sprayed a little faster and I would have been happier…but if I thin it 5 to 10% next time, I think this gun will be perfect. After mixing and metering 8oz of gelcoat at a time to extend the amount of time any gelcoat stood in my paint gun (it took three 8oz batches), everything was well coated. I had already prepared my other smaller (1.5mm?) tip HVLP gun with PVA and immediately switched to it and laid down a top skim coat of PVA (poly-vinyl alcohol) that after flashing off the alcohol leaves a saran-wrap-like film and very effectively seals the gelcoat from the air allowing it to cure hard all the way through. I’ve tried other curing systems / additives with gelcoat but find that this is the purest and most foolproof method of getting a full cure. Removal of the PVA is easy – simply peel away what you can and wash off the rest. It’s very water soluble and on takes a few minutes with some water and a rag to remove it completely.
Time to sand some more! Thankfully, I had some seasoned help from Ted Bogardus who sails with me locally. In one day, we had both daggerboards and hull sanded and polished (120 grit, 220 grit, 400 grit wet, 600 grit wet, heavy rubbing compound, light rubbing compound). We had to chase the shade as the sun moved in the sky…the dolly made that really easy. The end result is good – I’m happy and can’t wait to splash it. We do have a little more polishing to do on the sides and top of the boat before that can take place, however…
….and a little cleaning.
strongLearnings: /strong1) when sanding away the orange peel on the bottoms, either go straight to 220 grit or only use 120 just to knock the high spots off. I carried the 120 too far and had to work really hard to get the sanding scratches gone. Even then, I was left with a few spots where the scratches still existed – but they were minor enough to not be noticeable but for the most close inspection. 2) I’m going to try to thin the gelcoat a little. I learned last time that thinning it too much is a bad thing and was left with soft / partially cured gelcoat. I compensated this time by not thinning it at all and left a little more orange peel surface for me to deal with by sanding. 3) Having help is awesome! Thanks Ted.
strongTips I can share:/strong 1) Hotel Key-cards make EXCELLENT resin squeegees. I collect them from sales and service guys to keep a bunch on hand so I can just toss them when done. 2) A top-coat of PVA on top of freshly sprayed gelcoat is a sure fire method to get a solid cure and it cleans up really easily.
Up next; Our good friend Bill at Mainsail Marine has restitched and reinforced the trampoline and it’s ready to go on once the boat is cleaned up and the last polishing completed.
Oh, anyone have any spider removal advice? This is the fourth Black Widow I’ve found around the garage and I’ve about had enough of that (maybe they’re so prevalent because I removed a wooded area to build the garage or all the nooks and crannies with the exposed framing?)…and this woman was a monster!
It’s Stronger than Air!
by Jake on Aug.13, 2011, under Composite Works
иконографиясвети илияWith fall regattas and an F18 North American Championship approaching, it was time to put down the framing hammer and pick up a grinder/sander and wheel out the epoxy kit. Our Team Seacats Formula 18 has some areas that needed attention. Both hulls were showing a tendancy to take on water. While a little water in the hulls is normal after a day of sailing, the amount we were getting was a little much. While Frank and I spent a recent weekend training in Charleston, we made a detailed inspection of the boat and found a worrisome crack in the gelcoat on the outboard side of the port daggerboard trunk. You could press on it with your thumb and see some movement…which is a good indication that this feature has gone from cosmetic to structural. Ted Bogardus, who also sails with me often, provided valuable help today to get the boat flipped and start the work on the hulls and cleaning up the foils. Before starting the work, however, I finally found a use for the double stack wood rack I’ve used for the last several years to trailer my A-cat on top of our Nacra 20 to the Keys. It has cut-outs to receive rear and front beams (on a N20) and corner gussets. I thought this might make a great dolly for an inverted F18 and after bolting in four casters, whalla…a great dolly! It works great and I can wheel the boat inside and outside for whatever needs to be done:
So, now it’s time to get to work…here’s the crack (you might need to click to zoom in):
There was also some road rash that the boat got somewhere along the way home from Charleston. I’m guessing a trailer tire kicked something up from the road and punched the starboard hull:
I also found a pretty significant hull leak in the starboard hull at the rudder pintle (a close exam showed that these gelcoat cracks were just cosmetic). I later resealed the rudder hardware to the hull:
I also figured that while I was this deep into the repairs that I should give the bottoms a sanding / fairing. Fortunately, in most areas, the gelcoat is incredibly thick giving plenty of room to remove scratches and rebuff without having to recoat. After going over the hulls with my longboard with 100 grit, 150 grit, and 220 grit, I moved on to the daggerboard trunk repair. Using my side angle grinder and an 80 grit sanding flapper disc, Ted and I went to work and made some nervous discoveries along the way:
I was thinking that we were in good shape now and ready to start rebuilding. When I used my compressed air blower to clean out the incision, I notice there was a spot that kept getting wet when I hit it with air (I have a pretty good air drier so it was unlikely that it was coming from the compressed air supply). Upon further inspection, I noticed that there appeared to be a cavity behind a small void in the seam between the daggerboard trunk and the hull.
I started to get a sinking feeling about this…so I decided to explore it further by opening up the void and putting in a copper wire to see how expansive the void was…watch this: Here’s the full copper wire:
Here it is in the void…yep…it’s easily entered into the interior of the hull. I’m thinking this is a pretty good candidate for a significant leak issue (not to mention structure).
Poop! Now I have to open it all up and figure out how far this void goes and what it looks like so I can figure out how to make it stronger. I’m beginning to think that this void may have been the cause of the crack to begin with. After some more careful grinding with a dremel…wow. I see now that the inner hull skin isn’t even close to being attached to the daggerboard trunk. There’s no filler, no nothing. Just air. I’m glad that I’ve found the cause for the crack – but now I have to figure out how to fix it. Look into my hull!:
I cleaned up the incision removing the jagged edges and making a taper on the edges. I then mixed up some epoxy and cabosil (fumed silica = very hard when cured and awful to try and sand post cure) to make a thick peanut-butter like mixture. I then took a zip-lock bag, spooned the mixture inside, and cut a tiny slice of the corner off to make a cake-icing like bag to inject the filler in the void. My goal was to get the filler to bond the inner skin and the daggerboard trunk and it went in the hull in a very controlled fashion with a very neat finish. It’s possible that I might have to cut an access hole in the hull to put glass on the interior of the hull – but I’m guessing this will probably take care of the issue. Epoxy is, afterall, stronger than air!
After several layers of S-glass, things are looking good. Now I just need to fair it and shoot some gelcoat.
It’s a Real Steamer!
by Jake on Aug.02, 2011, under Garage Mahal
Hot. That’s been the word of the day around here for about two months now. Working outside, especially in the upper level with no ceiling or insulation to offer protection from the radiant heat coming from the roof, is brutal. I’ve been working in the early weekend mornings upstairs until it gets too hot and then moving downstairs until I’ve had enough (usually around noon). I then retreat into the house to catch up on things there. During the week, I’ll sometimes wait for the sun to go down and put on a head lamp to do some work in the garage and office followed closely by a fan.
I’ve been slow to get updates here – I have several to make and will break it up a little into different sections. For now, a simple post about sofit baffles. Sofit baffles protect the vented sofits from insulation and other debris that might block the air flow into the attic. They’re needed especially when you will be working with a blown-in type of insulation. I was a little unsure about the ridge vent roof ventilation system having heard some negative things about it. Since then, I’ve become convinced that most of the time folks have issues with a ridge vent, it’s probably because of inadequate intake ventilation in the roof…i.e., the ridge vent can only vent as much air as can be drawn into the attic. So I studied sofit baffles and settled on this particular ABS plastic type. I had to order these because most of the readily available baffles are of a lightweight foam type that are exceptionally fragile and just tuck straight down into the sofit. They offer very little shielding from the top plate and if pressed lightly, can buckle and fail. You can’t really tuck insulation in with those foam ones without risking breaking them. The baffles I ended up with first staple to the top plate of the wall and they lay across the top plate horizontally toward the roof sheathing where they bend sharply and follow the roof sheathing upwards. A few staples through the baffle attaches it to the sheathing and holds it in place. The molded stand-offs in the baffle allow multiple channels for air to flow from the sofit into the attic space while still allowing insulation to be tucked in deeply above the top plate to reduce any (very common) cold spots during the winter around the perimeter of the ceiling/wall joint. I first thought I was going to use a pneumatic stapler to attach these but the staples were shot so violently that it was shattering the ABS plastic. A manual stapler didn’t have the same issue…so I ended up manually stapling them in place.
Progress ~sigh~ Finally!
by Jake on May.31, 2011, under Garage Mahal
I finally found some time this holiday weekend to invest some more time on the Garage Mahal and made some decent progress! The two 1 ton heat pump outdoor units are mounted and one is even wired. I have to get a couple more electrical fittings to finish wiring the downstairs unit. The writing / descriptions below are a little rough…I’m short on editing time (as usual lately).
My first time working with vinyl siding was rough…I don’t know anyone with direct experience that could help me sort out the trimming details so I had to figure it out as I went along. It took some time to get it right – but it is right ‘perty. I purchased a couple of brackets to mount the heat pump units on the wall. This gets them off the ground and provides more opportunity to get them further out of the weather and hidden. I had intended to mount them in a completely different location, but after conferring with Bonnie, she pushed for mounting them under the stairs on the north side of the building. This messed me up on the refrigeration line-sets because the two (rather expensive) sets I already bought were too short now. I’ll see if I can exchange them for a couple of longer sets. I’m also short on the control wiring to the indoor units so an inquiry as to the store’s return policy and some more buying are in my future. All said, I am quite happy with where they ended up. After trimming in the stairs with some lattice, the units will have a very protected and hidden home. I am a little concerned that they may be a little noisy facing the primary back yard – but these are supposed to be exceptionally quiet units…so fingers crossed.
The wall mount consists of a pressure treated 2×4 coated with multiple coats of stain, caulked to the sheathing/house wrapped wall, and secured with long lag bolts to 2×4 blocking I installed on the inside of the wall. After trimming out the first piece of wood, I decided I needed an easier method of providing a base for the ‘elbow’ of the mounting brackets…so I whipped out the welder and welded large washers on the head of more lag bolts. These are screwed into the wall (again into reinforced blocking) and lined up perfectly with the bumpers on the ‘elbows’ of the brackets. That was much easier than mounting another 2×4 and trimming it out. They should hold up just fine (everything caulked for good measure with a very long life caulk). I then trimmed in a couple of dryer vents to form an entry cowling for the refrigerant line-sets to enter the wall. They’ll later be sealed with expanding foam to keep the critters out. The electrical boxes were mounted to the wall with long wood screws and spacers to keep the boxes just barely spaced from the siding…again plenty of caulk applied. I also ran some PVC roofing material under the stairs to divert rain/snow/ice from getting to the units…I hate seeing heat pumps covered in ice during the winter when they’re trying to heat! The 220V 12 gauge power was also pulled to each unit – though I need to tie it into the breaker panel. I also started boring the 2″ holes for the four lineset tubes in the wall headers. I’ll end the linesets and control wiring in the areas that the indoor wall units will reside and can move on to making a couple of minor changes and finishing up the electrical wiring (which is very close to being ready for inspection!).
