Finally Under Construction

Wednesday was a busy day and the Eco house is in full swing.



The eco house started off without a hitch - at least for the first half day. The plywood floor has been laid in place and the truss structures that hold the entire house up are being assembled.



Much thought and effort went into planning those trusses. They are very elaborate in design and are held together with friction fit pins. Sala architects did a great job on the details, although I rather suspect the framing crew would have rather had a simpler detai.



Everyone is moving quickly, the trusses need to be completed by Tuesday as there is a class being taught by Extreme Panels on the proper use of Structural Insulated Panels - otherwise known as SIP



Well, the trusses are proving to be tougher than originally thought. First we found out we needed 5" screws. No big deal, but 5" screws are not that common. I made several phone calls to the usual suppliers of building materials and came up short. I figured I would have to call Dave Wagner (One of the project architects at Sala) and find a new way to fasten them. It so happens Dave was driving by Frattalone's Ace Hardware on Grand Avenue in St Paul.



Turns out they had about 150 in stock and were able to get the rest the next morning. We needed 1500 screws. The manager even gave us a 15% discount which was nice.



On Friday we also discovered two more problems that needed resolution. First, even with all our careful planning, some of the steel plates connecting the truss members did not work out exactly right. Dan Pederson, a fellow contractor and a very good metalworker helped solve that problem.



We also discovered that the trusses are too bulky to stand up by hand, so we need to get some heavy equipment down to the job site. Monday we will have a Pettibone (a large forklift used in construction) on site.



Some of the guys will be working over the weekend to make sure we are done by Tuesday. We are a little behind right now, but so far so good.



If anyone ever ends up following this blog, I just want to let people know the business of building is the business of solving problems