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Metal wind bracing should be nailed into the walls to prevent the drying
lumber from causing srews popping in the drywall. |
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Metal wall angles are nailed at the top of a wall where the trusses cross over the wall, the
drywall is then screwed to the metal angle and not the truss.This prevents cracking in the
ceiling corners caused by truss "up-lift". |
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Walls are insulated and drywalled prior to framing and installing any tubs to
ensure proper closing of the building envelope. |
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All baths, tubs, etc. should have protective coverings.
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When installing cement board siding, we provide a secondary protective layer at each seam, neither the house wrap (tyvek) or the small pieces of tar paper are required by the building code. We install both to esure you will never have any water penetrating into your home, also you will notice that each wall stud is marked to ensure that the exterior wall finishes are securely fastened to the home.
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The Tarion Warranty does not cover this common defect, ask your builders what they do to prevent this from happening.
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Where living space is over the garage, the garage ceiling is dropped prior to insulating and the
air space between the floor and the insulation is heated to ensure a warm room above. |
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Where a deck is attached to your home, we provide 2 layers of protective aluminum flashing. The first one is shown overlapping the brick and runs up along the wall before any exterior finishes are installed and runs up passed the cement board siding area.
The second flashing again is behind the siding and over the deck ledger board.This system also allows for any future removal and replacement of any wood structure. |
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When laying any brick or stonework, your masons should allow a min.of 1/4" between the stone sills and the window for caulking to allow for shrinkage of the framing where the windows sits in.This will eliminate the window being jammed in tight which could result in the window not operating properly and even breaking. |
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All exterior stairs should sit on a full foundation with footings. |
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Solid framing for drop down beams |
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Garage floor slabs could potentially sink or settle along the foundation wall due to this area being excavated for the foundation which could result in severe sinking of the garage floor and severe cracking therefore the floor should be re-enforced with re-bar and dowlled into the foundation wall. |
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All footings should be re-enforced with steel re-bar and the concrete should be vibrated
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All house wrap (tyvek) should overlap any aluminum flashing and taped along with windows and doors
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| Our cold cellars are formed with steel forms with "Blue SM rigid foam" insulation sandwiched between the steel and the concrete on the porch above. |
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Many foundations are poured either too wet or too dry,these photos show both.These defects could result in water penetration into your home or even structural failer. Concrete should be poured as per the suppliers specifications with no water added on the job site and should be mixed properly before pouring.
To eliminate these problems, concrete should be poured with a coveyor and if you cant reach it should be pumped in and never with a shoot in one corner and keep adding water untill it flows through the forms.Concrete should also be vibrated to ensure consolidation to avoid what you see in the photos as "honeycombing" and " cold joints". |
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Where basements have a walkout situation, the foundation in this area is below the basement concrete floor therefore there is an area along the inside of the house where it was excavated for the foundation,this could settle in time therefore it is wise to drill into the foundation and embed re-bar into the basement floor
in order to pin it to the wall and eliminate the floor sinking in this area. |
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When finishing a basement, it is not required by code to apply a moisture barrier behind the walls but we
believe it is necessary to eliminate dampness. This process should only be done after a minimum
of 30 days after the foundation has been poured to allow for proper curing of concrete. |
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It has often been stated that it is not wise to pour concrete around a new home because of settling issues.We agree that a certain amount of time is wise but it is possible to eliminate living in mud for several years. We have applied our inground pool techniques into home building. These photos show a concrete patio that will be poured 4 months after excavating the foundation.
Proper backfilling is important, where backfill material should be placed in layers and packed with the bucket of an excavator or better yet with a jumping jack, you then allow mother nature to do her part for several months.these photos show the next step.After forming, install a min of 8" of stone and pack, you then drill into the foundation at the stone elevation and install re-bar into the foundation which is also the bottom of the concrete slab and not embedded into the slab like the garage. ( note: this is an exterior slab and must be allowed to float)
In the areas away from the house, you then will auger holes 4' deep and place forming tubes in the ground, again at the stone elevation and fill with concrete.With the re-bar and concrete tubes installed, you now have a seat that the entire slab can sit on never to settle. |
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All concrete work is re-enforced withre-bar at
12" on center both ways vs wire mesh |
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