by Andrew Getty
How critical is planning ahead? Some things can happen by “the seat of your pants.” Like, going on a vacation could and maybe should be spontaneous.
Sometimes that may be the best kind of vacation. No deadlines, no specifications, and no requirements…nothing…just turn everything off.
But that concept may not work so well when building a house or putting on an addition.
How many times has this or any other code office, tried to get good plans before issuing a building permit? Too many times.
Sure, nobody likes spending money on a design professional, but in some cases it can save a lot of money and aggravation.
There are a few contractors who do a great job in design, before the permit.
And then there are some, who think they know, or are trying to “save” their customer money by providing “his” plan.
Recently when doing a preliminary insulation and framing inspection as required before insulation is applied, several rather fundamental, but critical deficiencies were discovered.
Now that the framing is substantially completed, to correct these things may be a problem.
Actually they may be a big problem.
When coming onto a job for an inspection a quick scan of the work area can tell whether or not things appear to be progressing properly; then comes out the measuring tape to verify.
After being around this stuff for thirty-five years, and having built many homes and additions, the visual senses are pretty accurate.
Just walking up a flight of stairs can usually tell if the rise and run is right; which the measuring tape confirms.
So in the building we go for the inspection along with the contractor.
At first glance things were relatively clean and orderly. Not a lot of debris or saw dust and other construction debris.
That’s a good sign right off the bat.
Most of the work was upstairs, so up the temporary stairs we went. Just looking at the stairs before stepping on them it was obvious something was not right.
Sure, they were temporary, but where they were, which is where the final stairs had to go, it was clear there was not enough room. Something was not right.
The run was too short, the rise was okay, but the tread width, the run, was too short. When the final stairs get built another 1.5 inches will need to be added to each run (tread width).
That will make the overall length of the stairs nearly two-feet longer…and guess what, that puts the bottom of the stairs about one foot from another wall.
A glance at the top of the stairs showed that the stairs cannot be pushed back. A BIG OOPS!
For those who understand how to build stairs, you can visualize the problem.
There is not enough room at the top of the stairs to push the opening back, can’t push the wall out at the bottom, that’s an outside wall.
All the interior walls are built, all the wiring is in, to change and re-frame things now is a major issue; this all comes down to very poor planning.
And, this being the primary egress from the second floor it must change.
The other problem was the insulation in the ceiling.
Although very neatly installed and workmanship was not the issue; a rather critical problem was obvious to the trained eye. R-38 batt—faced insulation was applied throughout… which is fine IF the R-38 is continuous completely over the upper plate.
The only way to have batt insulation do that is to have a raised heel or cantilevered truss to allow for the thickness of R-38, which is about 12 inches.
A regular truss was used, therefore impossible to have a full R-38 batt in that area.
Again, for those who understand basic truss or hand cut rafter design, where the roof and wall meet, a “regular” truss will leave only a few inches for insulation at that connection, if you’re lucky maybe R-13 batt.
A raised heel truss would push the top cord up another 10 to 12 inches, leaving plenty of room to insulate properly… which, by the way, is one of the most critical points to insulate.
Now, to correct this is a huge pain in the butt, it can be done.
Add insulation throughout to make R-49 everywhere you can, leaving the plate area alone, OR taking things apart and using spray foam at the plate.
There are different ways, but none are easy and all cost time and money. A good plan would have prevented all of this.
Having a good plan and actually following that plan will save time, money and lots of aggravation.