Vinyl Siding

The Home Owners opted to go with a maintenance free exterior on their home. It was decided early in the design process that the roofing would be steel and it's color would be forest green. When exploring their options for siding they found a vinyl product in a color that complimented the roof and in a profile that achieved the overall look.

The siding that we selected is Quest3 Series siding. It is a premium vinyl siding manufactured by Alcoa. It features a double thick nail hem for greater stability and can withstand winds of 190 miles per hour. The color selected is American Walnut. It is muti-colored to give a natural stained woodgrain design. This siding has a lifetime warranty against chipping, fading, or peeling.

The siding, installed over Typar Housewrap should provide years of weatherability and color retention, with very little maintenance.

For more information about this siding go to http://www.alcoa.com/alcoahomes/index.aspx

Demolition Derby

Back in the fall, SMC decided that we would do a little promoting in the sport of auto racing. Well, really it was more in the sport of auto crashing. We gave sponsorship to a car in the Fairfield County Fair's Demolition Derby. Jake Martin was our driver, and while we didn't win, we did have a good showing. We managed to smash up a few cars on Friday night and several more on Saturday night. It was a fun time for us. You can look for us to be back next year.

http://www.fairfieldcountyfair.com/

Shower Pan

In the design process of the Basement Finish on Otto Court, the customers wanted a relatively large shower in the master bath. The 9' x 14' area which was available for a bathroom, enabled us to fit a 5' x 6' shower in the room with relative ease. The shower was designed to have 2 shower heads, a full glass door, and would be finished with ceramic tile.

The main concern when building a ceramic tile shower is water leakage. In the diagram you can see the method we used to build a shower pan, with a thick mortar bed over a vinyl membrane. This step can not be seen when the tile is finished but is the most important step in the process, assuming you want the water to go down the drain and not out in the house.

Half Bath

Winter really has started to set in and the weather has turned bad. On some of my bad weather days, I have decided to start back up on a project on Otto Court here in Hide-A-Way Hills. It is a complete Basement Finish on a newer home involving building a master suite with a bath and sitting room and a family room with a half bath. When we stopped work in the Fall, we had framed the walls, ran the rough electric, insulated, and installed the drywall. We also have both the bathrooms nearly complete.

The picture above is of the half-bath. It has natural slate floor tile with ceramic wall tile behind the sink. The sink is a glass bowl in a wrought iron bracket. The faucets are mounted directly in the wall.

Outdoor Wood Furnace

Today the Outside Wood Furnace was delivered. It is a model CL 5036 from Central Boiler. It works by heating water in a boiler that surrounds the firebox. The water is heated to a temperature of 180 degrees and circulated to the home through insulated underground tubes. Water-to-air or water-to-water heat exchangers convey the heat into the structure's forced-air furnace. This allows for normal thermostatic control of temperature for safe, even and comfortable heat. This installation will also provide almost all of the hot water for the home. The owners on this project own over 70 acres of woods, so the idea of heating with a system of this type was very attractive.

Today we set the unit and made the outside connections. Tomorrow we will make the inside connections, fill the boiler,build a fire, and have heat. With a high forecast of only 25 degrees I'm sure heat will be appreciated on the job site.

For more information go to

http://www.centralboiler.com

Steel Roof

This is the first residential steel roof that we have installed at SMC. It was very tricky because of the steep pitch. We love a challenge, and this roof gave us a good one.

While steel roofs are about twice the cost of an average asphalt, or fiberglass shingle roof, the durability and long life make them a good alternative. The looks of a steel roof can't be beat either.

Porch Completed

The photo above shows a view of the completed porch before the metal roof was installed.

Start of post and beam porch

In this picture you can see the start of the post and beam front porch that we built a couple of months ago. We ordered all the lumber custom from at an Amish sawmill. While all the major connections are made with mortise, tenons, and dowel pegs, we did use pneumatic nail guns to speed the job along.

Starting Blog

At the start up of this Blog SMC is currently only working on one active project. We are building a new home in Nelsonville,Ohio. It is a custom home, that I designed with the assistance of the owners.

To date we have excavated, built the foundation, framed the house, built a post and beam front porch, installed a metal roof, installed the windows and doors, and applied most of the vinyl siding.

Over the next few months of this project i hope to show some of the things that are involved in a job of this kind. As we move into Spring, I already have a few projects lined up. I hope to post those as well.