Pullin' Chocks: A Few Loose Ends

After arriving in Sun City, we realized that we had not provided an update on the Z-Flashing situation. Fortunately the Z-Flashing turned out as good as we had hoped and we have the documentation to let you decide too.

Below was the extent of the Eagle View progress at our departure from Swan Valley last Friday. The front gable end still does not have the house wrap installed, the darker color wainscot was installed on the two sides of the Shop and a week later (today) nothing has changed; even the lift is still sitting in the exact same place. When we learned this, we were highly disappointed, because this week looks like the last reasonable weather week in Swan Valley. Later we learned that the crew has been quarantined due to Covid... again. Last time most of the crew that tested positive, they did not have any symptoms, the few that did have symptoms were mild. We think the PCR tests are throwing a lot of false positive results, but that's another Blog.

Front & west side with wainscot. The good news is that we were able to move this project quite a long way all things considered. Amazingly enough, there was a run on unimproved properties in this area, so we consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have found and closed a deal on a suitable lot for our needs. Additionally as amazing, there was also a run on new construction starts in the area, so pretty much every contractor we contacted had a significant waiting line, some as long as two years! Add to that the shut downs, causing all kinds of price increases in materials and supply chain delays. Lastly don't forget the virus; how could we? Covid took key workers out of the workforce in most all businesses. When we stand back and consider all of that, we feel pretty successful to get as far as we did in the short time we were in Swan Valley this summer. We realized progress on two driveways, of course the Shop building, the electric service, the well drilling and the septic system. We still have some amount of work to do on all of these elements, but we feel that we made a very reasonable start on the overall project. One thing we did finish was the structural plans for a future house and have the building permit in hand, hoping for a start on that element next spring.

The view below shows much of the progress on the overall project mentioned above.

Teton Steel visited the project site last Thursday as scheduled and brought their portable roll former to manufacture the standing seam roof steel. That worked out very well. We didn't get to hang around and watch the entire process as we were breaking camp for a next morning departure that day. Below the operator lines the roll forming rig up in position.

The rig is in it's manufacturing spot and the German engineered roll former is uncovered. They will roll the roofing out right into the Shop for stacking.

A closer shot of the fascinating machine.

The finished product stacked in four piles inside the Shop.

Close up on the standing seam roofing steel. 1-1/2" Standing Seam with Field Striations, WooHoo!

Had to include the back view. Part of the house wrap is on the gable end.

And now the rest of the story on the Z-Flashing. The new and redesigned flashing has a nice 3" top flange that provides plenty of nailing area to get above the top of the concrete slab and into the pressure treated sill plates. The extra height on the top flange give also gives a nice area of overlap and preventing any outside moisture from getting behind the steel. We asked that the flashing be installed directly onto the OSB sheathing and let the house wrap run down over the top of the flashing flange. That way if any moisture does get behind the wall the house wrap will force the water to run down and exit outside the flashing.