Fiery Construction Job Progress Blog

Friend’s Meeting House

fieryconstruction — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:17:59 +0000

After we finished the timberframe job in Sullivan, we moved on to another energy efficient project. The Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers, are building a meeting house just north of Concord, NH. The building is extremely energy efficient, and uses many “green” technologies and techniques. Click on this link http://sbooth.smugmug.com/Friends/Friends-Meetinghouse/Meetinghouse-Construction/8916415_UDCN8/1/720798367_MQLBY#769331618_3caAr

to view an online photo album of the project. Thanks to Steve Booth for taking the pictures and setting up the online album.

Check out this project we have in Sullivan NH

fieryconstruction — Sun, 31 May 2009 14:45:18 +0000

After we finished closing in the house in Northfield, we started a job in Sullivan. It’s an energy efficient design featuring a timberframe, with SIPS walls and roof, and an ICF foundation. If you click on the picture you should get a slide show of the entire job! I stopped updating for a while, and never got back into the habit. Sorry for that!

sullivan timberframe

This link shows the photo album of the entire job.

I know it’s been awhile…

fieryconstruction — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 15:51:31 +0000

It’s been a while since I updated this blog, so here is the last batch of pictures showing the last phases of closing in the house.

Finishing up the vented roof

Here’s a good view of the vented roof going on. We install furring strips over the SIPs panel and then another layer of sheathing. This conforms to the shingle manufacturer’s requiremnt for a ventilated roof deck, and allows any moisture to escape, which might otherwise be trapped under the roofing.

Approved window installation

Here’s a picture of chad installing a window, using the housewrap and flashing tape to create a moisture barrier. First, the window opening is prepped by installing a row of flashing tape acroos the botton edge. Then the entire perimeter is caulked with high-quality sealant. The window is installed into the opening, and the 2 vertical sides are sealed with flashing tape. Notice the upper flap of Tyvek is held up; after the top edge is sealed with flashing tape, this flap is brought down over the edge and sealed off. This creates a layered protective barrier which will deflect any water out and away from the window.

Rear windows and doors installed

This view shows the completed window installation. Notice on the window to the far left how the top flap of housewrap has been sealed with flashing tape (the guys call these “eyebrows”).

Front windows installed

A view of the front showing the windows installed in the same manner.

Well, that’s about it. Our part of this job is almost complete, we will hand it over to the owner and his crew to finish up. I’ll be posting our next job, which will be starting soon.

updates to our current projects

fieryconstruction — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:53:36 +0000

Well, it’s been a busy couple of weeks since my last update. We had a big ice storm which killed power for most people for a week or more, and caused a lot of damage.

A friend had 2 trees fall on his mobile home.

Trees on the roof

It made some big holes

It did a lot of damage

My crew went in and cleaned it up, removed the trees with a crane, and removed the damaged roof structure to assess the repairs. We covered it all with plywood and tarps, and now we wait for the insurance company.

A new skylight!

Back at the other job, work continues in spite of winter weather. We have the roof beams in place, and the roof panels on.

Roof beams in place

Purlin beams on the back roof

In between cleaning up from the ice storm and shoveling 2 feet of snow, we managed to get the roof panels on.

Dave preps a roof panel.

Hoisting a roof panel into place.

Chad and Steve guide the panel into place.

Steve and Tim work on the back roof.

After Christmas, we’ll finish the dormers.

Soon I will post a link to a slideshow, so all the pictures can be viewed.

Happy Holidays.

Our current project

fieryconstruction — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 01:39:17 +0000

We are working on a new home project in central NH, on top of a hill with great views! The house is built with structural insulated panels, and will be very energy efficient when complete. The first few pictures show the house with the first walls standing.

First floor walls standing.

The wall panels are made in a factory and trucked to the site, where our team of expert carpenters assemble them and erect the shell of the house.

The rear of the house, looking from the back yard.

After we have the first walls up, we need to build the internal structure. This house is a hybrid of sorts, because it combines conventional framing and post and beam style framing. The second floor will be built using large solid timbers and beveled pine planking, which will give it a traditional timbeframe look. This is combined with conventional 2x and engineered lumber to achieve open spaces, but at a lower cost than a full timberframe.

Second floor beams

Beveled plank flooring is laid over the beams.

Installing the red pine flooring.

The finished floor/ceiling looks great!

Pine ceiling

In early December, the sun sets at around 4 pm! It gets late early!

Mt Kearsarge at sunset (3:50 pm)

Catching up on old business

fieryconstruction — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 14:33:55 +0000

First I want to share some photos from a job we finished just before Thankgiving. The job was to be a renovation of the front of the house, replacing windows and building a new front porch.

BeforeWhen we removed the front porch and the siding we found extensive water dameage, rot and insect damage. The porch roof had not been properly flashed (waterproofed), and also bushes in front of the house had been allowed to grow much too big and bushy, which caused water to splash back and prevented proper drying.Water damage

Splash back from overgrown bushes

Insect damage

I should point out that this is a post and beam house with structural insulated panels (stress skin panels) as the exterior wall. This actually made the job easier to repair, I believe. A conventionally constructed house would have had damage to the fiberglass insulation, sheetrock and studs. The foam insulation prevented too much water penetration and kept the damage confined to the exterior of the house.

We removed and replaced all of the damaged sheathing, injected foam insulation into any voids and continued on with the window project.

Replacing the sheathing

It is critical to maintain a continuous”drainage plane”, in other words keep the water out! We do this by installing a high-quality housewrap, and flashing and sealing all windows and doors so that any water or moisture that gets behind the siding and trim will drain out. My crew has received training and certification in this procedure, and the details are very important.

Window flashing details

Once we fixed up all the water damage, we installed the windows and built a new front porch with a custom arch to match the side entry and garage (which we built last year).

After- a new look.

The completed job.

Welcome to my blog!

fieryconstruction — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:28:58 +0000

Today I am starting a new blog to chronicle the events of my company, John Fiery Construction, Inc. I will post occasional updates which will show jobs we are currently working on, and any other interesting news.

Please visit my website at www.fieryconstruction.com for more info about the company. My hope is that this blog will be a fun and interesting way to show off my crew and their skills as we work on unusual and challenging jobs (which they ALL are!)

our job site trailer

I’m still experimenting with photo sizes etc. so this is a test run. More later.

Hello world!

fieryconstruction — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 10:45:48 +0000

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!