Wood, Fire and Whiskey...The Mancave Chronicles

[Artemas2]

Something to consider: if the wood doesn’t need to be pretty, and can have some imperfections, consider “Cull lumber”. Every place has an area where they put the shit that doesn’t meet spec, or isn’t up to par aesthetically. I buy all of our company lumber from the cull piles. Pennies on the dollar, and in a lot of cases, the only thing out of spec on something like a 2x4 or 4x4 is the length. Instead of 16’, it’s 15’7.25”....... for what I’m doing with it, who fucking cares? Your needs may not be suited for cull lumber, but I’d look to see where that possibility exists. Lumber prices are forecast to stay at record high levels for some time to come still. Good news for the lumber companies (and stock holders ) but bad news for people trying to build shit.

A load of “cull lumber”, purchased by the lot/bundle versus piece by piece, and haggling over the price is encouraged.

Attachment 69395

This, and a similar sized load ran us < $300 total.........

That's crazy.. and thanks for tip. I am helping a neighbor with a project now. He just spent over a $1000 on a load of boards that arrived on a single pickup truck.

[entropy]

First post up today. Decided to install a 3/8”x10” Spax bolt thru the timber into the adjacent wall for additional stability. I’ve only used smaller Spax hardware previously. It was a beotch to install. All further post connections to the building frame will be with traditional lag bolts. Either way, the bolt heads are countersunk and will be covered by a 1” dowel driven into the hole after securing the bolts. The first one always takes the longest. Tomorrow the weather is “supposed” to be nice (it’s snowing right now) and I’m hoping to crank a bunch of these out and start actually connecting them initially for stability. Finished up some trim work too. The corner you see in the above pic needed some TLC as the rough cut boards left more of an uneven gap than I wanted to see. A table saw and :15min took care of that...

[That Guy]

Once again this forum finds a way to make me feel inadequate... You guys have some impressive homes.

[Odin Bravo One]

Don’t compare yourself or property to that of others........ some of us didn’t do anything to deserve the windfalls that came our way.

I married up. WAY up, as many PF members can confirm. My ability to land a hottie well outside my socioeconomic status was dumb luck. Building our vault room was one of her retirement gifts to me. The other one was not asking or expecting me to get a job, and letting me spend 80% of my retirement income on our organization.

Just to recap....... I didn’t do shit to deserve the life or wife that I have......

[entropy]

Absolutely this.^^^^^^

I’ve been fortunate as well. There were some things that went on this past week that really brought refocus on what’s really important. My goal with this is to be able to share this space with our family. Especially our kids. Life is very, very short.

[That Guy]

Just to recap....... I didn’t do shit to deserve the life or wife that I have......

Wait, what did you used to do for a living again...?

I see people driving around in cars that cost more than my house every time I go to the Big City nearby. From the looks, attitudes and behaviors of some of these people I suspect not all of them have really done anything worthwhile to deserve their luxury vehicles. Same for some of the highly paid engineers and architects that at work I have to help grasp the finer nuances of how to send an email (or how to tie ones own goddamn shoelaces...), I can't help but wonder if these people are actually worth their pay check. But YOU, sir, definitely deserve every good thing in your life and then some, no doubt about it!

Still though, some of the pictures you guys post of your homes do tend to make me look at my run down little house, with its tiny little gun safe, and the 30 years old truck in the yard, and go "...Daymn." It's one of my many character flaws.

[entropy]

A couple points of clarification are perhaps warranted. I started the thread to share a home project and to perhaps have others share the same. The house is no Taj Mahal. It’s about 1500sqft if you look at it cross eyed. Single bath. Back deck is over 15 years old and needs attention when the weather warms up. Much of what we did here (and the current project) was done for a few reasons:

1. My wife and I enjoy doing things together.
2. I like building stuff.
3. I couldn’t afford to have someone build it for me and...
4. If they did, they would probably do a crap job and I would be unhappy.

Life is about living and about perspective. I lost a work colleague last Monday to cancer. He had lost his wife to cancer 8mo ago. They have two teenagers. The same day we found out our oldest’s MIL’s cancer has returned in a bad way... Life is about living and enjoying with your family, your friends, yourself. I want to do as many things as I can, and you can’t take it with you. I can however, spend time with my wife doing things together. That is worth far more and a few hundred bucks of lumber.

Anyhow...

Got some posts up. 3 left to go. I perfected the use of the Spax bolts and used them to affix the posts into the support posts behind the wall. Thru the 6x6, thru the 1” barn board, thru a 2x6 and finally into the 6x6 support column. Yeah...they ‘ain’t goin’ nowhere. I got an old Makita hammer drill, and it barely got those buggers in there. A few I had to partially back out and reinsert they were so tough to drive. One of the post mounting plates gave issue as I managed to hit a piece of rebar drilling the hole. I substituted a smaller length anchor and pressed on. Another plate is off by about 3/16” inch because I hit a Fred Flintstone sized rock drilling into the pad. THAT ticked me off. Hopefully when the stringers are put up, it will be of no difference.

Tomorrow is the remaining posts and char some wood for the stringers.




A little PL 500 on the anchors can’t hurt!

[DDTSGM]

I lost a work colleague last Monday to cancer. He had lost his wife to cancer 8mo ago. They have two teenagers.

Is there family/friends for the kids? Any needs we could address?

Sorry for the bad news about your mil's cancer. I'll remember you guys in my prayers.

[rob_s]

Got some posts up. 3 left to go. I perfected the use of the Spax bolts and used them to affix the posts into the support posts behind the wall. Thru the 6x6, thru the 1” barn board, thru a 2x6 and finally into the 6x6 support column. Yeah...they ‘ain’t goin’ nowhere. I got an old Makita hammer drill, and it barely got those buggers in there.

Curious as to (a)which, specific, bolts you’re using and (b)what materials they are ultimately penetrating.

If a=these https://spax.us/products/powerlags or these https://spax.us/products/powerlags-for-log-homes
And b=“wood”
Then I can’t recommend a cordless impact driver enough.

I also like these, and again would suggest a cordless impact driver.

FastenMaster FMTLOK08-50 TimberLOK Heavy-Duty Wood Screw, 8 Inches, 50-Count, 8", Black

If I’m missing something and your support column is concrete (the other materials seem pretty clear that they are all wood?) then disregard, although I would suggest pre-drilling though all of the wood with a bit that has the same OD as the OUTSIDE of the screw threads and THEN hammer drill into the concrete column.

[entropy]

Dan Lehr: Thank you. His daughter had taken her Mom’s death really hard. I cannot even imagine having to deal with this too at that age. (Mid teens). We set up a fund at work for them, and in addition there is a pretty close group of folks (work/church/friends) that is there for them. I spoke to one of the guys last week and he made the comment that “It was time for some big brother stuff.” There is a pretty close knit group of folks where they live (TX) that have always looked out for one another in the past. I’m sure this will be the case again.

The MIL issue is tough too. She was diagnosed with a very aggressive type of breast cancer over 3 years ago. She has continually beat the odds and come through. This is a tough one, but the woman is a remarkable fighter. Our son is there for them and has truly been there for them at every turn. He makes us so proud...he has been their rock.

rob_s: Nope. You guessed it. I’m using 3/8” Powelags that use a T50 bit. I do have an impact driver, but it just doesn’t have the cajones to do the task. I used a corded Makita hammer drill (may not have been the perfect choice...but it worked) and drove them home. I indeed pre-drilled as well. The bolts were 10” long, and there is only thread on the end 2” or so. The rest of the shank is smooth. I pre-drilled a 3/8” hole thru the first 6x6 and thru the 1” pine barn board. After that I used a 1/4” bit to drill through the 2x6 that was between the girts and the actual structural 6x6 post supporting the building. This picture may explain a bit more. I basically filled the gap between the 2x4 girts with 2x6 on top of the support posts. In this pic you can see I filled in on top of the far left post, but the two support posts that are on either side of the window are yet to have the 2x6s installed on top of them. Hope this makes sense.



So, if you were to look at the wall in cross section you would have the following:

<6x6 pergola post> <1” pine barn board> <2x6 board between girts> <6x6 treated structural support post>

Between the 2 Spax bolts (one placed 20” from top and the other 36” from floor) and the mounting plate that is attached to the concrete floor with 5/8” sleeve anchors (plus a bit of PL 500) I don’t think they are moving anytime soon. Lol.