Not even one of the largest March snowstorms in history has prevented our framers from making great progress on the house (though it did slow them down a bit!). In these photos they’re installing the new roof on the old house. Replacing the old ridge beam and rafters has many advantages:
- The stronger roof will better support snow loads and the weight of the solar PV array that will go on the southeast side,
- Replacing the old rafters with deeper ones (12”) gives us more space for blown-in insulation under the roof deck. Combined with the 4” of foam on the exterior, we’ll have an extremely tight roof with insulation above R-60 (approximately 50% higher than code), and
- It lets us make better use of the space to accommodate more headroom in the stairwell and improves access to mechanical spaces in the attic where we’ll place some of the ventilation equipment.
While the framers finish the roof and move inside, the next stage will be to get the foundation waterproofing and drainage installed and then start backfilling. Even though we’ve been pleased with how dry the site is, we’ll be installing dual drainage systems: an exterior set of pipes draining to the outside, and an interior drain system leading to a sump pump (and which will also function as our radon collection system). Stay tuned!
