We enter the home stretch of our house construction or, as I like to think of it, the twelfth round of the fight. This week we begin finishing details on the structure of the house in preparation for the stucco/surface bonding cement which will cover the block walls. Let's take a look at what we're doing to close in the wall apertures around the windows. We have cut half-inch insulating foam board to shape with an X-acto knife and nailed it to the 2x4 frame underneath with roofing nails.
Here is a look at the backside. Another piece of foam board will go up on this side. We will be coating the pieces of foam board with two coats of Portland cement and then a finish coat of stucco. We've borrowed a few ideas from manufacturers of outdoor signs for this approach.
Here, we have a test panel nailed up to research a mix. There aren't any manuals, videos or other sources of information on how to do this, as has been the case with much of our construction, which necessitates some learning and experimenting on a small scale with materials as construction proceeds. I am experimenting with placing nylon netting and/or nylon fibers as structural reinforcement in the Portland mud on several pieces of foam board. The knowledge gained will be used to help us pour the roofing.
We also continue the ever-popular work of mudding the block seams - a tedious task which helps seal and smooth the walls prior to the stucco coat. A quick search of the previous pages of Gimme Shelter will show you how rough these walls used to look prior to being mudded. A member of project management ponders the question of when to break for lunch. Just to her right, you can see the outlines of the built-in pet door. The aperture to the left is for the dryer vent.
Finally, some rain. We get a visit from concrete consultant Rex Tarr who will be helping me with the roofing and wall stucco. Much of our work load this week involves small, preparatory details and finishing work, such as searching for subcontractors and experimenting with concrete mixtures, as we gear up for the roofing and stucco work to come during November.
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