2017 Fish House Build

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

4 hours ago, thefarmer said:

Any frame specs on the spear house? And a guess on what your finished weight will be?

4'x6'x6' tall.  One 2'x3' spear hole, and 2 fishing holes.  No windows.  It should weigh roughly 450#.  

58 minutes ago, 1lessdog said:

I was looking at the 5/16 knotty ceder. Yes ceder from Menards.  I was looking at putting it in my house then spraying in with sealent. Do you think I need to seal both sides? It look like the same stuf you are using Lip Ripper.

Sealing both sides is personal preference.  Some guys do, some don't.  I've never used a sealer/varnish on any of mine before this one and all the wood has held up great.  Is it better to seal than not?  Undoubtably.  

[YettiStyle]

1 hour ago, 1lessdog said:

I was looking at the 5/16 knotty ceder. Yes ceder from Menards.  I was looking at putting it in my house then spraying in with sealent. Do you think I need to seal both sides? It look like the same stuf you are using Lip Ripper.

I used the same cedar T&G from Menards and didn't use anything on it.  Keep in mind that cedar is naturally resistant to rot, mold, and mildew.  Just cut the packages open and face nailed them up.  You are going to tear your hair out if you try and hide the nail on the tongue/groove.  Cedar is already soft to begin with and since it is only 5/16" the nails can blow through pretty easy or splinter the wood if you don't face nail it.  After 5 straight days with four smelly guys in their I can just open up the windows and doors for an hour and it smells brand new inside.  Beats putting a candle or something inside just so you can tolerate the smell of all your buddies bodily gases.  You put any kind of sealant on there you are just making more unnecessary work for yourself and will be missing out on one of the best qualities of cedar, the smell! 

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

4 hours ago, YettiStyle said:

I used the same cedar T&G from Menards and didn't use anything on it.  Keep in mind that cedar is naturally resistant to rot, mold, and mildew.  Just cut the packages open and face nailed them up.  You are going to tear your hair out if you try and hide the nail on the tongue/groove.  Cedar is already soft to begin with and since it is only 5/16" the nails can blow through pretty easy or splinter the wood if you don't face nail it.  After 5 straight days with four smelly guys in their I can just open up the windows and doors for an hour and it smells brand new inside.  Beats putting a candle or something inside just so you can tolerate the smell of all your buddies bodily gases.  You put any kind of sealant on there you are just making more unnecessary work for yourself and will be missing out on one of the best qualities of cedar, the smell! 

I tend to agree.  If I were going to spend the extra on cedar, I'd personally leave it uncoated.  A friend of mine had a 7 year old house that still smelled like brand new cedar the day he sold it!

[1lessdog]

What do you mean by face nail it? I was going to use a brad nailer and turn the pressure down. My walls are the structural panels so I was going to put 1 x4 strips vertical every 2 ft and glue them and then use brads. And run the  Ceder Horizontal and just use brads.

[randerson]

By face nailing he means to shoot through the board face and not just the tongue itself into your 1x4 firing strip

[YettiStyle]

The picture on the left would be a face nail.  You literally don't notice the nails unless you look for them.  Don't even bother try filling all of holes, I blasted through a 5,000 pack of brads on my 8x16 and there is no way I'd try filling all of them.  The secret nail technique may look a little bit more professional but it is a nightmare to pull off with the thin cedar T&G.  You'd basically be trying to nail into about 3/16" of actual wood with a secret nail.  Even if it didn't splinter there would be problems with it actually holding the board in place or not pulling through since cedar is really soft. 

As far as gluing goes, I think its more of a personal preference.  I didn't glue any of my boards for a couple different reasons.  1st reason being that wood expands/contracts with the varying temps/humidity that a very extreme in a permanent shack.  Yes, the glue will make sure those boards don't go anywhere but it could cause some cracking problems.  2nd reason why I didn't glue is for future changes.  Accidentally knick a wire in the wall with a brad/screw, good luck getting those boards off trying to fix it.  Without glue I can just quickly pull the nails on the 2-3 boards in front of the faulty wire, fix the wire, then easily tilt 3 boards back into place and nail them back down.  This also lets you make any modifications in the future like adding another wire for more lights or outlets. 

Edited March 30, 2016 by YettiStyle

[Smoker]

The only reason I put sealer on my cedar boards was to bring out the grain of the wood. I put white cedar on the walls with sealer and did the closet red cedar on the ceiling with no sealer. It always smells great in there.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Building is well underway!  Picked up the frames yesterday, and got right to work.  

Up first were the back walls.  This was the easiest wall to build, so it gave us some time to get the tape measures fine-tuned and get a system going.  We got the 21' and 24' back walls built last night.  They are identical.     

Then I spent some time re-doing all my drawings with final measurements from the frame.  We also learned some things framing up the back wall that caused some pretty big changes to framing on the rest of the house.  Just a more efficient way of building them, and the end result is way stronger.  The cool thing about the CAD drawings I do is that they are perfect to the 1/16", so one person can be running the saw from the drawings/cut lists, and the other two laying out walls from that drawing.  

Up first today were the massive 21' side walls.  We got a really good system going last night, which is important because with 3 guys, it's important that everyone be on the same page mentally, or you end up with "too many cooks in the soup".  We zipped right through them.     

We'll finish up the 21' house tomorrow for sure, and I would guess we'll get pretty close on the 24' house as well.  The weathermen consensus in the morning will dictate whether or not we weld the walls on the frames.  The bare steel really shouldn't spend much time in the rain, and we've got nowhere to store these monstrosities indoors.

More to come tomorrow!  

[Snopro686]

Hey Lip_Ripper,  who made the frames? Any more info on them? 

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

We really rocked this weekend.  The 21' walls are all done, and we have the back wall and two massive side walls done on the 24'.  

This is one of the 24' walls, and is what 7'6" interior height will look like!  The guy on the left is over 6' tall.  

With the weather forecast the next 3 days, we had to hold off on getting these on the frames.  For now they are just getting loaded onto the trailer in the background, and covered. 

Edited April 4, 2016 by Lip_Ripper Guy

[rossco1418]

Couple questions about the stud layout. How far apart is your spacing? How wide is your siding? I'm assuming 4' for siding so are you spacing your studs so the seams go to the very end of the stud and each one overlapping 1"? I would also like to thank you for sharing all your information. Been following your threads for awhile and have learned a lot from them.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

4 hours ago, rossco1418 said:

Couple questions about the stud layout. How far apart is your spacing? How wide is your siding? I'm assuming 4' for siding so are you spacing your studs so the seams go to the very end of the stud and each one overlapping 1"? I would also like to thank you for sharing all your information. Been following your threads for awhile and have learned a lot from them.

Happy to share! So much about what I've learned about building has been from the different ideas and theories of others along the way.  Many of them from this page!

The studs are generally spaced 14 5/8" apart.  We have spacers with "wings" to keep them from sliding through the studs, since these are built up on saw horses.  Siding is 48" wide.  With 14 5/8" spacing, you'll end up about 1/8" short of the edge of your siding.  

When we lay out a wall, the first thing we do is go down the line and mark out the siding spacing.  Those can't move, no matter what.  There's a lot of stuff that happens in between, with windows, doors, wheel wells, etc, so there can be some fluctuation.  

We had some time tonight to get the roof's on both houses welded up.  We are ready for sunshine to get these on the frames.  If things clear out Thursday we'll be setting the first (3) walls in the dark.  Friday we'll get (3) set on the other house, and then Saturday we've recruited some muscle to get the roofs set and get everything finished up.

Here are two videos of the frames in action.  Power up (sorry about the wind):

 And power down:

 

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

We had a small window of time, good weather, and muscle last night.  The 3 main walls, and roof are set in place on the 24'.  Just as we were getting the 3rd wall in place, the wind picked up, making welding next to impossible.  We were able to get a tarp and block the wind just enough to get it tacked in place, and get the roof set on, and clamped.  

This one has the final two v front walls to get in place, about two hours of welding, and then it'll be ready for furring strips, and then siding.  We'll be at roughly 25 hours to have the 21' and 24' ready for furring strips and siding.  Not bad at all!

[BartmanMN]

You should have inquired about getting on a 'Tiny House' episode with that bad boy. 

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Similar weather tonight as last night with wind and rain, but we got everything in place.  It's amazing how rigid the wall framing is once it's tied together.  There is almost zero flex anywhere, which will only get better once siding, furring strips, and spray foam are done.        

This house will get moved tomorrow and replaced with the 21' for final assembly.  Both houses will get a little bit of extra framing in the V on Monday once we have the rest of our steel.    

Up next for either tomorrow evening or Saturday morning is getting the 21' welded together.  Saturday will probably be devoted to furring strips, so I'm sure I'll have to go to church Sunday morning just to get back on the right side of God.

Then Advantech will go down in the 24', and the first layer of aluminum flooring in the 21'.  

Siding is scheduled to ship out tomorrow.  We had minor technical difficulties with color choices/availability.  The 24' will still be charcoal, and the 21' will be "interstate blue".  

[RiverChuckNorris]

Great thread (per the usual) LRG.  Love that last pic, I see Orange Crush is the acting Job Sup

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Another great day today.  This was the 24' before she moved this morning:

(By the way, I had a really sophisticated plan to do the time lapse mentioned in another post.  I took the pics, but really struggled with making them into a video, so you'll have to deal with the photo summary.)

Then we were in to place with the bare 21' frame:

It took about 3 hours to get everything in place and welded up, and here's the finished product:

Then we got the 21' out of there to be re-positioned for the next phase:

 

We got right into the furring strips, which will be done tomorrow, for sure.  I got these thrown up really quick in about an hour.  Pretty crazy that there is 150+ self tappers right here.

The plan for tomorrow is to get an early start, finish up the furring strips, install the windows, and get the first pieces of siding in place.  Monday we'll have the rest of the steel for framing the V front and wheel wells, and the first siding corner pieces will be bent.  

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

The weekend went really good, taking the 21' from bare frame to ready for siding.  

Up first Sunday morning was finish up the furring strips.  We had to hold off on getting them totally finished until the extra steel gets welded in on the V front (today).  There are various widths of 3/4" furring strips.  4" for upper bunk supports, 2" around the edges and for cabinet and countertop supports, and 1" for around windows and in the middle of the walls/ceilings.     

Window installation went perfectly.

These are held in with 3M VHB tape between the metal framing and the nailing flange, and then get an extra layer of window wrap on the outside of the nailing flange.  No chance of air or water leaks here!

Siding will start tomorrow or Wednesday depending on temps.  We need 60 or above for the tape to work best.  It looks like we'll have a stretch of really good weather, so I expect some quick progress once we get started.  There is a chance we'll have the outer shells mostly done by the end of the weekend.   

[Walleyehooker]

You definitely have this down to a science. Nice job.

[Hawg]

I'm guessing you don't own a boat to get ready? Good job.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

2 hours ago, Hawg said:

I'm guessing you don't own a boat to get ready? Good job.

No boat.  I'm not much of a summer fishermen.  When I get out in summer, I want to be cruising around with a giant cocktail.  

[RiverChuckNorris]

7 hours ago, Lip_Ripper Guy said:

No boat.  I'm not much of a summer fishermen.  When I get out in summer, I want to be cruising around with a giant cocktail.  

+1!

BTW, just noticed the second flag on orange crush, LOVE IT 

Edited April 12, 2016 by RiverChuckNorris

[Hawg]

17 hours ago, Lip_Ripper Guy said:

No boat.  I'm not much of a summer fishermen.  When I get out in summer, I want to be cruising around with a giant cocktail.  

It's slightly harder in a boat but believe me, It's totally possible and practice makes perfect, I'm close to perfect at it now!

Edited April 12, 2016 by Hawg

[Chaws]

Do you have an estimated costs for the build of the 21 footer? The larger of the two you're planning on the in floor heat correct? Where as the smaller of the two will be normal build/heating?

Where did you end up getting the frames from? I believe its been asked a couple of times but no response.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

1 hour ago, Chaws said:

Do you have an estimated costs for the build of the 21 footer? The larger of the two you're planning on the in floor heat correct? Where as the smaller of the two will be normal build/heating?

Where did you end up getting the frames from? I believe its been asked a couple of times but no response.

The 21' is getting the in floor heat.  I've decided to also install a forced air furnace, in case it turns out to be a catastrophic failure!  I'm 95% confident that it won't be, and will be the sole source of heat, but I don't want to have to retro fit a furnace down the road.  

Chaws-below is a general response, not directed towards your post specifically.

Most of the guys here know that I am an open book on helping people out with building, as many were with me in the past.  Hopefully nobody is upset, but two things I won't be sharing:

1) A few guys have posted and PM'd to ask about costs.  I've decided that I'm not going to share the cumulative number, as I got burned on my last house by posting a somewhat speculative ballpark number.  It turned out to be way wrong, but the damage was done.  The power of the internet led people to the build post, and a common comment was "I see it only cost you $X to build".  What I will say is that you are best off to buy an Ice Castle if cost is important, simply because as a one off build you won't do it for less without cutting some major corners on materials.  I build because I enjoy it, I have the resources and knowledge, and I absolutely won't accept Ice Castle quality.  Definitely not because it is cost or time effective.    

2) Some suppliers.  Frame being one of them.  My last build turned into an accidental public endorsement/commercial.  Quality frame, but it turned out that a lot of people had major problems with communication and delivery times, and I had a couple people upset with me.  There are very few well known, (reputable) builders of hydraulic frames in MN, all of which can be found via Google in about 30 seconds.  Within various online social media groups, you'll be able to find tons of info and reviews on each.  

Again, hopefully nobody is upset, but I think my reasoning is sound with both.