Homeowner Forum / Construction / March 2004

Builders, Contractors...
James Patrick Drafting Service is available for small to medium sized
residential homes & light commercial projects. Priced at 15 cents per
sq. ft. this includes five sets of color plans.  Based in Walton

I have a 4-year old house with composition shingles (Pabco 30 year warranty
shingles).  Three times large sections of shingles have blown off.  The
staples penetrate only 3/8 inch into the sheathing, which is 1/2 inch OSB.  
The roofer claims that code requires that the staples need ...

Will be building a western ranch home with 12/3 and 12/8 or 12/10 pitch roof
planes. Was considering using the corrugated metal roofing product for the
12/3 pitch areas and cedar shake for the steeper pitch. However, i now have
to deal with a County Wildfire Reg's. that may forbid ...

Hi ive posted here in the past , and ive talked about saws and such .
Now im wondering   what could i look forward to  earning (on average in
the areas that all you are in) right out of vocational training (after
1st year) .

About how many effort-hours would it take to take a rough sketch of a 2200sf
house and do the detailed design that a house could be constructed from?
Mostly standard stuff without complicated rooflines or things like that.
About how much would that cost in central Connecticut?

I recently paid an electrician $600. to go through an older house I own and
ground all electrical outlets. Afterwards, I spoke to a friend who said I could
have installed a device at the service box for about $75. that would have
grounded the whole house. Is this true? And if so, ...

I am starting a construction and need a webcam that will be about 75' from a
computer (connected to the Internet) and will need to cover a field about
100' long and 30' wide at 20'. The camera needs to be weather proof and the
ability to focus it at a point, from the computer, would ...

I must replace a wooden, 5"x5"x~8' porch post that has rotted at the
bottom from a now-fixed roof leak. It is a hollow, square-shaped tube
made of 1x lumber and lasted for over 40 years.  I need the new post
to match two others that I'm not replacing and so will go with the

Looking for good house or home floor plan software (Windows XP) that
is fairly easy to use (e.g., wizards, drag-and-drop furniture),
preferably with some 3D rendering, etc. Also would like low price, but
would prefer features to price.

I'm about to start to finish my basement.  In my area floating walls are
required.  Some say to float them from the top others say the bottom.  My
walls are going to be drywall.  Which is best method of floating the walls?
I'm confused.

I have for sale some used equipment. No reasonable offer will be refused.
2 square point shovels
1 35' tape measure (slightly used)
1 box carpenter pencils with "Phoenix Homes, Inc."

I am ready to start getting bids for a house that I am going to general
contract myself.  I was planning on doing 2x6 walls and was wondering what
peoples oppinions on this were.
I was figuring 2x6 with CDX on corners and 1/2 foam board exterior

Are the ePlans (ePlans.com) any good? Are they good enough to build from?
Anyone use them?

We had a septic tank on our property and it worked when the mobile home (previous owners) was there and used it.  I have a building that I've put up and installed toilet and other facilities to use the septic tank.  It has worked very well until yesterday.  We had approximately 2 ...

I live in Northern Ontario and would like to build a sauna close to the
lake.  I am worried about the piers.  I have heard that you need to go 4
feet down to have them below the frostline.  This may prove difficult since
the building site is very close to the lake and once I start ...