Reporting some green news! Extra, extra, read all about it!

D and I started the reclaimed fir flooring yesterday. Regular readers will recall that I have collected about 5 batches of beautiful used fir flooring that I found on Craigslist. I think it should be enough to finish the whole main floor (about 1200 sq. ft.), but if it isn’t, I’ll haunt CL for some more.

When we built our first house in 1980, we did learn that re-using old fixtures and building materials has its attendant problems. Our experiences with used building materials this time around confirms our past experience. For instance, even though this tongue & groove fir flooring is purported to be 3.25 inches wide and .75″ thick, it varies by 1/8″ in both dimensions. That means it’s challenging/impossible to produce a flat, crack-free surface.

Here’s our process:

Ends are trimmed clean, and broken edges cut off. I'm trying to organize the prepared pieces by length, but my boss didn't let me get very far ahead of him.

Most of the board tongues and grooves are covered with dirt/gunge/paint/insect husks, which will impede their ability to fit tightly together. I scrape the gunge off. To me, the wood smells like old churches. I don't know why.

How-to web sites recommend laying down building paper ("15 pound felt"). The purpose is to help prevent creaks and movement of dust through the layers. Makes sense to us.

D framed the heating vents with a fir box.

A long strip is temporarily nailed on to guide the first two strips to keep them parallel to the wall. A 1/2" expansion space is allowed next to the wall.

The first strip is face-nailed. Holes will be filled during re-finishing.

D then uses his fancy-schmancy floor nailer to shoot 2" L-shaped (heads) nails into the top of the tongue. He nails near every joist, but not on the joist, because he might hit the screws that hold the plywood onto the joists. If he hits a screw or nail, the nail gun could jam. Flooring must run at right angles to the joists, to prevent flex. Any joins in the flooring need to fall at a joist, for the same reason.

This is how much we got done in a day-and-a-half. You can see the dramatic variations in colour. Some of that will remain after refinishing, but much will sand off. The scuffs and gouges will be smoothed out some, but we appreciate the fact that it has been used, and think that it adds to the charm and warmth of the floor. What you can't see very well here are the variations in the strips' widths and thickness. And, in spite of our precautions and trimming, one board squeaks, likely because the bottom groove was missing, so there is flex. No board is perfect when you're using reclaimed flooring. We will screw this board from the top, and cover the screw head with a plug.

With the belt sander, I decided to see how easy it is to sand the edges (these will be partly covered by a huge cupboard unit tomorrow). You can more easily see the variations in thickness when the sanding highlights them. It was not too time-consuming to sand this much. The industrial sander should level out the floor better.

My feet are in a bucket of water. Just checking to see if you’re reading to the end!

Progress on the house has been slow this week. No one feels like working in this heat, so the guys go home early every day and take lots of days off.

The small developments:

Ronnie completed the last high angled shingling today, so the house looks better when you drive by.

Ron completes the angled shingling.

Steve has been torching-on the deck waterproofing in preparation for the concrete pour (studio floor and decks) possibly Tuesday.

Torch-on doorway detail

I have been mostly painting. One little job I’m particularly proud of is this vintage bathtub, another CraigsList find:

This side must have been placed against the wall in its last incarnation

orange and turquoise from the 60s, I'm guessing

I collected a photo of what I’d like it to look like.

This is a photo I found in a magazine

And then I painted it in a pretty good copy of the photo (I haven’t picked the flowers to put inside the bathtub yet.)

You can tell the colour change is intentional, right?

I’m chuffed about that.

Some months ago, in a fit of optimism, I found 140 used glass blocks on CraigsList, and carted them up to the lot to sit beside the RV for a spell.

I finally had the time/motivation/quiet to install 2/3rds of the front entrance door of the glass block last weekend.

After doing research on the net, and special ordering the 20 lbs of glass block mortar mix, I began the job. I’ve installed a fair bit of tile in various locations, but this was a different experience.

The guys prepared the opening by lining it with cement “green board”. The opening is 1/2″ bigger all around, and was measured to have 1/2″ mortar between each block. I put the mixer bit on Grandpa’s 1/2″ drill (with the endearing note not to lift the drill by the cord, as he has had to replace it twice already!) Carefully measuring and mixing the mortar mix and the charcoal colouring into the pail so that I could repeat the recipe, I added water mixed with acrylic (Weldbond!) to increase the waterproofing and strength. The mix needed to be not runny, and fall off the bricklayer’s trowel in a solid lump.

I put a slug of mortar onto the bottom of the opening, and I was committed. I “buttered” the block with another slug of mortar on both left and right side, then tried to insert it into the space. Off came most of the mortar! Off came my gloves! I was now making mud pies again, using my fingers to stuff the very dark mortar into the narrow channel to make a solid filler.

The spacers I had special-ordered did not fit my blocks, so I ended up using my eye to estimate the spacing (remember I’m a quilter – I’m pretty good at estimating seam widths). However, I don’t really have a feel for how the mortar behaved, so my spacing is suspect at best.

After each block, I nailed a brick tie into the side of the opening, and incorporated it into the mortar at the block’s top, to stabilize and strengthen the structure. A little level helped to keep my blocks level and plumb.

I ran out of mortar after 16 of the 20 blocks were done. So there will be more mortar mix ordered, and I’ll repeat the process. Perhaps the next time it won’t be quite so stressful, because I have experience now!

My hands were blackened with mortar. Much scrubbing and nail polish remover did not clean them very well, so I kept them hidden under the table at our anniversary dinner later that evening.

This is one-fifth of the old wooden garage door I got on Craigslist for $90. It’s pretty ugly, but I think I can turn it into a silk purse.

That's not smoke above the door - we just haven't cleaned it yet.

And the ugly smoking door is no more. We have a silk purse of a functioning fire. D put gaskets along the top of the door, in spite of Lakeshore Design’s advice to the contrary. We also got a draft going in the side chimney with a burning newspaper before lighting. We didn’t remove the chimney cap. It’s a miracle!

my shingle-dipping system

Partly because of the classic appearance of shingled homes and partly because cedar shingles are produced locally, we are using shingles as our exterior cladding. We managed to find 48 bundles of #1 and #2 grade 18″ shingles, for an average price of $18/bundle, about half what you’d expect to pay at a shingle mill.

Shingles need to be pre-stained before application. They need finishing on both sides to prevent cupping/cracking after weathering. One could pay big bucks to have them stained at a staining facility. Painting them by hand with a brush or roller is a messy and time-consuming endeavour (and practically impossible after they are applied to the wall.) Dipping them is the best option.

Everyone I talk to about dipping shingles warns me to expect a real logistical headache. Visions of clothespins and laundry lines, or drilling holes in all the tops and stringing a wire through them.

view from the business end of the process

But the best advice I’ve received is the system pictured. In a morning, I was able to dip 4 bundles, quite painlessly. I’ve set up a relatively permanent processing corner, protected from rain by the deck above, facing south and east, so I will get sun on them to dry.

The components:

1. A set of  grooved 2×4s (from the skids of lumber previously delivered. They come with grooves for the metal bands that hold the skids together). They allow the wet shingles to be placed upside down, with spaces between them. I line them up in decending rows, so the ends will be accessible. If these and regular 2×4s are nailed down with narrow spaces in between, the thin ends of the shingles can be wedged into the spaces so they won’t touch each other (this latest design improvement courtesy of Tess.)

2. A garbage can about 18″ tall (the length of the shingles), filled with the stain, at the top of

3. A trough, made from 2×4 and plywood, covered by stovepipe to collect the drips of excess stain in

4. A pail at the bottom of the trough

5. Dairy cases (the kind with holes in them). After the shingles are dipped, they go into the dairy cases on the trough.

6. The shingles (which need to be dried and cleaned of insect casings, larvae, dirt before dipping.)

They only need to be dipped about 15″, which is the maximum that will be exposed with two layers of a 6″ exposure. Depending on the stain you’re using, and the weather, they dry in a few hours. Our builders recommend storing them by width to make application smoother. So I will invest in more dairy cases at the recycling depot.

After some debate about the design of the chimney in the absence of our fireplace kit, Russell is working on the main floor chimney, which has to go through the roof so the roofers can fit flashing around it. He’s using the Craigslist bricks I got some time ago (with Tess and Nancy’s help – one very heavy load in Grandpa’s truck.)

We've decided to leave the brick exposed in the loft

Russell's bricks rise up through the roof

glass blocks $1 each, no tax, no packaging

from Craig’s List: 140 glass blocks (for around the door and shower wall – okay I know we won’t need them for a while, but I try never to go up to the lot with an empty vehicle, and they won’t rot in the rain and snow.) But, that’s not the exciting factoid. The exciting bit is that we’ll be the third users of these glass blocks!

A friend and I went to the lot with a load of Craig’s List bricks for future landscaping. (Poor old ’85 Nissan pickup, known in the family as Grandpa’s truck.) The main purpose of the trip: to pick up the structural plans for the studio-with-our-garden-on-top from the engineer, and submit them to the regional district for our permit application – apparently, our first permit only covered the house. I had also scheduled a meeting with a roofer for a quote.

When I arrived yesterday, I learned that the concrete for the basement floor would be poured today.  We could not use flyash concrete for this purpose, because it takes longer to set, and the concrete finisher needed to level and smooth the concrete within a few hours.

The estimated 4 cubic meters of concrete arrived in the cement truck, with a gravel truck to pull it back up the steep driveway. I arrived back just in time for the drama:

With about 100 feet of 4” webbing and 30 feet of chain as a tow rope, the dumptruck starts pulling the gravel truck backward up the hill. I can hear the webbing cracking almost immediately. It breaks and the heavy hook springs back into the cement mixer, like a bungee cord. As one of the workers commented: that would kill you. Ron runs up to move his truck out of harm’s way. They hook up another. It strains and pulls and moves the truck up the hill, then separates with lightning speed. The cement truck drives all the way to the bottom to try to get a run at it. Half-way up, the web splits again. And one more time, before the truck finally makes it up to the top.

We breathe a sigh of relief. The drivers scurry off as though this type of adventure happens every day. For me, it’s a scary maneuver, a graphic reminder of why tradespeople must carry “Worksafe” insurance.

Even before our house plans were complete, I started sourcing used building materials. There’s a saying that the greenest house is the one that’s already built. However, we weren’t willing to buy and renovate an older house to make it energy efficient. Even if we could find a house that met most of our needs, the renovations to green it up would undoubtedly contribute to the landfill and be costly.

So, at the very least, I could intercept some building materials on their way to the landfill (various estimates from Regional Districts and studies on waste suggest anywhere from 25 – 50% of the landfill is construction waste.)

harvesting fir flooring from White Rock cottage

Craigslist is the best source to find used building materials in our area. There is Jack’s New and Used building materials, but his prices just seem unreasonably high, if you can even get hold of a salesperson who will tell you what the prices are. For instance, recycled edge grain fir flooring, which I can find in small batches of about 300 square feet, mostly denailed, on Craigslist for $1 – $2 per square foot will cost about $4 at Jack’s, and the buyer will often have to de-nail the wood herself. Cast-iron claw-foot bathtub will be about $500 or more at Jack’s, but on CL, $100 -$500. There are Habitat for Humanity Restores all over North America, run by volunteers. They carry donated new and used items, and their prices are about ½ retail, on average. Unfortunately, for people trying to recycle materials they no longer need, the Restores are very picky about what they’ll accept, so you often have to take your building materials to the landfill anyway. Often, putting good stuff in the alley here will find a new owner. Here is an example of an ad I responded to:

“Free to a good home – one plank. It’s a big one – 2 1/4″ thick x 16″ wide x 12′ 7″ long. This was found in the basement of our circa 1920’s home when we moved in and it looks like it is just about that old. Nice straight grain, wood species unknown. Suitable for miscellaneous wordworking projects, or perfect for a pirate, if your ship is currently plank-less and you have a prisoner that you want to get rid of but are stuck due to your current lack of a plank. It’s leaning up outside the house and has to go ASAP. A smaller version is also available – 5′ long, perfect for your pirate dinghy. Pickup only, sorry – no mooring nearby.”

I’m still not sure what kind of wood it is, but it’s damned heavy. It will make a beautiful eating bar in our kitchen. And the dinghy plank might be our mantel.

There was a rumour that Home Depot, which supports the Restore, was going to open a building materials recyling yard in some of their parking lots, starting with a Coquitlam store in the spring. I noticed a fence built for the purpose, but there was absolutely no material there nor have I seen any further publicity.

I have written letters to regional districts suggesting that a very effective way to reduce landfill waste would be to have a building materials recycling centre. I’m sure that its administration would have to be well-controlled, and of course, a yard and covered area would have to be built.This would be an investment in the environment. I have seen the huge garbage dumps along the Fraser River in Vancouver/Burnaby, with piles and piles of perfectly useful building materials. No regional district staff has responded to my suggestion.

math door - $8

Some of the materials we have collected: 20 pieces of laminated glass from a condo rainscreen project (free), about 1600 sq. ft. of beautiful old edge-grain fir flooring, 6 old fir doors, some with the room numbers still on them, from a math building at a university ($8 each), 25 bundles of #2 grade sidewall shingles ($16 a bundle), 11 fir stair treads ($8 each), 3 almost new double-glazed windows ($60 ea), a 16’ wooden garage door ($90). You have to be careful about used windows and doors, because there are now energy-efficiency bylaws governing new construction in BC.

It’s a great feeling to save money and landfill space. Another plus: there is no plastic or packaging on used goods, that has to be thrown away.

But, where to store all this material? For starters, Doug built an 8×12 storage shed on the lot this summer. It’s temporary, but could be used for a writing shed or a garden shed when we have finished storing used building materials in it. His parents’ basement rec room houses all the fir and the pirate plank. Once the roof is on the house, we will be able to find space in the garage, and we have rented a container for the builders. It may become available for storage, if necessary.

Adding the last rafter to storage shed

I’ll write about new finds when we score them. But that’s the very satisfying start.