We finished installing the base of the extruded aluminum glazing system last week. The work went well; we figured out how to install the rubber gaskets into the aluminum without destroying our thumbs and worked from one end of the building to the other installing the glazing.
We also started flashing around the operable windows as we worked on the fixed window glazing. I have mentioned flashing on a couple of occasions, but have not provided many details. We are fabricating our own flashing from galvanized sheet metal as discussed in Earthship Volume I. We are painting our flashing to match the extruded aluminum. You really do need to rub the galvanized steel with vinegar (this cleans the surface and allows the paint to adhere to the galvanized metal) before painting it! Do as I say not as we did …
After we decked and papered each operable window overhang(with 15# roofing felt), we measured for the flashing. I then rolled and cut the flashing using a compound miter saw. This seems to give a much cleaner cut than using tin snips although we also used tin snips when the saw was not practical.
If I needed to bend the flashing (as was the case for the roof overhang) I clamped the flashing between two layers of wood with the portion to be bent hanging out and used a block to hammer the flashing to the desired angle. This system worked but I now understand the attraction of owning a metal break and shear.
We measured the window sizes as soon as we were done and sent out quotes on Friday to two companies in Kamloops (Century and AALL Glass) for prices on the fixed and operable windows. We hope to have our glass ordered in the next couple of days, and have it installed before the end of October. At the same time we are thinking about the design and construction of our sky lights. If anybody has any knowledge about building your own sky lights we would love to hear from you!
Once we were done with the glazing we turned to a couple of jobs we had been putting off while we got our windows sorted out. The logs that sit on top of our tires and extend up to the ceiling were weathered both from sitting in our yard for so many years and from sitting out in the sun over the summer before we got the roof on. We spent a couple of days sandblasting these logs to remove the weathering. The picture at the top of this paragraph is Sandra working on scaffolding in one of the bedrooms. This job was as fun as I remembered; the sand gets everywhere, and breathing is an issue while working in the backs of the U’s. We did this job before installing the glass so we would have lots of ventilation, and opening the sky lights helped a lot! The end result was well worth the effort. We will stain these logs with a clear gloss just like the ceiling and anticipate that this will add a lot of light to the rooms. The picture attached to this paragraph shows a partially sandblasted log.
Over the last couple of days we’ve been doing the first pack out of the tires in the master bedroom and we started the exterior can wall on the west side of the building.
We hope to carry on with jobs like these while waiting for our windows.