Help! Need help sequencing priorities for new-build
Long story short, I am a painter by trade and I’ve been painting for a couple in the PNW who have been slowly building a new home while living in a very tiny, tiny house in their yard. They are now pregnant and have asked me to help them get into their new house more quickly.
I started looking at things more closely and I think we need help. They are wanting to do a bunch of work on their interior but the outside isn’t even fully covered with WRB and when I looked closer, the windows aren’t sealed properly and the roof baffles and insulation are totally exposed! They’ve been half living in there and keeping it warm but it’s very much a construction site.
It’s rainy winter time in the PNW (a gulf island in Canada). My gut says to stop doing anything inside until we have the exterior buttoned or at least sealed with WRB but I was wondering if actually we should wait for the rains to stop first and have things dry out completely. The floor is also currently uninsulated. I’m looking for any and all suggestions in terms of sequencing and priority here!
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Replies
I would absolutely get the exterior to at least the "covered with housewrap" stage so that you have some weather protection, and that includes flashing the windows. If you have an open exterior, the weather can get in. If the weather can get in, it's not safe to do any kind of interior finishing since the weather can just wreck things.
Think about the usual way projects go: you don't call the finish carpenter to put up trim before the drywall is up. You don't put the drywall up until the walls are done. You don't paint until the last step. But the first thing is always to frame, and then get a roof and exterior up to protect everything else you're going to do.
Bill
I agree with Bill. I've worked in the rainy PNW and mostly in the cold and wet northeast, and the focus is always to get the house "dried in" as quickly as possible, for various reasons. "Dried in" means having a WRB installed (weather resistive barrier--products and approaches vary) but final cladding can wait.
princess_beyonce,
I'm not casting aspersions, but this is a classic Cortes Island build. By the time one end of a house is finished, it's been so long that the other needs renovations. I agree with Bill and Mike - work on the exterior - which from what I can see will mean backtracking a bit because as you noted some of the the window sealing has been done incorrectly and will need re-doing with the proper lapping of the WRB, head-flashings (and I suspect to add the required sill-pans).
I know your intentions are to help your friends, but I have a lot of misgivings about moving into a house before you have a final or at least temporary occupancy certificate, and they aren't going to get one for that house without a lot more work. Right now the structure is (hopefully) covered by a Course of Construction insurance, which will be voided by moving in. They risk losing everything proceeding without coverage. My first stop after I had the exterior sufficiently buttoned up to start it getting dried in would be to talk to your building inspector about what they would like to see prior to anyone living there.