builders felt … does direction matter?
newbuilder
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
I’ve heard reference to putting up builders felt .. 3′ wide .. only horizontally and lapped. I don’t see why this should make such a difference, and I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be just as OK for us to roll it down the full length of this 20 ft. wall … overlapping 8″(?) or so along the vertical edges. Anyone know something I don’t on this?
thanks –
nb
Replies
We don't do it that way round heah.
Because water sheds downward and can move sideway. Besides that wind coming at the house sideways would give you hell if the sturcture was unsided.
That aside, what do you gain by installting it as you suggest, I think it would be more of a PITA to staple/cap off in that manner and really can't see it being any quicker.
Don't know about you , but water moving from capillary action 8" horizontily in a 20' drop isn't unimaginable.... Am I wrong?
Do it.
Tell us in 29 years from now if it works well for you.
Quite a few of us will be dead by then, so we have no vested intrest anyway in what is.
Building anything to rival the pyramids or Roman water works is just mental masturbation, and self grandiosity....
Accept that all entrophic principals evolve into disolution and decay and work with that.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
" If ya plan to face tomorrow, do it soon"
Indubitably._______________________________________________________________
objects in mirror may appear behind you
Mental masturbation. That is a line I will have to use tomorrow..... =)
just don't use it on yourself
My daily headache just started up after trying to wade thru that one!
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Soory 'bout that. Vocabulary is like drywall mud with me, the more I play with it the worse it gets. LOL
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
" If ya plan to face tomorrow, do it soon"
you're just troweling my concrete too soon. I slept late this AM and then started paying bills as soon as the coffee was on
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Whoa. Got any more of that?+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd." Voltaire
go for it... You live in Seattle ...have fun when all the rain gets thru.
gee
thanks
i think
sorry if my response was supercilious.....
you kinda walked into that one. I read your question and thought maybe if he lived in Arizona it wouldn't matter - then I saw Seattle....as well as your note about rain....lol
PS what part of Seattle - My Grand parents lived in Ballard if you know where that is.
Look at it this way. 3' felt is required to have a 6" side lap. So, 20' felt (which is what you propose in your post) would need a 38" side lap to give similar protection. That amount of lap is kind of wasteful with 36" wide pieces, no?
Seattle? LOL!
Bill
edit: Sorry. It's 40" side lap, not 38".
Edited 9/30/2006 6:48 am by BillBrennen
new... it don't matter much.. BUT
we usually felt as we side ..
what are you going to do ... felt it first then go back & side ?
If I remember right, he is using vertical cedar shiplap type siding.Without knowing all the details of the whole wall/siding system, I'll refrain from answering this one.
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well .. vertical siding ? makes sense then , don't it.. with good side lap, should be finest-kindMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Well, I have always run roof felt verticaly with a 4-6" side lap whenever it gets over 9/12 pitch and have never seen it let water in when dried in for several weeks - one even all winter.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
new... it don't matter much.. BUT
we usually felt as we side ..
what are you going to do ... felt it first then go back & side ?
=======================
yes ... the rains are now on their way and I've got a 30' structure standing raw ... sheathing to the rain and unroofed. I've got an extra heavy tarp on the (flat) roof for now and am putting up fire-core gypsum on the sides. My metal for siding is still two weeks out on order and I can't afford to have the gypsum rained on so I'm felting as I go up. It may not be the 'best' approach (I'm TOTALLY new to this b'ness) ... but in the end I believe, from this point of perspective at least, that it will keep what needs to be dry dry until I can get it properly covered.
thanks again to everyone who responded as if this were an actual question about a situation that may actually have some urgency!
:)
nb
Get some felt on that roof! We normally do that the day we sheathe it.
Get some felt on that roof! We normally do that the day we sheathe it.
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I've gotten ahead of myself a bit on this job and am not as 'ready' for the wetter weather as I'd hoped to be. I can't 'felt the roof' as it's not, technically, the roof. I'm three floors up on a four floor structure ... so I'm now standing on the fourth floor floor ... but there's one more set of walls that'll be going up and THEN the actual roof ... and yes .. it's flat. So my deal now is to cover the 'roof' that I'm currently at. I got thru last winter with tarps and did pretty well. But that was when I was at 11 ft. I'm now at 30 and it's getting dicier. I just got an expensive, extra heavy-duty tarp and will just have to rely on it while I try to catch up to myself with siding and windows coming up the sides. Over the last few days I got the gypsum up on one and a half walls and covered with felt ... 15# nearer the bottom switching to 30# on from 20 to 30 ft. I wanna get things closed in a bit before popping on that last, top floor. Also, I am, for some reason, having some difficulty finding a good epdm source around here ... everyone wants only to sell me 1000 square ft ... I don't need that much . Anyway ....
thanks -
nb
Hey, how about a photo of your place? Maybe I'll come by and check you out sometime when I'm in Seattle.
If you want to winterize, it might be a good idea to build a temporary sloped roof on top of your deck. It's best if you put plywood on it, probably the same plywood you'll be using for the real roof later, and attach it with screws. Then install poly over that VERY well fastened down with 1x4s nailed over it. You can easily keep it on all winter with no maintenance if you do it right.
I've put some photo's up over the last year ... I recall posting four of them a couple months back ...I'll put a few up again soon.
shoot me an email, of course, if ya wanna come by.
nb
we felt our roofs in first... we use a synthetic felt on the roof , like RoofTopGuard II, or UDL
then we put pour windows & doors in... tehn we felt the siding as we goMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
U notice he said flatroof???Needs a sheet of epdm or some I&WTESTERDAY
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The only thought I could add that doesn't seem to have been covered is about the wind. If felt is left exposed for a few days, I've had a lot more trouble with it blowing off if it's run vertically.
Never believe generalizations
That is variable too. I have mostly worked in places where there is a prevailing wind direction so 90% of the time you can count on what way it will come from. Do the same when installing ridge shingles to keep the laps facing downwind.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
you need more than just a tarp on that roof if you are putting up gyrock on the sides.That is where the sense of urgenccy lies!
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I couldn't find the reference, but I recall one of the felt manufactures addressed a vertical application. I think it involved venting at the top and bottom AND sealing the exposed edge of the felt with something like blackjack.
Another alternative - recent issues of NHB had a feature on housewrapping products that would better serve your needs.
Yes it does matter horizontal is the correct way to install felt. Check the UBC handbook code 17590.01 in the new edition and it will tell you right there!)
When installing siding, which I presume you are doing, putting the felt up horizontally one course at a time makes it easier to keep the felt flat and mark your nail lines, if you are trying to catch the studs.
Installing it vertically, which I have seen on rare occasion here in the PNW, is probably OK, but is a little counter-intuitive if the felt is going to serve as a secondary weather screen.
I used to think that 15 and 30 was 15 lbs and 30 lbs when referring to Asphalt impregnated felt.
But, it really means 15 minutes and 30 minutes before standing water will seep through 1 layer. That's why it's important to have a drainage plane. Start at the bottom applying the 1st sheet horizontally then, with a 6" lap, apply the next sheet up and so forth. Some people like two layers on the bottom and an 18" lap for the ones above.
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy (maker of fine sawdust!)
PlaneWood
I think you were more correct with pounds, not minutes. There is some 30# felt that is still 30# per square, and that's what I often use. But the usual designation lately seems to be #30 ("number 30") rather than 30#, and a 2 square roll weighs less than 60 lbs.
Here's part of the website of HAL Industries. Their #30 plain 2-square ASTM D226 is what is stocked locally as 30#, and it actually weighs 30 per square. You can see that they also make D4869, which is lighter at 24 per square.
http://www.halind.com/content/sloped_roofing.html#astm_felts
Water holdout and fire resistance... you would need to read the ASTM or other relevant specs to find out how they're rated.