I am looking for ways to keep a job going consistently through the winter. We will be doing alot of stone-work and framing and we’d like to do it through the winter. Does anyone know of any companies that will come and put up a heated tent around a whole site or at least a large part of it? Or does anyone have any ideas on how to weatherize a site for the cold, snowy New Hamphsire winter?
Thanks,
Chris Proulx
Auger Building Company, Portsmouth NH
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Replies
Hiya CProlx, aka newbie! Welcome to Breaktime.
Don't know if this will help you any but may be it'll just be good fuel to get the brain strokin'.
Cheers
Wow! Do those come heated and AC'd? I'd use the thing all year round. It would be like haveing a desk job!
Rez:
Whoa! That is the coolest thing I ever saw. I need one of those puppies! Plus, you get a dramatic "reveal" at the end of the job when the bubble comes off!
J Painter
That pic come off a backcover of FineHomebuilding.
You new guys need to go chase down those back issues. A lot of good stuff jammed in those old classics.
you ever find out how much that would cost?
No mention of it in the article.
It was on the backcover of FH#51.
It's 28* right now and it's been snowing since 17:30....
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming.... WOW!!! What a Ride!
beats rain.
A guy I know that does dry laid stone work has a tent set up using schedule 40 pipe for the frame and white canvas for the tent part. They use it daily, it keeps the sun or the rain off them in the summer and keeps 'em warm in the winter. I don't have any pictures, but it's surprisingly simple. Just a bunch of straight pieces of 2" pipe and an assortment of elbows and tees.
Must be a big job, cuz according to my calendar it's a long time until snow.
There was an article in JLC about 4 months ago about a stone mason and how he works year round. The article was actually about building stone arches.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
I have never heard of masons taking the winter off, you guys down here in the south have gotten to soft. :)
I have always seen tents for the masons, I dont know how a framer would handle a tent though, I just thought they put warmer clothing on.
Doug
Ed, He had just his little area tented off with visquene.
Think you could build a tent for a whole house with that stuff?
Take pics, I want to watch.
That set of pics is the old FHB I was thinking of.
Wonder how long it takes to fold it up?
Joe H
A mason that used to work on jobs I'd help frame just used a scaffold up against the area where he was working and put visqueen (polyethylene sheets) over the scaffold framework and weighted it with bricks. Seems I remember him using a 55 gal drum and propane heater placed in the middle of his sand pile to keep it from freezing too.
i've tented bunches of stuff.
get out the check book and we ain't stopping.
last time 3800sq ft all brick house
never got above ten degrees out
summertime under the big top- masons worked in tee shirts
i wanna say set up and heat ran about twenty five hundred bucks
bout a full month
used to run exterior trims for a guy- it would be five or maybe seven degrees out and we'd be freezing our butts off- ten feet away the stone men were working in t shirts under a tent.
we used to kill the stray ones and burn 'em for heat...
those were the days
we used to kill the stray ones and burn 'em for heat
LOL!!!!
Every time I read a post about cold weather labor I think of an old FH one page article read years back about these guys who built a prefab outpost weather station or something structure on the artic ice with sometimes 0%visibility in white outs.
Had to be built off the ground so wind would flow underneath to help prevent drifts. Inhuman temps and sleeping in tents with their nailguns so they would be warm enough to use the next day.
Flags stuck around perimeter so one could hear the flapping and come back to base if they got off course during a whiteout.
If anyone recalls what issue # that was in I would appreciate it.
#68, page 100. Had this one in the small stack next to the bed that I read to relax at the end of the day.
Thanks Dunc.
Tell me those guys didn't earn their bucks on that job.
Worth the read.
ah, jeeze..now IMERC is gonna be drinkin outta bulldozer hoses..why'd ya have ta post that?
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
Doesn't everybody already do that???
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming.... WOW!!! What a Ride!
We used to set the staging around the area, 2x4s wired to the staging, then poly and strapping to hold it down. One time we were into the second day of a 2-day storm, shake roof and didn't have a ladder on the job site. Carp's all inside and they didn't have a ladder either. 1-story gable end chimney, but just 4" reveal on the outside so most on the roof. Got most of the framing for the tent built but couldn't reach from the peak to get the last bit. Used the toes of my boots like little ladder hooks. It worked, for a couple minutes anyway. Then a headfirst slide through the snow, off the roof and into a snowbank. Carp's all came out laughing and then went back inside to the relative warmth. We packed it in, stopped at the corner store for something cold and fizzy to warm us up on the ride home.
We seldom didn't work unless really freaking cold. Heat the sand, the water, the bricks, tent the area and all was well.
CP,
One stone Mason I know sets pipe scaffolding up on one side of the house. then tents it in with plastic. every morning the boss shows up at 6 am to get the heater going and start a fire to keep water water. Guys show up at 8 am. They work all year long.
For framing? Lots of tarps to keep the lumber dry and an order or two out of the L.L.bean catalog always got us thru.
I used one of those air inflated structures on a large boiler project back in the late 80's. If memory serves it was 118' wide and 240' long with something like 30' center head room. We heated with 7 large propane heaters to bring the whole area up to a comfortable 50 - 60 deg temps during a chilly Maine winter. Worked pretty slick. I don't recall the price at the time but it wasn't cheap to buy or get set up. But was really the only way to get the job done. Biggest problem was keeping the pressure in the bubble constant....too much pressure and it would dog bone pulling a double stacked pile of 2' x 2' x 4' concrete blocks toward the center or too little pressure would let the tent flap in the breeze. The other concern was carbon monoxide from the equipment running inside....heaters, Cat D-9Dozer, concrete trucks and pumperes.
The tent and blowers are still sitting on a flatbed if you'd like to make and offer???
Rob,
Thanks for the reply. I can't make an offer right now, but that is not out of the question. I am trying to find a tent to rent, but I am not finding anyone who rents them out. Our site is a bit irregular so we'll have to do some creative thinking to tent around some trees.
Thanks again,
Chris
Late 80s?
The tent and blowers are still sitting on a flatbed if you'd like to make and offer???
I think Rob's must have a serious stash of tools.