Well these past couple weeks have been good. I installed the lower garage door. The roof has been completed and the windows are being installed.


The tough part was the fact that the lower garage door sent was incorrect in size (11'6 x 12' not the 116" x 144" that I ordered). This made a huge difference because the door tracks and spring all had to be modified. I figured out the door panel issues, I cut the tracks and I have a new set of springs on order. The missing window was broken when I opened the boxes and my framers dented the door 3 days into it being installed. I am not sure yet how to fix it.


I purchased a C.H.I door that I really like thus far in quality but we will see how the service side goes.

 

As for the roof I used, Roof Guard underlayment, Ice & Water High Temp, Atlas HP Pinnacle Shingles (Pristine Heather) and I made all my own copper valleys, drip edge and step flashing. My roofer was awesome and it looks incredible. We own a metal fabrication so I added some touches to the copper work. It was 78 squares in size.


I made some copper roof shingles with the extra copper pieces I had but I am not sure I have found a place to put them. This was a sample section.

 

One of the areas that I wanted too improve on was dealing with under soffit venting. I looked at lots of options but never found a good looking vent and since I have 36" over hangs I wanted something nice, so I made stainless steel perforated sections 120" long. We used strings to make sure that they were straight and I painted all the wood studs above the vent black so that when you look up you do not see the wood.


I am installing soffit lighting but I am not going crazy with lights so make the soffits look to busy. I am installing 6" cans with LED's and some CAT6 wiring for the camera system. The new LED's have really good dimming abilities so we will be able to make it look nice at night. I am not installing a home automation system for the lighting. After really looking into it, it does not make financial sense to do so.


The soffit is Azek V-Match 5.375" face, which is extremely flexible so I added additional strapping and support to keep it straight. I cut 792 pieces to go around the whole house. I am now an expert at it : )

 

Now the bad news....I have been asking the Lull Owner to replace the rear tires on the Lull due to dry rot for the past 2 months. Well the tire blew the other day and sprayed rusty water and calcium all over my concrete wall blocks. I think that I can clean the blocks with some muriatic acid.


So he sent up guys to change the tire and I found them smashing the rim in the lower garage floor (it was polished smooth floor) trying to break the bead. As this was going on the Lull feel off the jack and destroyed the steering pistons. Now I have a stained wall, damaged floor, dented garage door and a broken Lull.....the joys of building a custom home.

 

Your garage is going to look amazing once completed. Hows it been going so far? Did the acid do the trick for the stain?

 

I was able to get the stains off the floor by using some M30 Degreaser and my power washer which was fine. I used a scrub brush on the wall blocks because I did not want to potentially stain them even more and then have an even bigger problem. The stains on wall blocks are still noticeable so I am going to need a plan B.

 

Because we are going to forego the real stone on the outside of the garage we wanted to add touch to the cedar shakes that will replace them instead. I am going to add 2.25" flares at the bottom of house with the shakes. I have never done this before so I look on line and figured it out. I decided to make my own templates for the finish guys because they planned on cutting them by hand on-site. We needed 380pcs so I figured that was going to take a while. I started with a 12" piece of 2"x4" and put them in my CNC center. I will post the pictures as they install them.


The last picture was done to show the difference between using a 4" spacing and 5". We choose the 5" to keep the house from looking too busy.

 

I hope that everyone does not mind me putting up these different aspects of the construction knowing that this is a Garage Forum.

The Garage door arches too a while to build because we have some subtle details in it and we have and additional 2 caps on the top along with copper. The Drip edge that I am making is 1x6 with 1x3on the top and copper drip. I looked around but did not find anything pre-made.

 

With the radiant heating system in the 2 garages and basement I have a total of 66 supply / return pipes all going to one location which is a total mess. I have split the systems into 3 zones. I went online and I looked for a manifold to allow the PEX to come thru the concrete floor and look good. I found nothing.


I made 3 stainless steel manifolds using 3/4" PVC Pipe which will guide all the PEX thru the floor in a nice looking manner. I wanted everything to be straight an organized. I will post the pictures of the finalized system when they pour the basement floor this week.


I added the pictures of the spacing of the PEX so I could always remember where in the floor I located the 2-Post lift pads

 

Very nice work. I do a lot of custom home design in the Tahoe area. Nice to see someone spend some time on such a major space like this.

On your custom copper shingles, you could use them for barge to roof flashing if you have that condition. Great metal work! I do a lot of homes with copper roofing and flashing. It's well worth the investment considering the life cycle and high quality patina. Where we are, it ages to a beautiful earth tone due to the lack of salt and the high UV. Beautiful work !

 

Don't mind at all! Love this thread! Keep it coming!

 

I installed my PEX Tubing in the basement last week. Another 2800lf of tubing and manifold parts. I spaced the PEX 8" on center and used poly on the floor, 2" Foam and Wire 6" x 6" wire mesh. The floor was poured 4" thick and my manifolds I made I think are going to be good to make it all come together.

 

The floor came out great....nice and level.

 

An incredible build for sure! Keep up the progress report and pics!

 

This is awesome! Nice to see a custom home that is truly custom.