Week 108 (Lower Roof Shingling and Booth Windows)

This week there was a lot of visible progress, both inside and out.  On Monday morning the roofing crew arrived, and on this truck you can see some of the very special equipment and materials that will be used to finish up the lower roof (and later the upper roof, too), a spool of copper flashing and a sheet metal brake:

The copper flashing is unspooled:

And is then formed into the appropriate shape for the roof:

The day’s work began in promising fashion: lots of shingles and lots of tools:

And the roofers wasted no time getting the materials to where they would be installed:

You can see them on the far side of the roof, awaiting the next 70 lb load of shingles coming up from a mechanical lift.

Here we can see the shingles installed and mated to the shaped copper flashing:

And another perspective from the other side of the building:

And a close-up of the “head scratcher” part of the booth roof.  It’s completely flashed-out:

Alas, somebody didn’t count right and so not all of the roof got fully shingled this week:

(Don’t blame the guys that Kevin is talking with…those are the electricians who will be pulling conduits for the lower soffit lights.)

You may recall from last week that the electricians could not place one of the fixtures correctly because the soffit lookout was on the wrong side of the rafter.  Problem solved:

Now that the studio is getting more closed-in, it seems like I’m not the only one finding it a bit dark inside.  Here you can see one of two temporary lamps that’s been installed in the Music Room:

Not exactly as bright as day, but a lot brighter than before!

The other major progress involved the booth windows.  The making of those windows was a saga unto itself.  First we decided we’d increase the size of the exterior glass from 5/8″ (a non-standard size) to 3/4″ (a standard size) and the 3/8″ inside glass to 1/2″.  But then our glass supplier told us it would take 3 weeks to special-order the 3/4″ glass.  So much for standard sizes!  When they delivered the tempered 3/4″ glass, they paired with 1/2″ thermopane glass (which is a pair of really thin sheets of glass separated by a 1/2″ air gap), which has zero use in an acoustical application, so we had to wait for a batch of 1/2″ tempered plate.  We got that and then started building the windows, only to discover that the 3/4″ glass had some very small marks that became visible only when the glass was fogged prior to final cleaning and assembly.  (We believe that the marks came from the tempering process, where the glass was so heavy that it took the impression of the conveyor belt as it rested in the oven.)  The glass was given a fine polish, then a second fine polish, and then the marks were invisible both pre- and post-fogging.  The glass was then cleaned, the windows assembled, and finally delivered at the end of this week.  Here’s what the first two of them look like from the inside (untrimmed):

Here’s a profile of one of them:

And a detail showing the shims that hold the window in place before final trimming and caulking:

And looking through them at a survey who is outstanding in his field:

Or is that out standing in the field?  Anyway…here are those windows from the outside:

And here are windows 3 and 4 sitting on the delivery truck:

I understand that the 1/2″ glass weighs 7 lbs/sq ft and the 3/4″ glass weighs 10.5 lbs/sq ft.  Our windows are 56″ wide and 4′ tall, so the glass weight of the window is 17.5 lbs/sq ft * 18-2/3 sq ft = 327 lbs.  The wood framing is about 180 lbs, making the windows 500 lbs each.  For all of you with 1/2 ton pickup trucks, two windows is your carrying limit!

Here’s the very exciting installation process:

Then the window is secured screwed into the concrete:

Then another window is carted away to be installed:

Here it is coming in:

A pair of glass suction lifters help pull it into place:

Here’s a close-up of one such lifter:

We finish this week’s progress report with a visit to the Control Room, which has been closed off from the rest of the building so we could dry it out.  Here’s some condensation from earlier in the week showing yet still how much moisture the building is attracting:

Here you can see that we’ve blocked the Control Room window with a few sheets of pink foam, framed in place:

The reason is that we’re now heating it to dry out the slab.  Here’s the small heater:

And here’s the big one:

The purple glow is the result of the blue gas flame and the red-hot core inside:

With 200,000 BTU/hr coming from the large heater alone, it was only a matter of a few hours to raise the room temperature from 40°F to 85°F:

The heat gives the dehumidifiers a chance to do their work:

I understand that these units can pull 12-18 gallons of water per 24 hour day out of the air.  We estimate that we have at least 1000 gallons of water in the slab right now, so we’ve got a 30-day dehumidification job in front of us.  Fortunately that’s not all in the control room, but that’s where we’re starting.  Here’s the drip-drip-drip progress so far:

This weekend we’re getting 6″ or more of snow and sleet, plus temperatures down to 8°F (about -10°C).  I don’t know how the heaters will stand up to that, and I’m afraid that road conditions won’t let me find out.  If our ceiling insulation were blown in, I’d guess we’d do pretty well.  But alas, here’s the insulation:

That’s a lot of foam!

I’ll leave you with this sunny photo from earlier in the week (showing a sample copper drip edge).  Hopefully we’ll have clear skies again soon!

Lots more to report soon…