The first cord of firewood we purchased arrived cut and split.  Unfortunately, a “cord” on craigslist is really about 3/4 of a cord if that.  A dry cord of softwood weights 2000 pounds, and hardwood weighs about 4000 pounds.  If your cord of madrone arrives in the bed of a half-ton pickup, send it back.  So … for our second batch, I bought a trailer load of cut pole pines.  The trailer’s volume would hold 2.5 cords, and the length of the wood ensured that it was neatly stacked.  A good deal, with only one small problem: we needed to cut and split it ourselves.

Cutting is a rather straight-forward enterprise requiring only a bow saw and lots of energy.  Bahco is a good brand of Swedish-made saws and blades.  I picked up a 21″ bow saw at Wilco, and some 30″ Bahco blades for a frame saw I intend to build.  However, given the size of the above woodpile, a chainsaw is sadly a much more efficient means of cutting.  I don’t much like chainsaws.  They are noisy, dirty, and extremely dangerous.  They are the ultimate anti-green tool. Also, the average chainsaw injury requires 110 stitches. In their defense, they turn a tree into a pile of logs much faster that any hand tool.

I’d like to issue a big thanks to our neighbor Drew for stopping by with his Husqvarna a couple days after our woodpile was delivered and helping cut some of it.  Robin’s dad, Steve, stopped by subsequently with his chainsaw, and cut more.  I then used Steve’s saw to cut more.  And then the first pile was complete.  The picture above shows the slightly smaller second pile I have yet to cut up.  (The pines, by the way, were runaway Christmas trees, so no old growth trees were hurt in the making of this woodpile.)

Big logs cut up fine on the ground.  You saw most of the way through for all the cuts, then roll the log 180 degrees and finish the cuts. Small logs cut more safely in a sawbuck.  There’s lots of plans available online for these.  I looked through a few, and then built this one using all scrap lumber:

It folds flat for storage, and is set up for cutting 16″ logs on the marked lines.  The pivot bolts are recessed out of the way of stray chainsaw blades.  For small logs (5″ or so), I lift them into the sawbuck, and then cut them by walking from end to end and sheering off 16″ pieces.  When it gets down to the width of the sawbuck, I cut on the lines marked.  Also very handy for hand-cutting with a bow saw.

When the sawing is done, you end up with a pile of logs, many of which will require splitting.  Some people opt for a powered log splitter, but I find it impossible to justify the cost and environmental impact unless you have a firewood business.  Otherwise, your easiest solution is to buy a true splitting maul.  A splitting maul has a wider head than an ax, so it forces the log apart as it enters, but a flat end so you can treat it like a wedge and hit it with a hammer to motivate knotty pieces of wood.

My “buy from small businesses” rule led me astray here, as I don’t really much like the tool I ended up with and I’ve spent about $50 bucks on it counting a new handle (after breaking the first one in 20 minutes … oops) and the stupid rubber thing to save future handles (which causes it’s own set of problems).  My recommendation: if you are cheap, buy the basic 6 lb or 8 lb version at a hardware or farm store.  It looks exactly like a sledgehammer with one face ground into a blade.  It should run about $22.  If you want splitting bliss, buy the fancy 6lb model with flared sides and a double-curve fiberglass handle at Jerry’s.  It is $40.  If I could do it over, I’d get that one.  Oh, and be very careful not to over swing or you will very easily break the handle.  I speak from personal experience.

Anyway, find a maul, get a large log to use as a splitting base to save your back (I need a much wider one), find safety glasses, and swing …

Let me emphasize the safety glasses.  They are obnoxious, especially if you don’t have anti-fog ones, but splitting will often require striking your maul with a sledgehammer.  Last night I broke a small chip of metal off my sledge which shot across the back yard and hit the wood shed with considerable force.  You don’t want to end up a homesteader with an eye patch!

Anyway, a couple hours of splitting made a definite improvement to the state of our woodshed.  I read in a wood heating book that a person can split a cord in two hours.  I’ll need to be in better shape to do that … or perhaps have the deluxe splitting maul at Jerry’s … but it did go much faster than I expected.

At first blush, wood burning might not seem very environmentally friendly.  Cutting down big stately old-growth trees, sawing them up with gas powered saws and log splitters, and then throwing them into a roaring fireplace belching smoke … yeah, I see your point.

However, there’s lots wrong with that picture.  First, nobody should be cutting down old-growth timber for firewood.  There’s plenty of dead wood in most areas, and fast-growing timber on small managed woodlots can be indefinitely sustainable.  Also, cutting smaller trees or dead limbs minimizes the need to split wood, and (for the energetic) makes hand-cutting a possibility as well.  Third, fireplaces are decoration, not a heat source.  Modern air-tight woodstoves can be 80% efficient.  Combine this with a highly insulated home, and you’ve got the ultimate in renewable ‘green’ heating.

That’s our motivation for buying this woodstove.  Unfortunately, time constraints force us to buy wood from others, and bad insulation means we’ll be burning far too much the first year, but at least our Lopi Endeavor stove will ensure that it burns cleanly.  The Lopi produces only 4 grams of particulate pollution per hour, the cleanest for it size of all EPA-certafied wood stoves.  It does this by injecting fresh heated air directly into the firebox at the top.  This fresh air combines with “exhaust gases” and causes a secondary ignition.  The result is more heat output and a cleaner final exhaust.

The secondary burn is that line of fire across the top of the stove.  It looks like natural gas is being injected into the stove, but it’s actually just oxygen igniting the tars and wood alcohols in the smoke.  It only kicks in when the stove is appropriately hot (woodstoves burn most efficiently when they burn very hot).  Sometimes it can dance across beautifully, like the Aurora Borealis, or even totally obscure the viewing glass in a blazing inferno.  The result, is this:

Where there’s smoke, there’s a fireplace.  Where there’s no smoke … maybe a modern woodstove?

Tonight’s accomplishment is two indoor outlets.  I haven’t done it sooner because I was concerned about it interfering with the first stage in county electrical inspections.  Ever since we moved in, there have been two extension cords dangling from our living room window and plugged into boxes below the service panel.  There have also been lots of emphatic “when you get electricity” phrases uttered by in-laws, and lots of tripping over cords running about the place.

However, with tonight’s temperatures hovering around 10 degrees and cold air streaming in through a window held open for ridiculous reasons, I reached my limit.  If the county inspector wants to complain, I will apologise for having the audacity to simultaneous want electricity during a home renovation project and live in a county where the building department is owned by special interest groups.

So, 40 minutes to Jerry’s for two plastic outlet boxes and two outlets, one hour with a hammer, drill, wire strippers, etc, and the luxury of indoor electricity is ours!  Admittedly, we still have extension cords, but the location allows me to route them almost entirely out of the way.  No more tripping!

And yes, the outlets are strictly temporary.  For one thing, new code regulations require tamper proof outlets.  Also, I’m not sure I meet wire strapping requirements with this installation.  Given there is less than 3 feet of wire in the longer run, I’m going to worry about something else though.  Like our dwindling firewood pile …

What’s been holding up the wood stove install was two things: stovepipe and hearth.  At my brother’s suggestion, we decided to forgo a pretty hearth and just temp in something that would be safe and quick.  With all the jacking up and hammering left to do around here, probably a good idea.

As for the stove pipe, after finally picking a location that would allow a diagonal stove install on the first floor, I figured out the components needed.  We decided to go with Excel pipe, even though it’s significantly more expensive, because it has a lifetime warranty and meets the much stricter Canadian chimney-fire survival codes.  No chimney fires are going to burn down our house!  (If we are using the stove right, this shouldn’t be much of a risk anyway … but perhaps for the next owners.)

On Friday I picked up the last pipe component at Midgley’s in Eugene.  It was time to begin the actual install.  I laid out where the chimney would intersect the second floor, and cut a hole.  The location will add a 2.5 foot bump-out into the master bedroom, but makes for a much better first floor position.  On the diagonal, the fire will face the whole living room.  No other position would be as attractive and still keep the chimney on the back of the house.

On Saturday, we screwed down two layers of Hardibacker to form the hearth.  Robin’s parents came by, and Steve and I moved the stove into position using his motorcycle jack.  (If there’s any easier way to move 450lbs, I can’t imagine it.)  Unfortunately, the leg bolt-holes on the back of our stove were tapped wrong (or rather got some welding slag in them after being tapped).  The stove spent the night on the jack.

On Sunday, my brother came by to lend a hand (AKA “end up doing all the hard parts”).  He re-tapped the bolt holes (I need to get one of those sets) and with new bolts we attached the legs.  Then we added 2×6 blocking to the floor joists to install the pipe support.

The pipe support was then added from above.  It has a heat shield to protect the floor members, and is designed to protrude 3 inches below the finished ceiling to cut down on radiant energy off the pipe.  The pipe is 6″ inside diameter, 8″ outside diameter.  The floor support only requires a 10″ hole, but all framing above that require 12″ rough openings.

Next, we dropped a plumb bob to find the roof penetration point.  I had worked this out ahead of time to avoid intersecting a rafter.  Unfortunately, I made the flawed assumption that our rafters are plumb.  If we installed the chimney plumb, it would have been sitting directly against a rafter, and since we don’t want that (2″ air gap required) we decided to install the chimney at a slight angle (2″ off plumb over 12′).  When we re-roof next year we’ll straighten out the chimney.  Cutting the roof hole with a sawzall was a quick, although unpleasant job.  Skip sheathing, cedar shakes, composite shingles .. all of them tried to fly in my mouth and eyes.

Next Greg climbed our very steep roof.  We sent the flashing and shingles up to him on a rope tow.  The chimney also partially intersected a roof vent, so he pulled that out too and then tacked everything back up with new shingles.  Greg’s done a lot of roofing, so he said it might be ugly but it would be water tight. I thought it looked pretty good too.  To add insult to injury, it started pouring down rain at the end.

Back inside, we screwed together the actual chimney sections, and pushed them up through the flashing.

Then it was back up on the roof for Greg, this time in the dark and carrying a storm collar, the chimney cap, and a caulk gun.  Did I mention it was dark?  Robin and I were on the ground with shop lights and flashlights trained on Greg up on the roof.  Needless to say, the few cars that drove by our house at this time did so very slowly.  Thanks for all the help Greg!!

Later that night I added the radiation shield on the second floor ceiling, moved the stove back into position and set it down, installed the adjustable chimney length off the top of the stove, and reinstalled all the firebricks we had removed.  Finally, we lit a fire and laid around in total exhaustion.

Like most projects, unplanned “issues” complicated the process and wasted time.  Since most of our issues this time were caused by quality control problems with the stove and chimney, I feel the need to complain.  Don’t get me wrong, I think the stove and chimney are well made and should last a long time, but when you spend about $3600 on a woodburning equipment, you expect it to be flawless.

• Stove leg bolt holes poorly tapped
• Stove upper firebrick would not seat properly (slightly too wide)
• Stove door gasket did not fully contact door frame (later fixed by Midgley’s)
• Insulated chimney instructions vague and incomplete
• Insulated chimney missing ‘provided’ screws
• Double wall chimney slightly out of round and obnoxious to adjust
• Double wall chimney supplied the wrong screws (or wrong instructions)

Ah, the joys of home improvement.  Finally, there were too many pictures to post them all, so I’m including a gallery here at the end with more.

While writing code this evening for work, it occurred to me that my desk environment might seem humorous to someone who didn’t know me:

Yes, that would be an oil lamp and an EEEPC 1000.  Presently, we own more oil lamps than computers.  Does that mean anything?

For those who remember our post regarding a mouse poop shower, recent developments have make that one seem like showering in a spring rain.  Our living room and front bedroom have plywood ceilings oddly enough.  That was apparently a quick wall-covering method in the days of slow (and expensive) lath and plaster.

Unfortunately, before the stove can go in, the plywood ceiling must go out.  The good thing about tearing out plywood is that it comes out in large sections.  The bad thing about plywood is that it comes out in large sections, like this:

When I tore down the first section, a plume of dirt, mouse poop, shredded insulation/nesting material, and mummified mice followed.  By the time I got to a respirator, Robin was calling down from upstairs that she could “smell mouse poop” in the air.  “You mean that general haze?  Yeah, sorry about that.”

So, once again, a deceptively simple project turns messy … literally.

… and loving it! As some of you may remember, we cut all electric to our house just days before moving in as part of having a new outside service installed.  I got the well back online before we arrived, via a quick hack job (which fits the overall well setup quite nicely), but the water heater .. well, that required bringing power inside.  An electrician friend suggested that the interior subpanel would be best located just past the back door on the wall between the rear bedroom and the kitchen.

So, that’s our destination, but the journey starts outside at the newly installed meter main.  This exterior panel has slots for only 8 breakers (for exterior loads such as the well, and one day perhaps the barn, a shop, and a grid-tied photovoltaic system).  It also has lugs to connect a 200A carrying cable for an interior load center. In the picture on the right you can see the huge red, white, and black cables connected into these lugs.  These 4/0 gauge aluminum cables are obnoxious to work with, especially by flashlight in the cold.  They don’t bend well at all, so you are fighting them for every inch.  I also ended up sticking myself in the finger with a utility knife while stripping one.  That was fun.

The cables in the previous picture are bundled into a 4 strand SER cable (two hots, one neutral, and a 2/0 bare ground) with sheathing for most of its journey.  This cable goes through the wall and then down through the floor as shown.  The hole through the wall was caulked between the panel and the siding.  The cable is then protected by a plastic bushing I glued in place.  I plan to spray-foam all the holes after inspection.  An observant viewer will note that the cable sticks out into the room past the 2×4 wall framing.  This would normally be a problem, except that I plan to double-stud insulate all exterior walls in the house, so the cable will be well within the final wall assembly.

This whole install process actually started in the crawlspace.  I wrestled 52 feet of that wrist-thick SER cable into this dusty, cramped space under our floor.  With only about 9 inches of room under some beams, it wasn’t the most comfortable experience.  Actually, comfort isn’t even on the chart.  Rocks in your back, your head in the dirt, dead mice and spider webs everywhere … and a respirator to keep from sucking in all the fine dust that layers everything.  Ughh!  Unfortunately, I think I’ll probably get pretty familiar with our crawlspace.  Although I don’t plan to run any electric circuits or water lines through it, the drain lines will remain and I still need to shore up some sagged areas of the floor.

This is the only shot I have of the actual cable installed.  Good tools don’t mind a little dirt.  Digital cameras — not so forgiving.  The cable is that twisted object in the top center of the frame.  After I dragged all the cable into the crawl I pulled it over the beams along a floor joist and then pushed it up the first hole (after some chiseling to round out the opening).  I then took the other end down the floor joist into the area below the kitchen, turned a corner, and ran along the bottom of the floor joists and up into the other hole by the back door.  It’s strapped in place every 4 feet or less.  I wonder if the electrical inspector will crawl around here to see if I did this part right?

From the crawlspace the cable returns to the land of the living through a hole below the subpanel I installed a couple days ago.  It enters though a clamp at the bottom, the sheathing is then stripped, and each individual cable runs off to its respective lug.  As this is a subpanel, the ground is bounded to the panel box and the neutral is kept isolated.  The reasons for this never made sense to me until I read Rex Cauldwell’s explanation in the book Wiring A House.

Finally, here on the left is the installed panel, complete with one 30A circuit running to the water heater.  This is a temporary circuit, as I’m not keeping the water heater in it’s present location.  Technically, I should have got this subpanel inspected before I added a circuit.  If you’ve read some of my past posts, you know my opinion of the Lane County building department.  The electrical inspection process is especially designed to be inconvenient for homeowners.  You are supposed to have all circuits run and the grounds bounded and inspected before you apply power to any of them.  This really isn’t practical for a homeowner living in the space they are working on.

Anyway .. short story long, about 30 minutes after I threw the main breaker back on there was hot water coming out of the tap, and about 2 hours later Robin had drawn a big steaming tub full of water for her first official bath of the new house.  Given that our indoor air temperature on the first floor is probably in the 40s, it was a very steamy bath.

I haven’t mentioned it on the blog, but I was a huge fan of Oregon Measure 63.  It allows home owners to forgo building permits for work on their own homes other than electrical.  Considering the fact that many states don’t require any permits for work done on your own home, I suppose I had a naive hope that it would pass with a healthy margin.

But no, it failed.  Amazing what a little ‘buy or die’ advertising funded by contractors, labor unions, and home builders can accomplish.  I mean, you can’t blame them.  If even small home improvement projects didn’t require delays, red tape, and multiple inspections your average Joe not-a-plumber might actually try to fix his own leaking water pipe.  Oregon media outlets have no excuse however.  I read almost all the coverage on this measure, and most of it was written by people who blatantly hadn’t read the measure.  The few who didn’t make huge false statements resorted to pathetic sensationalism.  “Unsafe and unpermitted changes could expose public health officials and neighbors to dangerous plumbing work!”  Oh my.

So, it seems the whole “liberty thing” is so 1776 with the modern voter.  Benjamin Franklin once wrote “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Hmm, sounds like he was talking about building permits.

But hey, the people have spoken.  For everyone who voted NO on measure 63, I’m proposing a new measure I’d like to get on the next ballot.  All you anti-63′ers will love this too–it promises to save at least 100 lives a year while reducing air pollution and increasing tax and ticket revenue to the county.  Heck, the anti-63 crowd could only drum up a couple fatal incidents involving non-permitted work for all their scare campaigns.  Presenting …

Proposed Oregon Measure 2305

Each year over 500 Oregonians die in tragic car accidents.  It has been observed that a disproportional number of these accidents occur at night, particularly when alcohol is a factor.  Thus, in an effort to protect citizens from the risks of nighttime driving, a ban is proposed on all driving between the hours of 11PM and 5AM.  This ban extends to the use of all motorized vehicles. Emergency vehicles are exempt from the restrictions.

Of course, the state of Oregon would not want to infringe on behavior that some might consider an essential liberty.  Thus, certain reasonable exemptions are allowed.  Commercial drivers working for an Oregon licensed taxi service are of course allowed to operate a vehicle during the restricted hours.   As the state would not want it to be obvious that we forcing our citizens to pay a business for their evening transportation needs, a permitting process will also be established to allow ordinary citizens to operate a vehicle during the restricted hours.

Remember that nighttime driving permits are issued for your safety and that of others.  If you do not remember this, the fines and legal trouble will assist you.  Permits for vehicle operation between the hours of 11PM and 5AM are charged based on the distance that will be driven at a rate of $.50 / mile.  There is an additional $5 ‘technology’ fee for all trips under 2 miles, or a $20 fee for longer trips.  We’re calling it a ‘technology fee’ even though you won’t be able to apply for these permits online.  Trips made using a car or minivan require only a brief description of the route to be taken.  Trips made using a pick-up truck will require a detailed map.  All trips which follow a road with a speed limit above 50mph will be subject to an additional 40% route review fee.  All permits are subject to a 20% administrative fee, a 10% issuing fee, and a 30% roadway safety fee. Refer to the associated fee schedule if you have trouble calculating the exact dollar amount for your driving fee.

We have streamlined the process of permit issue for the maximum convenience of the driving public.  You can apply in person for permits at the Department of Nocturnal Motor Vehicles which is open during normal business hours of 9AM to 5PM.  The application process should take no more than 30 minutes, unless there is a line.  The Department will then respond to your permit request within 2 weeks.  You must pick up the permit in person as well.  Once approved, you should call to request a vehicle mileage inspection prior to your nighttime driving occurrence.  You must schedule the inspection before the evening on which you will drive.  If our schedule is full for that day, you should schedule it on the day before and then not move the vehicle.  The inspector will visit your home and verify the starting mileage of your vehicle.  You will then be allowed to proceed with your nighttime drive, being careful to display your permit in the back window of your vehicle.  Upon completing your driving event, you should again call to schedule an inspection.  It is not permissible to move the vehicle until the follow up inspection occurs, which may also be one to two days after the evening in question.  The final inspected mileage must agree with your permit mileage or your vehicle will be red tagged and cannot be moved.  You will have to repeat the inspection and nighttime drive to gain final approval.

Note that during periods of increased demand, the entire process may take 4 to 6 weeks or more.  Be sure to schedule early to ensure that you are able to exercise your “right” to nighttime driving on the evening planned.

We could go into further detail about all the penalties and pain involved in violating any of these rules, or even just catching one of our mileage inspectors on a bad day .. but what would be the point.  Be assured that this proposal will ensure a healthy income to the state from permit fees and will greatly increase the profits of local Taxi services (who are a major sponsor of this measure).

If you don’t see the humor in that, you might need to visit the Lane County Building Department.  I’ve read basically everything on that site, and the above passage is modeled closely on the existing system.  And don’t think that a ridiculous measure like this couldn’t get passed.  I could probably get broad support for it.  The older demographics and families with kids would probably support it, because they are rarely on the roads during those hours anyway.  Taxi and Limo services would support it for the revenue gains.  Road workers would support it for the reduced traffic at night.  Throw in some general support by anti-DUI groups and a few poorly written pieces in the local media, and I can see the signatures rolling in already …

Who, me?  Bitter?

As I’ve said before, the blessing and the curse of gutting a building is that you find all the flaws.  Ever since I gutted the walls in the back bedroom I’ve felt suspicious about the closet.  The closets upstairs were just tacked on additions with no ulterior motives.  But this closet downstairs .. it was framed out with 4×4s and on a pedestal.  I decided to leave it until after the ceiling was out.

I’m glad I did.  When the dust settled from falling plaster and the last hazel nut rattled to a stop on the floor, this is what we saw:

From my reading on timber frame construction, I know that notching a horizontal member greatly diminishes it’s strength.  How does that translate to stick construction?  Well, the book Code Check 5th Edition says that the middle 1/3rd of floor joists may not be notched at all and the outer thirds may only be notched to 1/6th the depth of the joist and only on the top.  Yeah .. um .. how many of the rules do these notches break?

It appears that their solution to this damage was to create a ‘load bearing closet’.  Then they framed in some cross members with joist hangers to pass some of the floor load above onto this closet.  I believe at least one of those pipes is an active water line, so we’ll have to have a second bathroom functional before trying to straighten out this particular mess.

Just a brief note that the electricians will be coming tomorrow to install our new outside service panel.  We were on site pretty late last night pressure washing and painting a section of wall for them to work on. Some might have tried to make do with the old panel (and from the standpoint of avoiding pointless building permits, that would be best) but I wanted to start fresh and know that all the wiring in the house was done right.