Cabin Tile

A year or so ago I finished a basement in a cabin down in Marion, NC. This week I went back to put tile down in the basement bathroom. Here is the slab floor in the 3/4 bathroom.


Below is the finished product.

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Haw Creek Weatherization

This was a weatherization project where the homeowners had an energy audit completed. After they received their audit report, they contacted me to come in and complete the scope of work. Besides the areas that were uninsulated, they also had some structural concerns and needed a bath fan installed.

The floor joist were up to code, but maxed out on the span . Someone had put a girder in the crawlspace. Unfortunately the girder was not put on any sort of a footer.



We went in and put 6x6's on a concrete footer and added 3 more girders.


We put down a 10 mil plastic vapor barrier in the crawlspace as well as mastic the duct work and insulate the floor.


Before the floor insulation went in, I had the entire band insulated with 1 inch rigid foam board. This allows band to be insulated and air sealed before the batt insulation is installed. Typically, batt insulation is stuffed into the band and does not perform properly.


Here is a 16 foot section of privacy fence we installed on the property line.


Here is the attic kneewall. It is typical for this to have sheetrock on the finished side, but no air barrier on the attic side.

We put 3/4 inch foam boards on the attic side. This adds an R3 but more importantly it prevents air from moving through the insulation.

Here is the attic door. We attached rigid foam to the back of the door. Here you can also see a insulation dam at the door. We added and average of 7 inches of blown in insulation to give them about an R40 in the attic.

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Weatherization Project

Although we started doing weatherization projects last winter, this job allowed me the proper time to take pictures of what is typically done. For the most part it is all about sealing penetrations that let heat out or cool air in.

Here is a sealed crawlspace. It has 10 millimeter plastic laid down over the dirt in the crawlspace. The plastic is run up the walls and mastic seals it to the block. We wrapped the columns as well and notice we sealed all the duct work in the crawl. The leaky duct work can pull dust and mold from a typical crawlspace into the house. Not here though.

Here we foam and seal the foundation vents to make this a fully sealed crawlspace.

Attic hatches are typically uninsulated and very leaky. In the winter the homeowner could feel cold air falling out of the attic here. The pull down stairs made this tricky, so I built a rigid foam hatch at the top of the stairs.

Can lights are extremely leaky. Some houses can have up to 30 cans in the ceiling. Here we pull down the trim, silicon around the fixture, then seal the trim to the ceiling.

Another typical problem are attic knee walls. Anytime you have fiberglass insulation with no backing, the insulation cannot perform properly. The inside of the room has sheetrock backing, but the cold air in the attic washes right through this insulation. One fix is to use a reflective bubble wrap to back the insulation.

Here we used one inch rigid foam for additional R-value. After the boards are installed, we foam all the seams and gaps.

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Adair's Construction Network Deltec Finish

We started this project in June and had the homeowners in the first week in December. The timing could have not been any better. This has been the coldest early December on record and at their elevation and high wind area it would have been brutal in the camper.

Here are some tile finish details. Not our work, but nice nonetheless.

Master shower above.


Guest shower

Here is a custom built-in storage unit. This has four doors to allow for total privacy.

Here is a shot of the fireplace. The tile guy also did the stone work.

Here is a side view of my black walnut mantle.

Rough sawn black walnut before it was milled and planed.

Cork flooring in the kitchen. The rest of the house was bamboo.

A view of the kitchen from over by the fireplace

This is the view from the kitchen sliding door. Nice spot for morning coffee!

Tongue and Groove ceiling in the vaulted half of the house.

Kitchen area during cabinet installation.

Kitchen area after insulation.

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Waynesville Deck

This was a back deck built for some friends of ours. It is about 555sqft and is framed to handle a future hot tub. We also built a privacy wall and included an outdoor shower.

This is the view of the back of the house from the yard.

Roughly the same view after the deck was built.

A view of the custom gate and railing looking out onto the back yard.

Stairs going down to the new dog run area. They have a small, older dog who has trouble with stairs, so we made these stairs less steep than a typical set of stairs.

A view of the privacy wall and outside shower.

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Adairs Construction Network

This is our up to date progress. Roof on and exterior doors in. The insulators and drywallers will have at it for the next few weeks.

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Castel Renovation

After the Castel's moved into the house, Dave realized that the custom butcher block island did not have enough elbow room. We decided to build a new larger top with metal brackets. I put the first butcher block top on his desk and moved his custom cherry desk top to the laundry room as a clothes folding table.
After the Castel's moved into the house, Dave realized that the custom butcher block island did not have enough elbow room. We decided to build a new larger top with metal brackets. I put the first butcher block top on his desk and moved his custom cherry desk top to the laundry room as a clothes folding table.

Local wormy maple with a cherry inlay. Just over 2" thick.

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