dry construction

Gypsum drywall must be one of the most under-appreciated inventions of the modern world. First developed in the 1890s at the New York Coal Tar Chemical Company by Augustine Sackett and Fred Kane, drywall replaced the more labor-intensive process of carefully placing several layers of plaster over lath. Lath and plaster construction is not just laborious, it's wet, heavy and time consuming. By comparison, gypsum drywall is lightweight, installs quickly and requires less specialized labor.

The first installation of drywall at tin box today spurred this meditation on its myriad benefits...

trim

Our steel erectors, Mike and John, have finished installing most of the steel trim on the outside of the house. The trim provides a clean finish at places where the building materials have been cut roughly and where we've used expanding foam insulation to fill the gaps between the walls and roof. Trim is generally a decorative element, whereas flashing is used to keep water from infiltrating the house. At tin box, both the trim and the flashing are made from sheet metal which has been finished in the same Kynar coating as the wall panels.

peeling

The insulated wall panels have a layer of plastic on the exterior side that protects the finish. Peeling it off is somewhat addictive, and makes for a fun, Saturday afternoon family activity.

more wall panels

Our installer is making progress on the wall panels. They've put up about half the panels, but still have some tricky areas and a lot of trim to do in the coming weeks. For now, we're enjoying having a chance to see the front of the house (left, with the porch in the foreground) and the courtyard (after the break) take shape.

wall panels, continued

The erection crew put up the first two wall panels this afternoon, in between solving one problem (the screws provided were too short) and running into another (the third panel would line up in a spot with no supporting girts or other structure). Nonetheless, the installed panels give us a good idea of how the exterior is going to come together. The silver finish (seen here with Holly peeling back the protective plastic wrap) is really beautiful. Because it reflects so much of the ambient light around it, the silver finish appears to change color as the viewer moves. It also changes as the light fluctuates between direct sunlight and the indirect light of an overcast sky.

wall panels

For the last few days, our steel erectors have been preparing to install the insulated steel wall panels. At 3" thick, these panels are thinner than the roof panels, but still have an insulating value of at least R-24. Like the roof panels, they are held in place with clips designed to avoid breaking the thermal barrier, and they use two kinds of sealant (gooey stuff from a tube and self-adhesive strips) to maintain a continuous moisture barrier.

Preparing the panels and the frame is taking some time and care...