While prepping the tower and mezzanine, we also worked on the bedroom eyebrows. It was just too big for one video. More on what “bedroom eyebrows” are after the video.
The Video
Bedroom Eyebrows
Bedroom eyebrows are not some sort of double entendre that only earth sheltered home builders get after a long hard day. They are simply the structures we used to keep dirt off the windows while still having a hilly appearance. You see them in Peter Vetsch earth shelters all the time. However, I suspect (from construction photos) that Peter’s eyebrows are big heat radiators that drastically reduce the thermal efficiency of his buildings. I wanted to avoid that problem, so I needed mine to be thermally isolated from the actual home.
I did this by separating the shotcrete into two phases. After completing the bedroom shotcrete and waterproofing it, I added a saddle of 4 inch thick XPS Foamular 250… This is the kind that can handle 25 psi of pressure and is intended for burial. Above the XPS, I build another rebar framework and put shotcrete over that. Or at least, that is what I wanted to do.
In more practical terms, I used tapcon screws to mount treaded wood 2x4s directly to the bedroom shotcrete. Then I drilled holes in the 2x4s to hold the rebar framework… So there is a little edge all the way around where I sacrificed long-term insulation for a more buildable structure. I have since considered other ways I could have done this and may do it differently if I ever had to do it again, but I don’t think the performance will be too bad. Certainly still better than a more traditional house.
The Gallery
I am tired of typing, you may be tired of reading, so let’s just skip to the gallery.
Various stages of progress
Bedroom south eyebrow rebar
John helping with the rebar above the hall roof
Sherri and I often have end of the day discussions that get caught on timelapse
David was almost 13 and going thru a bit of a goofy phase
Another goofy David Pic
Even Sherri decided to get in on the goofy poses. Maybe it was the heat?
Hunter leaving me an Easter Egg to find. This is the appropriate punishment.
Not to be outdone, Michael also made a number of goofy pics
Michael again
Sherri and David posing for the time lapse cam. They like to leave these little Easter eggs in there for me to find.
Lots of turtles around
Office Apse viewed from the roof of the garage. This big area was going to get a bit water tank, but I ended up deciding it wasn’t worth the money.
Kids playing on the office apse jungle gym
After putting the french drain for the office apse, this time before the shotcrete so we wouldn’t have to deal with any mess
Kids playing on the office apse jungle gym
The eyebrow for the master bedroom apse was the most elaborate
I have always been a big fan of Copper roofs, especially when they patina. Copper roofs last hundreds of years and just look so much more interesting than asphalt ones. Problem is that they are just too expensive. But with my earth sheltered home project, I was going to have very few square ft of roof, so copper suddenly became affordable again. Making the tiles myself would also significantly reduce the cost. For this first part, I was really just wanting to put a copper cap on the front and back ridge of the garage. This post is about how I did that. At some other point, I may also make diamond tiles to cover a few hundred feet of regular roof… But first, this video
The Video
Alternatives
I had put stucco on the front and back of the garage and this ridge cap was to cover the 12-inch ridge along the top of the shotcrete wall… Looking back, I could have done it a few other ways. For instance, I could have just wrapped the top of the wall in lath and then just put stucco right up over the ridge. Another option would have been to put tile up along the ridge.
I had planned to use copper shingles for all the skylight caps also, but now that I am older and wiser, I plan to just cap the second skylight on the garage with copper and switch to using large format tiles (that I can get for about 1$/sqft) on the other 5 skylight curbs.
The tools
The Press Break Roll was pretty fun to use and getting it 40% off from Harbor Freight made it even better. One of these days I’ll put more details about it under the “tools” section of this website and maybe make a more focused video. In the meantime, I can put the original crate back on top of it to keep the dust off so it is ready to use next time I am in the mood.
Along with that, I needed a nice mallet for pounding the copper, good aviation snips for cutting it, pliers, etc. Generally speaking, pretty standard stuff.
The Gallery
Pictures help tell the story, so I put a bunch in the description of each image… Enjoy.
Here is my new press break roll. It weighs about 300 lbs and I was taking a break after getting it from the back of my truck to the top of the wheel barrow. Next I would need to get it up onto that wheeled cart I made just for this purpose…
Here I am using the Press function of the Harbor Freight Brake-Press-Roll to cut pieces from the copper coil.
The Brake on the Harbor Freight tool worked pretty well. Here I am lining up the second point in my fold line…
This front cap was my first attempt, lessons were learned as mistakes were made along the way, but I still enjoyed it.
Here is one of the tiles from the first section… Mistakes included that I didn’t fold down the top corners of the tabs, so they got in the way as the tiles started needing to curve back down… I also didn’t make the drip edge significant enough…
Here we are coming up the north west side…
The Go Pro caught this shot of me looking tired but satisfied after finishing the copper cap on the front of the garage.
Here is a close up of the last tile on the front. You can see the rivets used to hold it all together (in addition to the folds)
This section of the FoxBlocks leaked a bit and made an ugly lump that would have shown thru the copper. I chiseled it out and refilled with smooth mortar. Here Michael is troweling it off.
The Go Pro also caught this pic. Not sure why we are both looking at the camera. Maybe it was on purpose. 😉
The copper after it was placed over the smoothed ridge…
We had not left quite enough room for a standard garage install and had to get creative with our rear garage door. Here is the video…
The Video
Bells and Whistles
The door was from Lowes and came with the S3 winder so I wasn’t too worried about the torsion spring. I got a side mount garage door opener, specifically a Liftmaster 8500, and was really happy with it.
One interesting side thing: The Liftmaster 8500 had a bunch of extra special features, such as a wireless light, programmable control, etc. but the most interesting thing (to me anyway) was the way the sensors worked. Every other garage door I have owned had a sensor so that if you walked past as it was going down, it would stop and open up. This is the sensor that you always “hop over” if you want to sneak out of the garage as the door is going down. How do you improve on such a basic sensor function? When I first installed it, it didn’t seem to be working, but then I realized that the improvement is simply to wait and see if the obstacle is there for more than a moment. If you just walk past, it doesn’t trip it, no special hop-while-ducking required. You need to interrupt the beam for at least half a second to stop the door from coming down. Pretty minor, but it makes a nice difference 😉
