Tiny attic windows of DOOM!

One of the last city point-of-sale violations that we have to address is replacing the broken glass in this window. It's a tiny dormer window on the third floor, on the front of the house. Actually, we have to replace the broken glass in two of these windows, as the city didn't note which one (perhaps one has broken since they recorded the violation) and I know that when the inspector shows up, he's just going to see the broken one.



The windows don't look so bad - just another couple to reglaze - until you realize how high up they are. One option, working on them from the inside, was out of the question because of the lack of space to work and the relatively small window opening - the glass is just 8.5 inches wide. Once you take into account the framing of the dormer, it doesn't leave much space to work.



I considered renting or buying a large extension ladder. The ladder I have right now reaches comfortably to the edge of the roof, but not much higher than that. The positioning of such a ladder concerned me. I realized that the angle the ladder would have to be at to get to the window would be such that it would be difficult to properly secure it.

If I wanted to use ladders to get to this window, the best option seems to be to have one ladder to get up to the roof and then a second one resting on the roof, held in place with a couple ladder hooks over the ridge. I don't think that I'd be comfortable working up on the roof like that - while I'm ok with using the ladders, once I'm up high on them and things start moving, I get nervous. I worry that the movement of my tools will jostle the ladder and cause it to fall.

I talked to the guys at the local rental place, Handy Rents about renting a lift. The cheapest one that they had would be $170 a day. Once I heard the price, I suddenly felt a lot more willing to spend quite a bit of time in a small, cramped, space, trying to chisel away at the glass from the inside.

I'm finally almost finished removing the glazing from the first of these two windows. Rather than describe the process I went through, I'll instead describe how I plan to do the next window, based upon what I've learned so far.

First, I'll do my best to try to use the torch to soften up the glazing. This will be a challenge and will likely be only partially successful at best, as I won't be able to see exactly where I'm trying to hit with the torch from the inside. It should help some of the glazing to come out when I break up the glass. Then, I'd tape the glass, on the outside and the inside, with packing tape, because it's hard to catch every single little bit and the fragments tend to bounce down the roof. I'll hold a box lid from a file box underneath it and break out the window with a hammer. Once the glass in thoroughly broken, I'll remove it, to the best of my ability.

Next, the fragments of glass that are left will be taken out with a hammer. At this point, with the access that I now have through the space where the glass used to be, I'll use the torch again, to do a more complete job of heating up the old glazing. Then I'll chisel under the glass, trying to get the pieces out. Part of the trick here is to realize that you don't have to see what you are doing. One can, very carefully, work by feel instead. I'll take a methodical approach, chiseling the glazing out, to the best of my ability to feel it.

This won't get absolutely all the old glazing out. It's near impossible, given the work angles involved, to apply sufficient leverage to do so. I'm ok with this - hopefully the glass will stay in place.

Finally, I'll lay a new bed of glazing for the glass to sit in, install the glass, and then begin to glaze the window, reaching around the frame. The work won't be as clean as I would like, but it's high enough up that it won't be seen.

Leather work gloves are a necessity for this project. A very short chisel would be quite useful, given the cramped workspace.

Insulating the attic

My attic has a problem with insulation - there isn't any. None. (Ok, so there's one poorly installed roll of fiberglass, but that isn't statistically significant.) We knew this was an issue when we purchased the house and it was something that we planned to address after winter was over.

The first step will be to install soffit vents and some way to draw the air through. I'll be interested to see what interesting ideas my roofer may have. One idea I've been playing with (and have no idea as to the practicality) is, when the copper on the ridge is repaired/replaced, to conceal a vent underneath it. I don't like the idea of ugly little vent fans on the roof.



The shape of the walls on the third floor make insualting a challenge. While there's enough space to insulate the vertical walls and the ceiling, the parts of the wall that slope, as shown here, are a real issue. The roof is framed with 2x6s. Given 1.5" for ventilation, this leaves us with but 3" for insulation - which would be about R-15 at the most. This doesn't seem like enough.

My stepfather suggested furring out the diagonal walls a bit so that there would be more space for insulation. While this sounds good in theory, I again come to the preservation issue. The faux-Tudory elements were added in the 1970s or 1980s, so they can be removed or adjusted without consequence. At that time, drywall was placed over the existing walls. The walls are of fiberboard, but unlike the rest of the house, they were never plastered - nor, given how the trim was installed, were they meant to be. Tearing it out to install insulation won't make any difference in the character of the house, so this shouldn't be an issue, but somehow, it is.

Of course, it will be really really really nice to have the thermostat up above 55.

Another curious discovery in the attic

I found this bit of wiring in the attic.



Here is a wide angle shot of the same. It comes up to the 4th floor from places unknown, runs the entire length of the space, then disappears back downstairs. It is secured the entire distance by fasteners similar to those shown here.

Could this have been some sort of buzzer or intercom for the hired help up on the third floor, or perhaps old phone wiring - who needs those pesky grounds, anyway? In the second floor hallway, above the frame of the door that leads to the third floor, we found a spot where it appeared some sort of box had been mounted, of the size that I would expect a doorbell or similar to be.

I'd be interested to hear any theories on the subject.

Not quite what I had expected

From the ground, the bit of wrought iron between the chimney and the roof seems appears quite ornamental and of relatively light weight. This appears, on further inspection to be entirely because of the distance from the viewer.



This is where the wrought iron bolts in place in the attic. Note the diameter of the iron. Massive. I doubt that it does much to hold the chimney in place, but it's still a couple hundred pounds of iron, I would imagine. The water stains in the photograph are all dry, and of unknown age.



This is just a wide angle shot of the same, for comparison.

Think happy thoughts...

Last night, I went up in the attic in preparation for the beginning of the insulation installation, which is another story altogether. Due to the rather steep pitch of the roof on my house, the "attic" comprises a large area above the third floor, as well as some small crawlspaces around the edges of the third floor rooms. My intent had been to determine the amount of free space between the joists, but I then became distracted by the structure and the little random things I found up there.



The most significant thing I saw was evidence of significant water damage around both of the chimneys. Fortunately, the leaks appear to have been in the past, as there is plenty of snow on the roof right now, the attic is warmer than it should be, and the areas that are water-stained are dry to the touch. These still present a councern, I assume, but they are not as bad as if the areas were still leaking water.



The water damage by the other chimney appeared to be more significant.



Yes, that is flashing that can be seen through the missing sheathing.



Three of the four ridges also showed some very light evidence of water staining.

Additionally, there are some issues in back where the roof has a bit less of a pitch.

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Insulating all these spaces is going to be a real challenge. There are so many areas that will be somewhere between difficult and impossible to get to. One might consider blowing in insulation, but the spaces in question are so large that a huge quantity of insulation would be required.

At present, we have no insulation at all, which I had planned to address next summer. However, it's been so cold that I really wanted to do something now. I purchased ten sheets of Owens Corning Foamular 150 because sheet insulation seemed the perfect product for sliding into the spaces that would be impossible to roll fiberglass into. It has an R-value of 5 per inch of thickness, which helped cement my decision over blow-in products.

I chose this product over the one offered by Dow (which has an R-value of 5.5 per inch) because it came pre-scored to fit between the studs. Unfortunately, those are new-construction studs. Doh!

A Project for the 40 Year Plan

When I talk about construction projects on the house, there are those things that need to be done in the next few years, the five year plan. By plan, one must understand, I mean some ideas that came into my head one time and I thought mightb be interesting. Then there are those things that are priorities, but don't need to be done in the immediate future - the 15 year plan. There are projects that, while it would be nice to get them done, are both expensive and don't need to be done anytime soon - the 30 year plan. And then, finally, there are the fantasy projects that are both expensive and of minimal utility, but dang would they be fun. These last projects fit into what I call the 40 year plan. The following is one such project.

The roof on our house is rather steep. Above the third floor is a crawlspace with a trap door. At the present, access to this space is through a trap door. At the peak of the rafters, it's about 7 or 7.5 feet to the collar ties, which make up the third floor ceiling. There is no flooring, and the collar ties probably couldn't support much use, anyway. The greatest utility for the space right now appears to be as access for the wiring and to blow insulation in for the third floor.

Given that the space is not terribly useful for storage, due to issues of access and load limits, I feel free to imagine all sorts of uses for it. I see it primarily as a long, narrow library. Access would be from the third floor, via a spiral staircase. There would be built-in bookcases lining the walls. The floor would be some sort of hardwood, with an Oriental rug, probably a runner, covering much of it. At one end would be an armchair with a nice lamp for reading. The bookcases would surely have some sort of illumination, too.

Of course, there are some major issues with this. The collar ties would need to be sistered up to support the weight of the books and the floor. Even with this, additional structural work might be required to carry the load - perhaps a bit of structural steel on the third floor, disguised as a Tudor beam. One would have to find some way to ventilate the space, to keep from boiling in the summer. Finally, if the third floor ever became a teen bedroom, it would be a bit awkward at times to get through it to get to the library.

This brings me to another possible element in the 40 year plan. With hot water heaters and boilers that have special vent pipes which run through the side walls of the house, the chimney servicing them would no longer be necessary. This chimney (there are two, with the other one servicing the fireplaces) is not especially architecturally significant. It is also rather large - I'd estimate that the space inside the walls where the chimney currently runs is about 3' x 3'6". Thus one might begin to consider the removal of the chimney.

Why remove the chimney? For a spiral staircase, of course! There's almost enough space to fit one in the location currently transited by the chimney. It would begin in the basement and go all the way up to the library on the fourth floor. I can not see a way that would be either comfortable or architecturally satisfying for it to provide access to the first floor. On the second floor, there would be a hidden doorway that would allow access, through the massive built-in cabinet in the guest bedroom. I'm not sure that the third floor needs direct access to the staircase, either.

Because really, I don't want to refinish these floors in five or ten years

Most of the rather large third floor is going to become my studio, where I will have space to paint and work in other art media. This can often be a messy process, with a significant amount of paint ending up on the floor.

This is only an issue because there is the distinct possibility that this room may eventually become a bedroom. If that is the case, I don't want the floor to be covered with tons of paint. I'd considered just covering the floor with the carpet that we pull up elsewhere in the house, but the carpet is likely too porous. I've also considered laying down utility grade flooring over the existing hardwood, but this would create issues at the doorways. The final and most likely choice is some sort of linoleum, but I don't exactly feel comfortable with that, either.

I'd love to hear any thoughts or ideas on the subject.