Aparto II - 2012 Update

We hit the ground running today, early start, got a good 5 hours in on the job, plus some noodling

The demo work is done!

We started making sawdust today!


OK, this is in the kitchen area, we put in a new beam that is 11 cm x 11 cm (4 5/16" square). It goes from the wall between the apartos, to the center beam in this aparto, and picks up some floor joists that badly needed some support in the kitchen above. Jake went upstairs and jumped around on the floor afterwards and declared it all good and solid now.


Next up we put a short beam under the end of the joist that the plumbers cut off to run the toilet drain This also really made the floor upstairs good and solid, a bonus came when Jake noticed that the joist was actually touching the pipe, and it squeaked badly each time you stepped into the toilet, now the floor is solid and there is now squeek


Moving into the living room, there was quite the span here with only fairly spindly floor joists holding things up, when Jake jumped around upstairs, the floor moved a good 3/4" or more up and down, like a suspended floor This extra support got rid of that too.


Lastly, this beam is notched into the upright post, but there was an open notch about an inch below it, so there was really not much at all holding up the end of the beam into the post. This block fixed that.

We have more to fix, and some things left to noodle, but we are going well, and it was a great thing today to start building stuff, instead of tearing stuff down!

Cheers!

unbelievable what is allowed construction wise. Never ceases to surprise me.

Rennie Heuer said:

unbelievable what is allowed construction wise. Never ceases to surprise me.

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Well, this is reno work, the guys who expanded the house out 4 feet in two directions sure did it poorly. Jake was saying that a lot of it looked like they were just lazy, but a lot more like they just did not care, or know what to do. He and I both wondered how guys can sleep at night after doing work like that

Jake and I made a run out to the DIY shop, we got the floor joists we needed to move forward.


This wood is from Canada, and it marked "Hem/Fir", it is cut to Japanese sizes, 45mm x 90mm and 4 meters long (1 3/4" x 3 1/2" x 13'). We got lucky and they had a nice new bunk on the rack we could pick through. The wood is really good, nice and straight, clear too!

We also picked up a few more things we needed so we can get some work done this week. Jake leaves next Tuesday, and I'm sure he will have things to do before he goes, so I'm just hoping to have his capable hands to help until Friday.

While we were out there, we saw this funny little thing..........


........... it is a small doggie door, that you can cut into a screen door, just thought it was neat.

We will be back at it first thing tomorrow!

I suspect you're gonna miss having the extra back and hands when Jake leaves. Bummer that he can't extend his stay.

Stuart Ablett said:

...While we were out there, we saw this funny little thing..........

View attachment 33355
........... it is a small doggie door, that you can cut into a screen door, just thought it was neat...

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I sure wouldn't need to spend the ¥2,480. Our dogs are fully capable of making their own doggie door through the screen, thank you very much.

I get a kick out of that van every time I see it. I wonder why no one imports things like that into Canada, they'd be really useful as a city runabout. Of course then people would insist on taking it on Hwy 401 which would be nuts...

Is it top heavy? Do you have to be extra careful to slow down before curves? especially with a load like that on top!?

....art

ps: For those who wonder... Hwy 401 is the main highway in Southern Ontario extending from Detroit through London, to Hamilton and Toronto and on to Kingston and towards Montreal. In Toronto there are 3-4 lanes of express each way, along with 3 lanes each way of collectors. And if you go 110km/h (ie 70mph) you are likely being passed all the time... It is a big and busy highway. When kids get their first drivers license they are forbidden from driving on the 400-series highways for the first 12 months.

Stu I could not help noticing what looks like knob and tube wiring in some of those pictures. I take it you will be removing it from the ceiling or is that just some old stuff left over from the past?

Boy the people upstairs are going to be grateful for what you have done.

Since you have some Canadian lumber there as a matter of pure interest in useless information what does a stud like that cost on a one per basis in Japan?

Rob, if the knob and tube stuff is in the way, I'll remove it, but is if is not, I won't bother, it is not hurting anything.

These studs cost 1150 yen each which is $12.95 Cdn, or $11.77 USD.

I dunno how that is for price, might be a bit expensive?

Thing is, you cannot get this stuff in Canada, sized for the Japanese market.

Art, the little vans are certainly are useful in a large city, but yeah, they don't go that fast, top speed, seriously top speed might be 140 km/h. My old truck, empty, cruises at about 80 Km/h, loaded today, it was more like 60 km/h, and yeah, easy around the corners

Art Mulder said:

I get a kick out of that van every time I see it. I wonder why no one imports things like that into Canada, they'd be really useful as a city runabout. Of course then people would insist on taking it on Hwy 401 which would be nuts...

Is it top heavy? Do you have to be extra careful to slow down before curves? especially with a load like that on top!?

....art

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I "test drove" a similar van here about a month ago at a trade show. Price was great and I thought it would be great for a commuter/hauler. Then the dealer told me that in IA you can't get plates for one as they "aren't safe" to drive on the road according to the state legislature.

He said the importer is lobbying lots of states to change that. They sell quite a few to farms and golf courses as they are 4X4 and come in a flatbed as well.

Rehab is looking good Stu! Work your friend hard while you have him.

Stuart Ablett said:

This wood is from Canada, and it marked "Hem/Fir", it is cut to Japanese sizes, 45mm x 90mm and 4 meters long (1 3/4" x 3 1/2" x 13'). We got lucky and they had a nice new bunk on the rack we could pick through. The wood is really good, nice and straight, clear too!

Click to expand...

Stuart Ablett said:

These studs cost 1150 yen each which is $12.95 Cdn, or $11.77 USD.

I dunno how that is for price, might be a bit expensive?

Thing is, you cannot get this stuff in Canada, sized for the Japanese market.

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There is no way you can get straight and clear joists here in North America. I would tell you what we have here, but I am restrainted by the forum rules. They send all the good stuff overseas. At those prices I can see why. Still it would be nice to be able to get some decent lumber for a change.

Hello Stu,

On that little van, I heard that there were some sort of licensing cost incentives to get a small engine version (600cc)? Is that true? Is the incentive to keep the vehicles small or for environmental reasons? How well does a 600cc motored van work out in Tokyo?

I have a doggie screen door similar to that, they work well.

Cheers.

Jeff Bower said:

I "test drove" a similar van here about a month ago at a trade show. Price was great and I thought it would be great for a commuter/hauler. Then the dealer told me that in IA you can't get plates for one as they "aren't safe" to drive on the road according to the state legislature.

He said the importer is lobbying lots of states to change that. They sell quite a few to farms and golf courses as they are 4X4 and come in a flatbed as well.

Rehab is looking good Stu! Work your friend hard while you have him.

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The small truck version of these are sold in the US with some importing company, the biggest thing is the right hand drive. The small trucks are like a pick up, but the three sides of the box fold down, not just the tail gate, which makes them very useful, IMHO. With a 4WD system, a heated or cooled cab, It think they could make a dent on the ATV sales

They have gotten a lot safer, the one we are looking at buying new has air bags, ABS, and extra side impact rails etc etc, but, in the end, on the highway, hit by a semi, you would not make it out alive, then again, a lot of smaller cars would be the same

Bill Satko said:

There is no way you can get straight and clear joists here in North America. I would tell you what we have here, but I am restrainted by the forum rules. They send all the good stuff overseas. At those prices I can see why. Still it would be nice to be able to get some decent lumber for a change.

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I've been hearing that same story for years, I guess if the product will get a higher price over here, it does make sense to send it here, but I also understand the want/need for better 2x4s

Dan Gonzales said:

Hello Stu,

On that little van, I heard that there were some sort of licensing cost incentives to get a small engine version (600cc)? Is that true? Is the incentive to keep the vehicles small or for environmental reasons? How well does a 600cc motored van work out in Tokyo?

I have a doggie screen door similar to that, they work well.

Cheers.

Click to expand...

Hi Dan;

Yes, these vans are all "Kei" vehicles, which means "Light" and they are powered by a 660cc inline 3 cylinder motor, they are a lot cheaper to own than the larger, normal sized vehicles and for me, for local deliveries, there are lots of streets my normal sized van will not fit down.

The 660cc motor is OK for Tokyo, well really it is fine, but there has been talk of bumping the size to say 900cc or so, as on the highway, the only way these vans can make it is to really scream the motors, maybe one fo the few vehicles that gets better mileage in the city compared to the highway (expressway) driving

Stuart Ablett said:

inline 3 cylinder motor,

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I'll never forget my trip to Korea in '89. Due to airplane issues we had to make an unscheduled stop at Narita. As we were piling on the bus to head south to Yakota we got to see lots of "Tokyo" vehicles, little 2 seater models, front and back seats, with wheels about the size that you'd see on a riding lawnmower. There was one car that a gentleman was in that was waaaaaaay too small for him. He was quite literally overflowing out the windows. I'm laughing now just remembering the scene he was making.

Bill Satko said:

There is no way you can get straight and clear joists here in North America. I would tell you what we have here, but I am restrainted by the forum rules. They send all the good stuff overseas. At those prices I can see why. Still it would be nice to be able to get some decent lumber for a change.

Click to expand...

the local yard i deal with can provide good quality douglas fir joists and even studs.
only thing is they don`t even try to compete with the borgs, price shoppers can get on down the road.
there`s good lumber available to anybody willing to pay for it....most aren`t

We had a good day today

Like I said before, Jake is leaving next Tuesday, he will work for me until Friday, which is his birthday, then between birthday parties and going away parties, he will be busy, so today, I gave Jake his "Thank You For the Help" and "Birthday" present from Emiko and myself..........


........ yep, that is one happy guy!
The Chisels are handmade, special order, white steel, a set of ten chisels, they list for over $700, but through some connections, I was able to beat that price!


BTW, this is the lunch set at the organic hippy restaurant, about $8 each, and very tasty


This is an example of the stuff I'm fixing, you can see that these brackets are held in place by just a couple of nails After I took the nails out, I found that there was a hole predrilled for lag screw, but the lag screw was not installed

Here is how I fixed it......

..........I put nice long lag screws in and a spacer in this case to make a straight pull, I then tightened up the bolts, to put tension on the beams.


This is the steel beam that was put in place when the size of the house was increased. On the right, there is a support stub that carries the 2nd floor beam for the 2nd floor above, but there is no support stub in the middle of the beam, there are holes drilled, but no stub

We fixed that too


I left the support stub a little long, as I hope to use it for the ceiling grid as well, but if I can't do that, then I'll just cut if off.

We used the "Too Long 2x4" method to push up on the support stub then tightened the two bolts squeezing the stub between the steel beams, we also but two brackets on the top, holding the stub to the beam above it. Again, Jake has indicated to me that the floor upstairs is a lot less springy.

cont..........

.........

One more pic......


This is the floor upstairs, there was some really spindly sticks that were being used as floor joists, we put in some of these much stouter joists, which are 45mm x 90mm (1 3/4" x 3 1/2") with hangers on each side. The span is only about 3 feet, so I think these are strong enough.

You can see that we also put a second corner brace.

Lots more to do, but we are getting it done

Today, we wanted to fix the bad foundation post, and get a start on the floor joists, which we thought was going to be a bear.

The foundation post was tough, the 2 ton bottle jack I have was barely up to the task, but we did get it done........


.....these are the remains, you can see what bad shape it was in.


Here it is fixed, new big solid chuck of wood, and tar paper under it between the foundation and the wood.


I also got started on the vapour barrier, this is not fun work, but it sure is nice to get it done!


When we started to put joists on top of the beams, we were very pleasantly surprised to find that things were very close to level
Minor notching, some spacers and a few shims and things are dead level over 13' in length, WOW, this is going to be a LOT easier than we thought!

Boy is that laser level nice to use, dead simple!


BTW, here is the Hippy Organic Veggie lunch for Thursday, it was very good too!

Cheers!

Stu, the lunch does indeed look tasty.

But if that was my lunch I'd start losing weight also, because I'm just not that good with chopsticks. Oh, I could manage the big chunks, but that rice would get me everytime...

...art

ps: Say, that's a book idea! "The Chopstick Diet for Westerners". I'd make a mint and get booked onto Oprah!

View attachment 33461
BTW, here is the Hippy Organic Veggie lunch for Thursday, it was very good too!

Cheers!

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Is that Chicken Creamy Soup? I love that stuff. To be truely organic you need to offer them bowl you've turned with no finish on them.

The soup was really good, it was a miso corn soup, I'd never had or even thought of that combo before!

The bowls are wooden, turned, and then lacquered, not from me, but they are at least wood.

Cheers!