Construction of a House Cont'd

Porch-
The crew builds the porch, starting with the frame. The frame goes on top of short brick (or another sturdy material) pillars. Then a floor goes on top of the frame. That's it.

Windows and Doors-
Inside the house, things begin to look enclosed. The next step in enclosure is windows and doors. The windows and doors arrive in one shipment and are unloaded from the truck into a stack. Plastic stripping is stapled to the inside of all the window and door openings on the house structure. A common window used is a standard vinyl window. They are placed in each rough opening and stapled in place on the outside.

Roofing-
This house uses standard asphalt shingles for the roof. The first step is to cover the roof with building paper (tar paper) .The shingles then go on very quickly (sometimes in less than a day). There is a vent along the peak of all the roofs that acts as a vent to allow hot air travel up and out of the house. This object is called a ridge vent. This vent replaces the triangular "gable-end vents" found in older homes. Ridge vents give better circulation (especially when cathedral ceilings are used) and also prevent bats and squirrels from getting into the attic. The aluminum flashing keeps water away from the walls at the points where the shingles touch the walls. At the edge of the roof, the shingles are cut off with about 2 inches of overhang.