From our families to yours, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Jack Home Construction
It has been a busy November for us. I list here many of the services that we have had the privilege of providing our customers. Perhaps you see something here that we can do for you!?
We installed a new tile floor in a Master Bathroom in Carbondale.
We repaired some siding that had blown off the side of a house, just before a rainstorm!
Installed two shower doors.
Repair ceilings and walls that were damaged by a leaking shower.
Installed a fancy storm door.
Remodeled a basement room into a spare bedroom with a guest bath and two closets.
Installed a 50’ long ADA compliant ramp made of deck boards for an elderly Johnston City man.
Completed a new stand alone two-car garage.
These are just of few of the many services performed last month. We would be happy to visit your home and price similar work for you!
Yes, we are affordable and fun to work with.
Yes, some of our customers call us their heroes, but you don’t have to! 
Sometimes we are given a project where we are given some artistic license. These are the fun ones where we get to be creative as we build. The subject of this post is one such project. The customer asked us to build a boardwalk down to her boathouse. “Just don’t let it look dull and boring,” we were told. So we designed and built a boardwalk that became the talk of the lake!
We decided to frame a deck/boardwalk that would follow the curves of the shore. The lake side would need a handrail, the opposite side would stay low enough to the ground so a person can step off and on easily.
We also decided to create a resting area halfway down the walk, complete with a platform and benches. Then another lookout area another third of the way down from that.
The lighting system was designed to light the walking areas in an indirect way. All the lights are installed in the stair risers to shed the light across the deck boards.
As we were putting on the finishing touches, we started having visitors drive up from around the lake to see the completed walkway. Even more fun was boaters puttering in close by the water just to see how the boardwalk was shaping up.
Another successful deck project built by the Jack Home Construction!
Would you like a new deck or boardwalk? Call us at 618-995-2288. Tell your friends!
Replaced fluorescent lights and ballasts at Mid Country Bank in Marion.
Ran electricity to a boat house on Lake Arcadia. We installed GFI protected outlets and lights.
Painted interior trim and doors in a vacation house on Lake of Egypt.
Repaired a leaking outside faucet.
Replaced a countertop and sink faucet in a Garden House in Marion.
Replaced a single screw on a cast-iron garden chair. (It’s hard to find the matching one!)
Repaired a leaking vent pipe on a roof in Marion.
Tracked down a short in a circuit in a Marion home. Repaired!
Re-caulked a shower.
We are busy making the world a better place, one handyman job at a time!
The concrete pad between the new deck and the pool was in pretty bad shape. The solution here was to fill in the area with a thick layer of gravel and then set paving stones on top of the gravel. The gravel allows for drainage of rainwater and provides a solid base to set the pavers into.
The paver stones are placed tightly together on the packed gravel. The result is a very nice and comfortable walkway.
The photo above shows the completed bench, paved path, and the framing for the cabana. The cabana is now ready to be roofed. It is about time to open the pool!
We designed this deck for the board of the Marion Country Club. We design or help design almost all of the decks we build. The first major task is to frame all of the basic structure. You have to keep in mind what posts will be used for railing so that you don’t cut one too short!
Once all of the framing is in place and is level and square then it is time for the decking. On this particular deck, we are installing Evergrain Composite Decking. This is a great product. It is a low maintenance material which means there is no need for painting or staining. And it comes with a 20-year limited warranty against rotting, splintering, splitting and termite damage.
In one of the pictures above, you can see a special design feature that we incorporated into this deck: a sitting bench that runs the full length of the pool. It is framed and made with the same decking material as the deck above. A Jack Home Construction and Remodeling original design.
A special sleeve and cap is used to cover each post. These pieces are also Evergrain Composite decking material.
This is the hard work part where it all starts coming together! Grunt!
We began working on the new pool deck for the Marion Country Club in the second week of April. This project begins after weeks of design and re-design work. The framing is done with treated lumber and the decking and hand rails will be made with Evergrain brand deck materials.
The first step is to clear the area and try to get a layout of the structure. This was particularly challenging because of the previous uneven concrete work done long before we came on the scene.
It was crazy work trying to keep the deck platforms level and square while constructing on top of such a wavy surface!
Challenges: 1. Build a level and square deck structure on a wavy surface. 2. Make it wheelchair accessible. 3. Make it useful for the club members. 4. Make it beautiful!
No problem!
We started a house this week on some property near the Lake of Egypt. It will have a walk-out basement, which means a basement that is partially underground with one side completely out of the ground. The side out of the ground is usually framed construction while the sides in the ground are block or solid concrete walls.
This will be a finished basement, so keeping it a dry basement is a tip top priority! One of the best ways to keep water away from basement is the use of the form-a-drain product from CertainTeed. This product functions as a permanent drain for water and a radon collection system.
Form-a-drain is basically rectangular shaped plastic pipes that “form” the sides of the concrete footing that your basement sits on. The pieces that we are using in the photo above are 6” tall. We want 8” deep footings so we raise the pieces up 2” off of the ground. We use a laser level to make sure all the footings are level. We’ll use gravel fill along the sides to keep the concrete from spilling out from underneath the forms. In the above picture, you can see the installations of a circular drain pipe that will carry any water under the basement floor to the outside of the structure.
The whole thing is held together by stakes and screws. Once the gravel is put into place, then we get to pour the concrete! We are hoping the weather holds out. When it rains, this job site turns really muddy!!!
One of the services we do throughout the year is to install wheel chair accessible ramps for disable war veterans. We are installers for the American Access company.
We had a few hours before the rain hit us on Tuesday, so we loaded up the most recently delivered ramp (they deliver them to our hangar on Eagle Point Bay Road) and headed to Murphysboro.
The ramps come in several pieces and are made of aluminum. Each ramp package is like a giant erector set. This one is a large one and extends over 40 feet. The ramps are designed to enable the veteran to leave out one door of his house and take him down to the driveway.
These ramp installs can be interesting jobs because many times the veterans will come out and talk to us while we are working. Just a few questions will get them telling us stories about their time in the military.
When finished, we ask them to try the ramps out. They are always grateful for them. Sometimes we have to ask them to wait until we are completely finished so that they don’t try to use the ramp too early!
The three of us were finished by lunch time. Just a few minutes later, rain drops started falling.
This is an unusual job for us in that almost all the lumber is “homemade.” Pastor George took trees that had fallen on his property during the May 8, 2008 storm and had them milled into rough lumber. That is what we are using for the construction of his barn bay addition.
On Thursday, we finished the grading then we dug and poured the concrete piers.
On Friday, the gravel was laid in and spread to a depth of 3 or so inches.
Today, we set the upright 6×6 posts and and propped them up with stakes and angle braces after making sure they are plumb.
We fastened post brackets to the concrete piers using concrete tapcons. Since the lumber is not treated, we daubed tar on the bottom and sides of the posts.
It was another nice cool day, mostly cloudy, high of 51 degrees. Good day for work! The customer decided that he wants a large garage door on the front. So, after discussing the details with the garage door tech, we dug and poured two new piers. We will have to frame in the sides on the front of the building to accommodate for the large door.
Easy there little brother! Don’t fall pumpkin!
Next step is to frame for the garage door, set the beams, then cut down the tops of the posts so they follow the roof line.
