Bethy's birthday present: Walls!

Today (which happens to be my birthday :-) ) we began building WALLS!

We began by laying out the bottom plate (PT 2x6x16) and the top plate (2x6x16), and the studs (2x6x8, pre-cut to 93") on 16" centers. The areas where studs are currently missing are where windows will go. One of the window headers (a sandwich of 2x6's and plywood) is visible in the above picture.

The picture above shows a framed in window. Jack studs, which span the height from the bottom plate to the header, are first nailed to the sill (using the cripple stud for correct spacing on each side). One of the jack studs is then nailed to its adjacent stud, and the header is put on top. The other jack stud is aligned with the help of the header, and a king stud is put in next to this jack stud. The top cripple stud is measured, put into place, and everything is nailed together.

After all of the studs are nailed in, we sheath the wall with a plywood board. We first nail it in a corner in the center of a stud. We then square up the top and bottom plates along the edge of the plywood. We square everything up to within 1/32 of an inch, and then nail the sheathing to all of the studs (which have been marked on the plywood with the help of a chalk line), headers, etc. We then use a router to cut out the window opening.

Technically the router bit we are using is for cutting laminate, but it was inexpensive and is working well so far. Since we already built the window frames, all we need to do is follow them around with the router and we get a nice, clean, precise window opening.

Voila! Our first complete wall panel. We then mark along the bottom where the J bolts will align. We are very careful to measure correctly both length and width-wise on the bottom plate. We then drill out holes so that we can stand up the panel right onto the J-bolts and drop into place.

We modified the tractor bucket with some custom-made "tusks" to scoop up the panel between studs and do the heavy lifting for us.

We started out with two tusks but later found it was easier to work with only one.

We built two panels (the other one will have an 8' sliding glass door in it) so that they would help stand each other up once raised. The process of getting them in place was a bit hairy, especially because the wind picked up and was catching the panels quite a bit! After some pretty stressful moments, we successfully got the panels into place, tied down the J-bolts, and nailed in bracing. Although the process was challenging (and for me, nerve wracking), we didn't have any major mishaps or errors - though the sill seal kept wanting to blow away...

As a final reassurance, we used the tractor to help hold up the wall since there are some pretty major storms and winds in the forecast for tonight. Here's hoping all our hard work holds firm until we can build more walls tomorrow!

I am really enjoying doing the framing. It is pretty amazing to watch a pile of lumber come together to form real walls and start to make the house take shape! I can stand inside and already envision what the view will be out my windows. It is very exciting! Plus I enjoy all the measuring, sawing, nailing, and drilling, and the pattern of steps we take each time we build a wall panel. It is like a big precise puzzle coming together, all with the work of our own two hands (and some handy tools). Oh, and although I was scared the first couple times I used it, I am in LOVE with the pneumatic nail gun! (And my regular hammering is getting a lot better, too.) Looking forward to building more tomorrow; I think this will actually go pretty quickly!

He already has his shirt off

Today our slab was poured!!! As we predicted, we couldn't get it done as soon as we had hoped, but we were able to schedule for today and luckily the weather cooperated (for the most part - it is really super hot...). Meanwhile, it was okay to have a few days to wait, because that allowed us to implement some extra precautions the mason suggested, such as adding even more bracing to the forms. We also cut up an old hose into small pieces, put duct tape over one end, and put them on the j bolts as little caps so that the threads don't get damaged or dirty. (This was part of our original plan, but at least some of the pressure was off to get it done quickly.)

One of the concerns we were told, however, with scheduling for a Monday was, "I'm not really sure how many guys I can get." We weren't sure what that meant, so we rounded up as many troops for today as we could - myself, Matt, his sister Brigitte, their dad Bob, and my dad Al. We were a little nervous, especially because making a nice smooth slab seemed like it would be pretty different from pouring the footers, and by 7:05 AM there was only one man on site. But within minutes, a parade of pickup trucks arrived, followed closely behind by the first concrete truck, and then things were on their way:

Enough crew showed up that our participation was actually completely unnecessary (which was a bit of a bummer for us), but we stuck around to witness the process and take pictures. See them after the break...

You remeshin' with me?

Remember how I said yesterday that the rest of the materials were scheduled to arrive this morning? Well, apparently "morning" means any time before noon, which actually turned into 1PM before anything arrived!!!!So the Roth guys were hanging around for 4 hours this morning with nothing to do. I find this totally inexcusable, but I wasn't there to lay down the law (luckily for the delivery guy). Anyways, once the materials finally showed up, the Roth guys got to work and were able to complete laying the pex tubing today. They also connected all the tubes to a manifold, pressure tested them, and left them pressurized.

The living areas are now complete.

This is the manifold which will live in the utility room - pretty crazy, huh?

All done!

We then laid out plastic over the garage area, both to act as a vapor barrier and to prevent the concrete from seeping into the gravel too much when we get the slab poured. We used scrap pieces of plastic - whatever was left over from wrapping the footer foam, empty trash bags, plastic wrapping from large appliances, and my old original Wham-O Slip n Slide from when I was a kid (*sniff.... I shed a little tear for that one. All in the name of recycling!).

My dad got a head start on laying steel remesh by starting on the end that already had the pex tubing all done and working in tandem with the Roth guys. Once Matt and I showed up after work we helped with the rest.

This was a pretty easy task, but it still ended up more complicated than I imagined. We made sure to bend up the sharp ends of the steel so that when it was laid down there was no chance of puncturing any of the pex lines. Each of the pieces of remesh then had to be tied together with zip ties (which then had to have their ends trimmed off). Also, there was a bunch of cutting that needed to be done so that remesh could be laid around the drains and plumbing. Overall this wasn't difficult, but it was a bit tedious. We managed to get it done pretty quickly, at least.

All ready for a slab!

Tomorrow our mason is scheduled to stop by to check in on our progress and look it over, and we will get the slab pour scheduled. The weather is looking really fantastic for the rest of this week (0-10% chance of rain each day), so we're hoping to get him scheduled right away! Unfortunately I am concerned that this might be too short notice, especially with the back log of work I'm sure he is dealing with. We'll see.  

Updated budget:

+ $373.65 for 47 steel remesh sheets
TOTAL SPENT SO FAR: $47,047.45

Nerbles

Today, Roth Green Energy came out to start laying the in-floor radiant tubing. I guess a couple of the guys got to the site nice and early, but none of the materials were there yet! When the materials finally arrived, the two Roth guys as well as the delivery guy got to work. However, the delivery guy moved on after a little while, and then one of the Roth guys got called away on an emergency - so that left only one person working on the install! Even so, he managed to get about halfway done today - and then he ran out of materials. So, the next supply is scheduled to come tomorrow morning, and hopefully there will be a team working on it again so that nobody has to work alone. (Well, I guess he wasn't alone - my dad was there observing, and he doesn't like to just sit around and watch without getting involved, so he was able to at least be a gofer.) I stopped by after work to get some pictures:

These are S45 Creatherm insulating panels that help prevent heat loss into the ground. There is 2" of foam in the base and additional foam in the nodules (which we affectionately call "nerbles"), which gives us a thermal resistance value of R10. The nerbles are there so that the pex tubing can simply be walked in and be held in place. By using these panels we get the benefits of a much easier install than having to tie the tubes down to remesh, cleaner (and more avoidable later) pex lines, and double duty as a thermal barrier.

The huge spool of pex tubing.

Today's progress.

As you can see, the panels make for a very clean layout of the tubing. 

Looking good so far!

Must... remain... productive...

Although we're at a bit of an impass since we still have to get the radiant floor piping laid by Roth before we get the slab poured, we managed to do a little more work this weekend. The first thing we did was build up the next layer of the forms. We used the 2x6's that had been the insides of the footer forms and stacked them on top of the outside forms, which were still intact and anchored down with the long stakes. We also used this opportunity to recheck level. It turns out we were a little slumped in the middle of the 64' spans, probably due to the kite string sagging. Luckily we are able to make up for that our final forms, and it's much easier to check if these are level since we have a nice sturdy surface to put an actual level on. We then nailed everything together and stuffed any open cracks with some foam.

We then measured out where interior walls will eventually go, and spray painted them with neon green spray paint. Not only does this help us imagine what the floorplan of the house is going to look like, it will also be helpful when Roth comes to lay the heating pipes, since different rooms will constitute different heating zones that can be turned on and off.

We also added thermal breaks around the perimeter for where doors are going to go. It is unwise to have the slab too close to the outside as there is the potential for major heat loss, so we added in a few inches of wood at the doorways as an extra break. Basically we measured some 2x6's to be the width of the door openings, and nailed them all together.

These are the thermal breaks at the garage doors and front door.

Lastly, we prepped our drains for the slab pour. We stuffed them full of spongy foam, and then cut out solid foam caps of the correct diameter which we then duct taped over the tops of the drains. (These make a great percussion noise when you tap on them.) We also laid a wooden box in the area where the tub drain pipes will eventually go, so that that space will remain free of concrete until later when we install the tub.

I guess now we'll just relax for a few days while Roth comes in and does their work! It is difficult to be patient and wait on other peoples' schedules. But we will at least be busy with making phone calls to our mason to get the slab pour scheduled. Hopefully he's available when we'll want him - with how terrible the weather has been this summer, I expect he is very busy catching up on projects.

Updated budget:
Still the same, because all the wood used for the forms and thermal breaks was reused from before!

Compact(or) Parking Only

Yesterday we finished spreading and leveling the gravel that arrived Monday.  We started using the borrowed compactor but had a little issue. First we had to scramble to try and find a filter for it, because the one we had with it was caked with dust.  It also seemingly turns out the compactor doesn't like running on water puddles, which with the way the weather has been this summer is unavoidable. Unfortunately that put too much strain on the belt, and we killed it.  So, luckily, Weider's Hardware was open (even though it was a holiday), and they had a rental compactor for about $35 for a day. We quickly snapped it up and got to work.  

Matt Running the Rental

Nice and Flat

All done with the gravel!

You can see that the garage area is raised up a little from the rest. This is because we won't be getting radiant heat in the garage, so we won't have pex tubing laid there. So, there is extra gravel to keep everything level once the slab is poured.

We worked our butts off to get everything done yesterday because we had expected the guys from Roth Green Energy to show up today to start installing the radiant tubing. Unfortunately, we found out this morning that another job ran over (gee, it couldn't have had anything to do with all the rain we've been having, could it? What a summer...), so they couldn't do it today.  Hopefully next week.  But the work will not stop for us, as we will spend this weekend building forms to prepare for pouring the slab.  It's all Up from here!!!

Updated budget:
+ $35.00 for 1 day compactor rental
TOTAL SPENT SO FAR: $46,673.80

It's Looking a Little Grave....ely Out Here

Monday afternoon (~1pm) the gravel arrived to set the base of our slab.  Matt had to work until later in the afternoon so it was Bethy operating the tractor and starting to spread the gravel.  To help keep the dust down we obviously planned on doing it on a rainy day (hahahahaha noooot); the rain was consistent but not heavy, so the work continued. 

Bethy moving the gravel!

Al was working on the sewer pipe layout that would be installed under the slab. The toilet flange, utility room drain, and bathroom shower drain all needed to be glued up and buried in a trench before we laid gravel and poured the slab. Bob showed up and helped with digging for the sewer pipes and spreading the gravel.  Just before the final truck load of gravel showed up, Matt arrived and took over tractor duties so that Bethy could get back to work. 

Matt takes a turn on the tractor

Josh arrived shortly thereafter and helped dig for the sewer pipes as well.  As Matt continued spreading and starting to get an even edge, the pipe was being glued up by Al, and the majority of the trench for the sewer pipe was dug by Josh and Bob.  

A clean pipe is a happy pipe

However, as we were just starting to see real progress, the skies opened up and the rain became so heavy that we had to call it for now.  We waited in our cars for a short while, but when the rain hadn't stopped we called it a day.

About how we left the site the first day

Tuesday afternoon, with a relatively dry forecast, Matt and Al got back to work.  Matt continued spreading gravel and starting to achieve final grade with the help of some string lines and a level on a stick.

Not too level yet, but we're getting there.

Al continued trenching and gluing up vent stacks.  Bob arrived as well to help with the trenching and cleaning/gluing the pipes.  The pipes were finally all set when we realized that the inspector would need to come out and see them before we buried them, so we gave him a call and he arrived later in the day.

North wall waste lines

Nice Pipes!!

Once we got the OK from the inspector we began to bury the pipes under dirt, taking care to tamp down in small layers.  We then got out the compactor which we borrowed from Matt's uncle Ace (Thanks, Ace!!).  We got it up and running and tested it out to see how much compaction we would get and thus what level we really wanted to be at before running it. 

Testing out the compactor.

We didn't get done completely leveling the gravel, but we like the results with the compactor, so that work will continue later this week. Looks like we'll be working through the holiday!


Updated budget:
+ $320.09 for various plumbing supplies
+ $988.20 for 3 trucks of #1 gravel, 14 yds each
TOTAL SPENT SO FAR: $46,638.80

The big reveal!

This might be the most disappointing blog entry yet, since I named it "big reveal" but I reveal nothing by way of pictures. Sorry, we lapsed on photo documenting duties this weekend! Nonetheless, that doesn't make our work any less noteworthy.

Matt and I both had Friday off of work (our 5 year wedding anniversary :-) ) and we used the morning as an opportunity to do a little work on the site. Unfortunately there was rain on and off, but we managed to make some progress since we knew we were going to be away for most of the weekend, and gravel comes tomorrow (Monday). The "big reveal" I alluded to was removing the inside of the forms to see the set concrete footers, woo hoo! This was exciting for us to see, particularly because it is our first above-ground structure (soon to not be above ground anymore, but whatever); however, it really couldn't be much more underwhelming in pictures, so we didn't bother to take any. With some help from our friends Mark and Josh, we hammered some very archaic-looking cut nails from the outside wooden forms into the footers to help keep them there, since they will purposefully remain as part of a thermal break (along with more foam to be added later). After another rainstorm passed, we then did a little backfilling so that the gravel truck could pull up as closely as possible to the middle of the work area; and then we cleaned up the scattered tools, containers, and trash from around the site. From there Matt and I took off for our anniversary weekend.

This morning we decided we wanted to get back so we could do more prep before the gravel gets delivered, so we drove back to the site and placed two geothermal pipes that were given to us by Roth Green Energy. Previously we put conduit into the footer trenches so that we would have a place to feed this pipe through once the footers were poured. We placed these pipes through the conduit, packed in any empty space with foam, and then called it a day because it turned out to be incredibly hot and we were tired. We meant to also dig a trench to lay the sewer pipe, but decided we could do it later.

Okay so this wasn't a very exciting update, but things are sure to get exciting again soon, because gravel (for under the slab) arrives tomorrow! Here's hoping we have good weather, though the forecast is a little iffy. It seems to be anytime we schedule a gravel delivery, it rains.

Updated budget:
+ $13.96 for cut nails
TOTAL SPENT SO FAR: $46,652.76

2 Chutes, 5 Slump and you will be a Pro

So over the weekend, after we got the forms done on Friday 6/21, we marked out doors, placement of J-bolts, and laid out conduit for our septic, water and geothermal. The doors were marked out so that when the footers get poured, we could take care to smooth out where our wooden threshold/thermal break would go.

Luckily we only had to install a 2ft section of the septic line to give us enough bite on both sides to attach to the interior plumbing and septic tank outside.  For the geothermal we used a couple of 2in PVC pieces down about 36in in the trench.  For the water inlet we put a 3in piece of PVC at an angle so that it would be just inside the wall at the floor, and close to the bottom of the footer.  

We cleaned up the site and moved dirt around so the concrete trucks would be able to drive clear around the forms.  We also installed some scrap pieces of wood, carpet and plastic to cover any holes on the inside of the form and prevent concrete from spilling out. The earliest we could schedule concrete for a morning pour was Wednesday (today), so that's what we planned on.  

 

This morning the first truck arrived right on time, at 9:00am.  The guy first asked "Has anyone run a chute before?"  We all looked around at each other and made a rather awkward gesture to Al, who last poured concrete at least 20 years ago.  Well then everyone pointed at Matt to be the guy to do it.  So the driver was nice enough to give us some pointers.

Matt and Bob (Matt's dad) getting a lesson on how to run a chute!

He asked what mix we would like ("You ordered a 4 slump but 5 will flow a little better"). Asked how many chutes we wanted, "Two I think...".  He showed Matt and Bob the proper hand signals for starting, stopping, up, down and forward.  And then we got to pouring.....

You'll notice in these videos that when it comes to construction attire, Matt goes for full coverage based on scary stories that he heard... Bob (Matt's Dad) goes for mostly covered because he didn't know one way or the other... Al (Bethy's Dad) goes for no coverage because he has had only good experiences with concrete. TEHO. 

The plan was for each truck to slowly drive all around the perimeter while pouring to make one layer, which will set slightly in time for the next truck to arrive and do the same. Matt took charge on the chute, while Al helped spread things in the trench, and Bob helped shovel off the chute. Bethy filmed and filled in as needed.

The first truck was done in just under an hour, after which he cleaned up off to the side and the other truck showed up shortly after he left.  His parting words were, "Tell him you want 2 chutes and about a 5 slump and he will think you're a pro".  Thanks, first driver, for all the helpful hints and tips!!

The second driver...we'll just say he is used to more of a dump job, but we were able to accommodate, building on all our experience mere moments before.  He got around in about 35min, and just as he got done cleaning up the 3rd truck showed up.  This was the slightly more critical pour because we wanted to fill up just to the top of the form, no more, no less.  We also had to start placing the J-bolts as the concrete began to set, but of course Al wasn't going to just throw them in; he had quite the plan, which involved using his homemade fixture to place them at the proper depth, centering and angle.

Al and his precision J-bolt placement mechanism

Using the precision J-bolt placement mechanism to ensure proper placement (against the back), depth (line up the top of the bolt with the top of the mechanism), and angle (make it straight against the mechanism).

The third truck went around and actually ended up having a little extra concrete (~2yds), so we had him fill in some low spots in the driveway!

Bethy was our master screeder (yeah I kinda made that word up) and had made it almost all the way around, when the mason we were hiring to pour the slab showed up to check out the site, and even lent a hand screeding off the last little edge of the footer.  He was pretty happy with what he saw that day and sounded up for the job!

All poured

That inside form is a little wonky, but that's okay.

Well we got done around 12:30 and relaxed in the sun watching our cement cure.  We looked over the forms and all in all they looked pretty damn good on the outside edge.  A couple inside edges went a little wonky but the forms did what we needed.  Next steps are to lay the waste lines, install the geothermal inlet and outlet, and smooth out gravel and compact it.  But not today, for the rest of today we relax and celebrate our hugely successful and exciting footer pour!

Updated budget:
+ $3389.04 for 3 trucks of 9 yds concrete each
TOTAL SPENT SO FAR: $45,330.51

Literally in the Trenches

Yesterday, Thursday June 20th, we finished the last little bit of digging (~18ft on the west side) the trenches.  It was just Matt and Al, leveling the bottom of the trenches and beginning installation of the concrete forms.  The trenches are approximately 1ft wide x3ft deep, but the total footer without slab is supposed to be 42in, hence an additional 2x6 above the trench.

Our design for the forms was to have a tall post in the trench every 4 feet that holds the outer 2x6 at the correct height. The 2x6 is then braced by a stake towards the inside of the house, to give the correct outside dimensions and level of the house. Off of the brace we then hang another 2x6 to form out the top of the footer.

The insulating foam board (that we wrapped like presents) is then  installed behind the long posts, under the outside 2x6.  Later on we will add an additional 1ft piece of foam outside the forms for a total of 3ft x 2in of foam below grade.

We used a string held taught at the 4 corners to gauge our height and width.  The corner marks were based off of our first level sighting using the water level.  Having done many second checks we found the strings to be right on the money.

We knew, despite the water in the bottom of the trench, that we were on firm ground because when we went to drive in the first few posts that hold up the forms they only went in about 2in.  Given that the post only has to hold up the form we figured this was good enough.  Once we put in the first full 16ft length we seemed to get in a rhythm and got about halfway around the house before the day was getting long. 

Northwest Corner, halfway there...

Matt's satisfied with the progress

Looks nice and straight too!!!

Today (Friday, June 21st), feeling a little worse for wear on Matt's and Al's side of things, we got to work finishing what we had started the day before. This time Bethy was down too so we knew we could finish the whole thing.  We all got hard to work and the work passed swiftly.

A little after 3, as the end was in sight we decided to call the building inspector to have him come down and take a look at our progress and give the go ahead to pour the footers.  We finished up, did a little cleanup (including getting out more water) and waited for him to come around. 

Bailing water out of the trenches.

We got him down there and his first words were 'It's too clean looking', always good to start off on the right foot.  Again he wasn't too concerned about the amount of water we had. He took a walk around, asked a couple questions about the dimensions and then signed a paper saying that we could proceed to the next step. 

All done!

Unfortunately we were slightly unprepared for the finished state of the forms because we had not yet called in for concrete.  Oops.  We quickly learned that everyone was already booked for the weekend and the next soonest would be Tuesday.  (We also learned you may as well book concrete and then cancel the morning of, rather than ever wait again).  So great progress but not so good foresight.

Updated budget:
+ $523.79 for 12, 2x4x8 Dow Scoreboard footer foam
+ $59.99 for a 100' roll of 12' wide black plastic (used to wrap the foam)
+ $27.82 for 2, 5lb boxes drywall screws
+ $124.00 for 50, 8' 2x2 stakes
+ $373.76 for 32, 16' 2x6 boards
TOTAL SPENT SO FAR (plus applicable taxes): $41,941.47

Trenching, No it wasn't supposed to be a Moat

Thanks to the ridiculous amount of rain we've gotten right after we got our building permit, we have been very slow to get started and have been put about two weeks behind our desired schedule at this point. Thankfully we finally had some decent enough weather over the past few days to make some progress.

On Sunday the 16th, the weather broke mid-way in the afternoon and we were able to hang some strings along our leveled plane. We used kite string for this purpose, as it was fine enough not to sag too much under its own weight but strong enough that it could be pulled tightly. We added 2 inches in each direction (so, overall dimensions of 36'x68') so that when we dig the footer trenches there is space for 2" insulating foam and 2" wooden forms around the perimeter of where the house will be sitting (as these materials are not structural and therefore should not bear any load). We then spray painted over the string to create outside lines to dig the trenches along.

After this, we prepped the rigid insulating foam for installation. The boards started out as 2"x4'x8', which was twice as wide as we needed, so we used the scoring on each board to split them in half to 2' wide. The engineering drawings stated that the foam was sealed in plastic, so we purchased a roll of black plastic sheeting and wrapped each of the 24 boards like they were presents.


On Monday the 17th we got the tractor to the site and started trenching at the North-West corner of the house. You can see the 5 pictures below.  Digging was pretty easy as long as the centerline of the tractor was lined up with the trench line.  Problems started to arise within the first 30 minutes, the water level in the bottom of the trench was increasing.  We got most of the way along the back wall and then decided to stop for the day, because we were having some issues with dirt slumping back in the hole.   We tried to bail some water out but it definitely was coming into the trench.  All told it did not take that long (~3hrs) but with the wet ground and water issues we decided to level the bottom and hold off until another day. 

The Trench Begins

We have to go down 3ft and luckily the shovel reaches

Bucket of Dirt

Hmmmm it may be a little wet

Yep, definitely wet, this is what we got done for the day

So we skipped Tuesday and went to work..... :/  Our friendly foreman Al (Bethy's Dad) went to the trench and bailed water out.  It seemed to not be too deep (3-4" at most) but also didn't seem to really be subsiding either.  Hopefully it will dry out before we fill it with concrete.

On Wednesday the 19th we decided it was dry enough and hot enough to continue the trench.  we got to the North-East corner which also necessitated our first attempt to get the tractor over the trench (and hopefully not ruin the trench or end up with a tractor in there either!).  It was a little hairy at times but ultimately successful on both counts.   So we rounded the corner and kept going.  

Some slumping evident from Monday

Our First Corner!!!

And what a nice Corner it is!!!

About halfway through the day we got a random visit from our friendly Town Building Inspector Gerry.  He was glad to see us all hard at work with no slacking going on.  We showed him a bit of our continuous water problem but he actually said that it looked fine and that if it were a foot or more of water he would be worried, but 2 or 3 inches is nothing to worry about (cue sighs of relief).  So on we went and got close to the end before we finally called it a day with just a few more feet on the west side to go.