Iron Door -- IN!!

Ok, that's 2 less holes in the house in just a few days.  The hole they put the door in was a bit larger than that little 2x2 window I put in...this one was 9 feet tall and almost 6 feet wide.  Cuts down on the breeze through the house...

So, here it is...

We had to snap these shots before they covered everything back up in plastic.  Far from finished.  Some day I may take a picture of my daughter in front of this door on her way to the prom (with a shotgun in my other hand), or perhaps my son in a cap and gown...  Both of those scenarios seem miles away, and yet they will be upon us soon...

One of the doors sitting alone waiting to be installed.  The entire door assembly will weigh close to 1000 pounds.  It took 3 guys to carry one of these...  The scrollwork is hand forged from solid iron, and then welded in place into the door.  By the way, they sit on roller bearing hinges and you can open and close them easily with one little finger.  I would suggest you keep your fingers out of them when they are closing...

Some things to note...  First, the doors do not yet have the glass, which is actually mounted in another hinged assembly, and then attaches to the inside of the door behind the scroll iron.  These hinged panels have their own weatherstripping.  You can actually open the glass portion of the door without opening the door and have a conversation without opening the big door, or you can open them for ventilation.  I have not measured the cat to see if he will fit through the scrollwork ;-)  Anyway, the glass doors and weatherstripping will be added after all the other construction is complete.  They will also touch up any areas where the coating is chipped.

Another thing to notice... Where are the handles??  And why is there only one hole where the lock will go??  Well, the handles are actually welded on later, and are about 2 feet tall forged scroll iron, both inside and out.  There is no latch on the door.  NO LATCH, you say....  The right hand door is held in place by upper and lower recessed door bolt locks, but the left door is held steady to that door by pressurized rollers...friction.  That leaves the hole you see in the picture above to hold a traditional style deadbolt.  The door is either locked, and secure, or it is unlocked, and you just push it open and shut...

There were a lot of things to cover when we ordered the door...  Everything was thought out as best we could from flooring thickness, threshold and jamb thickness (remember we have 11 inch walls, so a traditional jamb thickness wouldn't work), exterior materials and thickness, door swing, lock style, and then finally, the actual door style and finish.  Even the way the door swings into the arches above the door had to be factored in.  The artwork is designed on CAD, and then once everyone is happy, the design goes off to our friends down in Mexico, where they actually make the door.

A shot from inside looking out.  Notice we still have to address the difference between the "rough" opening size and the actual door.  This will be filled with closed cell foam, with stone right up to the door on the outside, and the drywall will actually do a "bullnose" return from the interior wall back inbehind the door frame on the inside.  This makes it possible for us to not have to surround this door with a dorky piece of wooden trim, which would look great on a normal wooden door, but pretty out of place in this case...

To get these dimensions, I had to think a bit on the fly today.  Originally, they were going to mount the door interior frame flush with the interior wall, because we feared any recess more than that would cause the door to bind on the drywall return, but in reality, the door showed up with welded "tabs" which we didn't plan for... Well, the door remains more stable if you mount it with tabs, so I had the installers cut out a section of the door buck to match the tabs, and recessed the tabs all the way back to the first concrete surface in the ICF.  That left us with about 2 1/2 inches of frame protruding past the ICF buck on the outside, so we now have something to bring the stone up against on the outside, and the bullnose sheetrock return on the inside. OH, and the doors don't hit their own frame, rather they actually hit the arched detail above the doors way prior to their own frame, so by moving the door we didnt' really change anything functionally.  We will have to install a bumper stop on the floors to keep the doors from dinging the arches above, which we expected from the beginning. 

That is me, wondering if I am screwing up the dimensions by changing the door mount on the fly....

This is one of the doors, still sitting on the truck.  You should note that we choose a lot of energy effecient items for the house where we could.  This door is NOT one of those items.  I could hardly put my hand on it after it was sitting in the sun, it felt like 300 degrees.  So, they put expanded foam inside the metal panels in the door, and lead you to believe that insulation is going to help....well, it doesn't really do anything for heat or cold, because the heat just short circuits right around the metal frame to the other side.  BUT, the foam does serve a VERY important purpose.... it makes the interior of the door and frame unable to hold moist air, which can condense on the cold side of the door interior an then the door to rust from the inside... 

Fortunately, our door will NEVER see the sun again after it left the truck.  The front door is not in the line of the sun at any time of the day or year.  It's still an energy hole, though...  I would NOT suggest you mount one of these suckers in direct view of the sun if you live in a cooling dominant climate...

Sure is pretty, though...

Also met today with our Geothermal contractor, which there are actually two of....  One of the guys is responsible for installing the "loop field" or the "ground source", while the other guy handles all the matters inside, like zoning, ductwork, thermostat location, air returns, filtration, etc.  We have a lot of issues in both cases, because outside we are trying to stay clear of driveways, electrical service, water service, and easements... OH, and TREES.  The drilling rig is just that, a pretty big 18 wheel trailer size rig and they have to stand up a tower in amongst the trees to make it dig.

  Inside, we have to work around ceiling details, like the groins and barrels, as well as ceiling speakers, lighting, gluelams, decorative beams, etc.  It actually turns out to be quite a puzzle.  Even the air vents that vent out the soffits have to be planned not to interfere with the corbels...   Both contractors are acutely aware now of what our concerns are, so I am hopefull the whole project will go smoothly...

For the outside geothermal loops, I learned some things... the wells will be 250 feet deep each.  That number is the limit of the amount of head loss you can accept with a 3/4 inch polyethelene pipe going up and down at a particular flow velocity.  The holes are only about 4 inches around, and they have done a geotech survey and predict wet, sandy silt with clay.  That is good news for us, because it will have a very high thermal conductivity number, which means the heat will permeate through the soil very fast, and keep the loops temperatures closer to the average soil temperature around them, which is about 72 degrees.  The 5 loops will be fed by a manifold station, which will attach to the geothermal unit through 1 1/4 inch pipe buried 4 feet underground.  The whole assembly is permanently fusion welded together, and is warranted for 50 years.  From the prices I am seeing, and the way the contract is written, I am guessing the loop field is about 35 percent of the cost of the entire system, and I am getting 1/3 back from Uncle Sam for the entire cost of the system.  So essentially, with the federal tax rebate (credit), I am getting a geothermal heat pump with state of the art everything from a top notch certified installer at the same cost as a mid level air source air conditoner with a crappy warranty from a crappy installer...

The geothermal unit runs at about 1/2 of the amperage of the traditional system for the same amount of BTU output, gives us free hot water in the summer, heats our water in the winter for domestic use and radiant floor, and supplies backup hot air in the radiant floor can't keep up.  It will (or should) outlast a traditional air conditioner by a factor of 2 or 3, runs much quieter, and has the capability of dehumidifying the air much better than a traditional A/C unit, because the inside coil runs physically colder than a traditional unit.  I can also supplement the water heating with my solar water heater, and the electrical compressors and fans with photovoltaic solar (can't do that with propane heat...)  OH, and no outside unit making noise or taking up space...  I think these things are win win win win win... 

I was actually expecting the HVAC guys to go next, but today we decided to go ahead and have the electrical "boxed" out so they can make things more symetrical around can lights and such...  So, I have to switch gears again...

Hope all is well...

Have a good day!