Geo Drilling in progress

I'll try to keep this quick, but I need to go to bed....

Have been super duper busy this week.  Wired the house for lights (been working more at night, because the daytime heat index has been well north of 100).  I put in 2 giant fluorescent fixtures mounted in the attic that light the decked area and also wash down into the house, as well as 4 other locations with just a simple bulb that have CFL floodlights in them.  Also put some outlets here and there on that circuit so I can plug in some fans without them being connected to whatever cords I am using...  You get the picture.  The house during the day is very hot.  The air just doesn't move in there, and the humidity is just awful right now.

Mainly I have been getting ready for the electricians to come.  What that means is setting boxes.  Like everything else I do, it turns out I am really super picky about where all the boxes for outlets and switches go.  I have set probably 70 boxes of various sorts...  Ordered several online and all the stock from my local big box stores...most of them for low voltage stuff.  Any given wall may have a cabinet, for instance, that is a different height than standard, with outlets in a drawer, low voltage (data or phone), plus intercom stations, lighting control panels, and security panels.  All this gets pretty complex really quick, so instead of the electricians dictating where things go by setting electric themselves, and then having to either move them or work around them, I just bought the boxes and put them where I wanted them...  Lots of moving some studs and fireblock around, which is time consuming, but mainly the decisions require a lot of thought on how you will use the space.  Our outlets, by the way, will mostly be set into the baseboards, which adds another level of complexity (and also requires the electrician to practically lay down in order to wire them up).

Also framed in a box that will allow the electric feeds to come from the breaker box in the garage and NOT have to penetrate the top plate.  Lots of times, this location has so many holes in it there is nothing left for structure, so I framed a box so the wires can detour around the top plate... and I'm not a good framer.  I will try to take a picture of that sometime so I can share, but I think it's a good idea with regards to structure.

Today I also ran about half or more of the 2 inch flex conduit for some of the tricky locations that can't be reached later behind TVs.  I used my 2 & 9/16 inch bit in a 1/2 inch angle drill, which is a very serious tool.  At one point, going through a triple top plate, the whole thing got bound up and about knocked me right off the ladder.  I think from now on I will only drill with the thing braced to the wall.  Again, these flex lines being in place will keep the electricans from getting in my way later.  Here is a picture of my first attempt to remove the ICF for the flex pipe.  I watched the plumbers do this... they took a recip saw at an angle and cut the foam all the way down to the concrete (high speed on the saw, you can hear the tip of the blade touching the concrete when you have the depth right, otherwise the saw will either break or fly out of your hand), the same width as the pipe.  Then, they simply took the claw of a hammer and started pulling out the foam until they had their trench.  Thanks plumbers for the lesson!  You can see I just curved the foam right around the window and headed down until I got to my destination...  I had been afraid of this task for a long time, because it looked hard, but it turned out to be easy peasy.  Hardest part was keeping the flex in place while I tacked it down...

Today I even played around with my router.  I had a place where I needed to mount an intercom and light control panel, but they had framed solid right over that spot...  So, a router with a spiral cutter, and a lot of sawdust later...perfect hole for mounting my low voltage bracket.  Again, maybe a picture if I remember

OK, so I know you all just want the GEO pictures, so here goes...  GEO drillers showed up.  2 guy operation, maybe a 3rd guy at some point.  It is hard work.  They have their smaller rig because they didn't think they could set up the bigger rig boom through the trees (fine by me).  What that means is one 250 foot hole per day.  They have to then install the pipe and backfill the hole, and also then trench the whole thing together and fuze all the pipe apparatus (manifolds to holes, manifold to pumping station, pumping station to unit).  Everything will be buried 4 feet under the ground. 

Here is the little bit, they used this one for dirt and clay, but it slowed down a lot when they hit a layer of rock about 150 feet down, so they had to pull everything out and switch to a rock bit, which has little gear looking things on it, and goes right through rock like butter.  The hole is 4 inches in diameter.  After the bit was in the hole for a while, it was not rusty anymore...

Each of these pipes are premeasured and 510 feet long, fuzed at the end with a U coupler, so they stick out of the ground a few feet while they are waiting to get hooked up to the manifold.  This is 3/4 inch high density polyethylene (virgin, not recycled material) pipe, thicker wall that what I have ever seen.  The wells come with either a 40 year or 50 year warranty, depending on the installer certification and the brand of pipe he uses...  I have seen debate over using other kinds of pipe for GEO units.... Pex is great pipe, but this pipe is certified and tested.

So, here is the vat (tub, bathtub, tank) of mud...  Drillers mud.  They have different things they add to the mud to make themselves happy... Gel, which changes the ph, and bentonite, which helps lubricate all the machinery.  The "mud", which looks like a slurry of dirty water, is pumped down the hole, and washes up to the top with the material that is ground away at the bottom.  The mud then goes through different stages in this little bathtub and deposits first the heavy, then subsequently lighter material, before they pump the clean mud out the back and send it down the hole again.  To get this whole thing going, they have to set everything up, then they drill a hole for a casing, which protects the top of the hole and connects the bathtub to the hole so  the water is forced out into the tank rather than leaking out onto the ground. 

Still on the picture above this...  They also have some pumps and pipes that help eliminate the sand from the water, which is bad for the equipment.  The hopper is where they can add the chemicals, the big hose at this end is a suction hose.

Now for a picture of the drilling rig.  There is an engine that runs the mud pump and some other stuff, but the truck engine is powering all the hydrulics, which is everything else.  There are 20+ hydraulic valves to control things on the back where the operator stands. 

Here is a shot of the pipe.  Thanks to someone in Hastings, NE for making this pipe.  Picured is the U that returns the water in the other direction.  Sitting at 250 feet down, this will be under great water pressure. 

 

Here is a different bit yet.  This one is attached to a reamer, which helps keep the hole clean and straight.  The driller is using 10 foot sections, which doesn't last very long, but he likes to use a 20 footer on the first pipe as he says it keeps the hole straight. 

So, one last note.  Everyone had been teasing me that we would hit OIL...this is Texas, of course.   Well, close...  Lignite, about 8 feet of it somewhere around 100 feet.  Litnite is simply coal still in the ground.  They call it coal after it is mined.  In our case, the chunks and bits of coal he handed me to show were greasy and oily as you can imagine.  It was interesting to see his log he kept as they drilled.  Mostly clay, blue clay, sandy versions of clay, lignite, rock, etc.  He claims the next hole will go faster now that he has a better clue about what is down there. 

Oh, forgot to mention... Drillers had to shut down because it rained 9 inches in two days.  Everything is muddy now, and they didn't like standing next to a 30 foot lighting rod during a thunderstorm.  I think they will be back at it again soon...

That's it for tonight.  Have a great weekend!