Pressurizing the manifolds...

Pressurized Manifolds in the Cold

Woke up this morning with an idea....  Yesterday, we ended up kinking a tube, the very last one, just as we were finishing up...  It kinked right where the tube went into these bend supports... Since I wanted to protect the tubing anyway from random hazards, why not use some "smurf" flex pipe, which fits right into the bend support, and would help support the tubing so it couldn't be kinked...  So off to HD before anything this morning... 

By the time we got to the lot, the cold front was really coming through... Nasty wind and rain.  Things at the lot were just nasty.  Mud, water on all the plastic, everything was cold and blowing around.  That first picture up there was from the ice the other day, I just threw it in for effect...

I have to tell you about the coolest tool I bought...  It's a plastic pipe cutter that cuts pvc, pex, etc up to about 1.5 inches in diameter.  You open a knife and the thing then rachets back down as you cut, and the knife goes right through just about anything... If the mob ever finds out about these things, they will be taking fingers off with ease...

Anyway, at each manifold, I cut the tubing to the same lenght, then installed the smurf pipe, then copper crimp connectors, and then finally the manifold on top of that.  I used a "pocket crimp" tool to crimp everything together.  I am such a tightwad I didn't want to buy the full blown tool, and I thought the "pocket crimp" thing would work out well.  It's kind of shaped like a clamp with holes for 3/8, 1/2, and 3/4 inch size crimps and you basically just squeeze the crap out of it with a pair of vice grips.  So, 38 crimps later my hands are sore like all getout.... 

This really organizes things, though, so the pipe looks a lot better.  Then we hooked into the neighbors power and ran 300 feet of extension cord over to my little baby air compressor, and pressurized things to 80 PSI...  We did notice that the tubing bacame much stiffer and actually popped up in a couple places (it needs to remain below the level of the finished concrete, but not too low).  So, a few repairs to that, but the tubing is now holding it's 80 PSI nicely.  I think before the pour I will back that down to 40 or so, but for 24 hours I would like to see it hold it's pressure just to be sure...  Eventually, the operating pressure can be quite low, just whatever it takes to get the water around the circuits...  The tubing really did stiffin up (if that was any more possible) with the pressure inside.  Also, I think the volume is something like 90 gallons, so my little compressor got a workout on a 300 foot cord...

And finally, the radiant floor is ready for the pour...  A task MUCH larger than I predicted. 

So, the only thing left to put into the slab is the electrical floor boxes.  That is scheduled for tomorrow.  There will be ice on top of the slab, but at least everything is marked out. 

My wife spent the day today helping me with things, mainly, she put 500 plastic "chairs" under the tubing in spots where we thought it would get mashed down too much.  This should greatly help keeping it in the correct position when they pour. 

As I write this, the wind has died down, but there is now ice forming on the playhouse in the back yard.  It's sunny out, just cold and windy... 

OK, have to verifiy with the electrician for tomorrow...

Later...

Tubing is finally laid down

Well, the tubing is finally all down and in it's final resting place.  Hopefully when they pour the concrete those guys will keep that in mind.  It would be easy to knock something loose.  We have been walking all over it, and so far nothing has broken, so I think it will be ok. 

Too tired to go get the camera for any pictures.  We worked another 12 hour day.  Dawn to way after dusk for me.  We had the tubing down by about 2 PM, and then we decided to place the electrical floor boxes while we were both there to discuss it.  We actually aren't doing those, the electrician is, but we wanted to mark them out exactly where we would like them, as on the plans it was pretty much a guess.  I put marking paint in those locations, and tomorrow I will put landscaping flags there to make them more visible.  The slab is getting pretty full of "things" and it's easy to get lost out there, as I am sure a couple tools that have gone missing are also probably in their "final resting place".... Ha!

I stayed on the lot in the dark tonight and finished up the electrical feeds...  Future stuff like pool pumps, septic system, landscape lights, sprinkler system solenoid lines, etc.  I also ran another entrance for the water line, as I didn't like the one that the plumber put in (not where I would have put it, and not where I pointed the day we discussed it... hmmmm).  His spot comes in right under the breaker panels in the garage...  Mine would come into a corner and then feed straight up into a spot where I can put a whole house filter.

Then headed over to my buddies house to help him with getting his water spigots covered for our upcoming "deep freeze"...  Stop it you Yanks... You can keep that cold air up there, because we don't want it.  I think back to about mid July and ponder if we could just average the two extreme temperatures.  I think San Diego does that...

Tomorrow I plan on hooking all the tubing into copper manifolds.  These are just cheapo manifolds that will only be used for pressure testing.  Tonight after I cleaned out the truck again, I organized all the tools I will need for that task, and even loaded up my air compressor and a "bubble" tank for use tomorrow. 

I will try to take pictures, but they are talking ice and sleet.  I may have to rent a generator to run the compressor.  That will require a run into town, which I hate... 

OK, that's it for tonight...

11 down, 4 to go

Don't ask me why, but for some strange reason we didn't take pictures of the 1 inch of ice that had frozen in the poly overnight.  I guess the shivering hands had something to do with not wanting to take off your gloves and reach into your pocket for the camera...

Anyway, yesterday went pretty smooth, we were able to do 4 more circuits and ready the next manifold, which was exactly the same progress as today...  So, 4 more circuits to go, and we will have the tubing down. 

In the middle of the day today, we ran into some trouble, however.  The concrete guys had come out to tidy things up and make sure everything was ready for the inspector, also scheduled for today.  Within minutes of the inspector showing up....problems.  Turns out that they had misread the foundation plan and had some of the cables at the top of the foundation rather than the bottom.  Well, these "strands" as they have been coined, just so happen to be ones we had tied hundreds of zip ties with tubing...  So, about a 1.5 hour fix on that, as everything had to be released and restrung.  Two of these cables had me actually have to restring an entire manifold, as well as pull the entire supply and return lines for the "island heat" to the kitchen.  In the end, this ended up not being as bad as we originally had thought.  I certainly would rather have to deal with it now, and certainly the cables being in the wrong place would put the entire structure into question... 

In exchange for my trouble, the slab guys helped me tie up some tubing in places where there was nothing to tie to.  Basically, they made rebar stakes and then tied the tubing to that with wire.  An acceptable solution for everyone.  I certainly appreciated their help.  They have been super.

The rest of this week is going to be WAY too cold to pour concrete.  So for now we have scheduled the "pour" for next tuesday.  They are predicting somewhere between 320 and 350 cubic yards of concrete.  I guess the way this works is that they all show up at 0700, make final preparations to the slab, and then they have the concrete start at 0930.  They are predicting to be on site well into the night.  With the colder weather, the concrete doesn't want to set very fast, so it will take a long time to work it. 

I think I need to let the neighbors know about this.  There is no way around it, but there will certainly be some noise well into the night.  I think they are renting some light stands in advance... 

By then I need to have all of the tubing in place, sealed into the copper manifolds with pressure gages, and pressurized (I am leaning towards 80 PSI). 

I also need to finish all the future electrical stubs that I have planned.  I was able to finish two large ones tonight as the sun went down.  They aren't that bad.

My wife continues to be awesome.  This is certainly not an easy task for her, and she also continues to have to keep everybody in lunches, homework, etc.  She worked all day out there and it was cold.  She is handling the tubing ahead of me coming off of the rolls, and it has a mind of it's own as it is freed from the coil at these temperatures. 

OK, you Yanks can stop laughing at us now.  I know it is much colder up there where you are, and I am sorry.  But trust me when I say it is cold for us...

OH, also hired an electrical contractor finally.  Long story, but in the end I got a guy that is experienced with lighting control and lots of low voltage stuff.  Even though I am doing the low voltage myself, it will be handy to have him step in and help if I need it.  He hasn't done a Centralite system, but lots of other systems.  I was looking for a guy too that would be able to keep all the wiring mess organized, and he assures me that he can...   He is scheduled to come out Friday and place the 8 floor boxes and island power feeds.  He will also bring a temporary power pole so that we can finally get power to the lot.  In the meantime, I will probably have to rent a generator to run the compressor to pressurize everything. 

Also talked to the ICF contractor and they are placing the order for the next step... The ICF walls.  I will be much more "hands off" on this that I have so far.  It is much more fun to be a spectator.  I need to come up with a list of things that need to penetrate the ICF so we can conduit all that in advance (hose bibs, electrical, geothermal lines, desuperheater lines, etc).  Another measuring job... 

OK, off to sleep...