Done...

Just kidding....

Actually, I spent the last few days resting and planning in my small mind what needs to happen next.  There is a lot of phone calls to be made. 

The picture above was taken from a Parade of Homes in San Antonio a few years back.  That particular Parade of Homes was really neat, and we have tried to incorporate a lot of their ideas into our design... 

A Cantera fountain in front of a home in Phoenix... Love the classic design...

Ok, so enough screwing around on here... 

My project for the day is to figure out what kind of penetration to make in the ICF for the following items..

1.  Direct Vent Fireplace

2.  Master Shower Vent fan (this has to vent sideways out into the courtyard)

3.  Geothermal lines.

4.  Hose bibs.

5.  Gun Turrets (just kidding)

OH, I tried breaking up some of the loose concrete here and there yesterday with my sledge hammer.  Also tried breaking up some of the "Washout".  I was able to break some of it up, but anything very large in diameter was futile. 

Also talked to my dozer guy and he has a different plan than I envisioned, and I like it.  He is going to bring in some "bull rock", or what he called 4 x 6, and then spread that into the existing tracks.  Then dress the driveway back up over the top of that.  He says the bull rock will provide much better footing and distribute the weight out better.  Hope it works. 

1.2 Million Pounds of Chunky Liquid Gray

At least that's what my little sister said, at 4000 pounds per cubic yard. 

To put yesterday in words would be impossible.  Crew showed up at 0700, and then spent the better part of 3 hours getting things ready... closing off the drainage trenches, shoring things up, moving my precious orange fence around...   It was pretty cold still so I was happy to wait a few hours so we wouldn't be pouring sub 40 degree concrete.  By the time the pumper showed up, and then finally the concrete behind him, it was approaching 11 AM and mid 50 degree temps under a beautiful purple/blue sky... Perfect everything...

Let me say that I don't think you can run an operation this big (and don't get me wrong, I'm not running it, I was a spectator for this one...) and not have problems.  Nothing in the concrete business appears to be small or light.  Everything you can touch is heavy, sharp, wet, or nasty.  The guys that do this work amaze me.  It's one thing to see a 24 year old guy down there, but some of these guys are approaching 50 and do this every day.  They are strong, but ultimately only the smart ones survive it...  You can see it in how the older guys work.  They are more patient...

So yes, a few problems.  At one point a concrete truck got stuck by backing too far into the washout, which we were able to fix by moving some plastic around so the trucks didn't have to back up so far.  And at the end of the day, the pumper had some trouble getting off the site.  He weighs 80,000 pounds.  His front axle is a double steer, and a rear twin tandem.  He gets about 6 mpg in diesel down the road.  I found out the hard way that he is completely covered in oil (actually a release agent) that keeps concrete from binding to him.  He looked clean, but by the time I climbed up on top I had realized my mistake...slippery. 

An impressive sight.  He has a remote control pack of switches, which he uses to control his arm, about 130 feet out there in this case.  I can't remember the actual rating, but he was telling me that pumpers are measured from the ground to the boom as it is standing straight up.  Which he actually had pretty far up in the air at one point while getting his boom uncurled.

The concrete supplier started out slow, but by the end of the pour it was one right after the next. 

My red tubing took a whoopin' for sure.  The concrete falls from the high point in the boom, but mostly that last 10 feet through the rubber hose on the end, and it is flying fast as it comes out the end.  You can be splattered with concrete at 30 feet away...  All that weight hitting the tubing, and then the guys standing on the cables and tubes while they moved it around was abusive to say the least.  Yet, it had to be done, so I nervously watched my pressure gages from about 25 feet (yea, you got that one, about 5 feet too close).  Even today the pressure is still holding on all 4 manifolds.  Although I do have one suspect that is about 2 PSI lower than the rest???  In retrospect we probably should have tied the tubing down with wire instead of cable ties.  The reason we didn't was that the engineers were balking at ANYthing being tied to the cables.  So the compromise was the cable ties, as they wouldn't be strong enough to resist the eventual tensioning of the cables (7 days from now). 

My fear with the tubing is that although it didn't break, I am pretty sure it got moved around significantly.  Could be enough to get it under a wall surface, where it could get poked by a framing nail.  The other problem could be that it got kinked over the top of a cable.  That being said, I never witnessed either while watching the pour. 

For those interested in a radiant system, I would suggest you tie with wire ties and a hand twister.  I experimented with a pull twister but that didn't tie very good, and seemed better at breaking wire and launching them across the garage.  The little 5 dollar twister would work well. 

At one point, we had 13 guys out finishing.  By the end of the night (about 10 PM) they were down to 3.

This is from the back of the house.  I figured they would start the pour on the opposite side of the house and work towards the pumper, but I would be normally wrong.  Turns out you want to set the concrete first that you want to work the finish the most on... Garage and porches.  Yet at the same time, you also want to place the concrete above the floats so they can work on that as well.  So they were really all over the place, and the management of the operation pretty much goes to the guy holding the hose at the other end.

Now, if you think he is just standing there watching the concrete come out, you would be wrong.  The thing is moving around fairly wildly, and it's a minimum 100 pound push to get that hose to go anywhere.  Ultimately it will only go if the boom operator moves it, so they are using hand signals back and forth as they go.  I didn't notice it 'till the end of the day, but this guy was the only one to duct tape his pants where they go into his boots.  Obviously he did this for a reason.  They could dump a 10 yard concrete truck in a few minutes, and this stuff could bury you alive...  or seriously get into your boots;-)

You can see the "waffle" effect of the beams well from up here.  And I will never fall in one of these again.

Should have duct taped my movie camera to the end of this thing and had him twist that around up there in space... 

Here are some finished shots from today...

The concrete "dowels" or rebar that you see sticking up is for the ICF walls.  They 5/8 inch rebar spaced every 18 inches or so, and will tie the floor to the walls, mostly for shear forces, as I doubt there will be much tension.  One advantage for sure of the ICF is it creates a "box" structure on both sides of the slab, which makes everything super strong...

By the way, my wife and I were in complete joy to find the simple act of walking around now on the house without cables, tubes, and ditches in the way.  She is a tad challenged in the department of conceptualizing space, and I think she is now getting a real view of the shape and size of things, and we are likin' it.  The kids were funny running around on the slab, and standing in their future showers pretending to be clean.  I am still nervous to have them out there, though.  Every piece of wood has nails in it, every rebar end as sharp as a razor, and if it's gray it's either concrete or mud, but you sometimes have to step into it to figure that out...   Being city kids, though, this is a good experience for them. 

And finally, the sad part... My road didn't hold up so well.  Fortunately, my tube survived.  Looks like I have to get a dozer back in to clean things up a bit...  That's close to 5 million pounds of stuff up and down this road in 5 hours.  That's abusive.

Enjoy the rest of your week... next monday... ICF begins... the big IGLOO...   Looks like I'll have to have that road fixed before I can get another (even bigger) pumper in for that operation, but certainly a lot less concrete... 

Keep checking back!

Getting Ready for the Concrete

Well, headed out to the lot this morning after a long nap...  Laid down on my son's bed and then the cat came and "zapped" me...  Anyway, I got to the lot later than I had planned. 

Didn't really have much planned but to stare at all the stuff that would get covered up tomorrow, but in the end, I worked my rear end off out there.

First order was to fix the little valve I broke the other night in the cold.  I had just sheared off the metal pin between the handle and the ball valve.  Then I plugged the drain hole from the other day and filled the standpipe all the way to the top.  Walked around and looked for leaks... Nope... (so I thought).

So then, tried to get as much water and ice off things as I could.  The ice chunks were pretty huge considering they had had lots of time to melt.  I tried to take a picture with my foot in it so you could compare size.  These came out of the plastic sheeting covering the perimeter of things.

It took about an hour, but I was able to finally get all the plastic pulled back from around the edge of the slab.  My thinking was get the thing opened up so it could at least breathe some tonight and get plenty warm before the concrete hits it tomorrow morning.

Researching concrete "cures", it appears that when you freeze concrete, it stops the curing process and greatly weakens the concrete for life.  There are work arounds to this, but in short warm, not cold, not hot.  Ice is also a problem because it is cold and also can create a "void" in the concrete.  I think we will have pretty good weather for this whole operation...40's by the time they pour, warming to almost 60 tomorrow, and then the actual concrete temperature should stay between 50 to 55 degrees for the next week.  It is even supposed to mist and rain starting a few days after the pour... perfect.

So, I am just about to head out, and standing over by the Master Bath, and I hear a hissing sound...  Hmmm... Too cold for rattlesnakes (but one can never dismiss that possibility)...  After searching around, I finally find another hole in a pipe...  It wasn't leaking water, but rather air from the system being under pressure.  I really had to dig around because the air was actually coming out of the roofing mastic they had smeared all over one of the pipes...  Dang... So, with the sun going down in 1 hour, I am off to HD again for another part....  It is just a pinhole leak, but rather fix it the easy way...

While at HD, I also picked up the stuff to run power all the way down to the house from the T pole.  I think I will run two outlets on stakes, and also picked up some stuff to put a dusk to dawn light on a pole out there.  Not sure what the light will do, but I must say it is pretty creepy out there in the pitch black of night.  Hope I don't get zapped while hooking all this up... There isn't really a shut off on the meter, just breakers, and I need to be inside that box to hook it up...  bbbbzzzzzzzttttttt.

Ok, I know you just log on to look at pictures, which so far have been pretty boring...  Here is another boring picture... These are the electrical floor boxes...  Not exactly rocket science to hook these up, eh...  And builders charge you a ton for stuff like this...  dang.

These are in the Rec room by the way, fed through the dining room wall.  Had to get power under what will be the air hockey table...  The other one will be in their little theatre area.

Ok, the concrete guys say they will start pouring at 10 am, and have the concrete in place by 1 pm...  I am sure they will play with it for hours after that... At some point I have to get the wife and kids over there to make our mark somewhere in the concrete...  Have to come up with some cool saying, like "One Small Step for Man..."  has somebody used that one??

I hope tomorrow goes smooth... But even if it doesn't, I will never have to look at all these cables and red tubing ever again.  Nor have to walk across this stuff to retrieve whatever tool I forgot out there in the middle somewhere... 

Wish us luck...

The Deep Freeze

The last two nights have been really cold for us. I think last night we touched into the teens and the night before into the 20's... We have had some other freezes this year, but not for as deep or long.




So, the electricians came to set the "T Pole", which means temporary pole. They set a wood pole with a meter can and a very basic breaker panel with some outlets on it. This has to be set according to the standards set forth by the local utility company. Unfortunately, the guys were still working on setting the pole when the utility company came by with the actual meter, which is the process of hooking into the big green transformer box on the lot. Since the electricians weren't done, they had to come back, and when they did, didn't like something about the pole?? I wasn't really involved, but the electricians had to go to HD for more parts. Long story short, we now have a T pole set and ready to go, but it will be at least monday before the Utility company comes back to connect it.



The electricians also set the "floor boxes", which are basically grey PVC outlets that sit in the concrete that are fed by "flex" conduit from some wall in that room. I have of course learned to never take anything for granted by now, so I helped them make sure they found the walls correctly. You have to hit the wall in the middle of what will be a 2x4 sill plate. That means your 1 inch pipe has to be inside a 3.5 inch spot. These aren't as big of a deal as the plumbing, however, because they are smaller than plumbing pipes and they just serve as conduit for running wires.



BUT, I was sitting around Friday not doing really anything, but waiting. Going through a mental checklist of "what if" type things for the concrete pour. Just as I was walking away, said goodbye to the electricians, I happened to shake the riser pole on the drain system to see if it still had water in it... And I realized, OF COURSE it does, and so does the entire drain plumbing system, and it is going to dive into the TEENS tonight.... CRAP!! I could lose the entire drain plumbing system... STUPID!!! So, off to the truck, I grab a shovel and dig out the "cleanout", which for some reason they had buried again about 4 feet down. I borrow the electricians portable drill and drill a hole in the end cap and drained the thing...



The lesson here is simple. When things happen that are non-standard, like cold temps, you need to get yourself thinking "outside" the box, or you are going to miss something seemingly obvious.



I hope I don't have any cracks in the plumbing, but Monday the weather is back above feezing for a few days, so I will pressurize the drain lines again and check them before they pour on Tuesday...



What a du mas I am...



Well, the cold doesn't end there. Last night it was very nippy, and we have lots of neighbors still out of town for the holidays. I ended up checking on a few of their homes, and their spigots were not covered. One neighbor had ice from the spigot all the way to the ground, so I am pretty sure they lost a pipe. I wrapped that one up and then turned off their water. Thinking if it thaws I will prevent a major flood inside their house.



For the record, I never even considered installing standard uninsulated sill cocks on my house (as is the "standard" here). I am going to use 12 or 14 inch "freeze proof" sill cocks, that have the actual valve way back inside the house, where it is toasty warm. With an ICF house, the inside of the wall is technically "warmer" by design in winter, but that makes the outside of the wall technically "colder" by design, so you can't rely on the house "leaking" heat into your outdoor pipes to keep them warm enough not to freeze. I am also trying to minimize the amount of "outdoor" plumbing that is hooked to the "inside" of my house. Kind of stupid really to have water flowing through your house to wall spigots that you could just as easily hook up a good old fashioned water "hydrant" outside, just like we had on the farm. We will already have a pressurized sprinkler manifold all around the house... just hook into that thing...



Also, these "tankless" water heaters everybody talks about. Well, for some reason people call them "instant", which isn't true at all (you have to wait for the hot water to come down the pipe). Down here, to save a buck, they install them on exterior walls so they don't have to vent the flue gasses through the roof. But, they are on a "cold" wall. We had some neighbors almost lost theirs from freezing. Again, the freezing is one thing, but when the pipe is broken and then it thaws out the next day...FLOOD...



OK, so why I am on my rant. I originally liked the concept of these "tankless" systems, but they come with problems. First would be what I just stated. Are they more effecient... Probably yes. They don't have standby losses as much so you only heat the water you use rather than the water you "may" use. But what I don't like about them (other than their initial cost) is that they don't work with any kind of "recirculating" system to truly get "instant hot" water anywhere in your house. Look into the Grundfos "Comfort System" and you will see a really nifty pump that allows you to already have hot water charged into your hot water supply lines and ready to go, without having to run 2 gallons of water down the drain waiting to wash your hands or take a shower.... but, you need a tank as a storage medium for this to be efficient.



The absolute best option, I think for creating hot water is a solar system that is augmented as necessary with the following systems in order of (cost) efficiency, not necessarily real efficiency. (example... an electric tank is perfectly efficient, 1 to 1 before standby losses, but that doesn't mean that that watt of resistive electric is less expensive than it's equal amount of heat from a gas source, which may be cheaper, and geothermal can give you upwards of 7 or 8 watts of heat for your 1 watt of input...resulting in a Coefficient of Performance COP of 7.0 or 8.0, as defined...)



1. Desuperheater (from your A/C system when it is running, this is free and helps your A/C out)

2. Ground Source Heat pump

3. Air Source Water heater (if you live in a warm climate)

3A. Non condensing gas or propane tank heater (less loss up the flue)

4. Tankless Gas

5. Tankless Propane

6. Tank Gas

7. Tank Propane

8. Tank Electric



And I don't know about the tankless electrics. Heard both good and bad about them depending on application, incoming water temp, climate, etc.



And whatever you do, do NOT put your hot water heater in an attic, especially a vented (non conditioned) attic... With that kind of thinking you may as well just put the dang thing out in the back yard, and hope for the best... At least when the pipes break it won't flood your house.



As far as solar hot water goes, that is a big subject, but the coolest (hottest??) system out there that I like the most is the "Evacuated Tube" solar hot water. They use a "heat pipe" inside a borosilicate "evacuated" glass tube to superheat a working medium that then condenses at the top of the pipe inside a hot water manifold. They are super efficient even in very cold temps, and can create temps in excess of 400 degrees F... HOT! But again, don't confuse heat or temperature with cost efficiency...they are more expensive. I just happen to like them.



Wow, how did I get on that subject... I am still working in the mud stage... Depressing.



OH, and after saving everybody else’s pipes last night, I went out to the lot at 2 AM in the morning and guess what.... My little temporary spigot was frozen up like a rock. When I put that in, I actually bought a shutoff valve that had a drain screw on it, so I could drain back the pipe if I thought it would get cold, but I couldn't fit that valve into the box, so I dismissed it... Instead I insulated the crap out of the iron pipe... Well, I should have stuck to my guns and made room for that valve... Du mas (as my wife would say)... It's going to cost me 3 dollars now...



got to go......



Update.. OK, trip to HD revealed a new valve was actually $5 and change. Mine probably would have survived until I broke off the handle ;-)