Ground Source Heat Pump-Lines/ Rat Slab

This is an earlier photo (July 2013) with Ruth and Helen (our daughter) showing off the ground source heat pump piping coming into the house. We are having a conditioned crawl space. So, in the background you see the floor of the crawl space with the rat slab on top of three inches of foam on top of radon gas barrier. Then under that sand and rock with three inch pipe to vent the radon gas. The crawl space will be the return plenum for the furnace so no outside venting is required. It is well insulated so the crawl space will be the same temp as the house and temper the air in the house This eliminated the use of underfloor insulation and the rat slab will keep critters from digging into the house.   thank you for the kind words..

Second Concrete Pour in Walls

December 13, 2013 

with the stretch of cold freezing weather behind us it is time to pour the second three coarses of block .  So on friday at one thirty in the afternoon the crew start showing up.  we needed the roll around scaffolding moved along the wall while poring , so Ruth ,  Ann and Paul take on the challenge of moving the scaffolding doing the Hop scotch method.   The crew from flemmer concrete Rob, Floyd and Jay were up ontop of the scaffolding getting ready to pour from the pump truck hose then use the vibrator to make sure the concrete settles in good.  Marty followed the pour with a brush to clean off the top of the block to make the instulation of the next pour go easier. I did what ever needed doing from vibrating to nailing the plugs back in under the windows.   we ordered 8.5 yards of concrete and it worked out just fine. by two thirty we had the concrete in the walls then another hour of cleaning up slopped concrete on equipment and the crawl space floor.  No blow outs in the forms which is great and tommorrow its time to strip the forms off.  During the pour everyone worked together for the common goal and did great.

Getting Ready for Second Concrete Pour

December 7, 2013

We are getting close to the second pour of concrete in the walls.  Our first pour was back in October.  Since that time we have put 3 more rounds or Rastra block around the house.  The cut outs for the windows are starting to show up. 

We spent a bit of time to calculate where the bottoms of all the windows would be. The tops of the window are all at the same height. Above them there is minimum depth needed for the concrete lentil beam that runs around the house.  At the bottom there is a minimum height off the floor to the start of the glass for non tempered glass. Then there is the aesthetic When you are sitting in the chair where do you want the glass to start. There is big difference between 22' and 25 inches off the floor, as far as what can be seen when sitting.

Every round has re bar in it. The windows and doors have an additional vertical re-bar going up that is continuous with the horizontal re-bar. This is requiring 3 dimensional bends in the re-bar. That is fun to bend!

In every window  and door opening   we placed bucks as a form for the concrete to but up against during the pour and while it cures.  This task took some precision. The bucks needed to be level and plumb and the correct distance apart.  So build a channel and measure, measure, measure. This extras step to make everything square and true should make putting the windows easier.

We applied water proofing to the portion of the was below ground.  The water proofing was very thick. The Rastra is very coarse. The first attempt was painting and rolling the water proofing on the wall. This was very time consuming.  The next attempt was to use  a texturing gun.  The same tool that used for texturing walls. This worked very well and we were able to apply 2 coats of water proofing in a couple of days. 

For additional protection from water we will be applying a dimple board that will keep the dirt from touching the wall.  If any water does get behind the dimple board  it will have a path to move down to the footing.

We had our inspection on Friday for our second pour.  That went well.  Now the temperature just needs to change a bit and we can schedule our pour.  The temperatures are in the teens and twenties. That is pretty cold for Portland and too cold for a concrete pour.     

PICTURES 

Concrete- first pour on the walls -photos

So, I was able to snap off a couple of photos with my phone so I can get them posted.  Doug and Marty were working with the concrete crew- Rob and Floyd and Jay, Glenn was pumping concrete.  I was in my clothes of the office so I just moved the hose and electrical cord around.  The crew had to vibrate the concrete to get it down to the bottom of the rastra block.

Here are the photos:

So what is in this picture?  The rastra is 3 courses high. That is the grey block.  The ledger board is in place.  That can be seen on the inside.  It wraps all around the inside of the house.  The floor joists will be suspended from the ledger. On the outside the strapping board can be seen. The ledger board is held against the wall with anchor bolts embedded into the  concrete. So, until the concrete is pour everything is hanging in air. The ledger board has been strapped with banding tape and the board seen on the outside keep the banding tape from pulling through the rastra.  The rebar coming out of the block will continue up through the next course. Looking closely at knee level there is green line. This marks out a window.  The crew is outside of Helen's room at this location.

After this pour we will continue up with our walls.  We are thinking of doing the remaining walls in 2 pours of 4' each.  The Rob our concrete guy thought that would work better than doing it all in one pour.  There is so much rebar in the wall that the concrete has a hard time moving down to the bottom of the cells.

Very exciting day  

Concrete in walls- first pour

Hi-  Today is going to be really exciting.  I know that this post is out of order construction wise- But it is happening today and I wanted to let you all know.

Doug and I have been working  for the past few ( 3-4) months to get our house to this point.  In July we started going up with the Rastra block.  At the course where they floor will be suspended there is a lot of stuff going on.  Supporting structure with re-bar and a concrete beam.  We have all that work completed. The ledger board is in place with the bolts. Channels for electrical are cut out. We have had our inspection.

We are ready for the first pour into our walls.  We will be pouring concrete today into the walls that are 45 " high.  This will the first of two pours.

We are really excited the concrete truck is showing up at 8:00 am.
 

Ruth

Septic_ Test Pits

September 2011 we started to apply for our permits; working first on the Septic permit.  Getting the life time sanitary permit was easy and straight forward.  But we did need to dig two holes in the field.  The Application said give the inspector 3- 5 weeks .  She said that he would be out that day or the next.  We asked her to put a note on our file to call first . We went home and Doug dug one hole that night.  We used that hole to make a movie of our soil at 5 feet for Geo Gerry.  We posted it on U- Tube.  We now have 11 hits.  The first hole was dry and hard for Doug to dig.  It took about 3 hours to complete.  For the second hole I put the sprinkler on overnight.  Doug was able to dig the second hole in about an hour.  That happened over  a Monday and Tuesday.  I had taken Monday off work. 

when we took in the application the girl asked where the holes were. We said that we had not dug the holes yet because of the 3 week time lag.

Doug and I are finding out that it works better for us to go in together to get the permits.  This way we both hear what is being said and we can each ask the questions that we have.

By Thursday of that week the inspector from the county came out and did our evaluation. 

By mid week the following week we had our site evaluation permit.  $726,

Hi this is the first entry for the house that Doug and Ruth are building. They have been on the journey for about 8 years.  This blog will document the journey from conception to completion. 

The short story of the house is that it is very energy efficient. The house is built out an insulated concrete form.  It will have a ground source heat pump, with hy-dronic heat.  The is located on the family farm that has been in Doug's family since 1919.

Ruth has been keeping a journal and they have been taking photos during the process.  That will be shared with you as they go along the journey.