This is a great resource. Thank you for doing the work to make it available. My husband has his discussion groups for metalworking and skateboarding. Now I have mine! Lorina M. in Prescott, AZ

Preping Basement Slab

Posted to Bird-house by Seth in Ithaca, NY on 8/22/2007

we are using radiant heat in the basement and first floor. One of our smaller local shop (HEP's) helped design the layout and supply the necessary materials. Barney at HEP's was great he really knew his stuff and was patient with my hundreds of questions. I really recommend taking a look at your local plumbing and electrical suppliers. they really know their stuff and they often beat the price of the big box stores. The basement will be one zone with six loops. I used about 1500' of pex for the basement. Some friends came out to help and made the process of laying the tubing fly by. Once we complete the tubing I will finish gluing the PVC drain pipe.

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Setting foundation

Posted to Bird-house by Seth in Ithaca, NY on 8/15/2007

Set the house part of the foundation today. there was not enough room on the site for the crane to set the garage walls. they will have to comeback to set those. I chose superior walls so far things have went well. The settng crew arrived at 7am but the crane and delevery truck did not get there till 8:30 and were not set up till about 10. Once thing got going they went very fast. they were done by 2pm. I will now work on getting ready to pour the slab.I need to install 2' foam insulation, wire mesh and pex tubing for the radinat heat.

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Breaking Ground

Posted to Bird-house by Seth in Ithaca, NY on 8/10/2007

Scott and his crew got to work on digging the foundation. We are using precast concrete foundation walls. The walls will rest on a 6" inch gravel base, and a 4' frost footing at the walkout basement. The walls will be delivered and set next week. They tell me that it should be compleated in one day. I will be pouring the slab myself with helpers. Before the pour I will also need to place the radiant heat tubing and insulation.

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