Hello All, I've been lurking here for a while, and I really appreciate all the tips and feedback you all have provided. Alex in Mesa, AZ

PJ's Forum Posts: 0
Journal Entries: 47




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Wood floors, tile, stucco

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 3/23/2007

It's beginning to look more like a home! Wood floors are stacked and acclimating, and will be installed next week. Shower mud pans are poured. Stucco color is on.

Photos

Stucco and Drywall

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 3/11/2007

We made it past all the rough! We're in drywall! We did have quite a scare with regional, though. They passed us for insulation, and then three days later, after drywall was well underway, came back without telling us and failed us. We had already gone through the variance committee to get the okay to use the non-traditional method of insulation, so PJ called up the head inspector to see what could have possibly gone wrong. It turned out that a new inspector had been on site and didn't realize that our variance covered everything he saw as unacceptable. Thanks for the heart attack, regional. BUT, drywall is up and stucco is on the way.

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Crane day for back porch

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 2/22/2007

The framers put in the monster beams for the back porch today.

Radiant, Overlay, Insulation, Tubs and Deck

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 2/21/2007

BUSY WEEK! We like these!

RADIANT: PJ, AG, and Steph got the rest of the radiant laid on the main and upper floors. WOOHOOO - heat is coming!

OVERLAY:  Subs came in and poured the 1 1/2" cement overlay over the radiant.

INSULATION: Underside of the roof sprayed. 

TUBS: Installed

DECK: The back deck is taking shape beautifully. We are using Trex for the floor. 

A Family Affair

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 1/18/2007

Homeschooling has provided some great opportunities for the girls to get dirty in the project as well. Most days we finish school right after lunch, and then get dinner prepared to take up to the lot and help out wherever we can. Of course, sometimes you have to take time to play.

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Framing the front porch

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 1/17/2007

The front porch is halfway done. It's really helping complete the look of the house.

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Worth the View

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 1/15/2007

The snow is a thorn in our builder's side, but the view is worth it! This is off our driveway.

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Plumbing and Roofing

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 1/14/2007

PJ will have to come back through and expand on this entry, but at least I'm getting the pictures in. Here is what he would call "the most beautiful room in the entire house" (the mech room). We got the PEX control panel in, and the framers are working on the overhang and framing the covered porch.

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More snow cleanup

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 1/6/2007

The experts have officially labeled this winter as the worst in Colorado history since the early 1900's. I have an idea - let's build a house! 

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MORE FRAMING

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 12/31/2006

Here's framing in the basement bar area, main level arch, and upstairs loft area.

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Roof, Stairs, Water Main, and Fireplaces

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 11/23/2006

Water:
The drilling company came and dug from the foundation to the well head. Prior to the basement pour we had installed two 3/4" type K copper to try to create the flow of a 1" line (we couldn't get anyone to sell us 1" type K copper less than 60' at $10/ft). I asked them to T the 1" Kytec from the well into the 2 - 3/4" lines at the foundation, but it became obvious that it was much more efficient to run the 1" Kytec all the way through. Thankfully, we asked the basement concrete crew to leave a 10" Sonotube ring, so I was able to dig up the 3/4" copper and use it to pull the Kytec through. So, there are no joints from the well to the pressure tank. Come to find out, regional had just changed code to allow this three weeks ago. When the inspector came, he initially failed us because he didn't see a joint at the wall and couldn't figure out how we got the Kytec into the house. Thankfully I was able to catch up with him at AG's, explained the changes and setup to him, and he passed us.

Septic:
Passed septic, no problem with inspection.

Piers:
Once again we had an inspector miss the obvious. We were failed for not having dimensions on the approved plans, which threw the schedule off  by a week. When he came back and I showed him that he had circled the dimensions in a comment, he said "Oh... I must have been in a hurry that day. Sorry." If only I had that luxury. Anyway, all but one pier are now poured, and ready for the framer to build the dormers and deck.

Framing and Stairs:
The framer moved off to spend time on another job, but I was able to convince him to put in most of the second floor framing and the basement stairs. The ICF contractor came back and cut out the bottom foot of the stairwell window. 

Waste and Vent Plumbing:
Plumber came out and completed waste and vent for the entire house. We ended up with five protrusions all on the back side of the roof. I need to install the tubs and shower fixtures so he can come back and prepare for rough inspection. 

Fireplaces:
Had to core drill an 8" hole for the basement fireplace vent. Turns out the vent is slightly larger than 8" and concrete doesn't give, so I had to use the hammer drill to chip out the 8" hole to fit the vent. We couldn't find a way to vent the main floor fireplace out the wall so we had to go through the roof. 

Roof:
Roofers came in on Thanksgiving Day and within a couple hours placed ice and water shield over the entire roof. YEAH! We are almost dried in, just a couple windows and doors left.

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Main Floor Framing, Well and Septic

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 11/17/2006

Framing:
Framers completed most of the main floor framing and non-load-bearing timber beams below the garage gables. And we're official now, we have antlers!!!

Trusses:
Framers began installing the truss scabs and started cutting back the old trusses to match the head height requirement.

Piers:
All 10 piers have been dug, the pier boxed built (2'6"x2'6"x3'0"), and the steel rebar placed.

Well and Septic:
The well was drilled within a few hours. They hit water at 360', but went down to 460' for good measure. They use a foaming agent to draw out the silt as they drill. Once they hit water, the overpressure creates quite a foam spout. The driller called it a "gusher" and estimated production at 20 gallons per minute. Since we are only allowed 15 gallons per minute by permit, that's a pretty good result. The septic crew was ecstatic about the location and quality of the tank and field. They didn't have to remove any trees and the soil appears to be perfect for absorbing wastewater.

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Windows and Great Room Dormer

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 11/10/2006

The SIP company couldn't respond fast enough, so the framer completed the great room dormer from scratch. The framer was also able to install most of the windows and the double sliding door in the great room. The ICF sub came back and installed the engineering fixes from 9/30.

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Basement Framing

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 11/5/2006

Most of the basement framing is done. It all looks pretty good except for the girls' bathroom window, which is off center by about 6 inches. The garage trusses are in, but created a couple problems with the second floor windows in the guest bath and the guest bedroom. We had to raise each window a foot to accommodate the trusses. Part of the second floor head height fix is in above the loft/homeschool area.

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Blizzard#2

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 10/27/2006

It's unclear whether boarding up the windows and doors did any good. We still had 12" or more of snow on the main floor due to severe drifting from the great room opening, and the second floor had 3' in the guest suite from the lack of roof decking. Good thing the floor loading is built for concrete.

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Blizzard and Truss II

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 10/26/2006

Basement: All that work shoveling the first and second floor deck did help, but there was enough meltage to cause some dripping on the new concrete resulting in some damage. All in all, I'm very happy with their work.

Trusses: Looks like we'll be able to take advantage of a couple of code "exceptions" to the 7'6" rule for the second floor head height problems, so the girders will be below 7'6" but the trusses in-between will slope up to meet code. Think of it as a super-sized coffer. The truss plant finally delivered the fix, but they didn't communicate with us and their solution is substantially larger than expected. Needless to say, the framers are complaining.

Roofing: Meanwhile, the framers have finished the rakes up the gables and were able to get all of the possible sheathing done (all but a 2' border around the perimeter and the section above the loft office), just in time for last night/today's blizzard. Our current house is 15 miles south and 1,000' below the lot (lot's at 7,580'), and we have 12" here (non drift measurement) with severe wind. I'm guessing, but due to road closures can't get up there to see, that the lot has 2' +. Thankfully, Steph, Meg, and I were able to go by last night at dusk and board up the north and west facing main floor windows and doors. The great room doors and dormer remain unprotected, so I'm curious to see if the work did any good.

Back in Time

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 10/26/2006

For those of you who frequent the site, additional details have been added starting at the 8/3/2006 posting.

We Have Mud

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 10/21/2006

The concrete crew showed up yesterday morning and went to town. It dropped well below freezing last night, but the exothermic reaction of the concrete (figure 2,336 sq ft x 4 in thick = 28.84 cu yd or 5,824 gallons x 1.806 ton/cu yd = 52.09 tons), coupled with the thermal protection of the ICFs, resulted in quite a warm night for the basement.  When I arrived on site, it was ~50 deg in the basement, and the mud was hard!

The framers got the west gable sheeted, the east gable furred up and most of the 2x4's in for the gable eaves, but they didn't get any sheathing on the roof.

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10" of Snow

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 10/19/2006

Carrie and I went up yesterday (Wed, 18 Oct) afternoon to check out the snow. It was 10" deep on average, and wet! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! In my stupidity, I let Carrie tromp around on the main floor deck while I chatted with the concrete guy (John); meanwhile, every step she made formed a nice compressed ice mold of her boot.  She and I started clearing what we could, she got most of the entryway and I got 2/3 of the master suite. John couldn't get any guys up to shovel so he wanted to push the pour back. I told him I'd get the deck clean and to hold to Friday (If only he'd poured Tuesday morning!!!).

So AG and I showed up this morning (Thurs, 19 Oct) and shoveled 2,800 sq ft of 10" of wet snow off the second and main floors. The framers showed up and helped with the kitchen area. We could have/should have jumped off the back deck into the piles (would have if not for nails and other debris).

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Blizzard and Truss I: Crane and no-Mud Day

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 10/17/2006

Finally starting to look like a house!

The trusses were delivered yesterday and the crane showed up on time this morning. Snow was forecast for noon and following, so I wanted to get the trusses up and the basement "sealed" ASAP. 

Since concrete curing or hydration entails complex chemical processes requiring water (not ice, see mse.uiuc.edu/concrete/prin), freezing temperatures are a BIG negative. Donnie lent me his diesel heater, so I went to work on covering the basement window openings with 4-mil plastic to keep the wind at bay, the snow out, and some of the heat in. After I was done, the concrete company called and cancelled due to weather, and man was it ever weathering!!!

Well, the second-string crane operator was slow like molasses, so the framers were forced to work in the drizzle, sleet, and snow. And then it happened: when I measured the rough ceiling height on the second floor, it was 7'11" in the bedrooms and 7'5" in the stair landing, catwalk, and homeschool areas. Code requires 50% of the finished room to be 7'6" or higher, so 7'5" fails and drywall and flooring make it fail even worse. We had the truss company come up and take a look, so there we were, out in the worsening blizzard, discussing options.  They are supposed to call back today.

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Getting Ready for Basement Slab

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 10/16/2006

Concrete company was supposed to level the basement dirt on Thursday, leaving us the weekend to insulate the dirt, lay down the steel mesh, and lay the radiant. However, they called Wednesday to push due to weather... then called back Friday morning stating they were on site and leveling and expected to pour on Tuesday. With an inspection required on Monday, that left little time. So Steph, Jerry, Rob and I were forced into action. Saturday, we were able to get the 1.5" XPS and the steel placed, attached, and sealed, and I drew in the virtual walls. That left Sunday to get the 2,000' of  radiant installed. Thankfully, we didn't run into any problems and passed inspection on Monday.

On the Truss front... the truss manufacturer was supposed to deliver 6 am on Friday, the 13th (insert eerie music here), but five of the plant workers called in "sick", so truss delivery was pushed to today, noon. As a result, my framer had to cancel and reschedule the crane.

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SIPs installed

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 10/3/2006

Crane work was quick and professional and the SIP installation was relatively pain free. However, the framer found significant omissions in the SIP design. Here are edited excerpts from an email I sent to the distributor. 

We did have difficulties with the SIP plant engineer in the generation of these SIP plans. It is clear that no matter how much interaction we had with them, the designers and/or engineers significantly underperformed on this project.

Here is a listing of my complaints:

¼ “ = 1’ - 0” scaled Engineering (Specifically page S-6) and Architectural (specifically the Elevation Sheet 2) drawings were not properly accounted for by the Designer(s).

1)     Point loads, and load bearing members, as called out in the Engineering plans, were evidently ignored, resulting in significant additional labor and materials cost to rip apart the offending SIP sections (4 locations) and replace with proper structural members, specifically:

a.       Wall A, panels 1-4, 6-2x6’s at 8’ from front gable (Wall B)

b.       Wall C, panels 48-49, 6-2x6’s at 8’ from front gable (Wall B)

c.       Wall E, panel 41, 5-2x6’s at 8’ from front gable (Wall F)

d.       Wall G, panel 30, 5-2x6’s at 8’ from front gable (Wall F)

2)     Although the ¼ “ = 1’ - 0”  scale Engineering and Architectural drawings contained sufficient detail, additional 3/16 “ = 1’ - 0” Scaled Drawings were provided to [omitted to protect the guilty]. The designer failed to measure the correct opening for Wall I, panels 21-23. Scaling from all drawings sent to [the guilty], including [PJ SIP Wall I (Bk).pdf from 6/26/2006], clearly measure the window rough opening width at 10’, plus 2-2x6’s on both sides. The dimension can also be verified on Engineering page S-6 along with the call out for a 3-9 ½” ML Lintel. The RO width was delivered at 9’ width with a 3-11 ½ “ ML Lintel, and therefore does not match the load-bearing members below it. As a result, Wall I is unusable.

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Second floor deck on

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 9/30/2006

The framers are making up for lost time.

We finally passed grey water inspection! After setting the pipe three times... we had to hurry and get the trench partially filled because guess what? More rain coming!

Insp. Date   Contractor           S    Inspector       Comments
29-Sep        HOMEOWNER  PB  C. SCOTT    

Remember the mud problems on 8/3? Well, the framer found some significant problems requiring engineering help. The kitchen wall, at the laundry room, was five inches out of plumb resulting in the location of the "virtual" second floor SIP wall sitting in thin air above it. Since the ICF sub was responsible for the wall, he was responsible for the fix. His engineer decided to support the overhang with graduated microlams supported by gusseted angle iron bolted into the concrete. 

Although most of the voids from 8/3 had already been filled, we found a large void (an entire block) above the garage back door.

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Main floor support walls framed

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 9/27/2006

After a month of little activity at our place, the framers finished up at AG's and are starting on our house.

During this period, we found a large crack in the sewage mainline and had the plumber come back up to fix it. Ironically, the only way we found it was because there was so much water in the trench from rain. The plumber was able to pump air through the pipe and follow the bubbles. The crack was a good 12 inches long on the underside of the pipe.
 
We then tried for several grey water inspections and failed/cancelled for a variety of reasons: pipes floating due to rain, inconsistency in code interpretation, pipes floating due to more rain, pipes floating due to yet more rain; you get the drift/float - hahahaha. 
Insp. Date   Contractor             Code       Inspector    Comments
14-Sep        HOMEOWNER    PTO        R SCOTT   1ST. BATH GROUP AND 3'' STACK EXCEED 135 DEGREES WITHOUT CLEANOUT. NOTE: 2ND. TOILET HAS A 3'' VENT, WHICH CAN ONLY CATCH FIXTURES ON BASEMENT LEVEL, AND NOT FROM ABOVE. NO WATER LINE AT THIS TIME.

08-Sep         HOMEOWNER     PTO     R SCOTT    PIPE IS FLOATING.

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Main floor walls poured

Posted to SmelltheForest by PJ in Colorado Springs, CO on 8/3/2006

Here we go again.

Not a great day on site. Engineering requirements had two #5 rebar on the top row of the ICF stack. As you fill the block, concrete can and does get stuck between the rebar, especially around windows and doors where even more rebar is required. Complicating the matter, the third truck showed up 45 minutes late. Meanwhile, mud from the second truck started to set in the top row of rebar. When we started pumping the third truck, its mud started to set immediately causing mass panic in the ICF crew. Things were crazy while they tried to clear the set mud in the rebar and pour the third truck, all at 20 feet above the ground! We left after dark hoping that all was well with the walls, but knowing we had some voids.

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