Author: Jay

August 31, 2009
Our house is now a giant billboard advertisingTyvek and Carter Lumber. The crew applied the Tyvek to the north wall, which will help it resist the rain splatter now that the main roof is shedding water.

 

September 1, 2009
Here’s the Tyvek going up on the cottage, and how it looks with it done.

September 4, 2009
The Tyvek is now complete. These photos show the south side of the main house, and the east wall of the workshop.

September 17, 2009
In order to improve the appearance of the concrete foundation walls below the siding, we decided to parge them using Quikrete Heavy-duty Masonry Coating with added Liquid Cement Color, both available from Lowes. We conducted a series of tests to find a reasonable mix of pigments. For our first test we used the “Buff” cement color and the result was unpleasantly peach-colored as shown on the left below. Really it looks worse than in the photo – it would look fine in Florida but not in Michigan. For the second test we added a lot of “Charcoal” color and the result was a slate gray as shown on the right. On the third try we got a decent light brown as shown in the middle, and the color matches our dirt fairly well. The blotchy area in the middle-right below was not quite dry yet.

Here’s our secret recipe for dirt-brown parge coating:

2 1/2 quarts water
1 quart Quikrete Acrylic Fortifier
8 tablespoons Buff cement color
4 tablespoons Charcoal cement color
20 pounds Heavy Duty Masonry Coating

You have to mix all the liquid ingredients first, then mix in the powered coating a little at a time. This makes a fairly thin mix, too thin for waterproofing but we only want a durable color coat and enough thickness to hide some of the concrete irregularities. Bruce skillfully applied it around the entire foundation. Eventually the top edge will be covered by the siding and the bottom edge will be covered by topsoil, with only about a foot exposed. Here’s the parging being applied, and how it looks with the “heathered moss” color ofHardiePlank siding:

October 1, 2009
The joint where the plywood sheathing meets the concrete foundation is a likely place for water intrusion, because any water that makes it past the siding will run down the Tyvek and it ends right at the bottom of the plywood. To prevent water from seeping in at this joint, we had Dan and Bruce install a 3″ band of aluminum flashing all around the perimeter. The Tyvek laps over the flashing so any water running down is prevented from reaching the sheathing. The siding will come down almost to the bottom of this flashing.

October 29, 2009
Dan and Bruce started applying the vertical siding to the wall that will hold the solar heat collectors.Then they moved on to the small adjacent wall, applying the horizontal siding that will cover most of the house.

Here’s the finished wall, all ready for the solar heat collectors. This wall is right above the south end of the garage. On the right hand side is the small triangular wall that holds the outlet vents for the heat recovery ventilator, clothes dryer, and plumbing drains.

November 24, 2009
Dan and Bruce began applying siding to the north wall of the house. If you look closely in the photo below and the next one you can see the dark green clamps that grip the siding boards in order to position the next row at the proper spacing. The siding is blind nailed so each piece covers the nails of the piece below it.

Here’s a detail of the flashing around a window. The strips around the window are self-adhesive flashing material, and the Tyvec laps over it at the top. This creates a drainage plane behind the siding and fully surrounding the window. You can also see the self-adhesive flashing that goes behind each vertical butt joint in the siding. There’s no caulking at these joints, so the flashing strips behind the joints direct water out of the wall.

December 2, 2009
With today’s nice weather, Dan and Bruce made a lot of progress on the siding. The first photo below shows the east gable of the cottage, on the front of its enclosed porch.The big empty space over the windows will hold artwork of some kind but we haven’t yet decided what it will be. The second photo below shows the east wall of theworkshop. They finished detailing the clerestory windows above so we’re finally ready for the roofing over the sun porch and lanai.

December 29, 2009
We had nice sunny weather today, and Dan and Bruce sided the north wall of the cottage, just to the right of the front porch.

January 16, 2010
The siding is finally done on the east side of the house, except on the front porch where we’ll use a different color. The first photo shows the view looking northeast up the driveway, and the second shows the front porch and front door. We’re really tired of seeing the word Tyvek!

January 20, 2010
Dan and Bruceapplied the siding to the front of the dining room around the big windows, finally covering up that ugly pink foam! It sure makes the south face of the house look a lot better without all that pink showing.

August 25, 2009
Today the crew applied ice & water shield to the cottage roof. This rubberized asphalt membrane serves as the underlayment for the metal roofing that will follow, and it makes the roof waterproof now so we can start drying things out.

The crew also started applying it to the main roof of the house, but unfortunately they ran out of it before finishing the whole roof. We’ll have to apply the rest later once it has dried out from the rain that is coming. At least the cottage is relatively dry now.

September 2, 2009
The photos below show the ice & water shield going up on the main south roof of the house. This roof has a 60-degree pitch so it was a bit of a challenge to apply the underlayment but it went up pretty well.

November 4, 2009
Our roofers started applying the roofing to the main south roof. This metal roofing has ribs on 12″ centers, in order to support the Evergreen Solar electric panels.

December 2, 2009
Today the roofers worked on the roof below the solar heat collector panels. We removed the tarps covering the panels since it would be difficult after the metal roofing is in place. The plumbing for these panels isn’t quite in place yet so they’re not yet transferring any heat into the heat storage tank.

December 3, 2009
The roofers finished the roof over the sun porch and lanai on the east side of the main house. This one went pretty fast since it’s a simple rectangular roof with no valleys etc.

August 24, 2009
The plumbing begins at the well, and today the well drillers drilled it. As expected based on neighboring wells, they hit good water at 130 feet. The well has a 5-inch PVC casing, as is common for wells in this area.

 

September 8, 2009
The water line has been run into the mechanical room, and the pressure tank is installed. The red tubes in this photo are for the in-floor heating and aren’t part of the water supply, but the pressure tank pipe had to cross behind them.

March 3, 2010
The Plumbing and mechanical inspection is complete, and this photo shows the finished plumbing wall in the laundry room. See Solar Heat Design and Hydronic Heat Design for descriptions of the individual parts of this system.

Here’s a close-up of the manifold that distributes water to the PEX lines running to each fixture. The next-smaller available manifold didn’t have enough hot lines and this one has a lot of cold ports to spare, because the lines running to the garden spigots and toilets are completely separate.

March 12, 2010
Now that the connections atop the heat storage tank are sealed up, Bruce insulated above the tank with fiberglass batts. This reduces the heat loss but still allows access to the tank connections if needed.

August 10, 2009
The roof trusses were delivered today. Unfortunately there were thunderstorms the night before, so the truck couldn’t manage to back up the wet driveway. They dumped the whole load in our front field, and agreed to send different equipment to move the trusses up to the building site. The second photo below shows the entire pile of trusses that will frame nearly all of the roof.

August 12, 2009
Today the trusses were moved up to the building site, with the help of this handy device known by its brand name Pettibone:

The smaller ones were carried but the larger ones had to be dragged. It turned out to be an effective, but expensive, way to smooth out the driveway.

Finally the Pettibone set the cottage roof trusses onto a small flat-bed truck, which then dumped them up by the cottage.

August 13, 2009
Today the house finally took its shape as the roof trusses were set in place. The first photo below shows the first truss being set, and the second photo shows a cross section of the trusses above the living room. You can see the bumped-up area at the bottom that will form a tray ceiling over the living room. The trusses are flat on top because they can’t be any taller and still get trucked down the road on their sides, so small cap trusses will be attached later to form the peak of the roof.

After the first group of main roof trusses were set, they attached the gable truss that sits over the dining room. The trusses that go behind this one will be attached to it. Unfortunately at this point we discovered that those had been manufactured 2 feet too short – Oops! Since they wouldn’t reach the gable truss in the middle, the crew set them aside and proceeded to set the remaining trusses onto the other side. Meanwhile the truss company was notified that we had a slight problem…

 

Here’s the view from atop the root cellar, looking at the back of the house. In the second photo they’re just starting to set the trusses over the garage area.

Over the garage area the south wall is vertical, to hold the solar hot water collector panels. By keeping them vertical instead of tilted like the photovoltaic panels, we’ll collect somewhat less heat from these panels in the summer when all we need is domestic hot water. If we had tilted them like the solar electric panels, we’d get a little more heat in the winter but a LOT more heat in the summer, and that would make it more difficult to keep the system from overheating.

After the main house was done they moved on to the cottage. Here’s the end truss going up on the south wall, and the center trusses that follow. You can see the shape of the vaulted ceiling that runs the whole north-south axis of the cottage.

Next up was the gable on the west, and then the center trusses that attach to it.

After the center trusses were all set, they finished off the gable on the west.

The final step was to finish the gable on the east, over the cottage sunporch.

The truss company instructed us to build a 16-foot-long temporary wall inside the main house, to support the trusses that are 2 feet too short. After the wall was built they set the remaining trusses in the center of the roof. The truss company will build out the missing 2 feet tomorrow, with the trusses already in place. That way we don’t need to bring the crane back a second time.

The crane operator’s last task was to lift the bundles of cap trusses up to the top, so they can be set later. This photo shows a cross section of the cap trusses, which will be set onto the large flat-topped trusses to form the peak of the roof.

The first photo below shows a front view of the house, and the second shows the trusses sitting atop the garage. The vertical wall needs to be tall because the solar heat collectors are 10 feet high.

Here are front and rear views of the main house with all the trusses set. The crane operator and framing crew did an outstanding job getting all this done in one day! Off to the left side of the second photo is the workshop, and its roof will be built later from I-joists.

Here’s a view from inside the living room looking east, and a view of the same wall and trusses above from the other side.

And here are two views of the cottage – first from the south looking north into the great room, and second looking northwest at the sunporch.

August 14, 2009
The following sequence shows the sheathing of the main house roof. This is not actually all of this roof, as the workshop on the east (left) side isn’t there yet. We designed this roof big because it will be our rainwater collection surface.

August 15, 2009
Now that the main roof is sheathed it gives us a new perspective. The first photo below is looking down and south toward the cottage from above, and the second photo is looking down over the dining room bump-out on the main house.

August 17, 2009
These photos show the sheathing going up on the front (south) roof of the main house. This roof will hold the solar electric panels.

August 18, 2009
This shows the sheathing going up on the cottage roof, and how it looks with it all sheathed.

Finally, a couple of shots showing the relationship between the cottage on the left and the main house on the right.

September 8, 2009
Here’s the front porch roof going up, which completes the entryway roof.

We put an eyebrow roof over the large peaked window on the south wall of the cottage (you can’t see the full window shape because the Tyvek is hanging down). This roof has a 3-foot overhang, which is necessary in order to get the proper solar shading angles for this tall window. With this overhang it will get full sun in mid winter, and it will be almost totally shaded in mid summer. This also gives it a lot of rain protection, so that the casement windows on the sides can be left open most of the time.

September 10, 2009
The garage doors have a 2-foot eyebrow roof over them, to protect them from rain. This is the last of the roof framing!

August 6, 2009
For the two showers we ordered Tile-Redi barrier-free shower bases from Home Depot. The first photo below shows the bottom of the shower base and the recessed area we formed in the concrete slab for it. The second photo shows how it sits in place. Only the exterior walls are framed at this point, and the interior walls will butt up against the shower base with cement backer board to hold the wall tiles. We set the shower base temporarily in place today so that the interior walls can be framed to fit.

The whole shower base and the 18″ wide area in front of it will be tiled, and the floor will slope gently down into the shower to make it easily accessible for a wheelchair. For those who are ambulatory it also eliminates the tripping hazard of a conventional shower curb. The base is a one-piece plastic composite pan, and comes with an epoxy for adhering the floor tiles to it. The base itself is a bit pricey, but it saves the labor cost of building up a conventional mortar base and waterproofing membrane for the shower. We’ll basically just glue it down and start laying tile on it.

August 25, 2009
Today we installed the shower bases, gluing the PVC drain lines into the bases as we set them in a bed of mortar. The directions say to spread the mortar, apply the glue, and press it into place. But we found it worked much better to test-fit the base into the mortar with no glue on the PVC. We lifted it up several times to correct unevenness in the mortar until it set solidly, THEN we applied the glue to the PVC fittings and set it in place permanently. Once the PVC glue sets it can’t be removed so it pays to get the fit just right first.

Here’s a photo of the shower base after it was set into the mortar. The plastic base sits about 1/8″ above the lowered area of concrete. We’ll bring this up to level with thin-set mortar, so that the floor tile will glide smoothly from the top floor level down into the shower. The overall drop is only about 3/8″ over a distance of 18″ so it’s a gentle slope, enough to drain any stray water into the shower but not enough to pose any barrier to users with limited mobility.

August 28, 2009
The carpenters placed blocking around the shower stall, to support grab bars. The ADA recommended grab bar height is 33″ to 36″ so we split the difference and centered the blocking at 34.5″ above floor level. It’s a good way to use up scraps of 2×6 and 2×8. Blocking for a shower seat will be added next. We also had them block the narrow stud pockets at the entry to the shower with solid wood, so we can install vertical grab bars there. The blocking continues from the shower area around behind the toilet so grab bars can be installed all along.

October 3, 2009
Jay’s brother Dave tests the accessibility of the shower. He says it’s roomy enough but not wet enough.

November 24, 2009
Our tile-setter Rick nailed Durock cement backer board inside the showers. At the bottom we used Redi Flash aluminum flashing that’s made to fit over the top of the shower base and behind the backer board in order to prevent water intrusion at this critical joint. This flashing was quite pricey at $55 per shower and we suspect that one could find something equivalent at a home center for much less, but it’s done and it should never leak. It’s sealed in with silicone caulk, which you can’t see very well in the photo.

Rick applied a liquid rubber membrane compound at all the joints to make them waterproof.

December 15, 2009
Rick started setting the tile in the cottage shower, beginning with the walls. We chose a relatively simple off-white tile with some texture for the walls, with a narrow accent band of blue glass tiles. We decided to include four corner shelves for holding soap and shampoo bottles, and we kept them low enough that a seated person can reach them but high enough that they won’t conflict with the grab bars to be added below.

The photo below shows the shower mostly finished. It’s still missing the bottom-most row of wall tiles, and it hasn’t been grouted yet so the grout lines look much darker than they will. Although you can’t really see it in this photo, Rick sloped the floor tile gradually in front of the shower, so it slopes down about 3/8″ from floor level into the shower pan, and the shower pan is sloped a bit more than that toward the drain. The floor tile is an unglazed porcelain with a rough anti-slip texture. Above the shower you can see the 8″ round inlet that will exhaust air through the heat recovery ventilator (HRV). On the left of the photo you can see two electrical boxes. The one up high is for a humidity sensor that will automatically switch the HRV to high (maximum airflow) when excess humidity is present, so it will automatically exhaust the air faster when someone is showering. The box down low is for a timer switch that does the same thing, but is manually activated so the occupants can switch the HRV to high for up to 60 minutes whenever more ventilation is needed. It’s right next to the toilet so increased ventilation is readily accessible should a need present itself.  🙂

December 22, 2009
This is a photo of the mud base laid under the sloped entry to the main house shower. It is sloped so that the tile will be even with the concrete floor on the right, and even with the tile laid into the Tile-Redi shower base on the left.

December 29, 2009
Today the grouting was completed in both showers. The first photo below shows the finished cottage shower, and the second photo shows Rick grouting the shower in the main house.

August 4, 2009
After completing essentially all of the exterior sheathing, the carpenters started to build the first interior walls. These photos show the north double wall, which is 16 inches thick from outer studs to inner studs. This space will be filled with 16″ of dense-pack cellulose insulation for an insulating value of R-60.

In the photos above you can see a large opening in the inner wall around the window. This will allow for flared window openings to let as much light into the bedrooms as possible, with a built-in bookshelf below. Here’s the design for the window well framing and approximately how it will look when it’s finished:

August 6, 2009
This photo shows the walls that will surround the 2500-gallon heat storage tank on the right, and the mechanical room on the left. The boards on the floor mark out where the hallway will be, with two bedroom doors to the right.

Here’s a view looking down through the middle of the 16-inch-wide north double wall. On the right is the exterior wall, and on the left are the interior studs. This whole space will get filled with cellulose insulation. On the bottom you can see the 6 inches of foam insulation that separates the heated interior floor slab on the left from the cold exterior foundation wall on the right.

August 7, 2009
The interior wall framing is nearly complete in the main house. The first photo below shows the front (south) walls of the two bathrooms. You can see the wide openings at the tops of these walls, which will be for daylighting windows that will let daylight into the bathrooms through the entry and kitchen since these bathrooms don’t have exterior windows. The second photo below shows the “nook” that is on the north wall of the living room next to the wood stove. It is just big enough to hold a day bed, so it provides extra living room seating during the day and an optional guest sleeping area at night.

August 10, 2009
The carpenters framed the interior walls of the entryway. The first photo below shows the 16-inch double wall on the south of the entryway. Through the window on the left you can just see the cottage porch, and the front door is on the right of the photo. The second photo shows the framing for the 48″ octagon window in the entryway, which will provide a view of the garden as one enters through the front door. Underneath the window will be a bench with storage for shoes and boots.

August 12, 2009
The carpenters began framing the interior walls of the cottage, starting with the interior half of each double outside wall.

The first photo below shows the double wall on the south side of the cottage dining room, and the second shows the north side of the dining room.

August 18, 2009
Now that the cottage roof sheathing is on, here’s how it looks inside. The first photo is of the sunporch viewed from the dining room looking southeast, and the second photo is looking north inside the vaulted ceiling of the cottage great room.

September 1, 2009
The walls of the main house kitchen are now framed in. The first photo below shows the view looking east as you enter the house, with the kitchen on the left and the dining room on the right. The interior window in the kitchen wall is over the sink (on the other side of the wall in this view), and it will hold an antique leaded glass window that we have had for many years. The second photo is looking west from the living room toward the kitchen.

September 17, 2009
Dan built an arch over the nook on the north side of the living room, where the day bed will go. Compare with the photo from August 7, above.

July 22, 2009
At last, the carpenters started framing the walls today. They started with the cottage, and because the concrete floor slab is still curing under the plastic and straw they had to assemble the walls on top of the plastic before erecting them.

These photos show the finished wall on the west side of the cottage, with one window in each bedroom. The outer walls are conventional 2×4 stud walls with studs 24″ on center, with a stud aligned directly under each roof truss. Later they’ll build the inner walls to form a double wall 16″ wide, which will get filled with cellulose insulation for a total R-value of about 60, which is more than 3 times the insulation level of typical houses built in this area.

July 23, 2009
By the end of the day the cottage walls were 3/4 done. What remains is the south wall, plus the interior wall along the porch. The first photo below is from the south looking north, and the second is from the north (atop the root cellar) looking south.

July 24, 2009
The outer walls of the cottage were finished up today. The big opening in the south wall is for the window unit that will form the south wall of the living room, with a triangular window that fits the vaulted ceiling inside. The second photo is looking south from atop the root cellar.

July 25, 2009
Today the carpenters framed the walls for the dining room bump-out in the main house. Since we haven’t ordered the windows yet, we’ll size the windows to match the rough openings instead of vice-versa. That way these windows will fill the available space in these walls.

Next they started laying up the sheathing on the cottage, which stiffens the structure a lot. They’ll run the sheathing right over the window openings and cut it out later, rather than trying to cut & fit the openings as they go. We chose to use plywood sheathing instead of oriented strand board (OSB), because the plywood is more moisture resistant and it will do a better job of holding the nails when the siding is attached to it. It’s a littlemore expensive than OSB but not a lot, and it will make the structure more durable.

July 27, 2009
Today they framed the rest of the south wall of the house. In the first photo below they’re installing the header over one of the large south windows, and the second photo shows the south windows in the dining room and the wall beside it. The passive solar gain from these windows will provide about a third of our heat in the winter.

After the south wall was done they continued around on the east side of the house, framing the interior wall that will separate the heated portion of the house from the unheated workshop and sun porch. This will become a double wall like the exterior walls, but because it’s not exposed directly to the outside it will be only 12″ thick instead of 16″ like the exterior walls. That will give us “only” about R-45 insulation in this wall, versus R-60 in the thicker walls. Even so it will still be 2.5 times better insulated than an average 6-inch stud wall.

July 28, 2009
Framing continued around to the north wall of the house, and here the carpenters are raising a section of the north wall. This shot was taken from atop the root cellar to the northwest of the garage.

The first photo below shows the south wall of the garage, with the front porch beyond it on the right. The second shot shows the view as you approach the front porch. You can see the rectangular depression in the porch that will hold the metal doormat.

July 29, 2009
Today they finished the last section of the north wall, and then framed in the front of the garage. Here they’re raising the large beam over the double garage door. Just to the right you can see the smaller beam over the single garage door. It looks like a 3-car garage, but it’s more likely to be a 2-car-plus-tractor-plus-trailer-plus-lots-of-stuff garage.

July 30, 2009
Today the carpenters framed the outer walls of the shop. This photo is taken from the east, looking west toward the shop. The south wall is not framed yet since it’s 18 feet high to create a large sloped roof over the shop. They’ll build that after the main roof trusses are in place.

August 1, 2009
These photos show the lower half of the wall sheathing applied to the north wall.

And this shows the front (west) side of the cottage and entryway with all of the sheathing in place. The front door of the house is on the left of this photo, with the cottage to the right.

August 3, 2009
Sheathing is mostly done, and this shows the wall dividing the house from the shop. This is just the outer wall, and there will be another one built next to it to form a superinsulated double wall. This was taken standing in the kitchen looking toward the living room.

Here are two views of the sheathing on the south wall, from inside and outside. The window openings aren’t trimmed yet so they’re partly covered by sheathing panels that will be trimmed away.

Here’s the sheathing applied to the cottage porch, also not trimmed yet.

August 11, 2009
The photos below show the completed and trimmed sheathing on the north and south walls.

Here are two views of the cottage with the sheathing trimmed.

Unfortunately, most of this needs to be removed and replaced! About half of the plywood sheathing is defective and has started to come apart after being exposed to the weather for only a short time. Ironically we chose to use plywood instead of the cheaper Oriented Strand Board because the OSB is less water-resistant in general, but in this case the plywood seems to have defective glue. The plywood manufacturer has agreed to replace the material and we’re expecting them to cover the labor also. Fortunately it should only take about a day to replace it, but it’s disappointing nevertheless.

August 18, 2009
Now that the main roof framing is complete and the exact roof height can be measured from the trusses, the carpenters built the front (south) wall of the workshop. This wall is about 18 feet high, which is necessary in order to get the clerestory windows above the porch roof that will sit in front. The first photo below is taken from inside the shop looking south, and the second photo is taken from just south of the house looking north. On the left in the foreground is the sunporch, and on the right is the open lanai. There are 7 clerestory windows at the top of the shop, each about 4 feet wide and 3 feet high. Once the sloping ceiling is in place this will throw a lot of indirect natural light across the whole workshop. The clerestories are awning windows so that we can leave them open all summer for ventilation.

July 10, 2009
The concrete crew laid down a grid of 3/8″ rebar in the cottage. The bars are 18″ apart, and they will hold the tubing for the in-floor heat. They also provide some reinforcement to the concrete slab, which will reduce its tendency to crack and shift, but the main purpose of the rebar is to hold the heat tubing while the concrete is being poured.

July 14, 2009
The rebar in the workshop was laid in an 18″ grid like that of the cottage.

July 15, 2009
We had some heavy rain, which left quite a bit of water on top of the plastic. This photo shows Liz vacuuming the water from the cottage with a wet/dry shop vac. A little bit of water won’t hurt the concrete, but if we were to pour it with deep puddles the excess water would weaken the concrete and make it more likely to crack.

We laid the heat tubing into the workshop, tying it to the rebar with wire. We don’t actually plan to heat the workshop with this tubing, but it’s relatively cheap to put it in now and impossible later so we put it in anyway. We may be able to partially heat the shop in the spring and fall when we have excess solar heat, but we don’t expect to have enough solar heat through the winter so we’ll have to rely on the wood stove to heat the shop when it’s really cold.

July 16, 2009
The concrete crew poured the workshop floor slab, which took two truck loads of concrete.

They leveled the concrete with a screed and then floated it smooth. The metal “cans” are the dust collection ducts, which stick out of the floor by about an inch. After the floor is done we’ll cut and grind these down flush with the floor.

As the concrete hardened they troweled it smooth. As soon as it was done we spread straw across it and covered it with plastic to keep the concrete moist while it cures.

After the shop was done they poured the concrete floor for the cottage shower. This sits 3 inches below the main floor, and it will take a shower base with tile that sits just below the floor level. The shower is not quite this big, so the main slab will extend over this one somewhat. The heat tubes go right down into the shower base so they’ll keep it warm, since this is an outside corner of the cottage where it might get cool.

July 17, 2009
The first photo below shows the heat tubing runs going from the mechanical room out to the cottage, under the entryway floor. The second photo shows the heat tubes in the cottage.The tubes are spaced 18″ apart, which is much farther apart than is typically done in a radiant floor slab, but this house will have so much insulation that it will require very little supplemental heat so we can space the tubes this far apart and still get sufficient heat into the house when needed. The tubing has an inside diameter of 5/8″, which gives significantly more heat flow than the more common 1/2″ tubing and that will allow us to heat with lower temperature water, which lets us extract more useable heat out of the solar collectors.

Pouring the cottage slab was much like pouring the workshop.

The crew screeded the concrete as they went, and used the power screed (in the second photo) to level the concrete and also to vibrate it to eliminate voids under the heat tubes and rebar.

In front of the shower we had them form an area that is slightly lower than the main floor and slopes down into the shower. We’ll tile this area so that any water splashed out of the shower will run back in.

After all the concrete was placed, they troweled it to make a smooth surface. We want it basically smooth, but not so smooth that it will be slippery when wet.

This shows the heating manifolds that will supply hot water to the tubing. The one for the cottage is on the left, and the one on the right will supply the entryway and the main house. While the concrete was being poured, we kept the system pressurized with air so that any damage to the tubing would be detected immediately. The concrete crew was careful and no damage occurred, nor was it likely since there are no splices under the floor, but seeing pressure on the gauge was reassuring.

As soon as the cottage floor was finished we spread straw on it, and then covered it with plastic to keep it moist. It will stay that way for about a week while the concrete cures. We hope this will reduce the tendency of the slab to crack, but some minor cracks are likely because the concrete shrinks as it cures. We decided to accept some random cracking, rather than cutting control joints into the concrete. Control joints cause it to crack along straight lines, but cutting them would risk damaging the heating tubes. Some people put the tubes way on the bottom of the slab so that control joints can be cut above them, but they transfer heat more efficiently in the middle of the slab where we have them.

After the crew was finished with the cottage slab they placed the rebar grid in the main house and entryway.

July 18, 2009
We laid three loops of tubing in the main house. One loop covers the three bedrooms, the second loop covers the living room and kitchen, and the third loop covers the dining room and in front of the south windows. Each loop is a few hundred feet long.

We put a short loop of tubing in the entryway. We don’t plan to heat this area as much as the rest of the house so it doesn’t take much tubing, but this should keep it from getting too cold. We plan to store coats and boots out here, so we don’t want them freezing cold in the winter.

This photo shows the tubes leading into heating manifolds that will distribute warm water to all parts of the house. They have balancing valves that let us adjust the flow to each loop, and the two manifolds will have separate pumps controlled by separate thermostats in the cottage and the main house. The 5/8″ tubing has an outside diameter of 3/4″, and we pushed it through 3/4″ conduit elbows to make the right-angle bends without kinking the tubing. Pushing it through is difficult but it works very well.

Before pouring the main house slab, we placed anchor bolts where some of the interior walls will be. Bolting down these interior walls that are perpendicular to the long back wall will give it a lot of lateral support.

July 20, 2009
At long last it was time to pour the main slab. It was poured much like the others, except that it’s rather big so they had two concrete trucks going simultaneously.

This was a big job so they needed a crew of 5 to get it done.

Around the edge of the slab that will support the hot water tank, we had them form a dam to contain any water that might leak (unlikely as it may be). We’ll grind down this dam near the floor drain in the mechanical room, and arrange it so that any leaks will be directed to the floor drain. With 2500 gallons of hot water, we want to prevent any spills from coming into the house. As the concrete hardened they troweled it to a smooth finish.

The entryway slab was poured last of all, and due to a slight miscalculation they ended up short on concrete and had to order another yard. The first photo below shows them placing the final yard and blending it in to the rest of the slab. This will probably be visible in the finished slab but most likely no one else will notice.

With all the concrete in place, we spread straw onto it and covered it all with plastic to cure. In this photo you can see the hot water tank area, which we didn’t bother to cover with straw. As you can see, the creases in the plastic mean that some parts are cured in contact with water and some aren’t, which causes a visible pattern in the surface. It’s somewhat attractive in this spot but in general it won’t look good, which is why we use straw in all the areas that will be visible.

July 23, 2009
Today the workshop floor had cured for a week so we removed the plastic and swept off the straw. Overall it looks good, although the areas around the central duct openings are noticeably lighter in color than the rest. Presumably this is because they had to hand trowel these areas, whereas the rest of the floor was finished with the power trowel. Hopefully it won’t be this noticeable in the similar areas of the main house slab.

July 24, 2009
The cottage had cured for a week so we removed the plastic and straw. In general the straw pattern looks nice in the floor. Some areas are darker and the straw pattern doesn’t show as well, but at least they don’t show a pattern of creases from the plastic.

July 10, 2009
To provide dust collection for the woodworking tools in the work shop, we ran ductwork underneath the slab floor. We didn’t want the ducts to be in contact with the dirt, to prevent corrosion and to insulate them from heat loss in the winter since they will be circulating the air in the shop. After laying out the duct runs we dug trenches about 10″ deep and lined them with 3″ foam insulation. Then we cut and fit the ductwork into the trenches temporarily. These photos make it look simple from start to finish but it was a long day even with four of us working on it. In the second photo you can see the duct branches leading toward the dust collector outlet in the foreground. There are 5 dust inlets around the perimeter plus two out in the middle of the shop.

July 13, 2009
Today Liz and Dan removed the ductwork and taped the seams, and they placed 6-mil plastic film around it for added moisture protection. We used spray foam as glue to hold together the foam on the walls and floor of the trenches.

July 14, 2009
We laid two layers of foam into the shop, so it will have the same level of floor insulation as the house. This is most likely more insulation than we need, but the incremental cost of the foam is fairly small and it keeps everything the same level. Plus, it should enable the slab to warm up a bit when we’re working out there in the winter with the wood stove going, and it leaves open the possibility of heating the shop full-time in the future.

We placed 12″ square wooden boxes into the floor, and we ran two 3/4″ conduits from the wall into them where we put boxes for electrical outlets. This will let us run power to the central tools in the shop without having cords overhead or underfoot. The boxes will sit about 1.5″ below the top of the concrete, and after the concrete is placed we’ll cut the openings square, and place wooden lids over them flush with the floor. The power cords from the tools will run through slots at the edges of the lid. With two conduit runs, we’ll supply 120 Volt power down one side and 240 Volts down the other.

August 19, 2009
Much of the shop construction has already been shown under Radiant Heated Floor Slabs and Exterior Wall Framing.The shop roof is different from the rest of the Roof Framing because instead of trusses, it uses I-joists to form a sloped ceiling. Once the 18-foot-tall south wall was in place, the I-joists were attached to the walls with angled metal brackets.

This shows the view from inside looking up toward the clerestory windows on the south wall.

Once the I-joists were in place the crew applied the roof sheathing. This extends the same roof plane from over the main section of the house.

The first photo below shows the view from southeast of the house looking back at the shop. Once we saw the nice view out of the east wall of the shop looking up into the trees, we decided to add 3 extra windows stepping down that wall as shown in the second photo below.

Here’s a view of it after the roof was framed over the porch and lanai to the south of the shop.

September 4, 2009
Now that the roof is waterproof and things are drying out, we opened up the electrical boxes in the floor. There is a fair amount of concrete covering them, which will need to be trimmed away in order to remove the plywood completely. Then we’ll make square wooden covers that will sit flush with the floor.

The dust collection ducts extended an inch or two above the concrete, so Jay trimmed them off with a reciprocating saw. This gets pretty close to the concrete but not close enough.

Next he ground them flush with the big grinder, and then used a smaller grinder to remove burrs from the edges.

This resulted in nice smooth openings that are completely flush with the floor. We’ll run dust piping from all the tools into these ports, and any that aren’t being used can be closed off with a metal cap that sits only 1/16th of an inch above the concrete. The second photo below shows the inlet for the table saw dust collection, next to the in-floor electrical box.

July 8, 2009
After pouring the roof of the Root Cellar, the crew started pouring the slabs for the porches starting with the front porch.

We had them form a recess for a metal doormat in the front porch, in front of the front door. The doormat will sit in this recess so that its top is level with the porch floor. First Chuck scooped out concrete in the approximate shape, then he set a wood and foam form into the recess.

As he smoothed it out he weighted it down with rocks to maintain the proper level.

After the front porch was done they moved on to the cottage sunporch.

And then finally they poured the lanai slab, next to the cistern and in front of (south of) the workshop. Once all three porch slabs were done and hard enough to walk on, we spread straw on them and then covered them with plastic to keep the concrete moist as it cures.

July 9, 2009
Today the crew poured the garage floor slab. It is level with the main house slab on the east side (to the left in these photos), and it slopes down about 3 inches to the doors on the west (right) side.

After it was firm enough to walk on, they used a power trowel to finish the surface. Then we covered it with plastic to cure, and the following morning they cut joints into the slab to control cracking. We covered it again so it wouldn’t dry out too fast.