Yearly Archives: 2012

Passing the Underground Rough In

Signed Sealed Delivered. 12/10/12 It was not easy to pass the plumbing inspection. Not because the inspector was difficult or picky, quite the opposite. Our inspector was VERY helpful and wanted to see us pass and recommended wet venting the … Continue reading

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Designing a Kiva Fireplace with a Boiler Stove Insert

I have always admired Kiva fireplaces. They seem both rustic and homey. And this house already has a rough stucco wall in the living room area so a Kiva seemed to be a perfect fit. Our architect, James Plagmann, drew … Continue reading

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Plumbing Disaster!

Construction is exhausting work. Sometimes being tired at the end of a work day will lead to an error of judgement that causes a “disaster”. Unfortunately this happened while pressure testing the new drains for the first time. It was … Continue reading

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HP Geotech Geotechnical Engineering Study

We wanted this house even though it was not in great shape. We knew we had to figure out why the slab had cracked so badly and repour a slab that would not have the same damage in the future. … Continue reading

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Courtesy Inspection

Laying the drains and vents for the house took several days. We had hoped to have an inspection after only 3 days of layout and gluing but after 3 days we ended up asking for a courtesy inspection instead of … Continue reading

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Uponor Wirsbo Complete Design Assistance Manual 4th Edition

The very best resource I found for understanding the requirements and design parameters of radiant heating was a book borrowed from my friends who installed their own radiant system a few years ago. It is a large paperback from Uponor … Continue reading

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Manual J Calculations

Manual J is a product of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America for determining the heating/cooling load to size equipment for a home. They have a spreadsheet available on their website that requires filling in all the product info for … Continue reading

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Radiant Heat Intro

This new slab floor and our goal of energy efficiency point towards even, warm floor, radiant heat instead of the existing baseboards. Since hydronic radiant heat requires a lower temperature than baseboards, it is capable of incorporating several different heat … Continue reading

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Another Sewer Installment

Figuring out the sewer layout has been a bit more difficult than anticipated. One of the most difficult is communicating the completed design. The diagrams of each plumbing layout just didn’t have enough accurate information. All the tees are actually … Continue reading

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More Sewer Fun

The previous post accounts for the biggest open question about the plumbing in the master bathroom–do we need the dry vent for the toilet? Well, what would it hurt anything right? In the family room bath the toilet is at … Continue reading

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Sewer Simulations

What? Now we have to replace the sewer to “code”? Yep, that is a permit’s requirements. These fussy cities, what do you do? Umm, figure out the code? I was able to download the codes after feverish searching on the … Continue reading

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Permit Possibilities

I went to the city To buy a fat pig (permit) Home again, home again, jiggidy jig. I have been very pleased by how helpful the permit office in Arvada has been to me. I have visited a few times … Continue reading

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Repurposed Materials

Mark Benjamin, of Crown Jade, recommended this very imaginative business in Denver as a source of the R-15 insulation I needed for the perimeter of the foundation.   Repurposed Materials is mostly dedicated to reusing industrial materials in new, imaginative … Continue reading

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Into the Void (Our Caisson Foundation)

We were very pleasantly surprised to find that the rear wall that holds back the earth bermed north side of the house has a caisson foundation. I had never heard of this type of foundation, and it is not generally … Continue reading

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Dirt Can’t Hide (From Intensified Digging)

Excavation resumed after the plumbing was dug out. The goal was 16 1/2 inches down from the top of slab or about a foot of digging throughout. The first few inches were completed before the plumbing was dug out, just … Continue reading

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The Trouble at the Bottom….. (Pete Seeger)

We can say it is a good thing to find the trouble at the bottom which would have reared its ugly head someday especially if we had tried to install a cosmetic fix for the existing slab. Excavation of the … Continue reading

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Back at the Ranch

Now that the players have all been described, how are things going at the house? The slab was removed after days of breaking it up with the jack hammers and hauling wheelbarrows of concrete out to the rubble field. We … Continue reading

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HP Geotech

I asked the Asbestos test engineer, Rick Luce, for a recommendation for a soils engineer, as he had mentioned that he worked with several and would give me a recommendation when the time came. He recommended Alan Lisowy at HP … Continue reading

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Waffle Mat Slab

The Waffle Mat system uses 19 1/2″ X 19 1/2″ X 8 1/2″ recycled plastic boxes. The boxes have a rim on two sides and can be used in sets of 4 or individually depending on the design. I decided … Continue reading

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Crown Jade Design and Engineering

At Greg’s strong recommendation, I decided to seek out a structural engineer who would be willing to take care of the specific design using WaffleMat for our installation. The person I chose had presented at a USGBC event as a … Continue reading

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