Twinsprings Research Institute

Service Chase Rules

Posted on August 13, 2016 by ellen

We chose to create an expensive air barrier inside the house with Siga Majpell, a breathable membrane that forms an air barrier while allowing for the drying of the interior of the wall or ceiling should they get moisture inside. To protect the membrane from most penetrations and also to allow for a nailer for the drywall that is firmly screwed through the 1 1/2 inch polyiso insulation layer on the ceiling, we installed 1×4 battens similar to these pictured on a Green Building Advisor posting. These battens also create a service chase for wiring in the ceiling.

Sample Ceiling Service Chase

I think because I allowed the garage wall to be wired internally the principle of no penetrations did not set well with the workers. The electrician commented several times that he wished all the insulation and membrane were not “in the way”.

Garage wall used for wiring before membrane is installed.

For a narrow outside wall near the master bedroom outside door we had to install an outlet to meet code. That was also the most convenient spot for the outside light switch. I chose to fur out the wall to a 1 x 2 depth to avoid penetrating the membrane. The project manager was OK with that plan to install the outlet and switch in front of the membrane.
Imagine my surprise when the electricians cut the membrane and pulled out insulation to install the boxes in that wall!

Cut Membrane

When I told the electrician that the membrane could not be cut, he argued that the size of the box was a certain cubic inches and had to be used. I said no, the membrane could not be cut. It was a difficult thing to have the argument and it made both of us upset. But I said we could ask the project manager. He was called and he came over to investigate and told them they could use a different kind of box in that wall. So they took out their boxes and I repaired the membrane overnight.

Insulation replaced and membrane repaired

I also sealed the outside light wire through the membrane again, this time from the edge.

Outside Light Penetration

The electricians were then able to use a different kind of box to stay within the service chase. It was not pleasant but isn’t the customer always right?

New Boxes

I found that in the article about the service chase another builder was frustrated by the trade workers. His answer was to forget using a service chase in the future.

I spent the majority of the building phase biting my nails and micromanaging all the trades to ensure they didn’t compromise the layer. Now it’s time to constantly annoy the occupants… for years and years.

I disagree that as occupants we will continually be annoyed by the service chase though. Instead we will enjoy the benefits of a well sealed home with very few service penetrations.

Posted in Air Intrusion/Thermal Envelope, Electrical | Comments Off

Electricians Are Here

Posted on August 5, 2016 by ellen

We are not going to miss the wiring hanging over our heads in the kitchen.

Temporary Wiring in Kitchen

Now we have a junction box for the old wiring and new wires run to meet code for outlets and appliance power.

Electricians installing Junction Box

The first task they had was running down all the existing circuits.

Circuit List

They found some that we were not able to find!
Then they began installing the new outlet boxes. These were the very first ones.

Outlet Box over Kitchen Counter

Next they ran the new wire in the walls.

Wiring from Junction Box to Kitchen and Utility Room

They are also running any existing wire in good shape to this junction box. Some existing wires extend all the way to the master bedroom where they will junction them for that side of the remodel.

Existing wires to Junction Box

I compromised on my NO ELECTRICAL PENETRATION IN OUTSIDE WALL policy and the wiring on the garage side is in the wall. That is not as bad as an outside wall since it is protected by the garage which is insulated. I will have to seal around the boxes and inside them with the vapor barrier and caulk.

Garage Wall Wiring

The electricians expect to be working all next week which would make it a 10 day job. I’m looking forward to having this step completed and inspected and signed off.

Posted in Electrical | Comments Off

Coolness

Posted on August 2, 2016 by ellen

I had to give up on the chiller again. I had repiped through the heat exchanger with a single path for the return water to pick up the coolness but the chiller could not reduce the temperature in the floor piping. It could do a fine job on its own loop without pumping the floor water through the heat exchanger, but the temperature of the water in both loops went up to about 73 when cooling the floor. That temperature did nothing to cool the house during the day.

Heat Exchanger Piping for Chiller

Chiller setting without floor cooling

So when my cousin was visiting I opened the windows at night and let the fans blow in cool Colorado night air. But during the day that was not enough.

Fan in Window

The electrician asked me to clear out the utility room to make it easier for them to run wires there. So I took out the storage tank for the wood boiler and disassembled the chiller and removed it too. Before my brother and sister-in-law arrived I also installed the evaporative cooler in a front door. This is exactly the spot we had it installed in previous summers but we had a window then.

Evap Cooler installed in Door

Evap Cooler Outside

No more running around opening and closing windows each morning and evening! We open the windows opposite of the cooler and leave them open. The cooler keeps the indoors about mid 70’s even on the hottest days. I do turn it to low at night. One morning we woke up and it was 65 degrees in the house. It needs to run on the high speed during the day though.
These things works so well. Too bad I have to put a hole in the house if I want to install one that we don’t remove in the winter.

Posted in Radiant Cooling, Ventilation | Comments Off

RecoupAerator!

Posted on July 31, 2016 by ellen

Between visits I contacted Todd at AE Building Systems to finally purchase the Energy Recover Ventilator. I had long ago planned to install this device to meet the LEED requirements for air exchange in our well sealed house. Todd had one in stock and I drove over to pick it up that day. The Ultimate Air RecouperAerator is considered the most energy efficient ERV built in the US. I bought the 200DX model which is the larger of two that they now manufacture.

Since we are expecting the electricians next week I wanted to be sure they were aware of the size and electrical requirements for the ventilator and for the radon fan in the small attic. They will be installing a junction box in the same little attic area so it will help to see what else goes up there.

Ultimate Air RecoupAerator Unpacked

ERV Side without Cover

I took advantage of my brother’s visit to have him help lift the 72 pound unit up into the attic area. Two of the rubber feet fell off as we jockeyed it around but they do slip back on.

John placing the ventilator in attic

I have the ducting plan and will build a chase for the ductwork to distribute the fresh air and exhaust the stale air. This must be done before the drywall is installed.

Posted in Ventilation | Comments Off

Family Visits!

Posted on July 31, 2016 by ellen

A few breaks this summer included camping with my grandson, Wolfgang and his parents while his mom counseled at a camp for kids. It was near the ocean and a beautiful place.

California Coast

We stayed in a KOA Campground cabin near Santa Cruz. No bathroom but otherwise pretty luxurious camping.

KOA Cabin

Dad and baby and I hung out and visited Mom for comfort and nursing during the day. Mom joined us at night. So much fun!

Wolf and his Dad

Then my cousin and her husband and my brother and sister-in-law visited these past couple of weeks. We got to sit in the spa, drink Moscow Mules, do some hiking, eat good food and take little trips with my Mom around the area. Plus we got some work in while our guests went out to play.

Cousin Jackie and Grant at the Buckhorn

Ellen and Jean hiking past friendly alpacas

John and Mom hiking near Clear Creek in Golden

Posted in Diversions | Comments Off

Attempted Structural Inspection

Posted on July 20, 2016 by ellen

I was under the impression that the walls needed to pass inspection before the electrician could use them for installing electrical. However, when the inspector arrived yesterday, he said the rough electrical and plumbing has to be done first. But he was kind enough to do a courtesy inspection of sorts. The walls are good at 24 in OC and floating. I explained the version of the door framing we used and he even agreed it was a good way to frame them. I was impressed again with how helpful and kind the Arvada inspectors are!

We do need to strap one area of multiple 2 x 4’s that was original to the house and he said to be sure to plan for hard-wired smoke and carbon monixide detectors in the correct positions in the halls and master bedroom and entry. Also the plumbing channels need metal plates to protect them from nails.

Many visitors are amazed by the extent of our remodel. The idea of taking out a concrete floor and repouring it boggles most people’s minds. But we were willing to take on the project without much hesitation. Instinctively we knew that this house has “good bones”.

Starting the new slab

We disassembled the house interior above the slab area, broke out all the old concrete, and designed and installed a more stable and efficient floor.

Walls come tumbling down

Then slowly but surely we put back the underground plumbing, the heating system, the slab and now the walls.

Master closet and bath walls

Of course the list of things to do is still very long but now that the walls are up we are ready to close her up again. What a great feeling.

Posted in Floating Walls, Inspections | Comments Off

Shower Drain

Posted on July 19, 2016 by ellen

The rough in shower drain flange is installed in the master bathroom.

Master Bath Shower Drain

I had to use the power hammer to break up the concrete around the drain and eventually cut out a section of rebar to fit the drain below the floor. I trimmed about 2″ off the existing pipe and then filled in around the hole with expanding foam. The drain sits level with the concrete bottom of the shower.

Power Hammer and Shower Drain

The lineal pan drain I want to use will sit about 1″ above the rough in drain. The shower floor is recessed about 1 1/2″. I am hoping at 1/4″ per foot, I can slope the shower floor enough to have a curbless shower. In order to avoid two levels of shower pan, I plan to use a Schluter system which is described as a single layer system.

Colorado Shower Drain

Posted in Plumbing | Comments Off

Re-Piping the Chiller

Posted on July 17, 2016 by ellen

I tried repiping the chiller to a primary/secondary delivery system. The Taco 11 pump was set up to pump through the primary loop and feed into and out of the secondary loop powered by the Grundfos variable speed pump. I put in closely spaced tees and sent the water into the “hot” supply side of the radiant system where it is pumped through the open valves into the cold return system and back into the chiller.

Primary Secondary Chiller Piping

The front of the chiller is the input from the return side of the radiant system. The return pipe connects to the primary loop through the closely spaced tees then through the chiller to the output water from the back of the chiller through the pump and then to the tee that feeds the supply side of the radiant system.

Closely Spaced Chiller Loop Tees

Unfortunately, the new system’s return water was even hotter than without the primary secondary piping. The controller read about 74 degrees and running the chiller all night did not reduce the temperature of the input water from the radiant system. In theory this return water would continue to get cooler and eventually cool enough to shut off the chiller. Running the chiller also added heat to the room so the morning temperature was over 80 degrees inside with 66 degrees outside.

This lack of chilling of the water in the pipes makes no sense to me. I figure each 106 ft. of 1/2 inch pex holds a gallon of water. There are about 1470 ft. of pipe in the floor and maybe 80 more ft above the floor. Some of that is 3/4″ or 1 1/4″. So approximately 14-15 gallons in the floor and 80 ft. of 3/4″ pipe would add about 2 gallons to the total.
The chiller is rated to cool 300 gallons of water at 12-22 gph. Of course it is adding heat to the air around the tank but it seems that it should be chilling the water going through it anyway. When the pipes to the floor are shut off, the chiller comes on correctly and shuts off when the water cools enough. But I can’t get the radiant system water to cool so that the concrete floor can be chilled.

I hope I can eventually figure this out.

Posted in Appliances, Reduce Reuse Recycle | Comments Off

Short Walls and Shower Ceiling

Posted on July 16, 2016 by ellen

A few extra walls have been built and we are very close to being finished with them. I have scheduled a structural inspection for next week. I hope the walls pass inspection without issues.

This short shower plumbing wall had to be six inches wide to allow for the water supply pipes and vent.

Shower wall with plumbing

Stepping back, these are the walls in the master bedroom that form the closet and the bathroom.

Master closet and bath walls

Another six inch wall separates the dining room from the solar hall in the living room. It was built to hold both the plumbing for a bar sink if we decided to install one and the electrical outlets so they would not penetrate the outside wall.

Dining/Living Room Wall

Between the kitchen counters and the bar area in the living room, a half wall was built about six inches above the counters for electrical outlets in the kitchen.

Kitchen/Living Room Half Wall

We also needed a ceiling in the shower area to hold the horizontal fan and shower light.

Shower Ceiling

I ordered the outside vent for the bathroom fan and a 4 1/8″ hole saw to install it. The electricians will install the fan/shower light combo that I purchased. It is a Panasonic FV-08VRE1.

Panasonic FV-08VRE1

The fan is hidden behind the shower light in this version. Although not the most energy efficient, it is Energy Star rated. It has an efficiency of about 4 CFM/Watt. The Whisper Green is about 11.5 CFM/Watt.

The existing bathroom fan will be upgraded to a Whisper Green Select with a Humidity Control Module. But this recessed fan will have a humistat on the wall as well as switches for the light and the fan. I have ordered the condensation sensor/timer/light switch for this fan (FV-WCCS2-A) from ebay.

FV-WCCS2-A

Posted in Appliances, Construction, Energy Efficiency, Floating Walls, Ventilation | Comments Off

Master Bath Sink Plumbing

Posted on July 15, 2016 by ellen

The new underground plumbing for the master bathroom met the old vent pipe. The old sink drained into this pipe and the new sink will too. But I had to reconfigure the pipe for the new sink.

Old master sink plumbing

I replaced the black pipe up to the old vent pipe with new 2″ white PVC and moved the drain from the front to the rear of the vent pipe.

Reconfigured Plumbing

The new plumbing will run along the wall behind the vanity and connect under the sink. Simple change but it made room for the new shower wall.

Posted in Plumbing | Comments Off

Master Bedroom Doors

Posted on July 9, 2016 by ellen

We planned for double doors to the master bedroom and it is truly exciting to see the entrance finally framed in.

48 inch Doorway from inside the master bedroom

The door is at an angle to the living area and hallway to the back rooms. We thought the angled door would make the hallway seem less narrow. I believe it works.

Door to Master Bedroom

The door will be a focal point for the room both inside and outside. Especially with the Rustic doors.
The doors will open into the bedroom and across from these double doors is the outside door to the patio area. Beautiful access to the hot tub and lounging area outside. There will be a small framed bookshelf next to where the radon pipe is boxed in. There will be a platform/shelf above the door that is framed in by 2×6’s.

Master Bedroom Entry with Outside Door and Rustic Doors

Finally seeing the walls up is fantastic for us. And the electrician is scheduled for August 1st. So the push to have walls ready for all the outlets and the ceilings for the light fixtures is on.

Posted in Floating Walls | Comments Off

Radon Sealing

Posted on July 8, 2016 by ellen

There is a lot of attention to detail that has to be paid during the construction. One requirement of the radon mitigation is to caulk all the penetrations through the slab. Since our water lines and drains do penetrate the slab, I have to remove the cushioned foam at the slab level that protected the pipes during the concrete pour and caulk the edges around the pipes.

Caulking at dining room plumbing

Sealing around some of the openings required a LOT of caulk. I used the Loctite Heavy Duty PL375 low VOC caulk that we have been using for the whole project. There is a lot of caulk to bridge the wider gaps caused by the double pipes in some places. I filled the gaps with backer rod and then caulked over the gaps.

Master bath shower wall caulking

The penetrations without gaps in the concrete slab were much easier to caulk.

Master bath tub supply caulking

The caulking precedes the walls that go up around the pipes. So tomorrow these bottom plates will be glued for walls to be built next week.

Posted in Radon Mitigation | Comments Off

Electrician’s List

Posted on July 7, 2016 by ellen

Most of the walls are in and we are planning to get the electrical done as soon as possible after the walls are built. Last summer the electrician redid the service box and put in the outside disconnect and we had to wait several weeks until they had time in their schedule. This year the company is not as busy. They mentioned that in an election year, people are less inclined to have work done on their houses. I was surprised by that. I have had the budget for this work for several years now and just hope it can still be done for about what we have been estimating.

I redid the electrical plan to update it to the most recent plan for lighting and outlets.

Dibble Res_Electric Plan_Rev-07_16 w_core

The electrician did not seem excited about all the furniture etc. in the way of the work. Of course that is a problem for the workers. The utility room was especially problematic because there is little wall space. So I offered to remove the storage tank for the boiler system.

We discussed the following list of tasks that have to be done before the electricians can come and do the work.

Clear out garage for access to the electrical box.
Build all walls for electrical boxes.
1. Short wall in dining room
2. Half wall for kitchen outlets–6 inches above countertops
3. Plumbing wall in master bath
4. Shower ceiling
5. Finish wall for master bedroom door
Box in living room post with hardibacker
Membrane with boards for ceiling fixtures
Move boiler storage tank out of utility room
Move furniture away from walls at electrical outlets.
Shim out walls for electrical install in bathroom and master bedroom outside wall outlet.

I think that was it although when he was here it seemed like a long list of things to get done in a 2-3 week time frame.

Posted in Electrical, Floating Walls | Comments Off

Two Doors

Posted on July 7, 2016 by ellen

These two door frames are in the master bedroom. The door on the left is for the walk in closet and the one on the right accesses the bathroom.

Master Bedroom Doors

The angles were a little tricky in order to fit two 36″ doors. These wide doors will allow wheelchair access if ever needed. I have the rustic doors for the spaces. They will be double doors that I bought on craigslist.

Craigslist Bifold Doors

There is one wide plumbing wall left to build in the master bathroom and the shower needs a ceiling to install the fan/light combination that I ordered. We are trying to get all the walls in so that the electrician can come and rewire the house.

Posted in Floating Walls | Comments Off

Trying a Chiller Again

Posted on July 6, 2016 by ellen

I do not give up easily on an idea, especially when my research shows it is viable. It is just a matter of setting up the right combination of cooling and circulation to create a chilled floor. About a week ago I tried running well water through the floor and that worked to chill the floor slightly. Even though I set up a pump to get the water outside, I felt it was using a LOT of well water. I’m not sure how strong the well is and although it is a relatively wet year, what would happen in a dry year?
Reasoning that a chiller might be more able to chill just the floor pipes and not the storage tank, I bought another chiller, this time from Craigslist. It is a 1/3 horsepower modular chiller from Prime. They no longer market these chillers but it has a reasonable reputation in aquarium forums. The modular chiller is stronger than the 1/3 horsepower tower chiller by the same manufacturer–it is rated to chill 300 gallons at 12-22 gpm flow rate.

Plumbing the Chiller

I plumbed the chiller into the radiant system and turned off the boiler and closed off the pipes to it. Then I tried just using the Grundfos pump to circulate chilled water but it never got over 3 gpm. That is too low for the chiller to work properly.

Chiller with Grundfos Pump

So I took out the Taco 011 and hooked it up in series with the Grundfos. Of course the piping leaked a couple of times and had to be redone. I didn’t have all the connections I needed and I had to work around the Home Depot being out of stock of the specific Sharkbite connections that I wanted to use.

Adding the Taco Pump

I have the chiller running right now at a setpoint of 67 with a current temp of 70 and a 2 degree differential. The Taco pump will continue to run even when the system shuts off.

Controller set to 67

I will have to figure out how to control it with the thermostats. Currently they open the appropriate zone valve and turn on the Grundfos pump set on cool instead of heat. But when the room meets the set temperature the Grundfos will turn off. I’m not sure how much of a problem that is for the pump if the secondary pump is still operating.

Chiller System Plumbing

Right now I’m waiting to see if the water will cool the floor and maintain a cooler temperature during the day. Ideally this system is paired with ventilation. If this works, installing ventilation would be the next step, after getting the electrical done of course.

Unfortunately the chiller has the same problem as the others even with a shorter run to chill. The temperature of the water going through the chiller stayed at 70 degrees all night and the refrigeration unit added heat to the utility room so that the whole house did not cool down as much as it had without the chiller or even just water circulation.

Posted in Radiant Cooling | Comments Off

Pocket Door

Posted on July 3, 2016 by ellen

Pocket Door Installed

We have friends in construction who don’t like pocket doors. They say no matter what the door will eventually move off track and out of alignment and they are a pain to fix. But I had planned for a pocket door for the utility room. And I didn’t want the door to swing either into the kitchen or into the small utility room but I wanted a 36″ door to more easily move a washer and dryer through the door. So I purchased the best quality pocket door frame I could find. It is the Johnson Products 2400 and I purchased it from Hartford Building Products through Amazon.
I have learned it is not a good idea to keep new products unopened and uninstalled. Sometimes when it comes to the installation, something is missing from the package or there is some damage that was not noticed. So I wanted to install the door frame as soon as the wall was up.
I found the installation instructions a little confusing. Maybe I was just tired, but I had read them when I ordered the door frame and again when I was putting it up. I was concerned that the screws sent were longer than those called for in the instructions. For most of the install I used them anyway. I used my own 1″ cap screws to fasten into the header as the ones sent seemed too long. There was only one header bracket and it didn’t mention that the other was already installed in the header so I spent some time looking for a second one. I didn’t notice that the screw holes had to be at the top of the metal studs for screwing them into place so had to take apart the stud and redo it.
Since I was feeling confused I looked up a youtube video for this frame and found two excellent ones but the position of the wood strip is different in my door frame. Still it helped to see an actual install. I am glad I didn’t have to do the demolition and rebuild that most have to do to install in existing construction.

Lower Pocket Door Frame

Upper Pocket Door Frame

So between the confusion and my slowness it took me a couple of hours to install the door frame and the door. Getting the door out of the way and hung safely was a good accomplishment too. I bought this door from Craigslist for $50. Quite a bargain.

The door has a clear glass full pane and I watched an etching of clear glass on a home improvement show that looked really cool. But after reading about what can go wrong while etching, I decided to opt for window film and vinyl stencils to help screen out the utility stuff in this room. But the full light door will let in plenty of daylight which will help illuminate this small dark room.

Posted in Reduce Reuse Recycle | Comments Off

Fixing the Plumbing

Posted on July 3, 2016 by ellen

After our courtesy rough plumbing inspection, there were a couple of items I had to take care of. The side drain to the bathroom sink had too many connections. Only one is allowed between the trap and the wall pipe.

Existing bathroom sink pipes

I wanted to move the piping into the new wall to line up with the sink placement

Wall sink plumbing

I replaced the polyiso “walls” over the framing to enclose the bathroom until the drywall is installed.

New Sink Plumbing

The dishwasher and water filter drains were draining directly into the sewer pipe. If I had put a trap under this stand pipe, like the washing machine drain, it would be OK but both of these drains needed a trap under them. The rule is ALWAYS a trap between fresh water and the sewer.

Existing dishwasher and Filter Drain Piping

An S trap would have worked well here but they no longer meet code so I had to plug the upper part of the P-trap.

S trap to P trap

New P-Trap Drain Plumbing

Luckily I put these two tasks on the summer list so they can be checked off!

Posted in Inspections, Plumbing | Comments Off

Cooling and Thermal Mass

Posted on June 28, 2016 by ellen

We are finding that the house holds heat well. In winter that is a good thing. In summer, it is more difficult to cool the house. It gets cool at night in Colorado. The humidity can go up at night too. After blowing cooler air into the house all night through two open windows with all windows open the house still retains a lot of heat.

Night cooling

During the day with all the windows closed and two people working inside, the temperatures get high, although not as high as outside.We may be creating the heat ourselves.

You must also consider internal heat gain, both latent and sensible, from people, appliances, electronics, bathing, cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. While the house may be superinsulated to retard heat gain or loss due to outdoor conditions, the structure is also retarding heat loss from internal sources. http://hvac-talk.com/vbb/showthread.php?139357-Night-cooling-of-super-insulated-home

So with these high temperatures we get uncomfortable while working inside.

Daytime temperature

I tried to connect the evaporative cooler that I used with the old windows, but after examining the new windows closely, I realized that the screws holding the windows were tightly connected and awkward to remove and I didn’t want to strip a screw in the new expensive windows just to put in an old cooler. So I gave up.

The small indoor evaporative cooler that I bought does not do much to cool the large living area so I moved it to the bedroom where it does an admirable job getting the temps down to about 73 but adding humidity to the room even with the opposite window open all the way. The humidity makes the cooling feel clammy which I never noticed with the larger window cooler.

So these efforts got me back to the radiant cooling study. I had planned to use a chiller to cool the water in the radiant loops and the storage tank that was installed for the fireplace boiler. I examined the pipes in the utility room and realized that I could run well water through the radiant pipe and out the drain, like when the system is being flushed. This leaves the storage tank out of the system completely.

I got out the FLIR camera to test the idea. This is the floor in the living room at about 2 PM.

Living Room Floor about 76 degrees

I opened one radiant valve and its drain and water began to flow through the loop. After 30 minutes I began to see some cooling in the radiant pipes.

Well water starting to cool floor

So cool water will cool some of the thermal mass maybe enough to retain that cold throughout the day. I didn’t want gallons of fresh water running into the septic tank so I closed the valve at this point.

Ideally I would figure out how to use an evaporator for the mini-split air conditioner to chill the water with the heat producing condenser outside. But that is a large project that I don’t have time for right now. If we can use the water that would run through the radiant pipes outside in the garden, it might be OK to just use our well water.

There can be an issue with condensation, however, the solution to that is to only run cool water when the humidity in the room is lower than the dew point.

In most commercial buildings, protecting against the risk of condensation can be quite simple. The coolest point in the fluid’s path through the radiant circuit is, by definition, the entering water temperature at the supply header of a radiant cooling manifold. Therefore, it makes the most sense to monitor and control the system from this point. Ensuring the entering water temperature is never lower than 1.6 C (3 F) above dew point effectively mitigates condensation. http://www.constructionspecifier.com/being-radiant-planning-in-slab-hydronic-heating-and-cooling

The easiest way to pump the well water used by the radiant cooling system outside to the garden is to use a sump pump and a collection tub. So I have one on order to try this new radiant cooling idea. And I’m wondering if the chillers I tried last summer would have worked if I had not tried to cool the whole storage tank but just the water in the loops instead.

Posted in Planning, Radiant Cooling | Comments Off

Slow but Steady WALLS!

Posted on June 27, 2016 by ellen

We have been putting up walls since we returned from vacation. Each wall’s placement must be finalized and the base plate is glued down first. The base plates are weighted and then we wait at least 24 hours to build the floating wall above.

Bathroom base plates

Closet base plates

The wall between the bathroom and the kitchen was completed today.

Bathroom side of wall

Kitchen side of wall

Next to the refrigerator will be a small pantry with a door. The pantry cabinet we have been using is now inside that space. The shelves will be 15 inches deep and the radon pipe is concealed by this closet.

On the bathroom/family room side is the rather strange shaped closet outlined in the above photo. It will also have an 18″ door and the shelves although oddly shaped will be at least 15 inches deep. Perfect for guest linens and towels and maybe a few games.

This small section went in today.

Bath wall section between vent pipe and utility room

This corner is tricky because the plumbing for the shower, utility room and bathroom come together here and so do the bathroom and utility room walls. Plus there is not a lot of room to work in this corner.

I also put in the base plates in the corner of the pantry closet and we finished installing the 2 x 8 beam for the bathroom hanging wall. Temporary shelf brackets held up the 2×8 while we were installing it. The wall is screwed to the structure above and braced at the two ends.

Braced 2×8 from below

Top 2 x 8 plate for floating bathroom wall

The bathroom wall juts out by the width of a 2 x 4 so had to widen the base for the new wall. The new wall will hang from the outside edge of the 2 x 8 and be lined up with the plates installed on the floor that give enough room for the toilet clearance on both sides.

Hopefully we can get this extended wall built and attached to the base plates this week.

We will also need to frame in for a pocket door in the utility room and the kit for installation should be arriving in the next day or two.

With these walls in the house underway we are making progress after our vacation.

Posted in Floating Walls | Comments Off

Well Pump Electrical Box Moved

Posted on June 22, 2016 by ellen

I had put off moving this electrical box because I thought it was a big job. It was not. All I had to do was shut off the electricity and unscrew the box from the wall.

Well Electrical Box

The utility room wall has to be in the corner where the box was located. I just moved it over to the other side of the wire connection to the outside.

Well Electrical Box Moved

I had a bit of trouble drilling the holes for the screw anchors. I used four new masonry drill bits and needed a fresh battery for my drill. I used the hammer setting and used one different sized anchor but I got three holes drilled which was what was holding it before. It was easy to screw into the anchors and the box was set. The breakers were turned back on–it is 220 volts, and the well pump worked again.
Now we have a space for the utility wall to get attached to the inside of the concrete wall at this corner. Next I have to plan for a pocket door for this wall.

Posted in Electrical | Comments Off

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