Twinsprings Research Institute

Arizona Wisdom and Geometry

Posted on April 9, 2016 by ellen

We lived in Arizona for almost 15 years and learned to love the flora and fauna native to the state. Despite years of living in the midwest, we had read about saguaro cactus, prickly pear, creosote bushes, palo Verde, mesquite, and the roadrunners, gambel’s quail, coyotes, tarantulas and scorpions of the desert southwest, but actually living with these wonders and learning to enjoy the sparse beauty and long views of the desert was a fantastic experience. One of the desert’s lessons that I read in a book was to never confuse being able to see a destination in the distance with the time it would take to actually get there. It is true that a mountain appears in the Arizona landscape hours before you actually arrive there by car. That lesson struck me as so true then and definitely applies to this house project.

I was just writing the end is in sight, but it feels quite a distance off once I start working on any one part of the project. Today it was the platform over the guest bathroom that replaces a portion of the attic that existed in a larger area in the original house. This platform will be mostly enclosed and will hold the ventilation system for the house. I had to buy 2×6’s for the project and I bought joist hangers. Because the two beams are not parallel to each other, I ordered 45 degree angle joist hangers from Home Depot.

I began assembling the platform by nailing and screwing the 45 degree hangers at 16 inches on center on the angled 2×6 beam. Then I attempted to attach 90 degree hangers across from them and realized I only had 47 inches to put in five joist hangers on the opposite side. I consulted my mathematician husband only to find that if I wanted the joists to be 16 inches on center on the opposite beam, I had to move all the 45 degree angle hangers to be not 16 inches apart but 16 times the square root of 2 or about 23 5/8 inches apart. So I never learned to apply the geometry I could do on paper to real world problems but luckily Dave did.

Moving the Joist Hangers

I had to pull out nails to move the hangers because I didn’t have screws that were narrow enough to go through both sides of the 45 degree hanger. I used 2 1/4 inch 7# galvanized nails because that is what I had that fit and I screwed the single panel side of each hanger. After I moved all the 45 degree hangers, voila, the opposite hangers worked at 16 inches on center. Amazing.

Opposite 90 degree hangers

The first board ended up a bit short after moving the hangers, but I used it anyway and centered it between the hangers which are long enough to hold it securely once screwed into the hangers. The hardest part of the project was keeping my hands on each screw as I secured the hangers and the boards. I must have dropped 20 screws, or about 25% of the total number of screws I used. At least it felt like that. I am reusing screws from the original drywall in the house that we salvaged and organized by size and thread type. No extra cost for screws for some tasks is a bonus. Only a small part of the original drywall was screwed in so we will not have enough to install new drywall. Besides, I really want to use professionals for that part of the job. To get it finished quickly and get the messy dusty part over with.

The platform is almost done but I would like to square up the inside edge with another 90 degree hanger and install plywood on top. I will have to attach the last joist to the current end one to move from 45 to 90 degrees at the platform’s open edge. The platform should end right at the bathroom door keeping the high ceiling for the shower and vanity half of the room. We will hang the walls for the bathroom from these joists and beams so building the platform was a necessary step to getting these walls installed.

Joists from Below

Joists from Above

Joists across Platform

Posted in Construction, Reduce Reuse Recycle | Comments Off

The Gathering

Posted on April 7, 2016 by ellen

Not of family but of materials. I have been craigslisting for weeks looking for doors for the master bedroom. I may have found some but have to go see them this weekend. I was taken by a set of arched double doors that were seven feet tall, but the owner would not come down more than $100 and $500 was more than I wanted to sink into doors.

Meanwhile, the day we left for California, I saw a listing for miscellaneous wood being sold in our town, so I called and the guy was super nice, he and his girlfriend have build a tiny house on an old truck with all scrap and recycled wood and he was reducing his inventory, now that the outside structure is completed. I got to tour the tiny house’s inside and it does remind me of an RV. Bunk over the cab, mid bath and rear kitchen living area.

Photo from their blog: muttandmapestinyhouse.wordpress.com

I came home with a truck full of rough 1 x 4’s in cedar, 2 x 6 pieces with one long one, large pieces of 1/2 inch plywood that will come in handy for the platform I’m building for the ventilation system, various smaller pieces of 1/8″ plywood, some chipboard, some shelving, one piece of cement board, and some trim. All for $35. He said he would call if he had stuff left over. They are moving the tiny house to the mountains so that he can apprentice to a cabinet maker to detail the interior. Then he hopes to move out to Oregon to work on an organic farm. Wow, to be young again!

The truck load of wood will soon be joined by a bit of ledgestone left over from someone’s job that I want to use for the exposed post in the living room. The seller described it as tan, brown and moss green and I’m hoping it will look something like this.

StoneWorks Ledgestone

Also a large pine TV cabinet/armoire that I will disassemble for the doors and side wood. I’m going to use the top for the range hood.

Rustic Armoire

Can’t wait to get far enough to use this stuff.

And I will pick up some Hardie board trim for the siding corners. It will be nice to have some on hand. It is pre-painted too so that it will be protected until I get around to painting it whatever color we finally choose. Whoops, don’t count your chickens before they are hatched. This guy just renigged on our deal. I only wanted the trim and he said a buyer offered to buy all. What gets me is another seller would have said the trim is already promised. Not that big of a deal I guess.

Hardie Siding Trim

In the meantime, walls are going in slowly and I’m working on the platform over the kitchen pantry and guest bath. We are fitting work between doctors appointments for us and my elderly mom who moved out here in September. But for some reason I keep thinking the finish line for this project is in sight. I hope so.

Posted in Planning, Reduce Reuse Recycle | Comments Off

Family is Precious

Posted on April 7, 2016 by ellen

We spent a wonderful week in California with our newest grandson, Wolfgang. He was born on Christmas Eve and this last weekend was his 100th Day celebration. His mom is Korean and the 100th Day is a traditional celebration called Baek-il (pronounced more like Paek-il). The table that the baby sits on is decorated with his name, his toys and photos, etc. Traditional presents are toys, clothes, gold rings for wealth, thread for long life, and silver for riches. Of course Wolfgang got all of these! The huge rice cake is also traditional. It says Happy 100th Day in Korean.

Baek-il

There was a family party on his 100th day and a picnic for friends and family on Saturday. Wow, so many young people in the park by Lake Merritt on a lovely spring day in early April. I just want to hold onto those moments forever.

Definitely a distraction, definitely a precious time with family.

Posted in Diversions | Comments Off

Rough Plumbing Inspection

Posted on March 27, 2016 by ellen

Although we were not really ready for it since the walls are not all up yet and only some of the plumbing is installed, I asked for a rough plumbing inspection to find out if the plumbing I am doing will meet code. It was a good thing because I have several errors that I didn’t know were errors. It also was a good thing because we had to get our permit extended by two weeks to qualify for the inspection and get the permit renewed for another 6 months. I guess I can’t count because our last inspection was in October and I thought we had until the end of March to get another inspection but it was the end of February. Talk about a scare…but as usual, the Arvada inspection department was very understanding and allowed the inspection to go forward as well as the extension. We are so fortunate to have such a friendly department.

The recommendations from the inspector are all very helpful. Even though I installed the water filter rinse tube according to the instructions, the inspector said it was not allowable to drain it directly into the waste piping. Instead we have to move the drain to the floor drain to pass code or at least he said that would be the easiest way.

Filter Installed with backwash directly into drain pipe

We also have the dishwasher drain going directly into the waste pipe without a trap, which is also not allowed.

Dishwasher drain hookup

He explained that it is highly important to keep all fresh water from contamination from the sewer drains. That is the reason for traps. I thought it was just to eliminate the odors from the sewer but I assume those odors are just a symptom of contamination.

Here are all of his suggestions:

Extend water filter drain tube to the floor drain with minimum 1” air gap, direct connection to sanitary drain not permitted. Install trap and stand pipe for dishwasher drain. Use proper fittings at lavatory connection. Provide back flow protection at connection to heating system. Kitchen, guest bath lavatory connections need to be reduced. Only one connection between trap and wall drain. May need a pressure balancing temperature regulator on tub filler faucet. (Since there is a temperature regulator on the whole house that might be good enough.) Also locking drains are required in the showers.

He drew a couple of diagrams to illustrate the errors and their corrections. This is the problem with the lavatory drain connection.

Inspector Drain Diagram with my note

You may be able to catch this error in the photo below. Of course the final plumbing should be in the wall behind the sink so the extra pipe length to reach the wall will be eliminated, still it is good to have this detailed diagram that has the requirements outlined.

New drain

I also have to be sure that the drain connection at the wall is the correct type as noted in the diagram. Also the cleanout is really not required here.

The new tub drain, however, is OK as well as the toilet, dishwasher and sink supply piping. I’ve ordered the locking drain for the master bath shower and just need to work on getting the concrete chipped out for it.

I have a friend who commented that this blog may be showing the incorrect way to build or as above plumb the drains. I guess I should include a disclaimer about that. I’m not claiming that how I do things is always completely correct, just that it is how I did things. When corrected, I try to update the original posts so that I’m truthful about what worked and what didn’t. Here is a case of a few posts where I included details that are incorrect. They have been updated.

Temporary Bathroom

Used Energy Star Dishwasher

Mang Ox Water Filter

Posted in Inspections, Planning, Plumbing | Comments Off

Stud Wall Plans

Posted on March 15, 2016 by ellen

I updated the stud wall plans to reflect a few of the changes from the original drawings. I’m using Sweet Home 3D which I downloaded for free several years ago. When I tried to open it I got an error message that the version I am using must use an older version of Java. This is apparently a common application problem so I was able to download the legacy Java Version 6 and install it to run the program.

This program is easier to use than the CAD Draftsight program that I also use for floor plans. It is not a full CAD program but made specifically to model houses. I like the 3D version of the plan that is created automatically.

Here is the 3D version of the revised stud walls. I created studs in the program and positioned them every 2 ft. The full size studs are in red, the 2 x 6 studs in green and the half wall is in blue. Sweet Home 3D also has premade furniture and fixture images so the bathrooms in this model have the fixtures included.

Stud Wall 3D Remodel 03_14_16

Below is the drawing for the above 3D image. I rotated it 180 degrees to be in the same orientation because the 3D image can be rotated and tilted to show detail and I thought the above image was the best for showing all the walls. This drawing is very close to scale for the house. I have included measurement lines for the rehabbed rooms. Unfortunately the posted pictures are way too small to see this detail.

Stud Wall Remodel Drawing Plan Rotated 03_14_16

This plan shows dual opening windows which are not installed but it is too much trouble to redesign the window template. We decided to save money when purchasing the new windows so that only one side opens.

LEED requires a detailed stud use plan although this is not required when using recycled studs, I wanted to draw this out anyway. They recommend saving lumber by using a 24″ OC spacing. That spacing seems to build a sturdy interior non-weight bearing wall.

It is amazing that we are finally building walls in the house. But I guess it is about time.

Posted in Floating Walls, LEED Project, Planning, Reduce Reuse Recycle | Comments Off

Lowering the Tub Drain

Posted on March 15, 2016 by ellen

I had to break out the concrete around the tub drain to get the elbow low enough to provide a slope on the tub drain. I had to reveal enough pipe to glue on the elbow under the floor surface.

PVC 90 degree street elbow

I used the street elbow to attach a 2″ to 1 1/2″ adapter for the tub drain piping.

PVC Tub Adapter

I tried just chipping out the concrete with a 5 pound hammer and cold chisels but the work was too slow and I was afraid I would crack the drain pipe.

Tub drain at floor level

So I brought out the big guns. I have a Harbor Freight electric demolition hammer and that did the trick.

Chicago Tools Demolition Hammer

My hammer is green and a bit different from the model they sell now. I bought it way back in 2012 when I was curious what was under the original concrete floor.

Demolition hammer in 2012

It was short work to chip out enough concrete to reveal the 3/4″ or so that is needed to glue on the elbow close to the floor.

Chipped concrete to lower drain

Posted in Plumbing, Tools | Comments Off

A Door in the Wall

Posted on March 9, 2016 by ellen

Wall number one now has two sides–meant for each side of the inside entry door.

Wall on right side of door

The next step is a door in the wall. We plan to have an airlock entry. This is an old idea, to block off direct entry to the main house through an entry room that holds boots, coats, shoes, and cold or hot air from the outdoors.

Dibble Floorplan 11-14-12

The room also removes the main house from the garage so potentially from any fumes that might escape into the house from that area. The idea is that all the doors are kept closed except when entering and leaving the house. This is one of those user dependent features for energy efficiency, if not used correctly with one door shut before the other opens, it is ineffective. LEED also requires a storage space for shoes at the entry to keep outside allergens and dirt from entering the living space. So this entry room will gain that point in EQ, Indoor Environmental Quality.

I bought a door for this space from a craigslist ad. I was looking for a 36″ wood door with full glass that had not been painted and was in reasonable shape. FOUND it for $50. I didn’t even argue about the price. It has a lot of screwed in connections for blinds but it is is great shape for an older door. Of course it came without a door frame so I had to hunt up a clear pine frame. Turns out that you can’t buy a pine kit anymore in the box stores! I had to buy the two sides and the door stop pieces. I have plenty of left over pine 1 x 6’s for the top of the frame. But I didn’t want to try to rout the side pieces in our existing lumber and the new pre-routed side pieces were about $12 each. The stops were $7.50 each and I had to buy 7 footers because the 10 footers were horribly warped. How can they even stock boards like that in a store? But together the pieces were less costly than the MDF kits @ almost $60.

I have found more than one floating framing style for doors. In the first, the door just hangs from the casing which is suspended by nails in the frame.

Floating wall door frame

This is a labeled diagram of the same type of installation. Just the door frame is meant to float in the doorway although this one has double header plates.

The second style is meant for sound proofing the room. It has a plywood header that is insulated on each side. It also has triple door studs as well as gaskets between the floating frame and the floating wall. Notice the jack studs support the door frame and continue to the bottom plate.

Floating wall door framing 2

The version that we will use has a double frame and the jack studs will float with the door casing. The frame is attached to the floor plate as in this diagram. The floating connection is at the door header and the bottom plate can heave sliding the door up on nails attached to the upper header. The framing itself has a “false header” that is not nailed to the king stud.

Door frame with floating jack stud

Just for reference this is typical weight bearing door framing.

Typical door header

The entry door frame is done. Now onto another wall.

Air Lock Entry Inside Door Frame

Posted in Floating Walls, LEED Project, Planning | Comments Off

Floating Walls

Posted on March 8, 2016 by ellen

Way back in 2012 when the first wall was about to be taken down, I took this photo of the floating wall in the master bathroom.

Floating Wall in May 2012

A floating wall is not fully connected between the ceiling rafters and the floor of the house. In areas of expansive soil, the walls are not allowed to create a solid plane that could push up against the rafters when the floor heaves. The roof could become warped and the house pushed out of alignment. A gap is created between either the top or bottom plate and a second plate is connected to its base with long nails that can take the pressure and allow the wall to slide along them as the floor heaves or falls.

Interestingly in this photo some of the worst floor cracking had occurred. I sure didn’t notice when admiring the house to purchase it, but the inspector pointed out the big drop in this corner. A large crack is seen under the floor brush in the foreground and it goes through the wall, where the 2 x 4 is cracked and through the linoleum. The shower pan has dropped away from the back wall and there is a large crack at the perimeter behind and beside the toilet. So it is a good thing this house had floating walls!

Old wall–another perspective

Although the bottom plate is partially obstructed by the drywall debris in the photo, there is a gap between it and the 2 x 4 above it. This gap appears to be less than the 1 1/2″ that is required now, but it could be that the gap changed over time as the floor heaved and fell.

Aurora, Colorado offered a description of the building code for finishing basements on its website. Because our floor is slab on grade, many of the same requirements apply to our house walls.

In areas subject to floor heaving, non-bearing walls on basement floor slabs should be built to accommodate not less than 1-1/2 inches of floor movement.

Basement Finish Detail

The finish detail shows pressure treated floor plates, however our floor is not a basement so we are using the original 2 x 4 base. This specification mentions 40 lb nails for the walls to slide on. It also shows that drywall does not extend to the bottom plate but a spacer is installed instead, supposedly covered by the baseboard.

The floating or hanging walls are more secure than you might believe since they are only held vertical by a few long nails. We have just started our walls and Dave has developed a method he is comfortable with that is very sturdy.

Posted in Deconstruction, Floating Walls | Comments Off

Thinking about the Tub Drain

Posted on March 7, 2016 by ellen

Sometimes my brain just trips over itself when trying to solve a problem.

I happened to have a lift and turn sink drain from the granite vessel sink installation that I realized had a long enough stem to use for the tub. So I cancelled the expensive drain order and thought I would try to use the sink drain.

Sink Drain

When I put it in the tub, I thought it would work, the threads are long enough, but I got distracted by looking at my original plan for the drain, which was to use a 1 1/2″ pvc female connector.

The standard PVC 1 1/2″ pipe was way too “fat” for the opening so I used the dremel tool to shave off the outer edge of the threaded part of the pipe leaving just enough to keep the threads and still be able to push it up through the drain to meet the shorter but nicer Moen lift and turn drain piece. I was able to get the pipe thin enough and pushed up into the drain so that the Moen drain piece met it and could tighten inside the tub.

Shaved PVC pipe with drain attached

Then I realized that I wanted the drain to be able to use the overflow so I unscrewed the drain and cut two slits into it to allow water to enter the drain to and from the built in overflow. But of course NOW I REALIZE why I decided this original plan would not work. I can’t seal the overflow from below the drain! There are no threads on the pipe that comes out of the bottom, just a glued pipe hub. Now water in the overflow will leak past the pipe that is fitting into the drain opening from below and then all over the floor. Not a very good idea for a drain assembly.

Shaved PVC pipe under tub

This might have worked without the overflow cut, but now I have two slits in the nice Moen drain. While taking photos of this process I saw that I probably could have used silicone caulk to seal the PVC where it meets the lower tub surface.

Shaved PVC pipe in drain

But another problem is that there is too much pipe under the drain. Gluing the female threaded pipe to another male threaded pipe and then screwing that into the drain elbow will not give me enough room under the tub to manage the 1/8″ per foot slope to the floor drain. I chipped out a bit more concrete and cut the drain down so that the elbow sits right on the concrete floor.

Floor Drain for Tub

If I could just find a narrow pipe bushing with coarse threads inside and another set of outside coarse threads to extend the pipe, I could connect the Moen drain with a gasket and threaded nut that would keep it from leaking. But there is no such pipe as far as I know.

I found drain bushings from Watco and the least expensive version changes the pipe thread type from fine–16 threads per inch to coarse–11.5 threads per inch. But I can’t find the specifications for the length of these bushings and I assume it is meant to screw completely onto the 1.5 inch long Watco drain threads. So this is not the answer either.

Watco Bushing 38101

So what about that sink drain? It is long enough at 2.5″ but I would again have to cut the overflow slits. The slits would work for this drain because I can use a rubber and washer below that comes with it. But it connects to narrower pipe than the tub elbow, only 1 1/4″ and I would have to use sink drain tubing to drain the tub which is probably not to code.

I finally found a possible solution on ebay. It is an American Standard lift and turn tub drain that had a quick response from the vendor to my question about size.

The total height is 3″, the widest point is 2 3/4″ and the pipe connection is 1 1/2″.

American Standard Tub Drain

I ordered it for $19.80 with free shipping. I could NOT find this drain on the American Standard web site. But once I knew what the drain looked like, I did find it as part number 791474-0020A available from Home Depot by mail order for $26.77. The photo above does not show an overflow, but the part at Home Depot does. The specifications state it is 3.5″ long by 2″ wide x 2″ deep. Which apparently is close enough for some buyers.

American Standard Tub Drain-Home Depot

In other research I found that American Standard’s normal thread type is coarse. So this drain should screw directly into the tub drain elbow, which I found is called a “tub shoe”.

I was able to get the pipe OUT of the bottom of the tub after whacking it in there with a 5 lb. hammer and tightening the drain to it to pull it into the socket more. I just used a screwdriver on the ledge of the pipe and whacked it with the 5 lb. hammer and it fell out. Next the new drain will be shipped and I’ll get to see if it will work.

UPDATE: The American Standard drain worked. I had to add an extra foam bushing and rubber seal to tighten the tub shoe below the indentation for the drain under the tub so that the drain pipe would fit into the shoe.

Posted in Planning, Plumbing | Comments Off

Happy Happy First Wall

Posted on March 4, 2016 by ellen

Today was a red letter day! The first wall went up. It is pretty exciting.

Our first wall is going up!

Dave decided to use screws instead of nails because he thinks they will make a sturdier wall. We are using a 24 on center 2 x 4 wall with the wood we took out of the original house walls. He used 3 inch screws to attach the top plate to the studs and to attach the wall to the furring board that he cut for above the wall. That board is screwed securely to the rafter above with 4 1/2 inch screws to go through the polyiso into the rafter.

Securing the top plate with screws

This first wall is between the entry and the dining area and next to this short wall will be the inside doorway. It should be directly across from the garage doorway.

Wall between entry and dining area

The walls are floating walls with a 1 1/2″ gap between the bottom of the wall and the floor plate. Then the two boards are spiked together with a 20# nail. I wanted to use double headed nails so we could be sure not to puncture the concrete but they may be a bit short.

Posted in Floating Walls | Comments Off

Tub Drain Problem

Posted on March 4, 2016 by ellen

I have two problems with the tub drain. First the nice quality Moen drain that I bought is too short to reach through the hole to a pipe below the tub. It is only 1 1/4″ deep and the opening in the tub is 1 1/2″ deep. The built in overflow in the tub also requires a hole in the drain similar to a sink drain.

Drain too Short

Most of the tub drains I have researched are at the most 1 1/2″ deep. There is a Mountain Plumbing drain for $100 that requires a 2″ opening in the tub and ours is the standard 1 7/8″ opening.
There is a Jalco 3″ drain with a hole for a built in overflow that is $100 on Amazon–that is the reduced price. But it is a toe touch pop up drain and I would prefer the lift and turn model.
Finally there is a Barclay straight pipe drain that was $56 on Amazon. It does not have a hole for the overflow but I believe for $44 I could cut one. One vendor shows the threaded area is 2 1/2″ long which would work for the tub, but it does not say whether it has fine or coarse threads. I’m thinking it will have fine and I’ll have to figure out how to attach to the metal extension pipe that comes with it.

Barclay Drain

I want an assembly that will extend with proper drainage from the middle of the tub where the drain is located to the floor drain about 36″ away. That is only a required 3/8″ drop so I should be able to get it if I can find a drain that will extend below the bottom of the tub but still allow for proper downward slope to the drain.

Tub on Flagstone Blocks

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Our Roman Tub

Posted on March 2, 2016 by ellen

I looked for installation instructions for the used tub that I bought on Craigslist and found this very similar if not the same tub at The Bath Works. This one costs over $6000 and it is cast of “Silacore” a resin and mineral combination very much like fiberglass. The coating is a more dull white finish than acrylic finishes and better evokes the original cast iron model. It is double walled and very heavy. They made this tub in imitation of a French style from the mid to late 19th century.

Roman Tub at Bath Works

I used the online inquiry form asking for installation instructions and they sent the size and measurement drawings for installation directly on the floor over the drain pipe.

Roman Tub Thru Floor Waste and Outlet Install

They also sent all the measurements in millimeters and inches. Although these tubs are made in the USA the designs were from their company in England.

Roman Tub (3.0) Specifications

This tub is meant to be installed on the floor directly over the drain pipe, but it has a solid bottom so I’m considering installing it on blocks so that I don’t have to chip into concrete to run the drain line under the floor. The existing tub drain is located near the supply and the tub drain will be closer to the middle of the wall.

Location of tub drain and supply

I’ve seen several idea photos with the tub set up on a platform or blocks in lieu of old fashioned feet. I have some Colorado red flagstone blocks that might look good under the tub.

RR Ties Bath Platform

Tub elevated on blocks

Tub on Platform

A platform such as a 2×4 box might work if it was just under the tub’s bottom. I ordered the drain kit and some extra pipe to determine how the drain could run and then I’ll try the various above slab solutions first.

Posted in Design Style, Plumbing | Comments Off

Cleaning the Spa Water

Posted on February 25, 2016 by ellen

The spa water was getting dirty. There was sand on the bottom that did not seem to be getting to the filter. So I bought a small Intex vacuum kit to suck up the dirt through the filter system.

Intex Pool Vacuum Kit

Unfortunately after fiddling around finding a vacuum adapter for the skimmer, the built in suction was not strong enough to use the vacuum. I’m guessing that means one of the pipes is partially blocked which I will have to try to fix next time I empty it to change the water.

In the meantime last weekend when my granddaughter and I were in the increasingly cloudy spa, I realized I needed a supplementary filtering system or the water quality would quickly be unusable.

Although it would be great to add a sand filter to the system, the sand systems were more money than I wanted to spend and I didn’t want to try to replace the existing system. The spa is 1000 gallons so I purchased a filter pump that uses a larger filter than the spa. It is for a small Intex pool, Krystal Klear 637R which is rated at 1000 GPH.

Intex Krystal Klear Filter and Pump

It took me awhile to figure out how to fill the system with water so that it would pump–just took holding the vacuum hose attachment pipe up above the filter until the pipes were mostly full. Some air was still in the system but the pump soon rid itself of extra air.

I was able to get the system working and I have it sitting on the spa stairs. It has been running for about 30 hours and the water is finally pretty clear.

Filter on Spa Steps

I’m letting it run a few more hours to get the water sparkling clear and will vacuum the settled sand again before I drain it and store it until the next vacuuming is required.

Filter and Hoses

The blue end is the discharge and the pole is being held up by the Intex skimmer part. I can’t figure out how to use the skimmer that I ordered since I have the vacuum on the intake line instead so I might return that part of the system.

Hoses and Clear Water

This was an inexpensive addition to the vacuum kit that works very well to vacuum and clear the water. The built in spa filter seemed to be working before the last month or so, but I have been cleaning out the filters instead of replacing them. I will extend the filtering time and install new filters to keep the water clearer and hopefully not let it get so cloudy again.

Posted in Maintenance and Repair, Spa | Comments Off

Toilet Drain Adjustment

Posted on February 24, 2016 by ellen

No wonder I feel bogged down. Installing the offset toilet drain took me several hours across two days. Not predicting well how much standing drain pipe I needed, I cut a little bit of pipe at a time using a dremel tool and cutoff wheel at least four times until the lower pipe set mostly inside the drain. Then I needed to chip out concrete to allow the offset part of the drain to sit lower in the concrete.

Floor Drain Set and Glued

It took time to get the drain to set level.

Drain Level side to side

Front to back was more difficult than side to side because it involved chipping out the right amount of concrete. I had a hammer and cold chisel and protected hand chisel but the angle was restricted by the rear wall. Finally it was the 5# hammer by itself that chipped away enough concrete to set the drain.

Drain Level front to back

I finally got the drain to set within 1/4″ or so of the floor. This type of drain is supposed to set above the floor, but I didn’t want the toilet to set above floor level so I recessed the drain.

Drain Edge From Floor

This offset drain worked to get the toilet to sit far enough forward from the extra polyiso insulation we used on the exposed foundation walls.

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Bogged Down in the Bathroom

Posted on February 18, 2016 by ellen

Sometimes I just feel totally bogged down. While Dave has been busy spreading composted manure he got from a local horse farm and potting/topsoil from a marijuana growing operation–they deliver it for free–on the gardens and flower beds, I have been trying to put together the finalized master bathroom plan.

Guess what? I’m back to the original plan! I thought I wanted the extra room space and square doorways created with my latest drawing, but today I laid out the toilet, vanity and tub and decided that there is enough room to angle the doors and create the larger closet. Plus my friend Steve said the plan looked like it had “too much hallway” or wasted space in front of the closet.

Dibble Floorplan 11-14-12

Here is what the bathroom looks like laid out with fixtures. The tub, sink, and vanity are all re-used fixtures.

Master Bath Fixture Layout

I think I will really like the vanity stand when it is stripped of the dark red paint and sanded silver. I’m thinking I might just leave it silver and put on a clear finish. Or maybe I’ll paint it copper. I love copper color and the two lantern sconces I have are copper/bronze colored too.

Vanity with Victorian Sink and Faucet

I realized that putting 1 1/2 inches of polyiso insulation on the foundation wall had consequences for the toilet rough in. The toilet actually hits the insulation behind it and I could replace the 1 1/2 stuff with 1″ but I looked around for solutions to moving the toilet flange and I found this device.

Offset toilet flange

These are apparently not legal in new construction but are allowed in remodels. I will have to chip away the concrete a little to set it at floor level, but it appears that this device will give some wiggle room behind the toilet for the wall finish.

I finished all this planning and moving around by noon and then I couldn’t figure out what to do next so I just goofed off and took care of some business stuff for my Mom and myself. I need to keep my nose to the grindstone or the house will never be done! Maybe Mañana.

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Ultra High Efficiency Toilet

Posted on February 16, 2016 by ellen

Stealth Dual Flush

Our next inspection will be the plumbing rough in so I’m working on the master bathroom. I had purchased all the faucets and fixtures except for the toilet. When I was at the Sustainability Fair in Fort Collins, I heard about the Stealth toilet from Niagara, which is an ultra high efficiency toilet they were installing city-wide.

These toilets sell at the local Home Depot for $150 and have a .8 gallon single flush. But I also noticed that there is a new dual flush toilet that uses only .5 gallon for liquids and .95 for solids for an average of .65. That is about the lowest water use available. I was able to find this toilet at Wayfair for the discounted price of $109.99 each for the tank and the toilet bowl. However I also saw that I could order from Wayfair through ebay, which has a pretty good shipping guarantee itself so I ordered from ebay for the same price and the toilet arrived quicker than promised.

It was well packaged, which is good since it is a fragile shipment. The box for the tank was in a smaller box that was completely enclosed in shipping peanuts and foam in a larger box. Same for the bowl. These toilets come in comfort height and I purchased the elongated bowl. The design is similar to a Briggs Vacuity toilet sold in the 90’s, in that it is vacuum-assisted instead of a full vacuum toilet. The design of the Vacuity had mixed results but apparently there were some manufacturing problems with its trapway not the tank technology.

A vacuum toilet has an inner tank that is kept under vacuum pressure and flushes very loudly. We have one in our Indiana house because a normal toilet sweated so much it was rotting the drywall behind it. The vacuum toilet solved that problem. But it has a loud whooshing sound that is even scary for little kids when it is flushed. This vacuum assisted toilet is supposed to have a very quiet flush.

Vacuum assisted means that there is air behind the water in the tank and in the trap. The air forms a vacuum that pushes water up into the bowl and pulls water down when water is released during a flush.

Vacuum Assist Toilet

There is a similar explanation on the Stealth Toilet website. Here is a diagram of the internal tank.

Stealth Dual Flush Tank Schematic

I’m excited about this dual flush system. If it works as well as the cheaper (free for us because I got it through Craigslist) Glacier Bay 1.1/1.6 gallon flush then we will use this toilet in the existing bath too and have all Water Sense dual flush toilets which is recommended in the LEED water use category.

Interestingly, the water saving shower head I purchased for our existing bathroom is also a Niagara product. It is the TriMax shower head that has an adjustable .5/1/1.5 spray that is air assisted too. The 1 gallon spray we use most often and it has a wide spiral pattern that wets efficiently. Sometimes I use 1.5 just to warm up for a minute when I first get in the shower and I dial down to .5 to keep the water flowing while I shampoo or shave. It works great.

TriMax Showerhead

Posted in Energy Efficiency, LEED Project, Plumbing | Comments Off

Friends Visit and Suggestions

Posted on February 15, 2016 by ellen

We had a wonderful time visiting with some old friends from Indiana for the weekend. I talked their ears off about the house projects. It was so nice to have someone knowledgeable to get their reactions and suggestions. Steve has been in the concrete business for years but also has been a general construction manager. His advice was to tackle the restricted spaces first when putting up walls and then work on filling in the rest.

There is a beam across the entrance to the hallway stairs that I used to run the radon elimination pipe along and that is one area that he thought I should think about first.

Pipe Connection

He suggested that I fill in the area again with a small attic to make a visual break between the clerestory ceiling in the living area and the lower ceiling in the hall and bedrooms so that boxing in the radon pipe would not look so awkward.

Kathleen suggested I leave open the area above the entry and family room to let the nice light continue to shine into the rest of the house. I was thinking maybe we could use windows in the upper walls to achieve the same effect.

Dining With Entry Behind

We looked at the bath layout and Steve suggested I mark with chalklines on the floor where the bed and fixtures would go to get an idea if there is enough room. He said around the doors I had to remember to leave room for trim etc. Sometimes when deciding about walls he said, they would make last minute changes and changes in the architects plans just to make a room more standard or to have room for trim etc. He suggested I just think about moving the tub or leaving it out and putting it in the other bathroom. Hate to do that but also hate to have the bathroom seem really crowded.

Tub in Master Bath

I was glad to get some feedback on the design though. Its good to take advantage of a different perspective.

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Concrete Bricks as Thermal Mass

Posted on February 10, 2016 by ellen

While painting the kitchen block wall I started wondering what kind of block is our inner south wall made of anyway? At one point I heard this type of block called “slag block” and in Arizona where there are many block houses, I heard it called “slump block” so I was curious about the concrete bricks used for the thermal mass on the house.

Our house in Arizona was built entirely of block that was 4 x 8 x 16–actual block measurements are about 3.5 x 7.5 x 15.5. I demoed the bathtub tile and uncovered the inside of the block walls. They were framed out with 2 x 2’s and filled with a 1.5″ layer of fiberglass insulation.

Bathroom Block Wall

I used a rented drill to create a hole in the wall for the drain pipe from the shower. That took quite a lot of drilling to get through the whole wall. For the tub drain setup there were valves that allowed the water to either run out into a soaking tank or down the drain.

Drilling through Concrete Block

The block was gray concrete color inside but it was painted on the outside.

Tempe Block Wall

It was an attractive home and the concrete block acted as a thermal mass holding heat on cold days and night time cool on hot days.
When we were shopping for a house in Tempe, my fellow workers and Arizona natives advised us to buy a block house not a “stick” house. They said block houses were much more comfortable in the Arizona climate and they were well built vs. some of the newer wood framed houses covered in stucco. While looking at houses to buy, I kept that advise in mind and it did appear that newer frame house had cracks in the stucco and were less sturdy. Almost all of them were two stories too.

I was trying to find out what this type of block is called when I ran across some really interesting information about why so many block homes were built in the Phoenix area. It turns out that lightweight building blocks were invented there! In the 40’s three Phoenix guys manufactured blocks originally with perlite in the concrete mix. There was a lot of demand for building materials after WWII and concrete blocks were considered too heavy and often were cast right on the building site. The manufactured concrete blocks were named “superlite” and eventually the company name was changed to Superlite. After the perlite they used an aggregate in the mix created from rapidly cooled lava. They had a mine for this volcanic scoria in northern Arizona. This lighter block trapped air which helped insulate the houses. The blocks were very successful and from the 40’s through the 80’s many many block house were built in Phoenix and the surrounding suburbs.

Superlite Block House

Notice this house has a carport. Our real estate agent told me that her husband refused to buy a house with a garage. True Phonecians knew that garages were heat sinks and trapped the very hot air from the daytime, reducing the ability of the house to lose its heat at night.

These brick/blocks are now known as CMU’s, (Concrete Masonry Units) just one variety of several types of CMU’s, they are solid like bricks but larger and can be used structurally. Bricks are mostly used as a decorative cladding for a wood framed house instead of the actual structure. These blocks became popular also because they are so much larger than bricks they can go up faster.

Slag block uses industrial waste from blast furnaces in the cement mixture. Several types of mineral wastes can be used, even the waste from making Portland cement. It is considered a recycled product because it uses waste in the mix.

Superlite also created a slump block style. They pressed on the molds to create a bulge in the sides of the blocks, but I also read that some companies take the blocks out of the molds a bit early and while still wet they sag a bit to create the bulge.

The adobe brown block planter walls around our yard were slump block and Superlite also designed this integrally colored type of block. Our kitchen wall is slump block because it has this bulge on each block. It is probably plain concrete and the original walls were painted.

Arched Window Wall Painted White

There is a great explanation of concrete block materials at Cemexusa.com. According to this presentation CMU blocks have both heavy and lightweight aggregates in the concrete mix. They have various admixtures to make them stronger or more waterproof, and they are cast in molds. Once the molds are removed, they are dried in moist 140 degree ovens for 24 hours. Then they are ready to be palleted and shipped.

I can’t know where the solid block that lines our south facing concrete thermal walls was sourced or what aggregates were used. But I know it is a layer of solid concrete that increases the depth and mass of our front wall and adds a pleasant decorative brick look to the interior.

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One Thing Leads to Another

Posted on February 6, 2016 by ellen

When I woke up this morning I had no idea I was going to be painting a wall. But I cleared the dining room floor for scrubbing and sealing and decided I better wash the block wall before I put a bunch of effort into cleaning the floor. The dirt from the wall would eventually end up on the floor when I cleaned it and I would have to clean the floor again. SO I decided to wash the block wall first. But then the wall would eventually need paint so I decided I might as well paint it before I washed the floor. That meant a coat of white over the teal/turquoise trim and then the full wall and another coat over the trim. It took me all day with a bit of time out to visit my Mom in the afternoon.

Here is a photo of the trim color on the day the new window was installed.

Block Wall with New Window

I washed the wall with Clorox Clean Up again and used a scrub brush to get dirt out of the brick. Then I scraped off bits of caulk.

Wall Washed and Prepped

It was difficult to get a good photo of the wall because there was too much light coming through the window but this was the first coat of white covering the trim color.

Arched Block Wall

I was able to get most of the wall painted before it was time to leave for my daily visit to Mom. I applied the paint with a 2″ slanted trim paint brush. When I returned it took about an hour to put a second coat on the trim and finish the top of the wall. It was easier to get a shot of the finished wall in the evening.

Arched Window Wall Painted White

It was nice to have the paint on hand so that I could let the spirit move me when it came time to fix up this wall. I was fortunate to have purchased four gallons of expensive no VOC certified Green Guard paint earlier in the year for only $16.25 a gallon.

Yolo Paint Ad–I paid $65 for these 4 gallons

Second hand paint in unopened containers is usually listed for about $10 a gallon on Craigslist although some ask much more. That is for a typical brand name paint, not low VOC. This paint’s VOC rating is so low (0.0167 pound per gallon) that it is considered no VOC. That is certainly what it seems like when painting with it. The coverage on the brick was amazing and only one coat over the white was needed. I used primer over the dark trim and then one coat of this amazing paint.

Yolo Colorhouse Low VOC Paint

Except for how expensive it is, I’m not sure why I would use anything else, considering how easy it was to apply and how nice it is to work with no VOC paint. But it IS expensive. The ad’s stated retail of $36.95 is about right. Colorhouse seems to have dropped Yolo from its paint names. Inspired Eggshell Paint in Bisque is $37.95 a gallon from Amazon and Aspire Eggshell is $45 a gallon ordered from Home Depot.

Posted in Maintenance and Repair, Reduce Reuse Recycle | Comments Off

Winter List for 2016

Posted on February 5, 2016 by ellen

Winter List

I updated the to-do list a couple of weeks ago. But lists are getting tiresome–too many items repeat from season to season.

Here is what I hoped to get accomplished this winter.

Finish membrane on ceiling
Install battens on ceiling
Polyiso in crawlspace joists
Polyiso around door areas
Replumb fireplace boiler
Build walls
Patch concrete edges
Clean and reseal floor
Polish floor
Put bird barrier on chimney
Plan master bath and closet
Install ventilation system
Schedule LEED insulation inspection

The first three items were on the fall list–also the summer list. There is not much more membrane that needs to be done on the ceiling but all the insulated walls will need membrane too.
I’ve already re-plumbed the wood fireplace though.
Building walls would be a huge advance but we seem reluctant to actually put up a wall. We did bring in the 2×4’s to acclimate to the indoor temperature.
I’m working on patching the edges of the concrete with tile and Schluter Kerdi Band–more on that later. And I’ve written about cleaning and resealing the floors
The bird barrier will have to wait for warmer weather and for that matter so does finishing the siding which didn’t even make the list but is still hanging on from fall.
I’ve been working on the master bath and closet layouts and acquired most of the plumbing for the room and have made the decision on the toilet, a Niagara low water use dual flush that I just decided to order from Wayfair, but through ebay so I can use their return policies.
The ventilation system will require putting up a distribution ducting system and deciding if the RecoupAerator is the right unit for our house and the most energy efficient.
I thought we were ready for the LEED inspection but after contacting the new person who is my advisor, Adam Jonash, I have not made the appointment. I have to get the Level II thermographer out here at the same time and it has not been a task that I felt ready for. Really, building the walls is probably the most important task right now and the sooner the better so the city can come back for another inspection to keep our building permit active.

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