My Acreage Project - Let the fun begin

[ThePenIsMightier]

Perhaps with smooth pipes for dryer vents that is less of an issue or perhaps not an issue anymore. That corrugated dryer vent hose seems designed to clog.

Edit - mine chokes my vacuum cleaner when I clean it out!

[eblend]

Hi All,

Been a while. I took last week off to work on the house, and made some decent progress.

First up. Electrical. Finally got a chance to get the wires connected within the panel. This was a bitch and a half to do, as these are 300 MCM cables and they don't like bending....



Next I worked on all penetrations into the house on the back end. That involved making blocks for everything again and getting it all installed.



Recessed Gas plug with quick connect. Nicer war of having BBQ and Fire table hookups then raw pipe sticking out and looking ghetto!



Air Intake for Wood Burning stove (left plastic on to keep shit out and clean during construction)


The back of that air intake. The air comes in and passes through a cable controlled damper on the wall. The damper is air tight (mostly) and using a little pull knob you are able to close or open fresh air into stove. This is to stop cold air leaking into the house via the stove.



Next up was the gas line run. The guys got their locates sorted out and came out again. They directional drilled under the road and then trenched the rest of the way with a backhoe.







Next up was all the pex water lines. All hot lines are insulated and there is a dedicated hot return for hot water recirculation, so that you don't have to wait a long time for hot water to arrive, it will always be in the trunk (on a schedule). I used expansion pex system as it is a much better system then crimp. Pictures just random locations througout

















Garage water line shutoffs



And finally, HVAC guys came out and started working on my ducting. It looks like a freaking spaceship on there. They haven't done the final connections yet, so this will get even more impressive. All seams will be duct sealed as well, the did some of that as they went but will be doing it all at the end. It's a pretty impressive system. The main part of the house has 3x large main trunks entering it, two for 2 zones, and 1 for cold air return. In traditional builds they use the trusses between floors as airways, but that concept isn't possible here, so it gets a dedicated run. The back side of the house will also have a ton of piping for the master zone and the loft, but I don't have any pictures of that yet.





More in next post....reached a limit.

[eblend]

Well that's all for now. With what has been done so far, I was able to frame out the final walls and drop the ceiling to cover those pipes in the walk in closet/laundry/hallway where the pipes run, and can now continue on rest of electrical and start on gas lines. Won't be much visible progress for a while.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

This is so cool.

[ExtraSlow]

I don't know why, but the dedicated ducting for return air seem so great to me. Somehow I wish my house had that now.

[firebane]

Care to explain a bit more about the hot water recirc system you are using? I have been debating on doing that myself.

[suntan]

Duct sealing is code now. Helps a lot actually.

[eblend]

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Duct sealing is code now. Helps a lot actually.

Sealing is code, but method of sealing still allows for aluminum tape, which is what is being done throughout the other house that's being built around here. Mastic is a much better method apparently. I don't care either way, but from what the guys told me, is that they usually use mastic on commercial projects, so I will take any upgrade I am given, knowing how much this is all going to cost me haha.

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Care to explain a bit more about the hot water recirc system you are using? I have been debating on doing that myself.

Sure. So normally you would have two lines, a hot and a cold. Both just terminate at the end at the furthest point. If you need hot water, it has to make it all the way from the water tank to the fixture, as any existing water in the lines has already cooled and is basically cold. If you got a large house, that could be a lot of wasted water as you turn on the tap and wait for all the water already in the lines to drain, before your hot water arrives and you can finally use it. With a recirculation pump, you are able to basically keep hot/warm water in the pipe at all (or scheduled) time. The idea is that the trunk runs all the way across the house, and then right back at the furthest location. When you open a fixture at any location in the house, the only "cold" water that will be present will be what is in the short lines going to each fixture, so you will get hot water in just a few seconds. Now obviously you are trading water for gas/electricity use, but the convenience is the major factor. You can have a recirculatory pump setup on a timer, so that it only does the recirculation during times you are actually home, or most likely to use the water, which is what I plan on doing. Another thing too is that I got my entire hot water pipe in pipe insulation, which will allow the water in the line to stay hot for longer.

Here is the picture of the general idea:



EDIT: Forgot to mention, you don't need to have a dedicated return line. You can achieve this with return going through the cold water line and putting a pump at your furthest fixture...but I am building new and exactly what I want, so I did a dedicated line. I think if you use the cold line as a return it makes your cold water no longer truly cold...and it's the opposite effect, where you may have to wait for cold water...but don't quote me on that. I only ever briefly looked at that scenario for my existing house.

[ExtraSlow]

Everything about this build is great

[eblend]

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Everything about this build is great

This is our final home for rest of our lives and never plan to move, so we want to do everything we possibly can to make this the most efficient and most future proof house possible, within reason. It won't be the prettiest thing on the block, but it will most likely be the one that's the best built in terms of putting the money where it really matters, and not just lipstick on a pig. The HVAC guys told me that they are very impressed with everything about my wiring/plumbing/framing, which is a huge compliment, since they see hundreds of homes in their line of work.

[g-m]

Man I really like the house I'm in right now and it's kinda depressing when I think about the maximum amount of time I'll be in it. And I'm only 36.

[eblend]

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Man I really like the house I'm in right now and it's kinda depressing when I think about the maximum amount of time I'll be in it. And I'm only 36.

I'm 39....so not sure how to interpret that post haha.

[g-m]

So you'll get 30ish years? Was that what you were guessing?

[suntan]

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Sealing is code, but method of sealing still allows for aluminum tape, which is what is being done throughout the other house that's being built around here. Mastic is a much better method apparently. I don't care either way, but from what the guys told me, is that they usually use mastic on commercial projects, so I will take any upgrade I am given, knowing how much this is all going to cost me haha.

I had thought only mastic was code. I have not seen any new builds in Calgary that use tape.

[eblend]

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So you'll get 30ish years? Was that what you were guessing?

I dunno, could drop dead tomorrow, but don't see why not? Still a bit confused of what you are trying to say. The house, if properly maintained, should last a very long time. We plan on a shop, outdoor sauna, and secondary dwelling on the property, so going to be lots of projects to keep me busy. It's close to the city and will eventually become part of the city I am sure. I have lived in my first home, where I live now, for nearly 14 years....it's our starter home, so going into a much bigger place with much more freedom to do what I want seems like I should be able to make it work for as long as I imagine. Some people like to move and constantly upgrade to something new, I hate it, and want this to be my last move, so that I can sit on the porch and get old, while blasting rap music and cussing at the world haha

[g-m]

Oh I wasn't saying anything negative about your project, it looks awesome! It was moreso I looked at my own house and I've been there 5 years now and trying to figure out where the time has gone

[suntan]

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Care to explain a bit more about the hot water recirc system you are using? I have been debating on doing that myself.

Take a look. It's pretty easy to do by yourself.



There's also the kind where the pump goes where the tank is instead of the furthest fixture.

[ThePenIsMightier]

^LoL at the magical 120V outlet that just appeared under that sink.

[eblend]

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^LoL at the magical 120V outlet that just appeared under that sink.

I got magical electrical outlets by every single one of my toilet locations haha, for bidet toilets

[prae]

you're sprayfoaming right onto the roof sheathing yea? So the attic is a conditioned space?