My Acreage Project - Let the fun begin

[89coupe]

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i wonder if the burst pump is more of an issue of cold air coming back into it from the outside?

Maybe?

I would be terrified of having all those lines just a few feet under my house, haha.

I guess you could install a thermostat at the same level to monitor temperatures.

[bjstare]

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Maybe?

I would be terrified of having all those lines just a few feet under my house, haha.

I guess you could install a thermostat at the same level to monitor temperatures.

Where do you think the plumbing for the bathroom, bar, kitchen, etc in your basement goes?

[JfuckinC]

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Where do you think the plumbing for the bathroom, bar, kitchen, etc in your basement goes?

i think his thought process is that's lower than this would be below grade.

Think about a walk out though 89coupe, or older homes 4 level split homes with the 1st basement not as deep. it's definitely not an issue.

[89coupe]

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i think his thought process is that's lower than this would be below grade.

Think about a walk out though 89coupe, or older homes 4 level split homes with the 1st basement not as deep. it's definitely not an issue.

Good point.

OP, can you post some pics of the main lines running up to the house?

Curious what they look like. I’m assuming the main line is below 8’ running up to the house?

How are you running your hot and cold lines?

[eblend]

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Interesting, reason I ask is I know of a lot of homes that have experienced burst sump pumps caused by freezing over a cold winter snap.

Also plumbers never like to run lines on exterior walls, regardless of how much insulation you add.

It's actually against code to run water lines in exterior walls nowadays. If you have no choice, you have to basically build a secondary wall. Way I have seen it done is having a wall cavity insulated and drywalled, and then another wall built right up against it on the "interior" for all the piping ect.

I don't pretend to know how all of this works, but all slab on grade homes have piping in the dirt below the house, often not at much depth at all, so my guess is this is all good. Keep in mind that all of this will get inspected, so it should all be pretty solid and verified by people who know what they are doing (I hope ).

Here is an idea of most installations I have seen:

[eblend]

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Good point.

OP, can you post some pics of the main lines running up to the house?

Curious what they look like. I’m assuming the main line is below 8’ running up to the house?

How are you running your hot and cold lines?

Ha, didn't realize there was another page of replies when I posted the previous reply.

I think I answered this question in my previous reply earlier in the day, but my main water line is 10' deep as it runs from the well to the house. Unfortunately I didn't take any pics at that time, as I only saw a very deep pit, and by the time I saw it again the line was already run and backfilled. I had contractors do this part and I wasn't there to document.


This is the only pic I got after it was back filled:



and this is the pipe as it sticks out into the future mechanical room:



Hot and cold lines will be ran mostly in the attic. Since the attic is a conditioned space (discussed a few pages back), it's basically a warm zone and thus can run all my utilities up there without risk of freezing. My HVAC piping will be up there as well. I will have a few water lines ran in the concrete for kitchen island for example, but that's about it.

[ThePenIsMightier]

So, you're still going to have to throw sand or gravel in there and then pour a concrete slab, correct? And it looks like the mono-foamed together chunks of styrofoam are going to essentially be the concrete forms?
I guess there also won't be rebar as basement floors don't usually have that.
This will certainly keep the plumbing safe from freezing, but it seems weird and that's probably only because I've never seen a house built this way. I worry that your concrete will be extra susceptible to cracking but I bet it actually won't because your house probably isn't going to settle a nanometer because it's on so many piles and if your house isn't settling and the slab is resting horizontally against styrofoam then you might never get cracks.
It's pretty neat!


Edit: since you just posted while I did.
That looks to me like your main inlet runs through a sleeve that has heat trace cable in it! That's extra extra freeze protection.

[eblend]

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So, you're still going to have to throw sand or gravel in there and then pour a concrete slab, correct? And it looks like the mono-foamed together chunks of styrofoam are going to essentially be the concrete forms?
I guess there also won't be rebar as basement floors don't usually have that.
This will certainly keep the plumbing safe from freezing, but it seems weird and that's probably only because I've never seen a house built this way. I worry that your concrete will be extra susceptible to cracking but I bet it actually won't because your house probably isn't going to settle a nanometer because it's on so many piles and if your house isn't settling and the slab is resting horizontally against styrofoam then you might never get cracks.
It's pretty neat!


Edit: since you just posted while I did.
That looks to me like your main inlet runs through a sleeve that has heat trace cable in it! That's extra extra freeze protection.

Yah, after the plumbing is done, I still have to run a ton of electrical conduit under here for everything under the sun. This old picture I made gives you an idea of the electrical conduit layout under the slab. It's an older planning picture I made before I knew where the water line or electrical line was going to come in, but generally speaking everything else is correct. At each of those locations where the conduits are to penetrate the exterior of the house are berried 4" PVC sleeves, which I have to dig up on either side of the wall and run my electrical conduits through.



Sorry that's more than you were asking, but I figure I add for completion. Anyways, after all those things are done, as well as the garage drains, I will backfill every hole, then 6" of recycled concrete as the base, followed by 2" of spray foam, followed by wire mesh + 4" of concrete. The Styrofoam will indeed make up the forms, but by the time the concrete comes only about 2" of the styrofoam will be exposed due to the various layers of everything else that goes in between.

Some people do pour completely without rebar/wire mesh, I have seen it done, but I would much rather make it as strong as possible. The pad will be on a heavily compacted clay base, followed by compacted crushed concrete, so it should be pretty solid. Indeed the load on the floor will be the floor itself, and the weight of internal walls/people/appliances/furniture, the house itself won't put any weight on it as it's all on screw piles. It essentially just floats between the walls. My plan is to wire mesh the entire place before the pour (it also makes a great platform to attach hydronic piping to), and in the garage area throw rebar as well, as cars will be the heaviest single item that will have any load on the concrete itself.

Regarding the main line, unfortunately that is not a heat cable, it's just the power cables for the well pump + an extra electrical plug at the pump location in the yard. I plan on also running a conduit to the well location for ethernet, so I can get an outdoor WiFi antenna mounted out there for better coverage while in the yard

[ThePenIsMightier]

Ah, I see. I wasn't fully convinced that was heating cable.

Mesh is a great idea in the basement. Rebar is a code requirement for garage floor, anyway. 16" on centre if I recall, correctly. Kick it up a notch and go 12" if you wanna be fancy. (Certainly not needed).

[ZenOps]

A couple extra screw piles lined latitude south facing, for four or six solar panels might be a thing after its finished. Wiring up a hole for it in the future would be be a for sure for me. DC solar cabling has to be extra thick, its not like house wiring.

[eblend]

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A couple extra screw piles lined latitude south facing, for four or six solar panels might be a thing after its finished. Wiring up a hole for it in the future would be be a for sure for me. DC solar cabling has to be extra thick, its not like house wiring.

Almost everyone I encounter mentions solar panels. We are definitely interested in getting them in the future to line the entire 70+ feet of the roof which gets direct sun all afternoon.

I was even thinking of getting some of this system setup right from the start....but not CSA approved yet. I was hoping to at least get the transfer switch wired in so I don't have to retrofit after.



This entire system is pretty neat. Have modular battery units that are charged by solar through the inverter. Automatic transfer switch deals with switching from grid to battery power, and controls the Load Management unit which ensures that your high drain loads are turned off (using existing panel, it's like a proxy device that wiring runs throught). If there is no sun or batteries running low and you have no grid power, you can power on the DC generator (much more efficient) and charge the batteries this way. It's a super cool and very expensive system, but seems awesome. Basically have whole power backup that never runs out unless you lost gas for the generator. Can also have it switch to battery power overnight for the whole house to not consume grid power, and recharge during the day off solar. One day.

This is how they list it in their marketing:

Day: Home runs on solar, charges the battery, and sells extra power to the grid
Night: Home runs on battery power, energy use is optimized
During a Power Outage: Run your home on battery, recharge daily with solar, top-off the battery with PWRgenerator when needed



This is the roof section that will be kept clear of most penetrations for future panels. It's like 76 feet long overall and guessing like ~25 feet tall, so lots of real estate.

[eblend]

Well, been a little while, but work hasn't stopped, it intensified big time for me. The build crew are all gone, and no one has come back yet to finish the remaining things, but it allowed me to work on the inside uninterrupted. I had a 5 day long weekend last weekend and finished majority of the underground plumbing. Today I had my underground works inspection and passed without a single issue noted! With that being said, here is roughly what my plumbing looked like. I didn't take all that many pictures, but you get the idea.

I also started backfilling the insulation a little bit to ensure it settles over the winter and nothing gets underneath.

Let me tell you, underground plumbing is no fun at all. Half the time I was laying on my tummy reaching down to glue components, covered in dirt, and the other half thinking of how to best route something or vent something, all the while trying to maintain a constant downwards slope and multiple axis for piping runs. Running string lines ect to get location info with mountains of dirt all over is rather frustrating experience and would give anyone anxiety. At one point I was at the end of my rope, but I persevered.







While I was waiting for the inspector to come in I started covering up the frost wall. Construction guys left my doors and stuff piled up in front of door opening so I couldn't easily get there with my tractor, so I will do those area later, but you get the idea. This isn't final grade and will need a ton more, but it's a start.





Also, funny coincidence. I wanted to create an outdoor cleanout so it's easier to clean my main run without getting all dirty inside, and when the inspector saw it, he said it's basically an RV dump. I never thought of it that way, but its location is perfect if I ever want to get an RV, as it's right on the side of the house and completely out of sight from the street. It will be housed in the irrigation box.

Anyways, I feel like I am just rambling on, hope some of it makes sense. I am so beat. Time to sleep.

[ThePenIsMightier]

This 90 makes my jimmies semi rustled.... I thought the desired connection was a 45 pointed in the direction of mainline flow to encourage flow and prevent head loss, but I assure you, I am not familiar with plumbing codes.
Maybe a quick double check is in order to ensure it's good.

[eblend]

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This 90 makes my jimmies semi rustled.... I thought the desired connection was a 45 pointed in the direction of mainline flow to encourage flow and prevent head loss, but I assure you, I am not familiar with plumbing codes.
Maybe a quick double check is in order to ensure it's good.

It's fine by code. You can have a 90 going from horizontal to vertical, but can't have one going vertical to horizontal. There are rules about having too much slope, where the liquids will flow, but the solid get left behind, so you can't really have a steep 45 right into the line that's a few feet down, and it would require a ton more excavation. When you go vertical everything falls just the same thanks to gravity. Also, as I mentioned, it all passed inspection, so it's not an issue. I had a plumber friend come out and take a look as well and he said it's all good, although he does prefer to stack up 2x 45s instead of a 90, but my 90s were already glued and I feel like it's going to be just fine. I find that a smooth inner wall of a pipe is better than a connection that's slightly longer but has multiple joints along the way.

Today I finished back-filling all the trenches and started doing some other trenches for some conduits which I want to have in place under the slab for a bunch of future things. A few posts back I posted a picture of the runs and everything planned for those who may be interested.

All back-filled and ready for recycled concrete base:





New trench for electrical and ethernet ect. Digging up the previously burried PVC sleeves to run conduits through:





Today I bought a plate compactor in preparation for the rock base that's coming up. Looked at renting, and prices for renting are insane.....I might as well buy one and have something I can use in the future. Also picked up a heavily discounted rear blade for the tractor at Princess Auto...$549.99 blade for $135...brade new on clearance.

[ThePenIsMightier]

Nice!
Thanks for checking and I'm glad it's all good because like I said, that's not my area of expertise but I just wanted to make sure you weren't screwing anything up before burying. I'm only trying to help from my armchair, LoL!

[arcticcat522]

Looks good to me. You should maybe spray alot of water where you have all the trenches backfilled to help the ground settle. Did you compact any of the backfill?

[eblend]

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Looks good to me. You should maybe spray alot of water where you have all the trenches backfilled to help the ground settle. Did you compact any of the backfill?

Yah been thinking about it. I drove over the trenches where I could with the tractor, but I did buy a plate compactor and will be using it soon, but doubt it will do too much, given that it's basically hard clay. I will be putting lots of gravel on top and compacting that heavily, so hopefully it settles as much as it can. I'm hesitance with water given that it's going to turn negative soon. I have asked my grading guy before about the trenches and how they would impact my pad, and he said they won't really, as majority of the pad is on heavily compacted soil, so it will bridge over the less compacted trenches. Given that the floor basically floats in between the walls with no real load on it, except for the garage, it shouldn't be a problem as 95% of the underground clay is heavily compacted and undisturbed.

[eblend]

Well been working full time at the acreage, progress is slow but expected as I got too many things planned so takes a while to execute on all by myself. Got all the conduits berried and backfilled and took delivery of 7x tandem trucks worth of recycled concrete today, a total of 175 tons, ~140 to go inside the house, and the rest is to be used for base for front and rear porch. Figured get a few more trucks in there now and save on future minimum delivery fees and headaches.

Dug up conduit lines and relocated power to it's proper location:





Bunch of conduits:







And all the recycled concrete that was delivered today. Starting tomorrow I will start dragging that in and spreading it all over:

[schurchill39]

That Kubota has its work cut out for it.

[eblend]

Well the snow came, but my work didn't stop. I started spreading out the recycled concrete. This stuff packs very well, however, it's full of metal pieces as well, looks like rebar ties, wire mesh pieces ect, so it's a bit scary to work with, since I don't want to puncture my tractor tires. I constantly pick up pieces that show up on the surface and always look as I drive on the stuff to make sure I don't drive into anything sharp unintentionally. For those who are curious, 175 tons with delivery was $3687.05 all in, $1050.00 was for the 7 trips of the tandem truck, and 353.00 per each load of 25 tons.

The process of spreading and tampering is going to take a LONG time by myself. I pack an area about 1-2 inches, and then tamper and repeat. Would be much easier with some help, but not going to drag anyone out there in this miserable weather.



After a day of work, I got about 2 mounds total (out of 14) used up.



So no new updates for a while, probably until it's all done. Off to a company retreat next week, hope it's not balls cold by the time I am back so I can continue doing this before the deep freeze sets in.