My Acreage Project - Let the fun begin

[eblend]

Hi Peeps, sorry for the long delay in updates. I have a work trip for a week, followed by two weeks in Mexico, so have been away for a while, but have a few small updates.

I just passed my gas inspection yesterday, and I got another inspection tomorrow for framing! Framing is the last inspection you need before you can insulate and close walls. I am nervous as hell about the framing inspection as I have heard two separate things from two separate inspectors, so I really don't know what to expect and what they want for some of the things, so I don't suspect I will pass it, but I should be far along to at least get permission to sprayfoam the utility room and the garage. I actually have a spray foam guy lined up for next Wed to do those areas as I need them completed to make my life easier before HVAC guys finish the furnace placement. I told the HVAC guys to pound sand while I was away because if they did their work, insulating/drywall would have been very difficult, so told them to hold off and now rushing to get it done so they can resume.

So besides the gas line, I also worked on my central vacuum stuff, which is nearly completed, at least all of the hard parts are. I just need to finish the garage hose installation portion and run the low voltage wiring between all plugs to mark that as completed.

Here are some pics of the install:

This is the gas line within the utility room. This is the wall that I need to get sprayed and finished and drywalled before the HVAC guys can resume. 1 1/2" pipe comes into a cross, splits off into 1/2" for the furnace, 3/4" for the combi boiler, and the final 1" run goes towards the two outdoor gas plugs about 100 feet away.



In this picture you can kind of see the black gas line running horizontally across the stringers, and dropping down on the left and the right side of the picture for the outdoor gas plugs



Gas is holding steady at just over 25PSI. Only 15PSI is required for the test, but I pumped it higher and it's been holding steady for last 3 days, so looks like I got no leaks. The actual gas pressure once in the system is only like 0.5PSI, so I'm testing it at over 50x pressure it would ever see.



And here are some random pics of the central vac lines. No real commentary required. The white pipes.













I am installing one of these retractable house systems in the garage, where the entire hose is hidden within the pipe until needed. I got the 40' hose version.



That's all for now. Excited for spray foam, so hopefully I can post some of those pictures starting next week if all goes well.

[Ekliptix]

I'm a little surprised you're doing central vac in the house. I though most ppl go the Dyson, cordless route these days. Even if I had central vac (I have), I hate getting the PITA cord and shit out.

[firebane]

The only thing central vac is good for is putting in a vacuum hole for when you sweep floors.

[eblend]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

The only thing central vac is good for is putting in a vacuum hole for when you sweep floors.

That's the main reason I am getting it actually. One in the mud room and one in the kitchen, and since I am installing it, might as well get it everywhere else as well. I dread doing vacuuming with it as well, but we only vacuum like once every couple months, so it's not so bad. In between we will have an army of robot vacuums picking up cat hair and small mess. That combo works well in the existing house, so will continue to do that there as well. We do have a cordless vac as well for small messes. I am bringing my central vac from my existing house (found out it's good for up to 14000 sqf and has 15 years of warranty still left) so the couple of hundred bucks in pipe and connectors is all I have to spend to get it here. Can't really beat the suction on a central vac, and with the frequency I vacuum, only ever have to empty the thing like once a year, maybe a bit more here since it's bigger.

[eblend]

Well had my framing inspection on Friday, and failed, which was basically expected, but surprisingly, I failed for reasons that were outside of my control, whereas I was more worried about some of the things I have done.

Basically the builder of the shell, Integrity Buildings (or rather subs they hired) didn't follow some of the details when putting the place together. It's nothing critical that can't be fixed at this stage, but still a bit of a piss off. Everything that I need to fix is very minor and somewhat expected as I rushed the inspection before I was fully ready, but the bigger issues are all Integrity. In summary, the following things need to be fixed by them:

1. Add missing cross-bracing. Truss plans showed like 8 cross braces, they only installed 7, so a pretty easy fix.
2. Not enough nailing. On the girder truss, the bottom cord calls for nailing every 6 inches, but they are only nailed like 12" apart, so they need to come out and put a bunch more nails into the thing.
3. Truss repairs. There are 3 trusses that were field repaired in the main roof structure. Basically due to the span of these trusses, seems like some nailing plates popped out on 3 of them, and they were fixed using plywood bracing. This seems to be a correct fix, but needs an engineer sign off from the truss company.
4. LVLs missing on plans. The entire perimeter of the house has LVL beams on it on the top, BUT the drawings don't show the LVL on every single wall, whereas they are there in reality. Someone needs to update that drawing for the county.

The county wants these repairs done, or an engineer to come out and sign off on the build as is to certify that it's proper, so unfortunately I am now at the mercy of the builder, hopefully they won't mess around for too long. Despite all of the above, I got what I was really seeking when I called for this inspection early, and that is the permission to start my spray foam insulation.

Today I had the spray foam guy come out and do my priority areas, which is my utility room and above it, and to make sure he had enough work to make it worth the trip, he also insulated the wall separating the house from the garage, and started on the garage itself.

Here are some of the pictures of the spray foam as it was completed today.

The utility room







Above the utility room. Sprayed enough for now to allow HVAC stuff to go in without getting in the way. Will continue to rest of the roof eventually. Looking at about 5-6" for the roof







More garage separation wall. In this picture on the left of center is the mud room wall, and right of center is the pantry wall.



And finally the garage, all that was done today. The stopped early as he needed to go get supplies for his next job and won't be back until some future date. Entire ceiling here will be foamed as well.





Anyone care to guess how much it's going to cost me for this job.....entire house, underside of entire roof, everywhere...let's see who can come closest to the actual cost

I am off to Japan for 3 weeks in a couple of weeks, I doubt my inspection issues will be resolved before then, so don't expect much of an update, perhaps some more foam pics if the guy comes out again in the next few weeks.

[arcticcat522]

More than I can afford, pal....

[ExtraSlow]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

More than I can afford, pal....

That is likely correct. Incredible build and I love the detailed photos.

[prae]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Well had my framing inspection on Friday...
<snip>
Anyone care to guess how much it's going to cost me for this job.....entire house, underside of entire roof, everywhere...let's see who can come closest to the actual cost

Congrats on moving forward to the next stage - exciting to see the progress. I love these updates, keep em comin'.


I'll put in a guess at around $20k. You're doing a ton of foam, and I figure it's gotta be at least $4-6/sqft.

[arcticcat522]

I was going to sey over 40k...

[brucebanner]

Based on the 1 quote I got for my attic, I'm going to say 100k range

[eblend]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

More than I can afford, pal....

That makes the two of us! Just HELOC that shit (in the words of a famous beyonder), because that is what I am doing.

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Congrats on moving forward to the next stage - exciting to see the progress. I love these updates, keep em comin'.


I'll put in a guess at around $20k. You're doing a ton of foam, and I figure it's gotta be at least $4-6/sqft.

Very cold....this is I wish territory

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

I was going to sey over 40k...

Warmer..

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Based on the 1 quote I got for my attic, I'm going to say 100k range

Pretty close. So the actual cost to do all the foam for the house is $75k + tax. If you add the 12K I paid for the foam under the pad, the grand total is about 90k in foam. Yes it's stupid expensive, but it's what I want. This is actually about 30k cheaper than my previous quote from Beyond Foam, although that quote included a few extras like windows/door insulation as well.

[eblend]

Just a tiny update, probably the last one for a while. With the foam in place in the utility room, I was able to do the final piece of the puzzle to be ready for HVAC guys to finish everything else.

Added some backing to hang things on the wall. The plywood on top is mostly for the HVR that will be hanging in that area.



Started installing some drywall



Drywall up



And the end result



I want my utility room to look like a finished room, so that is why I am putting so much effort into making it look nice.

Also a couple of interesting foam related pictures.

This is the soffit area which would normally be opened for ventilation. Love seeing foam come out every single hole, knowing you are getting a good air seal.



I also found this interesting. The only portion of the roof, right above the utility room, that was sprayed, frosts very differently than the rest of the uninsulated roof.



That's all for now. I got Japan in 3 weeks for 3 weeks, so going to spend the next little while on minor things and hunting down Integrity to come out and fix their issues as were identified by the inspector.

[eblend]

Hi Y'all,

I am back. Unfortunately during my time away....nothing was done, by anyone, which is very disappointing. I did have the HVAC guys out there on Friday of last week finally connecting the furnace, but they are currently the last hurdle before I can proceed with my framing inspection, after which I suspect things will move rather quick.

In the mean time, while I have time, I decided to do a few tasks out of order just to keep moving.

First up is sealing all Dual/Tripple/Quad/Quint/Sextuble 2x8 joints that form the post of my house. Because the house is being spray foamed, there is no plastic vapor barrier on the inside, so have to seal all the areas where air movement can occur. The spray foam in the cavity will act as a vapor barrier, so I have to seal everywhere where spray foam isn't. Not a very fun task, but necessary. Takes a while really, as I have lots of these beams throughout.





HVAC guys came and set the furnace and tied in the cold-air return and ran the intake/exhaust.





And after they got the cold-air return duct up, I went ahead and mounted my boiler, which will be used for all in-floor heating + domestic hot water.



Yesterday I went ahead and made the gas line connection to the boiler, as well as installed the hot/cold water isolation valves, as well as the primary/secondary heating kit (copper pipes) that will later tie into the hydronic heating system, which will be a whole other beast and take up majority of the wall on the left.





Lot's of connections on this bitch. Just have to connect the gas to the furnace and I should be done with all of my gas work for a final inspection on that.

Right now I am really at the mercy of the HVAC company, so hopefully they can finish the rest quickly here and weather co-operates enough for them to work and not freeze to death. After they finish I can do my framing inspection again, and if I pass, I can go wild on all the spray foam throughout the house, followed by drywall! Can't wait!

[eblend]

Well things have been happening in the backend, nothing to write home about, but the most important part, and the main holdup, is now out of the way! HVAC guys were out there on Friday and finished all the ducting for the HVAC system. I needed this to be done before I could get my framing inspection again, among a few other small things. Everything is now in order and a new inspection is scheduled for this Friday. Two inspections actually, final gas, and framing.

Here are just some of the small things I finished recently:

1. Installed the furnace gas line. This is the final piece of the gas work that I had to do, so hopefully I can close that chapter of the build this Friday with the final inspection.






2. Worked on well water connection, or rather the sprinkler/house split. The blue pipe coming out of the ground is the actual water line to the well pump, which is awaiting a pressure tank and my MIA water guy, but the white PVC piping is the split I made for water to divert to the house (via 3/4" pex on the right, not yet connected) and then for water to flow down the other pipe in the ground, which will connect to the outdoor lawn sprinkler system in the future. I put an air compressor fitting on top to allow me to blow out that line during winter time, as it's above the frost line.



Here is also all of the piping inside of the wall for all house water distribution. Won't bore you with the details, but basically here is a shutoff for outside water spigots, provisions for water filtration bypass, cold and hot lines, as well as the hot return loop. It's all going to be behind drywall once I am done with it. I used cardboard to make a template which I have transferred onto drywall for easy cutoff of all the holes. Drywall is not yet done.






3. Wanted something fun to work on, so installed my remote hydronic manifold, which is on the other side of the house and away from the utility room. Was fun and turned out pretty well I think. This is sitting in a cabinet inside of a walk in closet.



4. And the star of the show. My elaborate HVAC system! As a reminder, this is a 4 zone system, so I will have 4 separate thermostats to control the various areas of the house. Due to the nature of an LVL beam and the floor above, they were very limited on space of routing all these pipes, but at the end it came out pretty awesome I think. The big air return at the very front kind of ruins the look, but not much else that can be done there. The furnace is a Carrier Infinity system, with the heatpump evaporator coil on top. With this system I can heat the house with either gas or electricity, so it's a hybrid setup.








Aside from this, I ordered all the remaining parts of my hydronic setup and will be working on that in the near future. If I pass my inspection this Friday, I should be good to spray the entire place and move on to drywall. Once I got foam and drywall, I could actually start heating this place if I needed to, with space heaters at first, and in a while with my infloor heating.

[ExtraSlow]

Your tin basher will need a drink after that. But overall looks great, totally love how you are doing this place. Hybrid setup is so smart.

[eblend]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Your tin basher will need a drink after that. But overall looks great, totally love how you are doing this place. Hybrid setup is so smart.

The guy told me he was thinking of how to do this the night before as he was falling asleep haha. They are so busy that they couldn't come out to my place for some time, so when it was finally scheduled he started to think how to make this all possible. He thought two of my ideas were good and he implemented them, so yay.

I went with Hybrid mostly due to the fact that in the future I want to have Solar + Battery system, so being able to heat the house using electricity was the selling point for me.

Overall I got 4 sources of heat in this place.....hydronic heating (primary, gas), furnace (gas), heat pump (electricity), and a wood stove. Wood stove is just for pleasure, but worst case Ontario, could be used to heat the entire place. It's sized for over 4000 sqf.

[ExtraSlow]

Future proofing is good, nice to have options.

I was daydreaming about solar making mid-day electricity "nearly free" and getting heated sidewalks or garage slab, and then heating each day in the winter to clean ice and snow away. Fun to dream.

[schurchill39]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

The guy told me he was thinking of how to do this the night before as he was falling asleep haha. They are so busy that they couldn't come out to my place for some time, so when it was finally scheduled he started to think how to make this all possible. He thought two of my ideas were good and he implemented them, so yay.

Weren't these the guys who ghosted you multiple times and you were thinking of different creative ways to invert their knee caps? How did you finally get them to show up?

[eblend]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Weren't these the guys who ghosted you multiple times and you were thinking of different creative ways to invert their knee caps? How did you finally get them to show up?

Well yes and no. They never really ghosted me, they just didn't show up often, and always had excuses of being too busy to work on my shit.

My waterworks guy is the one who truly ghosted me. I'm at a point in the build where I will actually have insulation and possibly heat soon....so I will try to reach out again. In a way his ghosting made it easier for me to work in the utility room and get drywall up and such, so soon I will be in a position where I truly need the water running, and will be pestering him again non-stop.

[eblend]

Just a small update on a few things I have been working on.

First thing first, I PASSED my framing and final gas inspections on Friday! Woot! Now nothing stand in my way until final inspections, so that unlocked a huge amount of work that I am now able to do.

In the mean time, while I was waiting for the inspection, I was doing small things that I needed to finish within exterior walls, before foam goes in, as it's much easier to do it now than later....foam doesn't lay flat and doesn't leave much usable space in a 2x8 wall, without a bunch of scraping and mess. Learned that after the initial spray they did in the utility room. Tied up a few other loose ends as well.


1. HVAC guys came out and ran the Heatpump rough in piping through to the exterior. I had a 2" hole ready for them for this, so they fed right into it and it's now ready for future Heatpump install.

[




2. Ran 1.5" PVC conduit for future projector location. I don't know if I will go with a projector here or just a big ass TV, but either way, doesn't cost much in terms of $$ or time to make this much easier in the future, so the conduit is in place.





3. My main panel, 66 slots....is getting rather full, so for future possibilities (shop, outdoor sauna ect), I decided to provision a space for an additional 20 spot Sub-panel, right next to the main. I ran a 2" conduit out of the main panel into the neighboring bay, and framed out support, so in the future I can always add a panel without much issues. You can see under the main panel all those conduit sticking out...those go to future locations, so I can always run a wire and cut another hole into the next bay and feed those wires up to the sub-panel.






4. On the same note, I also tied in all other conduits I need which will all join in a rack for all my low-voltage stuff. You can see one running from under the electrical panel towards the bay with all the cat6/6a/coax cables. This is also for all the futures, with conduits going out every side of the house for whatever the needs in the future may hold. I also tied in the 1 convoluted conduit from the main living area to this place, so if I need to drop a cable from within the main roof space in the future, I can easily do so via this conduit. Lots of twists and turns in this sucker, but it will work.





5. And last, I bought some 16x25 sheet metal (Thanks Calgary MetalWorks!) to make rough openings for my future TV media boxes. These media boxes are specific for the install, but only come as old-work, so I found this to be the easier way to lock in their locations and make the install easier for drywall, where this hole can be routed out and will be the perfect size for what I need. I installed these in every TV location. Calgary Metalworks is an awesome company to deal with, and can basically get you anything you want out of sheet metal. I ordered some custom J trims and L trims to frame out the garage door, so I got these ordered on top as well to make my life easier.





That's all for now. Hope weather co-operates and I can get foam in shortly, followed by drywall! Few small things still left to do, but probably no new update for a while.