Please work hard at this. There is nothing more important to concrete quality than base prep and it's never done properly.
It's time consuming, but so important.
Please work hard at this. There is nothing more important to concrete quality than base prep and it's never done properly.
It's time consuming, but so important.
Well not much of an update as I was away for the whole week, but I worked this weekend and should be finished with all the gravel in the main living area by end of this week, if weather holds out. I had to do a couple of extra things as I move closer towards the garage, and that was finishing the kitchen island plumbing as it's no longer in the way as I made an alternate route after coving up some pipes with gravel. I also did the rough-in for Radon, purposefully leaving the back end disconnected for the moment as it would be in the way of putting gravel into the back room by the stairs.
Radon rough in was interesting, my Engg buddy had to give me details on how to do this, as my base material (recycled concrete) isn't porous, so I had to do a "radon pit", which is basically an area of the base that's made of clean rock so that gasses can flow from the earth below through the rocks and into the pipe.
The crew came out last Friday and installed all my man doors and replaced the stairs, which were previously too long. Only the roof and garage doors remain to be done.
Kitchen island plumbing:
This is what I am trying to recreate for those who are curious. You could use an air admittance valve for the island, but why add an moving device that can fail when you can make it solid. Also AAV only sucks air in, and doesn't push air out, so this is a better setup overall.
And the radon pipe and pit:
I'm officially like 50% done moving gravel, by volume of what was delivered. I had an extra 35 tons delivered..pretty sure I will use it all inside the house as it appears to be a thicker layer than I anticipated.
Well looks like the winter is ready to set in, sucks.
Anyways, was out there again yesterday, wanted to take some pics of the door and the trim that was installed. I am glad they installed this trim, as I thought it was my responsibility as part of siding, but I guess they require it install the doors, which is def their responsibility.
This is the trim, goes all around the house and overlaps onto the frost wall insulation
More trim and metal, factory painted black door (with protection still installed for safety..)
Rear patio door (dirty as hell, will need to wash in summer)
And the front door. Also needs to be washed and painted black
Well, small update.
Did the waterline for the kitchen island, and the two P-Trap boxes for the shower/tub area, as well as started work on the second arm of the radon system.
Also great news, the roof work has started! They only worked about 4 hours today so didn't get too much done...think they are going to regret that, since the weather is going to be rather shitty moving forward.
Boxes for P-traps
More radon stuff
And most exciting, the roof!!
Roof looks great! Are you going to do snow guards?
Yah I will, but at a later date. Those can just mount to the ribs without drilling, so I will order those much later, and probably only above the garage and the garage man door, rest has no impact if snow slides. I am ocd... So I might get it for the entire garage side of the roof just for the uniform look.. We will see.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Let it slide.
In all reality, I probably will, I like the uninterrupted look. Plan is to have 0 roof penetrations even on this roof section, or any front/side facing roof section, everything to penetrate out the back.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
My only concern is bad timing and pulling out of the garage as a ton of snow slides off...or the snow slides off and makes a mountain that delays my departure at the wrong time when I am in a rush. Either way, won't be a day-1 thing, will see how she goes.
Well taking advantage of the nice weather, and wanted to share this masterpiece I am running conduits for pretty much all future situations. Today I terminated everything in this one wall. It looks cool so wanted to share All of these conduits leave outside the house for future needs.
Left is high voltage, right is low voltage stuff
Run extra cat6 fucking everywhere. Min 2 cables to anywhere you might have a computer or tv. Ideally three tbh. And 1 cable in every other room.
Last edited by ExtraSlow; 11-12-2022 at 08:21 PM.
That's a given, but that can be done after in the walls, doesn't need to be in concrete. Regarding cat-6, there are 4x of those conduits for Ethernet. I should be able to run 2x cables in each one. I got plans for front gate camera and intercom, well WiFi AP, future shop ethernet, outdoor sauna ethernet, and 1 of them is actually for fiber optic to the second house some 500 feet away Beauty of the conditioned attic setup I am doing, is that I can go up into the roof system, and drop any extra ethernet wherever I want it with no insulation in the way, just drill into the wall and fish it out. Some areas, like around the TVs, I will even pre-run a PVC conduit right from the attic to behind the TV, so i don't even need to fish, just drop a new cable in.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Half the time to build this house will be me thinking of all possibilities
Well, not much of an update, at least visually, but major work completed on my part. Also, the roofing crew is finally back and are working full time now on my roof. One simple side is done, and today they were doing the valleys, which takes forever apparently. From my perspective, I graveled and graded the WHOLE house part to within 1/2" of level, as per the instructions from my concrete guy, using my self pivoted cration, The Screed 3000, pictured below. The only part left to gravel and grade is the garage, but I am waiting for my garage drain to arrive to finish that up. Up to this point I have moved somewhere close to 140 tons of gravel with my little Kubota BX23s.
The roof. This is the finished simple section. They finished this yesterday and moved on to the valleys today. Loving the roof so far. Looks sexy in carbon black color.
The Screed 3000 pivoted screed. Basically a 2x6 with some aluminum strips attached to bottom and a hinge so 1 man operation
The finished results. Ignore the color variations, it's wet material from outside, it will dry up and look all same.
Also for kicks and giggles was climbing up into/on the roof today to mark the location of the plumbing vent and decided to take pictures of the trusses as some people commented that it looked impressive. Also just random pics when I was sitting on top of the roof as the sun was fading, enjoying the warm day that was and the fresh air.
Sharknado approved
Nice pic dump
This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show QuoteOriginally Posted by SugarphreakThis quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show QuoteThis quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Well with the cold weather, the project has ground to a halt pretty much. At least for visible changes. I did nearly complete all of the garage gravel while it was nice out a few weeks ago, and the roofers finished one more side of the roof, but more importantly they got everything installed for much quicker progress from here forward. All the valleys and different trims around the entire roof are complete, so now they just need to slap panels on the roof and I think it will move faster, once the weather allows.
Important roof section. Wind hits this part a ton...and the blue tarp stuff was ripping off and flying in the wind, so I am glad that it's been done at least to prevent that from happening
This is what it looked like earlier where it was ripping itself to shreds
I have also ran a pipe for my garage sink. This will drain to outside air or a dry pit, we will see, for now it drains nowhere Waiting for drains to arrive to do the rest of the drains in the garage
An positive rep to the first person who guesses right what these boxes are for....shouldn't be too hard on this forum
Gravel has been brought in the entire garage except for the middle section which is waiting for the drain, but even outside it's sloped. I threw on a massive tarp (36ft x 20ft, folder in two) to cover the garage doors for now, so that snow and crap doesn't get into the garage and cover up my drain ditch, and to seal the house a little bit from elements in general I guess.
Today I also went ahead and placed an order for $13k worth of Hardie siding, both lap and board and batten, plus all the trims. Still need to order the feature wall siding, but that's a ton more complicated to figure out so going to take my time with it.
Two post car lift footings.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Sex swing footings.
Hydrofluoric acid pits! What every acreage needs
This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show QuoteOriginally Posted by SugarphreakThis quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show QuoteThis quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Will there be any exterior insulation on your house?
YeppersThis quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
I don't believe those are in this picture. This is the garage. I didn't show the bedroom ones yet.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
No there won't be. It will be all spray foam on the inside.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote