Squerly and friends build a house...

[squerly]

Re: Busy day today.

Beautiful home site, squerly.

Do you plan on thinning some of the trees along the road to enhance the view of the yonder hills?

Absolutely! The view is much different during the spring/summer months so we will wait until the house is complete and the leaves are on the trees before we selectively thin them out.

 

[Kane]

Re: Busy day today.

Absolutely! The view is much different during the spring/summer months so we will wait until the house is complete and the leaves are on the trees before we selectively thin them out.

Firewood! Lots and lots a' firewood!

 

[squerly]

Removed the forms today and we have walls!

 

[REDDOGTWO]

I have had the walls in the ground for four weeks now. Back filled inside and out and that is where it is going to be at for at least another week.

 

[FrancSevin]

That spring water looks very good. You have the advantage of a decent spring above the house site..

All of ours are 250 feet below the house site so we must pump it up. However, I will be using Solar powered 6 gph systems to the 2 holding tanks with the overflows returning the excess back to the creek. One tank at 120 feet elevation will series via a second solar pump to the tower tank. And since the tower tank is only 360 gallons we have it going into in the upper story of the barn.

I like your set up better. Wish we had that option.

 

[luvs]

neat to see yinz' progress. cool, squerls

 

[squerly]

Starting block work.

 

[squerly]

Got a break between rain and snow and we wasted no time in getting the foundation ready for rebar.

 

[squerly]

Plumber got started today.

 

[muleman]

Will that pass inspection down there? I would never use 90's or T's by choice. But I am just the asshole who had to open clean and change too many like that.

 

[squerly]

Will that pass inspection down there? I would never use 90's or T's by choice.

Just being inside give us a lot of credits Mule. Most of my neighbors measure the quality of their services by the depth of the hole...

 

[squerly]

Waterproofed the cement wall today.

 

[ki0ho]

are ya going to put on another coat and then insolate? just wondering

 

[squerly]

are ya going to put on another coat and then insolate? just wondering

Nope, what you see is 5/8" thick already.

 

[FrancSevin]

I( presume a drain tile and loose gravel goes next and then a backfill?

Lookin' good Squerly!

 

[squerly]

I( presume a drain tile and loose gravel goes next and then a backfill?

Yes, you're right on the money there Mr. Franc!

 

[Kane]

Will that pass inspection down there? I would never use 90's or T's by choice. But I am just the asshole who had to open clean and change too many like that.

Yes, sweeps might have been the better way to go. And a couple of floor drains might have been nice, too.

Hey, Squerly. Instead of 'sidewalk' superintendents, don't you just love all of us 'internet' superintendents criticizing your work?

But I like the clever way you dealt with earth pressures along the back wall. The concrete wing walls will certainly do the job. And I guess the wooden forms along the irregular CMU foundation will make the floor pour dead level. Great.

It's gotta' be exciting for you to watch it go up!
.

 

[EastTexFrank]

Squerly, I just thought I'd tell you that I'm enjoying the everloving heck out of this thread.

 

[FrancSevin]

Squerly, I just thought I'd tell you that I'm enjoying the everloving heck out of this thread.

I agree!

It is better than "HomeTime" or "This Old House!"

 

[squerly]

Hey, Squerly. Instead of 'sidewalk' superintendents, don't you just love all of us 'internet' superintendents criticizing your work?

Lol, couldn't do it without you all! What really puzzles me is how come nobody has asked about that big ol pipe sticking through the wall...

 

[FrancSevin]

Lol, couldn't do it without you all! What really puzzles me is how come nobody has asked about that big ol pipe sticking through the wall...

I presumed it was the inlet for a big watertank inside the lower level.

That or an air vent for the "Safe room"

 

[squerly]

RE: What's the pipe for?

The pipe sticking through the rear cement wall will connect to 300’ of 12” diameter pipe (buried between the cement wall and the mountain) approximately 12’ underground where the temperature is a constant 55 degrees.

When it starts to get warm upstairs (which doesn’t generally happen until late in the afternoon and then only in the months of August and September) we will turn on a fan that pulls the air from the downstairs (where it’s the coolest), through the 300’ of underground piping (further cooling the air as it travels through the pipe) and dump it into the upstairs living area just above a couple of ceiling fans which distribute the cool air throughout the room.

The fan pulls 2,850 CFM and only uses 177.6 watts of power per hour, which is quite efficient should we need to run it on backup battery power.

 

[FrancSevin]

Re: What's the pipe for?

The pipe sticking through the rear cement wall will connect to 300’ of 12” diameter pipe (buried between the cement wall and the mountain) approximately 12’ underground where the temperature is a constant 55 degrees.

When it starts to get warm upstairs (which doesn’t generally happen until late in the afternoon and then only in the months of August and September) we will turn on a fan that pulls the air from the downstairs (where it’s the coolest), through the 300’ of underground piping (further cooling the air as it travels through the pipe) and dump it into the upstairs living area just above a couple of ceiling fans which distribute the cool air throughout the room.

The fan pulls 2,850 CFM and only uses 177.6 watts of power per hour, which is quite efficient should we need to run it on backup battery power.

Sort of a Tome wall cooling system?? Very clever.

I would think a flow from the spring would give you a constant supply of fresh heat sink. Hence my suggestion of a water tank inlet. I was close.
Our chicago house used an exchanger cooled with swimming pool water. Heated the pool and cooled the house. Very efficient. Never hadned it install whole house AC.

BTW, your system will need a condesate drain.

 

[Kane]

Re: What's the pipe for?

The pipe sticking through the rear cement wall will connect to 300’ of 12” diameter pipe (buried between the cement wall and the mountain) approximately 12’ underground where the temperature is a constant 55 degrees.

When it starts to get warm upstairs (which doesn’t generally happen until late in the afternoon and then only in the months of August and September) we will turn on a fan that pulls the air from the downstairs (where it’s the coolest), through the 300’ of underground piping (further cooling the air as it travels through the pipe) and dump it into the upstairs living area just above a couple of ceiling fans which distribute the cool air throughout the room.

The fan pulls 2,850 CFM and only uses 177.6 watts of power per hour, which is quite efficient should we need to run it on backup battery power.

Very kool! I'm told that sub-surface ground temperature is a rather constant 55 degrees. Very kool. Is Al Gore rubbing off on you? Say it ain't so.

 

[FrancSevin]

Re: What's the pipe for?

Very kool! I'm told that sub-surface ground temperature is a rather constant 55 degrees. Very kool. Is Al Gore rubbing off on you? Say it ain't so.

Tha's a perty mean thing to say to a gentleman.

Al Gore thought the temperature was 10 million degrees just few miles down in the earth. That's a bit differ't than 55. And his suggestions for earth heating and cooling were old technologies. Which he didn't understand but found ways from which to make money.

When we rebuilt my house in 1977( when Al Gore was selling oil for Occidental Petrolem) we added a Tome wall for heat and cooling. I didn't run an AC unit until 1995 when my asthma kicked in. That and the 1200 square feet of additions were too much for it to handle. It still modifies and balances the temperature in the house

 

[squerly]

Look what arrived yesterday! This is the Classic 6048 outdoor wood burning furnace with 393 gallon water jacket. The furnace heats water to the desired temperature, (typically around 200 degrees) where it is then pumped through the radiant heating system in the floor of the house. (Or in Muleman’s system, the greenhouse, driveway, etc.) The warmth of the floors heats the room(s) and a thermostat monitors the room temperature and manages the water flow through the floors. A heat exchanger is used to heat domestic water.

BTW, that stuff behind it is called "sunshine" and this is the first we've see of it in about forever... And no, the gazebo is not crooked, it just looks that way because of the way I was holding the camera.

 

[muleman]

Did you get the foundation plans? Don't forget to pour a nice area in front of it for loading the wood.

 

[squerly]

Did you get the foundation plans? Don't forget to pour a nice area in front of it for loading the wood.

Roger that Mule. We will start installing the radiant floor tubing on Monday (maybe Tuesday) depending on the weather. Meanwhile, the rebar was finished today!

 

[Doc]

Looking good squerly. Coming right along. That is one impressive burner/boiler.

 

[squerly]

Installed the pipe that will pull the air from the lower part of the house and redistribute it in the upper part of the house. Here is a (very poor) drawing of how the pipe is installed.

• Air is pulled from the lower, cooler regions of the house.
• As the air is pulled through the pipe it is cooled by the underground temperatures (55 degrees) and then
• Distributed into the top section of the house, just above a series of ceiling fans.

The following pictures are of different stages of the pipe being installed. Note: The original plan called for 12' pipe but the costs were just prohibitive so in the interests of saving some cash we substituted 8" pipe instead. There should still be plenty of air (volume) flow. Below are pics of the first layer of pipe. The last pictures are after the 4 rows of pipe have been buried and the pipe is sticking up through the ground, later to be attached (in the attic) to the fan that will put the air from the lower sections of the house.