Kitchen Walls

Another month has passed since my last entry!  I guess I should give up on my weekly update concept! 

 Last week the walls started to rise on the Kitchen / Family room level.  

First we had to spend a few days carving the rock back so there would be room not only for the walls,  but enough room to do the waterproofing.  This created yet another pile of dirt!

With no place to put the dirt permanently,  we had to pile it in the middle of the diningroom floor!  My plan is to pour the kitchen/greatroom walls first,   then waterproof,   then lift the dirt over the wall.      

The window in the family room is just starting to take shape.  It will be a nice view!

The rough electrical work in the livingroom and cellar is almost complete.  After just a few days of work, Bill from Blue Fields Electric got all of the boxes and wiring set into the walls.   

On a traditionally wood framed wall,  the boxes are nailed to the studs and holes are drilled in each stud,  allowing the wire to be run through the walls from box to box.  In ICF construction,  I cut channels in the foam with a "hot wire"tool,  then the boxes are attached to the concrete core.  The wires are run in the channels to,  then held firmly in the channel by little squirts of spray foam.

The electrical went pretty easily, once we got the hang of it!

At the end of the week I had a nice visit from some of our out-of-town family!

Kitchen Slab, Done!

Before I get to the most recent pour day,  I want to detail the amazing quantity and variety of inspections I have on this project!  Here they are, not in any particular order:

PRIVATE INSPECTORS

Geologist:  This private inspector must approve each excavation and every trench I cut,  before the steel is laid and the footings are poured. He also inspects vertical cuts in the hill for stability.  This is a representative of the company that did my original Soils Report.

Structural Observation:  Every time I install reinforcing steel (rebar) and before I have the city inspector come,  I am required to have this licensed engineer inspect my work.  He is basically acting as a representative of the original design engineer,  who would normally do these inspections,  except for the fact that my engineer is located in Oregon!  He reviews the structural plans and makes sure I have done everything as designed.

Compaction Inspector:  This is another private inspector working for the Geologist. He inspects and tests the compacted soil (See entry on April 24, 2008).  He also inspects the French Drains before retaining walls are backfilled.

Deputy Inspector:  This private inspector is present whenever I am pouring the high strength 3000 psi concrete.  His job is to make sure the concrete is placed as designed by the structural engineer,  so that full strength will be achieved.  He also takes samples of the concrete right from the concrete truck which are tested by at laboratory for strength at 7 days,  and then at 28 days.  The concrete must reach a certain percentage of it's full design strength before I can take off the shoring,  and must reach the full 3000 psi by 28 days.  So far,  my tests have all gone very well,  in some cases my samples have surpasses the full design strength by the 7 days!

CITY INSPECTORS

Grading Inspector:  This representative from Public Works Department inspects all excavations and french drains after the Geologist has done his inspections.  He is also concerned with making sure that the cut slopes are properly protected from erosion during the rainy season, and that no run-off will end up on the public roadways.  He will also give final approval to all grading and site drainage to make sure it is safe and conforms with codes.

Electrical Inspector:  Pre inspects all electrical work.

Mechanical Inspector: Pre inspects all HVAC ducting and equipment.

Plumbing Inspector: Pre inspects all plumbing work.

Building Inspector: After all of the other inspectors have made their reports, the Building inspector must visit, review the other's reports,  and sign off.  

Only after ALL of these inspections can I proceed to the next step!

Then,  when I am at a certain stage,  my City Planner who helped me through the Design Review process will do a site inspection to make sure I am building what was approved. When I am all finished I will need sign-offs from just about all of them before I get the Certificate of Occupancy,  but that is still a little while off!  I don't want to get too far ahead of myself!

Back to the current stage, the Kitchen Slab!

When all the steel was placed, I called for my structural observation inspection last Friday.  That went well,  so I called for the building and plumbing inspection.  Well,  I thought I was ready to pour!  I had to redo the tiny bit of plumbing that would be buried by the concrete,  but that was a quick change,  and I passed inspection on Tuesday.  Here is the island sink vent:

 I also got the ducting inspected and approved,  so on Wednesday the Building Inspector came by and approved me.  On Thursday,  we had a relaxed morning getting ready for the pour.  The first truck arrived at 11:00 and everything went very well! The forms all held without any leaks,  and the finishers helped all along the way making the pour very successful.  Then,  just as the last truck left and the finisher were about to do their final pass,  the clouds broke open and there was a huge downpour! 

 I stood there watching as the nice smooth finish got pockmarked by the huge drops of rain!

Oh Well!  It really doesn't matter, because it will all be covered by the finished floor material,  but the finishers were disappointed that they couldn't leave it as perfect as usual.  During a break in the storm I tried to put plastic down to protect as much slab as I could.

On Friday it rained off and on most of the day,  so I took time driving around town and making some decisions!  I ordered the Iron Entry Door,  and discussed the huge amount of iron railings that will need to be fabricated.  I also visited a members only flooring supplier and found some really nice options.

On Saturday Morning Kyle and his girlfriend Annette came and worked with me for a few hours.  We moved a bunch of the bags of ICFs,  making room to start building walls.  

Then, while I measured and set the metal channel that would align the first course of ICFs,  Kyle and Annette started building ICFs. 

It was really great having them help out!  This afternoon Jeanne and Evan also came by to tour the house,  and it was wonderful to walk them around and have them get excited about it!  What a great family I have!

Next week we build lots of walls!

Kitchen Floor Forms and More Walls!

We finally finished excavating for the kitchen footing!  there was so much dirt that I ended up putting the last of it in a pile in the middle of the living-room! 

Once the kitchen footing was dug,  we started setting the steel,  Then the HVAC crew from Precise Air came in to set a few ducts.  In the picture below the main duct to the dining-room is on the left,  and the suspended floor is taking shape on the right.

The Dining-room duct will eventually connect to the HVAC unit in the garage,  but for now it will end in the crawl-space,  so that access in to the crawl-space is not blocked.

At the other end of the crawl-space is a complicated series of fittings that gets the duct up into the Amdeck,  through the concrete,  down into the cellar,  and up into the family room.

From the Cellar below the duct is a lot easier to see and deal with.  

The Amdeck makes it very easy to run ducts and other utilities,  I simply cut out the area I need with a sawsall.  The crew custom assembled the duct outside,  then installed it from below.

FORMS

One edge of the kitchen slab is at the back of the music nook in the living-room.  Junior,  one of my laborers has gotten really good at building strong forms!  Here are a few of his taller forms, the back of the music nook ...

... and at the top of the stairs leading up from the living room.  Under this section of form is the access to the crawl space.

Here is a view down the crawl space with the forming in place.  it is only 24" high!  One of the electricians actually snaked his way through this to set a piece of conduit at the far end!  

Now the steel mesh was placed,  and the #3 rebars were positioned. The steel was ready!

On the north wing of the house,  the 2nd floor walls were starting to rise!  

This is the Master Suite,  looking back toward the Bathroom window.

We also took some time to move the Amdeck out of the garage and stage it close to where we would needed it next.  

This allowed the electricians to start!  First,  they set the main panel and permanent meter at it's position in the buttress between the garage doors.

Then they ran flex out of the box and through a hole in the concrete that I had plugged with foam before pouring.  The flex will run to various major needs for power,  a subpanel centrally located in the house,  the AC condensers,  etc.  

They also set the first box for outlets!  This was very easy in the ICF.  We simply cut a channel in the foam with a "hot wire" tool,  attached the box to the concrete,  then ran the flex in the channel and attached it to the box.  Done!  No drilling through wood studs, either!  On a future blog entry I will show a little movie of the "hot-wire"!  Not a typical construction tool,  but very handy here!

In the next entry,  the Kitchen Slab is poured!

Kitchen Floor, Almost the Last Footing!

Most of this week has been spent excavating the footing for the kitchen/dining room. While the footing is very close to the same dimensions as other footings, our previous experiences have made us much more efficient. We made the cut and kept the levels with much more precision than in the past. There is also an intermediate footing that will support the Amdeck,  creating a crawl space behind the cellar.

The huge pile of dirt thrown over from the footing above was smaller,  thanks to all of the backfilling,  but there was still too much dirt in the way... 

... so we spent a few days bucketing the dirt on top of the nicely compacted areas of backfill. It seems inefficient,  since it will all have to be removed and replaced 6' at a time,  but I had to stockpile the dirt somewhere so we could continue building!  The stockpiled dirt is so high behind the livingroom that I can now walk right up onto the back part of the lot!

Also this week,  I had a big steel order delivered,  enough to finish the kitchen floor and get the Master Bedroom walls started.

Once the dirt pile was cleared,  we did the fine tuning,  cut the "key",  and started laying in the steel.  By the end of the week,  all of the stirrups were in place!

The Kitchen was not the only digging we did!  When ever there was a free laborer,  I had them working on the trench to connect to the sewer.  

They also dug a pit at the street property line to look for the "lateral",  the pipe that supposedly was placed from the sewer main to my property line back in 1961 when they put the sewer in.  I was concerned about this,  because the official computerized city maps showed the connection coming off of the manhole,  yet when I pulled off the manhole cover there was no pipe coming in.  To add a new lateral connection is a very expensive project,  so I went back to the city for more information.  I found a helpful person who went back to the original hand drawn maps from 1961.  It clearly showed the location of the lateral as coming from a point down the sewer line,  NOT right from the manhole.  We dug a pit based on this old map ... 

... and found the lateral,  right where the old map said it would be!  All we had to do was follow the hole that was compacted fill,  and it lead us right to the connection.  Here is the hole,  with a bucket covering the actual connection.  I know it seems like a silly thing to get excited about,  but I was thrilled to find it!  

Next week,  the rest of the steel gets placed, as well as more underground ducting,  and the forms get installed!