# Lounge > Home and Garden >  My Acreage Project - Let the fun begin

## eblend

Hi All,

As some of you may be aware, I bought some land last year and finally getting to the point where almost ready to build. I figure I make a thread that I can update once in a while with the progress for those who care. Here are some facts about the build:

1. Post and Beam construction. 3200 SQF Main Floor + 1083 SFQ loft. No basement. The shell of the house will be built by Integrity Buildings. Particular house plan is a modified version of this: https://integritybuilt.com/residenti...with-loft.html

2. After the shell is done, the rest is on me. I am the general contractor and will be doing a bunch of work myself, including all siding, interior wall framing, electrical, gas, plumbing, drywall, doors ect ect. 

3. I will be getting contractors to do these tasks: Grading, Septic System/Well Water Line, Concrete pour, HVAC, Spray Foam. 

4. All the fun starts again with a secondary dwelling once this one is completed.

With that being said, if you have any questions, please let me know. I will update as I can. Not looking for advice of how to make the house better, the plans are set in stone now and permits issued. Everything right now is setup the way we want it.

I will start a few design pictures of the house to show the vision:

Front and Back



Floor Layout

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## DonJuan

Pics of the land and views?

That looks like a nice ranch style house.

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## Buster

cool. Subscribed.

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## ExtraSlow

Excited to see this progress. Sounded cool in the other thread.

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## eblend

Grading work has started a few weeks back and took a bit longer than expected due to rains, but was finally finished last week. Big thanks to Jesse and the crew @ Bear Excavation for getting this done. 
@Maxt
, thanks for the recommendation! 

The whole half of my land had to be stripped of top soil, dug down quite deep to extract clay for the pad and road build, and then backfilled. I have some real pictures and some camera captures to show progress as I couldn't always be there.

Equipment has arrived:


First tearing up has started:




Major Progress being made. Road built


Rains, rains, rains



Backfilling the massive hole. I don't have a picture but at one point the base was about 2M below the road:


Completed! Waiting for screw piles, scheduled for next week!

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## nismodrifter

Ballin.

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## vengie

Subscribed! Looks cool

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## DonJuan

Damn...

Goals right here.

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## cet

Agreed, would love to be able to do this one day. Great project.

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## littledan

In!

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## tha_bandit

nice! i’d like to know about that camera setup you got going

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## gwill

How's the new home warranty work with you peace mealing things out the way you are?

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## Kijho

Wow this is awesome, looking forward to following the progress

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## brucebanner

Nice, will definitely by following along!

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## ExtraSlow

> How's the new home warranty work with you peace mealing things out the way you are?



new home warranty is a joke and it would be beneficial to opt out in most cases. I suspect this home-built setup does not qualify for the ANHWP, which is a bonus.

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## eblend

> How's the new home warranty work with you peace mealing things out the way you are?



I had to register for an owner-builder permit, and there is an option to either get insurance or not. I chose not to. With my choice I have to stay here for 10 years minimum before I can sell, or get insurance later if I want to sell before the end (might be difficult). As I plan to stay here rest of my life, it's not a concern. 

"Owner-builders will be exempt from the new home warranty requirement unless the property is sold within the warranty period. In that case, when the property is sold, the owner-builder must provide the buyer with warranty coverage for the remaining portion of the warranty period."

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## eblend

> nice! i’d like to know about that camera setup you got going



I got one of these with a Solar Panel. Basically runs off battery, has an SD card for local storage in max quality, LTE SIM for cloud uploads/remote viewing (can choose quality), and charges off Solar daily. I haven't seen it drop below 97% battery power. 

Works rather well. Has AI built in for person/vehicle detection, so I get notified the moment it detects something. 

Looks something like this (stock photo)

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## you&me

I'm curious about the cost of slab construction vs. excavating a basement.

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## gwill

> new home warranty is a joke and it would be beneficial to opt out in most cases. I suspect this home-built setup does not qualify for the ANHWP, which is a bonus.



my new home warranty question was related to the finance side. Eblend touched upon some of the issues a bit... some banks won't fund your build when your not registering with new home warranty. 

Was curious what sort of extra hurdles there are to jump through when being your own gc or peace mealing the jobs out like he is from a liability side.

If its as simple as not being able to move for 10 to 15 years seems straight forward.

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## ThePenIsMightier

So, are the doors and openings absolutely enormous so that you can efficiently get all the gigantic shit in during the building phase?
How is that different?

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## littledan

Another question. Are you putting in a storm cellar/tornado bunker?

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## eblend

> my new home warranty question was related to the finance side. Eblend touched upon some of the issues a bit... some banks won't fund your build when your not registering with new home warranty. 
> 
> Was curious what sort of extra hurdles there are to jump through when being your own gc or peace mealing the jobs out like he is from a liability side.
> 
> If its as simple as not being able to move for 10 to 15 years seems straight forward.



The biggest hurdle so far has been on the insurance side. During construction it's a good idea to get course of construction insurance, which is expensive, and requires some history in construction to get. My main broker was unable to find a company to insure me, however I went to a different broker and was able to find a company that accepted my previous DYI experience as sufficient experience to qualify. I actually found another company to do the same, both about $9700 for 18 months term. Not cheap but necessary. This insurance covers all materials and 2M in liability for the duration of the term + few other things. 

The other hurdle is basically figuring everything out by yourself, which can be fun and frustrating. So far so good I think.

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## eblend

> I'm curious about the cost of slab construction vs. excavating a basement.



Technically should be cheaper. The secondary dwelling will have a basement, so stay tuned, eventually I will find out  :Big Grin: 





> So, are the doors and openings absolutely enormous so that you can efficiently get all the gigantic shit in during the building phase?
> How is that different?



Not sure exactly what this statement means. How is what different? Please elaborate. 




> Another question. Are you putting in a storm cellar/tornado bunker?



Not in the house itself, at least not planned. I was thinking of making a concrete panic room from one of the bedroom closets, basically a concrete shell as walls to serve that purpose, but I'm really not too concerned about it. I am thinking of doing an underground bunker later as a separate thing, but mostly for fun, but could be useful if something does happen. 

The second dwelling is also planned to have a basement, so we can escape there if need be.

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## LilDrunkenSmurf

Looks cool, subscribed! What's the plan for the secondary dwelling's purpose? Guest house?

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## ThePenIsMightier

I meant that if the exterior walls, doors and windows are up before the interior is done, how will you get giant sheets of drywall and other large items into the house to finish the interior?

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## brucebanner

> Looks cool, subscribed! What's the plan for the secondary dwelling's purpose? Guest house?



I think it was mentioned in another thread, parents or something like that.

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## bjstare

> I meant that if the exterior walls, doors and windows are up before the interior is done, how will you get giant sheets of drywall and other large items into the house to finish the interior?



How exactly do you think houses usually get built? Drywall is 4x8. Unless he's got teeny tiny midget doors, there shouldn't be any issues.

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## jutes

Love the loft, 100% would turn that into a golf sim room.

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## ExtraSlow

> Love the loft, 100% would turn that into a golf sim room.



The loft is the art room.

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## eblend

> I meant that if the exterior walls, doors and windows are up before the interior is done, how will you get giant sheets of drywall and other large items into the house to finish the interior?



Yah, as others have mentioned, it's not really a problem. I can store those large skids in the garage and then bring them into the right room as needed. It's actually easier than a normal house, as a normal house would have walls in the way, I choose when I get those walls up, so I can move things into place before putting walls in if I wanted to. There isn't too much that won't make it through standard doors, or my 4 pane patio door. 




> Looks cool, subscribed! What's the plan for the secondary dwelling's purpose? Guest house?



Secondary dwelling is for my aging parents for the time being. Long term might turn into a rental unit....and very very long term, a nanny suite to take care of our old asses. We plan to stay here rest of our lives.

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## JRSC00LUDE

> I meant that if the exterior walls, doors and windows are up before the interior is done, how will you get giant sheets of drywall and other large items into the house to finish the interior?



I almost kert rep'd you for this. hahaha

This is awesome OP, thank you for making a thread.

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## gwill

> . 
> 
> The other hurdle is basically figuring everything out by yourself, which can be fun and frustrating. So far so good I think.



Good luck with it all. Looks awesome. Do you think you'll see significant savings by handling most of the contractors/quotes yourself?

From what I ran into a few months back before moving quite a few of the builders I chatted with wanted a cost + type of build due to all the fluctuations happening on costs.

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## eblend

> Love the loft, 100% would turn that into a golf sim room.



Only 8' ceilings up there, so would only work if you are a midget  :Big Grin: 

Plan for up there is to split it into a closed area for a Japanese room with tatami mats and a kotatsu on one end of the loft, the other end a media room, and in the middle probably just open space for now, not really decided. This will be a future project, for now will just be an empty space. 

This is the idea more or less for the Japanese room, for those who aren't familiar with the idea.

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## ThePenIsMightier

> How exactly do you think houses usually get built? Drywall is 4x8. Unless he's got teeny tiny midget doors, there shouldn't be any issues.



True~ish. Normally the door and window _openings_ are there which are a fair bit larger than the finished doors and windows that I'm picturing being done much earlier on this build. Maybe it is still just openings.
And the more 12' drywall sheets a guy uses, the cheaper the labour.
Anyway - I wasn't trying to say it would be insurmountable. Just a small issue that might come about.

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## littledan

Doors and windows always get installed prior to drywall though...

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## ThePenIsMightier

> Doors and windows always get installed prior to drywall though...



Do they?
I can picture a zoom boom with a skid of drywall up at a second floor unfinished window and guys inside the house unloading it into the house.
You're still likely correct that the install won't take place until later, but the bulk materials have been loaded in through the larger openings.

Anyway... I don't want to derail the awesome thread so let's everyone agree that I'm positively 111% wrong and move ahead with our lives.

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## schurchill39

> Do they?
> I can picture a zoom boom with a skid of drywall up at a second floor unfinished window and guys inside the house unloading it into the house.
> You're still likely correct that the install won't take place until later, but the bulk materials have been loaded in through the larger openings.
> 
> Anyway... I don't want to derail the awesome thread so let's everyone agree that I'm positively 111% wrong and move ahead with our lives.



I'm not sure if you're serious about this or not. Even 12' sheets are 4 feet wide. Drywall always gets loaded into a house vertically on the edge so you can fit a ton of drywall through any space as long as you have 4 feet in height. In a place like this a drywall cart could be used to bring it into the house from the garage but most of the time drywall is hand bombed once the skid gets as close as it can. On new builds if the upstairs window isn't tall enough for the sheets to fit through on their edge they will either cut the OSB on the outside of the house or remove a sheet and load it off the boom between studs. 

When I did my basement in my previous house they used the boom to bring the skid to my basement window (with the glass removed) then came inside and hand bombed it into every room based on the count I gave them. In my current house they dropped the skid on my drive way then carried it around to the side of the house and hand bombed it through the window.

In his house its about as easy as you could get. Drop the skid in the garage and cart or carry them into every room on the edge.

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## eblend

Things are starting to pick up. Yesterday the screw pile crew came out to start work on prepping for driving the screws into the ground. They did all their markings and scraped the pad down a bit for the frost wall insulation. Monday the piles go in!



Screw piles, there are 45 in all for the building. The 2L bottle is there for size reference, these suckers are very beefy, much bigger and thicker than I imagined.









This is the pile driver. Attaches to the excavator arm to screw the piles in



Also today river rock was delivered for the septic field. This was only the one truck load, they went and came back again, but I wasn't there for that







Next week things should really start moving. The septic field, electrical line to the house, water line from well to the house, and a ton of different conduits going under the pad. Bigger updates on the way!

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## eblend

Well the piles started going into the ground yesterday. They got one side of the house piled. These later get cut off, special brackets welded on, and walls built on.

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## roopi

Any idea how deep these piles go?

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## vengie

Typically until they stop

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## ThePenIsMightier

^Until "refusal" and I vaguely recall my Structural Dude telling me "they ain't doing fuck all until they're down >11m" but it's possible that was specific to the site conditions. These piles look _massive_ for a house, so my guess is they're using larger ones to be on the safer side because they didn't get a giant geotech report that is more weasel clauses than binding data.
That's probably what I would do, too.

But my "being right" record in this thread isn't great, so...

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## ExtraSlow

The weight and requirements for industrial projects are far greater than this would need.

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## ThePenIsMightier

> The weight and requirements for industrial projects are far greater than this would need.



Oh absolutely! Like 10x!

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## eblend

> Any idea how deep these piles go?



I would say somewhere between 8-10 feet, basically as others have said, until they can go no more. Looks like those piles are about 12" long I would say, didn't measure, and what you see sticking out is what couldn't go any more. The guy told me yesterday that they are topping out at 30000 lbs on some of them, which is way above the 8000 or so they have to get to. The guy went with higher torque because he wasn't getting as much depth as they normally could. Guess I got some solid ground, which is good. 

They got through a bunch today, but still a bunch left



The area for my septic field got cleared today, tomorrow they start digging that out



They also dug and ran the water line today into the house, it's partially covered, they gave up early as it was too damn hot there today.






As it sits, by the end of the week electrical and sewage stub out + bunch more stub outs for future uses will be installed. The purple stubs are just 4" PVC pipe that I will feed a bunch of smaller PVC conduits through later for everything listed on the right side. I had that drawn out but realized it's easier for this guy to do the stubs for me, burry them, and then I will come with my tractor and dig them up and run all other conduits through them. I need these stubs there because between the screw piles goes a frost wall, and it can't be disturbed after, or at least shouldn't be, so everything that needs to penetrate through should be in the ground before it's there. I hate side of building penetrations, so trying to limit those.

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## eblend

> . These piles look _massive_ for a house, so my guess is they're using larger ones to be on the safer side because they didn't get a giant geotech report that is more weasel clauses than binding data.
> That's probably what I would do, too.



Not sure how this works, but the county needed to see all the load parameters on each pile, and had to have Engg provide a ton of details and shit on these to ensure they meet all standards and requirements. There is also a report that is provided by the crew after the piles go in to show torque specs ect for country records.

This is the info I have on piles if anyone is curious

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## ThePenIsMightier

> Not sure how this works, but the county needed to see all the load parameters on each pile, and had to have Engg provide a ton of details and shit on these to ensure they meet all standards and requirements. There is also a report that is provided by the crew after the piles go in to show torque specs ect for country records.
> 
> This is the info I have on piles if anyone is curious



Neat! So you were required to get somewhere between 3,000 and 8,000 ftlb as a "refusal torque". Your contractor was hitting that torque long before the piles were minimum helix depth of either 6' or 8'.
Thankfully, they had a big enough rig to force those dirty fuckers down to minimum depth with a shit pile more torque. I believe this means you've hit some excellent ground at about 5' and forcing that helix deeper into that is *great*. 
Hitting rocks is a nightmare. You sit there spinning with no reasonable torque until you hopefully fracture that rock and get a chance to get lower but you've kind of "reamed your hole" and no one wants that. (But don't worry if you get a few).

Piles that size every 8' under a house is for a house that will be there until my ex-girlfriend stops being a whore.
I've put a 500 barrel tank under four* 7" screw piles and that's all over 80,000 kg.
*That was a big mistake and there was plenty of info that it shouldn't have worked, but it did...

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## OU812

Why doesn't bedroom 1 have a closet?

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## eblend

> Why doesn't bedroom 1 have a closet?



It's going to be a workout room. Closet was removed on purpose and can be built in later if needed.

Not much update today. The screw pile guys are all done and packed up. Next up a crew is supposed to come out and cut them all to proper length and weld on plate brackets. Tomorrow if all goes according to plan I will finally get the power cable into the ground.

Yesterday they made good progress on the septic field.

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## eblend

Well, today was a big day for me. After 5 weeks after picking up a massive power cable (300 kcmil ACWU90 Armored Cable), I was finally able to get it into the ground. It's a pain working with a cable this size, but nothing a little bit of machinery can't assist with. The cable was hoisted with an excavator and the other end attached to a truck which drove and unspooled it. 100M of cable, and looks like at least 5M of extra on there was added as I have more than enough. Was a little worried as the planned path changed last few weeks so was sweating, not knowing if it would be enough. $5000 for the cable...so not a cheap thing to mess up on. 





















The septic tank also went in yesterday










They are going to finish all the septic work by Tuesday of next week, and sometime next week I expect that they will be cutting all the piles to lengths, and after that the walls will start going up! Things are getting exciting and moving pretty quick now!

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## colsankey

Interesting project, might have missed it by why piles and no basement, are you worried about water tables in the area?
Basement seems like a lot of space we normally assume to have available to us here.

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## eblend

> Interesting project, might have missed it by why piles and no basement, are you worried about water tables in the area?
> Basement seems like a lot of space we normally assume to have available to us here.



Hey. The reason there is no basement is because this isn't a typical stick built home. This is basically a pole frame structure, where the outside walls form the basis for the entire support of the home. Interior walls don't bear any load at all, and if I wanted to, I could have the entire place as open concept, with no walls in the way. Riding arenas, aircraft hangers, barns ect are built this way. It's just something the wife and I decided on, as it's more diy friendly. I'm running this whole thing as a general contractor, and I will be doing a ton of work myself outside of the building shell and things like septic, hvac, concrete ect. Basements are possible with this type of build as we, but that's very expensive and custom. 

Either way, it's just the wife and I, and our pets, so it's more than big enough for us. The loft will basically serve the purpose of a basement for us.

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## eblend

Well not much visible progress last little while, but finally yesterday they started cutting the piles, and today started welding them on. Getting close to big changes quick I suspect! Some beefy brackets

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## eblend

Well not much visible change happening. Some materials got delivered, and the water pump was dropped into the well today. With the help of a generator I can now get water. I also got a chance to fly my drone around on the weekend

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## schurchill39

> Well not much visible change happening. Some materials got delivered, and the water pump was dropped into the well today. With the help of a generator I can now get water. I also got a chance to fly my drone around on the weekend
> 
> » Click image for larger version



Are there 4x acreages in this area or what land is yours? I assume what is all dirt would belong to you?

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## eblend

> Are there 4x acreages in this area or what land is yours? I assume what is all dirt would belong to you?



Mine is everything at the end of that cul-de-sac, so the dirt area and up to my car parked in the bottom right of that picture.

This picture shows it better. There are a total of 5 lots on this whole road, each one is ~4 acres.

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## The Cosworth

Looking good bud!

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## eblend

So the build crew is on site and the build has started! Today they put a bunch of main posts up already, and I suspect progress will be quick for a while, as the wall sections between the posts are pre-built. Will be interesting to see how quick she goes.









Also well pump is in and garden hydrant installed as well. Will get this puppy going with my new generator when it arrives as I need some water for my septic field grass.

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## eblend

This is the progress in ONE DAY from last pictures, pretty quick, since all the sections are pre-assembled.











The two vertical windows are too low and don't match the drawings....let them know...let's see what kind of fix they will put out. Supposed to be high like this window. These are bathroom/shower windows

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## Buster

thats pretty cool

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## ThePenIsMightier

Oh, that's not what I was imagining, at all. I thought the modularized walls were finished with windows, siding and possibly even drywall. I think that company called Landmark does this, somehow.
Still awesome, just that something from earlier made me think it was different.

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## Gman.45

Great thread so far, what a fantastic project to share with Beyonders.

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## s dime

What goes in between the floors, and the earth beneath? Is this area insulated or just sealed off somehow?

Neat project.

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## eblend

> What goes in between the floors, and the earth beneath? Is this area insulated or just sealed off somehow?
> 
> Neat project.



There goes an L shaped frost shield insulation, and then treated plywood to cover up the gap. Think some BlueSkin goes around that after the fact...but not too sure. They delivered BlueSkin stuff, so I am pretty sure it's going to go around the foundation insulation to seal the gap.

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## s dime

Thanks, I see it now, the whole place has a concrete floor. Ill follow this thread closely, would love to do something like this in the future.

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## eblend

Went out there early this morning to take a look at what was done yesterday, and looks like they are installing 3X LVL beams sandwiched together, plus a few pieces of insulation, to make up the 8" wall thickness. These go around the entire perimeter and support the whole roof structure above, and transfer the load to the screw piles. Kind of neat, didn't know about this detail of the build.

They also reframed the two small vertical windows to their proper height. Someone at the factory screwed up.


LVL all around:











Reframed windows:

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## ThePenIsMightier

Daaayum! Them walls be thic!

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## schurchill39

Are you going to spray foam insulate or fiberglass batten?

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## 2002civic

following, awesome project!

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## ThePenIsMightier

What kind of attachments are here and here?





That header will be under a lot of stress and it looks like it's only resting on that one (assumed 2x8).

*Not Structural advise

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## eblend

> Are you going to spray foam insulate or fiberglass batten?



Spray foam the whole ma-faka, this is conditioned attic, cost of sprayfoam > $100k!! Whole place will be a spray cave, even under concrete. 




> What kind of attachments are here and here?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> That header will be under a lot of stress and it looks like it's only resting on that one (assumed 2x8).
> 
> *Not Structural advise



Good question. I noticed this as well when I was out there a few days ago. I will take a look again tomorrow when I head out. I know they haven't fully finished framing that area out, as right now it's just an LVL on the double door, but the single door is framed out fully. I will check to see. You are right about lots of weight, the whole loft + roof will be sitting on that 16' span. I just just notice that there is 2" of plywood sticking out, leads me to believe that a 2x8 is going into that area still on each side.

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## eblend

So was out there today just to clean up around the site a little bit, and took some more pictures. They have braced the whole building to square it out, and started putting up the roof and loft. The roof will be pointy, there is a triangle that still goes on top, I think they build it this way for easier transport.

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## eblend

> What kind of attachments are here and here?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> That header will be under a lot of stress and it looks like it's only resting on that one (assumed 2x8).
> 
> *Not Structural advise



Went out today to do some cleanup and took some pictures to further clarify this:

As you can see, the framing around this isn't finished as both doors will be same height:



This is the detail on the back of the small door. I suspect it will be exactly same on the big door. Why it's not framed in yet I am not sure, perhaps has something to do with the stairs they still need to bring in for the loft, perhaps they need the clearance. 




Also got around to fly the drone again just for fun. Some random shots.

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## Doozer

Drone shots are cool shots.

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## eblend

No major updates. Have been out of town for a few days and checked today and the roof is nearly completed.



The stairs for the loft are in the open area, so there is more complex framing involved

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## eblend

Well things are moving along. They are sheathing the roof right now, but overall looks pretty much the same, so I didn't bother with any pictures. Yesterday I started and today finished up my little generator shed. The bitch is heavy to move, so I didn't want to move it anymore and just build a little house around it. I need it to run the well pump for the time being so I can get water to seed/water the grass on the septic field....unfortunately, it appears that the pump is a dud. Called the septic guy and he was sure it wasn't the pump and some generator problem, but luckily there is another construction not too far away and I drove buy and was able to have them quickly drop by with their generator to test, and same thing, no water. The generator changes tone like there is a load, but no water ever comes out. With two generators not able to get the pump moving, I think something is wrong with the pump. The guy who installed the pump will come out sometime and have a look. I know it's a brand new $1500 pump in there as I was there when it was installed, but it was never tested at that time, so could have been dead from the start, which is very unfortunate. 

Anyways, here is my little shed for the pump. Used all refuse material they had on site, cost me absolutely nothing. Had a pack of shingles laying around so decided to shingle the top as well.







I originally made a platform to move it around easily with a tractor, so I just build around this platform so I can still move it to a new place later on.

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## Ekliptix

I def thought that was a dog house at first glance.

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## eblend

Well my well guy has gone MIA....after agreeing to meet me Tuesday and being responsive over the weekend, I haven't been able to reach him for all of this week...fml

Anyways, progress is going, mostly just sheathing at the moment. Some updated pics:

Loft (8' ceilings, hard to get idea of the space from the picture. Stairs will be around where the ladder is sticking out.)



Few angles of the house. The two large roof section will join at the peak, they haven't built that part out yet





Hopefully some more exciting updates soon.

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## ExtraSlow

Like the place. Hope your guy shows up.

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## Ekliptix

Loft looks good, nice and deep. 70ft?

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## eblend

> Loft looks good, nice and deep. 70ft?



72' to be exact.

The well guy came out today. I pulled the pump out myself last night to see wtf is going on, and pump is fine, but I couldn't get it seated into the pitless adapter. I will spare everyone the long story, but well guy mixed up and installed the wrong piece, so the two sections of the pitless adapter were from two different models that are incompatible. Because of this mistake, the pitless adapter was never fully inserted and water was just pumping up and then falling back down the well. Once we figured out the problem we swapped out for the correct piece and I now have water! Guy usually uses same adapters all the time, but due to shortages in everything, he had to order some other types, and guess didn't realize it wasn't seated when he installed it, and he never tested it, as usually it's pretty idiot proof. Anyways, shit happens, I'm just glad it's all resolved now!

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## ThePenIsMightier

Geez, I hope you didn't tell him about what you did to his dad... You better carry that secret to your grave.

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## eblend

> Geez, I hope you didn't tell him about what you did to his dad... You better carry that secret to your grave.



Spent 5 fucking hours on this since last night haha, I had many negative thoughts in my head about him at that time haha, ready to do things I would regret, tried everything, the fucking thing wouldn't go...I was like...."this is pretty fucking straight forward....maybe parts are not compatible.." and then I remembered something he asked me once when I was briefly there during the pump install, he said "you haven't seen this part around here have you?"....the part in question is the part that was wrongfully installed...he then said "it's okay, I have another one"....yep, another one being the wrong one. The way these pitless adapters work, is you dig a 10 foot trench, install the one part of it from the outside and connect the line that goes to your house, and the part that slides in is installed at a later date when you ready to get the pump in....so it's easy enough to misplace...but how he didn't realize it wasn't seated the first time around when it was only in like 1/4 of an inch...that I think is just sloppiness and rushing. It also doesn't help that you are looking through a 6" well down 10' and trying to line up two small(ish) parts basically completely by feel.

Image for those who are curious but clueless on wtf I'm talking about  :Big Grin:

----------


## eblend

Well the build is going, progress is not as visible anymore, but things are moving along.

This week they got all the roof sections finished finally, which were a huge pain in the ass with all of the angles involved, but everything on the roof is done and sheathed. 







They also installed the 8x8 fir beams on the front and in the back. Not finalized but you get the idea





And some pictures of the interior framing:





I'm not sure what's next for them, but kind of hoping they start on the roof metal first to get things from getting wet inside when it undoubtedly starts raining sooner than later.

----------


## ThePenIsMightier

Is this all plywood instead of OSB, Playa?!!? Damn!
Them 8x8's be thic!

My Allah there's a lot of wood in this place! Residential construction codes feel like massive overkill sometimes and then there are other times that they don't. This place looks like whatever the bastard love-child of a fortress and a mansion is.
A mantress?
A fortsion?
Prolly a fortsion because it is costing a fortune!

----------


## eblend

> Is this all plywood instead of OSB, Playa?!!? Damn!
> Them 8x8's be thic!
> 
> My Allah there's a lot of wood in this place! Residential construction codes feel like massive overkill sometimes and then there are other times that they don't. This place looks like whatever the bastard love-child of a fortress and a mansion is.
> A mantress?
> A fortsion?
> Prolly a fortsion because it is costing a fortune!



Yah it's all Plywood, OSB is for peasants..

Actually funny enough, when I originally signed for this place, the walls were supposed to be 3/8" OSB, and roof was supposed to be 7/16" OSB, but at the end of the day, they built it all from 1/2" plywood. I didn't make any specific request or anything, that's just how they built it. The only OSB in the house is the thick ass 1" or whatever stuff that makes the loft floor, everything else is plywood. Don't know why they switched their materials from one to the other, but given that industry switched to OSB because it's cheaper....I will assume that plywood is better  :Big Grin:  I didn't have to pay any extra for their switch.

Yah the 8x8s were also a bit of a surprise, they look better than I anticipated. I knew there were going to be pillars, but I didn't realize there were going to be the horizontal sections either, which I think are a nice touch. Never lived in a place with fancy pillars, so perhaps this is standard. They did ask me which stain I wanted on them, and that's what we chose. 

So far, generally speaking, I am pleasantly surprised with some things that are happening with this house. I'm always of the opinion that builders are out there to get you and get the cheapest builder grade crap they can shove into a building, but in this case, seems like I am getting some pretty decent materials. And I don't know if it's costing me a fortune, the base price is readily available for this build online. I did shell out about $50k more on top of the base for upgraded triple pane black windows and doors, and pretty gangster (I think) garage doors, but other than that it's basically MSRP. I did also choose to pay extra $7k i think for the Standing Seam roof upgrade, but that's all. Keep in mind, they are only making the shell, rest will be on me, and the costs will swell exponentially.

EDIT: I lied, there is OSB on the two front roof fronts as well, and the side, so it's like 95% plywood. Didn't even realize until I looked at pictures again.

----------


## LilDrunkenSmurf

That's a lot of real estate on the roof. Did you look into getting solar panels at all?

----------


## arcticcat522

I am very much in love with this whole build.

----------


## eblend

> That's a lot of real estate on the roof. Did you look into getting solar panels at all?



I haven't looked at it, but it's planned down the line for the entire 72' side of the house which gets sun all afternoon. This is way down the line, but we will basically try to keep all roof penetrations away from that roof section so it can be lined with panels all the way across. Will cost a fortune but something we will def consider down the line.

----------


## cam_wmh

This is my favourite thread

----------


## eblend

Well, today was a pretty big day. All of the windows got installed! Surprising on how quick they work. Guess it's pretty simple to pickup and set into a frame when it's new construction. Guys said the windows were super heavy, which I guess is expected given that it's all triple pane. Apparently tomorrow they will be doing frost wall insulation at the bottom, but I won't get to see it until it's fully done as I got an 18 hour shift tomorrow, so I will post back again on Thursday most likely. 

All the front windows have grates, rear windows just clear. All tripple pane with dual coatings (don't remember anymore which kind haha, think to keep heat in or something, been a long time since I ordered).

----------


## ExtraSlow

That style of construction is so weird to see in progress. Just unhinged seeing open space at the bottom of the wall. I mean, I get it, but my brain refuses to understand. Ya know?

Also sweet house.

----------


## Ekliptix

Windows are nice progress.

Off topic a bit, but I stumbled across this home design, probably best suited for the country. I'm in love with it, especially the breezeway to the garage.
https://buildmax.com/bm2500/
Video walkthrough: https://youtu.be/P22WhBSvty4

There's also a 4 bedroom version, but I don't see where the mechanical room is in the layout. https://buildmax.com/bm2900/

----------


## eblend

> That style of construction is so weird to see in progress. Just unhinged seeing open space at the bottom of the wall. I mean, I get it, but my brain refuses to understand. Ya know?
> 
> Also sweet house.



It is weird, and basically everyone I explain it too just looks at me like a deer in the headlights, completely clueless haha. Once the frost wall insulation is installed, it will look a lot more closed in, but still good old dirt for the entire floor. Once they are all done, real work begins for me, but the great thing is, I can do the rest within the comfort of an enclosed space, without freezing ass off with the cold winds ect. My plan, which I will need a lot of help from mother nature on, is to get under slab plumbing, under slab sprayfoam, hydronic pipes, and concrete done before the real cold sets in. It's possible I might get the spray started on the walls before I finish the floor, but if all stars line up, I would love to have a pad before winter, so I can work on all other framing/gas/electrical over wintertime. Will be cold as balls without heat in there, but if it's insulated, I might get a cannon to heat the space up for the day I am working in there, so it's not too damn cold. We will see how she goes.

----------


## eblend

> Windows are nice progress.
> 
> Off topic a bit, but I stumbled across this home design, probably best suited for the country. I'm in love with it, especially the breezeway to the garage.
> https://buildmax.com/bm2500/
> Video walkthrough: https://youtu.be/P22WhBSvty4
> 
> There's also a 4 bedroom version, but I don't see where the mechanical room is in the layout. https://buildmax.com/bm2900/



Yah pretty neat. It's the same type of construction as my place. Seems like lots of people are doing it, those who want to do DYI a portion or the whole thing, at least on YouTube. It still seems to be unheard of by anyone around these parts. I think one drawback is that people are used to basements, and although possible, would be far more complex. We personally don't need a basement and wanted to do this project DYI after the shell is done, so this style of construction makes sense to us.

----------


## Ekliptix

^
I didn't have a basement when I had a house in Texas for 4 years. Didn't miss it at all, I think because the overall sqft was 3000'+, and had an open feel. I'm sure you won't miss a basement either.

----------


## vengie

This house is going to be so bad ass. Nice work!

----------


## JRSC00LUDE

My only contribution is that there have been a few points in recent history where plywood was cheaper than OSB. I call that a win.

----------


## cidley69

What material are the window frames? Doesn't look like vinyl, unless it's wrapped vinyl? Where'd you order them from?

----------


## andyg16

> Windows are nice progress.
> 
> Off topic a bit, but I stumbled across this home design, probably best suited for the country. I'm in love with it, especially the breezeway to the garage.
> https://buildmax.com/bm2500/
> Video walkthrough: https://youtu.be/P22WhBSvty4
> 
> There's also a 4 bedroom version, but I don't see where the mechanical room is in the layout. https://buildmax.com/bm2900/



This is sweet! Looks like the mech room for the 4 bdrm is at the back of the walk in pantry. Anyways if you guys get a chance look up stradman on youtube, the house he is building is pretty sweet. Similar to this but just to a bigger scale.

----------


## eblend

> What material are the window frames? Doesn't look like vinyl, unless it's wrapped vinyl? Where'd you order them from?



They are acrylic wrapped vinyl if you want to call them that. The wrap is is heat/chemically fused to the frame, not something you can peel off. The windows are from All Weather Windows, which is the company that Integrity deals with, so I didn't really have a choice, but so far happy with the look and feel. My patio door is the same way, black inside and out acrylic wrapped vinyl, from same company. 

Since I had to look this up, decided to check on the window coating for completion, and it's HS3 glass, which is Triple pane, two Low-E coatings, Argon with an R value of 7.5.

----------


## eblend

> This is sweet! Looks like the mech room for the 4 bdrm is at the back of the walk in pantry. Anyways if you guys get a chance look up stradman on youtube, the house he is building is pretty sweet. Similar to this but just to a bigger scale.



Funny enough, I saw his video a few weeks back of this massive house as he did a walkthrough during construction. Randomly showed up on my YouTube feed. My entire house is like a quarter of his garage haha.

----------


## prae

> My only contribution is that there have been a few points in recent history where plywood was cheaper than OSB. I call that a win.



Yep the pandemic meant that my sheathing ended up plywood because OSB was unobtainable and ridiculously expensive. Definitely a win.

- - - Updated - - -

I am loving all these updates 
@eblend
 and like was just said; this is my favorite thread on beyond right now. Kudos on realizing this and thanks for taking us along for the ride.

----------


## eblend

Well I went out there again today to see all the progress over the last two days, and they did quite a bit of stuff. It's not visible mostly, but some of the stuff is very important for my type of build, as I am building what is called a "conditioned attic", where the roof attic space is all part of the thermal envelope, and therefore isn't vented like most roofs are. The roof space is a warm space, and vents are specifically blocked, with spray foam sprayed right to the underside of the roof. Here is a picture to give you an idea:



With that being said, all the blocking has now been installed to block out all venting, so that spay foam can go right up the wall and carry up the roof and back down. This building method is not very common in residential real estate, but it's picking up steam for highly efficient homes. It's a ton more expensive because you have to spray SO MUCH of the roof surface.. All ventilation in this house will be mechanical, with fresh air sucked in from the outside with an HRV





Additionally, the frost wall insulation has started going in now. They got about 60% done today. 








I suspect that by end of next week the house will be fully wrapped and roof metal will begin.

----------


## littledan

Do the underside of the shingles get vented somehow? Otherwise wont they get fucked up in the summer from baking on that roof surface with the underside foamed?

----------


## bjstare

> Do the underside of the shingles get vented somehow? Otherwise wont they get fucked up in the summer from baking on that roof surface with the underside foamed?



The roof is rolled metal.

My parents insulated and roofed their house/garage the same way. They also have HRVs. If you have any plants in the house, or park wet cars in the garage, it actually can cause humidity issues because the house is tighter than a nun on Sunday.

----------


## eblend

> Do the underside of the shingles get vented somehow? Otherwise wont they get fucked up in the summer from baking on that roof surface with the underside foamed?



Yah, as cjblair said below, it's a metal roof. There is a membrane that goes between the roof and the plywood underneath as well. I don't know all the details, but people much smarter than me in building envelop design say it's a good thing. There was actually a study contracted out somewhere in the states that had a direct impact to our Alberta building codes, and only changed about 6 months ago. When I was doing my permits they told me that if I wanted to spray the underside, I had to provide a building envelope engineering review, which is about $3000, but a new standata came out just in time for me to avoid needing that, and it's now an approved installation method. 




> The roof is rolled metal.
> 
> My parents insulated and roofed their house/garage the same way. They also have HRVs. If you have any plants in the house, or park wet cars in the garage, it actually can cause humidity issues because the house is tighter than a nun on Sunday.



Yah, I can imagine that. It's really a balancing act with all the different ventilation methods inside the house, including bathroom fans ect. It's a more controlled approach vs just letting it leak all over the place, which is basically how most houses are made.

----------


## ThePenIsMightier

Ok, so you pay a lot more for the envelope study and then a lot more in spray foam and then a little more (but in perpetuity) heating/cooling a space that is almost certainly not occupied...
I guess there's some benefits somewhere, but what's the benefit that I am failing to see?

----------


## riander5

Dude, I think you forgot to pour your basement

----------


## suntan

That's a perfectly cromulent way to do a roof, but usually it's to accommodate a vaulted ceiling.

----------


## littledan

nice. metal roofs are g. my asphalt shingled roof feels entirely inadequate now.

----------


## bjstare

> Ok, so you pay a lot more for the envelope study and then a lot more in spray foam and then a little more (but in perpetuity) heating/cooling a space that is almost certainly not occupied...
> I guess there's some benefits somewhere, but what's the benefit that I am failing to see?



Heating/cooling a bit more space at a way higher efficiency due to less losses is a net win. Plus the roof will last as long as the house.

----------


## ThePenIsMightier

It's a lot more space (actually _volume_), though - isn't it?
And a comparably* sealed envelope with a separate attic shouldn't be any less efficient, should it?

*Being hyper sealed with spray foam etc etc.

----------


## eblend

> Ok, so you pay a lot more for the envelope study and then a lot more in spray foam and then a little more (but in perpetuity) heating/cooling a space that is almost certainly not occupied...
> I guess there's some benefits somewhere, but what's the benefit that I am failing to see?



I didn't have to pay for the envelope study, those were done before me for research and then approved by Alberta. I will pay a ton for spray foam and because the house is so tight (spray foam is a moisture/air barrier as well), it actually leaks very little heat/cold out, so it's actually supposed to be more efficient to heat and cool (apparently). Another benefit will be the fact that I can have full height ceilings everywhere, as I can run all my HVAC piping, electrical, water ect up in the attic, something that you normally wouldn't be able to in a cold attic over here in Canada. So those are some of the benefits, but the actual thing that pushed me over the edge is the fact that last year we had terrible attic rain in our existing house, and all that fluffy insulation in the attic got wet and practically useless. After that experience I decided that I would much rather spend money up-front and never have to worry about it again. I should also mention that my entire slab will be heated, so aside from furnace I will have that as a heat source to warm up the space.

Really it's a choice. On YouTube some pretty big name custom home builders swear by this approach, so I decided to give it a go. We plan on living here until our final days, so we want to do things the best way possible (within limit), and hence why we also sprung for triple pane windows, hell even my garage door windows are insulated...




> Dude, I think you forgot to pour your basement



Excellent observation  :Big Grin:  Go back a few pages and it was talked about 




> That's a perfectly cromulent way to do a roof, but usually it's to accommodate a vaulted ceiling.



Yah, I have done a ton of research into it, the standata that applies to my house is actually referencing a vaulted ceiling design as an argument point. 




> nice. metal roofs are g. my asphalt shingled roof feels entirely inadequate now.



Yah, I'm looking forward to it. It was one of the main things I knew I wanted right off the bat. I also paid I think 7k extra to make sure it's a standing-seam metal roof vs the normally included exposed fastener corrugated steel. 

Generally speaking, should look something like this when done. Mine is in carbon black color

----------


## pheoxs

Are you putting rigid insulation on top of the sheathing? When I looked into a sealed attic you needed a lot of insulation and typically it was necessary to put a couple inches of insulation on top of the roof as well.

----------


## ThePenIsMightier

That seems more desirable in a couple ways I hadn't considered.
RIP about your attic rain scenario recently. That's a shitty deal.

----------


## eblend

> Are you putting rigid insulation on top of the sheathing? When I looked into a sealed attic you needed a lot of insulation and typically it was necessary to put a couple inches of insulation on top of the roof as well.



I have seen some people do it, and some put an airgap between the metal and the roof, but I don't know if it's required or not. The way one engineering firm told me, is that all you need is a special underlayment and you are good, so that's all I really know about it.

For anyone who is curious, or stumbles on this in their research, the particular standata that allows this can be found here:

https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/5a1e...19-bcv-022.pdf

The document and research in question can be found here. It's a good read 
@ThePenIsMightier
, as it outlines all the benefits (8 page read):

https://www.americanchemistry.com/co...-in-Canada.pdf

----------


## ExtraSlow

Airgap makes me hard.

----------


## eblend

So not much of an update, but wanted to post pictures of the insulation details as I was able to take some pictures before they got covered up, so you can see the layering.





That's all for now

----------


## eblend

Well they they started applying roof synthetic covering on today, so house is looking rather blue. They only finished this one side today, but by end of day tomorrow I am sure it will be fully covered. Unfortunately this crew is nearly done with everything they were working on, and because of some missing trims, they are unable to install the doors just yet, and now another crew will come to do roof metal ect, so not sure on the timing of progress going forward. I will be posting progress of my plumbing, which I will be doing all by myself! Should be fun. Got all my pipes lined up, going to pickup on Friday and start trenching on Thursday. 





Took another picture of the loft as well now that the stairs are in (they are basically hanging in the air until concrete is poured..

----------


## ragu

Possible you can share some cost estimates or good contractors you've found so far in this process? Be big help!

----------


## prae

Looking good!

I'm curious how you made out on the insurance front. Getting course of construction coverage was a struggle, when I shopped around for it. And shockingly expensive.

----------


## msommers

As someone who's never seen a house built from scratch, I'm really enjoying the progression. And the level of thought put into each item!

I could see myself going completely insane doing this, essentially needing to understand the engineering fundamentals of every single piece and the quality of every single item. I'm enjoying it from the sidelines!

----------


## eblend

> Possible you can share some cost estimates or good contractors you've found so far in this process? Be big help!



So far, I haven't really used too many contractors, as I plan to do a bunch of the work going forward myself, but the ones I can recommend without issue would be: 

Bear Excavation - They stripped and sloped my entire land and build the pad for the house. Were a pleasure to work with. Let me drive their compactor (and paid me for my time) and the crew guys were awesome. Total cost for half my lot that I am developing now, took about 3 weeks, was $23k

I had a guy who built my septic field and water line, I am not so sure I would use him again in the future. The work was done quick, using quality components, but too many red flags, so I won't recommend on here unless someone really wants to know. This was $32k, includes septic tank/field/pressure tank/well pump, waterline to house, excavation for my electrical cable, basically everything to get water and sewer in the house, minus pipes to connect to the sewer.

The building shell is being done by Integrity Structures, but it's actually subcontractors who are doing the work. I don't know their company name or anything, but awesome guys as well.

The only other guy who has impressed me so far, and I will be going with for my concrete, is Brad Carroll from Rocky View Concrete. Guy is super knowledgeable and shared so much advice with me the very first time we spoke, that I knew he was the one I would want to use. These are per sqf numbers he gave me:

-All in right from recycled concrete to the finished product will be $10.50 - $11 per sq ft. 

-Just pump place and finish, and supply of concrete will be approx $6.50 per sq ft 




> Looking good!
> 
> I'm curious how you made out on the insurance front. Getting course of construction coverage was a struggle, when I shopped around for it. And shockingly expensive.



I got insurance, $9700 for 18 months through Mammoth Insurance, James Clark is the man. He was awesome and got me a few quotes. Other company that got me a quote was Apollo insurance, but James got more coverage for same price, so I went with Mammoth. 




> As someone who's never seen a house built from scratch, I'm really enjoying the progression. And the level of thought put into each item!
> 
> I could see myself going completely insane doing this, essentially needing to understand the engineering fundamentals of every single piece and the quality of every single item. I'm enjoying it from the sidelines!



Keep in mind, this ISN'T how most homes are built, so don't learn too much  :Big Grin: 

Yes it sucks and a challenge, and you have to learn the tricks of each trade if you plan on doing these things, and all the code requirements for your specific region. Let's just say YouTube is fantastic to learn a topic. Watch a ton of videos on the same topic and you pickup a bit from every one, and at the end you have a pretty good idea on how to proceed. Most contractors won't tell you anything as they want to get paid and do the job for you, and charge you up the ass for it, so if you are willing to learn and are curious enough, anything is possible. DIYChatroom site is also great for random questions, as lots of guys on there are pros who are bored in the evening and reply to DYI folks on how shit should be done.

----------


## eblend

Just posting some pics. Roof all covered up and construction crew that built the whole place has left. New roofing guy will show up sometime to do the metal roof and his crew or someone else to install everything else, namely doors, house wrap, garage doors and a new interior stair as the one they installed was 6 inches too long.

----------


## tirebob

Looking great sir! I love ranchers like this... We are actually getting ready to list our acreage for sale soon. Making a move back home to the South Similkameen in BC. Your type of house is something I would want!

----------


## suntan

> Looking great sir! I love ranchers like this... We are actually getting ready to list our acreage for sale soon. Making a move back home to the South Similkameen in BC. Your type of house is something I would want!



Wait what? What's happening to your store then??

----------


## tirebob

> Wait what? What's happening to your store then??



I have been working from home for well over 2 years now so I will continue to do what I do remotely and just come back to Cowtown periodically as required... But, sorry I was not looking to thread highjack! Just expressing my love for the rancher type houses and nthat I want one haha!

----------


## eblend

Well no-one working on my house this week, so I started doing the shit I need to do, which is plumbing. Took me nearly 3 full days, but I finally dug up the required trench, and laid out the pipe to make sure I got the right slope. Let me tell you, digging inside of a house is a major pita, especially when you are dealing with rock hard clay base, a little Kubota tractor with a backhoe that only rotates 45 degrees off center in either direction...and a trench that has 45 degree angles all the time. At times my tractor was basically hanging over a trench, surprised I didn't roll it or drop it in the hole. 

Right now it looks like a giant mess, but once plumbing is done and all is back filled + topped with gravel, it will all look pretty.

Brought over $1800 worth of pipe and fittings. Pipe is solid core for anyone in the know and curious. 



Laid out the pipe to get a general idea of the route and marked the ground for digging



Let the digging begin! I could have made this much simpler on myself, but I chose the hard route, hence the deeper trench. Oh well.



Digging in every direction that I can as I can based on how i can position my tractor. Some walls were cut out, but since they are not load bearing it's not a problem. The construction crew cut one out for me, I cut the other as I went diagonal. Can see the support beams still in place and intact over the screw piles.



Making progress. Pipe is laid inside just to check slope. Using a laser level to verify consistent downwards slope across the entire length. 



The trench is fully dug up.



The top end of the pipe (with an outdoor cleanout already roughed in.



The bottom end with the stub-out to the septic tank (it's much deeper than picture leads on believe. Total drop from top to bottom is 20 inches.



Final result



Got a 5 day weekend coming up, plan is to get all the measurements in, all the pipes glued, bedded and call the inspector for sometime next week if all goes well. Doing most of the plumbing just on the spot as I get there, as I tried planning and well, sometimes you have to make things work on the spot as you are dealing with multiple dimensions of pipe drop ect, so I gave up and will do each section one at a time, starting from the very top and work my way down until I can tie into the septic.

That's all for now. Long days and lots of work, but making slow progress.

----------


## 89coupe

> Well no-one working on my house this week, so I started doing the shit I need to do, which is plumbing. Took me nearly 3 full days, but I finally dug up the required trench, and laid out the pipe to make sure I got the right slope. Let me tell you, digging inside of a house is a major pita, especially when you are dealing with rock hard clay base, a little Kubota tractor with a backhoe that only rotates 45 degrees off center in either direction...and a trench that has 45 degree angles all the time. At times my tractor was basically hanging over a trench, surprised I didn't roll it or drop it in the hole. 
> 
> Right now it looks like a giant mess, but once plumbing is done and all is back filled + topped with gravel, it will all look pretty.
> 
> Brought over $1800 worth of pipe and fittings. Pipe is solid core for anyone in the know and curious. 
> 
> 
> 
> Laid out the pipe to get a general idea of the route and marked the ground for digging
> ...



Are you doing anything to protect your lines from freezing?

----------


## JfuckinC

This thread rules. Interesting content.

89coupe, why would he? the house/dirt is insulation, all basement lines are just in the dirt...

----------


## eblend

> Are you doing anything to protect your lines from freezing?



Basically what JFuckinC said, the house is the insulation. From my understanding the earth below the house does not freeze. Also, these are sewage pipes, which only carry water for a brief moment before they are empty again as the water flows into the septic tank. The only line in the whole house that is berried hella deep (10') is the main water line, as it holds water and needs to be below frost line. Even the line that carried "water" to the septic field is not very deep. From what I have been explained, the water is pumped to the septic field, and then once the pump stops pumping, the remaining water flows back into the tank, therefore it never freezes. All water lines within the house will be in the walls/conditioned space and not under ground.

----------


## 89coupe

> This thread rules. Interesting content.
> 
> 89coupe, why would he? the house/dirt is insulation, all basement lines are just in the dirt...




My understanding of frost line in Alberta is 3 meters, anything above that runs the risk of freezing.

Since he doesn’t have a basement I would be worried.

Maybe I’m wrong?

----------


## cet

It's somewhere between 5 and 7 feet. Under the house doesn't need to be that deep because its protected by the house above.

----------


## ThePenIsMightier

> My understanding of frost line in Alberta is 3 meters, anything above that runs the risk of freezing.
> 
> Since he doesn’t have a basement I would be worried.
> 
> Maybe I’m wrong?



It's between 2-3 meters on open land, if there isn't a big, comfy, warm house insulating the ground from the cold.

----------


## 90_Shelby

How does the frost line transition at the edge of the house? Is it an angle or depth? Genuinely curious.

----------


## ThePenIsMightier

> How does the frost line transition at the edge of the house? Is it an angle or depth? Genuinely curious.



I don't know but I'd assume it's a steep angular gradient.
The House sitting on a shit tonne of piles virtually eliminates his risks of frost heaving, etc.

----------


## 89coupe

> It's between 2-3 meters on open land, if there isn't a big, comfy, warm house insulating the ground from the cold.



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.

----------


## suntan



----------


## JfuckinC

> 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.



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

----------


## 89coupe

> 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

> 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

> 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

> 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

> 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  :Big Grin: ). 

Here is an idea of most installations I have seen:

----------


## eblend

> 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

> 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  :Big Grin:

----------


## 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

> 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

> 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!

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## 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

> 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.

----------


## ThePenIsMightier

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.

----------


## eblend

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.

----------


## eblend

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

----------


## eblend

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!!

----------


## prae

Roof looks great! Are you going to do snow guards?

----------


## eblend

> 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.

----------


## ExtraSlow

Let it slide.

----------


## eblend

> 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.

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.

----------


## eblend

Well taking advantage of the nice weather, and wanted to share this masterpiece  :Big Grin:  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  :Big Grin:  All of these conduits leave outside the house for future needs.




Left is high voltage, right is low voltage stuff

----------


## ExtraSlow

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.

----------


## eblend

> Run extra cat6 fucking everywhere. Min 2 cables to anywhere you light have a computer or tv. Ideally three tbh.



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  :Big Grin:  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. 

Half the time to build this house will be me thinking of all possibilities  :Big Grin:

----------


## eblend

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.

----------


## ExtraSlow

Sharknado approved

----------


## schurchill39

Nice pic dump

----------


## eblend

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  :Big Grin:  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  :Big Grin: 



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.

----------


## ianmcc

> An positive rep to the first person who guesses right what these boxes are for....shouldn't be too hard on this forum



Two post car lift footings.

----------


## jutes

Sex swing footings.

----------


## schurchill39

Hydrofluoric acid pits! What every acreage needs

----------


## MOB68

Will there be any exterior insulation on your house?

----------


## eblend

> Two post car lift footings.



Yeppers




> Sex swing footings.



I don't believe those are in this picture. This is the garage. I didn't show the bedroom ones yet.




> Will there be any exterior insulation on your house?



No there won't be. It will be all spray foam on the inside.

----------


## eblend

Well progress is slow, but decided to post an update regardless. Not much visually going on, but lots of prep happening in the back end.

1. My garage drains have arrived. They were on back order for a while but have finally made it. With these I just need to get them installed at proper height, connect the pipes and backfill the only portion of my floor that is without gravel. That will complete the floor and it will be ready for spray foam more or less, couple more water lines to run but generally speaking the hard part will be done.

2. My siding is coming in tomorrow, assuming they restocked. $14k worth of James Hardie product, as well as various drip edges ect. This includes lap siding, as well as board and batten type. Enough siding for the entire house, except for a single wall, which will be some wooden look statement wall. This is yet to be fully decided on. 

3. The roofing guys returned last week and were able to get a little bit done. The entire roof section above the garage is now more or less complete (minus the top cap), and they have moved on to the siding of the other roof section, which should move pretty quick now since it's all basically flat panels one after the other. The front of the house will be a nightmare with all the mini roofs. It's been too cold to work so I don't expect they will be back for a while now, probably into the new year. They did get roofing done far enough where I was able to measure out the plumbing vent stack marked and they drilled it out and caulked it for me. I went out there on Friday and got the pipe poked through and secured for future vent connection on the inside. It's capped off at the moment to prevent snow/rain from entering into the building. 





This is how I have the pipe supported on the inside, nice and solid and good to go when plumbing is ready to tie in





Went out last night to grab something from site and decided to take a picture of the pipe after the snow, looking good with plenty of height to stick out past probably any snow storm. 



If I am able to get the guys to come out on the 27th (assuming they are working), it looks like it will be a warm week, which I happen to have off, then I can start on siding work. I need the house wrapped with a house wrap, so hopefully those guys are working and are able to come out for a few hours to get it done.

----------


## arcticcat522

> 



Please add more screws....

----------


## eblend

> Please add more screws....



Funny enough, that's actually how you are supposed to do it. These flanges have a soft metal outer ring that is designed to conform to roof profile, so you have to silicon them, and go to town on screws. In most cases these just pop out wherever on a roof as most trades don't care, but since I'm super anal about details, I told him to make sure it's dead center between the ribs as he is putting them up, and the guy did as I requested. Perhaps overkill for a flatter section of the roof, but exactly as described in install manual.

These are just for an idea of what you they are designed to conform to






Siding delivered early this morning. Still missing a pallet of 4'x10' Boards for the Board and Batten side of the house. They were on back-order. Doesn't look like a whole lot for $14k..

----------


## arcticcat522

Looks solid

----------


## suntan

It's toight.

----------


## ExtraSlow

Most detailed flange pics of 2022 award goes to 
@eblend
.

----------


## eblend

> Most detailed flange pics of 2022 award goes to 
> @eblend
> .



Thanks, it means a lot to me haha.

Actually these roof penetrations are a major concern for me, so I don't mind you guys busting my balls about them  :Big Grin:  You buy a metal roof for a shit ton of money, last thing you want is to cut holes in it and make it ugly and leaky. My plan is to have all roof penetrations on the back of the house and out of sight, so that from every other angle my roof is nothing but beautiful metal  :Big Grin:

----------


## prae

> Thanks, it means a lot to me haha.
> 
> Actually these roof penetrations are a major concern for me, so I don't mind you guys busting my balls about them  You buy a metal roof for a shit ton of money, last thing you want is to cut holes in it and make it ugly and leaky. My plan is to have all roof penetrations on the back of the house and out of sight, so that from every other angle my roof is nothing but beautiful metal



How hail resistant are metal roofs? eg. is yours going to end up looking like a shitty golf-balled hyundai in the wal-mart parking lot after the first hailstorm, or do they hold up better than asphalt shingles?

----------


## Twin_Cam_Turbo

> How hail resistant are metal roofs? eg. is yours going to end up looking like a shitty golf-balled hyundai in the wal-mart parking lot after the first hailstorm, or do they hold up better than asphalt shingles?



Hey I know a guy with one of those Hyundais!

----------


## prae

> Hey I know a guy with one of those Hyundais!



 :Love:  :Love:  :Love:

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## eblend

> How hail resistant are metal roofs? eg. is yours going to end up looking like a shitty golf-balled hyundai in the wal-mart parking lot after the first hailstorm, or do they hold up better than asphalt shingles?



We will find out haha. It's 26 gauge steel. I think the fact that right behind it is wood support underneath the membrane helps it out, vs a car which is basically backed by air. I think it should hold up well. I am sure it will have a few dents, but these roofs are used on commercial building all over the place, and I have never seen one damaged, so don't know. 

Here is a little article explaining things from the company who manufactured my roof:

https://www.formasteel.ca/hail-damage/

At any rate, the damage is cosmetic, vs a shingled roof, which actually needs replacing after a good hail storm. This roof should be good for 40 years...hope I can get a few good ones without major noticeable hail dents. 


Regarding the house, got my wood delivery today ($1384.98 delivered from Double R Building Supplies) for 50 x 2x6x10, 50 2x4x8 and 100 2x4x10. I needed some wood to build out my soffit area and decided to just order enough for all interior walls remaining to be built. Should be more or less enough, will buy any extra from home depot if I run out. I wild guessed based on number of walls and 24" spacing, and then rounded up to a nice number. 



Also yesterday the backordered HardiePanels arrived (the boards in a board and batten design) along with my soffit for all minor overhangs around the house, blackish color (Ironstone). The big overhangs for the front and rear porch are to be determined as I am thinking of going with a wood look there.

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## bjstare

> How hail resistant are metal roofs? eg. is yours going to end up looking like a shitty golf-balled hyundai in the wal-mart parking lot after the first hailstorm, or do they hold up better than asphalt shingles?



My parents have had theirs for ~12 years, and had multiple hail storms - biggest was golf ball sized - with no damage. They are more resilient than asphalt shingles in every respect.

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## eblend

> My parents have had theirs for ~12 years, and had multiple hail storms - biggest was golf ball sized - with no damage. They are more resilient than asphalt shingles in every respect.



That's awesome to hear! I hope mine lasts just the same. I had a chat with the guys today and he told me it's a roof for life, so hopefully it is and looks good while at it.

Surprisingly the crew did show up today to wrap my house, at least most of it, so I can proceed with siding next week. They are taking next week off so it was today or next year, so it was nice of them to show up and get it done so I can move forward. It was -24 when the day started and snowing, but they pulled through and were done in about 4.5 hours. There is a boom lift on site from roofers that they tried to start but it wasn't (frozen solid), so they did just the parts they could reach off the ladders, but that's enough for me to do a ton of siding, so no big deal. I won't even get half of it done before they show back onsite to finish it off I am sure. I threw on some 2x4s in a few locations to provide additional holding power against wind, and they gave me 4 rolls of tuck tape to do the vertical seams myself...as it's too cold and it doesn't stick right now...

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## eblend

Hi all, little bit of an update. As I had a week off between Christmas and New Years, I started working on prepping for soffit (install of J channel) and other siding that I could do, given that only the bottom part of the house got wrapped. During the week I got all the J-channel installed for the soffit as well as got some trim installed on the house. In total, during the 9 days I had off, I did all the soffit j-channel (including installing backing where necessary to mount the j-channel), installed almost all the building corners, a belly board to separate the roof from the lower level, and all the trim under the roof overhangs. I also completely trimmed out my garage doors (no pics) so that my garage doors can be fully installed sometime next week (or so was told...)

I was ready to trim out all of the windows when a crew showed up unexpectedly a day before Christmas to do the house wrap on the roof peaks, which completely changed my plans on how to proceed. Given that there is a lift truck on site, and I was told that I can use it, I decided to take advantage and get as much stuff down on the roofs as possible, as without a lift truck the process would be impossibly slow and complicated, and pretty dangerous by myself. When doing siding there are a lot of code requirements in terms of drip edges and trims, so that took a long time to get all setup as well, as each trim needs a top drop and a bottom drip. Keep in mind lots of seams need to be caulked still.

Anyways, enough with the details. Here are some pics of the progress. I am having a buddy come out next week to help me with the siding on the front roof sections as it's completely different style than what I have done up to this point. 

Most of the outside trim + belly board installed:





Complicated and very sharp angles:



This picture shows the metalwork required. Can see the black J-trim for soffit, and dual drip edge around the belly board. 



Trimmed the loft window while the lift truck is here. Notice the 4x drip edges required..



Siding done on the roof section at the rear of the house. This was my first wall and first time doing Hardie Board lap siding, came out good I think.



And started on the next side of the house as well. This is the final roof section in lap style siding, and it's exactly where we sit now. There is a hole for the bathroom vent as well.



This part took FOREVER....the sharp angles involved plus an angle transition from sharp to less sharp...Glad I am past that point. Now it's just moving on up, should move quicker. 



All my corners of the house are on the same level and I used lasers to measure everything. Lasers are cool. In this pic all 3 directions are illuminated, but I only cared about the horizontal line and left the rest of the lights on for cool picture.




If all goes well, majority of the roofing siding will be done by end of the weekend...famous last words...The front of the house is all board and batten and applied via large 10x4 foot sheets, so faster coverage but more precision required for the cuts. Should be fun...need two people for sure.

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## cam_wmh

Well done

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## arcticcat522

Great work! Looks fantastic so far

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## vengie

Impressive how much work you are able to do yourself!

Congrats and well done.

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## eblend

Well, just a small pic dump. Started on board and batten siding, smallest roof section first by myself to get an idea on what is involved, and have a buddy coming out tomorrow to assist me with the bigger roof sections. I did two panels today and moved on to do some soffit. Some pics of the progress:

Board and Batten siding. Just board for now..will cut smaller pieces later from scraps



And did soffit on the longest side of the house

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## MOB68

Looks great. Are those hollow box beams/post claddings or solid wood?

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