Cement and Ce-MORE-ment

Last night Jim got the supplies and returns for all seven circuits of tubing into elbow sleeves and secured in place while I removed tarps. Then he connected them all together so we could pressurize them to test for leaks. Since we don't yet have power on site I made five trips back and forth to the garage to charge two air compressors.

This morning Jim borrowed his brother Gary's generator, and that made filling the tubing much easier. Both sets held at 100 psi for an hour, so we dropped them to 40 psi for the concrete pour.

Randy came this morning to pour the slab. He decided there wasn't enough slope in the garage to pour that today, so he cancelled some of the cement and will come back Friday to re-grade and pour the garage. I drove the kids over to watch for a few minutes. There were two trucks there at the time, and Sawyer called them "cement and ce-more-ment."

One note on the foam staples: they work fine for laying out the tubing, but when cement drops in a large pile and oozes outward, it drags the tubing with it and rips the staples right out of the foam. After we discovered this problem in the first few seconds, they spread an inch of cement over all the tubing first to help hold it in place, then filled in the rest afterward. I hope the tubing all remained close to the right place so we don't end up with too many cold spots.

I forgot to mention to Randy that we needed to keep dirt off the streets, and before he was done the Farmington City Dirt Nazi showed up and staked in a violation notice at the curb. I went back tonight and spent a few hours trying to clean the mud off the street. Randy brought his Bobcat for me to use, which helped get the largest stuff off. Lydia came over to help too. I heard a story about muddy footprints on the road getting a project completely shut down, so I guess I should be grateful it's just a warning.

The warning also mentioned that we needed to have a lined concrete washout area on the lot, rather than washing out in the garage where we'll be pouring more cement in two days. Nobody I've talked to has ever heard of such a requirement, and nothing was said of this requirement during the permit process. Apparently it's a very new requirement.

Now that's what I call a storm front

I went over this morning with the intent of re-covering the tubing after the wind blew the tarps off yesterday, but it didn't look like there was any threat of sun anytime soon, so I didn't bother. I went back again tonight after the sun came out and got everything covered back up so it won't get sun tomorrow.

Excellent Tanning Opportunity

Yesterday (I'm breaking with my normal habit of back-dating posts to the day of the work) was a big day for radiant heat. I had never considered the difficulty of laying reflective foil-backed insulation on the ground on a really hot August day. You know how rich people on TV and Klinger from MASH use tri-fold foil boards held under their chin to tan more effectively? Imagine a 1988 square foot one of those.

Blood: check; Sweat: check; Tears: still several months to go. We (dad, Jim, and I) did succeed in getting all the insulation placed, and all seven circuits of Pex tubing laid out. Then we covered them with tarps to prevent direct sunlight, which I hear can degrade the oxygen barrier on the tubing. The foam stapler I rented from Washington (which you can see leaning against the wall in the foreground) worked like a charm. It was light-weight and easy to use, and did a pretty good job securing the tubing to the insulation. The alternative would have been to buy wire mesh and tie the tubing to it using zip ties, which I think would have taken longer, and surely would have been more expensive.

In the late afternoon, after crawling around on the foil while stapling tubing, I began to feel very weak and somewhat light-headed. As the youngest of the group and the owner of the project, I felt bad heading home while Jim and dad stayed to work in the heat on my house, but I really thought it would be best if I didn't pass out and/or die. I laid on the AC vent for about an hour, and Emily got me a popsicle. At one point I tried to sit up against the wall, but got simultaneous cramps in both my stomach and back, and felt that I couldn't move in any direction. I eventually made it back, but felt very weak the rest of the night. Today I continued to feel queasy and week, and thought my no-vomit streak might be in danger (March 2002). After some googling, I'm pretty sure I had heat exhaustion. Streak still alive so far.

The Dingo and the Vibratory Compactor

On my way to the equipment rental place in Jim's truck, Jason's brother called me (not sure why Jason didn't) to say that the gravel guys now said they could come on Monday. Too little, too late.

Here is a picture of dad operating the Dingo. He seemed to really enjoy it. He moved many, many buckets full of gravel to the spare gravel pile at the back corner of the garage, then dug out the extra dirt the excavation guys put in the porch area where the ramp should go, then did quite a bit of work grading the driveway area and filling in the front. The gravel part took longer than the first four hours of the rental, which meant we could keep it until 9:30 tomorrow morning. Even in the area where we could dig with the Dingo because of pipes, it was still very useful as a power wheelbarrow.

When we did finally get enough gravel moved out, and the remainder mostly leveled back out, I started laying out the insulation panels. I found that because I had raked the gravel to level it out, that left the surface very jagged, which made a lot of air space below the insulation. I walked on a couple pieces, and heard gravel popping through the foil on the other side with every step.

During our dinner break we decided to rent a vibratory compactor to squish the gravel. Jim came over after work to help out, and seemed to also have a lot of fun running the compactor. It made an amazing difference, as you can see in the picture the contrast between the rough, uncompacted areas and the areas he had already covered. By dark we laid out all of the whole pieces of insulation we could. Tomorrow we'll return the rental equipment, fit the rest of the insulation, and start laying out the tubing.

Arrrrrg! Too Much Gravel

I took a half day off today to start laying out the radiant floor heating system, and dad came to help. Imagine my dismay when I discovered upon arriving home that the gravel guys, instead of filling to 5.5" below the foundation wall like I asked them to at least three times, filled right up to the top of the interior footings, leaving no room at all for the 1.5" insulation that's supposed to go below the slab floor. I left two messages for Jason, and finally called the guy at the gravel company directly. He says he didn't hear about the 5.5" until they were halfway done. If so, why did he keep doing it wrong? He says all of his guys are now gone on four-day weekends, and he can't have anybody come fix it until next Wednesday. Having already taken a vacation day for tomorrow, and having dad here to help, that just won't do. And with the slab pour scheduled for Wednesday, I can't afford to waste the three solid working days between now and then.

Since there didn't seem to be any help coming, dad and I headed over with shovels and the wheelbarrow to start removing the 1.5" of extra gravel across the entire floor. We started by digging down 30" along the wall between the mud room and garage where the gravel guys allowed some gravel to get behind the wall insulation, leaving a dead space behind the insulation. After we fixed that problem, we started in the entry way, removing several wheelbarrow loads, and seemingly barely making a dent. It's amazing how many loads it takes to go down a tiny 1.5 inches.

We worked until dark. Rather, we worked until the wheel on the wheelbarrow became completely inoperable, which was almost at dark. With several man hours already spent on this unplanned project, and so little of it done, I left a message for Jason letting him know that if he can't send someone first thing in the morning to help dig us out, that I'm going to go rent whatever equipment I need to do it, and I'll expect whatever the rental amount is off of my bill.