Utility connections part I, rough plumbing part II

Today was a big day, but not the kind that results in dozens of cubic yards of cement, or 275 tons of gravel. It took one trip to Standard Plumbing and multiple other trips to Home Depot after Standard closed, but Jim got the plumbing for under the slab completed. In the picture you can see several vertical things, including (from left to right in the front of the house) a toilet drain, a tall vent from the main line, a sink drain and vent for the bathroom, a floor drain for the pantry, the disguise pipe for the copper water supply, and the main sewer trunk that runs upstairs. In the foreground you can see the black drain for the sink on the kitchen island, as well as three conduits for electricity and cold and hot water. That's Jim with the shovel.

The excavation guys also came today and dug trenches for the sewer, water, and electric connections. They got the sewer hooked up, but were suprised to find a copper water supply line, for which they did not have the proper connections. They also didn't have conduit for the power line. They filled in part of the porch and back-filled part way around the outside of the house, but they can't really get to the garage to fill it until they fill the trenches for sewer and water in front of the garage. They'll be back Monday to finish all of that. Here's Lydia in front of the digging of the trench for the power line.

First round of fill in place

The guys came today to put in the first layer of gravel, up to 14" below the foundation wall. That leaves 4" for the slab and 10" for interior footings. Around the footings we'll use another 8" of gravel and 2" of insulation for the radiant floor. Here you can see the gravel guy with the controller at his waist shooting the gravel into the hole from behind the kitchen.

There were what I think were two eagles circling above in the dust could while the gravel guys were there. I tried to get pictures, but my camera phone only showed indistinguishable dots in the solid blue sky. No zoom capability.

I decided to go with option #2 from below for the insulation. I cut the top at about a 60 degree angle all around the family room, living room, and office, in case we ever want to attach tack strips in those places.

Here's the whole place from the corner of the mud room after the gravel was done. At the front you can see my hastily-assembled box for the elevator pit.

Damp-proofing and Elevator Box

This morning Emily had to be at the hospital by 9:30 for surgery, and the fill was supposed to come at 12:00, which meant I had to get a box built to retain the gravel around the elevator pit and act as the forms for the slab. I charged up the air compressor in the garage, took all the junky scraps of plywood I had in the garage, and slapped them together enough to work (hopefully).

While we were at the hospital, the guy who Derik recommended for damp-proofing came by and sprayed tar around the foundation wall. This is something I probably could have done myself, but it was obviously sprayed on, which must have gone quickly, and he only charges $0.25 per sq ft. I decided it's worth paying someone.

It turns out the gravel didn't come today. They had truck problems, and got behind, so they'll come tomorrow morning. Since Jim is leaving town for a funeral, it looks like we won't be ready for footings on Thursday like I hoped.

Foundation Insulation, Temporary Power, and Underground Plumbing Phase I

Dad came up this morning and helped me install foamboard insulation inside the foundation wall everywhere except the two elevator shaft walls, where the insulation goes on the outside so it doesn't interfere with the 12" pit. Stock and Colonial both wanted $35 for a 2" 4'x8' sheet of R10 foamboard, but I got these for $19 at Home Depot.

It was so windy this morning that when I tried to load the foamboard into the van, the wind caught one of them and snapped it in half. I decided to cut them into thirds inside the garage, then take the smaller, more manageable pieces over. The tallest foundation walls were supposed to be 30", so 32" should give us a margin for error, as well as a couple inches to snap off after we scored them along the top of the wall. The form ties sticking out of the walls were pretty easy to just punch through the foam, and held the stuff in place pretty well. With the tops trimmed off we didn't even need the adhesive stuff except on small pieces that didn't have a foundation tie to punch through.

Now I just have to decide in the next few days how to do the floor edges. Here are the options:
1. Leave the 2" of foam exposed and just pour the slab inside it. This provides the best insulation of the options, and would work fine for tile and floating or glued laminate or engineered floors, but doesn't leave a place to attach a tack strip or nail down a wood floor. This is also the easiest and cheapest option.
2. Cut the foam down at at least a 45 degree angle from the top of the wall to allow the slab to touch the wall at the top. This might be slightly better for attaching a tack strip, but doesn't fix the nailing problem for wood floors. This is the next easiest option, and still cheap.
3. Use a base plate 2" wider on the wall framing, hang it out over the top of the insulation, and pour the slab 1.5" higher, inside the base plate. We would still need a plate above the slab level for drywall and baseboards, so we would either have to block it all in or use a double plate. That means the cost of pressure-treated 2x8 around the entire foundation, plus an extra 1.5" of fill. It would be perfect for tack strips and nailing wood floors, but only around the outside of the floor. Hyrum said he normally uses the slab for some process I didn't understand when setting the base plate, but this would have to be in place before the slab, which would be harder. This sounds like the most expensive and most labor-intensive option.
4. Cut the foam down 3.5" all the way around and attached pressure-treated 2x4 along the top of the wall. This wouldn't require anything different for framing, but would require a tool to nail into concrete that I don't have and that Hyrum can't loan me until next weekend. This would be cheaper than 2x8, and wouldn't require any extra fill, so it seems better than option 3.

We also chalked a line around the inside of the foam 14" down from the top for the first layer of gravel, except in the elevator shaft where we need to be 24" down.

Hyrum came up and installed the temporary power pedestal. I didn't seem much of the process, but it seemed very quick. I'll call first thing Monday to schedule an inspection for it.

Jim also came to do the rest of the sub rough plumbing up to 14" below the foundation wall. He connected more 4" pipe to the sewer drain under the porch footings and ran it in 16' to the wall between the office closet and the pantry, then up above where the slab surface will be. Then he and Hyrum and I (mostly Jim and Hyrum) dug another trench under the porch for the water supply. We inserted a 1.5" sleeve that we will run the 1" copper pipe through immediatly before the fill comes, because we don't want it stolen. I emailed the building inspector to ask if the copper needs to be in place to inspect it, and if the sewer needs to be filled with water for testing.

We talked about whether to install a bucket for a future sump pump, and where to locate it and drain it to. We considered the floor of the elevator, but I would have to check with the engineers at the Elevator Company, and since that's also acting as the footing for the walls around the shaft, it might not work. We also didn't want to dig another trench under the porch to drain it. We decided it would probably be best to put it in the pantry, then run the drain out the back where the foundation wall is lowered for the dining room wall. It will need to be deep enough to reach below the elevator pit, since that would be the first place water would appear.

My next task will be to build a box around the elevator slab that will hold the gravel outside the pit back, act as the form for the pad, then act as a form for the outside of the wall around the pit that we'll pour at the same time as the floor slab.

Foundation Walls Done!

The foundation guys finished setting the forms this morning, the mud came at 11:00, and they stripped the forms this afternoon. I talked with Omar this morning to make sure they blocked out all the doors (they missed the garage door), and asked him to block out the entire dining room wall in preparation for when we're rich enough to punch out the wall and replace it with a sliding glass partition wall.

The only possible issue I see is the column dimensions on the side of the porch. It looks like they didn't count the thickness of the foundation wall when they laid out the columns, and they ended up 8" too thick, probably intruding into the 10' sewer easement.

It is very exciting to walk around inside actual walls and imagine the spacing of the house. This project has been very long already, and it's a relief to finally have something concrete (pun intended) to look at.

I emailed Derek about a couple ideas for making the elevator shaft taller, and the possibility of doing a second rear elevation with the deck added.

Foundation Forms Mostly Set

I met with Derik this morning while his crew was beginning to lay out the foundation forms. I walked around with him and Omar as them measured stuff and marked wall heights on the footings. We also talked about blocking out the doorways, so the slab can be poured into the opening. That will avoid the problem of being able to see the rough top of the foundation wall under the threshold between the porch and inside floor. I made sure we were on the same page about the porch wall height so the porch cap would end up the same level as the slab, so there won't be a step, and about having the wall across the front of the ramp the same height as the rest of the porch, so the ramp will be hidden.

We talked about the patio height. I am more convinced now that we'll have to have the balcony above the patio if we want it at the same height as the dining room floor.

It looks like they haven't quite finished setting all the forms yet, and it looks like they forgot to block out for the garage door. And I forgot to mention the plan for the glass partition wall on the back of the dining room, so I left Derik a message about those things.

Engineered Fill vs Gravel

I emailed Eric at Farmington City to ask for a definition of "engineered fill", and he said it's anything that comes from a gravel pit that has a Proctor number. I stopped at Lakeview Rock Products on the way home tonight to find out what a Proctor number is and to see if I could get enough answers to decide between using engineered fill and just using gravel. Turns out a Proctor number is a rating of compactibility.

The least expensive compactible material is 4" bank run, which is $5.35 per ton. The cheapest gravel, which doesn't have to be compacted, is $9.30 per ton. I figured out the volume we'll need for the first round of fill, and calculated it would cost about $1000 more for gravel. However, the other fill would have to be compacted every eight inches, and would have to have compaction tested every eight inches, which would be slow and cost a lot in labor, likely eating away any savings. Since gravel is preferable for drainage and for placement time, and doesn't appear to be significantly more expensive, I think we'll go that way.